z Publishing Welcome
URL: http://www.zpub.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
See San Francisco z-style. z Publishing, an extensive Web directory of places to visit in San Francisco could make both a raver and a grandma smile with glee. Read the history behind the United States' only self-proclaimed emperor or the devastating Pt. Reyes National Seashore Fire. Other San Francisco topics include the Burning Man archives, San Francisco Cacophony Society, and media z (a resource for media folks.) Other sections on z Publishing include unofficial pages for Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton. BLUE LIGHT
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Typo.Com
URL: http://www.typo.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Any Net grrl who was once Miss Vermont Photogenic and a writer/editor for a multitude of magazines including MacHome Journal, Computer Life,...and yes, The Net...has to be cool. Read some of her articles about Tupperware parties, domain names and heterosexual relationships. Crystal also lends newbies a hypertext hand in designing their own Web site, with advice and links to useful shareware. Dip into Water's site for a refreshing look at the Web. Blue Light
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Svelte
URL: http://users.aimnet.com/~solanna/svelte.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Svelte is a well-crafted portfolio piece by a recent UC San Diego graduate majoring in digital design, and it shows. The site is filled with professional-quality graphics which include some pulsating link buttons which twirl about (viewable with Netscape 2.0 only). In addition to an interesting picture and movie portfolio, there¹s an article section featuring an entertaining story about a goat-herding parade in Idaho and some mid-range poetry. The site also contains a links list you might want to emulate. Each one has a matching picture and personal explanation of the site¹s content. They didn¹t teach this stuff when I was in school.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Escape Artist Mathew Cooper
URL: http://www.loop.com/~straitjacket/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Jon Phillips
The typical vanity site doesn¹t offer an excessive amount of... oh, shall we say... intrigue. Some woman owns a cat named Motorboat; she writes about her cat named Motorboat. Some kid plays third tuba for the Portland Youth Symphony; he writes about playing third tuba for the Portland Youth Symphony. Some guy¹s favorite food is Nutella on wheat bread; he writes about the joys of eating Nutella on wheat bread. Simple. Easy. No frills. No pressure. Just tell us who you are. We¹re in, we¹re out. But Mathew Cooper throws a knuckleball into the whole vanity site phenomenon. Cooper is an escape artist of all things ‹ that¹s right, like Harry Houdini ‹ and a fine oil painter to boot. What¹s more, his grasp of site design is exemplary. Cooper¹s pages are top-notch both in content and aesthetics, and his site can be digested in its entirety in less than 25 minutes ‹ a time limit that should be considered a requisite for inherently self-serving pages devoted to a single individual. Using Netscape¹s Frames feature, Cooper presents a vertical array of hot buttons on the left side of his display. Click on a button, and a new theme pops up in the main window. The Dislocation button sends you an explanation of the physical process behind Cooper¹s particular brand of escape artistry: ³My shoulders do come out of the socket area but do not really go to the point of dislocation.² Scary stuff, Mat. You¹ll also find photos of Cooper shackled in chains, images of his oil paintings, and links to handcuff collections, a lock-picking guide, and a Houdini page. Of course all this isn¹t to say that Mat¹s site, despite all of its chi-chi accouterments, isn¹t still just a vanity site. Witness this biographical account: ³I woke up the next morning in my own vomit. It was everywhere. I have the same birthday as Jimi Hendrix. I believe he died this way but I guess it wasn¹t my time. I spent a couple of hours apologizing to my Mother in between dry heaves.² Scarier stuff, Mat. In the main, Cooper¹s pages are well-crafted, wonderfully illustrated, and fun to read. Escape from the doldrums of the 9-to-5 rat race, and lose yourself in this confident expression of self.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

BOB c WEB
URL: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~asdamick/www/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
I just wanted to take this Kodak Moment to say that you people are not mentioning me often enough in your posts. You have been forgiven, for I am a benevolent human being, but you will simply have to do better from now on. - The BOB(c) (from Usenet newsgroup news.misc) Thus begins the saga of The BOB(c), net.god and raving egomaniac. Well, there¹s a reason we¹re calling these Vanity pages, and The BOB(c), alias Andrew Damick, has done an exceptional job in this extensive shrine to himself. To be fair, there¹s a lot of material here that doesn¹t have anything to do with The BOB(c), and a distinction should be made between the online persona and the man behind the curtain. And one more point on the fairness angle: Credit for a lot of the graphic design goes to one Beverly White, another well-known net.god. The BOB(c) is famous throughout Usenet-landia, and has published a lot of very useful newsgroup how-to information on his site, like ³How To Create an Alt Newsgroup.² There are archives of postings from newsgroups, which is probably some of the most humorous writing anywhere. The BOB(c)¹s link library is incredibly large and very eclectic. Just about all of the most interesting and well-designed places on the Web are listed here. When asked about the purpose of the site, The BOB(c) replied: ³Words are my domain. Playing with them is what I do, and that is evident in my site.² It¹s also pretty evident from his very active Usenet life, where he maintains his own newsgroup, alt.fan.the-bob. And as for communication, The BOB(c) says: ³I generally get several pieces of e-mail per day [...] concerning my site.² With the amazing advances in Web technology, I had to ask The BOB(c) if he had any plans to incorporate Java or VRML into his site. While he has no immediate intentions to do so, he did suggest adding ³some 3D, animated, talking groundhogs to lead you through the pages and read my poetry to you.² And, I should mention that The BOB(c) does not have a list of his CDs on the site.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Zeigen's Dilemma
URL: http://www.emf.net/~estephen/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Zeigen, or Stephen Mack, as he¹s sometimes known, has a very extensive Web site. There¹s a section of fiction, two Web games (Roshambo and Magic Infinity Ball), a couple of music pages (Tori Amos and Ajax), Usenet manifestoes, and personal information like an online diary and an apartment tour. The tone is sort of ³sensitive young man,² and there is an overlying philosophy to the site about how we must make choices in life. But, how do you know you weren¹t predestined to think that? Anyway, good link pages.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Jie's Homepage!
URL: http://www.mit.edu.8001/afs/athena.mit.edu.user/w/o/wonder/www/home.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Reed Rahlman
Jie is getting her doctorate in Chemistry at MIT. Previously, she attended Stanford, as well as schools in her native China. In spite of being a serious overachiever, Jie presents an attractive and friendly vanity page, with interesting links to sites on science, China, and *People* magazine ‹ which demonstrates Jie has *some* kind of life away from the academic grindstone.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Riot Page
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~bandd/riot/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
Reviewed in the December issue of The Net, the riot page has undergone an evolution. It got an A before, and I guess it doesn¹t get much better than that. The site still rocks, with new features, some snazzy HTML tricks, and fresh new content. Her voice rings with grrrl flair, and her link lists are growing quickly and impressively. The best new service: Meet her friends and maybe get a date.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

