Author Topic: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.  (Read 22160 times)

Ramsus

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The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« on: April 05, 2009, 02:57:54 am »
Often times I'd like to share an interesting link or resource with the Compendium where the content just doesn't seem to be suitable for  The "WTF? Check this link out!" thread!. That's because the other thread implies links to meaningless or shockingly absurd content, whereas much of what I've wanted to post links to over the years has been interesting and informative, if not educational and helpful. At the same time, I'd rather not create new topics just to share something that probably won't generate a lot of discussion.

As a result, I've created this thread. Feel free to share your favorite links and resources here too, but don't bother making it a sticky thread. I think we have enough of those.


Anyway, today I'm reading Almost Perfect - by W. E. Pete Peterson. It was originally published in dead tree format and covers the rise and fall of the once wildly successful WordPerfect software product and the company built around it. I suggest reading it if you like biographies and histories concerning business startups (e.g. iCon or Pirates of Silicon Valley).

I think, Z in particular might like this. After all, a lot of what attracted us to work on the Compendium all these years is the same sort of thing that makes the idea of creating and running a new business so alluring.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2009, 03:01:55 am by Ramsus »

ZeaLitY

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2009, 12:21:47 pm »
Bookmarked.

TriforceofEternity

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2009, 06:18:55 am »
Yay! I don't have to make seperate threads if I find an intresting website to see other people's opinions about the pros and cons!   (phew that's a mouthfull)

Can someone pin this thread at the top?

TriforceofEternity

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2009, 06:27:22 am »
http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/   This person has ripped the instruments out of many SNES games and made them into .sf2 format for your Sound Blaster listening pleasure.

Unfortunatly the author has dissapeared since December and doesn't respond to email so my question is does anyone know of other game-soundfonts?

I'd love a banjo-kazooie soundfon't as I love that xylophone and banjo.

Ramsus

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2009, 11:40:39 am »
Spin - by Brian Springer is an amazing documentary that takes you through the looking glass to the hidden side of the modern media. The sad thing is that our situation with the media today has only gotten worse.

Can someone pin this thread at the top?

Sorry, but I wanted this thread to go unpinned for a while, so that it may live or die by the merit of how much it gets used. But then, I'm expecting it to slowly die and disappear into obscurity out of a lack of popularity.

Uboa

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2009, 10:39:10 pm »
A couple of links with a common theme:  Design -- in particular, design for the future.  I've seen some very cool things on both of these websites.

http://www.ted.com/ -  TED, or Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  This site has several (read 'a whole whole lot of') talks given by some pretty smart (and respected) cookies.  You can browse by subject to get to the videos that are of most interest to you.

http://www.gliving.com/ - G Living.  I find some of the things that they do here kitschy, and they can seem a little obsessive over raw food, but their design articles are great!  They feature a lot of artists and designers on the cutting edge of green building, green vehicles, and any number of other things.   Also, their "Room 101" series is worth watching.

Zephira

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2009, 10:54:48 pm »
The most interesting and informative site I know of would have to be http://www.damninteresting.com. Sadly they haven't been able to publish anything new recently, but there is a ton of great material up there. Basically, they write articles about interesting phenomena in nature, historical mysteries, diseases, disasters, technology, and so on.

TriforceofEternity

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2009, 03:21:28 am »
Whoops I got confused.  I meant THIS link here.    http://www.shakal.net/lunar/misc/soundfonts/    Please ignore or delete the first one if you wish.

Good night.

placidchap

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2009, 08:40:46 am »
TrifoceofEternally odd links.

Well,  I can't directly link to these right now, but they are interesting watches.  All are on google video.

The Corporation, Money as Debt, Manufacturing Consent, The Power of Nightmares, The Century of the Self and Outfoxed are all interesting documentaries.

From wikipedia (except money as debt):

The Corporation
critical of the modern-day corporation, considering it as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychologist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples.


Manufacturing Consent
The film presents and illustrates Chomsky's and Herman's propaganda model, the thesis that corporate media, as profit-driven institutions, tend to serve and further the agendas of the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society.

The Power of Nightmares
The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two.

Outfoxed
criticises the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, claiming that the channel is used to promote and advocate right-wing views.

The Century of the Self
"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

Money as Debt
47 minute film that uses animation in an attempt to explain some monetary concepts.

edit: added century of the self
« Last Edit: April 08, 2009, 08:51:43 am by placidchap »

Uboa

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2009, 08:49:24 am »
Through Ze Frank's blog I found a really great audio-visual flash toy. 

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

teaflower

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2009, 08:57:28 am »
http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

An amazing little blog of a literary agent. On his blog there are all sorts of tidbits about the life of a literary agent, how to format query letters, etc.. Awesome stuff, if you ask me. Great for authors and the like.

Mr Bekkler

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2009, 01:04:41 am »
TV on the internet. Some of these sites have massive collections of either videos or links to videos streaming online. No downloads.

Hulu - this one's legal, it's owned by nbc and fox and has fx and comedy central shows and universal movies. It has the highest resolution available other than Netflix, but you don't have to pay.
Surf The Channel - illegal but fun. i used this one before hulu came out and before i got a netflix subscription. it has youtube quality videos, but a LOT of them. especially stuff that just came out.
All U C Dot Org - just as good as surf the channel, and maybe even better, but with a less attractive layout.
Share TV Dot Org - used to be great. even offered downloads of episodes within two hours of airtime. not anymore, since the big one went down. but they DO stream full episodes of popular tv shows. they probably don't have anything the other ones haven't covered.

if you google tv links, some sites pop up, but tv-links.co.uk was the biggest and best and it's gone now. i can't vouch for the new ones cause the one's i've listed have kept me very entertained when i've needed it. Comedy Central, Fox, Nbc, Adult Swim, FX, and i'm sure some other network websites offer streaming full episodes as well, but if you want a collection or you want to find something you haven't heard of before, my list is for you.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2009, 01:06:38 am by Mr Bekkler »

V_Translanka

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #12 on: April 09, 2009, 12:58:19 pm »
TV on the internet. Some of these sites have massive collections of either videos or links to videos streaming online. No downloads.

With the FireFox Add-On Tool Video DownloadHelper, streaming IS downloadable! I'm sure there are other progs of similar workings available as well (in fact, I think there's a thread somewhere that ZeaLitY made about them for the purpose of collecting random Chrono gunk)...

It's funny, initially when I first saw this lonely topic kind of low on the first page with just Ramsus' first post I was gonna post something along the lines of, "Life doesn't always work out how we want, eh? lol", but hey! It's growing! And I even added a link to the pile! Although idk how interesting or informative it was now that I think about it...

Uboa

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2009, 10:37:48 pm »
I was a little shy to post tv-links type pages, but since it seems to be kosher here I'll add one of my favorite sites:

http://www.quicksilverscreen.com/

TriforceofEternity

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Re: The interesting and informative links and resources thread.
« Reply #14 on: April 10, 2009, 02:59:19 am »
I tend to forget we live in a new generation where the new kids know squat about good ol MIDI. :(


A good way to understand soundfonts is to use XM midi player as you can download a plugin that lets it play midi and karokee files.   Then it has the ability to load soundfonts without hogging your computer rescources.

Soundfon'ts are like word fonts where you can change the way midi sounds without big expensive equipment.   You use 128 instruments in bank 001 and can extend into other banks as well.

Once Creative's idea went off people made home-made soundfonts while some sounded crappy and bled your ears others were very well done and are worth a try.