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Up one level | To Tom Geller's writings | Home
Website reviews for The Net: Reference
Please note that the writing samples below were written around
February 1996, and many of the sites reviewed have disappeared,
moved, or changed. -- Tom Geller
Almanac of American Politics
American Demographics
ClassMate
Clearinghouse
Cult of Macintosh
Currency Converter
Elements of Style
The Genealogy Home Page
Office of Population Research
PAL Map Collection
Almanac of American Politics
Want to find out more about your local representative? This is
a great place to start. The Almanac of American Politics is a
doorstop-size book in print -- huge, and costing upwards of $50
-- and it's one of the most complete references on congressional
politics around. The good news is that the entire book is on this
Web site, well organized by subject, state, and name. The bad
news is that a conservative bias (it's published by the National
Journal) colors the writing. It's not offensive, however, and
how often can you say that in politics?
Content: Excellent
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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American Demographics
Some magazines transition to the Web well, enhancing their print
product with online exclusives, clever presentations, and useful
cross-references. Then there are those like American Demographics.
It's not all bad: certainly, it's a useful site for those in the
Marketing field, the text of the entire print edition appearing
alongside Dow Jones' companion magazines. Otherwise, the data
file "exclusives" are meager, and the link list includes a mere
eight sources. The articles, however, are well-written and will
have you singing AD's praises.
Content: Good
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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ClassMate
My high school years sucked; nevertheless, I keep an eye out for
old classmates as I approach the 10th anniversary of my liberation.
And where better to seek them out but on the 'net? The folks at
ClassMate know this, and they've set up a registry to find old
comrades. Unfortunately, the system needs to reach critical mass
in order to work well, and it hasn't yet. When I visited, only
nine people from my school had registered, and none from my class.
"Membership" privileges are $15, but registering's free. So go
on -- sign up! Maybe your high school crush has been looking for
you.
Content: Poor
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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Clearinghouse
The idea is good: if omnibus search engines like Lycos and WebCrawler
sometimes return links to substandard and irrelevant sites --
and they often do -- why not create a database which includes
only Web pages which meet certain standards? That's the idea behind
the Clearinghouse at the University of Michigan: ostensibly, all
of its 1,078 sites have been reviewed for relevance in the past
12 months and either approved or denied entry. In reality, most
of the pages I searched had no ratings, the linked sites were
of uneven quality, and 1,000-odd sites is far too few to make
a useful general directory.
Content: Poor
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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Cult of Macintosh
Tired of apologizing for being a priest(ess) in the minority Mac
sect? Celebrate your beliefs with similarly afflicted souls at
the Cult of Macintosh! Like many churches, the focus here is on
good works, and that means tons of Mac-related links to set you
on the path to righteousness. Links are separated into 19 categories,
and salted with salient commentary and clarifying notes. Search
for shareware, read technical notes, find noted Mac industry figures;
this is one of the most complete Mac special-interest sites I've
ever seen. It is slow, however, so connect to one of its many
mirror sites in your area.
Content: Excellent
Aesthetic: Excellent
TechnoSmart: Excellent
Author: Tom Geller
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Currency Converter
It's no surprise that this site is run by a company in Zurich,
Switzerland: that city is famous 'round the globe for banking.
And what's more important for international bankers than currency
exchange? Nothin', that's what. The folks at Olsen and Associates
have done a bang-up job with this form-based currency converter:
it gives the exchange rate for 100 currencies and precious metals
as far back as 1990. However, it only does one conversion at a
time: to compare many currencies at a glance, visit The GUN/Koalas
Currency Converter instead at http://bin.gun.com/cgi-bin/gun/currency.
Content: Good
Aesthetic: Excellent
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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Elements of Style
Similar in aim to Project Gutenberg http://jug.coo.uiuc.edu/PUG/welcome.html), in which classic texts are digitized, Columbia University's
Project Bartleby has HTML tags worked into the text, making it
easier to read with a Web browser. William Stunk Jr.'s popular
handbook for writers, The Elements of Style, is a perfect example
of what the project does. Clear grammar and punctuation make the
text engaging; tables, hyperlinks, and a simple design enhance
it further.
Content: Good
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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The Genealogy Home Page
The natural first response to this page is: "There's too much
stuff here. My head's gonna explode!" But if you've ever tried
constructing a genealogical chart on your own, you'll recognize
it as a great help in working on a difficult task. There's not
much original material here, just hundreds of links in 13 categories,
each one involving a different method for unearthing your family's
past. It was more than enough to get me going: I was able to find
an address for someone researching my "untraceable" family. Maybe
you will, too.
Content: Excellent
Aesthetic: Good
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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Office of Population Research
Every three seconds, somewhere in the world, a woman gives birth.
We must find this woman and STOP HER! All right, that's an old
joke, but it's a good one to introduce the study of worldwide
birth and death statistics. Princeton University claims to have
the oldest population research department in the world, and now
they've claimed primacy online as well. And while I don't doubt
that their site is comprehensive, its content is far too academic
for most.
Content: Good
Aesthetic: Poor
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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PAL Map Collection
There are 230,000 maps in the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection,
but don't count on finding your hometown here. Housed by the University
of Texas at Austin, it's among the most extensive such archives
in the world; unfortunately, its Web site has only a fraction
of the Library's total content and the map images are often too
hazy to read place names, even with file sizes running to 500K.
It's a valuable resource, nonetheless, with approximately 1,000
maps to its credit.
Content: Good
Aesthetic: Poor
TechnoSmart: Good
Author: Tom Geller
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This page was last updated on Monday, February 09, 2004 at 3:06pm CST.
All contents copyright 2005 by Tom Geller.
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