Greetings and salutations! This page will provide you with information that may help you on various subjects, and suggestions to further reading, usually in the form of a link to another page or site. Included here are recommendations on books to read, computer tips, some tips on how to get some sleep (I've got lots of experience with insomnia, and finding the way to REMville, the land / city of sleep), how to protect yourself on-line, et cetera. I give out other tips as well scattered throughout my many Web pages.
This page's index:
Depression. Tips on how to fight it.
Internet Hoaxes. Some people will believe almost anything.
Internet Security. What you need to know to protect yourself on-line. Also see the Internet Help page. It's the most complete page on this site for that subject.
Recommended Reading. Some books I really liked and a few that'll be very informative to people.
Reference Books that I find helpful.
Spelling. If you spend a lot of time in chats, this system that I came up with should help you to not make so many spelling mistakes. It's also good for learning things faster.
Clothes tips:
Shoes:
If you buy a new pair of shoes and you want to avoid sore feet while breaking them in you should try this: Wear your new shoes on one day then on the next day wear your old ones that are already broken in. Alternate wearing one then the other for a couple of weeks (longer if you want to) and by that time you should have the new ones broken in and can wear them every day without pain for long periods. :-)
Computer Stuff:
Dial-up
Connection Problems:
#1: If you get knocked off-line a lot, you may either have a phone with a bad short in the hook (the thing that shuts it off when you hang up), or you have a cordless phone in an area with a lot of bleedover from communications towers, other people's cordless phones that're close by, or whatever. In those cases, you'll need to replace your phone. Good thing is, corded phones are pretty cheap. :-)Other computer stuff:#2: Sometimes you'll turn your computer on and you won't be able to connect. What that usually (not always, but usually) means is that the data got corrupted in your computer. But! It's easily fixed. You can shut down your computer and after you start it again, it should connect okay. If not, you need to contact tech support for your ISP.
#3: Some ISPs disconnect their users after they're either inactive (you haven't downloaded a page or whatever) for around 15 minutes, or because they've been on for too long (in the ISP's opinion, anyway). The latter varies. Sometimes an ISP only lets you be on for 4 hours at a time, while most of them allow you to be connected for 6.
You should back up your most important files onto a floppy or whatever you have as often as you can. Not the programs (unless you've got a lot of space on whatever you're backing it up on), but mainly the files that you create with the program like Web pages, databases, pictures, and that sort of thing.Back to this page's index.
Depression:
Here's some tips on how to fight depression. Although if it's really severe, or lasts for a long time, you may want to consider seeing a doctor.Watch a comedy movie. If they're available in your area, I'd suggest renting one or more of the following movies, depending on your tastes: Short Circuit, Electric Dreams, or Spaced Invaders.
Read some funny comic strips. Here's a few fairly good ones: Garfield, Peanuts, Marmaduke, Bizarro, Calvin and Hobbes, FoxTrot.
Engaging in some form of exercise every day or two may also help you feel better, but you should ask a doctor before you do. Besides, they may be able to help you choose an exercise plan that'll give you the most benefit.
Get plenty of sleep. Trouble falling asleep? See the sleep tips section.
Put yourself into some kind of a daily routine.
Internet Hoaxes:
These are spread via e-mail and chat programs. Do yourself a favor: Don't forward them to others! It makes you look gullible. E-mail hoaxes are mainly created to increase the traffic to servers so that the systems overload, or to get money from people, see how far the e-mail will be sent, destroy another chain letter, or try to cause damage to an organization's reputation. There is no e-mail tracking system, no one is going to pay you money to forward e-mails to your friends or make a donation to a charity or help pay for a little kid's medical expenses.Back to this page's index.How to spot one: They usually try to convince you that they're real by using the type of words and expressions that an expert in the field would use, or saying that the person sending it is some kind of a lawyer or other professional or works in that business or organization. Some even go so far as to tell you that they personally know someone who's received money already for forwarding it on. I guess the main thing to look for in a hoax e-mail message or one sent through a chat program is that if it asks you to forward it on to other people, it's almost certain to be a hoax. If you're in doubt, you can check with your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) tech support and ask them about it. I'm pretty sure they'd rather have you call them up and ask them about it than forward an e-mail to a few hundred people in your address book!
Internet Security:
Windows 95/98 basic info, provided by CERT. Tells you the basics, and points out that these operating systems are not very secure in the first place. It also gives you an idea of what you're up against out there on the Internet, and tells you some basic ideas on what you can do about it.
How to protect yourself from worms like the now infamous Love Letter worm. Makes sense to do this stuff in case another one comes out before there's a new anti-virus fix for it.
Trojan Horses. What they are, how they work, and what you can do to minimize your chances of getting one.
ZoneAlarm. A free firewall that you can use on your PC. I highly recommend this one over the others, especially for the people that don't know much about the Internet yet, or how to configure a firewall. If you do get this thing, I'd suggest setting the security levels on it to 'high', and keeping them there.
