*CyberCoyote - November 16, 2006*

NEWS, NOTES and NOTICES

*November Business*
We held our November business meeting today. We have acquired a new laptop, and replaced a (possibly) stolen projector since the last business meeting in March. We still need another projector, but we're short of funds because we had to replace one.

*Reminder*
There are a couple of websites related to Happy Trails that you may want to visit from time-to-time.
http://htresort.com/ -- Happy Trails Resort
http://www.azacc.org/ -- AZ Alliance of Computer Clubs

*HTCC Yahoo Group*
George Jester started a Yahoo "Group" for HTCC. It is an interactive forum for announcements, questions, etc. Send an email to George if you think you might be interested. (It's easy to leave the group if you don't like it.)
http://cybercoyote.org/club/contacts.shtml

TIPS, TOPICS and TWEAKS

*Airfare tip*
Why not take advantage of your flexibility in travel times? Find out when to travel, when and where to buy tickets, and even where to go, at "Farecast". You'll have to handle *why* on your own. :-)
http://farecast.com/

*Cosmic Background*
You can easily put (pictures of) the cosmos on your computer's desktop. Just right-click the image and select "Set as Background".
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061112.html -- sample
http://www.caedes.net/ -- back on earth

*New version of the classic calculator*
Remember those trusty calculators with paper tape printout? You might still have one. Either way, you'll probably appreciate the Moffsoft FreeCalc.

It features a simulated paper tape that you can read, save, or even print out. It also has special buttons for monetary calculations. It doesn't do transcendental functions though. :-)
http://www.moffsoft.com/ -- the calculator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_functions -- what's missing

*Buying a new car on the Internet*
Michael Arrington, who has an ambitious "blog" about new Web services, recently wrote an interesting story about buying a new car through CarsDirect. (Be sure to read the comments to get the full picture.)
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/28/my-carsdirect-experience/

SECURITY

*TechWeb.com | "New Bot-Powered eBay Scam Uncovered"*
Watch your pennies! That's the key to avoiding this scam. :-)
http://cybercoyote.org/url/207.html

*McAfee SiteAdvisor*
Most people know how to "Google" for what they want on the Web. Only a small number know what they're looking at after they get the results. There are "sponsored" and ordinary results. There are search results and text ads. How do you tell the difference?

Worse yet, many bogus sites are often included, with no way to tell good ones from bad ones. There is one good answer though. :) [works with Yahoo!, Google and MSN]
http://www.siteadvisor.com/studies/c-allkeywords-google.html -- situation
http://www.siteadvisor.com/ [more] -- one solution

ECLECTIC

*The Internet is finite after all*
http://cybercoyote.org/internet/end.html

*Logistics - Part 1: How to get by without an SUV*
http://aistigave.hit.bg/Logistics/

*Mental Health Hotline*
Listen in, you might get some real help. :-)
http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/002806.html

*Fantastic Fractal [best with broadband]*
You've probably seen them before. Fractal images repeat as you zoom in. Classic fractal images are intriguing, but this video takes it way beyond that.
http://cybercoyote.org/url/211.html -- fractal zoom
http://cybercoyote.org/url/229.html -- classic fractal images