Alcove 9: An Annotated List of Reference Websites

Computers and the Internet

AltaVista Translation Service ("Babelfish")
Translation of Web documents to and from English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese; type in a URL or some text and click on the "translate" button. The translation is approximate in most cases. Works best with Internet Explorer.

Annoyances.org
Maintained by Creative Element, a technology consulting firm, and not affiliated in any way with Microsoft, this site is exactly what it says--a list of potentially troublesome features of Windows in its various incarnations, with suggested solutions for many of these problems. Much of the information is rather technical, but there is a useful "Information for Beginners" section, an extensively cross-referenced glossary of relevant technical jargon, and a list of frequently asked questions.

Citation Guides for Electronic Documents
Maintained by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, this site provides a list of resources on how to cite electronic resources in bibliographies and footnotes, including links to various online citation guides.

Computer Associates Threat Information Center
Information about current online threats, a virus encyclopedia that can be browsed or searched by keyword, and a somewhat technical glossary of virus-related terms.

Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)
A division of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, CERT provides a wide range of information resources regarding Internet and computer security, including advisories on viruses and other computer problems.

Computer Knowledge
From teacher, engineer, and computer consultant Tom Simondi, a site devoted to computers and the Internet with a special emphasis on computer security and viruses. The site incorporates a number a basic computer reference tools, including an online tutorial on computer viruses (also available in PDF by downloading and unpacking a zip file), a list of acronyms and computer terms, an ASCII text list of "emoticons" (ASCII characters assembled to create graphics for decorating plain text documents), and a list of Internet domain country codes (alphebetical by code, but not by country). Many of these resources are written in non-technical language for a general audience. Although the site is free of charge, it is advertiser-supported.

Don't Spread That Hoax!
From human factors engineer Charles Hymes, a list of Internet hoaxes and tips on how to avoid being taken in by them.

FILExt: The File Extension Source
An alphabetical listing of standard computer file extensions, e.g. ".wpd" for WordPerfect documents. An offshoot of Tom Simondi's Computer Knowledge website.

Google
Internet search engine which organizes results by "page ranking"--selecting sites based on the number of other sites that link to them (the online equivalent of citation analysis). The main search interface is extremely simple; the user types in a search phrase and clicks either on "Google Search" (for multiple hits arranged hierarchically) or "I'm Feeling Lucky" (for the one hit that Google considers most relevant); the latter option often yields unpredictable results. Google also caches many web pages; if a page from a search result is temporarily unavailable, it can often be retrieved from the cache.

Internet Archive
An attempt from a non-profit organization to create an archive of websites for research purposes. The "Wayback Machine" enables users to search archived versions of both current and defunct websites by URL.

Internet Scout Project (from University of Wisconsin, Computer Sciences Department)
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Project provides a number of tools intended to facilitate effective use of the Internet as a scholarly information resource. These include the Internet Scout Report, a weekly online publication providing annotated listings of new Internet resources. Searchers can view the current issue of Scout Report or browse previous issues by date. The Scout Report Archives allow users to browse site summaries by Library of Congress classification or search by keyword. The annotations and controlled vocabulary subject access make the various Internet Scout Project resources useful in tracking down websites of serious scholarly utility. This selectivity and labor-intensive subject access comes with a price--some subject areas are not well represented here, and some of the annotations are a year or more old.

Symantec Anti-Virus Research Center
Resource which includes a searchable online encyclopedia of computer viruses, as well as an alphabetical list of Internet hoaxes. Symantec is a company that creates and sells anti-virus software.

United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)
Home page of the office responsible for coordinating computer security issues among U.S. civilian government agencies; part of the Department of Homeland Security since March 1, 2003. Includes a listing of current computer security issues and an extensive archive.

Vmyths.com
An extensive current listing and historical overview of false virus alerts, Internet hoaxes, and misinformation about real viruses making the rounds on the Internet, maintained by information security analyst and Internet hoax authority Rob Rosenberger. As of July 2003, the site functions as an archive only and is no longer being updated.