Shroud of Turin

Site:
http://www.cais.com/npacheco/shroud/turin.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

Whether you believe it’s the actual burial cloth of Jesus, or just another chic headstone rubbing, there’s no denying the world’s fascination with the Shroud of Turin.  The Shroud’s true origins are a mystery, and have been the subject of speculation for some time.  At this unusual site, good photo reproductionslet you get about as close to the Shroud as you ever will, while the excellent question-and-answer file reveals the cloth to be made of linen and just over 14 feet long.

A discussion of the 1988 Carbon 14 dating test (which asserted that the Shroud’s origin is medieval, not biblical) directly contradicts some researchers’ findings that the cloth is a Mandylion relic.  The final decision, as always, must be the viewer’s.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Sovereign’s WWW Content Page

Site:
http://www.primenet.com/~lion/

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

This really ought to be called the “Malcontent Page”.  Bring your axe and grind it here, or just watch others rant on about the ATF, AIDS, gun control, and all the other bad dogs that are threatening to wee on the carpet we call the Constitution.  (That metaphor comes from the page’s section “Conspiracy, Control and ?????.)

This is for those who think the U.S. government is “out of control” – or rather, frighteningly in control.  Their motto, “If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything” is fittingly murky in its meaning, but it sounds terrific. Unsurprisingly, “Sovereign” believes in honoring capitalism – check out the “Freedom Shop”, where a measly ten bucks buys you proof that the limo driver shot JFK.  This is a marvelously packaged bunch of pixilated notions.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Stupid Homepage

Site:
http://metro.turnpike.net/S/spatula/

Category:
Personal Home Pages

Review (in 1996):

Also known as Spatch’s Homepage (“Spatch” is short for spatula), this is a collection of amusing oddments, including some spoofs on the “things that do useless stuff” craze so prevalent on the Web these days: the Page That Tells You Where It Is tells you the site is still at metro.turnpike.net (“Reload this page after a few moments and find out where it is then!”) and the VCR Clock page, which Spatch has painstakingly programmed so you can see exactly what time his VCR clock says it is (which reveals a blinding “12:00” – groan)

There’s also a collection of text files (mostly culled from alt.stupidity, appropriately enough).  The content may be stupid, but it’s a smart site, if you know what we mean.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Great Web Candianizer

Site:
http://www.io.org/~themaxx/canada/can.html

Category:
Web Gadgets

Review (in 1996):

Many Canadians are concerned about American cultural dominance.  This silly site takes direct action against the “hosers” (that’s Canadian parlance for “Americans”, it seems) by taking the average “hosehead” page and “Canadianizing” it.  Beauty, eh?  You just enter the URL of your favorite site, and this gadget “translates” the page by adding well-placed burps and back bacon references.  For example, a visit to the White House now begins with “G’day, eh, and welcome to the House of Commons”.  Then you can link to “The Hosehead’s Cabinet”.  Beauty, eh?

Some of the funniest results can be obtained by aiming the translator at serious Canadian sites, like the Molson brewery (carin’ for your brewski BURRRP!  Scuse me eh?).

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Spot

Site:
http://www.thespot.com/

Category: 
Weird and Wonderful 

Review (in 1996):

The Spot is a fun sort of online soap about twentysomethings, supposedly emanating from a seven-bedroom beach house with infamous history of wild partying and debauchery.  Typical resident: Tara, a 23-year-old film student trying to make it as a director.  Zany pet: Spotnik, a “Cyberian Husky”.  It’s a “microcosm of a generation”, so naturally there’s always a party cooking!  Visitor’s can read regular postings from the residents, see the snapshots (“Love on the Beach”), and read the diary entries (“Did Jeff realize I had missed my plane… the morning I found him in bed with Tomeiko?”).

It’s pretty much like your own life, probably, but you may enjoy visiting anyway.  This exremely glossy site is the brainchild of Fattal & Collins, a California advertising agency that is perhaps now deciding what to do with all the fans it has attracted.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Spirit-WWW

Site:
http://spirit.satelnet.org/Spirit.html

Category: 
Weird and Wonderful 

Review (in 1996):

Spiritual seekers may well find they’ve hit the motherlode at this site, which is a virtual encylopedia of strange phenomena and alternative realities.  Selections available on this “personal, not-for-profit” home page include channeling, astrology, faith healing, meditation, and UFOs.  The site points out that “the term alien or extraterrestrial shows our ignorance of the interconnectedness we live in”.  (At last, political correctness comes to the galaxy.)

Thoughts on reincarnation ponder the meaning of karma and “How Past and Future are perceived and realized finally by the Soul”.  Contortionists will enjoy the Yoga page, which provides an overview of the different practices, including Karma, Bhakti, and Vedic movements.  Plus New Age art, movies, audio clips, and more.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Tarot Resources

Site:
http://www.iii.net/users/dtking/tarot.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

This extensive list of tarot resources will please expert readers and curious amateurs alike.  Besides laying out the basics, the page offers a few tips on finding a professional reader: questions like “What deck do you use?” and “What is your basic approach?” may help you weed out those with which you won’t be comfortable (assuming the answers will make sense to you in the first place).  There are other, more obvious tips, like “don’t bring your life savings with you”.  Seasoned pros may want to browse “Tapestry”, an e-zine for forecasters.  Among the more colorful links, are the pictures of the Rider-Waite deck (a popular tarot deck style), and instructions for waxing your tarot cards when their coating gets worn down.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Taos Hum Homepage

Site:
http://www.eskimo.com:80/~billb/hum/hum.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

“The ‘Taos Hum’ is a low-pitched sound heard in several places across the U.S. and U.K.”, earning its name from the many reports received in New Mexico beginning 1991.  It is usually heard only in quiet environments, and is described as sounding like a distant diesel engine (its common “signature”).  “Since it has proven undetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery”.

Wait, don’t laugh!  This quirky Web site isn’t much to look at, but the blend of solid scientific inquiry and off-the-edge speculation is fascinating.  Reports from “hummers” reveal as much of the mystery as they can (bio-iron in the brain tissue?), but it remains a big question mark.  There are clippings from both the straight and the “unconventional” press, revealing a sincere effort to help those unfortunate few who “sense” the hum.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Web-o-rhythm

Site: 
http://www.qns.com/html/weborhythm

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

Web-o-rhythm creates a swell color GIF of your personal bio-rhythm chart.  You might remember biorhythm machines from amusement parks in the ‘70's: you put in a quarter, enter your birth date, enter the month for which you want your biorhythm, and it prints it out for you.  Web-o-rhythm is essentially the same, but you save the quarter.  The computed chart shows you when you’re supposed to be up and when you’ll be done in the month to come.

Biorhythm fans will notice the addition of a new cycle – intuitive – to the traditional three of mental, physical, and emotional.  (Does Biorhythm Local 329 know about this?)  As an added bonus, after your chart is computed, you’re provided with a direct link to your horoscope at another site.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Vampyres Only

Site:
http://www.vampyre.wis.net/vampyre/index.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

Coming to you direct and undead from the Vorld Vide Veb… it’s Vampyres Only.  The entries here are alternately spooky and funny, and host Vlad III is given to puns likely to stick in your craw, such as “Thirsty for more? Here are links to similar veins of interest…”.  The hefty catalog of vampirobilia includes a collection of movie and sound files, from Orlok and Dracula to Barnabus Collins (from TV’s “Dark Shadows”) and, of course, Lestat.

