Google Toolbar

The newest Google Toolbar has been released. It has some new features, you might want to check it out.

Google Toolbar

Google Toolbar

The newest Google Toolbar has been released. It has some new features, you might want to check it out.

Google Toolbar

Breathtaking Views

Ah, the power of the Internet and digital imagery!

If you've never viewed panoramic or 360 degree digital vistas you are in for a treat. If you have done such a thing, you can still enjoy these links anyway:

Virtual Parks

and

British Tours Limited

Beautiful, breathtaking, and intriguing, are just a few of the words to describe the images contained on those web sites. You'll need the Apple Quicktime player installed but most computers already have it - if not, jump over to Apple.com and download it, it's free.

Take a virtual vacation, travel the world and observe its beauty all from the comfort of your very own computer and it won't cost you a dime!

A Walk Down Memory Lane....

Computer memory that is - for if you click on this link, you will be able to learn about the history of computing. If you already know the history of computing then the web site will be quite nostaligc for you (it certainly was for me!).

Pictures, details, timelines, and old advertisements - they are all there.

Hurry up and check it out before you run out of time!

Time Mirrored

I was going to entitle this entry more along the lines of:

"Time Travel Available Now..."

But that didn't really work for me completely.

Here is the premise, this fella' out in cyberspace - well, he purchases old cameras - very old cameras, especially those that still have undeveloped film in them.

"How strange" you may be thinking to yourself.

Strange but very cool I'm thinking. I mean, the ability to get the first glimpse of photographic images that have never been viewed before and those images were captured 20 to 50 years ago!

I'm intrigued and in all actuallity I've experienced such a thing myself. About 15 years ago I came across an old camera with undeveloped film. The camera was from the 1920's and so were the images when I developed them. I just so happened to be taking a black and white photography class that covered developing and printing film images.

Now, for a step back into time click on this web link:

http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm

Enjoy your time travel.

Don't rule yourself out.

The other day I was in a real bind. I needed access to a ruler but could not find one handy. I didn't want to spend an hour searching through my office or running out to a store so I did the next best thing - I got on the Internet!
Low and behold, a quick search at Google and I found just what I needed; a printable ruler! In a matter of seconds I had printed out the page, cut out the image of the ruler and "presto chango" I was happily measuring away.
Oh yeah, if you want to print your own ruler - click here!

Taming Internet Explorer

Did you know that there are hundreds of things that you didn't know about Internet Explorer and the Internet? Never realized that until now huh? Well, it's never too late to learn all that you can and you can do that by checking out one of my books, it is entitled "Mastering Internet Explorer: Tips, Tricks, & Timesavers". The book is very easy to read - it's written with the Internet neophyte in mind! You can purchase the book at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Destin, or on the Internet at the Barnes & Noble web site or at Amazon (.com), or at any number of other online bookstores - the book has finally gone "global"!

RFID Technology - It's a little spooky!

RFID – by now, you’ve probably seen that acronym printed in dozens of newspaper stories, or heard it mentioned on the radio and television. RFID stands for “Radio Frequency Identification”. It’s a method whereby a very small microchip, smaller than a grain of rice – is implanted in items such as clothing, retail packaging, etc. The retail industry is very interested in utilizing this technology – it wants to use it to track inventory, shipments, sales volume and such.
It all sounds very simple and legitimate – that is, until you realize that the clothing you wear –could contain one of those devices. If so, one could be tracked, buying and spending habits recorded, etc. It all sounds too much like “Big Brother” to me. What would be next, implanting the RFID device under our skin – so that all of our medical history could be carried around with us?
It seems that for every good reason that we can be given about the use of RFID, I can come up with at least two reasons it should not be welcomed with open arms. Microsoft is quickly becoming a“player” in the field of RFID technology, and the promotion of its use. That scares me.
If you would like to learn more about RFID, just hop on over to www.aimglobal.org/and read all about it. Of course, what you learn there is exactly what the RFID industry wants you to learn. If you’d like to see some of the information provided by the opponents of RFID, take a good look atwww.spychips.com/ and, you’ll see that there is a lot of good information for their case also.
Dig a little deeper, go to google.com and type in “RFID” – you’ll find plenty of arguments in either direction. I believe that it would be fruitful for all of us to stay informed on this topic. It is not going away, and it is certainly destined to personally affect each and every one of us someday, whether we like it or not.

Who was the first president of the U.S.?