The Cool Dude
URL: http://www.louisville.edu/~faalam01/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Fayez is one wild and crazy guy, all right. A native of Lebanon, he claims to have been Internet ignorant just a few months ago. Now he¹s got a crackerjack page with frames, great links and just a whole lot of panache. Don¹t be fooled by the title: the whole ³cool² thing is just a goofy, tongue-in-cheek ruse, an end run around his own awkwardness. He¹s an overachieving geek and he knows it. A whole section of his site is devoted to his medical specialty, radiology. (Yep, he¹s a doctor). Another is a tribute to his beautiful and wildly successful family. He¹s also a photographer, a music lover (on the lighter, sappier side of the spectrum, of course) and a movie buff. In school he was on the table tennis team and President of the Arabic Literature Club. He was editor-in-chief of his university yearbook. His sense of humor is odd, but healthy. Now, at 28, he¹s thoroughly engrossed in his Web page. He¹s also lonely, as evidenced by ³the test,² (³So you actually think you¹re cool enough to be my girl? Amaaaazing!²) in which the ladies can see how they stack up against Fayez¹s criteria. It¹s a funny, self-mocking exercise, mind you, another ruse. Fayez, ultimately, is just so flat-out geeky, he¹s charming. Don¹t ask me how that works, but it doesn¹t hurt that he¹s a foreigner. You know: vulnerable, doofy, speaks with an accent (I¹m guessing on that) -- how could he miss? But none of that really concerns me. Whether or not he gets a date, what I like about his site, aside from the slick, no-nonsense construction, is the quality of the links (all navigable in frames). Like having a newsstand on your monitor, Fayez has assembled some great and varied stuff, including *PHOTO magazine* online, the *Late Show with David Letterman* page, *DC Comics* online, and a whole lot more. Good work, Fayez. Cool, even.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

pHil¹s Spread
URL: http://www.ldd.net/scribers/steuart/spread.htm
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
³The minivan pulls forward and down the street, away from the HERD OF AARDVARKS.² So goes one line, selected at random, from a ³dreamplay² by Phil Rittenhouse, called ³Freud was once a Jung man². It¹s just one small element of this clever-crazy online creation known as pHil¹s Spread. Another section on semiotics (whaaa?) and communications theory (eeeh?) begins with a header that reads, ³entropy, while cool, should still be left 2 a minimum,² before pushing you along to the deep stuff. Phil¹s got an artist¹s eye for layout, so the site is not only funny but great to look at as well. Don¹t miss his hilarious journal, especially the transcript of his daughter¹s (fictitious?) conversation with a bug (June 30th). There¹s more stuff here than I care to list, but trust me: S¹all good. Meanwhile, back to the story: ³The minivan from earlier roars by overhead, crunching the aardvarks beneath its tires...²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Entropy8.com
URL: http://www.entropy8.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Unknown
Taking the screen shots here, I felt a little bit like the hiker who, aiming his camera at a panoramic mountain sunset, despairs at the futility of his effort. Perhaps that¹s waxing a little too reverent,...but not much. Entropy8, the ³labor of love and frustration² of Auriea Harvey, a young designer who just happens to be black and female, is a masterful example of Web design and digital self-expression. It¹s a little crude, then, to classify this page under ³vanity.² The real vanity will be in trying to express how great the site is. As much a marvel of programming as it is of design, the site boasts expert Java scripting, some beautiful animated gifs, a truly graceful use of Frames. It¹s a high bandwidth affair, of course, and she knows it. But if you¹re willing, it¹s worth the wait. Follow her instructions on the home page and turn off the tool bar. You won¹t need it; the site spawns a separate, graphical menu to facilitate navigation. A nice artifice, it dazzles without overshadowing the design. Thematically, the site is part riff on chaos, part private showcase. ³So here is the dream,² Miss Harvey writes at the outset, ³It is what it is. This site is my personal experiment with a personal goal in a public space.² So it is. A section called ³The Disease Manifesto² is an artful exploration of angst -- not angst in any watered down form, either, but the real thing, the sickness unto death. The tone is dark but not despairing. Her family is prominently featured elsewhere on the site, in a disarmingly candid and dignified way. Some of the clan contribute their writings. Grandma just goofs around with the camera. Musing on the lives of her forbears, Auriea writes a little mournfully, ³These pictures were taken before I was born or too early in my life for me to remember. The course that lives took shaped me more than I want to admit.² If that seems self-indulgent and over-serious, a closer look will reveal a lively and self-deprecating wit beneath it all. In her gallery of notebook covers -- each one a work of art in itself -- I spied this passage written in faded ink, ³Chaos is still my Life. This is my Life. This is my mind. I design Reality. We design the future. This is kind of a stupid thing to say, but I say it anyway. This is the cover of a sketch book and I want to completely cover this with words. But as usual I don¹t know what to write. I guess I could lapse into my old quotations phase. Quoth Aaron: ŒI¹d rather be insane than stupid. But i¹d rather be neither than both.¹ Quoth Bill....² It goes on and on like that, without ever really filling the page. And I like that; don¹t ask me why, but I like that very much. In the end, this page is self-expression, plain and simple, and how much you take to it will probably depend on what you make of the personality behind it. Clearly I liked her very much. In a cacophony of voices, hers rings true.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Jesus Ali Industries Home Page
URL: http://www2.corenet.net/jesusali
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Jesus Ali is an 18 year-old graphic designer and Aeon Flux fan with a few solid goals in mind. He wants to find his sister Evy Jo whom he hasn't seen since she was adopted away as a young girl; he wants to be part of tomorrow's underground mediascape; and, he wants people to check out his modified digital art and icons and know how much he loves his grandmother, who he happens to be living with. His home page manages to cover all of these bases with equal amounts of heart, humor, and intelligence.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18

Karl Tiedemann
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~tiedeman/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This is easily one of the best designed and technically superb vanity home pages to emerge from the bowels of the Web. Shockwave, Tables, VRML ‹ Karl experiments with all of it. But then again, it¹s his biz. This guy runs an interactive video and graphic design company that bleeds professionalism, unlike the current crop of money-grubbing ³Web Designers² that are advertising up a storm in your town. Karl also has included a bonus rant on his site about the Ann Arbor, MI chapter of the Anti-Squirrel Coalition. I don¹t get it either. But you still better watch out for this guy. Or hire him.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Red's Toyland
URL: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~mizraith/index.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Here at The Net, choosing a site of the month isn¹t easy. A lot of factors have to be taken into account, and we¹ve assembled some massive spreadsheets to handle all the data and calculations. Then again, sometimes a site has something that we just like. In the case of Red¹s Toyland, we have found The Official Wicked Hair Dyeing Page not only to be well designed, but full of essential information for our editorial staff style. Mark ³Red² Byer and his sister Evi-Lynn put together this wonderful set of instructions, so you get male and female perspectives about taking your hair from its natural blandness to new heights of colorful individualism. The instructions and advice offered go way beyond the quick, back-of-the-bottle blurbs printed on various color products to nuggets of hard-learned practical hints such as ³double the maximum time written on the package² that you are going to leave the dye in your hair. As for color choice, ³Dark blue and purples last the longest.² The discussion gets a little philosophical in the paragraphs debating permanent versus non-permanent hair dyes, and some shocking secrets are revealed about so-called ³permanent² hair dyes. 14 popular hair dye products are reviewed on this page, with the authors acting as their own test subjects. It¹s a little spurious to honor these pages as a site of the month on the basis of one thing that we at The Net can relate to, but wait, there¹s more. Red is a self confessed LegoManiac, and we can appreciate that (just see the graphics in our April issue). Red has a whole page where he begs anybody that works for Lego that sees it to hire him to do product design. Besides that, there are links to other great Lego sites on the Web. Now, Red does mention the Renaissance Fair on his home page, and we at The Net are not united in our opinion about that, but the link actually went to his sister¹s RenFair page, so that doesn¹t count. Finally, one interesting project featured on the introductory page is ³The Line Around The World.² The goal of this association is to bring people closer together by having people put links on their Web pages to other people¹s pages in the society. Each person has two links on their page (two points forming a line), so that anyone can follow the links along this line and see many new and interesting people, or, at least, their Web pages.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

A digital canvas
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~vytasg/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
View heavenly planets without a telescope. A digital canvas is the Web night sky painted with green spikes, yellow orbs, and blue 3D stars. The canvas becomes an online Rorschach test as images of blurry circus elephants and floating tops decorate the site. This is abstract art at its best. Enjoy the confusion!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

TimLand
URL: http://www.educ.drake.edu/ext/Tim/tim.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Blue Grrrl
Tim, he¹s 38, working at Drake University, has two kids, wants to get more involved in computers, and has a nifty logo of Hawaiian hula dancers on his front page. He¹s sincere enough and seems to genuinely enjoy HTML. But besides the self promotion as found on all vanity sites, he¹s got jokes (not just links, but actual content folks), Mac info, music, and juggling goop, neatly displayed in a nice little Table. Woo Woo!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