A list of shops from around the world is helpful to those creatures of the night who feel the burning desire to … accessorize.  The Vampire Vulnerability Test is a fang-in-cheek check of your Draculattractiveness.  As they say back on the farm, this page puts the “ick” in slick".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Employment Opportunities and Job Resources

Site:
http://www.wpi.edu/~mfriley/jobguide.html

Category:
Business and Investing

Review (in 1996):

Whew!  If you STILL can’t find a job after using this home page, something may be wrong.  (Have you checked your breath?)  Help-wanted servers, recruiter links, professional societies, government job listings… they’re all here.  Margaret Riley (this is also called “The Riley Guide”) maintains this employment resource out of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

A fine introduction explains how to use the Net to find an employee or a job; this is also a mini-course on Internet usage in general.  From government and business through arts and humanities, this guide tries to cover all the bases, with special emphasis on high-tech and computer employment.  It used to take days in the library to dig this kind of stuff up.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Solid Space

Site:
http://www.teleport.com/~shojo/Solid.html

Category:
Personal Home Pages

Review (in 1996):

A campy collection of oddments, this site offers diversions about music and pop culture artifacts.  The Fabio Page serves up typical pictures of the male model, replete with hokey romance-novel-inspired audio clips spoken by Fabio himself: “Your caress is my command”, “I listen to a solo, and I think of a duet”.  Learn of the sinister trimmings surrounding PEZ candy dispensers, or visit a mini-museum on ViewMaster slide viewers.

There’s also a monthly offering called “Awful Music”; on our last visit it lambasted an album called album called “Switched-On Bacharach”.  (“Every song on this alum should have “in outer space” added to the end of the title”, says the Webmaster.)

Even with the insults, this is much more amusing than offensive.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Unofficial Haitian Home Page

Site:
http://www.primenet.com/~rafreid/

Category:
Global Village

Review (in 1996):

Ralph Reid, a film student from Northridge, California, does an excellent job of conveying the essence of his native country with this site.  His “virtual tour” of Haiti takes you to the crowded Iron Market, to a Port-au-Prince boulevard during rush hour, and on a beautiful beach stroll, where you can practically smell the millions of discarded conch shells.

You can also check out Carol Guzy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs of Haiti, and groove to musical selections like Reginald Decastro’s “Pou ou Ayiti”.  History buffs will want to take this site up on its Haitian history course, while others may be more inclined to gravitate to the Voodoo section.  (Discover special days on the Voodoo calendar, like Legba Zaou, when “eating consists mainly of a black goat”.)

A fascinating page with a very strong flavor.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

WEB Personals

Site:
http://www.webpersonals.com/

Category:
Romance

Review (in 1996):

WEB Personals is a user-friendly site for anyone seeking love or just heavy friendship.  Date seekers and seekees are categorized in the appropriate straight or gay directory – you’ll even find a guide to what the initials mean when DWM seeks DDFW (there’s an abbreviation for cross-dressers, too).  The site enables you to browse or submit your ad, and the Love Hound will notify you of any suitable matches in case you don’t have time to check for yourself.

(Anyone who’s worried about good, clean dating fun on the Internet will be interested to learn that this site’s Open Forum was taken offline because “it had evolved to a point where the discussions offended too many people who prefer a more professional experience.”)

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Web Journal of Current Legal Issues

Site:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~nlawwww/

Category:
Law

Review (in 1996):

Here’s an example of the legal profession using the Web to its full potential.  This journal from Britain’s University of Newcastle has everything one would expect from a respectable paper journal, from articles to case notes to book reviews with hypertext footnotes.

Typical topic for study: the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and its attempt to establish rules for corporate electronic data interchange.  Most articles are similarly on the cutting edge of information law, though not all fit that mold:  The Marginalisation of Gypsies was a lengthy dissertation on the prejudice against gypsies in the United Kingdom.  This is filled with interesting essays that will easily consume more time than you have.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Embassy of Iceland

Site:
http://www.globescope.com/web/iceland/index.html

Category:
International Government

Review (in 1996):

After a little digging, you will find that this page is full of useful, interesting, and sometimes strange stuff.  For instance: are questions about the proper disinfectant techniques for fishing equipment really that frequently asked?  Political junkies can read up on the “Althingi”, Iceland’s parliament.  Surfers will appreciate the map of Icelandic WWW servers and get a kick out of the links to almost 30 personal home pages of Icelanders worldwide.

You can pick up a recipe for fried crullers, or hear the Icelandic national anthem on audio, with accompanying trivia about the author, Matthias Jochumsson.  (But how did he manage to get the anthem to rhyme in both Islandic and English?)

A wonderful experience.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Scott's Page of Evil

Site:
http://rampages.onramp.net/~scottgl/index.htm

Category:
Personal Home Pages

Review (in 1996):

Scott's Page of Evil welcomes "all seekers of refuge from the banal recesses of home pages promoting goodness and light". Scott Glazer has pulled a switch on the usual cool bands/cool people/cool links idea and filled his personal page with things he hates - like Andie MacDowell ("Lucifer's actress"), Piers Anthony ("foul scribe of Hades"), and the French ("a whole nation of distilled evil"). He has a bit to say about organized religion, too (what page about evil would be complete without it?), and even he suggests that anyone easily offended should avoid it at all costs.

Visitors can leave their own evil ideas in a suggestion box, though Glazer admits that suggestion boxes may be evil in themselves. Funny and delightfully twisted.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

A Breed Apart

Site:
http://www.pcix.com/abap/index.html

Category:
Pets and Animals

Review (in 1996):

This top-notch greyhound page is what an online magazine ought to be. Fans and owners of the speedy pups should race here to see pinups of handsome dogs, learn about breed history, or submit their own stories. Retired greyhounds are available nationwide for adoption, and the terrific resources provided here can help you find your next pet (perhaps an old racer who didn't quite make the Hall of Fame in Abilene, Kansas).

Articles generally focus on greyhounds as pets rather than as athletes, though on our last visit we read about some hounds who were working on second careers as "therapy dogs". Lovers of other breeds can still find useful information here (like an elaborate recipe for "liver cake"), but they may wish to producers of "A Breed Apart" had a magazine for every breed.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Cyberspace World Railroad Home Page

Site:
http://www.mcs.com/~dsdawdy/cyberoad.html

Category:
Hobbies

Review (in 1996):

Whew! (Or, woo-woooooo!) This roundhouse is stuffed with steel wheels, club cars, and timetables. Don't expect toy choo-choos: it's a serious train site for serious train buffs. (And don't call it the home page - it's the "main manifest".)

Handsome photos (including "Things I Photograph Along the Rails That Most People Don't!) and graphics accompany a wide range of articles and newsletters; on our last visit, we found a huge article on the opening of the Steamtown National Historic Site in Pennsylvania, a copy of the Conrail Transportation newsletter, and an essay on traveling by steam train in China.

