As we creep into the latter half of August and - unfortunately - the tail end of summer, Net Results thinks you deserve a break from thinking about tech issues and tech politics. Instead, here are some useful little sites that you might want to visit, some of which also offer some handy applications to try out.
First on the list if you are the kind of person who is squeezing in a late August holiday but likes to keep up with e-mail (come on, admit it - we know your type, and we know you're out there) is Net Cafe Guide, www.netcafeguide.com/mail/. Net Cafe Guide gives information on 1,300 cybercafes around the world and also fetches your e-mail from most email servers (but not from online e-mail accounts like Hotmail or Ireland.com).
All you have to do is go to the site, type in your email address and - if you aren't squeamish about such things - your password. There's no need to set up a special online e-mail account. Check out the site's privacy statement if you want more detail on how the site is run.
If, on the other hand, you want to keep from getting e-mail messages - spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail - check out the nifty free Bright Mail spam filtering program from Bright Light Technologies, www.brightmail.com. The company, which sells a product used by many of the biggest Internet service providers to filter spam, decided a few weeks ago to offer a free service to individuals. You download a small application that takes you through an easy installation process.
Your mail is then filtered through Bright Mail's servers, a process that takes a second or two, but does cause an almost imperceptible delay of that length in delivering your e-mail. Every Monday they e-mail you a list of the headings on all messages it has filtered. It claims it can filter 99.75 per cent of spam. Read its privacy statements if the process concerns you; however, the company is considered reputable by the main anti-spam organisations.
Another start-up, Onebox, www.onebox.com, is offering a single source for collecting all your voicemail, faxes and e-mail. Sign up and it will give you a free phone number where people can leave messages or to which they can send faxes, which you can then read on the Internet. The problem is that the number is a US one and thus, these services might not appeal to most people unless you would like a US contact number.
But another part of the Onebox offering probably will - you can send voice e-mail, or v-mail, over the Internet. Using the microphone on your computer, you record an e-mail rather than type one. Recipients can hear it without having to use headphones - the regular speakers on any computer or laptop will suffice. Of course, you might not exactly want to have certain sentiments read out across an office, either as sender or recipient, so use with discretion.
An unusual but useful site, especially if you're in the middle of a job search, is Company Sleuth, www.companysleuth.com. This site provides free (and it stresses, legal) information culled from all over the Net about a huge range of companies. For example, click on Dell and the site returns a graph of Dell's share price fluctuations for up to a year, recent articles about the company, even links to a chat room discussions about the firm.
If you're really feeling sneaky, try the CIS Investigative Resources page, www.hsv.tis.net/(tilde) pvteye/source.html, a massive compendium of links for online resources of in formation useful to private eyes (or the generally nosy).
Slightly less subversive but possibly equally productive on a rainy summer's afternoon is Winmag.com's list of what it considers to be the 101 best business sites on the Net, www.winmag.com/101/standard/cov0048a.htm. Everything from e-mail tools to small business reference sites to online calendars make the list so there's bound to be something for everyone.
Finally, if you're stuck writing a speech and need a good opening quote or just like quotations, try the huge list of quotation sites at www.startingpage.com/html/quotations.html. For example, there's the Leadership Quote of the Week site, and sites for animal quotes, Mae West quotations, mathematical quotes, science quotes, Frank Lloyd Wright quotes, sex quotations (if you're really worried that your speech is boring), and the tried and true Bartlett's Quotations.
And if you're looking for some demotivational quotations, visit www.despair.com - there's a desk calendar, t-shirt or poster for every hopeless failure. As the self-proclaimed "worst Internet company in the world" says, its products are "formulated to dramatically reduce, and in many cases completely eliminate, mindless optimism".
Ah, yes, the silly season.
Karlin Lillington is at klillington@irish-times.ie.
