cool links from Loren

A4 Paper Format / International Standard Paper Sizes
An explanation of the ISO 216 paper size system, in case you wondered where paper sizes like A4, B2, etc. come from.

Freecycle

The worldwide (!) Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator (them's good people). Membership is free.

Urban Exploration Resource
Urban Exploration Alberta
Drains of My City
A few sites related to urban exploration. From Urban Exploration Alberta:

"Tread Lightly: Take only photos, leave only footprints." We explore to take photographs and post them on this site. UE is the fulfillment of curiosity: "what's behind that door?" - "what's up there?". We explore to discover this, and post our findings online so that others can easily find out for themselves, without having to go there.

The urban exploration links were found when I did some reading about a girl named Elena posting her "exploration" of Chernobyl, Ukraine and sites near it. On the Urban Exploration Resource site, a couple of people posted warnings that some of the stuff on Elena's site was faked, including the idea that she would be allowed to ride a motorcycle through the Chernobyl site. Here are some more links:
Elena's web site
Forum thread from UER with a couple of people debunking Elena's stories
Another, more realistic story from visiting Chernobyl and area
A panoramic photo taken in the "ghost city" of Prypyat, taken by Tony Brown (one of the people debunking Elena's stories)

AlphaSmart, Inc.
Manufacturer of a "laptop alternative" - a portable device with a full-size laptop style keyboard that runs PalmOS. Cheaper than a laptop if all you need to do is take notes and such.

ConTEXT
Nice free programmer's text editor for Windows. The program includes syntax highlighting for C++, HTML, and several other languages - you can download templates to perform highlighting on many other languages from the web site. (Including Motorola 68HC11 assembler - boy, that would have come in handy when I was in school!)

Network Associates Inc. - Stinger application
A compact (700-some K) application that will scan for and clean many of the current viruses/worms. Handy to take with you on a floppy disk for a computer that you can't connect to the internet because LSASS crashes within 30 seconds of connecting..