May News Today is:

The radio version of Paul Revere

Many of you will remember from history that Paul Revere was the rider who warned the colonists that the British were coming. Because of the advent of computers and radios the rider on horse back is no longer needed. However the need to be warned about bad weather approaching your area has not changed, especially in Oklahoma during the Spring.

Last spring I purchased a weather warning radio from Walmart. It was made by Midland. The model I chose cost about $30.00 and also functioned as a clock radio.

http://www.midlandradio.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=3105

After being awakened at 4AM several times during the year because of severe weather in Stillwater (I live south of Oklahoma City), I learned you can put in a few codes and be alerted only if the warning is in your county or the neighboring counties if you so choose.

When the alert goes off you hit the "alert/snooze" button and hear that metallic voice from the NOAA (http://www.nws.oaa.gov) in Norman telling you about the warning. You know the same voice you hear in the restrooms at the gas station halfway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

There are several sites that specialize in these types of radios.

http://www.weatherradiostore.com

http://www.ambientweather.com

http://www.smithgear.com

I highly recommend that you obtain one of these radios and program it so that you are warned if there is severe weather in your area while you are sleeping.

Happy Surfing and Stay Safe!

Timothy J. Kilkenny
Founder & CEO
tim@fullnet.net

Happy Digging!

Whether you're a gardening neophyte, making your first attempt at beautifying the backyard, or a horticultural heavyweight, researching the origins of Nepeta cataria, the Web has become a tool few gardeners can live without.

Not only will you find an endless array of catalog and nursery sites (which you'll find amply listed and reviewed in Dave's Garden), but gardening mavens will find a profusion of plant databases, garden plans, video tutorials and online design tools. Here are a couple of our favorite sites:

Dave's Garden at http://www.davesgarden.com is a vibrant knowledge exchange for gardeners of every variety. Its 89 discussion boards buzzing with activity on topics from African violets to xeriscaping. (Post a photo with your thread to spur discussion). The community-supported plant database boasts 90,000 entries and some 6,000 images. Did you know that there are more than 90 species of Japanese maples? Most useful: The Garden Watchdog, featuring consumer reviews of 4,000 mail-order companies, from Jackson-Perkins to Peaceful Valley Farm. Some 50 topical categories make searching easy, whether your passion is edible mushrooms or palms and cycads. And when you run across terms like "malacophilous," as you will frequently in the Latin-derived world of plants, then click Botanary and Garden Terms. (For the record, it means "pollinated by snails.")

The National Gardening Association at http://www.garden.org understands that all gardening is local, and this venerable organization has tailored its Web content accordingly. Every month, ten regional guides provide colorful commentaries on the gardening life in their climatic zone, from listings of local garden shows to region-specific reminders and projects. One good example: A tutorial by Kate Jerome (from the Northern and Central Midwest area) on forcing forsythia branches indoors to chase away the winter blues. Need a specific question answered? Visit the Q&A Library, featuring more than 28,000 questions. How to build a cold frame? It's there. How to prune clematis? You'll find 475 answers. If you've got a minute, peruse hundreds of topical articles and how-to guides, from "Preparing Soil for Greens" to "Orchestrating Color throughout the Season," all with colorful photos.

Happy (And Safe) Surfing From Your Friends at FullNet!

Roger Baresel
President

Froogle Rock!

No, it's not a children's television series on Saturday morning, but it can be just as colorful and fun! Seriously - have you Froogled lately? You need to! With speculation of Google coming to Oklahoma, perhaps you should make use of some of their really cool tools on line!

Google has an absolutely awesome product search known as Froogle that is a must for any on line shopping. There are a ton of places to shop and find deals on line these days. Woot.com just had a killer computer for only $359.99 and only $5 shipping, a similar one on http://www.ebay.com for $379 (plus $30 shipping) and there are always deals if you want to peruse through the choices at http://bizrate.com or http://www.smartshopper.com.

I just recently purchased a $100 lens cover (salvage price) for my car's blinker for $25! And I did not wade through http://www.lastminute-auction.com There are deals to be had for the frugal shopper! (Pun intended)

The catch is that no one has time to visit 472 web sites trying to save money. And even if you did there is a good chance you would miss the one big bargain out there. Let Froogle do it for you. Type http://froogle.com into the address bar of your browser and you will see Google product search. Type what you are looking for in the box and hit 'search'.

Froogle will go out to the web and search through all of the places you would find and tons more in the blink of an eye and bring you back a list. It will tell you how many places it found your product and how long it took to get it all together as well as let you sort by cost, relevance, product rating or whatever order you want.

Try finding a game boy advanced - in 0.15 seconds it brought me a list of 18,842 items and where to get them! Now sort by cost (low to high for me) and in less than a minute I see that I can buy one for $51 from JJ Games instead of $79 from a local retailer or $98 on eBay! It would have taken me all day to do 1/10th of that and I fear I still would have paid some guy on eBay the $98 thinking I got a great deal!

So-Be Froogle! And happy shopping...

John A. Secondi
Customer Service Manager
1-877-385-5832
support@fullnet.net