Darren Provine at Rowan University

Link Page

The links here are arranged in groups:

Class Links: many will be interesting for non-students, too.
General Anti-Stupid: make yourself smarter.
Fun: you know the saying about all work and no play.
Computers: there's a lot of stuff on the web about computers. Believe it or not.
USENET Links: though invaded by spammers, USENET still has some functionality left.
Entertainment: read about things to look at and listen to.
Some Friendly Pages: some of them even link back to me.
Miscellaneous: didn't go anywhere else. (Maybe I should take a class in Library Science?)

Class Links

These are class-related links, but may be of general interest to others as well. Some students will find some too complex; others will find some too simple. But having one link page is easier for me to keep track of than making a bunch of different ones.

Computer Science Seminars: These are hosted by Rowan's CS department, and cover a variety of topics. You should go.
New!The Regex Coach: This site has an excellent tool for learning about regular expressions. Worth trying out, if regular expressions baffle you.
The art of writing Linux utilities: This gives a good feel for the Unix Way of having modular tools which can be used with other tools.
The Underground Grammarian: Richard Mitchell was a professor at Glassboro State College from 1963 through 1991, and taught part-time until 2001. He wrote a newsletter titled The Underground Grammarian, which ridiculed those who mutilated English. This archive of the newsletters is part of the rightful inheritance of every member of the Rowan community.
Ada 95 Quality and Style Guide: This was written for programmers using Ada, but the general suggestions and principles apply to anyone using any programming language. The guide includes many explanations and notes which students will likely find illuminating.
Perl Regexp Reference Card: Perl Regexp Reference Card (duh)
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes: This is the list for 2002, but has links to others. If your page does any of these things, FIX IT!
How to be a Programmer (includes PDF document): Robert Read has written a long essay about things he wished someone had explained to him at the beginning of his career. Students may find it an interesting read.
MySQL Gotchas: MySQL has some features which work as advertised, but not always as expected. This page attempts to clear up some of the confusion.
Using Redundancies to Find Errors (PDF document): Mistakes that appear harmless (such as redundant code, or code that is never reached) sometimes turn out to be serious problems. This paper is an eye-opening look at some examples.
Color Perception Issues: This site explains a lot about color vision, and discusses design principles as they are related to colors.
Color Blindness Test: This site lets you type in any URL, and it will show you what that site looks like to someone with various kinds of color-blindness. Try it on your own pages, to ensure that your pages don't become unreadable to some visitors.
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation: Presentations done with fancy software packages are usually pointless decoration designed to cover up the fact that the presentation is also pointless. This site shows us what the Gettysburg Address would have been like had some modern sales director written it, instead of Honest Abe.
Moving: This is just really cool. You should go look. Trust me. (It only works if you have Macromedia Flash installed and JavaScript enabled. So turn them on before you go.)
Complex Spiral: This one's also pretty good. It only requires CSS support, but if you've got a buggy browser (and they're all buggy), it may not look right.
SSI Introduction: This is a page which explains a lot about server-side includes, and may be of use for Web Programming students.
How To Write Unmaintainable Code: If you're tired of professors telling you your code stinks, because you used lousy variables and forgot to comment the stuff intelligently, maybe this site will cheer you up.
Software Bugs: On the other hand, maybe you'd like to see some examples of bad software causing serious problems. Maybe this will give you the motivation you need to ensure that your own code is well-thought-out and properly designed. (At least we can hope it will.)
Teraterm: A program for users of Windows who need to connect to Unix boxen. Many people find it much more user-friendly than the Telnet client which comes with Windows. If you're interested in running with a secure connection (whereby the text you send, and the text sent back, are encrypted), you can get a package called TTSSH from http://www.zip.com.au/~roca/ttssh.html. To unpack TeraTerm, you'll probably need WinZip, which is at www.winzip.com.
O'Reilly Network: Read The Friendly Manpage! -- A Tutorial: If you find manual pages confusing, this gentle introduction may be just what you need.
Web Pages That Suck: This site is self-explanatory. To see a site that truly qualifies for this list, visit http://www.ecnet.net/users/gas52r0/Jay/.
The Reflex Tester: Anyone might like this game, but Web Programming students in particular should find the JavaScript source code interesting.
Working With Text: If `cat' is not an animal, `wc' isn't a water closet, and you get `more' with your space bar, we must be talking Unix tools.
Introductory Revision Control: Forgot what `rcsdiff' does? Read here.
"So What's A $#!%% Regular Expression, Anyway?!": Ever felt like asking this? Maybe they can help!
Cookie Central: My browser asks if it can set cookies, but I never know if they're yummy or not. What are these cookies for?
The Jargon File: As with any reasonably-large group of people who work in a given field, computer scientists have developed a jargon all their own. Unlike many of these fields, the computer scientists have put together a complete on-line dictionary.
Politically Correct Unix: A tongue-in-cheek proposal to clean up the rampant insensitivity of Unix.
UNIX jokes: Sometimes you have to laugh or you'll cry.

General Anti-Stupid

These are some good anti-stupid links. Everybody has a little stupid in them, but visiting these sites may help reduce your personal stupidity content.