Site creator Daniel Dawdy includes online schedules for Amtrak, Via, and Chicago's Metra lines. Looks like a lot of old brakemen hang out here.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

CyberCafe

Site:
http://www.bid.com/bid/cybercafe

Category:
Food and Cooking

Review (in 1996):

At the CyberCafe, you can "get wired" amid all the features one expects from a real coffeehouse - except real coffee, of course. This informative site is loaded with enough facts and tips ohn beans and brewing to make even the most hopeless java junkie jitter.

Links are offered to an amazing number of coffee (and tea) retailers and wholesalers, enabling visitors to shop online for vanilla nut, Ethiopian Moka Harrar, or a Grindmaster espresso-cappuccino machine. And you can spread out the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle, or check out Seattle coffeehouses in MotherCity Espresso.

Don't miss the site's mythical account of the discovery of coffee, which involves a goatherd named Kaldi, an imam from the local monastery, and a chorus of dancing goats.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

SurfWatch

Site:
http://www.surfwatch.com

Category:
Parenting

Review (in 1996):

This seems like a great idea at the right time. SurfWatch software lets parents and schools (and employers!) prevent access to sexually explicit Internet sites. You buy the initial software, then pay a small monthly fee for updated lists of naughty places. The idea is that rather than censor information all across the Internet (and what a ruckus that idea has caused lately), users can simply filter it out as it comes into the house. (The authors say it causes no problems with your browser, either.)

No demos here, but you can order the software online. To look at it another way, you'll have no more late nights trying to find all the sites the kids shouldn't be seeing.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Visible Human Project

Site:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/extramural_research.dir/visible_human.html

Category:
Health and Medicine

Review (in 1996):

The National Library of Medicine has set out to map the human body in three dimensions in excruciatingly fine detail. Using the body of a 39-year-old convicted murderer who donated his body to science, researchers are collecting transverse images of the body at one-millimeter intervals. There are computer-generated "fresh-cadaver" images made by CAT and MRI scanning machines, plus the ever popular "frozen-cadaver" (cryosection) images, in revolting, fascinating color. (Cryosection means they deep-freeze the body and then, in essence, run it through a an extremely expensive deli-slicer.)

You can only view samples of the resulting images here; the complete set is so voluminous that you have to register and pay a pile of money to get it. But it's worth the visit just to contemplate the whole idea.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Site:
http://acnsun10.rhic.bnl.gov/RHIC

Category:
Physical Sciences

Review (in 1996):

This is Big Science, baby. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC to friends) is a 3.8 kilometer tunnel o' gadgetry that will collide subatomic particles called heavy ions at high energies to recreate the hot, dense plasma of quarks and gluons believed to have existed in the early universe. (Set it for defrost and it also works wonders with meatloaf.)

You'll find tons of tech talk here, but head right for the brief photo tour of the RHIC site (it won't be ready until 1999), which looks pretty much like a billion-dollar irrigation pipe full of space-age cartoony gadgets like the Grumman dipole magnet.

If you dig the RHIC, you'll probably also enjoy a visit to its parent page, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, for a look at similar Department of Energy brainstorms.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Fuji Publishing Group Cigar Page

Site:
http://www.netins.net/showcase/fujicig/

Category:
Shopping

Review (in 1996):

With the next annual StogieFest right around the corner, you might want to puff up on your cigar knowledge. (Brush those ashes off your vest while you're at it.) This jam-packed humidor of information from Fuji Publishing - gunning to be "the place for cigars on the Internet and outside of cyberspace" - is just the ticket.

Here, puffing surfers can download the Windows Online Cigar Guide (all 4MB of it), flip through pages of the Web magazine The Double Corona, browse smoking-related newsgroups, and - take a breath here - jump to a host of other smoky pages. (You'll be surprised at how many are out there.)

A "Cigar Brand Information" section will keep you abreast of notable cigar-makers and hook you up iwht a box of 25 Churchills (or whatever your pleasure).

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Flower Stop

Site:
http://www.rmii.com:80/fstop/fstopmain.html

Category:
Shopping

Review (in 1996):

This online fresh-flower market offers next-day delivery (in the U.S.) of bouquets, vases, and that grand standby, the single long-stemmed rose. (The blooms come from Pikes Peak Greenhouses in Colorado Springs, in case you were wondering.

Shoppers can frolic among an "Enchanting Alstomeria Bouquet" or "Exotic Orchids"; if necessary, they can select a "nice" clear plastic vase or a nicer etched crystal one for delivery. The "Romance and Roses CD Set" features two centuries of the world's greatest love themes ("for lovers only!") to accompany your flower purchase.

The prices are probably higher than your local florist, but this is still a nice example of online shopping. It's colorful, quick, and lets you see the product without provoking your allergies.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Propaganda Analysis Home Page

Site:
http://carmen.artsci.washington.edu/propaganda/home.htm

Category:
Politics

Review (in 1996):

Does "propaganda" sound like an out-dated, Cold War concept? Not so, according to Aaron Delwiche, who offers his own analysis on this page, based on the Institute for Propaganda Analysis created in 1937. Delwiche starts by identifying some familiar "propaganda devices" like Glittering Generalities (charged concepts like "love" and "freedom" used in a vaguely positive way) and the Testimonial (unqualified persons giving judgments, like "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV").

Delwiche goes on to illustrate by citing such noteworthy offenders as Newt Gingrich and the John Birch Society, although an annotated list of propagandisms would make these more enjoyable.

This site is as much a rhetorical as a political site, but it's great cerebral reading either way.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Military Secrecy

Site:
http://www.portal.com/~trader/secrecy.html

Category:
Military

Review (in 1996):

"Despite the end of the Cold War, billions of dollars are spent in secret each year, without any accountability to the taxpayers". So says site author Paul McGinnis, who offers amazing links like "How Code Names Are Assigned". (A name "must be chosen with sufficient care to ensure that it does not express a degree of bellicosity inconsistent with traditional American ideals ...")

Visitors can download a virtual model of the Voyager (the so-called "mystery supersonic aircraft"), and amateur spies will appreciate the listing of radio frequencies for various military contractors. There's a few guides on how to assert your rights under the Freedom of Information Act to get documents from the U.S. government (and tips on traversing that incredibly twisty maze).

This page is fun, fascinating, and a testament to free speech in America.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

E-HAWK

Site:
http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/history/ehawk

Category:
Military

Review (in 1996):

Okay, so the name "Electronic Headquarters for the Acquisition of War Knowledge" is a long way to stretch for a snappy acronym (E-HAWK). But the page, compiled by two grad students at the University of Kansas, is a military bugg's delight. E-HAWK catalogs U.S. and NATO home pages, along with hard-to-find military science files (like the "CIA Guide to Guerrilla Warfare" in Nicaragua).

