10 Web Sites - 5 Good, 5 Bad

I found 10 websites (5 good and 5 bad) that I felt I should share with you. Let's begin with the good ones, and conclude with the bad...

GOOD SITES

1. http://www.classical.net/ - This site is good for easily finding information about a great majority of classical repertoire, and also has resources/links to other sites with additional information. The one thing that I really like about the site is that they outline their strong points on the bottom of the introduction page.

2. http://wc08.allmusic.com/ - This site makes it very easy to search for, and buy if desired, all types of music from different genres and eras. There is also a brief historical background for the majority of the works.

3. http://www.netflix.com/ - The very popular online movie rental site is a very easy one to navigate. It's very easy to see the amount of movies that they offer, as well as set up an account if you would care to. Also, the color scheme is very nice in my opinion.

4. http://www.flickr.com/ - This site makes it very easy to share your pictures with others online. There's even a feature that allows the members to comment on your pictures to see how they compare to other amateurs' and/or professionals' prints. The design of their site is simple, simply explaining how their product works by showing example screens.

5. http://www.youtube.com/ - I don't think there's really a whole lot of explanation needed for this site, as it's pretty well-known. However, its set-up is very clear and precise, as you can easily search for any video that you can possibly think of (and probably find it)! Also, you can adjust the size of the video on the page, which is a nice feature.

BAD SITES

1. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/hf_jp_ii_xxv_en.htm - I don't think the late Pope had this kind of pontification in mind, as it's just a terribly put-together site. It's incredibly difficult to navigate across the page, as you are continuously bombarded with pop-ups! Very annoying.

2. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.tv/showcaves2/showcaves2.html - I found a video of this page from back in 2005 (it's been fixed since then, thankfully) on Vincent Flanders' site http://www.webpagesthatsuck.tv/, and it just appears to be impossible to navigate. The navigation bar is a bunch of small stalactites! Also, there's a very annoying water dripping noise on the page, which doesn't really help the overall effect of the site at all. Flanders does a nice job of summarizing the problems of the site in the video.

3. http://www.tanzschulebuck.de/ - Upon entry, I was suddenly surprised by the sound that the entrance button made - it sounds like a whip, and I'm not quite sure why. When you come to the main page, this really annoying song comes on, and I threw up a bunch of times when I looked at the musical chairs style of navigation (not really, but it is very painful to watch).

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv-8yAQGHRo - this video is about another web site found on Flanders' page. This is probably my favorite of the 5 bad pages listed here - it just makes absolutely no sense. It's hard to read the information on the page, not to mention that it's not conducive for the site's audience at all. The company also illegally used a song on the site, which is another big problem. All in all, just a horrible site. My favorite part is when Flanders says "it's like HOOOOOOO-KAY!" referring to the set-up of the site.

5. http://www.whitesnake.com/ - First off, the page was set-up horizontally, not vertically. So, I had a fun time reading long lines of information. Also, the big graphics used for each section really had no reason being there - the pull-down navigation bars next to them worked just fine without them. Another reason why I wasn't a fan of this site is because it included a page called "And Now For Something Completely Different." Now, since this site is for the band Whitesnake, I really don't know why they would include this page. I just feel like the professionalism of the site is brought down a couple notches because of this section - just my opinion, of course.

Graphics Intensive Sites

Here are five graphics intensive sites that I found on the world wide web:

http://winus.spfldcol.edu/arts103/cgexamples/3d/index.html

http://winus.spfldcol.edu/arts103/cgexamples/matt/index.html

http://winus.spfldcol.edu/arts103/cgexamples/tim/project6/index.html

http://winus.spfldcol.edu/arts103/cgexamples/zac/place.html

http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/Cgt/courses/cgt353/gallery.html
(this one has a lot of different examples on the same page, which I thought was pretty cool)

New Downloads

I recently downloaded two open-source graphics programs called The GIMP and Inkscape.
NOTE: IrfanView is already installed on my computer.

I downloaded The GIMP from a server in Seattle, Washington, and it took about 8-9 minutes to fully download. I then installed it onto my harddrive; it asked if I wanted to "Install" or "Customize" - I chose "Install" because I know absolutely nothing about customizing The GIMP.

I then downloaded Inkscape from a server in Phoenix, Arizona, which took a little less time to download than The GIMP (about 6 minutes). Although it took less time to download, it took more time to install on my harddrive, I'm assuming because there are more materials involved with Inkscape.

All in all, a fairly quick and painless procedure.

Web Cam Africa

There is a very interesting web cam out there for those of you who happen to enjoy wildlife called "Web Cam Africa". It is a continuously live streaming web cam from the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana, Africa (AKA Pete's Pond). Started by Pete Le Roux in the latter half of the 1980s, his goal was to save as many animals as possible in this region by having them live on this 183,178-acre piece of land, which was free of poachers. The idea worked so well that some people say that particular groups of species are now overpopulating the land; however, plans are currently being made to expand the protected area to neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe.
I really like this web page's behavior because it allows the visitor to choose different web cams, to experience several views of the land. Also, the site utilizes forums in order to create conversations pertaining to the subject matter. If the visitor wishes to be kept up-to-date with new web cams, they can type in their e-mail address, and they will be notified when new events occur as well. You can see the live web cam here (the site says that the best viewing times are 12-4 AM and 4-8 PM, both EST).

Web Platform: The Web Page Transformed

I am increasingly surprised by how far technology has come in the past decade. For example, in the article "From Web Page to Web Platform" on "News.com", the journalist explains how web pages such as Google Maps can be used to find regional gas prices through a "mash-up" program called "Cheap Gas." So, as you look up a particular destination on Google Maps, you can simultaneously find nearby gas stations and their respective costs. Wow, killing the proverbial two birds with one stone never sounded so good. Also, the article explains how more and more web programmers are creating sites that allow the readers to interact in order to make a much more informative and up-to-date page. For example, the article says that a programmer based out of Chicago created a web page called "Chicagocrime.org" which, using Google Maps, can show where crimes are committed in Chicago (of course, with the help of the inhabitants reporting the crimes to the programmer). This transformation is being called "Web 2.0" - if this pattern in world wide web creation continues, I'm sure that all kinds of helpful information will be available to the public in the near future.