Beauty

I could have sworn that I reviewed this site already. Must be the lack of food has made me amnesiac.

Anyway, this site is all photos and little verbiage. For some reason it has a high hit count despite being non-porn. Uh-Oh, I let the cat (meow) out of the bag. This is not a porn site. Now nobody will visit it.

Actually tomfoolery aside I'm not sure if this site was designed for women or for men. It appeals to both genders.

Beauty
http://www.squidoo.com/_Beauty__

The Military

If you are poor and have no options, then you can die. The rich do not serve. Bush was AWOL for his National Guard years working for chickenhawk Republicans who also were pro-war and did not serve. Bush was never prosecuted. His daughters did not serve although we were (and still are) in a state of war.

During the Vietnam years everybody knew that to get out of going to Viet Nam, you either had to do stateside in the National Guard or flee to Canada. Bush chose an arrangement (wink, wink) with the Guard. Kerry could have dodged alltogether but he actually VOLUNTEERED to go into combat and the Republicans made fun of his two Purple Hearts at their convention. Anyone can go dig out the archival video footage if they doubt what millions saw on television. Republicans pro-military? and making fun of Purple Hearts?

Obviously I need a job with the Republican Party so that I can screw the public too.

If you really need a job, then go into the military. They aren't the bad guys. Read the above to find out who the bad guys are.



http://www.todaysmilitary.com/careers

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines but maybe not the Coast Guard.

America's Job Bank

I can only go by what I experience. Not economic statistics. Jobless recovery? An oxymoron. If there are no jobs, there is no recovery except for Wall Street. Our government taxes the poor to give to the rich. A reverse Robin Hood.

America's Job Bank, as I have experienced it over the past few years, is a lot a paperwork. They roll out the red carpet for those filing for unemployment while those seeking employment get the proverbial dirty end of the stick.

Hey, if I'm not wanted in this country, I am more than willing to bail and move to another country and get citizenship elsewhere. Too expensive an option at the moment but I'm open to it.

Job Service or whatever name du jour the Employment "Security" Commission is using is a total waste. I have haunted their offices for years even when I was working for somebody else. That's right: I followed that old maxim that says the best time to look for a job is when you have a job. So much for wisdom.

http://www.jobbankinfo.org/

Monster

This site has wasted countless hours of my precious life letting me think that material that I had typed in, inputted, uploaded or cut & paste were saved only to find my material wiped clean. It is amnesiac. No leads USA or international, full time, part time, perm or temp.

Now it just so happens that on my last job, while everyone else had their hours cut back (including people with babies and grandchildren that they had to support) my hours were always increased. I had the feeling that if the doors closed and the place was boarded up, that I would be the last employee laid off. A compliment I suppose but I'd rather have an increase in pay.

Anyway, that's only some of what a site like Monster and my previous employers threw away.

I left my last employer because a fall (no injury fortunately) wised me up that, like previous employers, they intended to use me up.

http://www.monster.com/

Careerbuilder

Tis the season to be unemployed as Mister Potter arranges a layoff for you while he gives bonuses to the bozos who bankrupt companies too big to fail.

My own experience with Careerbuilder is this. It is fairly good at keeping and maintaining the resumes and cover letters you input. It oftens refers completely irrelevant jobs to you.

I gave up on the site two years ago and last week got an email from someone offering me a job with a decent salary and asking my phone number. Needless to say, I gave my phone number and have received no call.

I challenge any career site to find me a job. I'll give you a plug here. I know of no one who has found work through Careerbuilder other than Careerbuilder employees, some of whom I have dialogued with online.

http://www.careerbuilder.com

Webgarden

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.


Webgarden immediately lets you pick your subdomain. It is interesting what each site's emphasis is.


http://www.webgarden.com/

Moogo

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.

Moogo pushes you toward the pay option.

http://www.moogo.com/

Cabanova

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.

Cabanova takes you straight into building then later asks if you want what you've built for free. If you're into Flash, this is for you.

http://xl.cabanova.com/

The Second Great Depression II

As if to underscore that it is now the first or the famous Great Depression of history this Squidoo lens calls itself Second (Great Depression) II.

It is still building. I am told that it will double or triple in size. But it is already large for those interested in studying the fall of America under Bush and now Obama.

If you still have the means (and haven't pawned your internet access) go visit
The Second Great Depression II at --

http://www.squidoo.com/SecondGreatDepression

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

Okay, I watched the cancelled TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It had problems such as too much violence and being moved around to progressively worse schedules. Its premise was depressing because it mirrored the real world to some degree: automation, World War Three, nuclear holocaust, biological warfare, Apocalyptic End Times Biblical references, crime, insanity, et cetera.

Fans of the show want it back. Some fans write fan fiction. This site takes the process two steps further. It is about fan fiction that hasn't even been written yet. I actually have known about this site for months but dismissed bothering to review it because it seemed too inconsequential. It still is a small site (not like some mammoth Sarah Connor Chronicles fan sites, one of which the webmistress for this site also maintains) but you have to admire the moxie in putting out there for public discussion, thoughts that go through a writer's head that are still marinating and ruminating. As a writer myself, I serve few thoughts until I have them fairly well thought out.

Or not. You've read this blog. I leave that judgment up to you. And speaking of Judgment Day, this lens wants to avoid all that nasty business of doomsday and find something better.

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

http://www.squidoo.com/Infiltrator-The_Cameron_Annals

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is gooey. Not as in delicious or other bookmarks, but as in GUI. Graphical User Interface.