The Straight Dope: Cecil Adams modestly describes himself as the ``World's Smartest Human Being''. There must be something you can learn from him. (This could be also listed under `Fun'.)
Snopes Urban Legend Page: Did you hear the story about the kid who got bit by a snake on a amusement park ride? Did you believe it? If so, you should visit this site and read all of these pages.
Talk Origins: Earth history commands lots of attention in certain circles, and the standard forum for discussion of the issue is the talk.origins newsgroup, whose many FAQs are here.
Assassinations Foretold in Moby Dick: This is a great site about mathematical illiteracy, and what can happen if you don't understand probability.

Fun

Dilbert: If you plan a career in high-tech, this is your life. May as well laugh about it.
User Friendly the Comic Strip - The Daily Static: Life as a tech-support person. Mostly made up, but some of this stuff actually happens to innocent geeks.
goats: the comic strip: Irreverent and sometimes offensive, but funny. A personal favorite reminds me of one of my brothers (I won't say which one). Another favorite reminds me of a retired person who shall also remain nameless.
The World's Most Expensive Lawn Dart: It's big, but worth giving a look.
F4 Fighter Jet Flies Into Concrete Wall at 500MPH: Just what it sounds like.
Dave Barry Weekly Column: The Miami Herald has redesigned their website, so they no longer have some of the archives which used to be there. So while you can no longer read about the slug-powered robots, or learn why the Three Wise Men didn't wrap the first Christmas presents, you can at least see whatever Dave's up to this week. You can visit the official Dave Barry website at http://www.davebarry.com.
The End Of The Internet: Really. Surf to the end and see for yourself. (This page has moved, and so I'm not sure the file is really stored where it appears on the map. I'm trying to find out.)
Scott Pakin's Automatic Complaint-Letter Generator: Get something off your chest. This speeds up the dreary process of complaining, and you don't even need any facts!

Computers

Premier Mac Technologies: Do you need a broken Mac fixed fast? They can do it here. (One of my brothers runs the company, but I listed it anyway. 8-)
FreeBSD: FreeBSD runs most of the computers in my house. It's lightning fast and rock-solid stable. BSD-related news can be found at Daily Dæmon News.
Linux: Linux is another excellent open-source operating system. I use this one too. LinuxToday has the latest Linux-related news.
The KDE Desktop Environment: An attractive, powerful, easy-to-use interface for your BSD/Linux/other-UNIX boxen. It's open-source, and it's my preferred desktop. News is at KDE Dot News.
The Halloween Documents: Not everybody is happy about software which gives power to users. In particular, people who make their money by keeping all the power away from users.
Learn About Windows: If you use Windows 95 or 98, don't click on this one.
Robert X. Cringely at PBS: A technology & business columnist, Mr. Cringely hosted both Triumph of the Nerds, about the rise of the computer industry, and Nerds 2.0.1, about the Internet.
distributed.net: Download the appropriate client, and make your computer do some work. Sun Microsystems used to use the slogan `The Network Is The Computer'; distributed.net makes it true.
International Obfuscated C Code Contest: Now this is some really bad software.
The Silicon Zoo: Fascinating pictures of what's inside computers.
Interface Hall of Shame: A list of user-interface mistakes that are so bad they're funny. If you have to use stupidly-designed software, you may as well get a laugh out of it.
The World Wide Web Consortium: Learn more about the web. Test your own pages with the HTML Validation Service and the CSS Validator. (Mine all pass. Do yours?)
Note that you'll need a DOCTYPE. Here's an article on Fixing Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE, and here is a list of valid DTDs.

USENET Links

Usenet: What is it? Why was it so great?
Usenet 2: What is it? How does it attempt to fix the problems of Usenet?
Google Advanced Groups Search: Search the most complete archive of USENET articles anywhere. Google is your friend.
USENET Highlights and Lowlights: A list of high and lows on Usenet over the course of 20 years.

Entertainment

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: Learn about the best television show ever made.
A Prairie Home Companion: Garrison Kiellor's famous radio show, heard in the Philadelphia area on 91FM, WHYY, Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 2pm. Two songs of note include the very silly Sushi-Yucky, and the more serious The Bravest, both of which you can listen to on-line via RealAudio.
Television Addiction: Read this Scientific American article and see whether some of the things in it sound familiar. Maybe you watch too much TV. (Maybe this link should be in the `anti-stupid' section.)
Internet Movie Database: Is the obnoxious reporter in Die Hard the same as the EPA guy in Ghostbusters? The IMDB can tell you. Also, you can see the 250 best movies and 100 worst, as rated by IMDB users. (As if any movie could be worse than 1965's Monster a Go-Go.)
TV Guide Listings: You'll have to allow cookies, and enter some information (like your zip code, and cable-TV provider if you have one), but this is the easiest way to find out what's on tonight. Most commercial TV is awful, of course, but there's always PBS.

Some Friendly Pages

Chris Torek: If you're up to it, go read C for Smarties. Your brain will be bigger when you leave than it was when you arrived.
Vick Khera: This smart gentleman introduced me to the woman who is now my wife, so I figured that was worth a link.
Severna Park Baptist Church: This is where we got married.

Miscellaneous

The On-Line Books Page: Celebrating the Internet's ability to get information where people want it, this includes a section called Banned Books On-Line.
News from North Korea: Not entirely unbiased, but still it's nice that even North Korea sees value in the Internet. I couldn't help notice that the `great leader' of North Korea hasn't arranged it so his government can host their own website, instead of having it hosted in Japan.

This page's URI: http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/other/?links
Last modified: Tuesday, 17 April 2012, 6:55:30am