These are a few of my favorite web sites.  

They are not chosen for their general appeal but rather the sites I want to find when I am logging in from someone else's computer and do not have my own list of Favorites to draw on.

Urban Legends  (Every time I get an urban legend masquerading as truth, I respond, usually with info from one of these sites.  This occurs more than once a month.)
     http://www.breakthechain.org
     http://www.snopes.com/
     http://urbanlegends.about.com/

Medical Links

Winter
    USA
      I90 Road Conditions
      WSDOT Pass conditions
      Summit at Snoqualmie Ski Area

    Canada
        http://www.skisilverstar.com/
        Weather Radar around Silver Star
        Weather forecast for Silver Star (only up in winter) 
        Sovereign Lake Cross Country Center
        BC Road Conditions 

Computer Security Software:

        Free Firewall http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/home.jsp
        But if you use it, remember to turn off Microsoft's Windows Firewall which is included in
        XP and Visa.

        Free AVG Anti Virus  from  http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1/ 

        Free AVG Anti Spyware from http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/us/frt/0
        Note this product does not do automatic updates, you have to request one each time you want it.
        Unlike anti-spyware and firewall software, it is permissible to run multiple Anti Spyware programs.
        Windows Defender is an anti-spyware software that comes with Vista and runs fine with this
        program.

        Free one time Scan of your computer to see if any Viruses are active (Was called NanoScan, now called ActiveScan by Panda):  http://www.pandasecurity.com/activescan/index/ It takes about an hour to run.  On my machine it would run from Internet Explorer but not Fire Fox.  To get it to remove viruses, Trojans and worms, you must register it but there is not cost involved.  To get a version that also removes spyware, rootkits, hacking tools, and spy cookies.  The cost is $12.95/6 Mo.   This program is not a substitute for a regular set of spyware type programs as it only runs when you log on and run it.  I had trubles getting the full version to run so I would not necessarily recommend it.

        Net Nanny ($39.99) or Net Nanny Home Suite  ($49.99) are highly rated programs to place parental
        controls on a computer.     https://www.netnanny.com/

General Software:

        Network Magic  (Sharing computers and printers, may still have a free version)
        https://www.networkmagic.com/

        Open Office:  A free substitute for Microsoft Office: http://www.openoffice.org/

Open Office and works like must versions up to but not including Office 2007.  It will probably not read Office 2007 files unless they are saved using the "Save As" option to make them compatible with older versions of Office.
 
If you open a file originally created with Microsoft Office, everything will go smoothly.  If you originally crate the file with Open Office, it will default to saving it in its native format which probably can not be read by Microsoft Office.  To avoid this problem, the first time you save the file, use "Save As" and specify that you want to save it in the Microsoft Office Format.

        Real Audio:  http://www.real.com/

        Adobe Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

         Audacity (An audio file manipulation program) I have not tried it yet but it looks good.
        http://audacity.sourceforge.net/  It does not currently (10/1/08) support .WMA (Windows Media
        Player) files.

        Reading ZIP Files:   http://www.securezip.com/   Limited time offer, may not still be free. 

        Firefox internet browser:     http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/  It is my standard browser. 
        A few web sites will only work with Internet Explorer so I still keep that around.

        Paint.NET.  A free photo editor:  http://www.getpaint.net/  Have not tried.
        GIMP  Another free Photo editor:  http://www.download.com/GIMP/3000-2192_4-10073935.html?hhTest&cdlPid=10850541  Have not tried.
        Picasa from Google, another free photo editor:  http://picasa.google.com/download/thanks.html
        Tux Paint, A paint program designed for Children 3 and up.  http://www.download.com/Tux-Paint/3000-2132_4-10328696.html?hhTest&tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10816165  Have not tried.

Edit digital Videos with Avidemux, http://www.download.com/Avidemux/3000-13631_4-10829933.html?hhTest&tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10857009 Have not tried.

NVU HTML editor:    http://www.download.com/Nvu/3000-2048_4-10412423.html?hhTest&tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10412422     Have not used

         Google Earth:   http://earth.google.com/

         Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/  (Not a program but a very good web site.)

        Clean out unused files http://www.ccleaner.com/download  Works well

Create PDF files (but can not edit them) with PDFCreator:  http://www.download.com/DeskPDF-Professional/3000-6675_4-10416226.html?hhTest&cdlPid=10849217

Get all kinds of drivers:   http://www.driverguide.com/

  Microsoft Downloads:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Search.aspx?displaylang=en

            Some good ones are:

                    PowerPoint Viewer Search under Microsoft Office then "Microsoft Office Power Point"

                    Windows Defender, a suite of anti-spyware etc. programs that may be free for the
                    first month.   A version of it is included with Vista.

                   Process Explorer (a high tech version of Task Manager (of CTRL ALT DEL fame)   
                   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

   Converter so you can read Office 2007 files with older versions of Office. 
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en


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Rev. 8/20/08