Meanwhile, the "Officer's Club" has a great listing of veterans associations and reunion registries. If you're looking for a historical perspective, check out E-HAWK's sister site, Mil-Hist, for a wealth of battles, blitzes, and bombardments. The site uses more than its share of odd color schmes, but it's an impressive independent effort.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Free Burma

Site:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/freeburma.html

Category:
International Government

Review (in 1996):

"The country of Burma has been under martial law since 1962", announces this site, and since the late 1980s, the country has been known as Myanmar. This politically-charged page has a wealth of information on the country (whatever you want to call it): news stories, general national info, and a wonderful photo album of popular hero Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who was under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 for resisting the military junta.

An absolutely charming "Sights & Sounds" folder captures fleeting Burmese scenes, like the eggplant salesman who's seen it all, but escaped to the border. "He doesn't talk anymore. He just sells eggplants."

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Virtual Jerusalem Tour

Site:
http://www1.cc.huji.ac.il/md/vjt

Category:
Global Village

Review (in 1996):

The Hebrew University hosts this tour through one of the world's oldest and most culturally rich cities. Step into "The Jerusalem Mosaic" for a concise record of the City of David, home to some of the greatest archaeological finds of this century, and the locus of Jesus' final ministry.

Enter the Haddassah Hospital Synagogue for a bird's eye view of 12 stained-glass windows designed by painter Marc Chagall, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Remarkable photographs of the "new" and the "old" cities' landscapes show just how much of the original architecture still remains, while the city itself forges into the 21st century, its residents now facing some of the hardest political and social realities of its long and colorful life.

A find for archaeologists, theologians, historians, and travelers.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Human-Languages Page

Site:
http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.html

Category:
Global Village

Review (in 1996):

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? No? How about Gaelic? Tagalog? Urdu? Yo, didn't they teach you anything in school? Make up for it at the Human-Languages page, a colossal archive of Web sites about (and in) foreign languages. Depending on dialect, you may find Arabic learning tutorials, a Latin dictionary, or Bulgarian poetry.

The Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive holds dozens of dictionaries and word lists, and even provides pointers to Aboriginal software applications. Students of Cantonese will find instructions and software for displaying Chinese characters on Unix, Mac, or Windows platforms. An astonishing number of languages represented, right down to Rastafarian patois and Klingon. (Yes, Klingon.)

C'est le grand home-page!

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Completely Unauthorized Hugh Grant Page

Site:
http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~kritzber/new/hugh/hugh.html

Category:
People

Review (in 1996):

This page satirically "devoted" to the suave-yet-stumbling actor is thin on material, but a real kick in the pants (something Mr. Grant once could have used on Sunset Boulevard). Site creator Blake Kritzberg really doesn't worry too much about the facts; Grant's eye color is listed as "blue, green, or brown. Most likely blue or green", and his nationality is "evidently British". But then, the facts just wouldn't be as fun as a filmography that includes titles like The Unbearably Sexy Babe Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

Kritzberg also replaces Grant photos with her own crude sketches, and insists that no pictures of Grant's Four Weddings and a Funeral co-star Andie MacDowell will be accepted, "unless she's being squashed under Gerard Depardieu or something similarly unpleasant".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

PC Travel - Airline Ticketing

Site:
http://www.pctravel.com

Category:
Travel

Review (in 1996):

PC Travel turns out to be a "Pretty Convenient" way to book an airline reservation. No matter where you are, no matter where you want to go, this online travel agency (a service of American Travel Corporation) is just the ticket.

After creating your user profile (which must include a Netscape browser and a major credit card), you can choose your favorite airline and your favorite bulkhead seat, put in your request for a vegetarian lunch - even reserve a rental car. Tickets are then shipped via overnight mail.

A nice tutorial for new users is included here, too. This isn't the only spot on the Web offering airline tickets - and surely dozens more are coming - but it's one of the smoothest.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Interactive Age

Site:
http://techweb.cmp.com/techweb/ia/current/

Category:
Magazines

Review (in 1996):

Interactive Age makes online business its business. Once published in paper form it's now a digital magazine, featuring daily trade stories like "Bug Hits AOL Chat Room" and "Tying Networks to Cable Modems". Its strength is coverage of trends in the hot new Web business, making it a good read for gold-rush types. There's no sports section, but we found golf, tennis, and commercial links, plus a column titled, "Tabloid Webism: A Penny a Peek".

Includes a terrific library of Web sites of the top 1000 North American companies, as well as the magazine's choices for the top 25 commercial sites on the Net.

On the horizon, look for more opportunities to hobnob with industry leaders like Bill Gates in discussion groups and chat sessions here. An authoritative source, and useful every day.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

World of Otis

Site:
http://www.otis.utc.com:80/Index.html

Category:
Companies on the Web

Review (in 1996):

This earnest, often unintentionally funny site includes an escalator-safety page, which recommends extra caution for bifocal wearers (huh?). But the History of the Elevator is kind of fun, reminding us that without elevators there'd be no such thing as skyscrapers (or, for that matter, the opportunity to stand around and make new friends waiting for the elevator).

The information here about the Otis company reveals that it manufactures not just elevators and escalators themselves, but something it calls Modernization Products, like a system of infrared beams to detect passengers entering and exiting the elevator (so that the doors won't close on latecomers). We also found out that its elevators service 60 of the world's 100 tallest buildings, and read an intriguing discussion about how the elevoids use the elevator to install the elevator.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Year 2000 Information Center

Site:
http://arganet.tenagra.com/cgi-bin/clock.cgi

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):

The arrival of the millennium is expected to give fits to many computers and software programs, as the "chickens come home to roost" for short-sighted programmers who calculated years based on two digits instead of four.

Many people expect problems with the obvious software, like spreadsheet applications or payroll databases, but the Information Center wants everyone to know the trouble will be deeper than that. Using software that simulates the turn of the year 1999, they've found that few system-level programs "know" that the year 2000 is a leap year (and hey, probably 85 percent of data processing officials don't know this, either). And consider financial projection software that gives estimates for sales five years in the future: it's already in trouble!

This is good reading for gurus, futurists, and accountants.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

More Aquatic Ape Theory

Site:
http://huizen.dds.nl/~seismo/aat.html

Category:
Earth Sciences

Review (in 1996):

Was there a time when our evolutionary ancestors lived in marshes as sea-apes? (Or sea monkeys?) The question is explored at length on this page hosted by Hollander Maarten Fornerod. The idea - called AAT, or "Aquatic Ape Theory" - is still considered laughable by some, but has a surprising cast of supporters like Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape) and Daniel C. Dennett (Darwin's Dangerous Idea).

Maarten smartly keeps a running score of anthropologists both for and against AAT. A generous helping of comments and citations help shed light on the theory, even if it's all a bit on the academic side: "Perhaps the best suggestion is that the exertions involved, in a hot climate, required the maximum development of the cooling system by evaporation of sweat." We know the feeling.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Pizza Hut

Site:
http://www.pizzahut.com/

Category:
Companies on the Web

Review (in 1996):

Pizza online! That's right, the Pizza Hut Server in Wichita, Kansas, actually serves up piping hot pies to Internet customers at selected cities around the U.S.

The "electronic storefront", as they have dubbed it, lets diners choose toppings, size, etc, and leave an address for home delivery. (Type in your phone number to find out if the service is available in your area.)

