December 27, 2002
Pardon my spelling...
Pardon is a free-for-personal use electronic dictionary that runs under Windows. Installation is easy and suprise-free! The dictionary is very fast (thanks to a handy auto-complete feature) and includes synonyms, antonyms and even quotes to illustrate usage. I had no problem finding any of the test words I tried, and also saw lots of people, geographic locations and slang terms included. Would be interesting to know who compiles these dictionaries -- as a US English user I didn't agree with a few of the slang terms I saw (ex. Pardon includes both "cissy" and "sissy" but most US English dictionaries only include the latter spelling) -- but I found that to be a very minor point in an excellent program. Wasn't able to test Pardon's ability to add dictionaries over the web as no new material was online yet, but the capability sounds very useful. Very fair and reasonable licensing -- free for personal use, $15 per person for commercial use. Look forward to seeing how program develops. Spotted it on betanews.com.
December 26, 2002
Ah, to be young again
From 1985 to 1995, Bill Watterson produced a fantastic comic strip about a mischievous six-year-old, Calvin, and his sometimes real, sometimes imaginary tiger playmate, Hobbes. Though there was a lot of slapstick, most of the humor was clever, wry and very adult. Now that I"m a father of a little guy myself, I find browsing old C&H strips funnier than ever. For a daily dose, check out the official Calvin and Hobbes site (where you can read the strips), or for more info take a look at the Calvin and Hobbes Resurrection fansite.
December 24, 2002
Way, Way Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public."
This includes the "WayBack Machine" that has snapshots of the Internet back over the years. Want to see what a particular site looked like two years ago? Check out the Wayback Machine.