Computer Info – April 18, 2001

No Meeting This Week

        The library needs the room this week – therefore there will be no meeting.

The Sephardim

        This web site was mentioned last week by Dora Goldstein – as a site for those doing genealogy research on Jewish ancestors.
        Sefarad is a Hebrew word meaning Spain. So, in the strictest sense of the word the Sephardim (plural of Sephardi) are the Jews who came from the Iberian peninsula. Today however the word Sephardim has taken a much wider meaning and includes Jewish Communities in North Africa, Iraq (Babylon), Syria, Greece, Turkey and most Jews who are not Ashkenazim. The word Ashkenazi has had a similar broadening of its definition. Arising from a Hebrew word meaning "german" it has taken on a broader definition that includes not only German Jews but those of Eastern Europe and Russia as well.
        Today the distinction between Sephardim and Ashkenazim is primarily one of differing traditions due to their backgrounds.
        Sephardic House was founded at the historic Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, home of Congregation Shearith Israel, the very first Jewish congregation in North America. Today Sephardic House has moved out of the Synagogue and into the Center for Jewish History -- located in the heart of New York City.
                  http://www.Sephardichouse.org/

The Deep Web

        At last week’s meeting, we discussed searching the web – searching databases on the web – and a method of combining these searches for easier use and avoiding duplicate information.
        There are literally hundreds of billions of highly valuable documents hidden in searchable databases that cannot be retrieved by conventional search engines.
        Deep Web sources store their content in searchable databases that only produce results dynamically in response to a direct request.
        LexiBot — is described as the first and only search technology that is capable of searching the entire web.
        LexiBot is a software program for searching the deep web. You can download a demo program or purchase the program for $89. This web site will also try to explain what the deep web is.
              http://www.completeplanet.com
 

Urban Legends Reference Page

        Here is a database search for anything dealing with folklore – legends – myths.
                  http://www.snopes.com
 


Searching PDF Files on the Internet

        Adobe has a search engine for locating information found in PDF files on the internet.
                     http://searchpdf.adobe.com/