Specifications

90 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
PODCAST ALLEY The ’cast lover’s portal.
USA.gov
It’s the home page for the Land of the Free,
offering governmental information and
services.—JLD
Reading and Listening
Arts & Letters Daily
www.artsandlettersdaily.com
A clearinghouse for a dizzying number
of articles on various subjects. What do
they all have in common? Great writing.
—Laarni Almendrala Ragaza
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
www.mcsweeneys.net
Until the hipster literati take over,
McSweeney’s will have to be content with
being the best spot online where the well-
read can kill some time.—BH
Podcast Alley
www.podcastalley.com
The “podcast lovers’ portal,” indeed. This
alley is teeming with home-brewed pro-
gramming.—EG
Project Gutenberg
www.gutenberg.org
The foremost online source for public-
domain literature, with over 20,000 books
available.—Lisa Ruefenacht
Science and Nature
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
www.cdc.gov
Forget computer viruses and malware,
there are plenty of human ailments and
diseases to go around. The CDC tracks
them all.—EG
NASA
www.nasa.gov
The neatest stuff at NASA.gov is for kids
and educators. There is great material
about the earth, ocean, and space for all
levels of students.—AI
National Geographic Online
www.nationalgeographic.com
Millions of species, thousands of cultures,
seven continents, one Earth: National
Geographic Online is one site that deliv-
ers it all.—Yun-San Tsai
ScienceDaily
www.sciencedaily.com
News and videos are updated every 15
minutes on topics such as health, space,
and computers.—JLD
Space.com
Get the latest news and everything else
cosmophiles could want for exploring the
fi nal frontier from a PC.—Tony Hoffman
WebMD
www.webmd.com
If a Web site could replace a real, live doc-
tor, WebMD would be just about as close
as you could come.—CI
Search
Google
www.google.com
We poke fun at it, but this search engine is
a fantastic tool that has revolutionized the
way results are found and presented.—KM
Technorati
www.technorati.com
Technorati’s core mission: to give you a
quick snapshot of what’s happening in the
blogosphere.—KM
Shopping, Classi eds,
and Travel
Amazon
www.amazon.com
Amazon isn’t content selling everything
from DVDs to designer jeans. Check out
Unbox for videos and even a new online
grocery store.—CI
The Consumerist
www.consumerist.com
Read cathartic rants about retailers, and
learn to save money on purchases.—KM
craigslist
www.craigslist.org
The world’s most popular online classi-
fi eds site is the premier one-stop destina-
tion for rentals, jobs, secondhand goods,
and, yep, casual encounters.—BH
Dynamism.com
Buy your share of Japanese PCs, phones,
and wacky gadgets such as a duck-inspired
USB fl ash drive or robotic bird.—JLD
eBay
www.ebay.com
The phrase online auction is synonymous
with eBay.—BH
Google Product Search
www.google.com/products
The former Froogle is a shopper’s dream
come true—a centralized product search
that shows you all the sites selling what
you’re looking for.—LR
Priceline
www.priceline.com
You can still Name Your Own Price to an
extent, but these days the deal-making site
also offers you preexisting deals.—EG
ThinkGeek
www.thinkgeek.com
This online store makes it easy to satisfy
your geeky appetites for oddball gadgets.
—JLD
TripAdvisor
www.tripadvisor.com
Utilize user-to-user communication on
what works and what doesn’t when you’re
out and about.—EG
WEBMD Internet doc for your ailments.