ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130005
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Computer bits
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DOG DROOL CONTESTS and useful software hints are just a couple of the hip items to be found at this Internet site .
Definition for sinner: exact middle of. Example: "Have you been to the new shoppin' sinner?"
Tarred: Fatigued. "Ah'm too tarred to go bowlin' tonight."
This is Southern speak, and you can get a dose of it on line. Addresses for sites like Southtalk were among the latest "cool sites" tips from one of the most fun places on the World Wide Web: tipworld.com.
As we've mentioned before, the tips are free although you should expect a little advertising thrown in here and there, as is the case at most sites in cyberspace.
If you go to Tipworld, you can sign up for Websight Magazine's Web Site of the Day, and the tips will arrive as e-mail.
In addition to the fun ofvisiting some of the sites, you're assured of getting mail.
Tipworld also offers free tips for Windows 95, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Lotus SmartSuite, Netscape Navigator and the Macintosh.
And more, you can send your own tips to this site.
Other recent offerings here were for the Volkswagen Beetle museum, a Rodney Dangerfield site complete with "I get no respect" contest, and the Drool game.
In Drool, you become any breed of dog you wish and follow the stick through a web of different decisions.
Oops!
Thanks to reader George Ayers, whose motto is "Keeping fit is a worthy goal," we are repeating a Web address that was incorrect in last week's Computer Bits.
It was for the Roanoke County Library page.
We invited Ayers to send a list of his favorite sites, and we extend the same invitation to the rest of the column's readers.
Busted
Have you ever visited a Web page and been told that you were calling from a certain number? What's all that mean?
Read on for an explanation from Mike Gerst, editorial systems manager at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
That means you've been busted. You know how Caller ID takes all the fun out of making crank calls to your boss in the middle of the night?
Well, be careful what Web pages you visit, too, because the guys on the other end probably have the capability of figuring out where you are.
That's not paranoia, just heightened awareness. When you connect with the Net, you're identified by something called an IP address - four numbers separated by periods.
If you connect directly through a network, that number never changes. When you use a dial-up Internet provider, you're assigned a different address each time you call.
There's no big government conspiracy to register all Internet users. The IP address is just a way for computers to locate each other. For example, the address for the search engine Yahoo! is 205.216.146.90, but you can type in www.yahoo.com and get to the same place.
If you want to poke around with some IP addresses, check your Internet provider's file archives for a Ping program. That's Ping, as in the irritating sound in every submarine movie you've seen.
And, like a sonar operator drawing a bead on a U-boat, you send out a ping to another computer, and it'll bounce back, giving you the IP address of your target and how long the two-way trip took. A good Ping program also traces through all the different connections on the way to the target.
Keeping time
If your computer isn't doing a good job of keeping time, you can get help at a Navy military time site, according to Mr. Dram, the computer tips column for Debco Electronics Inc.'s new magazine called Electronics Experimenter's Journal.
Apparently, correct time on a PC is a bigger problem if the machine is on all the time. If you turn it off at night, you'll be OK. This kind of stuff is of interest to the experts or the really devoted, the type who might also want to check out Debco's page.
It has an atrociously complicated address, but you could find it with a keyword search, the company says.
You can contribute to this column or just comment by sending an e-mail to biznewsroanoke.infi.net or by calling 981-3393 or 981-3237 in the Roanoke Valley, or 1-800-346-1234, x-393, outside the Roanoke area.
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