(990801) The Funny Name Server
http://www.funnyname.com/

Kim Moser
New York, New York, USA

Most of the thousands of names in the database at The Funny Name Server come from telephone listings in the metropolitan New York area and date back about ten years. No matter, the names can sometimes be quite unfortunate. Take for example the residential listing for Rainey Bowels or the business called John Pole Collision. Search for a particular name, look at the Top Five as voted for by visitors, or sign up for The Funny Name Server's Funny Name of the Day (funnyname-subscribe@egroups.com). An entertaining diversion if you enjoy laughing at people more than with them. Suggestions are taken.  (Back to top of page)

(990802) Neighborhood Namer
http://www.tronco.com/cgi-bin/generate.pl

Markus De Shon
Tronco Internet Services
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

A simple yet useful tool for re-naming existing neighborhoods, coming up with marketing ideas for new suburbs and towns, housing developments, and strange monikers for pets, books or garage bands. Developing any type of concept is where half of your budget goes, so why not take a free spin and see what comes up. Follow the pointer to the game Lineage (http://www.bloodpledge.com/) and live it up while you burn off the rest of your development payroll budget. Don't forget to show the boss an idea or two every couple of days.  (Back to top of page)

(990803) FreeMac.com
http://www.freemac.com/

Global Interactive Media, LLC
Playa Del Ray, California, USA

In a move that will probably play out in similar fashion to the Compaq Presario Internet PC giveaway by idealab! (http://www.free-pc.com/) (SdJotD 990210), Global Interactive Media, LLC is about to dole out a million free iMac computers (http://www.apple.com/imac/). With their translucent candy shells (the lime colored ones are the fastest) and ease in use, the iMac has been credited with saving the entire platform from uncertain doom. FreeMac.com is only set up right now to take e-mail addresses, but as a few Site du Jour of the Day readers discovered with the idealab! program, signing up is the first step. If you do manage to "win," and this deal is anything like the free PC, be prepared to give out detailed demographic information about yourself and your family. Also, you will be asked to pay a security deposit just in case the advertisements which are targeted for the user of a given machine should happen to go disabled somehow. The free idealab! computer is paid for by advertising custom delivered to you so it would stand to logic that the free iMac is the same deal. If an iMac is not your style, the folks at idealab! are still giving away PCs at the rate of 5,000 machines a month.

For an article on the whole subject of this kind of marketing, Bruce Gottlieb wrote about it awhile back in Slate (http://www.slate.com/). The piece titled "Hey, Wait a Minute" (http://www.slate.com/HeyWait/99-04-16/HeyWait.asp) explains how money is being made and spent by all parties involved. Site du Jour has no direct connection with either firm giving the computers away, and I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with the free iMac or Presario.  (Back to top of page)

(990804) APB G-Files:
Hot Documents From The Government's Vaults
http://www.apbonline.com/gfiles/

APB Multimedia Inc.
New York, New York, USA

APB Online (http://www.apbonline.com/) bills itself as "The source for Police and Crime News, Information and Entertainment". Get the latest information about such diverse topics as missing children and Olympic bribery. Of particular interest are the APB G-Files, pages of declassified US government documents, mainly from the FBI. Files about celebrities and historical figures plus a section devoted to UFOs and other outcroppings of mental illness. The DEA's Secret file on Sonny Bono is worth a peek, as is the account of George Carlin upsetting the FBI by not really caring that he had upset the FBI. You'll also find the latest on the dead princess and attempts to blow up the US Capitol Building. Although many of the reports do not provide the complete stories, there is enough variety here to remain amusing for quite a while. Similar to in style to, and with a lot of the same stories as The Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/) (SdJotD 970927), APB G-Files takes itself a little more seriously. Considering the subject matter being explored, visitors may miss the humor at times.  (Back to top of page)

(990805) CNI News
Global News on Contact with Non-human Intelligence
http://www.cninews.com/