Yahoo! Pipes is a web application from Yahoo! that provides a graphical user interface for building data mashups that aggregate web feeds, web pages, and other services, creating Web-based apps from various sources, and publishing those apps. The application works by enabling users "pipe" information from different sources and then set up rules for how that content should be modified (for example, filtering). A typical example is New York Times through Flickr,[1] a pipe which takes The New York Times RSS feed and adds a photo from Flickr based on the keywords of each item. The site is currently in beta. [direct quote from Wikipedia]

Quoting from the site in question: "Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:
combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
power widgets/badges on your web site.
grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats."

"Powerful" is corporate speak for buy it or ours is better than yours. You judge.

Yahoo! Pipes --

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Drupal

That's Drupal not RuPaul.

Drupal is an open source content management platform. Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites. It enables features such as Electronic commerce, Blogs, Collaborative authoring environments, Forums, Peer-to-peer networking, Newsletters, Podcasting, Picture galleries andFile uploads and downloads.

To give the reader some idea of how far I wander off whatever is the beaten path, this is for system developers and programmers. This review blog is supposed to be for the general web cruiser not the specialist. But then I am dipping a toe into high finance sites so why not computer engineering sites?

I only heard about it because I am seeking alternatives to widgets and modules in the simple webmaster work I do (obviously I am no expert).

If interested in dowloading Drupal or learning more, go here --

http://www.drupal.com/

Twine

Twine is social bookmarking and recommendations. Different visual look from StumbleUpon and similar sites but the idea is the same. I wonder if it fills up my email box like those others with recommendations? I am not willing to find out. I don't bookmark either.

For people who do bookmark and who do want recommendations from friends, the combination and visual appeal might be what the doctor ordered. If that is the case with you, don't mind my sour attitude on the subject.

Why bookmark? So you don't have your screen cluttered with wall-to-wall icons. I have seen people like that and I have to wonder if they are not constantly hitting an icon by mistake and disrupting their work. Icons and bookmarks are both hyperlinks so bookmarking may may sense for those who like a blank (or at least uncluttered) screen.

Recommends are a matter of whether you are seeking a non-medical second opinion. Perhaps you want to hear the pros and cons of a given matter before you make up your mind. Then you want a recommend site.

This is both.

Twine --

http://www.twine.com/

Instant Re-review:

After writing the above sour notes and observations, I went back and explored Twine a little. Squidoo it's not (I think there is a more severe limit to customization) but you can fiddle with it a little. Emphasis on little. On second look, the site could reflect your interest and link you to similar thing. On third look, it is all links and appears more and more an empty matrix of synapses and switches (depending on whether you want comparison to a human brain or an electronic brain). This is doubtless what they had in mind because you can see it reflected in the Twine logo.

According to Wikipedia: Twine combines features of forums, wikis, online databases and newsgroups[2] and employs intelligent software to automatically mine and store data relationships[3] expressed using RDF statements. Twine services information storage, authoring and discovery through its website and browser-based tools.

Forums can have echoes when they are inactive and lonely. Wikis are reference tools that I use. Online database? Not like Lexis or Nexis. I have never been in or used a Usenet Newsgroup. If one matched my interest, I'd look over newsgroups. We all know what browsers are. I still stand by my original review. Useful but no big whoop.

Engadget

I am not into gadgets but for the gadget freaks out there, this site tells you about the latest gizmos and consumer electronics. All you need is Bill Gates' bank account and you will always get what you want. This site is considered the ultimate gadget site. If you disagree, then send me a nasty message telling me why I am mistaken and what site I should be reviewing instead.

Engadget --

http://www.engadget.com/

Walhello

I don't know how old this search engine is but I am always on the lookout for new search engines.

Their advanced search allows you to select proximity in characters between keywords; select whether keywords must be in the right sequence [I prefer straightforward exact phrase but this is an alternative]; whether page must include pictures or not; search for pages written in a given language; and search for pages in certain domains [both of which Google and other engines do]. But overall, it is a nice alternative.

Oh how I miss the old Dogpile meta-search that gave several categories of result with the number of hits per category displayed to give the skilled searcher (like me) an idea of the weights of each area of results. Walhello is not that but it is worth checking out.

Walhello --

http://www.walhello.com/advanced.html

In Search of th' Old South

I decided to take a break from reviewing Squidoo lenses that interested me and see what other home pages of hobby sites are out there.

If you think the Deep South is full of psychotics, this site makes no attempt to convince you that The South is sane. Quite the contrary, they actually have a page for South Haters titled "The Lost Art of South Bashing" to encourage excellence in South bashing. If that isn't neighborly and showing hospitality (another of this site's specialties), I don't know what is. The site basically tries to identify and show the things that makes the South unique and that give it "character." That generally translates to ku klux klan night riders but this is no hate site and there are no pictures of lynchings, bombings, arson, or other acts of the devil (although I would not put it past them to add that later). This site is mostly genteel and features Southern belles.

One warning: the site is migrating to different software and so I may re-review them when it is upgraded and expanded.

Enjoy and watch your back!

In Search of th' Old South is found at this link --
http://southern-belle.tripod.com/

Guide to Intergalactic Travel

Defiantly hyper-specialized, this Squidoo lens frankly excludes those without an interest in the subject (like the Immortality lens in that regard).

It is exactly what it says: intergalactic travel. Not interstellar and not interplanetary. If you don't know the difference, like the site says, you don't belong here.

