Links. That's All.
They say that You are what you link to... ouch...
Essentials
These URLs are not to be bookmarked; they are to be memorized.
- Google: Hail to the king.
- FAST/Alltheweb isn't terrible, though.
- Yahoo: Bloated, over-hyped, commercialized, but still one of the most useful destinations on the web.
- The Internet Movies Database: The first and last movie web site you'll ever need.
- Amazon.com: The best online bookstore. Many reviews; a must for book lovers. Canadian browsers should shop at Chapters.ca or amazon.ca
Morning news sources
Here's my first Mozilla bookmark group of the day.
- news.google.com: Who needs CNN when you can have an impartial overview of what's happening? Localized news aggregates are also available for Canada and France.
- Yahoo! News - Most-emailed content : What is fascinating people at the moment? For more up-to-the-minute memes, head over to Blogdex, Reddit or MetaFilter.
- Boing Boing: Links and commentary from the techno-blogosphere.
- Reddit: Certainly more succinct than Slashdot.
Friends, but not necessarily loved ones
These are my friends... And as it happens, most of these sites are now moribund. Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
- Luc Lanthier: The "Ethical Hacker" himself.
- Eric Gauthier: Writer and storyteller...
- You think you're a hacker? Meet Eric Laforest and weep in shame at your presumptuous assumption. Then drop by his LiveJournal to chip in.
- Laurent Glaude: He and I, we go way, way back...
- Yves Nantel: The Redheaded Bear of Fury! (Well, okay, not really)
Science Fiction
Never mind that SF never predicted the Net: It took control of it!
- Looking for reviews? Science-Fiction Weekly, SF Revu and SFSite are good.
- The Lurker's Guide to Babylon-5: A place of meeting for fans, producers... and wanderers. The ultimate site for what is still the ultimate SF show to date.
- The Science-Fiction Book Database Much like the Internet Movie Database, but for SF books. Could use some graphics, but the database is top-notch.
- Made in Canada: Everything available at the intersection of Canada and SF can be found there. And I do mean everything. Don't forget the official Aurora Site.
- Ansible: British-oriented SF newsfanzine, by the irrepressible David Langford.
Favourite authors
I read... hmm... a lot. Here are a few authors I like:
- Daniel Keys Moran A terrific writer, undiscovered gem of SF, worthy of attention.
- Harlan Ellison Webderland: You don't know Harlan? Aww...
- Robert J. Sawyer's Home Page: Canadian, prolific and fun, RJS also has one of the best author-run site on the Web.
- Walter Jon William's Home Page: Eclectic! Versatile! Imaginative! He must be read!
- Greg Egan's Home Page: Amazing Australian Hard-SF author.
- Paul T. Riddell: Infuriating columnist, now retired. Never mention SF fandom in his presence.
- David Brin: Physicist, teacher, SF author, social thinker...
- Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club...
- Charles Pellegrino. (Note to self: Buy on sight. Read. Put exploded brain back in head.)
Local sites
In the Ottawa/Hull area: Things I know, places I go...
- The National Capital Freenet: My usual E-Mail/Newsgroups hangout.
- The Ottawa Citizen: The best newspaper in the Ottawa/Hull area.
- OC Transpo: Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with public transit?
- University of Ottawa Info Webpage: Surprisingly, it's actually informative!
- Ottawa Film-Can: The Ottawa-area movie scene
Movies
Hollywood, holyweird...
- Don't just read one review; read all reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic or go wild at the Movie Reviews Query Engine.
- You want a schedule of upcoming movies?
- Posters! Everybody loves posters! Especially the Internet Movie Poster Awards!
- Why waste two hours of your life staring at moving pictures when you can read the script instead? Script-o-Rama has a bunch!
- There's no business like show business, and box-office grosses prove it. Check out Box-Office Mojo to see for yourself.
Science and sanity
Why cruise the net for porn when you can get an education?
- For all fellow space-nuts out there, one essential space news site: Space.com. Though Exosci isn't bad either... Plus, of course, one just can't avoid NASA.
- CSICOP: Essential reading for anyone smarter than the average new-age freak. Also check out Bad Astronomy for good science.
- You say you want a revolution? The Foresight Institute is right on the forefront of nanotechnology.
- Don't you hate it when serial killers prowl your closet? Check out Snopes for a good sanity check.
- I have searched far and wide for good general-interest science news site. Apart from Science Daily, does anyone have a few suggestions?
Essential software
Don't install a system without'em.
- Operating system? If you can manage to tear yourself away from Windows (bleh), try Linux with Knoppix and then install Mandrake.
- Applications:
- Internet Browsing? Mozilla (Firefox)
- Office suite? OpenOffice.org (but first take a look at AbiWord)
- File Sharing? eMule.
- Utilities:
- Audio/Video:
- Fun stuff:
Other sites to see
Other links I occasionally browse...
- Extreme domain name fun with Domainsurfer.
- Music? Read Zeropaid for the next great thing now that MP3, eMP3finder, Napster and Songspy have been destroyed by evil corporations.
- It's probably a measure of how long I've been interested in computers that I remember the Commodore-64 with great fondness. Fortunately, emulators let me indulge in a game of classic M.U.L.E. or Blue Max once in a while. Want to learn more? Check out classicgaming.com for information on emulators.
- The Dow is up! The Dollar is down! Check out Bloomberg to know, in (almost) real-time.
- Saturn Cars. Good cars. I drive one.