Check out the Sample Menu to see what's available - not only can diners select from an array of sizes, toppings, and kinds of crust, they can issue such directions as "no cheese" or "extra sauce".

Not sure what you're in the mood for? A few pictures of their specialty pizzas are included at this site, although it isn't as glossy as the menus you get when you actually go to Pizza Hut.

We recommend pepperoni with mushrooms - but make sure they hold the gopher.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.


Image from Wayback Machine

The 19th Hole

Site:
http://www.sport.net/golf

Category:
Sports and Fitness

Review (in 1996):

Here's some consolation if you're stuck at a computer terminal, but long to be teeing it up. With pin placement by Texas golf enthusiast "Jimbo" Odom IV, the site offers complete tournament updates, player profiles, "Sandy Bunker's Golf Tips", and so on.

We like "The Golfers Wake Up Call", a comic strip created by late-night person "inspired by my ability to get up at any hour to play golf and my inability to get up early to go to work". Sound familiar?

Get golf updates during the big events and check out some of the golf jokes (gee, only a million or so) in the lounge. Southpaws may link to the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers, too. Unusual scorecard collection; good links to other "cool golf sites".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Burlingame Online's PEZ Exhibit

Site:
http://www.spectrumnet.com/pez/

Category:
Hobbies

Review (in 1996):

With its cult following, PEZ candy has invaded the Web here with an exhibit of roughly 175 dispensers. Before entering the exhibit, we learned that PEZ is an abbreviation of the German word for peppermint, and that the seemingly addictive little bricks were created by Austrian Eduard Haas in 1927 as a cure for smoking, no less. At that time, they were marketed for adults in plain, characterless dispensers known to collectors as "regulars".

The page includes a diagram showing how to properly insert the pellets into the dispensers, and ads for PEZ collectibles like the out-of-production Smurf dispenser.

The collection includes the usual suspects - Miss Piggy, Foghorn Leghorn, and Daffy Duck - along with stranger entries like Mr. Ugly, Wounded Soldier, and Diabolic. Sorry, no Marie Antoinette.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Adobe Systems

Site:
http://www.adobe.com

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

Graphics designers and desktop publishers may want to jump through their computer screens and live here (although we hear the food is bland). Now that Adobe has swallowed competitors like Aldus and CoSa, this site offers just about every software tool a designer could imagine.

Where do you start? We suggest downloading the free Acrobat Reader software; it's becoming useful all over the Web as more sites provide Acrobat documents, which are print-quality files that can be viewed on many platforms. (For example, we happen to know that the IRS site has many downloadable tax forms in Acrobat format, which are just as official as the ones you pick up at the post office.)

With that in hand, you can download product brochures and support documents until the digitized cows come home.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Site:
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~werdna/sttng/

Category:
TV and Radio

Review (in 1996):

As with most Star Trek fan pages, this one works much better as a hot spot for insiders than as an intro for beginners. As such, though, the detail is magnificent.

Review every Emmy award! Check the precise episodes in which Captain Picard quotes Shakespeare! The trivia notes are great fun, with directions on how to create the "transporter effect" on video, a discussion of money in the future (what are the officers betting for in those poker games?), and the information that everyone's least favorite TNG character shares a name with the show's creator (whose full name is Eugene Wesley Roddenberry).

A catalog of in-jokes records various cute stunts the art department pulled over the years, like recreating Oliver North's uniform on an evil-nemesis type character in the show's first episode (filmed just after the Iran-Contra hearings).

A very entertaining site.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Jihad to Destroy Barney on the Worldwide Web

Site:
http://www.armory.com/~deadslug/Jihad/index.html

Category:
TV and Radio

Review (in 1996):

Billed as "The Internet's Leading Anti-Barney the Dinosaur Web Page", this large and mostly hilarious site leads the mentally unbalanced in their holy war against the excessively cute public-TV dinosaur.

There's a load of single-minded rant from "The Jihaddi, Who Have Functioning Cerebrums (tm)" - based on the premise that Barney "isn't just bad, or even merely evil, but is downright UNHOLY", and that he and his "sponge-minions" can be warded off with such talismans as McDonald's shakes and Pez Candy. There are lame but fun interactive Barney-destroying games, drawings of the "purple felt demon" in world-destruction mode, and links to the alt.barney, dinosaur.die.die.die newsgroup.

Don't miss the lengthy FAQ, with questions like "Are Rush Limbaugh and Barney the same persona?"

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Unofficial Brady Bunch Home Page

Site:
http://www.teleport.com/~btucker/bradys.htm

Category:
TV and Radio

Review (in 1996):
As if the stage play and movie weren't enough, you can now revisit the sunshine days of The Brady Bunch on the Web. The site features pictures (including, of course, the famous 9-cell Brady grid), song clips, and semi-cynical episode guides. (Episode 56: "Marcia lands the part of Juliet in a school play and becomes possessed by Shannen Doherty.")

The list of Brady Bunch articles and interview doesn't always differentiate clearly between the '70s sitcom and the 1995 movie, but includes some fun stuff: a quick psycho-analysis of the show's characters portrays Alice, the housekeeper, as "trapped within the expressionless blue uniform she was always forced to wear." (At last, a dark side to Brady life!)

The Brady's staying power in the public consciousness is amazing - and a little frightening.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Site:
http://www.cs.wvu.edu/~paulr/rhps/rhps.html

Category:
Movies

Review (in 1996):

Thanks to this site, you won't make the faux pas of arriving for the midnight showing of that granddaddy of cult movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, without rice, toilet paper, or toast.

Most people know that the Rocky Horror experience involves more audience participation than viewing; in fact, if you've ever seen the spectacle, you know better than to try to understand the movie or listen to the soundtrack. Here novices (are there any left?) are guided through the dialogue and songs like "The Time Warp", and offered parenthetical audience cues (most use adult language) along with "traditional" responses.

It's no substitute for the real thing, but conscientious students who carefully study the script won't be embarassed by tossing their cold weiners prematurely screenward.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Internet Movie Database

Site:
http://www.msstate.edu/Movies/welcome.html

Category:
Movies

Review (in 1996):

This tremendous movie guide is compiled by Internet users for Internet users. Visitors will find crew lists, running times, actor bios, gaffes and goofs, and much more, all shot through with hyperlinks for easy reference. The site claims to cover more than 50,000 films, plus thousands of TV series. Since the information comes from Web users, the quality is sometimes fabulous and occasionally lame. Still, what do you want for free: Shakespeare?

Look up a great thespian like Martin Balsam, for instance, and you'll learn that he recently starred in an Italian parody called Silence of the Hams along with Mel Brooks, Phyllis Diller, Rip Taylor, and Larry Storch. (No kidding!)

Then you can learn that Rip Taylor has since appeared in Private Obsession with Peetie the Dog. Then you can see Peetie's filmography. (Just the one film, sadly.) Then you can ...

