Date: Fri 03-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Fourth-Of-July

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: 4th of July

By Bob Brand

Independence Day! We celebrate the birth of our nation as the summer rolls

into full swing. In some parts of the country, we attend a parade and watch

our reflections from highly polished chrome on fire trucks rolling down the

middle of Main Street, USA. Some of us fight the traffic, get out on the

highway and come together with family and friends for an outdoor barbecue. At

dusk, we may spray on bug repellent and head toward a fireworks display under

the stars.

Alternatively, some of us may attach a long phone extension and watch it all

on the Web while swinging in a hammock under a shady tree with a laptop

computer and a chilled beverage nearby. The glories of technology! With just a

few keystrokes, here is what you might find.

Fire Trucks

Almost everything you wanted to know about fire trucks can be found at the

on-line magazine (e-zine): www.firetrucks.com. Included here are links to

manufacturers of fire equipment, a text search engine of the firetrucks.com

site, home pages of volunteer fire departments all across the country and much

more.

Naturally, I wanted to see if my hometown fire company had a website. I was

disappointed to find only 12 Connecticut fire departments listed but Newtown

was not among them. The largest group represented was New York State (43)

followed by California (38). The unofficial website for The Kennedy Space

Center Fire Fighters is worth a visit.

Barbecue Lighting

When it comes to the pesky job of igniting the charcoal for the franks and

burgers, we must revisit George Goble's grill lighting at the September 3,

1994 picnic. Although I first wrote about this world record feat in May 1997,

no 4th of July would be complete without a visit here. Many of us have higher

speed modems now. There is no substitute for the sights and sounds of watching

60 pounds of charcoal disappear with the help of 3 gallons of LOX (liquid

oxygen rocket propellant). From everything I can see, the website is going as

strong as ever. Goble seems to have garnered a few more awards since my last

visit.

As long as you are surfing the wacky side of the web, why not stop in at the

Infamous Exploding Whale and the Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches websites

made cyber-famous by the humorist Dave Barry.

Fireworks

Often, we associate the 4th of July with fireworks. The Internet makes

available for purchase from complete $20-$30,000 fireworks shows (permits

extra) by Grucci and Alonzo down to rockets, sparklers and firecrackers.

(Note: there are often restrictions on shipping these materials.) Because of

increased costs and other problems with fireworks displays, local events get

harder to find and more expensive when found. Perhaps we must settle for

images of fireworks displays -- also available on the Net at more reasonable

prices. Of course, we are unable to smell the burnt powder and suffer the ear

bleeding explosions provided by a live fireworks show, but the

cyber-experience is certainly less hazardous. It is doubtful that the Net will

ever provide a suitable substitute for a live show.

Where Will I Be?

My brother-in-law hosts an annual 4th of July family picnic/barbecue in New

Jersey. On the trek down there, we wait at the toll booth with the rest of the

holiday travelers in order to cross the Hudson River and fight the traffic

bound for the Jersey shore. Once we join family and friends, we raise a toast

to our founding fathers and the good health of our kin. A visit to a few

websites tops off the day.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.firetrucks.com/index.html

http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/

http://www.indexstock.com/pages/firework.htm

http://www.alonzofireworks.com/

http://licvb.com/liguide/Grucci.htm

(This is the 110th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, Kinder, Gentler Net is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until

next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info

for Real People (including links to sites mentioned in this article) can be

found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to:

rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)