Guide to Intergalactic Travel --

http://www.squidoo.com/intergalactic_travel

Google search for venture capital, part 3

I got a response from an email I sent to an American venture capital firm. If I abruptly drop this blog, then you'll know I went on to bigger and better (meaning more lucrative) things. Not to worry though, I have a lifetime of disappointments to prevent me from having high expectations.

No luck yet finding any Israeli venture capital firms online. Due to lack of venture or any other capital on its home turf Israeli companies in the 70s turned to Wall Street to fuel their expansion. The first generation of venture capital funds began to operate in the late 1980s and this movement accelerated in 1990s. Local and international "money men" were noticing that Israel had become second only to the United States with its number of start-up companies.

I now have names of Israeli venture capital firms but no contact information or information about the specialties of each firm. VC's tend to specialize in different industries.

Views

View is a Squidoo lens with a theme I can't figure out. It is about views. Scenic views, points of view, views as in opinions, and even ABC's "The View."

Have a view at --

http://www.squidoo.com/Viewpoint

Google search for venture capital, part 2

Directory of venture capital firms, angel investors, sample ...

Directory of venture capital resources and related services.

This is an intermediary. Okay if you want that. I don't want an intermediary charging me money to get money.

http://www.vfinance.com/

National Venture Capital Association

Aims to foster greater understanding of the importance of venture capital to the United States economy and to support entrepreneurial activity.

I have an directory from them. How old I won't say except it shows how long I have been looking for money and why I have such a negative view of American investors. That said, if you're going to deal with American VC (that stands for venture capital not Viet Cong), then deal with them direct and not through an inrtermediary.

Believe it or not, I actually have a good opinion of this association despite my personal situation --

http://www.nvca.org/

Google search for venture capital

First sponsored link:

VENTURE Capital

www.NextLevelFunding.com Working capital with No Collateral & PG of owner- Up to $250K Fast!

This is business loans. Venture capital generally connotes equity not debt. For debt, you can go to a bank and American banks are notoriously hostile to startups.

Second sponsored link:

Venture Capital

www.amerifinancial.com Venture capital for early-stage tech, medical & consumer companies.

I have initiated contact and am awaiting response.

Third sponsored link was a business brokerage. Where are you supposed to get the money to buy one of the businesses they sell? Obviously from venture capital or running up your credit cards or begging from relatives (who have no clue and will hate you when you lose their nest egg and you will never again be welcome at family gatherings).

Advent

Wow, they've even commercialized Advent the season before Christmas, which for those who don't know, starts on December 25th. Most uninformed people think the Christmas season ends at midnight on December 24th, which is why so many trees are out on the curb by noon on Christmas Day. Understandable, since commercialism in the retail sector starts putting out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. We all have seen Christmas stuff before Halloween. And I used to work for a store that opened and still opens its Christmas shop (I kid you not) in August! Every year. Some of you can guess which retail chain.

Any way, Advent is supposed to be almost a full month (four weeks or so) of prayer, fasting (starving to you godless atheists), and quiet sober reflection before you drink yourself into a coma and gorge yourself almost as much as you did on Thanksgiving. If I was going to preach at you or psycho-analyze you, I'd say that you were trying to fill the emptiness which you need to fill with either Jesus or something meaningful depending on whether I was wearing my preacher hat or had you on my Freudian couch. Either way, something to think about.

As always, I wander off on pointless tangents as a pretext to minor remarks about the link or links. In this case, Advent dot net, "the leading Christmas Advent Calendars Site on the Net."

http://www.advent.net/

When I typed in Advent dot edu, net, org, and com I expected some Seventh Day Adventist site or something better. Dot com is an investment management software site. In view of my foregoing rants (please re-read my Thanksgiving rant), do I really need to say anything about Wall Street?

Coming Soon

Having reviewed oddball sites, well-known sites, and obscure Squidoo lenses, I thought I might try reviewing business sites. I am starting an innovative business or two and I will report the ones that turn me down.

Here is my expectation: American venture capital is not interested in funding anything other than Rust Belt fossils and dinosaurs. Years ago, I was talking up electric vehicles and everyone looked at me as if I had three heads. Now everyone at the "cutting edge" is doing something regarding electric vehicles. China has passed the USA is such research. China has passed the USA is wind power installation. The USA let a major solar company and a major wind power company move to Europe. Why even waste time with the USA anymore. I am still the actual cutting edge but I am not stupid enough to put blueprints on this blog. However, I am quite willing to expose the morons who give bonuses to executives who deliberately ram companies into the ground. Isn't a bonus supposed to be conditional and given only for extraordinary good performance? And not automatically given to all executives for being white or male or gentile or from a certain prep school or in a specific age range or some irrelevant criteria? Too bad if you save the company and happen to be female or a member of a minority or Jewish or went to an American public school or are too old or too young.

Will my low expectations of the American investment community be met? Will I be pleasantly surprised? Or will it be worse than I imagined?

Stay tuned.

First stop, AIG. To some the letters stand for Arrogant, Incompetent and Greedy. To others, the I in AIG stands for Immoral. To still others, the I stands for Irrational. And the I means Ignorant to other people.

Whatever your analysis, the government stole from the poor taxpayers and gave to the rich -- as government always does. As it did with all the other bail-outs and corporate welfare. The name is supposed to change and the company is selling off subsidiaries to pay down debt.

Visit the wonderful people of AIG at --

http://www.aigcorporate.com/index.html

postscript - I did not ask for money. They are an insurance outfit. (Although insurance companies do invest in things)

Xanga

It's a blog, and it's also a social networking site. You have to invest time in this site.