Recommended reading:
Sci-fi:
Escape Velocity by Christopher Stasheff. ISBN 0-441-21603-XInformation must-read kinda things for those living in the United States:Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. ISBN 0-553-56261-4
Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Shakedown: how the government screws you from A to Z by James Bovard. ISBN 0-670-86542-7 (hardcover) ISBN 0 14 02.5819 (paperback) Includes info on asset forfeiture, banning weapons, why the D.A.R.E. program is a very bad thing, the FDA, the IRS, police brutality, no-knock raids, the DEA's war on music fans, entrapment, drunken checkpoints and lots of other things. I like the dedication. It makes a lot of sense after I read the book: "Dedicated to the victims of the State."Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty by James Bovard. ISBN 0-312-12333-7. This one goes into more detail than the above book plus adds some more info as well.
Information warfare: chaos on the electronic superhighway by Winn Schwartau. ISBN 1-56025-088-7. Has info on all kinds of things concerning the Internet, the NSA and other secretive government agencies, your privacy, how vulnerable your computer is, what you can do to protect yourself before you get screwed over in a very big way and lots of other stuff.
Our Vanishing Privacy by Robert Ellis Smith. ISBN 1-55950-100-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 93-77301. Goes into detail on exactly how little privacy you really have, how easy it is to get information on someone, including their Social Security number, home address, phone number, et cetera. That noise you just heard in your house may not be your pet moving around...
Reference books that I find helpful and that I try to keep on my desk here
at home:
The Oxford Desk Dictionary. This seems to be more up to date than the other ones. For instance, it includes the word Internet in it.Back to this page's index.The World Almanac.
The Cambridge Factfinder.
A road atlas.
A crossword puzzle dictionary. If doesn't give you definitions, but it seems to have more words in it than the dictionary and the words following the word you look up gives you an idea of what it means.
American Slang. Though I've found a lot of words that're in use that aren't in the book.
Spelling:
If I have to look up a word in the dictionary for its correct spelling more than a couple of times a week, I write it down on a piece of notebook paper after doing so. After a while, I find I have an embarrassingly long list of words in no particular order, so I quickly grab another piece of notebook paper, and put them in alphabetical order (you can make this job easier by doing it in a text file on your computer. If you have a spell-checker in that program, you can make sure you have the spelling right, too). Then I grab a scrap piece of cardboard and cut it down to the width of the notebook paper I just wrote down the ordered list of words on, and about 1 and 1/2 times its height. I use the extra height for a stand, folding it under and then placing a small box or another similar sized object with a little weight in it behind it, and secure the edges of the paper to the cardboard with paper clips, and I have a quick reference to all of my commonly misspelled words that I can glance at in a moment. :-) As time goes on, I learn the correct spelling due to the fact that I'm using the words more often, and I read them on a daily basis, so when I update my list later on, adding more words that I find I misspell, I remove those I've learned, and am now familiar with.You can also use this same system for teaching yourself about a subject you're studying by writing down small things that're important to remember onto paper (like acronyms, definitions of words that're used only in a certain field of study, or symbols), and glancing at it occasionally when you wish to refresh your memory (this is a lot faster than grabbing a book and trying to find what page you remember reading it on!). As proven by the rote memorization technique (reading things over and over again until they become a more or less permanent part of your memory), you should find that you're learning this stuff and keeping it in your memory longer the more often you review what you've written down.
Video tapes:
Buying:
If you buy one that the tape speed isn't marked on it, you'll probably get stuck with one recorded in EP or LP speed if you do and it'll look and sound bad compared to one recorded at SP speed, especially if you're using a 2 head VCR. Unfortunately, if it isn't marked on the package, you don't know what speed it's recorded in. Then you have to open it up, play it and find out the hard way. I don't think that there's a single store that'll let you take it back because you took it out of the package to find out. If the tape speed isn't marked on the package, I don't buy it!
Keeping track of what you recorded on video tape:
Make a database of all that you have on tape either recorded or pre-recorded so that you can glance at it before you try to record something off the TV that you already have on tape. You can even put in fields like the rating, what you thought of it, the actresses or actors in it, how long it is, year made and if you get really bored, you can copy what the TV guide or some movie reviewer said about it into a field too. :-)
Back to this page's index.
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~X~ Other pages on this site ~X~
For a more complete list, please try the Site Map page.
More datafeed type pages:
Sleep Tips and how to get to REMville. If you're suffering from insomnia, these might help you.
CSS and the History of Web Browsers.
Japanese to English Dictionary.
Spanish to English Dictionary.
Or:
Check out This Is It, my 3D world, where you can fly, chat, play trivia, see live vidfeeds (click here to see a still picture of about half the VidFeed Pavilion) from all over the world, listen to streaming music (no waiting for big downloads), and lots of other things. Best of all, you can do it all for free! :-)Click on the picture below to see it full-sized, or go to the information page for This Is It, where there are more full-sized pictures, as well as information on the world itself.
Main page, Internet Help, 3D Chat Programs, Stories, Cool Quotes, Trivia, Laugh Machine, E-mail Privacy / PGP.
Pictures pages:
CyberWoLfman's Pix #3. Pictures taken in the ActiveWorlds 3D chat program.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #4. Back to the real world. Includes Halloween pictures, party pictures, more pictures of Bloomington-Normal Illinois including events, people, theaters and bars.
CyberWoLfman's Pix #5. Mostly pictures taken in bars, but also other places.
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