You're touching The G Spot
URL: http://the_g_spot.bevc.blacksburg.va.us/welcome.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
I came. I saw. I left. I should have been clued in by the link to the ³Friends² Mailing list. The Beavis and Butthead ³Under Deconstruction² page should have been an obvious warning. I should have backed down at the ³What¹s in the Keg² link. But I had to click, and guess what: more Beavis and Butthead. Most of the site is not working yet, but I¹ll give them credit. Their pictures are super big, and they load super fast. If you¹re of the sophomoric beer guzzling college variety, you might have fun here. If not, don¹t bother.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

91 Argyle Street
URL: http://plato.digiweb.com/stuka/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
The residents of 91 Argyle Street invite one and all to crash beneath the snowy-roofed shelter of their pad in Rochester, NY. Each roomie generously provides for their guests: Todd's animation-laden "Duck Soup" warms the belly in exchange for advice with his current 'Headache' scenario. Brandon, although admitting he started his page due to live-in peer pressure, breaks out his collection of drawings from napkins and school notebooks. Jason chronicles his own travels, sporting a US map with clickable green dots to call up his photos by region. Well done, and beats the K.O.A.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Ronald's Home Page
URL: http://darwin.clas.virginia.edu/~att2u/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
An ornate doorway is the entrance to the impressive realm of Ronald, where¹ll you find one of the cleanest, slickest personal pages around. Don't let the formal introduction and library theme give you the wrong impression; Ronald, an avid fan of "The Tick", definitely appreciates the humorous side of things, too. His well-developed "Funnies" section links to Dilbert, FarSide, and Calvin and Hobbes strips, plus collections of 'Random' and 'Technical' jokes.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Scott's Page of Evil
URL: http://rampages.onramp.net/~scottgl/mainevil.htm
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Do not go to this site if you¹re easily offended. Scot attacks a wide range of targets here, including religion, politicians, the French, actress Andie MacDowell, and musical group *The Spin Doctors*, all with a dash of humor. He blames the latter for the downfall of alternative music, declaring, "They are an Evil [sic] that should be cleansed from the earth and they will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes." Surprisingly, The Spin Doctors' bassist, Mark White, responds by thanking Scott for a link to the music group's home page. Evil is just a fun read, not spooky at all.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Hi, I'm Michael Johnson
URL: http://www.michaeljohnson.com
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
If you watched the Summer Œ96 Olympics, then you know all about Michael Johnson, the American runner who took 3 gold medals. Judging from the Web site, the media-savvy athlete kept notes charting his daily excellence. Fans interested in Johnson's attitude as the games progressed will find a handy pulldown menu to guide them through his modest "Countdown to History," a thread that lets this human dynamo aggrandize his focus, drive, gratitude, and other such qualities. "My Dreams" leads you to Johnson's guiding lights, Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph. There's also a chance to win a pair of his running shoes.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17

Mark Richardson World
URL: http://www.mountain.net/hp/bluetic/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
This site *looks* busy, busy, busy. But basically, like most Vanity sites, it¹s filled with a whole lot of nothing. But at least ol¹ Mark¹s been keeping up with the Web wizardry tricks of the day. MIDI sound, ticker tape at the bottom of the page, tables and other nifty gimmicks demonstrate the latest in home page painting, even if the content is questionable. But why shouldn¹t it be? This is Mark¹s world, not your domain. For example, Mark has graciously installed links to Tia, Jim, Paul and his other pals¹ home pages. And I¹m sure they appreciate it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Dodd's Linking Pages
URL: http://www.netdepot.com/~gargoyle/magic.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Abracadabra! Pull a great Web site out of Dodd's hat. Serving as a portal to magic on the Net, this site has links to people's pages who like getting out of straightjackets such as escape artist Mathew Cooper (see vanity site of the Month) or those who like waving a magic wand with a sick sense of humor ala Penn and Teller. This online directory has too many links up its sleeve to do it justice in a single paragraph. Jump to magic supply stores or find out how to join up with the members of the I.B.M. Ring 2100.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Paul Ferland
URL: http://www.loa.com/~kilgrtrt/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Paul Ferland puts his cartoons online to entertain, to seek employment, and to encourage others to peruse his chosen vocation. Each day he adds a new one-panel cartoon to an ever-growing archive of humor. Many are as mediocre as what you¹d find in the paper, but some stand out. Two aliens are drinking at a bar. One leans over and whispers, ³I love you² while the other looks on concerned. The caption reads, ³Aliens don¹t let aliens drive drunk.² Hey, I laughed. Paul also dispenses valuable advice to aspiring illustrators. Get a good pen, draw, and get rejected. Hell, I don¹t need a pen for that.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

The Infection Connection
URL: http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/gdebenha/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
The Infection Connection is the brainchild of a junior high school student who loves that which most computer users fear: The virus. Catch his Virus of the Week where he posts a new devious little critter to download and dissect. If that¹s not enough, a gigantic batch of viruses are available for your deviant pleasure. I wish he could have collected a bit more documentation about each virus and maybe some specimens from an operating system other than Microsoft¹s, but there¹s definitely enough here to cause your Windows machine ³mysterious problems² for ages to come.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Significant Bits
URL: http://world.std.com/~nevins/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Pat Nevins puts information about himself on the Web in a unique way. When you enter Significant Bits, you¹re presented with a deck of cards. Depending on which card you pick, you either get to see his resume, a short biography, his favorite links, a collection of his writing, or get sent to the Missing Children¹s Homepage for no obvious reason. His writings are only fairly interesting but each piece automatically loads a short .wav file of his original music in the background which helps set the mood. The physical production though isn¹t top-notch, but assembling Pat¹s bits is an interesting diversion.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Redmond Rose
URL: http://www.halcyon.com.redrose/joan.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Reed Rahlman
This chronicles Joan L. Grove Brewer's big beef against her former employer, Microsoft. Her story, supported by memos and newspaper articles, is either a truly horrific example of corporate abuse, the ranting of an embittered nutball, or both. She claims that as a consequence of pointing out software flaws, corporate Microgoons beat her up, resulting in a severe spinal injury. Her argument loses some credibility toward the end, where she goes off on a diatribe about demons, angels and plagues. An altogether strange tale definitely worth looking at.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Edge of CyberSpace
URL: http://www.europa.com/~edge/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Lydia Schwartz
This is a big home page. There are some wonderful graphics, but they¹re heavy, and take a while to load. There are mounds of links, and while not organized, it¹s nice to see them woven into original content. And that is the key phrase that elevates this site ‹ original content. A lot of time has gone into making this home page different from the standard link list and resume online bit, and for that, it¹s worth a few peeks. It has a left-leaning, young perspective, with info on the state of Oregon, tons of Internet tips, and a few extra goodies that I¹ll keep secret.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Paul Levin's Flying Circus
URL: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~plevin/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
Click here for my picture. Click here for my resume. Click here for my OMD tribute page. Yes, this is a vanity page all right (you see after a year we can be nostalgic about hypertext.) While it¹s slightly more current than last years fashion, with some tables, rasped buttons, and a sound file, it¹s mostly plain. This doesn¹t mean I don¹t like it. Au contrare mon frere, I think it¹s just fine. And after all, there is a reference to that all mighty goth band of my youth, Joy Division! But the best part? The ³Buy A house from my uncle in Alabama,² bit, complete with photo. Tres cool!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Zola's Home Page
URL: http://www.halcyon.com/zola/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
A potpourri of links from the mind of Zola! There are nearly 100 links immersed in Zola's narrative about a trip to France. Zola scolds net surfers for spending hours in front of a computer instead of enjoying RL (real life) adventures such as playing Frisbee, golf or paintball (all three of which she provides links to). She also has links to claim-to-fame Web sites such as The Fishcam and Capt. Kirk Sing-a-long. If you don't feel like zipping from home page to home page, just read some of the colorful quotes Zola provides from the likes of 18th century poet Novalis to Mahatma Gandhi.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Bry'
URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BKPack/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Bry' s artful site displays his work -- cartoons, sketches, and paintings -- for anyone who cares to have a look. While these images and the overall design are nicely done, the end product is a bit of a pig, in terms of bandwidth, and I doubt very many Web surfers will invest the time necessary to appreciate it. In fact, some of the slow-loading, more pointless graphics -- like the cartoon series called, Contemplating the Sphere -- would try a monk¹s patience. It¹s a good effort, but like so much else out there, lacks vision.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Eclectica
URL: http://www.netwizards.net/~zeno/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Some people create so-called "vanity pages." Others build Web pages to showcase their talents in a chaotic art world where money is thrown around but caught only by a select few. Jonathan Yeong is one of those frustated talents who uses the Web as a global resume board. Here, explore clean and elegant pages with essays about Jonathan's relationship to art and design, all beautifully presented as a showcase for his work. How psitively meta. Exquisitely designed. Someone offer this guy a job.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Noah's Place
URL: http://noahs-place.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Lots of the usual--Simpsons sound files, shareware games, and quite a few links (even a random link generator). But there's more! Newbies will dig the "People Who Like Getting Email"section. Read a person's description and drop them a line. Or post your own 100 word ad for $2 a month. Another interesting item is Noah's anonymous email form. In fact, I wonder if you can use the anonymous remailer to sign someone *else* up to be a penpal. For example, list your boss as a 14-year-old boy who loves Beavis and Butt-head and enjoys receiving nude celebrity JPEGs. That¹d be good for a couple of laughs, eh?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Bob Derr's Gallery of Galleries
URL: http://www.neosoft.com/ kcderr/galleries/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Bob Derr is a zany suit-turned-photographer,and his home page is drenched with that mid-life, just-wanna-have-fun kind of attitude. Joking aside, Derr is obviously talented; his photos of Greece are postcard perfect. He¹s also a cut-up: check out Bob's Lingerie Gallery (it's not what you think), or his own mini-tribute to the King, which boasts full-color snaps of Bob's favorite Elvis jumpsuits. Also of note: "24 Seconds in Cyberspace.² (Family values bonus: at the bottom of every page is a reminder that all Bob's work is dedicated to his father--a nice touch that brought a smile to my face. Who says the Internet is indecent?)
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Yes Mark's Cyberhome
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/marks_cyberhome/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
By day, Mark's a copier technician, but by night, well, he's "one total and completely outrageous Web page maniac!" Using playful forms and primary colors like something straight out of preschool, Mark has built a website to induce childhood nostalgia. He provides links to kids' online magazines for your cyberparenting pleasure, and also gives pointers to nodes ranging from a shareware gateway to a list of Web cartoons. But the neat thing about Mark's page is its apparent lack of cynicism, a quality you can hire his design team to inject in your domain. Aesthetic: 3 Content: 2 Smarts: 2
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

