The Stars Are Ours
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Rev. 03/31/04
Links, useful and otherwise
When you click on a link to one of the sites listed below, its page will open in a separate window. When you close that window, you'll see this one again.
Links are alphabetical within these categories:
Information & Reference
CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority, whose motto is "If you wait long enough, a bus will come." Travel information, maps, schedules, fares, and self-congratulation.
Dictionaries for many languages and specializations. You can look up a word on the first page.
Drug Interactions, Side Effects, where you can enter drug names and see if and how they interact.
Evanston/Chicago weather, and other places, once you're there.
Expressway and Tollway Info for the Gary / Chicago / Milwaukee area. You can see travel times and construction information. The link here is to the Reports page, but you can pick others.
FedEx tracking: When will that package arrive?
Flight arrivals and departures. Invaluable if you're meeting a flight (or even departing).
Internet Traffic Report: Assigns an index to Internet traffic quality. Updated every five minutes.
MapQuest: Maps, routes, and lots of ads.
Online phonebook-SBC's Smartpages. Business or personal lookups, reverse directory lookups, and lots of ads.
A reverse phone directory from AT&T's Anywho.
RTA travel planner: Enter start and end addresses, the time you'll travel, and other info, and the planner will propose public transportation (RTA, CTA, Metra, Pace) solutions. It's somewhat stupid about addresses.
UPS tracking: When will that package arrive?
ZIP code + 4, other lookups. If you must use snail mail, the USPS will do a better job if you use the right ZIP code. ZIP+4 gets your mail even closer to its final destination.
Computing & Internet
APCU, the Association of Personal Computer Users, a group of personal computer enthusiasts. Most members are software developers, consultants, or IT support staff. I am a member of the group and its current president.
Online Netiquette gives you the "straight scoop" on Internet etiquette (or "Netiquette"). The site describes itself as "Online Netiquette UNCENSORED! - Common Courtesies and Social Graces for Newbies and Lazy Netizens." It's run by a woman who could be described as "Miss Manners with an attitude." I've been on the 'Net for a while, and I learned some things—take a look.
Urban legends, hoaxes, scams. Is little Timmy's heartbreaking e-mail appeal real or a scam? It's likely you'll find out here. Once you're looking at the site, add some nonsense letters after the address in your browser, and see a novel response to a "page not found" error.
Humor
The Onion: America's Finest News Source™ Missed the current copy? Not in the area in which it's available? See it online. Usually a week behind the print edition.
Entertainment
Movies from Yahoo. See clips, check showtimes, buy (some) tickets.
TV schedule Customize for your area. Cheaper than TV Guide, more current than your newspaper's weekly TV schedule.
Software
Date calculator from Acute Software. "Shows how many days/weeks/months between any 2 dates." I order prescriptions every thirty days. This utility makes it easy to mark the calendar. Free.
"FinePrint is a Windows printer driver that provides advanced printing capabilities. Among its features are:
- print 2, 4, or 8 pages on a single sheet
- double sided printing, booklets
- universal print preview page
- deletion and insertion ability to combine multiple print
- jobs into a single job
- save to bmp, tiff, emf and jpeg formats
- watermarks, headers, footers
- superimpose on custom electronic letterhead"
Saved print jobs can be reprinted without the app that created them. I reprint a weekly exercise record this way.
Shareware, $49.95 to purchase, upgrade from previous version $14.95. Trial version prints a FinePrint notice at the bottom of each sheet. When the program is purchased, the notice will be removed.