Well, this is just scratching the surface. A delightful, unique-to-the-Web resource.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

MTV

Site:
http://mtvoddities.viacom.com

Category:
Music

Review (in 1996):

The majestic purveyor of Beavis & Butt-Head and The Real World (and sometimes even music videos) now has a place on the Net. Not surprisingly, the MTV site is graphics-heavy (though super-slow), more promotional than substantial (a virtual plug-fest for shows like Most Wanted Jams), and often disappointing. Just like MTV itself!

Still, also like the channel, there's somehow enough eye candy here to keep you dropping by. Cool animated QuickTime movies are provided - strange and colorful all, though up to 10 megabytes in size. (You can always turn on the TV while you wait for the download.)

On our last visit, a "Beach Cam" projected images every few minutes from Malibu. Big bonus: full transcriptions of The Week in Rock make viewing MTV News anchors Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren unnecessary.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Palindrome Page

Site:
http://www2.ecst.csuchico.edu/~beej/palindromes.html

Category:
Humor

Review (in 1996):

Aha! Oho! (Well, they're a start.) This is, quite simply, a gigantic list of phrases that read the same forward as backwards, listed in length order from "Kayak" to a 543-word variation on the well-known "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama" palindrome.

Author Brian Hall has added some contemporary examples - like "Age, irony, Noriega" and "Lisa Bonet ate no basil" - to punch up the well-worn classics like "Madam in Eden, I'm Adam".

There's also a few bonuses, like palindromes in languages other than English, and "acoustic palindromes" (phrases that sound like themselves, if you were to record them and play them backgrounds). This is a treat for fanatics, an amusing diversion for the rest of us.

But then again, "We panic in a pew".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Guess the Evil Dictator and/or Television Sitcom Character

Site:
http://sp1.berkeley.edu/dict.html

Category:
Humor

Review (in 1996):

"Pretend to be your favorite evil dictator or television sitcom character and I'll try to guess who you're supposed to be", invites this page (the creation of a cleverly twisted Berkeley student).

It's like Twenty Questions: you just answer yes or no to queries like "Do you work in a news room?" and "Are you a landlord who favors leisure suits?" Believe it or not, the server swiftly and correctly identified our chosen characters, first Jack Tripper from Three's Company, and then Benito Mussolini. (And aren't they related?)

Conclude what you like about the predictability of dictatorship or TV stardom, but there's no arguing this is just the kind of delightful waste of time the Web accomplishes best.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Annals of Improbable Research

Site:
http://improb.com/

Category:
Humor

Review (in 1996):

This may be science at its funniest, as students at MIT collect and distribute some of the best science stories ever.

AIR hands out the IgNoble awards (which "should not be confused with those other prizes") to such dignitaries as the co-authors of "The Constipated Serviceman; Prevalence Among Deployed U.S. Troops", which kept numerical statistics of bowel movement frequency. They even have some fun of their own; burying a "time caplet" containing, among other things, McDonalds fries, Internet Barbie (a half-naked doll with fiber-optic cables for hair), and a running shoe. Of course, they placed all these items in a trash compactor before putting them into the caplet.

AIR is a great reason to go into science (or perhaps to avoid it at all costs).

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The FBI's Current "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives"

Site:
http://www.fbi.gov/toplist.htm

Category:
American Government

Review (in 1996):

Eat your heart out, David Letterman - the FBI's been doing the Top Ten gig for years. And now you don't have to go to the post office to see photos and bios of these dangerous crooks.

When we visited, Arthur Lee Washington topped the list (though the FBI insists that members of the list "are not ranked"), with scars on his neck, arms, wrists, and left thigh, and the classic label of "armed and dangerous".

These creepy bios are backed by an excellent FAQ about the list, which was launched in 1950 and has had more than 400 members.

"DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND THESE FUGITIVES YOURSELF" says the page, advice that probably doesn't need to be repeated.

On our last visit, however, the list had only nine members. What, there was nobody nasty enough to bump up from number 11?

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Warhol's Famous for Fifteen Minutes

Site:
http://www.grapevine.com/warhol/warhol.htm

Category:
Web Gadgets

Review (in 1996):

It seems as if every 15 minutes we're reminded that Andy Warhol predicted that someday everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. This site chips away at the pile of billions who have yet to have their moment of fame, by offering up a new personal home page every - you guessed it - 15 minutes.

The site couldn't be simpler; just a few lines and a head shot of Andy, looking (as always) as if he's answering the door after being awakened from a late-afternoon nap. Click on Andy's face and you're automatically zapped off to the page of the moment.

Naturally, not all these pages are winners, a fact of which Warhol would no doubt be proud.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Safari Touch Tank

Site:
http://oberon.educ.sfu.ca/splash/tank.htm

Category:
Kids

Review (in 1996):

If you can't make it to your local tide pool (or if you live in Nebraska), try the Safari Touch Tank. It's a colorful sort of cyber-saltwater fishbowl; use your mouse to "touch" the Purple Sea Star, and you'll learn the disgusting facts of how it extrudes its own stomach to slowly devour an oyster. (This is why we lock the car doors whenever we drive near the beach.)

Even the plants have stories to tell - the eelgrass may be hiding a school of young fish. Many interesting photos and even movie clips here. This undersea world provides just a sample of the sort of things a team of scientists, divers, archaeologists, and kids got to see during Safari '94, a project sponsored by the Royal B.C. Museum.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Plastic Princess Collector's Page

Site:
http://deepthought.armory.com/~zenugirl/barbie.html

Category:
Hobbies

Review (in 1996):

You can't help but love this monument to Barbie, Ken, and the rainbow of other plastic fashion dolls. Here, you learn that a couple of Santa Cruz lifeguards once fitted Ken with a pair of cement boots and soved him from the city's wharf. (There's photographic proof.) Or, if your Barbie feels like being politically incorrect, you can contact a woman who makes miniature mink stoles.

The smattering of photos on the home page includes Barbie in a fantastic Bob Mackie gown; keep exploring and you'll find more photos and more dolls, including Francies, Caseys, Staceys, and Julias. (We also met "Billy, The World's First Out and Proud Gay Doll", manufactured by a company in England.)

Site-mistress Zoli Nazaari-Uebele, an engineer in real life, even reveals her dream item: a DKNY Barbie (brunette, please).

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Elle

Site:
http://www.ELLEMag.com

Category:
Magazines

Review (in 1996):

The latest fashions, runway images, and "a touch of spiritual direction" are featured in Elle magazine's elegant online entry. If you can get past the incredible hype ("Vibrant and visceral, passionate and provocative, diverse and distinctly innovative..."), you'll find the likes of Christy Turlington wearing industrial-strength latex, or Isabella Rossellini in a "menagerie of animal prints just tame enough for city life".

Many photos come with shopping links for those who dare to try such apparel themselves. The interface is stylish, the photos are slick, and rather than endless subscription appeals, this site concentrates on delivering the goods.

Because of the many photos, you'll enjoy this most if your modem is as powerful as your fashion sense.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

NCSA Mosaic

Site:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):

There's a chance you've checked into the Mosaic for Windows home page to get software or find help, but have you really explored it? A more thorough browse will find useful FAQs on nagging messages like "Failed DNS Lookup" and "Socket Connection Refused".

