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.