links
World of Warcraft
Stuff to do with my favourite computer game ever!
Signature Maker Generates those cool sigs you see some people use in forums
http://sigs.guildlaunch.net/
3D Armoury Warcraft Armoury in 3D - very well done
http://www.3darmory.com
Gemfinder Interactive Gemfinder that allows you to stack search filters.
http://wowgems.jponrails.com/
The New York Times Goes To China, Finds Farmers Of Gold This is a very nicely written article, really gets you into the gold farming lifestyle for the Chinese laborors who persue it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html?ex=1182744000&en=4cbca201ab03268b&ei=5070&emc=eta1
You Should Be Dancin, Yeah! A clever video superimposing many of the WoW avatars dancing in the same shot as their real-life inspiration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066_q4DIeqk
Miscellaneous
Stuff that doesn't really fit anywhere else (at the moment)
Good Guitar Pro resource Lots of free guitar pro files
http://www.guitarprosongs.com/
Galaxy Zoo If you like astronomy and stars etc you'll like this site: help to classify galaxies
http://www.galaxyzoo.org/
Cool Artwork Here you'll find prints by up and coming "modern artists" which you buy. Some very nice work. Bargains to be had too (if you know your stuff)
http://www.picturesonwalls.com
Friends and aquaintances
Websites and homepage of friends. As you can see there ain't many of them ;-)
Stephanies homepage I guess she won't be wanting her mum to read this.
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=752201981
Martins (aka zuqif) homepage Martin Robertsons homepage. This guy is a one off, hopefully that'll be reflected in his new site.
http://www.theqif.net/
Jordan Gecko On of my erstwhile workmates fancies himself as a high flying broker (or some such)
http://lean-investor.blogspot.com/
My interviewer from MottMac Check out the links to download his self penned music. Some of it is very prog rock.
http://www.digestif.co.uk/
Blair Millens homepage Blair is quite simply one of the most passionate Web Designers I know. Check out his page for some real design style!
http://doepud.tk
Security
Some call it security, some call it hacking. Whatever it's called I find it an interesting way to blow a couple of hours.
Google as a hackers tool Famous for his use of Google to hack badly implemented web servers. It's so easy, anybody can do it!
http://johnny.ihackstuff.com
Wanted dead or alive Microsoft offer reward to catch virus writers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7887577.stm
Introductory article on hacking Surpisingly this comes from the good old boys at IBM
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/security/library/s-crack/?dwzone=security
w00t! zomg! Microsoft's guide to "leetspeak".
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/leetspeak.mspx
Computers and IT
General IT and computer related content. Not specifically to with Software Development
Blazingly fast Flash Hard-drives Forget your old magnetic hard drives - flash drives are the wave of the future
http://www.sandisk.com/Oem/Default.aspx?CatID=1478
From Android to iPhone Make your Android enabled phone work like and iPhone at the click of an app
http://www.gphoneres.com/html/gphone-software/200902/18-178.html
UNetbootin Amazing utility which will create bootable images on flash drives from Linux ISOs
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Playlists on Nokia 6230i How to set up playlists on the Nokia 6230i to tracks from MMC
http://www.mobymemory.com/Content/creating.playlists.in.nokia.6230.to.play.songs.from.MMC.41.html
AI Pathfinding Article comparing waypoint graphs to navigation meshes for NPC movement in games
http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000152.html
A genius in your own lifetime! Amaze your friends and workmates with automatically generated Computing Science papers (they'll never know)
http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/
Rysnc and Amazon S3 Automate backups to Amazon S3 using rsync
http://blog.eberly.org/2008/10/27/how-i-automated-my-backups-to-amazon-s3-using-rsync/
The Bileblog The thoughts and musings of an exceptionally foul mouthed (and funny) java programmer
http://www.jroller.com/page/fate
Magic Desk Seems the humble C64 beat Apple and MS to the familiar desktop environment
http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/adverts_commodore/magic_desk_compute_may84.jpg
How google works (kinda) An nice, interesting, easy to read blog article on how google works
http://blog.topix.net/archives/000016.html
Firefox 3 Location Bar Tweaks Twaeks and tips for the new Firefox 3 Location bar (Im still not sure if I like it)
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/06/9-tweaks-for-firefox-3s-location-bar/
Wubi Install Ubuntu as a Windoze app. Works just like a dual boot
http://wubi-installer.org/
WinZip alternative A fast, unobtrusive, alternative to Winzip. No nag messages etc.
http://www.zipgenius.it/
Revenge of the Developer A developer seems to have had enough of a user!
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=477454
AjaxTerm Ajax powered Web Based console
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AjaxTerm
More Power An academic paper on how google works - slightly heavy going but worth a read.
http://labs.google.com/papers/gfs.html
MoveOnBoot Cool little Windoze utility which queues files for deletion on boot. Handy for files which are permanently 'in use'.
www.softwarepatch.com/software/moveonboot.html
Football
Soccer related madness, tom-foolery and general nonsense (some of it might be serious too!)