There is a learning curve for navigating this site. I saw some types of groupsI have seen no where else on the web. This fact alone keeps me from canceling my account though my experience at Xanga has been a dud.

Xanga --

http://www.xanga.com/

Wink

Wink allows you to find people all over the world with almost any interest. Problem is, everytime I send a friend request, the site says they'll get my message when they join Wink.

Wink lists people from other social networks. I might as well join those other networks (and I have).

Frustrating site. If you could reach the people you want to reach on either business or pleasure, Wink might have something really great.

Wink --

http://wink.com/

tagfoot

tagfoot is more bookmarking and linking than social network. I am not much of a bookmarker but I found certain of its other features really useful.



Unlike other sites recently reviewed which take weeks or months to really start to gel (gain friends, get hits, get read, or whatever is your yardstick for measuring usefulness), tagfoot was useful and got results for me from day one. I was amazed.



Also, they assign an online mentor under the buddy-system to help you get your feet wet. If I have any problems at or with tagfoot, then it is entirely my fault. The people behind this site are great and I have no negative criticism of them whatsoever.



There is no but nor other shoe to drop.



Positive review all the way around.



tagfoot --



http://tagfoot.com/home

Plurk

Easy sing-up. If you haven't already guessed, it is another social network.


Disturbingly like Dipity. Dipity tracks everything you do on the web. While that does not disturb most people, I am not most people. If you value your privacy, you might want to avoid this site. I saw my location displayed on the screen. Shades of Minority Report, Big Brother (the George Orwell novel not the stupid TV show), and Enemy of the State.

I will have to re-review Plurk in the future because I have not used it long enough to give it a fair shake. That's all for now.



Plurk --



http://www.plurk.com/

Thanksgiving

If you want some meaning to your holiday, you could do worse than visit Thanks-Giving Square. The site however is marred by paying homage to the b*stard who pardoned Richard Nixon, the man who swore in CFR and other secret speeches to abolish the Constitution. During the Watergate investigation it was discovered that the crook nicknamed Tricky Dick nearly did kill the Bill of Rights. In case you are a diehard Nixon supporter, at least now you have a clue as to why the rest of us despise the man and why his own congregation excommunicated him (Quakers no less). We can be thankful this day that we don't have Nixon to kick around anymore. We can move on to the Antichrist Ronald Wilson Reagan (6 letters, 6 letters, 6 letters) and his divorced Scarlet Woman Nancy Reagan (practiced astrology and other occult things). Did you know he started his presidential campaign in Philadelphia Mississippi to appeal to the Ku Klux Klan? (so that's why black people don't like him!). Or to the worst president in human history (down there with Hitler, Stalin, and Mao in terms of bankrupting a once-rich nation) George Walker Bush Jr. Does Bush Jr count as six letters? Or the president who made sex sexy. Bill. Or president Robin Hood who steals from the poor to give to the rich. Dubya did this to excess but we expected better from Obama before he installed two of the crooks who caused this mess Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner.

Do you see why I hate politics? And why I am thankful this Thanksgiving that "The People" are raising people like Sarah Palin to lead them over a cliff. She denies climate change while glaciers are melting in her own state and Alaska residents on the Arctic Ocean coast are seeing their villages washed out to sea and permafrost is melting. What planet is this woman from?

Oh yeah, before I started ranting and my editor hosed me down with ice water (from Alaska) to cool off my unreasonable hot head, I was supposed to be reviewing Thanks-Giving Square. I'm still not sure how letting US Presidents and Wall Street executives off scot-free while giving a poor man a life sentence for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family constitutes "healing our wounded nation" but it's yet another double standard.

Thanks-Giving Square

http://www.thanksgiving.org/

If you are a Republican and prefer something more commercial this holiday (and why not, Republicans worship money), this next site may be more to your liking. It has a nice photo but it is pure links.

So here is the link for Thanksgiving, the site for ALL your Thanksgiving needs. I need a million dollars. Can you provide that?

http://www.thanksgiving.com/

If I seem cynical, then you must understand that I am practicing for the next holiday. Christmas. Bah humbug! We've all been screwed, I mean, Scrooged.

MySpace

MySpace, which has a reputation as a booty call and requires loads of time to customize with skins and other do-dads, has a younger demographic than Facebook. MySpace may have been overtaken my Facebook in sheer size (membership). But if its freedom you want, then MySpace is the place.

MySpace --

http://www.myspace.com/

LiveJournal

Theoretically you can form a community here but it must require some real intense time commitment because I have tried and failed.

It is mostly a blog but also a social network.

LiveJournal --

http://www.livejournal.com/

Identica

Identica is a social network. My guess is that it has a low subscriber base and I picked groups to join within it that were dead on arrival. That is, little interest in it by members.

Since I joined Identica specifically for group activity, this translates to little interest by me. If I can't find like-minded people, why check in more often than once every other month?

When I checked in just now, I left a few posts. If I get a pulse, I will re-review Identica.

Identi.ca --

http://identi.ca/

Gather

I first heard about Gather on National Public Radio. I eventually signed up.

You can find people who share your interests here. Getting them to talk is another matter. This is probably true of any site. They ("they" meaning everybody who is not you) say that in most chatrooms, SecondLife worlds, forums, discussion boards and et cetera that the vast majority lurk. It stands to reason since in real life only one can talk at a time (excepting the political rhetoric shows where EVERYONE SCREAMS AT ONCE!

Sorry. Didn't mean to yell.

