Links to Other Sites

Communication Links of Interest - Information on telecommunications and networking.
- Welcome to PC Lube and Tune. A sundry of good articles. - http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/
- Ethernet Information - http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/
- AT&T Bell Labs Research World-Wide Web Server - http://www.research.att.com/
Computer Shows and Swap Meets - Links to shows in Southern California and a few other areas.
- American Mega Computer Show - http://www.megashow.com/ - shows in Carson, Las Vegas, Pasadena, Northridge, and San Diego.
- Computer Fair Online (formerly "Computer Marketplace") - http://www.lacomputerfair.com/ - Various computer shows in locations like Pomona, Reseda, Buena Park, Santa Barbara, and Henderson, Nevada.
Conejo Valley - Some links to places in our own home town.
- City of Thousand Oaks Official Web Site - http://www.ci.thousand-oaks.ca.us/ or http://www.toaks.org/. Links to City Services, Arts & Theatres, Library, Business, Government, and much more.
- Greater Thousand Oaks Telecommunity Center - http://www.gtot.org/. GTOT's mission is to demystify computer technologies for the public, businesses and governing agencies and to demonstrate their applications for education in the arts, the World Wide Web, videoconferencing, architectural planning and multimedia presentation.
- Thousand Oaks Home Page - http://www.1000oaks.com/ - "The Heart of Thousand Oaks' Internet" - produced by "The Art Department". Includes business, entertainment, recreation, and city services.
- Conejo Valley Unified School District - http://www.conejo.k12.ca.us/ - Information on schools, test scores, and job opportunities.
Download Sites - Here are some sites you can download shareware programs from.
- Shareware, Demos, etc.
  - DOWNLOAD.COM - http://www.download.com/ - This is my favorite download site. It's organized by category, or you can search for a particular program. I usually elect to sort the list by "number of downloads" so I can see which programs are the most popular!
  - Jumbo! Download Network - http://www.jumbo.com/ - "Over 300,000 Shareware And Freeware Programs."
  - WinFiles.com - http://winfiles.com/ - "The best 32-bit Shareware, Drivers, Tips, and Information on the Internet!"
  - ZDNet Software Library - http://downloads.zdnet.com/ - "Download top-rated shareware, freeware, demos and more."
- Patches and Updates:
  - Adobe - http://www.adobe.com/downloads/ - including Adobe Reader, Flash Player, and Shockwave Player.
  - Corel - http://www.corel.com/ - click on "Support", then "Patches and Updates".
  - Hewlett Packard - http://www.hp.com/ghp/services.html
  - Intuit - http://www.intuit.com/support/
  - Microsoft Office - http://officeupdate.microsoft.com
  - Symantec - http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/files/index.htm
Free Stuff - Free e-mail and free web pages.
- Free Internet Access & E-Mail
  - NetZero - http://www.netzero.net/ - scroll down to the "fine print" and there's a link to their free plan which lets you access the Internet up to 10 hours a month.
- Free E-Mail
  - Hotmail - http://www.hotmail.com/ - "The World's FREE Web-based Email." Recommended by PC World magazine (6/99): "Fast and feature-rich."
  - Yahoo Mail - http://mail.yahoo.com/ - Recommended by PC World magazine (6/99): "At least as cool as Hotmail."
  - Excite Mail - http://mail.excite.com/ - per PC World magazine (6/99): "For Excite addicts only."
  - Net@dress - http://www.netaddress.com/ - per PC World magazine (6/99): "Love the features, hate the advertisements."
- Free Web Pages
  - Homestead - http://www.homestead.com/ - Recommended by PC World magazine (6/99): "Easy-to-use, potent, fun. Our favorite by far."
  - Yahoo! GeoCities - http://www.geocities.com/ - All they ask is that you include an ad on your home page. As of 7/99, you can have up to 11MB of disk space for your web site. Reviewed by PC World magazine (6/99): "Lots to offer -- and lots of ads."
  - Tripod - http://www.tripod.com/ - per PC World magazine (6/99): "Not bad, but not Homestead either."
  - My Space - http://www.myspace.com - "Social Networking" site, but you can create your own home page there.
Miscellaneous
- UCSB Extension - UC Santa Barbara Extension is the continuing education program at UC Santa Barbara. We offer courses in Art & Design, Business & Management, Computers & Technology, Education, Environmental Management, Behavioral & Health Sciences, and Legal Studies. We offer courses in Ventura County every quarter.
- Social Security Administration - "Social Security Online". Request your PEBES--Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement--online.
- Internet Specialties West - One of our Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Formerly known as VCNet.
- The Hunger Site at the U.N. - This is a really cool website. All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world a hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors. All you do is go to the site and click. But, you're only allowed one click per day so spread the word to others Visit the site and pass the word. (submitted by one of our members)
Search Engines - These pages allow you to search the Internet for the information you want.
- Popular Search Engines:
  - Google - http://www.google.com/ - Quick, up-to-date results.
  - Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/ - Site is organized into categories. You can search the entire site, or just the current category.
  - Alta Vista - http://www.altavista.com/ - Can search in several languages. Also "natural language" searches.
  - Excite - http://www.excite.com/ - Searches a large area of the web.
  - HotBot - http://www.hotbot.com/ - Good at searching for items based on the date web pages were updated.
