THE REINY DAY GUIDE TO TECHNOLOGY

 

Winter 2000
September - December

  • The Internet Open Records Project is made up of people "who believe access to public information is essential to a free and open democratic society."

  • The ascii cam takes live camera feed and turns it into ascii-character video on Linux. The site is worth checking out just for the screenshots.

  • Your next happy meal might come with a disposable cell phone made from paper and slightly larger than a credit card. Though I normally hate disposable products for their environmental unfriendliness, if this phone is recyclable, it seems promising. More details are available in an article from The Register. The company also claims to be working on a disposable paper laptop.

  • NASA has a wonderful searchable directory of images called Visible Earth. If you haven't seen the TerraServer yet, you should check it out and see if you can find your neighborhood. It has "the largest online atlas of high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography." NASA also offers their Astronomy Picture of the Day. The archives are browsable and searchable, and I highly recommend the photograph of a sonic boom.

  • A class action suit has been filed against Network Solutions for failing to make domains available after they have expired.

  • abcnews.com reports that there is a new Melissa virus strain, attacking Macs, instead of PCs.

  • I had to include this because it's one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen. The "world's rarest and most expensive coffee" is eaten by an animal, fermented in the animal, and then excreted. Yikes!

  • For pure amusement, see Obscene Interiors -- a study of the interior decorating evident in amateur porn -- and the self-explanatory MenWhoLookLikeKennyRogers.com

  • If you need more election references, I serve up: NARA's Electoral College Home Page, Al Gore's secret weapon, and Amazon's amusing store directory.

 

Feature: genealogical research

Amongst the many trends to boom as a result of the internet, family tree research is one most likely to continue to increase in popularity. The big sites include:

Each site offers an overwhelming number of searchable databases which often make it difficult for people to know when to begin. You should start by writing down what you know about your family. You can write this on paper or using a genealogy program (several are available from download.com). On my Macintosh, I use an excellent shareware program called Gene. The Mormon church offers a downloadable PDF of a blank pedigree chart that you can begin filling in. You may need to talk to some of your older relative, but you should quickly be able to identify what missing information you would like to obtain.

For non-US research, you should start by going to the WorldGenWeb and locating the country in which you want to conduct your search. Each country has it's own site which lists what resources are available there. For US research, you have a wide variety of census, vital, and military records at your disposal. If you need information about someone who is deceased from the 1940's onward, try the Social Security Death Index, where you can add "post-em" notes to your relatives' listings. Performing a MetaSearch at rootsweb.com should put you in touch with most of the databases you need to get started, including the World War I Civilian Draft Registration Database and vital records for many states.

My final recommendation is GenForum, which hosts thousands of messages boards for specific surnames, locations, and research interests. Use the Forum Finder to locate the last name you are researching and then browse through queries or post your own. All of the sites mentioned have help links for further explanations and assistance.

 

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