Winning Converts Over to the Web
The next time someone tells you he would get on the Web, but it’s just too complicated and confusing, don’t argue. He’s right. For all the wonders of Internet technology, it’s still too cumbersome for first-timers, and especially for those people who have a built-in aversion to computers.
But if you want to convince people that the Web is a cool place to hang out, and worth the bit of trouble they’ll have to go through to get started, here’s a hint: Show them how the Web can make some mundane, bothersome tasks not only easy, but even entertaining.
In that spirit, Cyburbia presents three tasks made fun on the Web--determining the current time of day anywhere in the world, converting money to dozens of different currencies and converting measurements.
One warning: Many of these conversion sites depend on Java technology. You’ll have to be using one of the latest versions of a Java-friendly Internet browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.
I don’t often make international calls, but every once in a while I get the urge to check in with friends living in Amsterdam or Tokyo. Then I have to try to figure out if I’ll be getting them out of bed to answer the phone, or even what day it is in those locales.
The “Time Zone Page,” at https://www.west.net/ ~ lindley/zone, provides a handy solution to the time problem. At this site, you choose from more than 60 cities, and get an almost instant reading on the time and day in them.
For example, at 7:27 a.m. on a Monday in Los Angeles, I was able to determine that it was 2:27 p.m. in Accra, Ghana; 11:27 p.m. in Sapporo, Japan; 4:27 p.m. in Turin, Italy, and 11:27 a.m. in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was Tuesday, 12:27 a.m., on Guam.
I tried to find out something about “lindley,” the creator of this nifty site, but when I went to his home page, it consisted of only two sentences:
“Hi, this used to be my resume but I found a job. Have a nice day.”
There’s another world time zone page that is even easier to use, although it’s not as well designed. Originating in Norway, the “World Clock” site consists of a big chart that shows the time in 132 cities. The chart automatically reloads itself every five minutes, so, you are never more than four minutes off.
World Clock can be found at https://www.stud.unit.no/USERBIN/steffent/verdensur.pl.
I found two money converters that give you a close approximation of how much a dollar is worth in foreign currency on a given day. They could not be exact because the rates of exchange can vary--although usually only slightly. Also, the exact rate you get will be determined by the amount being converted (huge transactions get a better rate) and in what kind of establishment the exchange takes place (those who travel a lot know that the rate at the airport might be less favorable than at a big bank in the city).
The Currency Calculator is located at https://www.DynaMindLLC.com/services/utilities/currency.cgi. It’s easy to use--you just type in the U.S. dollar amount you want to convert, and it tells you how much that comes to in pesos, dinars or francs.
I entered $4.27, and found that was worth 7,858.12 Italian lire, 165.37 Indian rupees, 24.1 Finnish markkas, 2.82 British pounds and 1.8 of the lira used in Malta.
The conversions were based on the foreign exchange selling rates in New York. They were for large-scale transactions--the vast majority of us won’t be getting rates quite as good.
The rates on the Universal Currency Converter were a bit more up to date, and the site allowed for more flexible conversions. Instead of being able to convert only from U.S. dollars, it allowed conversion from numerous other currencies.
If you happened to have Japanese yen on hand and wanted to convert it to Chilean pesos, this would be the site for you.
The one drawback is that this site is based on rates determined in Canada, which may be slightly different than those in the United States.
It’s located at https://www.xe.net/currency.
Converting measurements can be done at https://microimg.com/science/banner.html, the home of Convert It!
This site allows you to first choose among several different types of conversions, such as length, area or fluid measure. Choosing length, you can quickly determine that 14 meters equals 45.934 feet. Switching to the velocity category, I was able to find that 50 knots of boat speed is equal to 57.55 miles per hour on land.
One disadvantage of this site is that it sometimes uses technical terms. For example, if you want to convert tons to pounds, you have to know the difference between short tons and long tons. (Short tons are the ones we normally use). Also, you have to know (I didn’t) that the pound measurement we use in normal life is labeled “avoirdupois.”
And in its fluid category, it could convert pints to ounces, but it left out liters.
Converter Plus at https://fuji.stanford.edu/MCONVERT, does have liters. It gives temperature conversions as well. In addition, it uses a sound program to occasionally speak a Japanese word, although I could not determine if the voice was referring to the type of conversion I was making or the amounts. Maybe it was just saying “hello.”
Converter Plus is a good deal more handsome than most plain-wrap conversion sites. Its limitation is that it is limited to English-metric conversions.
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Cyburbia’s e-mail address is david.colker@latimes.com.