Brett's Bestest
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~bglenn/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Brett Glenn's splash page asks, "If this were the last day of your life, how would you live?" When you try to enter the site, a Java applet prompts you to confirm that you're breathing. Which pretty much crystallizes the winning humor of this wry sixteen year old. The actual contents of the page, ranging from his wish list of CD's to a diagram of his desk, are fairly useless and he knows it, taking every opportunity to poke fun at himself. Brett's poems, however, exhibit the more promising flipside of his obsession with time misspent.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16

John's house of Weirdness
URL: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/1033/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Zzzzzzzzzz.... John¹s House of Weirdness is yet another Vanity page that offers nothing but an insignificantly shallow insight into the creator¹s life. The usual: links to his friends, significant moments in his Web-wandering life, and the annoyingly ubiquitous Douglas Adams funny face character (whatever the hell it¹s called.) And, of course, the pointless use of Frames. In fact, John¹s ³Thought of the Day² is that ³Frames are most cool!!!² They sure are, but check somebody else¹s site for proof of this. Well, maybe I¹m being too harsh. Kudos to John for at least experimenting with HTML. After all, who am I to talk. I don¹t even *have* a home page.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Jon & Francis Berndt
URL: http://www.hal-pc.org/~jsb/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0596
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Wow! In August, Jon and Francis visited Jon¹s parents in Minnesota. The weather was nice, and ooooh, the pictures! Lake Superior sure looks mighty purty with the boats floating on it. These kind of anecdotes and snapshots give me that same warm fuzzy feeling I get when I read about Jon and Francis¹ family history, also presented on this site. Once you¹ve learned all about the Clan from Derbyshire, check out this pair¹s links of choice. My favorite has to be the ³Presentation of Purported Flaws in Evolution Theory.² Well, maybe the ³Romance Writers¹ Resources² is even a little bit cooler than that. A page only Jon¹s mother could love. Or maybe members of his church.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Willa's Journal
URL: http://darknet.com:80/wcline/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Bonnie J. Burton
Don't expect stories of hatred, sex, and scandal from Willa's Journal. Willa writes about birds, magical candles, and rain. Journals are a dime a disease on the Web and this one stands alone as being the warm and fuzzy one. Not only does Willa write about her daily thoughts on books, poems, and ways to be good to herself, she also keeps an online dream journal. Check out Willa's site when it's raining out and all you feel like doing is sipping coffee and petting a cat.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Bilabong¹s House of Wav¹s
URL: http://www.dakota.net/~bilabong/tommy.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
More correctly titled Bilabong¹s House of Chris Farley, this is the site for Tommy Boy sound samples. So many samples, you might want to download all this stuff and forget renting the movie altogether. An annoying little Java-coded bulletin scrolls across the bottom of the browser window promising to have some Billy Madison, Black Sheep, and Happy Gillmore samples up by the time you read this. I think this guy loves those nutty Saturday Night Live alums a bit too much for his own good. Black Sheep? Please. Only visit this site if you like fat guy jokes without seeing Fatty himself.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Bob and Dave's Wiffleball Page
URL: http://home.ptd.net/~murray49/wiffle.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0696
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: The Spectacle
Green grass and summer nights; we used to play wiffleball Œtill it was so dark we got smacked in the face. So one can imagine how thrilled I am to have a hommage to wiffleball on the Web. With an all to cute hand drawn image of a wiffleball field, history and game synopsis from Bob and Dave wiffleball experiences. There are some quirky layout problems, and a little too much gray, but all in all, this is a fun site for wiffleball fans!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