Re-writing history – that seems to be a popular endeavor as of late. I’m quite sure, that 10 years from now, the history books will tell our children and grandchildren what a great president BillClinton was, and how he had an unblemished presidency.
Where am I going with this? If you jump over to www.uspresidency.com , you’ll see, that yet another attempt of re-writing history is taking place right now. The folks behind that Web site believe that GeorgeWashington was not the first president of theUnited States.
I reckon’ it’s taken over 200 years for someone to figure out that blunder – sure.

Finding old classmates and ex-shipmates.

Have you visited Classmates.com recently?
They’ve added much more than just the ability to locate past classmates from high school. Now one can locate former college buddies, military members, and former co-workers. A while back, while typing in the information on my former U.S. Coast Guard duty stations, I was presented with a listing of names of individuals who were stationed at the Alameda (California) Recruit Training Center – otherwise known as “bootcamp”.
One of the names that appeared on that list seemed to just jump right off of the page. The name wasTerry Dowdy, he had been my Company Commander during the nine weeks that I spent at Alameda. Being a Company Commander meant that Terry was in charge of all of the drill instructors in my company. He was the big cheese, when he walked into any area that we troops just happened to be located in – we all had to drop down and do 50 push-ups. I reckon’ we must have done about 500 of them suckers every day. Terry was unlike the “D.I.s” under him though– he was quiet and calm, the instructors, well – let’s just say, they were like walking activated fire alarms - noisy, abrasive, and unrelenting.
When I arrived at boot camp, I was involuntarily separated from my original company of recruits and placed into “Oscar” company. “Oscar” company was the official drill team. Members of the team marched in formation, and performed intricate routines with massively heavy rifles (M-1s from World War II) – and, they had big sharp bayonets on the end of them. I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to be on the drill team, so I wasn’t happy.
My goal for boot camp, had been to keep a low profile, not volunteer for anything, and to just survive. Because I was so unhappy about my assignment, I got up the nerve to approach Chief Dowdy it. I couldn’t believe it, he was actually approachable - he didn't jump down my throat. He actually listened to my opinions, and without yelling and screaming at me, or demeaning me – he made me an offer. “You participate in the first gig, and if you don’t like it – you can go back to your original company, and you won’t be harassed about it”.
I thought that was a very fair offer. Needless to say, the first performance was inside San Francisco City Hall, the taps on our shoes sounded awesome on those marble floors, and we impressed the heck out of the visiting prime minister of India, all the while having our performance broadcast on live television. Needless to say, I remained with “Oscar” company. We performed/competed 21 times in my nine weeks of bootcamp, winning first place in 19 of them. We traveled all up and down the west coast, performed in the Kingdome before a Seattle Mariners baseball game, performed in front of 50,000 people at SeaFair in downtown Seattle, and got to perform on the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Most folks, when they think back to boot camp, have relatively bad memories of it. Me – it was one of the most exciting times in my entire life, and I have Terry Dowdy to thank for that.
Occasionally, we have folks that come into our lives for just very brief periods of time, and then they are gone. Most of us, never consider the possibility of ever being able to articulate to them, our sincere appreciation. Well, I succeeded in doing just that though. I located Terry using Google.com, called him up, and expressed my thoughts to him. He’s now living in Fairbanks, Alaska – which is quite a coincidence, considering that is where my family and I lived for a spell when I was a small child.
Sometimes life actually does come full-circle, we just have to notice it.

P.S. By the way, I've designed some pretty cool Coast Guard related logos and they have been put on a line of clothing and merchandise. Please check out my "Post Coastie" web site when you get a chance.

Blog Status

The status of this Blog is "a work in progress". It needs a little more fixin' up and a little more tweaking. As I make my postings, I'll try to make little changes to the Blog that will make it a more enjoyable visit for everyone.

Thanks for your patience!
Tom

Welcome to my Blog!

I'm so glad that you decided to check out my web log (Blog). It is my hope that anyone reading my entries, whether they are an Internet novice or a World Wide Web "wonder" will be able to glean some new fact or tidbit that will be useful to them. Some of my postings will be brand spankin' new, some will be re-posts (mine of course) of previous entries from other Blogs and some of the entries will be the text from some of my past newspaper columns that appeared in print in various newspapers in the Southwest.

I've never claimed to know everything and I'm always willing to learn anything. I do enjoy sharing my Internet knowledge and experience with others, I've traveled all over the country doing just that. So, this Blog for me - is a labor of love.

Enjoy!

Tom DiFrancesca III
Valparaiso, Florida