Larsson at the Neu Camp The King of Kings in Barcelona
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkxMrXzcelU
What do you expect from a pig..... ....but a grunt. The huns react to their Old Firm drubbing in time honoured fashion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4457202.stm
The jungle If only Parkhead was like this
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1519658938197468600&q=orlando+pirates
Graham Spiers stuffs it to Murray It's no wonder old Tin Legs doesn't like the Herald very much. A Celtic minded journalist? Never!
http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/51101.html
Typical Huns This time the huns get it in the neck from UEFA after their fans caused trouble - what a surprise.
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/Keytopics/kind=512/newsId=402870.html
More hun bashing Now the Herald is stuffing it to them
http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/57832.html
What do you expect from a pig.... ....but a grunt. I like the bit where he malkies the doctor.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/57801.html
Photography
Favourite photographers, galleries and technique pages
Picnik Nice online image editor
http://www.picnik.com/
A Walk Through Durham Township One of the most inspirational photography websites/photoblogs I've found. I love the colours and tones in the images.
http://www.durhamtownship.com/
Charlie Waite This guy did the 'Seeing Scotland' photography program. Some of his work, which is mostly landscape, is stunning.
http://www.charliewaite.com/
Polarising Filters A nice, easy to read, article on polarizing filters. Some very good example images too.
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/filter/polarizer.html
Photoshop Tilt Shift How to get the Tilt Shift effect using photoshop
http://blog.georgegumpert.com/2007/03/27/photoshop-tilt-shift/
Lightbox View your photos in a pseudo flash style gallery (pure js)
http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
Wild Wild Web
Curiosities that could only ever have been spawned by the net
Montage-a-google Create cool montages automatically using googles image search
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/
IPv4 Exhaustion Counter Omg we're running out of ipv4 addresses and this site tells you how fast
http://inetcore.com/project/ipv4ec/index_en.html
Study Ball It?s the ideal gadget for students who have trouble concentrating. This prison-style ball and chain with built-in timer will help you study.
http://www.curiosite.com/scripts/product/enproduct.php?idproducto=19126738
Einstein the parrot An amazingly smart bird and very funny too
http://www.koreus.com/media/smart-bird.html
Groovy timelapse of Panama Canal One week on the Panama Canal compressed into eleven minutes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9040875966564826702
Ban Comic Sans Is it only young girls that use this "font" - I dunno but I know I hate it, especially in pink.
http://bancomicsans.com/
Cure for hiccups At last somebody has found a cure for hiccups! Dunno if I'd try it though..
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2299306&dopt=Abstract
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay The classic lumberjack sketch from Mony Python
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3721923663768138601&q=Monty+Python
Exploding toilet A grim tale of flying faeces
http://www.wcnc.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=52578&catId=69
Gansta Name Generator So, you want a gangsta name, huh, sucka? Type in your current boring-ass name and be re-dubbed
http://gangstaname.com/index.php
Craig David the Celtic fan Seems nobody likes poor old Rangers these days
http://www.bebo.com/FlashBox.jsp?FlashBoxId=6411792621&
Masturbate for peace And you just thought it was bad for your eyesight.....
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
Online ejaculation "pole" And the stroke average is......
http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/shootout/index.cfm
Cool PC case Mods You think your PC is cool with yer crappy blue neon lights? Think again.
http://gadgets.fosfor.se/the-top-10-weirdest-case-mods/
Burn baby, burn A TMX Elmo does a Nikki Lauda impression!
http://www.metro.co.uk/yourmetro/article.html?in_article_id=31354&in_page_id=6
Google Mars Hot on the heels of Google Earth and Google Moon we now have Google Mars! How handy.
http://www.google.com/mars/
Musical orgasmatron iPod vibrator promises 'party in your pants'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/23/ipod_accessory/
PirateBay on trial (again) Pirate bay being taken to court by Sony et al again
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7892073.stm
Condoms for Dogs What I like about this the best is that they are "meat scented"
http://www.dogcondoms.com/
BBC pulls plug on Dalek lesbian romp flick Personally I don't see what the all the fuss is about
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/28/dalek_film/
Leeroy Jenkins The best laid plans....go sadly wrong in this World of Warcraft clip
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9070591500024177274&q=jenkins
Tub Girl Without doubt one of the grossest things I have ever seen
http://www.consumptionjunction.com/content/detail.asp?ID=52447
Whistle Blowers Wiki A site set up to encourage anonymous leaks of controversial government secrets (can't see it lasting too long)
http://www.wikileaks.org
Much much cheapness Need to get textbooks at over half-price off? Our friends in India make this possible
http://www.books-n-all.com/
Google maps of the moon If you zoom in close enough you'll be in for a surprise
http://moon.google.com
Think once, think twice, think bike Classic public information films from the seventies. These were the stuff of my childhood and I still remember them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4690164.stm
Development
Software Development, Technical Articles, Documentation and Resources
Ajax taglibs A bunch of very useful Ajax tabligs for use on your JSP
http://ajaxtags.sourceforge.net/
Virtual Vista For those moments when you really must have it
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en
Oracle XML DB Forum This forum provides you with an opportunity to discuss issues related to XML DB
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=34&start=0
Java/CORBA tutorial This short course will teach you how to use CORBA as found in the Java 2 platform
http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/corba/corba.html
Get JBoss to serve external dirs Wiki entry from JBoss detailing how to get the built-in Tomcat to serve external directories
http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=ExternalDirectories
Firebug I can't believe I only found this yesterday. This has to be one of the top 3 Firefox plugin: A proper Javascript debugger!