I'M FULL OF MYSELF
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~dolphin/ego.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Reed Rahlman
This woman was crowned Miss-Babes-O-Rama on Babes of the Web. Whatever. Site has more links than Hormel has sausage. The creator admits to a huge ego, though claims this is tongue in cheek. One gets the impression that in real life, she is good natured and perky, but you still wouldn't want to get cornered at a party by her. The site looks good, with lots of dolphin imagery. It has links to "cool corporate" Web sites, an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Welcome to Witsend
URL: http://www.catt.ncsu.edu/~witsend
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Reed Rahlman
Scott Graham Parkerson is a 22-year-old computer science major ‹ no, really? ‹ at North Carolina State University. He likes anagrams and dislikes Bill Gates. By his photo, he appears to be an all-around fine fellow. Based on his page, if 20 or so years ago I¹d gotten married and had a baby, and that baby was a girl who grew up and met Scott, and Scott asked her out for this Saturday night, and she wanted to go, I¹d give my consent just as long as he promised to keep the anagrams clean, and get her home before midnight. Which I'm sure he would.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Rick's Polyamory Page
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1496/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
Seems Rick wants to sleep with everyone. Fine by me, though I do wonder why he has to chronicle this. No matter, he¹s chosen to enlighten us. Rick thinks we should all have multiple lovers, and explains why on two pages of mediocre construction quality with some less-than-tasteful layout. No, it¹s not the pictures of the scantily clad women that offend me so much (in fact they¹re pretty cute!), but the horrid green background on page two and illogical text . It¹s worth visiting for a chuckle, but don¹t take it too seriously. I would be more impressed if Rick would offer us a nude photo of himself...seeing as how he¹s so free and all.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Andoman's Home Page
URL: http://www.ssimicro.com/~xandoman/firstpg.htm
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
Ando, a high-school senior, selects a series of cool quotes to precede his list of 100 things to do with only100 days left to live. The sure highlight of the site, however, is The ANDO Cam. Every 60 seconds the camera sends a picture from his work at SSI Micro to the page. I never could find him in his work habitat though, nor do I remember work listed in his100-day itinerary!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Enter my World
URL: http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/egswanso/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
A powerful image of sunlight breaking through clouds above Stonehenge leads the visitor into the world of a Chicago college student. The site's creator adds the descriptive detail by documenting everything he comes into contact with: Chicago weather, a few dozen local restaurants, and a mug lineup of all his friends at the Shorey house. With unlimited access to a scanner the boundaries to his world may be unreachable. He, however, always will be, and includes a hypertext version of his class schedule.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Missy's Poetry
URL: http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~g-jaros/missy.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
Missy's site has a simple design; certain hyperlinks take the reader to her poetry, divided into "new stuff" and "old stuff", but effectively it¹s composed of a single, long page. A tour through Missy's collection of poetic endeavors leads deep into her mind...meanwhile an entourage of scattered, pink happy-faces links to Jim Morrison's song lyrics and other cool stuff.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Ron Turner's Home Page
URL: http://www.connect.net/ron/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
A tripped-out yellow alien welcomes site visitors, waving from within a brown seventies-style layout. From there it's a run-down of Ron¹s personality and pursuits: Scorpio, Zen Buddhist, X-Files fan, Director of Info Systems. Ron is heavily into Gino Vannelli, busy creating a fanzine for the jazz musician with a complete discography and summary of Gino's works. That's some fan dedication, especially from someone with nearly a dozen interests of his own to pursue!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Russ Emerson's Home Page
URL: http://members.aol.com/dutch/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
Russ Emerson's life-simulation Web site starts off a bit drab, then expands into an indulgent and elaborate autobiography, from birth to school to a career in military intelligence. A keeper of an "I Love Me" page with links to the "Bald is Beautiful" Hall of Fame, Russ gets away with shameless narcissism by maintaining thorough links to outside sources from his life: cities he lived in, alma maters, organizations, his favorite things and even the general language sites of all the languages he speaks.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Thomepage
URL: http://tcw2.ppsw.rug.nl/~thomas/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
The opening screen is alarming...like driving alone late at night and coming across a section of road with night crews and flashing red lights. Who maintains this roadside beacon? A bright young kid from the Netherlands, sporting a toothy smile. How bright? His site employs a little double entendre, offering a"Wet Look" and providing a photo of him that looks like it washed up on a beach. Under Construction with Java Apps, and written in English, Thomas is definitely a clever young lad!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Trillium's World
URL: http://www.nebula.net/~trillium/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
The serene blue sky in the background contrasts with Trillium's lead announcement: This page is "the FUTURE site of the 'Unofficial Shades of Evil Home Page.² There¹s already a direct link to a BBS by that name! Trillium, active in the online-community since 1993 is a devotee of Wicca (some kind of witchy thing) and provides links to her favorite Pagan resources. Most resources were unavailable at review time, probably due to construction woes from the Shades of Evil crew.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Madeleine's Homepage
URL: http://www.wineasy.se/bjornt/madde.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
Madeleine's Homepage is not without its problems. Admittedly, Madeleine Endre keeps her visitors posted on what doesn't work at her site, such as the counter and some of her pictures. However, what does work is her Lipstick Page. Categorizing cosmetic companies by country, providing names and styles of lip wear that models and actresses use, and providing on-line color swatches of everything from Clinque's "Applesauce" to Urban Decay's "Roach" lipsticks, Endre's Web site has lots of information on pucker colors and care. Hers is a great site to visit if you want to change lipsticks without being at the cosmetics counter.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

SyddWare
URL: http://www.clark.net/pub/jrsouza/realhome.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0896
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Diedra Ramsey
His name is Jeff, but call him Sydd. Jeffrey Souza is the Web designer for SyddWare, a home page that provides links to C Code Unix scripts and free application programs. (Yeah, technical stuff.) Sydd also has this thing for rubber duckies, pigs, cows and bugs. So, once you¹re done retrieving scripting tools, hop over to Sydd's Internet Zoo, which promises to have some fun attractions. SyddWare is easy to follow, but, aside from a few rubber duckies and bugs, it lacks graphics.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

The Barry Zone
URL: http://web.idirect.com/~baryzone
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Another vanity site where someone shares their personal experiences. Barry was part of the crew who traveled with the Rolling Stones to make the *At the Max* film, and he¹s posted selections from his journal from that time. No real dirt on Mick or Keith, but then again, he's only posted the first three entries. Barry also writes of his experiences working on the Monarch Butterfly movie for IMAX, which actually seems more exciting than following the Stones. Finally, Barry is a new dad. Link to his son Ross's page to find out more. The Stones, butterflies, and babies... I love the Web!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Wool and Water
URL: http://www.users.interport.net/~kmilai/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Named after a chapter in *Through the Looking Glass*, Wool and Water is the graphically interesting home page of Kim Milai, musician, teacher, and software developer in New York. Kim's site is primarily a collection of links--X Files, Lewis Carroll, spelunking, etc.--but she is also the creator of a fine site devoted to Friday The 13th: The Series. Plenty of scary stuff for diehard fans. Also exciting is the site Kim designed for a NYC elementary school. After all, those kids are the digital future. We're just playing in their world.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

The Real Kramer Home Page
URL: http://www.bway.net/~kramer/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Seinfeld fans take note: Kenny Kramer is a force to be reckoned with. Kenny lives across the hall from Seinfeld executive producer and co-creator Larry David, and was the inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character! Now, the real Kramer has put together a Reality Tour of New York City to bring fans to the places made famous on Seinfeld. Visit Monk's Restaurant, Elaine's office building, and even The Soup Shop! (Don't call Al "the Soup Nazi" though--he won't be pleased.) If you're a Seinfan, this site will hook you with snapshots from the tour, but you'll have to head to NYC for the real thing.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Jason's World
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~JTownsend/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Experience life as a teenager again through the eyes of Jason, your Web master. Read about Jason hitting the mall for the latest Smashing Pumpkins' release. ("It's got some cool music on it, and also some of the crappiest I've ever heard," he says.) Find out about the three things Jason does to escape the boredom of the "dungeon" (school). (Thinking of Pamela Anderson Lee "running very swiftly across a beach" is activity #1.) And.... Vote on who next month's featured "Babe" should be. This month is Ms. Lee of course. I voted for Alanis Moressette for next month (the choices were limited). Jason said his favorite food and drink is pizza and Coke. Mine too! Jason, I'll meet you at the mall.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

