rfbooth.com :: cruft :: links

I like all of these, some more than others. I hope you enjoy some of them too. Enough waffle - let the linkfest commence.

  • Music
    • I'm in a band called Wide Open.
    • For the finest in sequencing and computer audio, visit Steinberg, makers of the legendary Cubase.
    • And for hardware to match, why not try Yamaha?
    • For information on recording, read Sound on Sound magazine.
    • I mostly use Ibanez electric guitars, and that's not likely to change any time soon.
    • A few musicians, mostly guitar players, who trip my fanboy trigger:
    • Interested in extreme guitar playing? Or horror fiction, for that matter? Go visit Matt Williams, for loads of content and worthwhile opinions.
    • Various shiny guitar forums.
    • Opinions and advice on gear, and guitar tab: Harmony Central.
    • See also the next section.
  • uk.music.guitar: a newsgroup
  • Web building and design
    • This site is built with mp4h, a macro language for html.
    • Standards matter. Here's where to get them - the World Wide Web Consortium.
    • The magazine for web designers: A List Apart.
    • Jeffrey Zeldman presents. One of the key guys for A List Apart and the Web Standards Project. Essential. Oh, and often funny, too.
    • Waferbaby, from whom I stole the idea (and most of the code) for the link boxes to the right.
    • This collapsable tree is implemented with aqtree2. It's all shiny and stuff.
  • Humour
    • You should note that most of these have some not-for-children content. Some of the ones which are likely to cause offence to some of you are flagged separately, so no complaining to me, okay? Actually, I mainly think sick stuff is funny, so probably best avoided is you read the Mail. If you think it might offend you and you don't want to be offended, just don't go!
    • Very possibly the funniest site on the web - proof positive that Americans can do satire is at The Onion.
    • Charlie Brooker's TV Go Home rocks bells. As does everything he does, the bastard.
    • A daily cartoon strip featuring geeks, aliens, X-files and Buffy mockery, and homicidal, talking, switchblade-wielding mini-lop rabbits. What more d'ya want, people? Go read Sluggy Freelance right now.
    • My favourite comic: Flem. Daily, funny, and oh so very sick.
    • TV Go Home contributor Log's disappointment.com. Famous for the Joey Deacon tribute, but I especially like Playground Law.
    • Another comic: sinfest.
    • The Top Five people are one of the pioneers of quality humour lists. Their eponymous list is sometimes patchy, but Ruminations is brilliant.
    • In case you weren't sure, Jesus was Gother than you. The rest of the site has some quite cool images provided for plagiarists, and throughout it's one of the best amateur sites I've seen - genuine content! That's why it's on my weekly reading list. (Incidentally, you probably know without looking whether you're going to find this offensive, right? So don't blame me).
    • Also for the broad of mind, Landover Baptist remains ` America's favourite church.' Horribly plausible.
    • Interested in American confectionaries? Nope, nor me. But visit the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project anyway; worthwhile if only for the haiku.
    • For some extraordinarily strange, SubGenius/Malkavian deranged high-speed surreal ranting, go visit the Land of QPM. This is very odd indeed, and also very very very offensive. So just don't go there, OK? Forget I mentioned it.
    • Interested in ‘rodent performance evaluation’? Try Squirrel Fishing. A pastime for the new millennium, indeed.
    • If you're geeky enough, you might like the Sysadmin Humor pages. If you aren't, you probably won't understand 'em at all. Hey ho.
    • In a similar vein, go visit the BOFH. Like the BFG, but smaller, less friendly, less giant, and ... OK, not like the BFG. Leave me alone!
    • The Temple ov thee Lemur. Shiny.
    • The Spark, home of modern science.
  • People
    • Rob Livesey plays with AC/DO, a Bon Scott era AC/DC tribute band. See 'em, they're fun. He also collects and trades vintage guitars and amps, if you're into that kind of thing. I like 'em new so they stay in tune, m'self.
    • An old college friend: meet electrical engineer and all-around quality geek Martin Thompson.
    • "Evil" Dave Cantrell, a fine upstanding gentleman, geek, and all around good chap. He provides the hosting for this site, which is further proof that he rocks.
    • Astronomy and space enthusiast, capable of listening politely to my very odd advice on A-level choices, son of my thesis adviser - oh, and he linked to me! Content heavy, try Sergey Borovik's astronomy and space pages.
    • Another old friend, and another site-in-progress. Still, there's a Java fruit machine, what more d'you want? The incomparable Colin White of very-economical-car project Team Green.
    • Bongo's Model Moose Emporium, run by my deranged ex-housemate Dave. Still very much unfinished, but an example of how a very large Canadian mammal can take over much of a man's life. Note that since this hasn't changed in a couple of years, it should probably be considered dead.
    • My thesis examiner has a site. Poetry, music, cookery, mathematics, travel diaries ... there's a lot here. Go visit Peter Cameron, and be amazed.
    • Some of my co-authors have sites, including Alexandre Borovik and Neil White.
  • Useful places
    • LaTeX is absolutely the finest way to produce reports, articles, scientific papers and so on with beautiful presentation. Plus, it runs on PC's (perfectly happily on a 386), Macs, comes with most UNIX installations, is a standard throughout the scientific community, was built on a foundation written by the demi-god Don Knuth - oh, and did I mention it's free? Cast off your word processors and fly! (Do you think I like it?)
    • Running Gnu/Linux? Stuck? Then you'd be wanting TFM to R.
    • Not running Linux? Go get some! The Linux Emporium is very reasonable, in the UK. Got a Mac? Then you can get Linux here instead.
    • Wondering which flavour of Linux? Don't.
    • Need to do some downloading? Are you local? Then try the UK Mirror service.
    • Want free software (in the `speech, not beer' sense)? Try Freshmeat. No, it's not a porn site. Really.
    • Someone send you another email virus alert? Set your mind at rest here.
    • Need somewhere to live? Try Manchester Student Homes.
  • Random cruft
    • Falling firmly into the "I'm a fanboy" category is Jamie Zawinski. Free software and quality writing.
    • Also in the fanboy section is Neal Stephenson, author of The Cryptonomicon, amongst other pieces of quality goodness. There's also a very handy list of stuff he's done which is available on the net, thanks to Tim Skirvin.
    • The Register - news for geeks, complete with wit and cynicism.
    • Don't understand hacker types? Then you need The Jargon File.
    • For when you're really not amused, Guy Macon's Insult File is a treasure.
    • Do you feel different to those around you? Perhaps you're actually better. Why not join the Church of the SubGenius? J.R. "Bob" Dodds will tell you what to think, feel, and most importantly buy - salvation for just $30 US. Best avoided by the gullible.

If any of these are broken, please let me know. Thanks.

Contents are copyright Rick Booth, 2005, unless otherwise stated. But you knew that. All valid code.