Other places, other countries -- where are you off to? Want to know more about it? You might want to check the World Fact book, 2003, which is the U.S. government's complete geographical handbook, featuring 267 full-color maps and flags of all nations and geographical entities. Each country profile tracks such demographics as population, ethnicity and literacy rates, as well as political, geographical and economic data. Country information, current as of August 1, 2003.

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Windows 98 Demise

The demise of Windows 98 – are you ready? As of January 16, Windows 98/98SE is obsolete according to Microsoft. If you’re still using this – and many of us are – it may be to your benefit to read the article referenced below. Fred Langa explains in great detail and his usual easy to understand style, just what to do to get and keep your older computer in good running condition. It’s especially important to be sure you’ve got all the security patches and other corrections from Microsoft before they disappear. It’s a bit scary to fiddle with your computer, but you’ll be better off in the long run if you will.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?
articleID=16700516

PC Magazine's Top 100

Whether incredibly useful or incredibly silly, the sites named in PC Magazine's annual list of 100 Top Web Sites have a way of growing on you. See the list at PC Magazine.com, which focuses on the sites that you may never have heard of or discovered on your own in the dense jungle that is today's Web.

Visitors may not love every site, listed in seven categories from Computing to Lifestyle to Travel, but they're guaranteed to find plenty of jewels they didn't know they couldn't live without. There's something for everyone, from Big Fun Toys for cool toys like Moon Shoes and the Sigmund Freud Action Figure; to Benefits Check-Up with info on 1,100 programs for older adults in all 50 states. And check-out PC Mag's Top 100 Classics, where the best of the past remain the best, year after year.

http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,4148,7488,00.asp

Mr. Picassohead

Take an art break at Mr. Picassohead by creating your own Picasso-inspired work. Simply click on eyes, noses, lips, eyebrows, hair, even an artistic signature and drag it onto the canvas, then choose your colors and you've created art you can e-mail to a friend or submit to the gallery.

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/

Time-Lapse Photos--Plants
Much like us, plants grow at a pace far too slow to observe with the human eye. Thanks to time-lapse photography and this great website from the Department of Biology at the Univ. of Indiana, you can actually watch the living movements and growth of plants.

http://redirx.com/?11e

VMyths

When so-called experts breathlessly warn of the latest super-threat virus and your own PC terror alert surges toward red, don't panic! Head to Vmyths.com for a dose of simple truth and knowledge. Search a list of computer virus hoaxes from A to Z, get the real deal on computer virus myths, urban legends and the potential dangers of succumbing to paranoia and preventive virus medicine.

http://www.vmyths.com/

Radio Lovers

Before there were video games, malls, MTV and the Internet, families sat around the radio together, laughing over Abbott and Costello, thrilling to The Avenger, and dancing to Benny Goodman. Bring it all back at Radio Lovers.com, offering thousands of vintage radio shows to listen to in MP3 format, all free of charge.

The comedies, dramas, mysteries, variety shows, westerns, sci-fi and music are all here, from Amos and Andy to Hopalong Cassidy and Death Valley Days, Blondie to Buck Rogers. Search alphabetically, from Abbot and Costello to Omar the Wizard of Persia. Or browse by genre to sample such vintage variety shows as Arthur Godfrey and his Talent Scouts or miscellaneous fare, like more than 20 episodes of The Creaking Door and a 1942 episode of Breakfast at Sardi's.

http://www.radiolovers.com

Free Anti-Virus Program

If you spend any time online, you must have an anti-virus program. Grisoft.com offers AVG free of charge. I've used it for several years on several different computers and never gotten a virus, so it must work. It requires very little effort from you if you set it up on auto mode.

http://www.grisoft.com