Newsletter Archive

The Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com
The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter
This issue is for Friday, February 18, 2005
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Table of Contents
01. Finding Answers
02. Do The Math
03. Tip Of The Week
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*01 Finding Answers

Google is my search engine of choice. When I need information on the
Internet it's Google I use to find it. However Google doesn't really
answer your questions, instead it provides you with web pages that
contain content concerning your search. While I prefer my questions to
be answered in this manner, many people do not. For those of you that
would prefer your search engine to try and answer your question, here
are a couple sites you should try.

Ask Jeeves (http://www.ask.com/)
This site put a personal spin into looking for answers on the Internet
by providing you with a fictional character to question. When placing a
request, you are "Asking Jeeves" instead of searching. Jeeves is a
dignified and noble fellow that wears a chalkstriped waistcoat and
provides answers to any question presented to him.

Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/)
This search site is devoted to providing direct answers to search
queries. Using a variety of reference sources, like dictionaries and
encyclopedias, they generate a page of relevant, organized information
about your search. With this site you don't have to visit other sites
for the answer.  Here the answers come from GuruNet, an Israeli company
that developed a reference utility that when you held down the Alt key
and clicked on any word on any screen on your computer, the program
produced a tabbed window with definitions, encyclopedia articles, and
other information related to the word.

For those of us that use Google, there is a new Google service being
tested and one I think you will find useful. For years whenever I was
going on a trip one of the sites I visited before going was Mapquest
(http://www.mapquest.com/). Using Mapquest I would find and print maps
of all the places I was going. It always saved me time and made the
trips more enjoyable. Now Google enters the map arena with its new beta
site (http://maps.google.com/). The maps are quicker and easier to use.
This looks like another success for Google.

One last interesting trick with Google, sent in by G. Barry Klein

-1 Go to: http://www.google.com  (This will only work with the real
Google page, not the Google search bar, if you happen to have that
installed)

-2 Look at the two buttons.  The one on the left, that you usually use,
says "Google Search".  The one of the right, that you probably never
have used, says "I'm Feeling Lucky".

-3 Type "toll free" in the search box, but don't press either button,
yet.

-4 Instead of pressing the "Google Search" button (which is what you
usually do, and which brings up lots of paid ads), use the "I'm Feeling
Lucky" button.  "I'm Feeling Lucky" bypasses all the paid ads, and takes
you to the ONE page that contains your search and has the MOST OTHER
SITES pointing to it.

What you'll get is the most popular "toll free" site on the web.
----------------
Thanks Barry


Chuck Arning chuck@inter800.com
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*02 Do The Math

Months ago I asked the general reading public of these articles if
anyone could tell me why ground hamburger costs more than certain meat
cuts by which ground hamburger is made. I did not get a single response,
even though I suggested that it might be due to labor, which included
dumping big chunks of meat into a power grinder, versus cutting it into
roasts or steaks.

Due to the lack of response I guess no one cared or no one knows. Either
point of view illustrates the type of economic lethargy with which we
are confronted daily.

As an example: "Bush Seeks $81 Billion More For War Efforts" was the
headline on 2/15/05. Now $81 billion may seem like a lot to most of you,
but consider the facts that we have only contributed $220 billon since
the war's inception, which means that the request is only a 24% increase
for an entire year. That's not too bad, considering the price of
hamburger.

I have to admit that a billion is still hard for me to comprehend, sort
of like infinity. But my high school math still holds me in good stead.
Let's see: $1,000,000,000 divided by the latest census figures of
295,495,029 people in the US = $3.38 per person. Therefore,
$81,000,000,000 / 295,495,029 = $274.12 per every single man, woman and
child in the U.S. for the next year.

Maybe that's not so bad, because if hamburger costs $3 per pound, then
$274.12 / 3 = 91.37 pounds, which divided by 52 weeks equals 1.76 lbs,
which divided by 7 days in a week equals .25 lbs., which is almost
exactly the number of quarter-pounders per day each of us has to
sacrifice. Who needs McDonald's anyway? At least it's another way to
fight obesity.

Therefore, I have found other ways the average family can save just by
looking at the way we purchase groceries. For instance, many
supermarkets across the country regularly run 10 for $10 specials. Since
I bought 10 cans of peanuts the other day for $10 I not only saved
money, but I felt good about it, via simple rationalization. Each can
weighed 12 ounces. Ergo, I didn't just get 10 cans at 12 oz. apiece; I
got the equivalent of 12 cans at 10 oz. apiece.

I gained two whole cans.

You do the math.

Steven Jackson - saj@inter800.com
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Tip of the Week

Easy way to clean up your bookmarks

Over the years my bookmarks have grown into an enormous mess, filled
with bad and broken links. This freeware program can help you find and
remove dead links and duplicate links from all of the popular browser's
bookmark files. The program is call AM-DeadLink and can be found at
http://aignes.com/deadlink.htm

If you have any tips or shortcuts that you think the readers of this
Newsletter will find useful, send them to chuck@inter800.com

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