Anyway, Gather is visually nice-looking as are most social networks (except MySpace because kids lack taste). You know I'm easing up to it. Gather has been a waste of time for me but I'll keep my accocunt in case the one nibble I got amounts to something.

Gather --

http://www.gather.com/

Friendfeed

Friendfeed has a lot of potential if you know how to use it. My experience there has been pleasant which is generally not a word I use in association with any social network.

My personal interests tend to the obscure but I found both news (which I put to good use at another site I maintain) and people who shared my interests.

Can you tell that I like FriendFeed? Personal bias in its favor aside, it is easy to use.

FriendFeed --

http://friendfeed.com/

Faves

Exactly what it says, Faves wants to know your favorites. Your favorite this, your favorite that. [There are several social networks that take this tack.]

The system has a great memory. Most systems flush you out if you are not active for several months. I haven't been active at Faves for years.

Faves can be found at --

http://faves.com/home

Facebook

Facebook has the advantage of massive size. You can probably find friends if you are willing to put in the time. If you have real-life face-to-face family commitments and a busy career, good luck on finding the time. Of course, some people are good on time management.

Although my own experience on Facebook has been empty. I still give them high marks because the fault is with me not them. Privacy policy is a whole other review. I skip that aspect for now.

Freedom-wise, Facebook can be restrictive. No funny business like on MySpace.

Ease of use? Not so much. I gave up trying to correct incorrect information the Facebook system decided about me.

Facebook --

http://www.facebook.com/

Bebo

Bebo is a social website with a whiteboard. That is pretty much the only feature I don't see at other social websites. The problem with most social website is that you need to bring friends with you or else you are alone. Joining groups is a way to make friends but if the groups are defunct or full of members who don't welcome new members, well you're screwed again.

Bebo --

http://www.bebo.com

Urgent!

This Squidoo lens contains useful emergency information alongside stuff that makes you think and stuff that makes you laugh.

Urgent! --

http://www.squidoo.com/Urgent

Guide to Aerobic Exercise

This site is purely meant to be watched from across the room as you exercise --

http://www.squidoo.com/aerobicexercise

Guide to Earning Money

This Squidoo lens is intended for people who want ideas for earning money. A nice feature (we'll see how long it lasts) is an offer to do research if a visitor doesn't see the idea they want.

Guide to Earning Money --

http://www.squidoo.com/earning-more-money

Guide to George Meredith

These folks are George Meredith fans. In case you don't know, the Victorian Age produced more great novelists other than Dickens and Austen (really more Regency than Victorian) and Thackeray. I guess the appeal here is snob appeal. If you are a Meredith fan, then you have something no one else has discovered. Not even PBS or the late Merchant-Ivory team that made art films. This is ironic since Meredith himself skewered snobs while doing them (and other character types) better than anybody else.

Guide to George Meredith at --

http://www.squidoo.com/George_Meredith

Urban Farming

I am informed that this lens will be doubling in size soon. It already is large for an average lens.

Urban Farming, that's right, means farms in the middle of cities --

http://www.squidoo.com/Urban_Farming

Guide to Emerson, Lake and Palmer

This is a dinosaur group that has broken up twice and in the process of looking over this Squidoo lens, I discovered that they are reuniting next year assuming Keith Emerson's hands are healed up from surgery and he has his manual dexterity back. Carl Palmer is still fast. If I had the money, I'd go see them in concert. They used to sell out the biggest stadiums.

Check out this lens at --

http://www.squidoo.com/Emerson_Lake_and_Palmer

Veterans Day

Veterans Day dot org is one of those holder site until somebody buys it. The links turn back on themselves instead of taking you to the Department of Veterans Affairs for example.

Visitors Center

Another thematic and inexplicable site. However, while visiting I learned about the new ABC series 'V' (not to be confused with the old series). I think they are still lizards eating humans. Crossing light-years for a snack seems a waste of interstellar travel technology, that is, they should have re-thought the premise of the show and had the aliens after something other than food. Assuming I have the facts straight. I have not seen the show V only a short clip of their leggy leader.

Anyway, as usual, I'm off on a tangent and Visitors Center is not solely about that series. It is supposed to be about Visitors or Visitors Center and is therefore a work very much still in progress. They need to feature more visitors centers. Or welcome centers. Or information centers (IC's). Believe it or not those are industries with their own trade associations and trade journals. I know, I once had (I forget why) a free subscription to Information Center magazine.

Visit the Visitors Center at --

http://www.squidoo.com/visitor

Inside Edition

Navigation for this TV show's site is a lot better than the last time I visited. And anything is better than the dead ends it had before.


http://www.insideedition.com

Guide to Getting Off the Planet

All I want to know is:

1. Can you make it affordable so that people (other than the millionaires that Virgin Galactic is catering to) can go?
2. Can you make it safe enough for my children and my parents?
3. Can you do it now? Not a million years from now like NASA's snail pace?

http://www.squidoo.com/offworld

Guide to the Health Care Debate

This is obviously a hasty job as are many Squidoo lenses but the makers might have something if they featured more of the nuts who show up at Town Hall meetings with guns and racist effigies of President Obama. You know the Republican extremists who claim Obama is not an American because he's black (he was born in the good ole U.S. of A while McCain was born in Panama and should not have even been allowed to run for President), the ones who think the Earth is flat and think there is no climate change and no overpopulation, tea droppers, tea parties, whatever the pundits call them.

Anyway I hate politics so I appreciate any attempt to make fun of the monsters in DC and in the provinces.