Dennis Oszuscik

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Today a reader wrote in about a remark I made yesterday regarding a section of APB G-Files: Hot Documents From The Government's Vaults (http://www.apbonline.com/gfiles/) (SdJotD 990804). My comments about parts of that site being '…devoted to UFOs and other outcroppings of mental illness.' The exact section I was referring to is titled The G-Files: Animal/Cattle Mutilation (http://www.apbonline.com/gfiles/cattle/index.html) and the summary reads in whole "During the 1970s, mutilated cattle showed up in several states. The mutilations were blamed on a variety of sources, including: UFOs, natural predators, satanic cults, mysterious government agencies and pranksters. Check out what the FBI discovered -- long before The X-Files -- while investigating some of these cases in New Mexico". The "mysterious government agencies and pranksters" part only adds to my personal belief and contempt regarding the stability of many UFO researchers "who wish to remain antonymous" or the pranksters who get their kicks by making a mess out of Elsie to the dismay of some poor dairy farmer. I won't even get started about the bad science and the observation that abduction stories continue to grow more fantastic as they perpetuate themselves. Is there a connection between UFOs and secret government projects? Sure there is, "Hey, look! We're flying experimental aircraft that could help us win the Cold War, get Castro up here right now! Who cares about national security". At any rate, it's the Unidentified part that leaves the whole subject up in the air, and although I believe it is possible that we may have been visited by life from other worlds or times, the lack of credibility attached to most of these stories has me, like many others, waiting for solid evidence.

In the interest of science and in order not to quote someone out of context, the message I received is included below. It was my decision not to include the name or e-mail address of the individual who wrote it.

I understand how easy it can be to dismiss something that you might not understand (*) as "mental illness."

(*) or "believe in" : voluminous evidence
to the contrary, should you care to
look into it for yourself

Especially the topic of UFOs, given that the attitude of the mass-media (and government agencies) has been to - by and large - dismiss the phenomenon as the product of hallucinations or swamp gas or weather balloons. Or mental illness.

However, the patent unenlightenment underlying your comment is breathtaking. Not to mention anachronistic.

You're still stuck in 1950 when disinformationists were smugly chortling about "little green men from Mars" and "flying saucers from Uranus." And, all the while, the entire country -- even the White House -- even a major metropolitan center as Los Angeles -- were being buzzed by the "flying saucers." (Those stories, by the way, even made the cover of "Look" Magazine. But the chortlers still chortled, their fixed minds unswayed by the evidence laid before them.)

How about adding this site to your "du-jour" dispensations:

http://www.cninews.com/

The CNI News site has an excellent collection and searchable database of 1,280 stories about the usual and controversial. A serious effort is taken to maintain a skeptical distance from many of these stories by the people behind the site. This approach is good to see, and with the vast amount of information available here there is bound to be something for everyone. Not just limited to UFOs and alien life, CNI News covers a lot of ground. A good site suggestion and one of the best sites of this kind I have seen to date.  (Back to top of page)

(990806) The State Hermitage Museum
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/

The State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia

Hosted by IBM
Hawthorne, New York, USA
on servers in Bethesda, Maryland, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Columbus, Ohio, USA

The State Hermitage Museum site serves two purposes, it is an impressive display of computer power developed by IBM, and it allows visitors to experience one of the greatest collections of art in the world. Once home to Russian royalty, the buildings which make up the museum now house treasures which have been accumulated for over 200 years, and have survived political changes of enormous proportion. The Virtual Tour is probably the best place to start here, if for no other reason than to gain a sense of place. Using the IBM HotMedia Java applet, take a brief tour of the complex and see selected pieces on display. Larger portions of the collection are available at other parts of the site as are special exhibits. Suggested by Barbara McDonald who wrote in and offered the following hint, "About the 360-degree views of some of the rooms at the Hermitage. The directions for viewing them contain a mistake. In them it says that to zoom in and out you click and drag your mouse up and down on the picture. This didn't work for me, and I accidentally discovered that if you hold the control button down as you drag up and down, the zoom effect does work. I wrote about this to the comments address given for technical matters." The ability to zoom in and out does make a difference and the tour is a must. This is a beautiful site and an important museum, allow for plenty of time to explore and enjoy it.  (Back to top of page)