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/1843
Programming Quotes Some cool, not so cool, old and not so old quotes on programming
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58640/great-programming-quotes
Paging Oracle Results Sets Ask Tom article on paging Oracle Result sets using rownum
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:76812348057
ie-tab Firefox addon that allows you to open a tab using the IE rendering engine.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419
Flexible XML Framework for Java What else could it be but dom4j. Turns using Java and XML from a chore into something less than a chore
http://www.dom4j.org/
Java FileUpload A guy in work said to me that "jakarta commons has a component for everything". He was right.
http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/fileupload/
Crontab quick reference Another page I return to again and again. Unix crontab for scheduling tasks.
http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm
Confirmed! Google ignores meta tag keywords
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
Maven Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool, I like to think of it as Ant++
http://maven.apache.org/
Mocks aren't Stubs Article by Martin Fowler about testing. With particular emphasis on mocks and stubs
http://martinfowler.com/articles/mocksArentStubs.html#RegularTests
Unison file-synchronization Cool SSH based file-synchronization tool for Windoze and Unix. Works locally or over a network
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
Worldpay Refunds adn remote admin via simple post requests
http://www.rbsworldpay.com/support/bg/reference/faqs/remote_postauth_and_refunds.html
Measureit Cool Firefox add-on that lets you draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/539
Set date and time on Linux I always forget the formatting....so some examples....
http://www.computerhope.com/unix/udate.htm#03
JBoss startup script Article on getting JBoss to start as a Linux service (from Wiki)
http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=StartJBossOnBootWithLinux
J2SE 5.0 API Specifications The latest docs for J2SE. I've only really put this here cos I keep losing them
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/
EclEmma Eclipse Code Coverage Tool
http://www.eclemma.org/
Printliminator Quickly Make Any Page Print Nicely (jquery trick)
http://css-tricks.com/print-better-with-the-printliminator/
The mythical man month "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Libs from Yahoo. Some cracking free Javascript/DHTML from Yahoo - cheers
http://com1.devnet.scd.yahoo.com/yui/
CSS Forms Being the CSS novice that I am I found this article on CSS managed forms very useful.
http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/InForm/
Using jQuery Validation with an Ajax Submitted jQuery UI Dialog Using jQuery Validation with an Ajax Submitted jQuery UI Dialog
http://www.meppum.com/2009/may/15/using-jquery-validation-ajax-submitted-jquery-ui-d/
Xammp Apache, mySQL, PHP, Perl etc all in nice one install (I'm sure I used to know this!)
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
Help I cant find my tables! mySQL on Windoze and Linux have differing ideas on table names...
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/name-case-sensitivity.html
Decorating HttpServletRequest How to apply the decorator/wrapper pattern. Specifically to HttpServletRequest objects.
http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2005/05/decorators.html
jqGrid A (better?) alternative to Flexigrid
http://trirand.com/jqgrid/jqgrid.html
Best XPath overview ever I know we've all seen it but I keep coming back to this XPath reference
http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XPathTutorial/General/examples.html
Jester Jester is used to test your JUnit tests - interesting
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-jester/
XML Schema XML Schema Part 0: Primer is a non-normative document intended to provide an easily readable description of the XML Schema facilities, and is oriented towards quickly understanding how to create schemas using the XML Schema language.
http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/
XML: elements or attributes? The oldest question asked by adopters of XML is when to use elements and when to use attributes in XML design......
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-eleatt.html
Joda Time Joda-Time provides a quality replacement for the Java date and time classes.
http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/
Oracle and XML (Make XML Native and Relative) 10/10 article by Oracle on how to use their XML DB suite
http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/03-jan/o13xml.html
Good entry level JSTL article The guys at IBM do it once again with a good entry level article on JSTL
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jstl0211.html
Identity Transforms Can you believe I'd never used this XSLT transform technique until this week?
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/sect2/identity.html
XML Command line utility A nifty command line util that lets you do a bunch of stuff with XML, XSLT and XPATH etc. Much like awk, sed etc.
http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/
Codepress CodePress is web-based source code editor with syntax highlighting written in JavaScript that colors text in real time while it's being typed in the browser.
http://codepress.sourceforge.net/
Alternative to Jarhoo A free and open alternative to Jarhoo
http://www.findjar.com
Thin J2EE wrapper A Java API to start/stop/configure Java Containers and deploy modules into them. Also has Ant task, Maven plugins etc
http://cargo.codehaus.org/




