So, you need somewhere to go? Here are some places that are useful.
Choose your poison:
NOTE: All the software links below are for a Windows system, unless otherwise specified.
Ultimate Frisbee
- I try to play ultimate with the Augusta Ultimate Team. I say try because attendance has been so sporadic. But I made a nifty homepage for us here.
- For good measure, here's a link to the Ultimate Player's Association. They have the official rules, if you need to brush up ;)
Computer Nerd/Techno Geek stuff
People are always asking me how they should do this, or that, with their computer. I thought I sould just put a litle collection of links here for them.
If you don't know what MP3s are, you really should venture out of that cave you're living in more often. If you do not use WinAmp to play your MP3s, you should. It is the original, and still the best MP3 player around. Although I got a bad taste for MusicMatch Jukebox in one of its earlier forms, I'm giving it another try, since a registered version came bundled with my sweet Jukebox from Archos. It's a 10 GB Recorder, which is essentially a big portable hard drive. And it's now full of all sorts of music and pictures.- Do you Instant Message (IM)? I've found that Trillian is the best software out there for those of us with more than one IM account. It lets you merge the big 5 all into one: Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, IRC, and MSN. Check to see if I'm online right now at my contact page.
- Since the RIAA made Napster shut down, there has not been any one single program to fill its shoes, although many are trying. My current favorite file sharing program is: Shareaza, check it out!
- If you've allowed a bunch of spyware programs to get installed on your computer, you can have them removed with a couple of free utlities: Download, install, and run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Either one of these programs should remove 90% of your pop-up creating programs. Run the other one to get the remaining 10%.
- If you want to know what all those programs running in your Task Lisk do (like svchost), consult Answers That Work's excellent library.
- If you want to use your computer as an alarm clock, or just want to run tasks or programs at a set time, Time Clock is a very useful utility.
- For gaming, I used to use C|Net's Gamecenter, but damn if it didn't get bought out by ZDNet's Gamespot, which is not quite as good, but decent. For gaming hardware (i.e. you want to build your own computer), Sharkey's Extreme is a good one-stop shop.
Fortunately, C|Net is still up for most of your computing needs-- Hardware/Software Reviews, Music, Downloads, Web Authoring (BTW, I used 1st Page 2000 to build this site), Tech News--basically anything you want to know about computers or technology. I would not recommend this software to someone who has never seen HTML before, though. It is code-based, but it is extremely powerful, and unlike programs such as MicroSoft's FrontPage, it will not add any unnecessary code to your pages.- The only tv channel I wish I got at home, but Comcast does not carry, is Tech TV. TV and computers combined...ahhhh. Of course, I currently don't receive cable tv, so it's a moot point.
- Speaking of gaming...(what? I wasn't speaking of gaming? jeez..give me a break)...The game that has consumed more of my free time than any other game I've ever played is Counterstrike. If you like multiplayer FPS, you should love this game. To support your habit, you will need: A copy of Half-Life and then you can download the free counterstrike mod(ification), or you can just go out and buy Counterstrike (but I would recommend buying Half-Life, b/c it is a groundbreaking, very fun and well done single-player game as well--It was THE game of the year in 1998, but amazingly, is still a strong enough game to play 4 years later), and Gamespy, so you can connect to online games very easily. After I started my residency, I pretty much quit PC gaming. However, I still crank up the X-Box regularly, especially now that I can play Counterstike on it.
- For console gaming, I just got an XBOX. I have not had a console since my original Nintendo (NES), but this machine kicks ass! Halo is clearly the game to own. And if you have played it, you will get a kick out of this video: Halo:Jump. My other favorite game is Project Gotham Racing.
Programs You Should Be Running (in the system tray--right now)
- Want to get rid of those annoying browser pop-up windows? Stop using Internet Explorer and switch to Mozilla for your browser. Mozilla is a relative of the original Netscape browser which is faster than IE and it has built in pop-up blocking. I've been using Mozilla and I haven't seen a pop-up in almost 2 years! You do have to 'turn it off' though, because the default setting is to allow pop-ups. Turn it off by opening open Edit | Preferences | Privacy & Security | PopUp Windows.
- If you insist on running IE, and still want to block pop-ups, try using the Google Toolbar or Pop-Up Stoper (hint: get the free one).
- Zone Alarm is the best firewall you can run, and it's FREE!
- One of the best, and oldest virus stoppers out there is McAfee. Make sure you update your data files regularly! (.DAT files)
The Web Made Better
- Google is the best search engine, hands down. I rarely use anything else. You can have the Google search field placed into your browser toolbar here. (If you're using Mozilla, open Edit | Preferences | Navigator | Internet Search and change it to Google)
- I use My.Yahoo for an internet startpage. It is very customizable--I have it display stock quotes, news headlines, tonight's TV schedule, my last 5 emails, movie showtimes at local cinemas, and even some airfares. Check it out. Note: This is more useful on a single-user system, so you do not have to log in and out all the time.
- Before I buy anything of substantial value, I check for reviews of it on the web. A good place to start is Epinions. More or less every product is reviewed there.
- Anywho is the best way to look up someone's phone or address (including reverse lookup).
- Use Miriam-Webster's dictionary to look something up online: m-w.com.
SHOUTcast Radio Broadcast
- Now I can share my MP3s with my online friends, as well as with myself when I am away from home. If you are unfamiliar with SHOUTcast, it is streaming mp3 audio over the web. However, it is fairly bandwidth intensive, so I have set maximum users at 4 for the time being. If you have Winamp running on your computer, you should be able to listen right away. If you don't have it, get it, then come back here.
- This should open winamp and start playing: http://www.richlassiter.com/radio
- Feel free to ask me to play a particular song, if I'm online (check that out at my contacts page. I've got around 20 GB of MP3s, so I may have it, and I'm always expanding my musical database.
- Now that you know how to listen to MY radio station, you might want to check out some others. There are hundreds of shoutcast servers out there, just waiting to be listened to. Check it out at shoutcast.com.
Cooking Sites
Random Internet Sites I've Stumbled Across
- Maxim online. The best thing to happen to men since women. Online.
- I made a site for the MCG Emergency Medicine Interest Group (still under construction)
- Furniture hardcore like you've never seen before!!! Furniture Porn (Somehow, out of all the hundreds of links from my website, this is the one that people at work seem to like the most...I'm not sure why...I mean...it's funny, but only if you recognize the parody of real porn sites...)
- Want to read a book online? Read a book, or grab a quote from one of these sites: Blackmask and Bartleby. It's almost like poking through a used bookstore.
Blasts from the Past
Movie Stuff online
- IMDB The Internet Movie Database. Extensive listing of films and exhaustive data including plot, cast, movie quotes, goofs, etc, etc.
- IFilm The Internet Movie Guide. Useful for most movies.
- Movies.com More commercial than Ifilm. Meaning, more polished, but a lot more ads and more mainstream promotions. You can find new movie showtimes here, as well.
- Atom Films Shorts, quite funny. Always plenty of Star Wars shorts to watch.
- Fandango You can order movie tix for a number of cinemas here.
My Friends, Online
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