ACS-PCUG Favorite Websites
September 2005

Internet Basics

http://www.learnthenet.com

Available in English, Spanish, and French, this long-enduring site offers fun quizzes and tutorials on the Internet, including information on newsgroups, how to use web browsers, and more.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/welcome/

A tutorial that starts out very easy with all the fundamentals, including use of the back button, hyperlinked text and images, etc.

Submitted by Dawn Scott, ACS former Everything, from Alaska 20/20 newsletter

http://courses.help.com/

I know we have discussed this website at the meetings in the past. It remains one of my favorite sites for tech classes and forums on tech issues. The classes are free, but you have to sign up for them.

Submitted by Holly Hawkings, former ACS Publicity Coordinator.

Favorite Links 2005

http://earth.google.com/katrina.html

This is a Google Earth link -- Updated NOAA Image Overlays. From this page, the Red and Blue Lines and Dots represent new images you can click on for post-Katrina satellite images. After clicking on the dot select 4x4 overlay. Many are dramatic in New Orleans --you can see the flooding.

Submitted by Mapmeister Gene White, Former ACS President.

http://www.space.com/

Current space exploration news. Links to space science/technology information sources.

• Great source of space images: http://www.space.com/spaceviews/

• Virtual Space tour: www.space.com/php/multimedia/virtualspacetour/

http://safari.oreilly.com/

• Online computing technology bookshelf

• Wide range of topics

• Numerous Publishers, not just O'Reilly press

• Browse by category, keyword, ISBN or publishers

• O'Reilly book series;

• Low cost research/learning  tool – Safari basic @ $14.99 SafariMax @ $19.99

• Volume discounts

• Free 14-day trial

http://www.firstgov.gov/index.shtml

Great government and public information portal;

• Telecommunication Services in Rural America: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/rural/

• Zip code finder: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

• Fuel Economy/Gas price info; http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

• http://www.anchoragegasprices.com/

• http://www.alaskagasprices.com/

Submitted by Robert Sprowl, ACS Program Chair

http://www.w3schools.com/

At W3Schools you will find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, Multimedia and WAP. Their references cover all Web-building technologies, including W3C standards like HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML and other technologies like ASP and ADO plus much more. At W3schools you will find thousands of cut-and-paste examples.

http://www.webreference.com/html/

HTML with Style is an area of WebReference.com dedicated to HTML and CSS. It is updated with a new feature every other Wednesday.

The most important section in HTML with Style is the Tutorials . They contain examples you can use when creating your own Web pages. The aim is to teach everyone, from beginners to experienced Web developers, how to create Web pages using HTML and CSS. The point is to destroy any misconceptions you might have about Web development and start anew, doing it the Right Way .

Submitted by Alan Swircenski, ACS PCUG Webmaster

http://www.radio-locator.com

You can find radio stations all over the world literally.  If they have a lightning bolt on the left hand edge of the list then you can usually pick on that and hear the broadcast.

http://www.augi.com/home/default.asp

This is the AutoCAD User's Group International website that is totally free.  They have various forums that you can post problems to and get help from some really GREAT people.  I absolutely love this website as it has helped me a whole bunch and I have been able to help some people also.

Submitted by Jack Foster

http://www.Google.com - My favorite way to do research on the web. Do you know of these variants?

http://local.google.com - search in particular geographic local.

i.e. - Anchorage , AK , New York , NY , etc.

http://www.google.com/linux - What else?

http://www.google.com/unclesam - search our government

http://www.google.com/mac.html - search Apple/Mac stuff

http://www.google.com/microsoft.html - search Microsoft stuff. Why anyone would want to is beyond me :), unless they're having security issues.

http://www.google.com/bsd - for the BSD/UNIX side.

http://www.anchoragelive.com - look up publicly available information on Anchorage properties and print out a map/aerial photo showing where its at.

http://www.alaskarealestate.com - look-up properties available for sale/rent/lease almost anywhere in the State of Alaska .

Submitted by Jim Gribben, ACS President

The Well-Armed Conversationalist

So you want to be intellectually well-armed at the next cocktail party verbal dust-up, but you're having trouble navigating the vast number of wonk web sites out there.

Alaska 20/20 to the rescue! Here are our Top Three Public Policy Web Sites:

• For information on elected officials, including where they get their money, how they are rated by the various public policy interest groups, how they voted and all that other arcane stuff, you just can't beat Project Vote Smart ( http://www.vote-smart.org/ ).

• You've read and fully digested the 2004 Alaska Progress Report, and now you think you're ready to go national. All right, to get up to speed on the policy issues du jour, make Public Agenda ( http://www.publicagenda.org/ ) your first stop. They have issue briefs, interactive questionnaires, and best of all nonpartisan surveys that tell you where Americans really stand on a wide range of issues.

• So you know the players and the issues, but you want more: you're an alpha wonk, and darn it you want statistics that you can fling about with reckless abandon. OK, we're going to cheat a little here and give you two for the price of one: for Alaska specific numbers go to our own Department of Labor Research and Analysis page (http://almis.labor.state.ak.us/). For national stats, start with the FedStats portal ( http://www.fedstats.gov/ ).

Submitted by Dawn Scott, ACS former Everything, from Alaska 20/20 newsletter

http://www.answers.com

When you want basic information about someone or something, try plugging your query into Answers.com's general search field, or browse the ever-expanding Directory of reference material. The information you pull up will include dictionary definitions and encyclopedia articles culled from resources licensed from a variety of publishers.

http://www.flickr.com

This public showroom for personal pics just might be the fastest-growing social network on the Web, and it's completely addictive. You upload your images and assign each an identifying tag; these tags help other members find your stuff, and you theirs. You can join groups and create new ones, post comments about particular images and designate favorites.

Submitted by Alan Swircenski, ACS PCUG Webmaster

Page last updated 14 September, 2005

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