Since the early 1990s, I've been collecting and categorizing web sites
I've found useful. When I published the first version of this web site
all those years ago, that list was the focus of the site. Back then,
everybody on the web seemed to have the same idea. Eventually, some
people took the idea more seriously, and formed companies like Yahoo to commercialize their work. I've kept plugging along with my humble,
eclectic list all these years, and I can't seem to stop collecting. I
hope you find it useful, too.
- Accounting for Computer Scientists
- American Council on Exercise
- An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists
- ArsDigita University, where you can find videos of MIT's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs course
- Art Of Controversy: by Arthur Schopenhauer
- Audio System for Technical Readings
- Barcode server: create your own barcodes
- Bicycling Street Smarts
- Blue Mountain Arts: send cute electronic greeting cards
- BotSpot, the spot for all bots on the Net
- Bureau of Communication: fill-in-the-blank correspondence
- Car Talk
- Carfree.com: dedicated to the proposition that urban life is not only possible but also better if transport is organized so that private automobiles are not used on the city's streets
- Carolyn McDade, a composer about whom my mother produced a video
- Carter Center: former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's organization for advancing peace and health worldwide
- Catalog Choice: a free service that lets you communicate your mail preferences to companies. Reduce the amount of unsolicited mail in your mailbox and go paperless.
- Charities
- Charity Navigator: America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities
- Class Central: a complete list of free online courses offered by Stanford's Coursera, MIT and Harvard led edX (MITx + Harvardx + BerkeleyX), and Udacity
- Cluetrain.com: tries to give companies clues, and contains a bit of baloney and a bit of insight
- Cosmetics Database: cosmetics safety database from Environmental Working Group
- Darwin Awards
- DialABC: Telephone number mnemonics generator
- Digicam Views: information on digital cameras, etc.
- Digital Camera Resource Page
- Digital Photography Review
- DjVu Zone, which has information about DjVu, an interesting image compression design for documents
- DSL Reports: reports on quality of service, etc. for DSL providers
- Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides
- eHow: Step-by-step instructions on how to do just about anything, and buy the stuff you need to do it.
- Emergency Preparedness
- Ready.gov: a US government site with information on emergency preparedness
- Engrish: the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design
- Epicurious: food and travel
- Ergonomics
- Factorization Diagrams: useful for visualizing prime factors
- Fire and Motion: Joel Spolsky's article on being in the zone
- Flight of the Conchords: a wacky band from New Zealand
- Freecycle: a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns
- GDACS: The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.
- gethuman: including customer-service ratings and tips on how to get through to a human on the phone
- Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint form, a funny but disturbing modern interpretation of Lincoln's famous address
- Gilman Schoolin Baltimore, Maryland
- GPhoto: free, redistributable digital camera software application for Unix-like systems
- Graffletopia: Stencils for OmniGraffle
- Grafica Obscura: Collected Computer Graphics Hacks
- Graph Paper: free from Incompetech.com
- Graphviz: free graph-drawing software from AT&T
- h2g2, the Earth Edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- HDR Tutorial: High Dynamic Range photography
- HeroMachine: design your own comic book characters
- How to Interview a Programmer, by Bill Venners
- How To Make A Telemarketer Cry: (or, Suing Bozos for Fun & Profit)
- Human Progress: The state of humanity is improving. Fast. Let us show you the evidence.
- Hunger Site: donate food to fight starvation just by clicking a link (paid for by sponsorships)
- Idealist.org, a project of Action Without Borders that helps one find information on volunteer opportunities and non-profit and community organizations world-wide
- ImageMagick: free, command-line-based image manipulation software
- Improv Everywhere: causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places
- jobs
- JPL's Basics of Space Flight Learners' Workbook
- Junk mail and unsolicited telephone calls
- Khan Academy: a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere
- Life Hacker: recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time.
- Linked In: lets you tap the true power of the professional network you already have
- LiveMocha: the social way to learn a language
- Long Bets: Accountable Predictions
- Long Now Foundation: We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
- The 10,000-Year Clock: We are building a 10,000 Year Clock. It's a special clock, designed to be a symbol, an icon for long-term thinking.
- Lunar Landing
- Mailwasher, a free program for filtering against junk email
- Marine Traffic: real-time tracking of container ships, etc.
- Marshall Goldsmith Library: leadership coaching
- Meetup.com: helps groups of people with shared interests to meetup in local cafes (and other places) around the world
- Money
- National Audubon Society
- National Novel Writing Month: a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
- Nike Missile sitesin the San Francisco Bay Area
- Noisli: Mix different sounds and create your perfect environment.
- Olympics
- OpenOffice: a free suite of office software, including a word processor
- PC Clock-setting programs
- Propaganda Critic: dedicated to propaganda analysis
- Prosper: the online marketplace for people-to-people lending
- Radio Garden: Listen to world radio by navigating an interactive globe.
- Real Climate: a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists
- Satellites
- SETI at Home, from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- Sign builder: from Stclaire.com
- Smart Startup: at AntiVentureCapital.com
- Space Collection: Steve Jurvetson's collection of space memorabilia
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- Spy Numbers: information about spy numbers stations on shortwave radio
- Starfall: where children have fun learning to read
- Stock Options and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
- Technogadgets
- The NNT: Quick summaries of evidence-based medicine.
- Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies: designed to help you identify and call out dodgy logic wherever it may raise its ugly, incoherent head
- TinyApps.Org, a guide to very small software for your PC. Most of the programs listed here are free of charge and for use under DOS/Windows.
- Traffic Waves: emergent phenomena in traffic patterns
- transportation
- Twelve-sided calendar: software to print a calendar on a dodecahedron that you can fold yourself
- Typing injuries(carpal tunnel syndrome, etc.)
- Unsplash: free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.
- vnc2swf Screen Recorder: a cross-platform screen recording tool for ShockWave Flash (swf) format
- Weather
- yUML diagramming tool: Create and share simple UML diagrams in your blogs, wikis, forums, bug-trackers and emails.