About
Links to various places around the web. If you find a dead link, please let me know.
Necessities
Essential
- Your guide to the dense jungle that is the Internet.
- foobar2000
- A very good and non-bloated audio player.
- Winamp
- My second favorite audio player.
- Google Chrome
- My favorite web browser.
- Opera
- My second favorite web browser.
- Firefox
- My third favorite web browser.
- Launchy
- An application launcher.
Reference material
- Online Etymology Dictionary
- What's the story behind the word 'campus'?
- HowStuffWorks
- How do UPC bar codes work?
- pinouts.ru
- Can DVI carry analog signals?
- The Phrontistery
- What's an exequy?
- TV Tropes
- What are Precursors, and why do they always leave technology behind?
- Unwords
- Isn't a hallucidation a contradiction in terms?
- Wikipedia
- What are hot Jupiters?
- The Phrase Finder
- In the halcyon days of old, faith would move mountains.
Editors
- TextPad
- A very good text editor. It does line numbering, keyword highlighting, and regex searching. It doesn't do code folding.
- MetaPad
- MetaPad replaces Notepad.
- Notepad++
- An excellent text editor. Has most (if not all) of the features of TextPad, and in addition does code folding (I now use Notepad++ for editing).
Utilities
- SIW
- Tells you everything about your computer.
- Microsoft PowerToys
- Small programs that make life in Windows XP happier (I like CmdHere.exe and PowerCalc.exe).
- Sysinternals Suite
- Small programs that make troubleshooting your computer easier.
Gaming
Flash games
- Achievement Unlocked
- A meta-game if there ever was one.
- The Hapland series
- Make things work and then escape through a portal.
- This is the Only Level
- The same level repeats but with different rules each time.
- Planarity
- Untangle a planar graph.
Other games
- Ballance
- Awesome ball game with neat music. It seems it's impossible to get it these days; the link above is to an archived version of the developers' web site. (Update 2025: It seems it's now available on Steam!)
- Ballance: The Return
- A sequel to Ballance released in December 2019 on Steam. (Will give a review when played; working under the assumption that it's radical!)
- Cave Story
- A sweet 2D side-scrolling action-adventure game. You find yourself underground, in a cave system. Be sure to pick up the Deluxe edition, as it contains the OST as MP3s, a level editor, and a small game called Ikachan.
- Elasto Mania
- An unrealistic (and therefore fun) 2D motocross game.
- Enigma
- A ball game. I mean, a puzzle game. I mean, a dexterity game. I mean, an action game.
- N, N+, N++
- You play a ninja who has to escape rooms by doing what ninjas do best (escaping rooms). Comes in three variants; N++ is the best.
- Narbacular Drop
- The precursor to Valve's Portal.
- Neverball
- A very entertaining ball game.
- Nicklas Nygren (various games)
- I really liked Knytt, a 2D side-scroller inventory game. "The Knytt was abducted by an alien!" If you like Knytt, check out Knytt Stories and the other games.
- Nitronic Rush
- A futuristic racer (platform-racer?). Extremely entertaining and pretty-looking.
- Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
- A lot of small, fun puzzle games. My favorites are Inertia and Net.
- Sokoban++
- A good clone of the classic Sokoban warehouse game. Push boxes into designated areas.
- StepMania
- An emulator (sort of) for DDR. Hit arrows in sync to the music's beat. See Bemanistyle for music.
- The Ur-Quan Masters
- A mind-blowing science fiction game. UQM is Star Control 2 for modern computers, but it has some extra features like voice acting. Be sure to use The Ultronomicon in your adventures around the Milky Way.
Emulation
- DOSBox
- A DOS emulator. Useful for playing really, really old games (pre-1990s, say).
- Doomsday
- An emulator for Doom, Doom II, Hexen, and Heretic. Supports mouse-look and vertical viewing.
- EDuke32
- An emulator for Duke Nukem 3D. Hail to the king, baby!
- Gens
- The de facto Sega Genesis emulator.
- PlayGuy
- The best GameBoy emulator that I've found.
- Tile World
- An emulator for Chip's Challenge.
Gaming help
- GameFAQs
- Helpful user-submitted walkthroughs, maps, and in-depth FAQs for a lot of games.
- IndieFAQs
- Similar to GameFAQs, only for indie games.
Gaming blogs
- The CRPG Addict
- A blog dedicated to playing every CRPG ever made. Incredibly detailed and well-researched, and a fun experience to follow along with. Believe him when he says he's addicted!
People
Friends
I know them very well and talk to them frequently.
- Even Alander
- A 3D designer and a good friend for many years.
Others
I think these people are interesting.
- Eric S. Raymond
- Maintainer of the Jargon File.
- Jakob Nielsen
- A bi-weekly column dealing with web design.
- John Walker
- Founder of Autodesk. His site is huge and contains all manner of interesting things.
- Mindstalk
- A self-described polymath.
- Paul Graham
- Paul Graham is an excellent essayist.
- Phil Plait
- Also known as the Bad Astronomer.
- Sam Hughes
- Things Of Interest, and the title doesn't lie.
- Stephan T. Lavavej
- A software developer at Microsoft. Reading his site was what pushed me into learning HTML and creating a web site of my own.
Cerebral
Science
- Charles Darwin Online
- Contains all things Darwin.
- Deep Green
- A beautiful way to visualize the bewildering tree of green plants. (On the Hyperbolic Trees page is the Research Tree, which contains a dizzying amount of species.)
- Golly
- A supremely excellent (Conway's) Game of Life simulator which lets you write custom rules, making for extremely interesting results.
- Pharyngula
- The blog of PZ Myers, a developmental biologist at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
- RichardDawkins.net
- Contains all things Richard Dawkins (and more).
