Weird Web Science and More!

Computer Life column for May 2, 1998
by
Richard Gordon

It's time for this month's Web Walk.

I'll begin with a site at which I spent over an hour poking around: Brian Carusella's Bizarre Stuff You Can Make In Your Kitchen (freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/). Carusella goes beyond bringing back memories of being in the basement making odd things with my chemistry set. He includes dozens of experiments for supervised kids to perform.

Yes, I said, "supervised kids." Carusella includes a detailed cautionary note in which he warns readers, "If you don't know exactly what you are doing, don't even think about attempting something dangerous you happen to find anywhere on the net." Most of the experiments are fairly safe but do require caution with tools and materials. He concludes his warning by saying, "Don't come whining to me if you burn your house down. . . . Be careful! Now get out there and have fun!"

With tongue in cheek, he claims the site merely contains "amateur mad scientist stuff," that learning will occur by accident. To be sure, he includes mischievous projects like stink bombs, invisible ink, smoking fingertips, glue made from milk, fake blood made from corn syrup, and a whole variety of slimes and goos--including one that will respond to static electricity.

Some of the warning notes are so common-sensical that they struck my funny bone:

"Slimes can wreak havoc with plumbing, so don't throw them down the drain."

"[The fake blood] will stain anything and everything it touches, so don't use it over the carpet, and don't get it on any clothing you may want to wear again."

In spite of Carusella's irony and mischief, his site presents many projects with educationally redeeming value, some suitable for a rainy day scout activity or a junior high class. You can make a working replica of Thomas Edison's original phonograph, a simple telescope, pinhole cameras, or cloud formation experiments.

Carusella has built a humorous and intelligent web site that may lead to some interesting things happening in your basement or in your kid's science class.

A maze, a survey, and some news

While doing some research for a future column, I found Andrzej Bieszczad's Rat Maze (www.sce.carleton.ca/netmanage/java/Maze.html). Here, you pretend to be a scientist who makes a maze for a Java rat to negotiate. Youngsters will be amused by this maze; older kids and adults may be interested in the mechanics of making the rat run.

One of the most relied-upon of Internet surveys is back! Through May 10, you can participate in the Georgia Tech Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center's Ninth Web Survey (www-survey.cc.gatech.edu/). Previous editions of this survey have helped paint some of the clearest pictures of who uses the Net.

In addition to giving you the opportunity to stand up and be counted, the ninth survey includes a random drawing for several $100 prizes. It takes a while to complete enough parts of the survey to be eligible for the drawing, but you can pick and choose which parts you want to complete. For example, I completed two general sections, a section on Internet shopping, one on privacy issues, and one on content filtering.

A lot of us get local, regional, and major national or international news from the News Journal or other local media. But the Web provides a wonderful resource on more specialized current events topics.

For example, I'm following the buildup to the World Cup at ESPN's soccer Web site (espn.sportszone.com/soccer/index.html). Meanwhile, one of my assistant coaches at the Y gets his soccer news from Nando.net: the Nando Times (www.nando.com) and their Soccer Server (www.sportserver.com/soccer/).

One of the Web sites I visit for technology news has had a recent facelift. If you haven't visited it recently, check out Computer News Daily (www.computernewsdaily.com/) from the New York Times Syndicate.

That should be enough Web sites to keep your modems busy.

Copyright © 1998, The News Journal Company

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