The most hidden nuggets are the links to other software, which enable you to view formats like Quicktime, PostScript and MPEG. If you've ever spent 15 minutes downloading an audio or video file only to have it crash, you'll probably find relief here.Another hidden gold mine is the "What's New" page, a great way of finding out about brand new sites.

Mosaic may have faded a bit now that Netscape and company have come along to take the browser market by storm, but don't forget that the whole Web revolution started here.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Netscape Communications

Site:
http://www.netscape.com/

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):
Netscape Communications may be the future 800-pound gorilla of Internet browsing software. This fast-changing page tells you about the latest improvements to the software, lets you download a free version, and offers help on how to use it.

Netscape's developers are also leading the charge toward secure credit card transactions on the Net, so expect to find out the latest on Web-based buying and selling.

Even if you don't use Netscape, you'll discover useful resorces like the terse What's New page (not to be confused with competitor NCSA Mosaic's page of the same name) and the popular What's Cool list of sites favored by Netscape staffers. Also useful is the Internet White Pages listing, which offers help in tracking down the e-mail address of "that special someone".

Well worth the visit.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Trojan Room Coffee Machine

Site:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/coffee.html

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):

This is simply 24-hour, 365-day-per-year video coverage of the coffee pot in the University of Cambridge Computer Lab in England. The shot is updated once per second for instant transmission around the world. If you have to ask why, you're just not getting into the spirit of the Web.

To be honest, the original intent was to let the building's denizens check the pot before climbing two flights of stairs to the coffee room. Once the local computers were hooked up, the site leaked onto the Net, and the coffee pot became a celebrity in its own right. (No movie deals so far, however.)

This was one of the earliest of the silly Web cams, and somehow it's still compelling.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Apple Computer

Site:
http://www.apple.com

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

Apple, Inc: mild-mannered computer maker or dangerous cult? You decide at this mega-site, where the compnay with the intensely loyal following has set an admirable standard for Web quality.

Discover the quirks of Apple's confusing array of models named with P (Performa, PowerBook, PowerMac, Pippin) and take a journey into the amazingly detailed product support area. Or, check the What's New list to get the latest hyperlinks to Apple's myriad software libraries and Quicktime files.

Computer industry insiders might be amused at Apple's extensive dissertation on why Macintosh is better than a PC running Windows 95: it's eaither paranoia bordering on fear, or sign of Apple's complete assurance in the quality of their product.

A must for Apple-philes; a temptation for frustrated PC users.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

IBM

Site:
http://www.ibm.com

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

Chances are that nearly any computer user can find something of interest at IBM's Web site, since these people have their fingers (sometimes up to their wrists) in every pie. Clicking around here is one the best ways to get support on IBM software or hardware, and Big Blue will tell you what's new in the computer industry while you're looking.

The company news here is conspicuously global - you can access an IBM server in the country of your choice by clicking on a list at the bottom of the home page. The IBM ad campaigns get a workout here, too; on our last visit the question was, "Would three Greek divers really need IBM's Global Net?"

Make sure to check out IBM's Digital Library, a sweet new info search technology. No zany fun here, but at least you can skip the blue suit.

First Amendment Cyber-Tribune (FACT)

Site:
http://w3.trib.com/FACT/

Category:
Law

Review (in 1996):

The First Amendment is perhaps the most-discussed part of the United States Constitution, and Charles Levendosky has created this fantastic guide to it.

Most useful here is First Amendment Alert!, which includes weekly updates on the topic as it appears in state legislatures, courts, and Congress. If your timing is right, you can catch the page on Banned Books Week (generally the last week of September), which lists all books challenged in or banned from libraries around the U.S. (Some will leave you guessing - like the removal of the American Heritage Dictionary from classrooms in Washoe County, Nevada.)

You'll also find Supreme Court decisions and a Q&A section where Mr. Levendosky or another scholar answers visitors questions. An amazing site.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Tito

Site:
http://www.fer.uni.lj.si/tito/tito-eng.html

Category:
History

Review (in 1996):

Josip Broz Tito ruled Yugoslavia as President from 1953-80, an independent dictator who did for the eastern bloc what Heather Locklear did for "Melrose Place".

Tito is dead, but the cult of personality lives on. Audio samples enable him to speak from beyond the grrave, and the host of photos would make a supermodel blush. This is a real rogues' gallery, too, with pictures of Tito and Idi Amin, Yasser Arafat, Nicolau Ceausescu, Kurt Waldheim, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissenger.

More relaxing moments show Tito with his pooch, or working with a router (no foolin'!). Finally, visit his casket with Margaret Thatcher or Saddam Hussein!

An inspired fan page for a dead dictator of a country that no longer exists.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Crash Site

Site:
http://www.crashsite.com/Crash

Category:
Politics

Review (in 1996):

Just like a real crash site, this site isn't always pleasant, but it is a spectacle for gawkers. It's cover page is set up like a splashy tabloid, and you're given low- and high-resolution paths (to save and burn bandwidth, respectively). Underground poster art, movies, and morphs are scattered across these pages like shattered glass on the avenue, highlighting alternative music, fiction, and politics.

The bands highlighted are given extraordinary personal treatment (the Royal Trux pages are set up like an FBI surveillance report, complete with blocked-out agent names). The look of this page is great, yet some of the political humor is beyond Swiftian and it is hard to tell when the kidding stops, if ever; "War as Entertainment" features a Top Ten list that's bitingly funny, but the movies here are certainly not. Because, you know, war is hell. Isn't it?

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Preview the Heart

Site:
http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/preview/heartpreview.html

Category:
Health and Medicine

Review (in 1996):

The human heart beats two and a half million times in an average lifetime (more than that for you coffee drinkers). The Franklin Institute's "virtual heart" presentation is a good way to spend a few dozen of those heart beats.

This is real scientific stuff, not a kiddie trip, though it is presented as a tour. Learn about blood types - a person with Type AB blood can receive a blood transfusion from any type donor, for instance - or compare x-rays of a normal-sized and enlarged heart.

The whole interactive enchilada is here: movies, audio segments (they call the two heart sounds "lub" and "dub"), and pictures decorated with lavish descriptions and explanations. You can actually watch a move of the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the capillaries and arteries.

Your fascination here "will lead to understanding and respect".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Civil War Letters of Capt. Richard W. Burt

Site:
http://www.infinet.com/~lstevens/burt/index.html

Category:
History

Review (in 1996):

Poems and war songs make up nearly half of this fine collection of letters from Burt, a newspaperman from Peoria who fought in the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. A detailed account of the movements of the 76th is good background for Burt's letters, which display his journalistic skills and a knack for wry understatement. His casual remarks reveal the intimacy of a civil war, yet mask the obvious horrors of the battlefield: "When Gen. Sherman learned that the rebels killed all the foragers whom they captured, he informed the rebel Generals that he would have as many rebel prisoners in our hands shot as they killed foragers, and that had the desired effect".

