NOISES FROM THE BASEMENT

1) Timely Tips - "XDate"
2) File Find! - "Bugnosis"
3) Sites-Seeing - "MIT Media Lab Projects\AlphaZekko"
4) Email Funny - "Vital Desktop"
5) They Said It - quotes to give one pause
6) Hodgepodge - that what fits no where else

Welcome once more to Noises From The Basement, the virtual periodical for the great unwashed masses! A short note this time about how many of you end up on NFTB's subscription list - I'm happy to report that many of you, based on the comments received on the subscription form, find out about NFTB from family members! How about forwarding this issue to someone you care about? Heck, a subscription is a really cheap Father's Day gift!

Several readers e-mailed to share their concerns with "spyware in your wallet"--customer loyalty cards. Others had suggestions for alternatives to last week's File Find, more on these in the near future after I've had a chance to give them a fair evaluation. Thanks for these and other comments - as always, feel free to drop me a line on what you liked, disliked, or would like to see in the future! - Dave
 

Recent weeks have touched on using "date math" in Excel, with last issue's topic being Excel's "Day One" - either January 1, 1900 or January 1, 1904 - depending on your configuration. Historians, genealogists, and others who use dates before 1900 have a major problem, however.

If you key 1/1/1900 into a cell, Excel will automatically assume it is a date and format the cell accordingly. If on the other hand you attempt to enter, say, 12/31/1899, Excel will format it as text... and if you use the Date function and enter =DATE(1899,12,31), Excel will place 12/31/3799 in the cell!

The solution is to teach Excel a few new functions, with XDate. XDate allows you to work with dates from years 100 through 9999. XDate, an Excel add-in, gives you 8 new functions to use including XDATE(y,m,d,fmt): Returns a given year, month, and day; XDATEDIF(xdate1,xdate2): Returns the number of days between two dates; and XDATEDOW(xdate1): Returns the day of the week of a date.

Install XDate for those times when just the last century isn't good enough!

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2) File Find! - "Bugnosis"

Ever felt a little bit buggy? If it was while you were surfing the 'Net, there may have been a really good reason - Web bugs!

What's a Web bug? "A Web bug is a graphic on a Web page or in an e-mail message designed to monitor who is reading the page or message. Web bugs are often invisible because they are typically only 1-by-1 pixels in size. In many cases, Web bugs are placed on Web pages by third parties interested in collecting data about visitors to those pages." - Bugnosis will alert you to the little critters as you go! It's then up to you to decide how to handle them.

Bugnosis, a product of the Privacy Foundation, currently works only Windows\IE machines. Bugnosis will install a new button on your IE toolbar, which then will check any page and reveal useful information about any web bugs found. Or, you can configure Bugnosis to automatically scan every page, and then alert you by sight and/or sound when bugs are spotted.

Want to give it a test drive? Visit this site (I'm not plugging it, just randomly visited it and was struck by the number of critters found!) before and after installing Bugnosis... sort of like turning on the light in the middle of the night and finding unwanted guests on the kitchen counter, eh? Squash 'em with Bugnosis!

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Whether it's:

• Rover@Home, which permits "geographically separated dogs and humans to use to interact with each other over the Internet"; or
• InterPet Explorer, "a smart-perch hardware platform providing the most basic interface a parrot might use to interact with a computer"; or
• Lumi-Touch, Internet-linked picture frames that provide "continuous ambient social interaction"...

...you'll find some quirky projects from the fine minds at MIT. Click here for the latest MIT Media Lab Projects!

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I confess a long-standing affection for animation of all types. Years ago, one had to haunt the midnight movies and comic stores to find quality alternative animated artwork. The melding of computers, artistry, and the Internet has provided a whole new arena for both those who create and those who enjoy animation, to share the experience!

If you're also a fan of animated art, I'd like to suggest the adventures of AlphaZekko. AlphaZekko is the hapless hero of this ongoing Shockwave Flash miniseries. The really interesting feature to these little vignettes is the addition of interactivity; at critical times in each episode you'll be called on to make choices for AZ or solve a puzzle to help his efforts. Great animation and fun interaction makes this a winner!

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Bonus Toaster News Alert
Another report from the never-ending series of Toasters In The News:

"TALKIE TOASTER: Residents in Hooke, Dorset, England, were a bit shocked when toasters and other appliances began talking. In Russian. "It's unnerving," says  John Dalton, chair of the Hooke Parish Council. "Normally it just makes toast." The problem has been traced to a high-power BBC radio station a mile outside town. The station's spokesman notes that "two different types of metal next to each other can pick up a radio signal. The two bits of metal act as a very basic diode and turn the signal into sound." He promises technicians will help homeowners clear up the interference, but first "I'd love to hear the toaster." (PA) ...Maybe later -- it just left on a world tour."
--Reprinted with permission, Copyright © 2002 Randy Cassingham from This is True.

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Thank-you!

This is just plain fun.  The idea behind Vital Desktop is simple. You have a favorite screensaver. Why wait until it starts? Or you are bored with the static picture on your desktop. Well - pick a screensaver. Run it on your desktop!

Start with Window's 3D Flowerbox or Starfield. Vital Desktop places your favorite animated screensavers behind your icons. A really different appearance for your desktop!

Click to visit the Vital Desktop Home or Download page! [97 Kb/Zip]

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"All men should strive to learn before they die
What they are running from, and to, and why." - James Thurber

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< * > Two NFTB favorites, Steve Gibson and Ad-aware, take on Comet Cursor in this Wired News article. < * > Take a break. Now, as long as you have an internet connection and Shockwave flash installed, you can play a quick 18 holes of Mini-Putt, complete with spinning windmills - and don't try to cheat! < * > "Picture Yourself in Plastic" at the Mini-Mizer, where you can build your very own customized Lego-like image. < * > Spam, Spam, Spam - "McDonald's test-markets Spam" < * > Senior prank puts high school on auction block. < * >

G'nite, and thanks for reading!

Dave Gretz

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 Dave Gretz,
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Sources & Resources
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Dave Pell's
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Steve Gibson's
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Fred Langa's
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Tara Calishaine's
RESEARCHBUZZ

Randy Cassingham's
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Declan McCullagh's
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Roger D. Hodge's
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Barbara Mikkelson's
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Jerry Lerman's
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Chris Pirillo's
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