Misc Cool Stuff

Various links that I've come across while surfing. Sort of an alternative to my bookmarks.

Music

FM Radio Broadcasters for your computer -- low power FM tranmitters which can be hooked up to your computer soundcard's output. You can use them to listen to internet radio stations on your stereos throughout your house (they have about a 150 foot broadcast range). I'm considering setting up an MP3 jukebox of my CD collection which I could broadcast to the radios throughout my house. :-)

Radio WebCaster -- Broadcasts up to 150 feet and has an RF remote that you can use throughout your house to "change stations" on the computer.
Netplay Radio -- Broadcasts up to 200 feet, but doesn't have remote.
Canakit -- Has a stereo FM transmitter kit for $33.

Mike Portnoy's home page -- The drummer from Dream Theater has a number of sound samples from his various projects.
NearFest 2000 -- A prog rock festival in Bethleham, PA with some sound samples from the bands who will be there, including Anekdoten and Echolyn.
Mastermind home page -- A prog rock (prog-metal) band.
Dutch Progressive Rock Page -- An excellent resource for progressive rock reviews and other information.
Braindance home page. A very cool, gothic, progressive band. The page has some sound samples.
Cranium Music is a good place to buy prog-rock CDs. They also have numerous samples and reviews.
Shroom Productions has a lot of very hard to find CDs from the '70s era.

Programming Resources

ZDNet Programming Resources -- Includes some nice tutorials for programming in ActiveX, Java, .asp, and more.
CygWin -- A wonderful project which brings Unix tools to the PC. They have even implemented X Windows clients and servers. The latest version (as of June 27th, 2000) is Cygwin V1.1. So, you'll want to get utilities for that version.
- Check out the CygWin FAQ to learn how to install it. Or download the setup.exe from the main page for a simple installation.
A handy DNS HOW-TO for those times when you need a basic DNS setup on your system.

Funny Stuff

Hilarious Cat Video (1.7Mb) -- This one makes me laugh every time I watch it.
Funny Bear Commercial (1.4Mb) -- Another fun video that's allegedly an actual commercial.
Citizen Dog -- A comic created by Mark O'Hare, a guy I knew in college. :) Unfortunately, he's moved on to other things now.

Reading/Writing

My current reading -- What I'm currently reading and what I've read in the past, if you really want to know.
I decided to try out the amazon.com associates program (where I get a commission on books you buy through my web page). You can search for a book at amazon here:

Search Amazon

Video/Movies/TV/Pictures

Panoramic View from Mt. Everest -- A beautiful panoramic view from Mt. Everest that was taken by Roddy Mackenzie. You're probably have to scroll to the right to view the whole pictures. View the original web page for additional information and links about the photo.
NBC's Pictures of the Year - 2001 -- A 2Mb collection of amazing pictures. Unfortunately collected in MS-Powerpoint format but definitely worth a look. Once you bring it up in Powerpoint format click on SlideShow->ViewShow and use page-down to view the pictures.
Movie Showtimes -- A nice link for finding your local movie showtimes quickly.

Internet

Some very interesting articles on communication and pricing -- Basically, some arguments based on the history of communication and pricing that point to why a flat-price model for the internet is the way to go.

Software

TTSSH is an extension to the TeraTerm telnet program. It provides encrypted login capability.
Useless Creations Software has released a number of amusing pieces of software. A telnet which scrolls the text like the intro to Star Wars. A number of screen savers (Dr. Who, South Park, Voyager, etc). Plus a countdown timer (might this be useful??) and NetPong.
Instructions for updating Windows -- Keep Windows up to date at all times to avoid viruses and malware.
Removing stuff that runs at boot time -- Some tips from Tech TV on how to remove programs that start up at boot time that you may not want. There are lots of other good tips at this site too.

Science

An interesting article on flywheels -- flywheels as an alternative to batteries as an energy storage source. Pretty cool.
2 second interview -- A very interesting article that discusses the difficulty of getting to know the qualities of a person in an interview.
An amusing and interesting story concerning free versus pedantic thinking.

Charity

The Hunger Site -- A very cool site where you can donate a couple cups of food every day to people in starving nations with only the click of a button. The food is paid for by sponsers and distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme.
The Rainforest Site -- Another great site where you can help purchase rainforest land which will then be protected from being cut down. This site is run by the same people who run The Hunger Site and they work in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy and their "Adopt an Acre" program.

Sports

The Ultimate Handbook -- A very nice resource for players of the game of Ultimate frisbee. Good advice for beginners and advanced players.
Skiing:
- Yahoo Ski & Snow has snow reports and conditions for hundreds of ski resorts.
- Seven Springs Ski Resort, PA -- snow report
- Blue Knob Ski Resort, PA -- snow report
- Hidden Valley Ski Resort, PA -- snow report
- Whitetail Ski Resport, PA -- snow report
- Wisp Ski Resport, MD -- snow report

Puzzles

Geometry Puzzle -- A cool little geometry puzzle. Originally found at: http://www.math.ubc.ca/~robles/puzzle/GEOMETRY.gif

EverQuest

EverQuest is a massively multi-player online computer game. You are a character in a vast fantasy world with literally thousands of other people playing with you. It is similar to Dungeons & Dragons in that you can choose a character that is a wizard, warrior, cleric and so on and also choose your race, such as dwarf, elf, and more. You then battle monsters to gain experience (skill) and money so you can battle bigger monsters or buy cool items. One warning: it can be very addictive. :-)

You can buy it from places like Amazon.com or use PriceScan to find various prices for it. I recommend getting the new "Ruins of Kunark" version of it since that includes the new Kunark continent (as well as all fo the old continents) and a new player race, the Iksar lizardmen. You'll also need a decent computer (see the EverQuest website for details) with at least a 200MHz CPU and a decent 3D video card. I'd recommend having at least 64Mb of system RAM and an 8Mb 3D video card.

There are also lots of websites devoted to various aspects of EverQuest. Here are some of them:

EverLore -- A very complete site with information on all aspects of EverQuest. It has a lot of user input so it is usually quite up to date too.
AllaKhazam -- Another comprehensive site which also has pointers to many other locations when it doesn't have the information itself.
EQ Atlas -- My favorite site for maps of the lands of EverQuest (yes, the lands are so big that you need maps). These maps include the coordinates on the sides which makes it easy to find the places you are looking for. The only disadvantage of these maps is that they don't have very detailed descriptions of each area on the map.
EQ Maps -- Another excellent site for EverQuest maps. It also includes extremely detailed information about what items/monsters there are in each area.
EQ Caster Realm -- A good site your interested in playing a caster-type character or if you want to learn more about the caster you've started.
The Shaman's Crucible is a great site for Shamans, especially if you want to learn about alchemy.
EQ Druids is a site dedicated to druids (and could be useful for rangers too).