ChezMark!
URL: http://www.ualberta.ca/~mmalowan/ChezMark.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Mark Malowany is a self-professed computer geek or "MacGink," as he puts it. Using frames, his home page smoothly links you to mostly Macintosh and internet-related material. In his bio, you learn that Mark has spent some time schlepping around in "alternative" bands with unfortunate names like Picasso's Puke, StarBabies, and Elephants Gerald. You can download their music while you're browsing a news-page devoted to things like PGP and Canadian politics. In short, this is a serviceable newsletter from a fellow whose life is consumed by HTML tags and graphics design.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Terry Tourangeau's Home Page
URL: http://www.mulberry.com/~touran
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Using a chain of links as a visual throughline, Terry has designed a smooth, if somewhat uninspired and low-res, interface to showcase his hobbies. His personal page reveals that he's just 15 years old and spends enough time NASCAR racing on his computer to be ranked number 42 in the world, so who can blame him if the page isn¹t everyting it could be? Pages of links point to utilities and sports-related sites. But the main attraction here seems to be a page devoted to 'the magic' of POV-Ray, a text-based 3D-rendering program. As he continues to hone his design skills, no doubt Terry's page will improve.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Liquid Insanity
URL: http://users.visi.net/icculus/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
I'm not really sure what the significance of "Liquid Insanity" is, but it¹s the alias of hacker/geek Adam, and this is his website. The graphic quality of the site is quite good, with letters fashioned out of mercury and a zingy textured background. Other highlights are "Bill Gates is Satan!," which offers concrete numerological proof that Bill Gates is indeed Old Scratch himself, and "Your Child is a Hacker," a list for parents to help them determine whether their child is a hacker. (Note to Adam: you should add "can't spell" to this list.)
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Reverie
URL: http://www.walrus.com/~jerd/reverie/page1.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
I wanted to like Reverie. The opening page is simple and elegant with a camera and notebook side by side on a black background. Click on the camera, and view black and white photographs, many of which are quite artistic. However, click on the ³dream journal,² and it's another story. It's a known fact that dreams are infinitely fascinating to the dreamer (and maybe their psychiatrist), but incredibly boring to everyone else. Who wants to read, in minute detail, the dreams of a total stranger about whom you know nothing? Without any context or discussion of personal revelation, it's self-indulgent and soporific.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Scott¹s House of Cheese
URL: http://www.europa.com/~scottycs/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Remember the cheese shop sketch from the Flying Circus? Scott C. Smith¹s House of Cheese is sort of like that: no cheese anywhere in sight. Select one of two versions: Full Cheese or Low Fat, ³now with less glug.² When I tried, either choice gave me the same thing: a small, but diverse collection of links, and not of them as cheesy as the scrolling message bar would have you believe. Links are in place to such sites as The Late Show, Duke Nuke Em, The Defense Information School (Scott¹s alma mater), and Info Seek -- nothing too cheesy there. Even Scott¹s own movie reviews are earnest and straightforward, if not exactly uninspired. I guess there¹s something to that old adage, excuse me, ad: ³It ain¹t easy bein¹ cheesy.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

The Couch
URL: http://www.castboy.com/menu.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Welcome to The Couch, Castboy¹s guide to Hollywood Babylon. Unoficially, that is. Billy Damota, a.k.a. Castboy, is -- you guessed it -- a casting agent. In Hollywood, no less. As such, the main course here seems to be a lot of grainy snapshots of our host and various luminaries from Arnold Scharznegger to Morton Downey, Jr. Not exactly the company I¹d want to keep, but, hey, what the hell. Quite a chameleon, Castboy is, sporting a new look for every occasion. Beyond that, the page is one big indulgence, (in keeping with the Vanity category), unfortunately marked by a lame sense of humor. To wit, the section called, Women Who Have Pissed Me Off. I know it¹s a joke, Billy. It¹s just not very funny.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

No One's Daughter
URL: http://www.iol.ie/~fatcity
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
N.O.D. consists of several pages of links on a variety of subjects dear to the heart of our mysterious Web author in New Orleans. A graphic designer with a good eye for layout, Leigh's created some striking pages for these links, ranging in matter from a definitive resource for Noam Chomsky's work to a page on New Orleans music and nightlife. The link titled "Leigh is..." points you to an abstracted photo-collage embellished with words including "Buddhist," "mother," and "paranoid." Plenty of links, not much personality.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

VamPress
URL: http://cc.usu.edu/~slh4w/vampire/vampire.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
Laborious, repetitive stories and poems about fangs, blood, necks and the erotic combination of the three comprise this site. The Vampire Paper, a work in progress by the Web mistress, is however, informative and thoughtful. Unfortunately, the site is marred by misspellings throughout. The author of it all is Poppy Z. Brite, who has five books to her credit and numerous short stories, all of which are described as ³erotic horror.² According to Poppy, there are many vampire pages, and a large following out there. What the appeal is I¹m not sure. Or maybe I¹d rather not know. I suppose, for the right vamfan, VamPress offers something bloody interesting.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Feff
URL: http://www.gti.net/dpalermo/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
A collegiate romp, Feff World is brought to you by Doug Pelermo and Joe Hewitt, whose combined talents deliver oft-funny writing and formidable graphics. Choose from two interactive projects, The Feff World Quiz and The Race for President. Visit Feff World¹s own cybersoap, Agnew Valley, a ³never-ending saga². You can also learn everything there is to know about the mudpuppy, the official site mascot. A few comic links, a few laughsŠlot¹s of potential, if not a whole lot of meat.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Art, Naked
URL: http://www.nj.com/artnaked
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0197
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Emily Soares
This page is actually a column for New Jersey Online and has the ad banners and slick production to prove it. Art Naked is all about a guy named Art. Da Column is devoted to Art¹s most recent doings. Art on Art is more of the same. In fact, Art writes almost solely about Art with minor asides on beer, bars, and bands. Art updates the column weekly. He¹s an early twenties ³cyberjournalist² who¹s ³looking for the right woman,² and he¹s living at home which you can read about in the appropriately named piece ³Living at Home Sucks.² Worth a visit, I suppose, if you too are ³in search of beer, babes, and fun²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15

Jeff's House of Illegal Bodily Functions
URL: http://www.wco.com/~jeffg/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Jeff Gerstmann shows he¹s a kid with attitude. The very beginning of his home page carries the phrase: ³Anger is my business and business is good.² Come on, Jeff, let go of the rage. Well, a young man living in Northern California will find a lot to rebel against, and Jeff chooses interesting ways to express himself. There is his page devoted to Jack, the spokes clown for Jack in the Box, the page describing his public access show, Doughnut Wednesday, and his CUD collection, with way too much rap in it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Joel Sandler
URL: http://pages.prodigy.com/joelsandler/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0796
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Jason Sneed
Joel's first home page began as a means to keep in contact with his parents (Down Under in Australia) from his native Northeast (Delaware). So what's Joel got going on? Photos from the blizzard of '96, his graduation from the accelerated class of Nursing at the University of Delaware, and a note of kudos to his Pops - for getting elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Not much for the outsider but a great reminder to call your folks!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

The Great Kat
URL: http://www.greatkat.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Does The Great Kat always wander the streets dressed in leather underwear and covered in fake blood, or is this just her day job? Is The Great Kat really God? These, and other questions, come to mind while browsing her highness's web site. Looking like a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and Courtney Love, this Juilliard graduate turned heavy metal guitar soloist/S&M she-witch hawks her CD's, posters, and Lacy Panties to masochists everywhere (I mean that). Check out the lyrics to some of her best known tunes, Kat-Abuse and Ultra-Dead, and worship at the High Priestess of Guitar Shred¹s cyber-alter, or else!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14

Toastie's Aremid Palace
URL: http://www.duke.edu/~superdav/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Well, the name is intriguing, but that¹s about it. This student at Duke University falls short of witty, defends his affiliation with a fraternity, and is a big fan of ³Days of our Lives.² And he¹s almost a big enough fan to put original material on his ³Days² page, but he hasn¹t gotten around to it, so he¹s just included links to other ³Days² pages. He does include a page of his favorite music, such as Bryan Adams and Yanni, with links to other Web resources devoted to them. Come on, Toastie, let¹s jump on that original content bandwagon.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

Richard Quodomine's CS cluster home page
URL: http://www.macronet.com.~richq/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Reed Rahlman
Richard is an International and world Trade Major and Computer minor who likes Motley Crue, the Buffalo Bills, and his friend's home pages. Because he can, he has decided to share this with the world. Good for him. If you like International and World Trade, computers, the Buffalo Bills, and Motley Crue, too, maybe you and Richard can exchange e-mail. I'm sure he'd like that.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

