outer space

all this noise going on about traveling to Mars has really gotten me interested in NASA again. the ISS, the Hubble telescope, the Mars orbiters and landers, it's all really cool, and every time i see another microscopic picture of a 1cm square chunk of rock from the surface of Mars, i think i'm going to jizz my shorts. if you feel the same way, maybe you should be hitting these links too:

• APOD, also known as the Astronomy Picture of the Day. photographs and images taken from current research, along with a professional astronomer's description of the photo. plenty of links to follow for more information on what you're looking at, and of course, lots of cool-looking photos. the larger versions of the images they have (click on the image for a bigger one) make some of the best desktop wallpaper ever.
• The Mars Rovers Mission Page at the JPL has press briefings from Spirit and Opportunity, pictures taken straight from the rovers, and other news.
• The JPL home page has basically the same stuff.
• also check out NASA's television feed - they do MER mission briefings daily at noon EST, and of course have a whole bunch of other good stuff.

bands

i listen to a lot of music. some of it is ridiculously mainstream (although these days, i don't listen to much that gets airplay on Top 40 stations) and some of it is ridiculously ecletic. some bands even have websites that are good and/or useful.

• Moxy Früvous is pretty much dead as of today... they're officially on "touring hiatus" since the middle of 2000, and each member has gone on to do solo projects. information is available at their website or the fan site.
• California Guitar Trio is about as eclectic as it gets. formed from the League Of Crafty Guitarists, CGT does three-guitar arrangements of classical pieces plus plenty of their own creative stuff. a great listen and a better live show.
• like a capella? DaVinci's Notebook is the band for you. it's your typical modern a capella with a big humorous twist, but their stage show will knock your socks off and leave you laughing in the aisles, gasping for breath. sadly, they're not touring anymore, though they haven't officially "broken up" since they expect to do occasional gigs in the future.
• Club Passim in Harvard Square is one of my favorite live venues. they're non-profit, they feature mostly folk but have a bunch of other good stuff too, and you can eat dinner at Veggie Planet before the show. can't be beat.

weather

• use wunderground.com. why? because i told you to. because weather.com sucks ass. and because nowhere else on the web offers a yearly membership to ANYTHING for $5. (membership, of course, buys you "favorites" and no banner ads.)
  
• if i don't put in a link to NOAA, they might sue my ass for writing a perl robot that grabs forecasts from their website, instead of using their ftp site like they ask. bonus points for having an FTP service for robots to hit, but it's often so slow it's unusable.
• not of interest to anyone who doesn't visit star island, but here's NOAA's weather data for the white island lighthouse weather "buoy".

FAQs/help pages

everybody needs a good library.

• C++: Tutorial
• Calculus: mathworld.wolfram.com | Integration by Parts | S.O.S. Math
• CSS: Reference, Tutorial
• Gnuplot: FAQ
• LaTeX: Primer, User's Guide (PDF), not-so-short Introduction
• Linux: Cookbook/Primer
• MATLAB: Primer, Documentation
• Perl/TK: FAQ

living in boston

or, at least, the surrounding areas.

• smartraveler: traffic reports, for those times when you really have to drive.
• boston.com, if you feel like reading the local newspaper. or using SpringStreet Personals, and you don't have anywhere else to go.
• the MBTA, more affectionately known as "the T" -- boston's public transit system. get maps and schedules, buy passes online.
• the RMV web site, where you can do all kinds of things like pay traffic tickets and renew your driver's license.
• Mass.Gov, the state government's portal site.
• god help you if you have to fly in or out of Logan Airport (BOS), but if you do, you can at least look up your flight information before you leave.
• really, you should be flying into Manchester Airport (MHT) instead. at least if you live north of the city. try T.F. Green / Providence (PVD) for the southerners.

useless crap

the vast majority of the contents of the web could be linked here. but why would i do that?

• boingboing, quickly replacing slashdot as the place to go for interesting links and commentary.
• livejournal: because you think other people care.
• memepool, a collection of useless links. hey, it's meta-crap!
• nerve.com -- it's kind of like reading a men's magazine and a women's magazine, melted together and put on the web. except it's actually fun.
• palmgear, a source of software for your PalmOS(tm)-compatible device.
• slashdot, the geek's news source. haven't read this in years.
• sourceforge, a repository of open-source software.
• want to know what time it is across the globe, adjusted for DST and everything? look here.