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Once the top-secret domain of the military and privileged others, more and more earthly images are becoming available for us average Joe's. Claiming to be the "only instantaneous supplier of earth imagery to e-businesses over the Internet," www.GlobeXplorer.com offers up images from a variety of sources with amazing resolution (often down to 1 meter!). Many images are in full color. You can even type in (US) addresses and get aerial images of the location, accompanied (in most cases) by a small MapQuest locator map, or you can use the available options to select locations such as major cities and airports around the world.

No longer do you have to climb the mountain to seek wisdom (well, some of you may still have to). There’s a free program called GuruNet that can help. Don’t understand a word used in a document you’re reading? Wonder where that city is located? No sweat, just hold down the ALT key and click on the troublesome word, and you’ll see your answer almost instantly (if you’re connected to the Internet). And if you don’t want to download and install the software, you can get the same info from their website at www.gurunet.com. I’s also smart enough to use context and capitalization to differentiate between word and phrase meanings. Not that it isn’t difficult to stump the Guru, but that will get harder with time and patience. May the Force be with you.

Yes, you can navigate the Web with voice-recognition software. If you have the necessary hardware, you might want to give it a try. You can download a free, limited-time express version of the software package Conversa Web (version 3.0) from www.conversa.com/solutions/web.asp. It’s specially designed for web surfing. If you give it a try, let us know how it works for you.