The Aesthete's List
URL: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dward/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
The Aesthete's List, Diane Ward's home page, is dedicated to art, poetry, philosophy, and other cerebral subjects. An obvious bibliophile, (her day job is Cataloguer at the SUNY Buffalo library), she has assembled an impressive collection of links related to poetry, novels, art, artists, international news, culture, and the environment. Graphics clearly aren't priority number one, and there is an overly serious, almost prissy tone to the site, but aesthete's everywhere will find it a good jumping off place into the more academic world on the Internet.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

The Macintosh Funnies
URL: http://www.wolfenet.com/~pminer/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Our host, Pete Miner, on Bill Gates: "Big deal, I'd have 18 billion dollars too if I owned Microsoft!" Pete¹s a cut-up, see, and his material, such as it is, all revolves around computers; or, rather, Macintosh vis-a-vis Microsoft. Is this fertile ground for comedy? Pete obviously thinks so. And, since I suspect Pete is a very nice, well-meaning guy (as are most bores), I¹ll let you be the judge. Pete tries his hand at all manner of comic monologue, here, including a little Vogon poetry and a semi-clever self interview. Family members contribute to his online follies as well. So judge for yourself, but I think you¹ll agree that the line I quoted at the beginning is as good as it gets. And how good is that?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13

Virtuality's Webspace
URL: http://www.dnai.com/~virt/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Virtuality combines professional design, first-class artwork, and a dry sense of humor to create a personal page that looks like it¹s from a big organization. J. Robinson¹s bio is the right way to do a resume on the Web. It looks good, and has all the pertinent information. Entertaining, too. The requisite page of links is enhanced by a set of small photos of the linkees. Not everyone can produce pages like this, but you may get some good ideas during a quick visit.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

First Brian of 96
URL: http://streams.com:80/brian/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Shel Kimen
The Life of Brian. Yes. A song, or a play, or a movie laced with melodrama and creativity. The Life of Brian. The site is small, and it¹s not a glorious manifestation of HTML wizardry. Don¹t get me wrong, it¹s extremely nice to look at. Smooth. Clean and Fresh. But Brian isn¹t about barraging us with spectacle-like images of neon blisters, and radiant blasters. No blinks. No trash. Brian¹s is a different sort of home page that loads up looking like one might expect an e-zine to look like. The dateline: Year 2/Version 1. And first on Brian¹s list is, in fact, Brian. He won¹t tell you what his favorite colors are, or why he¹s built a home page for the Web. He doesn¹t want to show you pictures of his pet poodle, either. Instead Brian captivates up with ³Weekly Cycles, ² a regularly updated story-essay-idea that spans a few pages of insightful and intelligent thought. He¹s a wonderful writer with wonderful tales to tell. There is an archive of past Weekly Cycles, and I recommend reading them. There¹s also a fantastic interview with graphic artists-photocopy zine extraordinaire Michael Diana, who has been dealing with censorship issues of his work for the last few years. The most disturbing incident occurred when Michael was arrested as a suspect to a murder in Florida because his comics depict graphically violent themes. (He says they¹re ³influenced by television and radio.²) After the arrest, various political officials told him to ³not publish [the] gross comic.² The rest of the story is equally as, if not more, interesting, and definitely should be read. The interview comes with a few downloadable video clips of the meeting between Michael and Brian, and links to various freedom of speech organizations. For the interactive ³fun² component, Brian has a snazzy CGI script asking people to document why their lives are pathetic. Some of the posts are entertaining, and some have nothing to do with pathetic lives. But the concept is worth something, and it¹s not Brian¹s fault if not every cybersurfer is creative. Brian is also responsible for the infamous Piercing Mildred site. You get to pierce a cartoon Mildred (or bonus other characters), scar them with your own design, or heal infections. There are contests with outstanding prizes ‹ like the infamous Wicker Park Jumping Spider or a rubber fish, and so on and so on. Humor. Entertainment. A flurry of creativity. Brain stole my heart.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S Project
URL: http://www.rice.edu/~gouge/twinkies.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
What could a bunch of college students do with an assortment of ³scientific² equipment, and a batch of tasty polymer-based snack cakes during finals week? Answer: Subject them to a series of rigorous tests, and post the results on the Web for the scientific community to see. Who has time to study when the mysteries of the universe remain locked in a creamy Twinkie? Witness the rapid oxidation test (lighting it on fire); the soluability test (dunking it in water); the density test (whipping it up in a blender); and others. Locked inside each cake is an engineering marvel that could change the world as we know it!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

Big Poppas Hot Tub
URL: http://remus.rutgers.edu/~bigcee/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Gary Barker
Corey Wilkins, a psychology student who loves it when you call him ³Big Poppa," invites you to check out his picture -- "I'm 6'7" 295 lbs, milk chocolate complexion, bald head, goatee, almond shaped dark eyes that always look like they may or may not be open (heh)" -- his links, his saccharine shout-out to the Creator and all his pimps and playas and playettes and so forth. For your downloading pleasures, Poppa stocks a mess of Quicktime videos from MTV. Basically, if he digs something, like the NBA, Poppa drops a link into his page. Vanity, in short.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

E. Jean Carroll
URL: http://www.askejean.com/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
A Dan Savage for the straight (and square), E. Jean Carroll has a sexual advice column in the pages of Elle Magazine called Ask E. Jean. A former Miss Cheerleader U.S.A., specializes in a kind of coy drollery (punctuated ad nauseum with false familiarities, like ³deary² and ³darling²) that manges to be patronizing, offensive, and fatuous all at the same time. Of course, if you write to her with your problems, then you deserve what you get. Then too, she¹s not as bad as so many others of her ilk. All the same, her gray little page smacks of insincerity and makes her notoriety, however minor, seem totally unwarranted. Excerpts of her columns and pitches for her book are about the extent of the content.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 12

Marcel Valcarce's Place
URL: http://www.phatbits.com/mv/mv.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Marcel¹s a computer guy, and it shows. His personal page is very well-designed, but mostly consists of a resume and a gallery of his 3-D art and animation. A pictorial series of an alien invasion of Earth is really cool and worth checking out. And the rest of the sci-fi themed pictures are almost as imaginative. The resume, though, is another story. It¹s just a dry litany of the millions of programs and systems Marcel is an expert at. For some reason, it gets equal billing with the gallery. Maybe something more personal or revealing would have been better.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 11

Spooky PEZ
URL: http://redwood.northcoast.com/~shojo/PEZ/pez.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
WARNING! PEZ aren¹t the lovable li¹l icons people make them out to be, but in fact are the most evil candy on the market today. The Spooky Pez Page was created to expose this child-damning conspiracy, and save millions of unsuspecting tykes. Can¹t you see the Evil Skull Dispenser laughing at YOU? Anyone with children should heed these warnings. Be sure to catch the letters section filled with the ignorant pleas of PEZ defenders. They¹re just minions of Satan. Now if people will only listen to my warnings about the Scary Snickers and Creepy Cracker Jacks. BEWARE!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 11

La Home Page de Mario Contreras
URL: http://rampages.onramp.net/~poohbah/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Mario Contreras¹ good design sense coupled with some amusing content makes for a pretty decent site. There¹s a picture of Mario posing with friends, a gallery of artsy photos, and a bit about Mario¹s work. The best part is the Babe of the Week page. Even though it¹s a bit derivative, Mario highlights chicks from the net, and profiles their sites complete with links and GIFs. The week I was there, Mario spotlighted this cute pop singer from the Philippines. Mmmm. It might be creepy, but it works for me.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 10

koolthing.html
URL: http://ni.net/quikslvr.com/koolthing.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
This site is a portfolio of sorts for a design firm, and it shows. The look is clean and simple. The photomontage artwork is first-class. The content mostly consists of links ‹ to galleries on the Web, arty sites, and to other links. The whole effect comes off as a bit pretentious, with each grouping of links headed by a wordy introduction espousing random postmodern drivel. And if you¹re one of the 10 percent who use a text browser, don¹t bother to visit. he place becomes unnavigable. Otherwise, it¹s a nice set of links to places I didn¹t feel like going.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 9

