WebWatch is the cooperative effort of two of Phnom Penh's most experienced Internet

users:

David Lewis of Telstra's Bigpond and Bill Herod, information technology

consultant at the NGO Forum on Cambodia. Contact through: [email protected]

THE Royal Palace does not yet have a web site, but there is a great deal of information

about King Sihanouk and his family on the Web.

The Google search engine found 7,330 references to King Sihanouk - and only 85 used

the adjective "mercurial" .

For some wonderful old photos of the King and members of his family - including stunning

portraits of Queen Monineath and Princess Bopha Devi - see the unofficial Norodom

Sihanouk web site. The site focuses on Sihanouk's accomplishments as a composer and

filmmaker and includes still photos from several of his films and audio files of

some of his compositions. The information provided is thin indeed, but it does provide

a tantalizing snapshot.

For a brief biography (and a genealogy going back six centuries) by official biographer

Julio Jeldres, see the section on Cambodia in the Almanach de Bruxelles web site.

For a touch of historical analysis, see "A Disastrous Balancing Act: The Beginning

of Cambodia's Misery" by Joshua Weiss in the Online Journal of Peace and Conflict

Resolution. Weiss starts his piece by quoting David Chandler on Sihanouk: "The

kingdom's survival for so long certainly owes a great deal to Sihanouk, who made

a series of choices, disastrous in the long run, perhaps, but rational at the time

and geared to the perception of Cambodia's welfare."

One of Darren Whiteside's portraits of an exuberant Sihanouk taken in 1994 - and

familiar to regulars at the FCC - is available at the NBCi web site.

CNN's Newsmaker Profile offers biographical information plus details on historical

events associated with the King.

The Paralympics

Several web sites provide coverage of this year's Paralympics. The official Sydney

2000 Olympics site and the Sydney Morning Herald site both have special sections

devoted to coverage of the games. For information about the International Paralympics

Committee (including a feature on Cambodia's involvement), see the IPC's site.

HotLinks

We have written before about some of the many on-line bookmark managers, but there

is a new one with some new features you might find especially useful. HotLinks provides

a simple, flexible and attractive solution to the challenge of keeping your bookmarks

(or "favorites") organized and available.

First, because HotLinks is web-based, your bookmarks are stored securely online,

not on your local computer. That means they are available to you wherever you use

the Internet - even while traveling. You don't even need to download a special program

in order to have access to your bookmarks. You simply enter your HotLinks address

and all your favorite links are instantly available.

Second, the HotLinks system makes it incredibly simple to share selected links with

others, either one link at a time or in categories. You don't even need to have an

email account set up on the computer you are using (e.g. at an Internet cafe) in

order to send a newly discovered link to someone.

For your primary computer(s), HotLinks offers a toolbar for tight integration with

your browser. The toolbar downloads and installs in just a minute or two and gives

you quick and easy access to your links and all HotLinks functions right from your

browser.

HotLinks is a free service meaning, as usual, that it is supported through advertising.

The ads are non-intrusive, however, and leave plenty of workspace for you to organize

your links into folders and subfolders using the familiar drag and drop method. Links

and folders can easily be renamed and moved as your filing system evolves.

Language translation

Though not quite up to the translation of your final project report from English

to Khmer, web-based translation services do provide a remarkably quick and easy way

to translate short text passages between the major European languages. There are

now a number of such free services that range from the dictionary lookup of a single

word, to the translation of a sentence, to the translation of a complete web page.

Currently the range of languages available on most of these services is limited but

is growing all the time.

Altavista's Babelfish was probably one of the first services and is certainly one

of the best known. It handles English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese

and does a first rate job of converting complete web pages while maintaining the

look and feel of the page and keeping all of the links intact.

L & H Online is notable in that it includes Japanese in its vocabulary and also

allows one to choose the topic for more precise translation (eg Business, Medical,

...).

The Prompt's Online site provides translations between Russian and English.

But perhaps the most impressive range of languages comes from the InterTran service

from Translation Experts Limited who offer free online translation to 30 languages

including Finnish, Greek and, most excitingly, Welsh.

psy pawb achos hon wythnos

Siteseeing links

Norodom Sihanouk

Sihanouk's films and musical compositions: www.norodomsihanouk.org

Short biography by Julio Jeldres: www.almanach.be/search/c/cambodia.html

"A Disastrous Balancing Act: The Beginning of Cambodia's Misery": members.aol.com/peacejnl/1_1weiss.htm

Darren Whiteside's 1994 photo: members.nbci.com/dwhiteside/cambodia/cam07.htm

CNN's Newsmaker Profile: www.cnn.com/resources/newsmakers/world/asia/sihanouk.html

The Paralympics

Sydney 2000 Official Paralympics Home www.olympics.com/eng/paralympics/index.html

The Sydney Morning Herald's Paralympics site: www.smh.com.au/paralympics/

The International Paralympics Committee site: www.paralympic.org/

The Paralympian Online featuring Cambodia: www.paralympic.org/paralympian/20003/06.htm

HotLinks

www.hotlinks.com

Language translation

L & H Online: officeupdate.lhsl.com

BabelFish: babelfish.altavista.com

Prompt's Online: www.tranlsate.ru

Translation Experts Limited: www.tranexp.com