So visit the site, write something hateful in their guest book, and everybody will be happy.

http://www.squidoo.com/healthcaredebate

Valleywag

A good site to keep up with business news from Silicon Valley.

Since I am not a techie, I generally avoid sites like PCWorld, Wired and CNet. I use technology. I am less interested in the technology itself. I figure that if it is important, then sooner or later I will hear about it in the general media.

Oddly enough, this strategy often means that I hear about cutting edge stuff before the techies. Not always of course but enough to make me think that I am not crazy.

I am more interested in the money end of high tech anyway. I'd like to own the next Google rather than be one of millions of users. But that's another story and, if you're interested in that journey, I'll be blogging about it on another venue. This blog is supposed to be about websites.

Wouldn't it be a laugh if someday I reviewed my own software company's site and gave it a bad review? Don't put it past me. I'm as hard on my own projects as I am on other people's work.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/

Technorati

I'm not enough of a techie to review this site.

My initial interest was the gimmick of getting a little gizmo but I don't really like being stalked on the web. LiveJournal has something similar but no one reads my LiveJournal so I was carrying that baggage. [Consider that a review of LiveJournal]

http://www.livejournal.com/

If I want an avatar, I can go to SecondLife but I don't know if I want to ignore real people a few inches away from me in order to have an affair with a virtual person and risk divorce in real life. The real utility of SecondLife is virtual conferencing and there are other VR (virtual reality) and holographic/3D telephony sites.

I'll give Second Life the real review it deserves in a future article. So ignore any criticisms in this articles until I've had a second look at SecondLife (I have to work in puns, I have a quota to meet).

As for Technorati, if you are a techie go here --
http://technorati.com/

I generally avoid sites that require me to download anything. I spend half my times getting spyware, worms, virues, Trojans, adware, and such out of my computer. Google says everything is supposed to be in the cloud. You know, that vaporware Microsoft sells.

Steve Rubel's blog

I was two independent things.
1. trying to find alternatives to blogging and
2. looking for websites to review

At Top Ten Reasons To Give Up Blogging,
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_ten_reasons.php
I hit the Steve Rubel link and found a link I had been looking for and had not saved.

I'll be reviewing Lifestream after I have used it awhile.

As for Steve Rubel's blog, it helped me find another site worth reviewing so thumbs up.

Alexa

I went to Alexa to see how bad this blog is. Pretty bad. Not even in the top 100,000 for some reason. They (meaning experts on blogging) say that it takes a while to gain a readership and following.

The easy thing to do is bash Alexa. I won't because I figure that they are an honest service.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fnetcompanies.blogspot.com

eBay

Another review of an established site (I promise I'll go back to the obscure sites soon).

I like eBay. I use them instead of Amazon because their vendors are fast, inexpensive, courteous (super-courteous, in fact, you can get into trouble if you don't take the time to give your thumbs up or down) and the merchandise is good.

I know, you're waiting for me to say something bad.

Well, they could probably increase their business tenfold if they had an interface that dummies could use. I'm computer literate enough that I can blog about tech, write a little html, yada yada yada. What I can't do is deal with auctions, PayPal, and shipping options. If you've seen all the "Dummies for Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Idiocy" books out there, then you might be thinking that these books are way too long and are written for engineers. [Is this guy stupid or what?]

I have actually paid a little more for some products by having a friend or a bricks & mortar store merchant go to eBay for me so that I wouldn't have to. Somebody local could do a healthy business with people and for people who don't feel like doing this or that online. And isn't a lot of business based on laziness? Most of us don't raise chickens. We go to the supermarket for eggs and chicken meat. Most of us don't raise cows. We buy milk and beef at the store.

Anyway, this is not criticism of eBay. (More like criticism of PayPal) And a suggestion to anyone sharp enough to see a business opportunity and maybe do some market research.

Amazon

What would possess me to review a site that is not obscure? Doesn't matter what I say, it will get traffic.

Actually, this is more personal. Just a comment. Last time I used it they dictated my payment options.

I figure that if a vendor wants to sell me something and I want to buy and my method of payment is acceptable then what difference does it make?

A personal check in this case. Couldn't use it. So I went to their competitor. {Nevermind who, suffice to say that they have plenty}

You know the moral of the story.

Halloween

If you are bored, go to --
Halloween dot com --

http://www.halloween.com/

Cuil

Cuil is not cool as a search engine. It is advertising and little else.

The above is the review I would have given a year ago. They have cleaned up their act a little. And the results page is appealing to the eye. Rather nice actually.

But they flunked my test phrase (like Google did also).

Still have to give them decent marks for very improved because I know how bad they were.

127 billion web pages? Isn't Google up around one trillion?

Cuil --
http://www.cuil.com/

Exalead

Exalead once bragged that it would have more pages than Google. Like Godzilla, size matters with search engines. I started using Google for no other reason than because I heard it was huge, meaning lots of pages/sites/et cetera indexed or spidered or whatever they do to access them.

I have not used Exalead much. That may change. Just a few seconds ago I typed in my standard test phrase. I figure if they can find that obscure website that I know exists (because I can go to it by typing in the URL), then they pass the acid test.

Sorry Google. You couldn't find the exact phrase even in the top 25 results. Exalead found my test site as result number three. A really good search engine should find that obscure site as result number one. But after testing a lot of search engines, Exalead rates highest. Congratulations, Exalead --

http://www.exalead.com/search/web/

Postscript -- It should be exalead dot com not with that suffix, Microsoft Search and a few other major search engines used to do that nonsense. That's why MSN Search is now Bing.
Google people, gotta give them credit though. I typed in "wwwgoogle.com" and other bad spellings without a dot or spliced in the wrong place and Google still came up.

