Watch Out! Have you ever wondered what makes your digital watch actually go? You'll find your answer at The Quartz Watch Web site. Tinkered with by inventors for the past 100 years, quartz finally emerged in consumer products during the 1960s, and today, we're lucky enough to enjoy its time-keeping benefits. Explore the wristwatch revolution for yourself at http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz. You'll explore the insides of the digital watch, including time displays, batteries, integrated circuits and the quartz crystal. The site also features a colorful timeline, documenting everything quartz, including the discovery of piezoelectricity, the invention of the LCD and the introduction of the Swatch. There's also a section dedicated to cool watches, including the Seiko TV watch and the Timex Indiglo. Watch and learn.
Aesop's Fables Once upon a Web site, there was a group of students who liked storytelling and computer graphics. They lived happily in a village called www.umass.edu/aesop. The village was also home to the wise storyteller Aesop, who told tales about greed, trust and kindness. Thus, "The Tortoise and the Hare" raced each other into the virtual world. These creative students loved Aesop's stories, and they designed new versions side-by-side with the old. And everyone rejoiced, for there were stories for all ages. The moral of the story: Classic fables never go out of style. They just get restyled in the computer age. Glued To The Tub.e For some great technology history, tune into The MZTV Museum of Television at www.mztv.com. Enjoy the full story of television, from the mechanical scanning discs of the 1920s to the solid-state electronics of the 1970s. You'll also find factoids on its early inventors and its most famous programs, such as Felix the Cat. The 1939 World's Fair Gallery explains television's official introduction to the world. But the museum is most famous for the TV sets themselves, and the Web site is loaded with photos and cool graphics of your favorites. The Philco Predictas, for example, features wild-looking television sets from the 1950s. OK, couch potatoes. Let the channel surfing begin.
1. The Swatch watch first appeared in what year?
Dear Amy: What's the difference between GIF and JPEG? --Laura, Selma, Ala. Dear Laura: GIF and JPEG files are the most commonly used file types for displaying graphics on the World Wide Web. GIF (pronounced either like "Jiff" or like "Gift") stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" and is best used for logos and line-art graphics with few colors. JPEG (pronounced "Jay Peg") is widely used to display photographic images. To learn more, see The Mercy Web Club Guide to Web Publishing at www.mercyhs.org/webclub/guide.htm#graphics and be sure to check out the "online comparison of GIF and JPEG graphic formats" link. (This site is no longer available.)