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Spring is (almost) here after a very long winter! For those of you eager to get outside as soon as it warms up, here are some of my favorite online resources for trail information in the Fox Cities and elsewhere in Wisconsin:
-Wisconsin DOT Bike Maps: This is a terrific site for finding both on and offroad bike routes. read more »
Stateline.org is a site from The Pew Charitable Trusts that started as a resource for journalists covering state government. However, it has grown far beyond that, and is a great resource for citizens looking to keep up with what is happening at a state and federal level. The site offers daily state news, federal news that impacts state government and policy, and in-depth Backgrounders that offer background information on complex current issues. One of the best features of the site is the RSS feed section. You can subscribe to general news feeds, news on specific issues, or to feeds that address only a specific state. This is really a great resource for anyone to keep up to date on issues that impact their lives.
Keep on learning by using the free university lectures at LectureFox. You will find lectures on physics, computer science, mathematics and other subjects from universities such as MIT, Vanderbilt and UC San Diego. The lectures come in several formats. Some are notes, others are audio and still more are video.
Cookthink is one of the more
delectable-looking food sites online. Their images are consistently
clear, clean and mouthwatering. The site appeals to many different
types of cooks. If you are looking strictly for recipes, you can.
Looking for advice, tips and beginner information, click on reference.
Or you can read their blog which combines all of it in concise articles
filled with images.
National Public Radio now has a music page where you can find all sorts of great music just waiting for discovery. Listen via live streams or select specific songs to hear. You can also listen to interviews, live concerts, and studio sessions. But perhaps best of all is that the NPR focus on learning and knowledge extends to their music site. Right now, I am listening to Modern Classical Music for Pop Fans.
Petside is a newly-launched pet website brought to you by NBC. And what a featured-packed site it is! You will find pet news, tips and treats, videos, photographs, answers to pet questions, information on breeds and much much more. And if you are a sucker for cute animal photos, be prepared to suddenly desire both a Maine Coon kitten and tottering beagle puppy. Sigh.
Somehow autumn and spices go hand-in-hand in my mind. Perhaps its the
cinnamon in the pumpkin pie, the sage in the stuffing, or the mulling
spices in the hot cider. But this is the perfect time of year to
highlight this very cool Encyclopedia of Spices
from The Epicentre. Click on any of them and you will get an image of
the spice, information on how it is cultivated and where it grows, how
to store the spice, how to use it, and any medicinal properties it
might have. Yum!
When I worked a service desk, I was always being asked by patrons if we
had something like Quicken loaded and available for the public. While
I think that those patrons were misunderstanding the complexity of
financial software and the efficacy of sharing it in a public place, I
think there is a niche out there for people who want online financial
management help.
Mint is a site that offers this sort of
feature. It is free, online and offers ways to chart what you are
spending your money on, interest rate recommendations, bill alerts,
watching for unusual spending, and much more. Definitely a place to
send those Quicken nomads to.
Techlicious.tv is a site that I almost dashed right past, but then things started to catch my attention. It is a blog that offers really handy tips for Firefox, Windows Vista, and lots more. I have already downloaded a new plugin to try out and am going to tinker a little with my Vista to see if I can get some of those tricks working.
This is definitely worth checking out if you are running Firefox or Vista or just want a place to find some great, handy tips. Heck, you could even take advantage and look like a top geek if you just share some of these with colleagues!
Feedzie is a search engine that
searches audio, video or feeds for keywords. It is a podcast and
vodcast search. You can navigate by tag cloud, or type in the specific
keyword you want. I find the tag clouds fascinating to browse, but
frustrating to use for navigation. If you are looking for anything
specific, make sure you type in your term rather than floating through
the clouds to find it.