(990807) Live Game Audio - The Official Site of Major League Baseball
http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/u/baseball/mlbcom/audio/game.htm

Major League Baseball Properties, Inc.
New York, New York, USA

In certain parts of the world, AM transmissions of ball games can be heard on clear channel stations, but weather and atmospheric conditions can affect the quality of the signal. Here is a reliable alternative for following your favorite team or listening in on others. Hosted by broadcast.com (http://www.broadcast.com/), this page is part of The Official Site of Major League Baseball (http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/) and it features direct pointers to RealAudio Streams of home team radio play by play broadcasts. Even if you can listen to a local station it's always refreshing to hear the game called by the other camp. Different than laying out under the stars with a transistor radio glued to your ear, but in many ways it's so much cooler.  (Back to top of page)

(990808) Bob Cook's CBS Radio Mystery Theater
http://rivendell.utah.edu/cbs-otr/

Bob Cook
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Over the course of almost 9 years, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater was broadcast on AM stations either affiliated with or owned by the CBS Radio (http://www.cbsradio.com/). Production values were high and the acting top notch through the 1,400 episode run of the show. For a large part of the listening audience it was the first time they had heard such a thing. For others it was a pleasant return to a splendid age. Through the courtesy of collectors, Bob Cook has assembled a majority of the 40 to 60 minute mysteries and they are available as MP3 downloads and RealAudio Streams. The program saw a short return with new stories in 1998, these episodes are included as well. An unofficial site bringing some of radio's finest moments back to the "air". Suggested by Robert Spears, who as a kid was often torn between listening to late games and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater while the Chicago Cubs were on the road. He didn't exactly say that, but it's probably true anyhow.  (Back to top of page)

(990809) Submit Material for the Oxford English Dictionary
http://www.oed.com/readers/index.htm

Oxford University Press
Oxford, England

A couple of years ago I was having a conversation on the telephone with an acquaintance and found myself stuck for a word. I felt silly trying to define this particular word, the best I could muster was 'You know, that word for all the words you know'. Plethora, copious, and multitude were just a few of the things she came up with. After nearly 10 minutes of this guessing my train of thought was back on track and I found the word I was looking for — Vocabulary! What amazed me was how such a simple word could turn into such a challenge. The English language is full of oddities and the people at Oxford University Press are looking for them. In order to assemble the first full revision and third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary the editor is seeking help from English speakers around the world. As long as the word or usage occurs in spoken or written English, it will consider it for use. It is suggested that any submission first be checked against the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, available in most larger libraries or on CD-ROM. If nothing else, here's a perfect opportunity to finally contribute to society by looking up slang terms in the Dictionary. Parents and teachers would be well advised to consider this nothing more than a learning experience. Starting in March 2000 the first round of revisions will be made available for reference at this or a similar site. Plans include adding 1,000 new and revised entries to the site every quarter until the Dictionary is fully revised, some time in the year 2010. Thanks to johnnyp for passing along the site suggestion.  (Back to top of page)

(990810) Spam Tracking 101
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~gcaselton/spam/spam.html

