Cruisin' With StarText

Volume 2, No. 5
March 22, 1996

Welcome to Cruisin' With StarText. PLEASE NOTE: Our column is best viewed using the features of Netscape Navigator 2.0.

Let's talk a little about navigation around the column. Below you will find a listing of the topics that Terry and I will be covering in this issue of Cruisin'. To access any of them, just click on the topic that interests you and read all about it. Or if you wish, you can just scroll down through the column and read the topics in order. In several of the topics, we'll be providing hyperlinks to the sites that we are talking about. If you follow the links you will be whisked away immediately from Cruisin' to the site discussed. The following is important! To return back to the column from any of the links, just keep using the BACK key on your favorite browser and you will eventually get back to where you started from. If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at chuck@web-connection.org. Now, just scroll down or click on "Surfin' With Chuck and Terry" to begin.

Terry and I hope you enjoy this week's issue!

In This Issue:

Surfin' With Chuck and Terry

Welcome back to another issue of Cruisin' With StarText. Terry and I are glad you dropped by for a visit. Its has been a busy week for Terry and myself as well as a busy weekend. Terry is getting ready to start a quilting class for the next 6 Saturdays and I've got to get back to working on the User's Guide. She is really looking forward to the class. Learning how to quilt has been one of her life long dreams. She is so excited. My mom wants her to use my grandmother's quilting basket to hold all of her supplies. Terry's grandmother and my grandmother were both one heck of a quilter in their day. I hope the basket brings Terry a touch of good luck on her first quilt. I think it is kind of neat that my grandmother will sort of be there with her as she takes her first class. Maybe she'll help guide her hands if she has trouble.

As always, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in our lives. We still have not had time to sit down and work on a schedule to manage our time. During the week, we are really zapped by the time both of us get home in the evening, and all we want to do is veg. We're probably no different than most working couples that are on the go.

The last day or two, I've been having some hardware problems and it looks like I'm going to have to replace my sound card. I bought WebPhone this past weekend since it was on sale at CompUsa. I plugged in the mic and found out that, for some odd reason, I couldn't record, so I thought that meant that the mic wasn't working. I spent almost an hour on the phone with Microsoft technical support and we still couldn't get the problem resolved. We finally came to the conclusion that the problem has to be an outdated sound card which also ties in with some problems that I've been having with my CD player. I guess it is time to replace the ole sound card and upgrade to one that is supported by Win95.

Enough ramblin', let's get on with this issue of Cruisin' With StarText. As you could tell from the introduction, we've got several things to talk about today, so scroll on down and we'll get started.

Useless Web Pages

Here a site that we found that is just for fun. It is entitled Useless Pages - "America's Funniest Home Hypermedia. The pages spot lighted on this sight show what happens when you combine people with too much time on their hands with modern technology.

Among a few of the listed "you can't miss these" Web pages, you'll find:

You say you want more! You say you want to waste visiting senseless sites on the Web! The just click on the following link:

http://www.primus.com/staff/paulp/useless.htm

Have fun with these sites. Believe it or not, you can actually learn from these pages. They are classic examples of what NOT to include when you put your home page together.

Doctor HTML

This site is a great tool to know about if you are writing and publishing on the Web. This site is very useful for us columnists to check the syntax and coding of our columns. Each and every week I run Cruisin' through it after it gets posted. I make a note of the coding errors that I may have made and correct them next time. If I've made a real boo-boo, I upload a new column and plead my case to Christy to re-post the corrected version. Doctor HTML will perform the following tests on your page:

  1. Check the document for spelling errors

  2. Test the document structure

  3. Examine table structure

  4. Examine form structure

  1. Perform an analysis of the images

  2. Look at image command syntax

  3. Verify that all the hyperlinks are valid

  4. Show command hierarchy

It is really pretty neat and it won't cost you a thing. I've really learned a bunch from running my page through the tests. Give it a try, it's fun!

Life on the Internet

This is one series that I can't wait for. In April, PBS will be presenting a 13 part series entitled Life on the Internet. The main focus of the series will be centered on the World Wide Web and focusing on individuals whose lives and work have been changed by the Internet. Each of the 13 half-hour episodes will highlight a particular topic. Look over the following titles and see if you don't agree that this will be a series worth tuning in to.

  1. Digital Doctors
  2. HollyNet
  3. Next Stop - The Future
  4. Cyber Students
  5. Sounds from Cyberspace
  6. Internauts
  7. Net profits
  8. InterNetworking
  9. Electric Ink
  10. Cyber Secrets
  11. Electric Mail
  12. Spiritual Surfers
  13. Digital Dollars

Do you want to know more? The PBS site has more about this and all of their other educational and entertaining programs. The site is very well organized and you can find the information that you are looking for very quickly. Take a look and let me know what you think.

In Closing

That's about it for another issue of Cruisin' With StarText. Terry and I are both glad you dropped by and we hope you have enjoyed yourselves. If you have any suggestions, comments, or subjects for future columns, please send an email to me at chuck@web-connection.org. Terry and I always love to get mail from our readers. Until next time we'll see you out there somewhere in cyberspace.

Cruisin' With StarText is updated each and every Friday.

created by Chuck and Terry Mencke

chuck@web-connection.org

last modified: October 13, 2000

Some of Terry's and my favorite columns that are online now are listed below. More will be added as they appear on Startext.Net.

Bev's Cooking Show
Doris
EJBest
Freeloader
Here's A Ritin Frum Old Bear
Poor Charlie's Almanac
PC Info
PC Talk
StarSIG
Wisecracks
WOW

© 1996 - 2000, Chuck and Terry Mencke