We particularly enjoyed the lighter verse, however, including "Jeff Davis in Petticoats" and "Phil on Picket in Dixie" about a pig "that dared to cross the picket line/And never (gave) a countersign".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Nixon Audio Archives

Site:
http://www.webcorp.com/sounds/nixon.htm

Category:
History

Review (in 1996):

Ironic, isn't it? Richard Nixon preserved on tape (or at least on the Net) for future generations. Tricky Dick's Greatest Hits are all here, from the days before he went commercial (the "Checkers" speech) to his later work (the "Resignation" speech). Sadly, there's no evidence of his studio sessions ("Watergate").

Be forewarned: some of these files are downright huge (just as in real life, he takes forever to resign), but they are still worth it. This isn't an educational site, mind you; it's more like a satirical swipe at a Commander in Chief who insisted "I am not a crook!" and "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore!"

Includes very brief commentary from the Webmasters at Webcorp, the Net service provider who backs this page.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Jim Brain's Commodore Home Page

Site:
http://garnet.msen.com/~brain/cbmhome.html

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

Some people (and computers) don't know when to quit. Long before the 32-bit computers of today, clunky boxes of the '80s like the Commodore Pet talked in abrupt 8-bit sentences.

So host Jim Brain (NOT a stage name) is committed to keeping these relics alive, explaining how they can still do a passable job at stuff like email and simple word processing. And this free-will love offering provides loads of documentation (from operating system instructions to ROM maps and Hidden Secrets), plus instructions on where to get software (FTP sites, Usenet), and even a useless load of monthly Commodore trivia questions that would stump a Jeopardy champion.

Still, it's reassuring to know that someday when your Pentium system is worth $20, somebody like Jim Brain will be saying "Don't give up! Your computer's still useful!"

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Compaq Computer Corp.

Site:
http://www.compaq.com/homepage.graphic.html

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

Computer shoppers and support pros will appreciate this no-nonsense archive from one of the world's top PC makers. Compaq promotes its latest line of fast PCs while also delivering one of the best online computer support services we've seen. And thanks to a cuddly relationship with Microsoft, you'll find plenty of information on Windows 95 and it's heralded "Plug and Play" technology. (Contrary to popular opinion, "Plug and Play" has nothing to do with taking a bath.) And if it plugs but doesn't play, you download diagnostic software or check a list of common questions to ease your computer headache.

We'd like to see more zany activities here, since great customer support only goes so far.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Browser Watch

Site:
http://www.ski.mskcc.org/browserwatch/

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):

If you think Netscape and Mosaic are the only two flavors of Web browsing software, you'll get a shock when you visit this info clearing house. Sort of a fan page for browsers, BrowserWatch lovingly describes all the details, and encourages users to report new browsing software when they find it. (People who work for the browser-producing companies are invited to spill secrets, too, but somehow they don't seem too eager.)

If you enter a new tidbit that hasn't been given by anyone else, the author gives you "net.fame" in return - your name and e-mail posted for everyone to see. (Not much, but it's cool anyway.)

Check the browser stats and you'll discover surprising diversity among Web users.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Info-Mac HyperArchive

Site:
http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html

Category:
Computing

Review (in 1996):

This is a Web interface to the Mac software archives at Stanford University, probably the biggest single collection of Machintosh freeware and shareware in the world. (The archive is mirrored in many machines across the Internet.)

The HyperArchive isn't the first to provide a Web interface, but it's the most advanced: in addition to downloading files directly through your Web browser, you're able to sort in different ways, check for recent changes, and view the abstracts of specific files (as opposed to the old way, which was to load the abstract for all all the files in a given directory).

It still takes some study to use it well, and beginning users may have trouble with it, but the alternative is to get involved in FTP transfer arcana. Trust us, this is easier.

A great concept that can only get better.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

Dan Kegel's ISDN Page

Site:
http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/

Category:
The Internet

Review (in 1996):

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is an all-digital telecommunications service that allows (among other things) voice and data calls on the same phone line. And Dan Kegel is wild about ISDN, faithfully gathering every scrap of information he can find to promote its development as a worldwide standard. Judging by the volumes of material Kegel has gathered, it's safe to say ISDN has reached prime time.

As if the FAQ provided weren't already a wealth of information, the site also provides specifics, such as how to get an ISDN connection in your area, and what software/hardware you need (an ISDN "terminal adapter", for one). Still, we recommend a modicum of computer expertise to understand all of that phone company gibberish.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.


Image from Wayback Machine

Alcor Foundation

Site:
http://www.webcom.com/~alcor/

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

"Cryonics is the ultra-low-temperature preservation of terminally-ill patients, as soon as possible after legal death". The goal of cryonics is to keep you in the back of the freezer (behind the strawberry jam, perhaps) until medical technology has advanced to a point where they can fix whatever killed you. But let's not be too flippant, because this page has lots of really fascinating info on molecular repair of the brain via nanotechnology and reversible logic (the body may be dead, but the information isn't necessarily gone), cryonics and overpopulation, Deism, and even cryo-humor.

Most of the information comes from offsite links, but Alcor will freeze you (they currently have 28 patients in suspension) for just over $100,000. (You can pay it affordably with a life insurance policy listing Alcor as the beneficiary.

Interestingly creepy.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

The Burning Man Project

Site:
http://www.well.com/user/brunman/index.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

Since 1990, the northern Nevada desert has been the site of "The Burning Man Project", a wild festival of perhaps mystical, certainly spontaneous, audience participation. Seventy-two hours of pyro-technics, trance-dancing, drumming, bocce ball or ... whatever! Towering over the party is the 40-foot Burning Man, fiery inspiration for what seems to be a M*A*S*H unit of Deadheads with gunpowder.

Photos and video clips help show the fun (they really do!), and there are plenty of tips on how to party in the desert (hint: bring water), so that you can avoid being the annual winner of the "Donner Award" for gross stupidity.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.

DeathNet

Site:
http://www.IslandNet.com:80/~deathnet/

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

The Right to Die Society of Canada doesn't mince words on its titles, does it? Here they offer a virtual library of resources on human mortality. Asserting its respect "for every point of view", the society has assembled an impressive collection of info on its chosen topic: articles like "Then it was Birth Control, Now its Euthanasia", a complete toxicology and poisons database from the University of Singapore, or the official transcripts from Canada's Senate Special Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. It's not all doom and gloom, however - there's some mild whimsy here, like an audio clip of a bell tolling.

Overall, it's an exhaustive look at the Last Roundup.

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.


Image from Wayback Machine

The Paul is Dead Story

Site:
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/paul.html

Category:
Weird and Wonderful

Review (in 1996):

Paul McCartney is really alive and well, but there was a time when Beatlemaniacs were convinced he was secretly as dead as a doornail. This page recaps all the incredibly meticulous evidence, from the play-it-backward brouhaha over "I'm So Tired" to Paul's mysterious barefoot appearance on the cover of Abbey Road.

This site is simply a long text file, and (appropriately) is based on the faulty memory of someone who heard the rumors a long time ago (hey, good enough for us!). Nonetheless, the degree of sincerity is unmistakable: "Paul did indeed die, spiritually, as he was reborn in the ways of the Maharishi".

Whatever! This is great fun for fans of pop hysteria, and for those who feel Paul really died when he recorded "Ebony and Ivory".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.