Graeme Caselton
London, England

If it's such a wonderful money making opportunity then why the heck are you sharing it with me? A question many of have asked the poor slob on the other end of the monitor who got suckered into parting with fifty bucks after answering an unsolicited e-mail message that was too good to be true. Spam is what it's called, named more after a Monty Python skit (http://www.acns.fsu.edu/Technotes/No4/Python/) than SPAM Luncheon Meat (http://www.spam.com/) from Hormel Foods Corporation. Annoying messages sent out blindly to e-mail addresses collected in various methods, we've all seen it and there's probably a few instances of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail in your mailbox right now. Spam Tracking 101 is the perfect introduction to the mechanics of these messages — how to avoid receiving them, where they come from, even how not to fall for the pitch. Ripe with pointers and tools, Spam Tracking 101 is an informative site worth looking at. Some readers may remember Graeme Caselton's Lightning Strikes !! / Photographer of lightning site (http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~gcaselton/photo/photo.html) (SdJotD 980628) and the incredible images there. Spam Tracking 101 shows the same attention to detail as the lightning site and should be visited by anyone who is tired of junk e-mail. While on the subject of junk e-mail, the e-mail addresses of Site du Jour of the Day readers are not sold or otherwise distributed. If you forward episodes of Site du Jour of the Day to others please include all of the information, especially the bottom part which includes information about subscribing and the URL to the Archive site. Nobody likes receiving messages if they cannot figure out where they came from.  (Back to top of page)

(990811) Mullet.Co.UK
http://www.mullet.co.uk/

Legend Internet Limited
Bradford, England

_________________________________

Mullets Galore
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9195/mullets.html

Mullets Galore
hosted by GeoCities
Marina del Rey, California, USA

When hairstyle equals lifestyle you have the Mullet, it's that simple. These two sites explore everything Mullet through photographs, descriptions, theories, and pointers. Like Mullets, these sites are different enough from each other to be distinct. Both are well done and have content which identifies the various degrees of Mullet, plus a whole bunch of surprises. The Mullet Rulez!  (Back to top of page)

(990812) The Gallery of Random Art
http://gs2.sp.cs.cmu.edu/art/random/

Andrej Bauer
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

The Gallery of Random Art houses computer generated artwork and allows visitors the opportunity to help in determining which of the images stay, and which go. If a particular piece of Random Art becomes popular enough it is moved to the Archive of Best Random Art (http://gs2.sp.cs.cmu.edu/art/random/archive/index.html). Learn how the art is created and even download a few of the finer examples.With titles like "sin[plus[sin[RGB[-0.409797, -0.552665, 0.432167]], exp[rgb[x[], exp[BW[0.59592]], mult[mod[BW[0.418135], plus[BW[-0.943049], BW[0.236401]]], mult[x[], y[]]]]]]] ", beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  (Back to top of page)

Site du Jour of the Day episodes will resume in late August

(990829) The Classic CKLW Page
http://www.cklw.org/

Jack Decker
Birmingham, Michigan, USA

_________________________________

Juno Awards Online
http://www.juno-awards.ca/

Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

_________________________________

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB)
http://www.cab-acr.ca/welcome.htm

Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

It sure is great to be home — a sentiment which I felt twice in a ten day period. Traveling back to Michigan for a vacation this time of year is always a pleasure for me, to see family and friends and soak up a nice bit summer there. Having grown up in metropolitan Detroit it amazes me to see the prosperity there. When I moved to Florida in the mid-eighties the economic conditions in Michigan were, to say the least, pathetic. Today however, the whole state is booming experiencing an economy much like that of Southwest Florida. The new construction rate is through the roof and is money being spent for the first time in ages on roads and the Wayne County Metropolitan Airport (DTW)! Detroit is becoming a nice city again if you consider the suburbs. And in spite of changes to treasures like Tiger Stadium (Detroit Tigers Online (http://www.detroittigers.com/)) (SdJotD 990317), other parts of Downtown, and the now valuable farm land on the Northwest Side, the place looks good and the people are happy.