  - Lycos - http://www.lycos.com/ -
  - Webcrawler - http://www.webcrawler.com/ -
- 'Meta'-Search EnginesThese search engines actually will use several search engines at once to find web sites. Here are some that I've come across:
  - Dogpile - http://www.dogpile.com/ - In my opinion, the best meta-search engine around. It will search Google, Alta Vista, Lycos, and several others all at once!
  - Ask Jeeves - http://www.ask.com/ - Ask a question (i.e. "natural language query") instead of using keywords.
  - The Microsoft Network - http://www.msn.com/ - Access to several search engines.
- Specialized Search Engines
  - AnyWho - http://www.anywho.com/ - Current telephone numbers.
  - Encarta - http://encarta.msn.com - Basic encyclopedia search.
  - The Motley Fool - http://www.fool.com/ - Stock and financial information.
  - MySimon - http://www.mysimon.com/ - Comparison shopping.
  - NetLibrary - http://www.netlibrary.com/ - Finds e-books.
  - OneLook - http://www.onelook.com/ - Finds dictionary definitions journal abstracts.
  - Switchboard - http://www.switchboard.com/ - Phone numbers, e-mail addresses.
  - TotalNews - http://www.totalnews.com/ - Newspaper, TV news sites
Shopping - Some of our favorite shopping sites. Some sites will pay TOPCC a commission if you click on a link from TOPCC's web site.
- Here are some sites I've ordered things from. (It's great to be able to shop in your jammies!):
  - Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/ - Books, music, videos, software, and all kinds of other goodies. They also have an on-line auction if you can't find what you want in stock. I bid on an out-of-print movie trilogy and won! My husband's going to be so happy when he finds out what I got him for his birthday!
  - Buy.com - http://www.buy.com/ - I haven't used this myself, but many of our club members love this site. They get the best prices for computers, home electonics and other fun stuff.
  - FTD.COM - http://www.ftd.com/ - Flowers, plants, and other gifts for delivery. I've used FTD many times and the people I've bought things for have loved what I got them. They have next day delivery. It's great when something comes up unexpectedly (like a birth, or illness) and you can have it delivered quickly.
- Department Stores - Here's some common department stores that now have on-line catalogs and ordering (in alphabetical order):
  - Best Buy - http://www.bestbuy.com/
  - Office Depot - http://www.officedepot.com/
  - Radio Shack - http://www.radioshack.com/
  - Target - http://www.target.com/
  - Wal-Mart - http://www.walmart.com
Tech Support - Links to various "knowledgebases" and other sites that will help you with your PC and software problems.
- "Knowledge Bases" - searchable databases for particular products.
  - Microsoft Support (formerly known as "Microsoft Knowledge Base") - http://support.microsoft.com/ - Huge database of topics on Microsoft products.
  - HP Software, Drivers & Support - http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html
  - Novell Knowledge Base - http://support.novell.com/search/
- General Computer Information
  - Active Windows - http://www.activewin.com/ - per PC World magazine (6/99): "This well-designed site houses a galaxy of usefule technical information about -- but not limited to -- Windows."
  - Computertips Home Page - http://www.computertips.com/
  - Experts Exchange - http://www.experts-exchange.com/ - "Experts Exchange, the #1 Knowledge Sharing Community on the Web."
  - Indiana University Knowledge Base - http://kb.indiana.edu/ - created by the University Information Technology Services' Support Center at Indiana University. Per PC World magazine (6/99): "...more than 5000 question-and-answer files here."
  - The PC Guide - http://www.pcguide.com/ - per PC World magazine (6/99): "Now a monster site comprizing more than 1700 pages." and "You'll find detailed reference guides to every component of the PC..."
  - PC Mechanic - http://www.pcmech.com/ - good source of hardware information.
  - Tom's Hardware Guide - http://www.tomshardware.com/ -
  - whatis?com - http://www.whatis.com/ - Large glossary of computer related terms and links to other search sites.
User Groups - Some of the local user groups in our area, in addition to links to various lists of other user groups.
- Microsoft Mindshare - http://www.mindshare.codezone.com/
- Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) - http://www.apcug.net/
- Computer User Groups in USA: California - http://cdb.apcug.org/locdtst.asp?LCID=CA
- Simi Valley Computer Users Group Home Page - http://www.svcug.org/
- Santa Barbara PC User's Group - http://www.west.net/~sbpcug/
- Adobe UGR&PA (User Group Relations & Professional Associations) - http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/usergroup/main.htm
Virus Info Info - Information on computer viruses and hoaxes; Links to Y2K sites.
- Snopes.com "Rumor has it" - http://www.snopes.com/ - Info on hoaxes, urban legends, etc. Check here to see if something circulating via email is true or false.
- McAfee/Network Associates
  - Virus Info Home Page and Library: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/ - Links to virus news, hoaxes, virus information library, definition file updates, and other items.
  - Virus Hoaxes: http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp? - Before you forward that virus warning to everyone you know, check this list of hoaxes.
Web Page Design - Some of my favorite pages of web page resources and information on creating web pages.
- Web Pages That Suck - http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ - Learning good web page design by looking at bad examples. Excellent and entertaining tutorial. Your broswer must be frames-capable. By Vincent Flanders.
- JavaScript
  - JavaScript Examples - http://www.jsworkshop.com/
  - JavaScript Tip of the Week Archive - http://webreference.com/javascript/