- Symphony of Science
- Uses Auto-Tune for good, not evil.
- talk.origins
- Explains what evolution is all about, and explores evolution/creationism confrontations.
Literature
- The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A really comprehensive, searchable database for all things speculative fiction. Documents authors, illustrators, periodicals, books, different versions of these (and which languages they're written in), cover artists, etc. I use this extensively when researching for my Books page.
- LibriVox
- A library of free audio books.
- Project Gutenberg
- A library of books in the public domain.
- The Pulp Magazines Project
- Aims to preserve early pulpwood magazines. I mainly use it for reading old science fiction.
- Penguin First Editions
- Extremely comprehensive web site cataloging early Penguin books. I use it when researching books.
- Micrographia
- Published in 1665, Micrographia contains wonderful illustrations of various insects and plants, drawn from images gained from looking down a microscope. (The book is also famous for coining the word "cell".) This Flash version has useful curator's notes.
- Kunstformen der Natur
- Insanely high resolution images of the pages from this famous book from 1904 by Ernst Haeckel. (The title is German and means "Artforms of Nature".)
Audio
Music
- Airbase
- Has an online store of MP3 songs. My Life and Schizofren are awesome.
- Aura
- Has lots of free songs. Breathing Silence and Naked Angel are magical.
- Aural Planet
- Awesome downtempo trance. Blue Water Cave and Have You Ever Been are sweet.
- Ektoplazm
- A fantastic site with lots of music in the psychedelic trance genre. All downloads are in MP3, FLAC, and WAV formats.
- Labworks
- Labworks makes mostly vocal trance (mmm, female voices). My favorites are Summerbreeze (Aura Remix) and Two Worlds (Airplay Edit).
- Lynne Music
- Bjørn Lynne is best known for composing the music to the Worms games and his site offers a selection of songs for download.
- Shadow of the Beat
- Makes drum-and-bass-ish music.
- Sonic Mayhem
- Makes action-type music.
- Xerxes Music
- Downtempo electronic-type music.
Remix sites
- Hybridized
- Has tons of hour-long mixes. Great stuff for having in the background when working.
Podcasts
- Point of Inquiry
- PoI interviews prominent intellectuals, philosophers, and scientists.
- The Thomas Jefferson Hour
- A weekly podcast dealing with Thomas Jefferson and his views. The show is made by a scholar impersonating Jefferson being interviewed.
- Rationally Speaking Podcast
- "Exploring the borderlands between reason and nonsense."
Visual
Exploration
- Google Earth
- Lets you explore the Earth.
- World Wind
- Also lets you explore the Earth, but with more statistics.
- Celestia
- Lets you explore the universe. Check out The Celestia Motherlode for things with which to populate that virtual universe.
Art
- deviantART
- Lots of amateur art. You can buy prints (I have four).
- Bathsheba Grossman
- Grossman makes mathematical art (I own the Large Scale Model).
- Art of Greg Martin
- Makes neato pictures.
deviantART
- alexiuss
- Draws majestic characters and apocalyptic scenery.
- Artgerm
- Draws wonderfully pretty ladies.
- daggerpoint
- Draws super hero-type women and plain pretty women. (Not all SFW.)
- DKF
- Mostly space renderings.
- mr-mister
- Draws strong women. Sexy!
- Philipstraub
- Awesome vistas.
- reiq
- Draws mostly NSFW women.
- spirapride
- Draws various things, including pretty women, Final Fantasy, and Ninja Gaiden.
Images
- Visible Earth
- Our planet is grand and beautiful.
Video
- Beyond Belief I: Science, Reason, Religion & Survival, II: Enlightenment 2.0, and III: Candles in the Dark
- Two very interesting annual symposia on science and religion. The first is vastly superior to the second, but Peter Atkins made the second one not suck. (I can't wait for the third.)
- Loading-Ready-Run
- Canadian sketch comedy group.
- the show with Ze Frank
- A discontinued show about news and stuff. (Ze Frank is my Dear and Glorious Leader!)
- Growing Up in the Universe
- A children's lecture on evolution by natural selection, I mean by Richard Dawkins.
Various
Physics
- Animating Fracture
- I, for one, want to shoot steel balls through walls of ceramic and PVC.
- Gravitas
- I, for one, want to hurl galaxies at each other.
- Falling Sand Game
- I, for one, want to watch sand and other miscellaneous particles fall.
- Ronald Fedkiw's simulations
- I, for one, want to serve water from a hollow Buddha statue.
Online comics
Daily
- Cyanide and Happiness
- A stick-figure comic with revoltingly funny jokes. Therefore, only mature minds should read it.
- MildlyHotPeppers
- Multi-author comic with some neat ideas.
MWF (or other three-days-a-week schedule)
- Penny Arcade
- Canonical reading for any gamer.
- xkcd
- Some nights typing "*hug*" just doesn't cut it. Lost? Let this page explain xkcd for you.
Monday and Thursday (or other two-days-a-week schedule)
- AmazingSuperPowers
- Sublime and concentrated funny.
Weekly
- Cectic
- Skepticism in comic form.
- Simulated Comic Production
- Cautionary tales. (Defunct, but now available through the Internet Archive.)
Haphazard
- Dresden Codak
- What you get when you are high on science.
- Pixel
- What if pixels had philosophy?
- Subnormality
- Crazy stuff in everyday life.
- VG Cats
- Funny cats making comments on games.
Frozen
- A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible
- Dreamy musings, disjointed stories. Sadly no more.
- Big Science and Proverbs
- Two discontinued comics by Albert Sweigart which ran in The Daily Texan, a student newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin. I think almost all of the Big Science ones are hilarious. Proverbs occasionally falls flat.
- f8d
- Minimalist musings on various things of interest (seems not to update any longer).
There are 121 links on this page.