As my vacation spread out it felt great to be back. Being in a major market is always good for a person if for no other reason than to find a wider selection of retailers all competing with each other. On one day alone I was able to find a few titles which had eluded me for years on Compact Disc. That they were in bargain bins made the discoveries that much sweeter. Among the finds was a four disc set celebrating twenty five years of Canadian popular music and the Juno Awards. "Oh What A Feeling - A Vital Collection Of Canadian Music" was released in 1996 by The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences on Universal Music (formerly MCA Music Entertainment Canada), a division of Universal Studios Canada (http://www.universalcanada.com/). The original list price of the package was low to begin with, but finding it for under twenty dollars was great. Not to sound too much like a commercial announcement for the set, the seventy seven songs include selections by The Guess Who, Stampeders, Steppenwolf, Chilliwack, Triumph, Saga, Burton Cummings, B.T.O., Martha And The Muffins, Cowboy Junkies, Rush, Bryan Adams, Payola$, Bruce Cockburn, Barenaked Ladies, Tom Cochrane, Anne Murray, Five Man Electrical Band, April Wine, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Ocean, Frank Mills, Leonard Cohen, Murray McLauchlan, Sarah McLauchlan, Terry Jacks, Andy Kim, Celine Dion, Gino Vannelli, Alannah Myles, k.d. lang, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Dan Hill, Robbie Robertson, Crash Test Dummies and more. Listening to the songs on this album brought back a flood of memories, memories of Top 40 radio stations on the AM dial.

Most of the stations young Detroiters listened to growing up are either off the air or have changed ownership and/or formats long ago. Thinking about these Canadian songs had me thinking about how heavily American record charts were influenced by Canadian Content Laws and Canadian stations (See The Bill Dulmage Radio and Television Archive (http://www.eagle.ca/~bdulmage/home.html)). If a station like CKLW out of Windsor, Ontario had a hit with a Canadian single they could put it into heavy rotation and satisfy the requests made by listeners for that title and their obligation to air records by Canadian artists. In markets such as Detroit and Buffalo for example, this extra air-play could have given singles like "Seasons In The Sun" or "Sweet City Woman" an unusual advantage over other releases, and subsequent head-starts on US charts. Canadian Content Laws have made an important difference for Canadian acts even with the limitations many see they contain. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters site looks at the current state of the industry in Canada and at the ongoing controversy over the government's ratios of Canadian content. See Fact Sheet: Canadian Content in Radio (http://www.cab-acr.ca/new/rr_cancon_facts.htm) at the CAB site.

Looking back at the influence Canadian music had on many of us, it's nice to explore these sites from the distance of a lot of miles and/or quite a few years. Understanding and identifying these influences make going home the occasional experience I wouldn't trade for the world. On the other hand, the adventure of travel and hectic pace of vacation have me glad to be back in Florida. It's nice to be home.  (Back to top of page)

(990830) The Architecture Hate Page
http://www.bbvh.nl/hate/

BBVH Architecture
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Suggested by Richard in Palm Springs, California, The Architecture Hate Page is a shining example of an architectural firm using a site to interact with people who are subjected to bad project design. Rather than tout their own designs like so many other architects do with sites, BBVH Architecture has opened up a forum and voting booth-style site for visitors world-wide to express often uncensored opinions about current trends and new construction. A visit to the main BBVH Architecture site (http://www.bbvh.nl/) brings to mind the old adage about people living in glass houses, and certainly exemplifies the differences in taste from different parts of the world. Loaded with pictures and comments spouted by English as a second language students, some of the points made here are quite valid. Lacking however, are statements from the firms who created these Hated pieces, most notably the art and science behind a design. Submissions of new Hated buildings and visitor remarks are encouraged. The Hated are mostly European right now, but that will probably change over time. An interesting site with tremendous potential — provided additional insight is allowed and first year Architecture students listen and learn.  (Back to top of page)

(990831) EzineSeek - Email Newsletter Directory
http://www.ezineseek.com/

Brian Alt
EzineSeek
Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA

Search over 500 entries at EzineSeek for e-mail newsletters with topics ranging from Arts and Humanities to Society and Culture. Most of the offerings are published on a weekly or monthly basis, and the listings contain information about the newsletter, subscription information, and a new feature to the site called Rate this Ezine! Stop by to see What's Cool, What's New, the Top 25, and maybe even submit your own e-mail newsletter for consideration. A fantastic resource for both publishers and readers.  (Back to top of page)

 

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Updated August 31, 1999

This Archive has been opened times since August 8, 1999.