Surfwax

Surfwax features wiki search, news search (unimpressive), RSS feed search, and a blog search where you have to log in. You can sort alphabetically, by relevance, and by source.

I always laugh (not necessarily out loud or NNOL) at "relevance" wordage at search sites. If it isn't what I want it is all irrelevant. The various search engines and the people who write their algorithms are doing the best they can . . . well actually they aren't. Somebody like me who knows exactly what they want down to the punctuation is frustrated by so-called exact phrase searches. They toss out articles like "the" or "an" which may be essential to the phrase. Exact string search is what I want because I know what I want. Apparently no one else does because search engines get away with second guessing you. The internet used to have search engines that did exact string but enough ranting [somebody give me a couple of million and I'll code the next big search engine]. Needless to say, Surfwax does not have exact phrase or if they did I couldn't find it and it should be easy to find if you have it in an advanced search. Surfwax has something called Focus, meaning their focus words. Overused and most annoying word: "Whatever!"

Surfwax --
http://www.surfwax.com/

Releton

The "rele" refers to your relatives and the "ton" refers to the electronic nature of this derivative search engine.

Releton
http://www.releton.com/

Qwerky

No, I', not on a Q kick. I was working off an alphabetical list for about one day.

What are the quirks of Qwerky? Does it use a QWERTY keyboard?

Quirks:

• Notebook of the Weirdest New Web 2.0 Names!
• Would You Give Your First Born To Name Websites Like These?
• funny one
• 10 Worst Web App Names

Yes it uses a standard keyboard.

Qwerky --

http://qwerky.stellify.net/

Quintura

Quintura bills itself as a visual search engine. It's okay. I rate newbie Bing higher on visual search. For you parents, they have Quintura for kids.
Quintura
http://www.quintura.com/


The people behind this started with a different URL --
http://qube.qelix.com/

If you are a geek into browserless search and social networking, then you may want to download this and become a beta tester.

If you are from the Q Continuum, then all this will seem primitive and quaint.

Prase Us

"We have come to bury Caesar not to praise him."

On the day I tried Prase Us , today, a few seconds ago, it gave error messages and no results. Its meta tags identify it as a page rank assisted search engine that draws upon Google, Yahoo! and MSN (guess they haven't heard of Bing).

Maybe your experience will be different and yes I know it is unfair to judge people on their worst day but cops only see people on their worst day hence they often shoot people (even off-duty cops) and get off with a slap on the wrist. Actually my own experience with police officers and other law enforcement officers has been very pleasant and helpful (even saved my life once). Anyway off the tangents and see for yourself. Praise them?

Prase Us --
http://www.prase.us/

Omgili

It's Omgili silly. Omgili allows search of forums and boards. I couldn't find a discussion board that I submitted to all the engines so I am underwhelmed by Omgili.

Now there are web search engines, blog search engines, and image search engines but few board/forum search engines so naturally my ears perked up when I came across this. My dog was impressed that I could perk my ears.

The direction this site is headed is, in their words, tapping into people's personal experiences, solutions to problems, ideas and opinions.

Omgili --
http://omgili.com/

They're obviously after our brains like the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Product and Service Reviews

If you detect a note of paranoia in my blog, there is a reason. Prior bad experience (never was given a reason or an explanation). It left me being overcautious. If there were twenty of me, I might do a blog about what being overcautious does to a nation (it destroys it). However, I am only willing to do things that might result in money to pay bills and I deliberately ignore the fact that I see my country going over a cliff. [This ain't a political blog so I'll leave the subject with this: It is NOT the current occupant of the White House's fault. Its the one before him.]

Which brings me to this self-plug. If someone want me to sell something, I ain't cheap but I can be had. Go over to Product and Service Reviews ---
http://productservicereviews.blogspot.com/

Next time: back to other peoples' sites. One down, a trillion more to go.

Nextaris

A search engine big on sign-up and membership. I've actually known about this for years but mentally lumped it with Nexis and Lexis, the big legal/corporate/academic information service because the name sounded similar.

Actually Nextaris is owned by SurfWax another name that is a blast from my past. I'll be reviewing Surfwax separately so on with the review.

Nextaris allows search, capture, tracking, online folders, sharing, collaboration, and you can publish web pages and blogs. Sort of like Google.

Disclosure: Blogger is owner by Google so I am sticking my head in a noose to even acknowledge that there is a world outside . . . nevermind. This blog is about reviewing websites wherever they are and whoever owns them. Don't shoot the messenger.

Nextaris --
http://www.nextaris.com/

Makidi

No, I'm not kidding. Makidi is a useless search engine. It might conceivably be of use if you're into SEO speak and search engine marketing. If you're a civilian, it is totally useless.

I call'em like I see'em.

Makidi --
http://www.makidi.com/

Ice Rocket

Update on Ice Rocket. I am re-reviewing Ice Rocket because I had second thoughts about the short shrift I gave them. In addition to blog search, they also have Twitter Search and MySpace Search. "So what?" you say and I would agree that you can search Twitter at Twitter and MySpace at MySpace. But it also has news search, image search and something called Big Buzz. The total package is kinda helpful because Ice Rocket found me timely news and information that I was able to put to immediate use. Useful sites make be grateful (they are so rare) hence the re-review.

Ice Rocket is found here --
http://www.icerocket.com/

Ice Rocket

Put your rockets on ice with Ice Rocket.