The Wonderful World of Sam Padgett
URL: http://cec.wustl.edu/~sgp1/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Sam leads a charmed life. He¹s posted pictures of his friends with links to their home pages, photos of him on his recent trip to Israel, and links to his favorite places. I liked his buttons best. I¹ve seen thousands of hyper-linked buttons before, but these are special. I just wanted to keep on pressing them. Forever. After immersing myself in Sam¹s world, I think I might be able to walk up to his dorm and insinuate myself into his life, insisting I was his best friend in Israel or something.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 9

Bepler's Home on Whidbey
URL: http://www.whidbey.net/~bepler/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
The Beplers are married graphic designers who live on an island somewhere, designing their little hearts away. And it shows. This site is nicely designed: colorful, easy to navigate, and just plain good-looking. From their homepage, you can learn all about them, their families, their island, and their work. The only problem is that the information is on the skimpy side. What do they like? What *are* they like? I want more. The site is more than just a homepage, it¹s an online family. Unfortunately, they come off as the boring kind of family that never goes home after the barbeque.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 9

The Home Page of Randal L Schwartz at Thu 30 Nov 1995 22 54 14 GMT
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~merlyn/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Randal Schwartz is a .net -god who¹s been ³surfing² since it was possible to read every Usenet message posted that day in about 30 minutes. Randal has his hands in many pots. In addition to his well-known standing as a PERL language expert, he writes computer books, pilots planes, karaokes until eardrums pop, and skis down hills very fast. He¹s also been busted by the Oregon authorities for stealing passwords from Intel. Follow the scandalous story here, and you will not be disappointed.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 7

Odd Todd's Home Page of Immaturity
URL: http://www.rice.edu/~stadler/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Is Todd Odd? Not any more bizarre than any other net denizen. Todd just documents his life on the Web. In detail. Kermit the frog greets you and with a friendly Hi-Ho points you to learn about Todd¹s band, the music he likes, the friends he keeps. There¹s a special page dedicated to the ceiling of his room. It¹s all pretty amusing. I especially liked the dictionary of terms he uses in his Web page for words like Erg, Blah, and Farq. Rice University might not be the same without Todd. Just don¹t call him Weird.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 7

Aaron Fuegi's personal page
URL: http://www.bu.edu/~aarondf/aboutme.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Everything you¹d want to know about Aaron is here, and he¹ll send you to the ends of the earth perusing his interests. Aaron likes gaming. Aaron likes backpacking. Aaron likes science fiction. Aaron likes to collect quotes. Aaron likes his job. Aaron also cobbles together some great pages NOT about himself, too. The best of these is his Daily Web Paper, in which he extracts news, sports, weather, and other information from a wide variety of other sources on the Web and edits them together on one sheet. Automatically. To think he almost became a lawyer!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 7

Slade's WWWorld
URL: http://www.midwest.net/scribers/esh/index.htm
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Slade¹s a guy who likes to chat. On his homepage, you¹ll find links to all sorts of chatty lands in which to fritter away your time. He¹s also put together a mildly interesting Almanac page which links to a bunch of different, ever-changing resources, like the weather, news of the weird, and comics. This site isn¹t otherwise too remarkable. There are links to major rock bands, links to computing stuff, and a million bonus links presented in no particular order that may or may not interest Slade. Slade knows how to put together a good-looking page, but can¹t seem to decide what to put on it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 7

Toolman
URL: http://www.holli.com/~toolman/nettool.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
If you like woodworking, power tools, or the men that use them, this site is worth a look. Like any good personal page, you get a sense of who Toolman is, what he likes and hates, and what he thinks about. In his Woodworking area, you can learn about how to put together shelves and things, and about the tools you¹ll need to do it. Did you know that there are IRC channels on which you can discuss beltsanding? Besides tools, he rants on why AOL sucks, lists a recipe for his fave meatloaf, posts a picture of his wife, and has a set of links relating to his ultimate power tool, the computer. I just wouldn¹t try to plane a board with it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 7

2oz.Dry
URL: http://www.fishnet.net/~zeke-k/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
2oz. Dry contains a collection of stuff by Zeke. Inside his realm of Browntown, one will find pictures of Space Toys, a photo album, and some random musings that are the highlight of the site. These little stories are humorous and odd in a Douglas Adams/Terry Prachett sort of way. Some are good, some, incomprehensible. The best one I read was about a myriad of terrible fates that would befall you if you didn¹t tie your shoe laces. With a few more good pieces like that, the site would be a few ounces heavier.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 6

Phil's Plethora of Pages
URL: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~pollarpe/index.html
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
Phil swears his pages suck, but they don¹t. His Werewolf page is really fun, and his Disney Pages are a great resource for fans. Some of his pages however, have a hastily, slapped-together look. If he took the time to index and conform the design of all his pages and personal information a bit more, he¹d have a nice portfolio here. It could have something to do with living in Lynchburg, VA. Last time I was there, it reeked of dog food from a local factory.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 6

Countdown to Scott's Web Page of Funkiness
URL: http://www.li.net/~gpollack/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Scott¹s the funkiest 9th grader around, and he knows the Web well. His homepage comes in a variety of flavors, servicing browsers from the mightiest Netscape to the lowliest Lynx. This site mainly consists of links to other places, and is peppered with cute, but not very funky, cartoons. He¹s got a comprehensive list of martial arts sites, gaming sites, and sound sample sites. If one day, Scott launches into the shameless self-promotion common to vanity pages, I won¹t hold it against him. He knows taekwondoe, and could probably kick my ass.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 6

NoLan W3
URL: http://www.hooked.net/users/nolanm/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
NoLan consists of a big image map that links to sites that I presume the author¹s interested in: law, education, art, Web stuff, computer shenanigans ‹ links o¹ plenty. Besides an M.C. Escher fetish, there¹s nothing here to distinguish this site from any other set of links. Sometimes I think one could spend days on the Web linking between link pages. Link after link after link. Try adding a little content.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 6

The Crispen Family
URL: http://hiwaay.net/~crispen/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Bob Crispen is an aerospace research guy who publishes a page on his nuclear family. Bob, along with Kelly, Patrick, Robert, and the lovable FoxyToo, post pages listing the stuff they do, and the things they like, along with links to their own pages if they got Œem. Then there is, of course, the huge, *huge* set of links. I wouldn¹t be surprised if a sizable chunk of the Internet is listed on here. The Crispens are a surprisingly wired family, except perhaps for FoxyToo, who I think is probably too busy fretting in the shadow of Foxy the First to hammer out a page of its own.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 6

Barbara's Land
URL: http://metro.turnpike.net/B/bluebird/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0396
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt
The one thing going for Bluebird the Mensa Mom¹s home page is that she¹s not a college kid on the Web. Her personality only occasionally shines though her barrage of links. Besides the usual ones to friends¹ pages, hobbies, and interests, Barbara has created a set of links by color. Red Links go to places that have ³red² in their name. Blue Links go to ³blue² stuff. You get the idea. There is also an index of humor text documents she keeps handy. You know, the kind that are e-mailed around the world seven times? Some of it¹s funny, some isn¹t. Some of this page works. Some doesn¹t.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 5

Chris and Kori's
URL: http://www.flnet.com/~ck1/
Category: Vanity Pages
Issue: 0496
Content Quality: Not Rated
Aesthetic Quality: Not Rated
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Matt Patterson
Chris and Kori are the drippiest couple in Sarasota, Florida, and perhaps do more damage to their town¹s fine reputation than a frisky Pee Wee Herman could ever hope to. They live with two ³adorable² cats, drive a nifty Honda and a sporty Mercury Cougar, and like listening to bad stadium rock. Imagine all this information at your fingertips. The latest Chris-and-Kori news at press time is that they¹re getting married. Ugh. And to think Sarasota was such a nice town.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 5