No, I don't get the name either but this is a search engine for blogs. [In some future post, I'll have to tell you about this really sweet blog search engine I used once on an obscure subject. I forget the name of it but the results I got were very useful].

Right, I'm not reviewing that other blog search engine. Most blog search engines are crap pure and simple.

File Ice Rocket under adequate.

http://www.icerocket.com/

Factbites

Factbites is a nifty site for getting facts quickly. I was doing research on tornadoes and Wikipedia, Ask and the usual suspects weren't giving me the information that I needed. Although Factbites lacks a Boolean search capability, I was able to compare and contrast wall clouds and shelf clouds. I don't impress easily but that impressed me. Pictures I can get elsewhere, I wanted the facts and this site gave them to me.

Go to --
http://www.factbites.com/

Prefound

Prefound can no longer be found. It was supposed to be a search engine.

Do a Google allintitle search to learn more.

Most Popular

The folks responsible for this lens have apparently not given up on it. They added two new sections.

http://www.squidoo.com/Most_Popular

Guide for Young Entrepreneurs

It will be interesting to see how this lens evolves. How about one for us old people over 21?

http://www.squidoo.com/guideforyoungentrepreneurs

Guide to Privacy

Very lean, needs more content.

http://www.squidoo.com/PrivacyGuide

"Your Favorites"

Anyone can review good websites, so I thought I'd review a not-so-good website. The makers are obviously trying to find a niche for themselves and this is one of their efforts.

The focus here is on favorites, theirs, yours, anybody's. Philosophically, this goes to show that most of life is fluff. Case in point, the YouTube videos featured in this lens. Have no idea what potential this lens has but right now it is unrealized.

http://www.squidoo.com/Your_Favorites

Guide to Dating

"Why does an innocuous site like this get an adult splash page?

Answer: Squidoo has become an old maid and has not only kicked off the X-rated sites but anything else with a pulse.

This lens attempts to categorize the many ways people go about mate hunting, especially what criteria people use.

If you are single, this might be worth a visit. And if you don't see your catgegory, tell them since they'll probably add it.

http://www.squidoo.com/guide-to-dating

Urgent

A new lens that examines urgency

http://www.squidoo.com/Urgent

"Guide to Immortality"

This Squidoo lens is trying to get away from the boring approach that most immortalist and life extensionist site take: namely that of take a lot of pills and supplements. If you're going to live forever, it ought to be interesting.

It is true that you have to lay down some foundations like the nuts and bolts of staying alive when their are wars, terrorists, random crime, automobile accidents, and the plane you are on can crash. This lens begins to address some of these issues but it badly needs participation. The problem is basic: young people have the energy but not the interest since they think they're going to live forever anyway (without doing anything to make sure that happens) and old people see the need to do something but have let their health run down.

It will be interesting to see how this site progresses and what it will be like in two years from now.

http://www.squidoo.com/guide-to-immortality

"Controversial Topics"

Want to play a prank on a co-worker?

1. While they are away from their desk, surf to this site (or a porn site or a Michael Vick dogfighting site). Get past the adult splash page. Then navigate or scroll to the most embarrassing part of this lens.
2. Bring the co-worker's boss over to their desk so that they can see what your co-worker is doing on company time.
3. Stand back and watch the fun begin.

This site is looking for the most controversial of controversial issues. Help them out. Send them material or links.

http://www.squidoo.com/controversialtopics

Sarah Connor Chronicles Fan-made Videos Project

From the people who brought you the "Guide to the Sarah Connor Chronicles" comes a second separate lens for fans who want to makes their own episoes since Fox TV and Warner Brothers Television and Halcyon Company can't seem to syndicate this show or put it out in magazine form.

Magazine form would be straight-to-DVD's that people could subscribe to like pay TV or cable. After a full third season, people could buy the compilation of the whole Third Season in a set. Oh, I almost forgot, I was supposed to be reviewing this site. It is a noble effort by the fans. Let us see what befalls them:

"Sarah Connor Chronicles Fan-made Videos" project is at
http://www.squidoo.com/SCCFanVideos

Guide to the Sarah Connor Chronicles

There are several websites dedicated to the now defunct (cancelled) Fox TV show "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Many have been closed or abandoned after the cancellation. This site however is still maintained and has actually increased in both size (which makes it slow-loading) and readership. Not enough readership however for certain departments and sections (called modules) within it to really flourish. I am thinking of the Guestbook, Rumor Mill, News, Convention, Connoisseur, and Fashion Sections in particular.

It would be a hoot if the Wedding and RPG sections took off also. Since the characters in SCC (Sarah Connor Chronicles) wore street clothes just like you and me, the Cosplay section seems overreaching a bit but, for all I know, the lens is read in Japan where that is big. There is an international section in this "Guide to the Sarah Connor Chronicles" and I know for a fact that there are lots of fans of the show in other countries.

http://www.squidoo.com/The-Sarah-Connor-Chronicles

Reality Checks and Balances

In the "Why didn't I think of that?" department, I report Emeraldstone's "Reality Checks and Balances" blog post.

To answer the question, why didn't I think of that, the answer is that I'm a newbie and no one reads my blogs so the thought of inviting others to share their blogs or links would seem pointless to me.

With millions and millions of blogs out there, I suppose the factors are luck, persistence, and being interesting.

Web Companies

Web Companies is about websites and companies. This blog's beat is NOT products nor services in the traditional sense.

I cover the following:

1. websites I've used in the past,
2. websites I'm currently using, and
3. websites that are brought to my attention.