| So What do YOU get Enraged or Enrapture about? |
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Walt's Passions Page This is my "serious page"... detailing those things that I think either make the world a better or a worse place to be. Keep in mind this is more, to me, than a "Duh, here's some cool links" page. There's a REASON these are here. These are things I think either IMPROVE THE WORLD or are incredibly STINKEROO. That makes them worth mentioning. I may add some text of my own to illustrate my points in places. |
IN THE BETTER!
CATEGORY
These things
make my world a bit better:
Spook Shows, R.I.P. : Those Saturday morning live shows from days gone by, introducing some lame-ass horror flick with a truly amazing piece of theater. See a woman turn into a gorilla! See the mad doctor transform himself with a magic potion! What wonders does Merlin the Wizard have in store for us?
Yes, I'm old enough to remember a few (very few) of these in the early 70s.
Here's a classic SPOOK SHOW POSTER from the late 50s, that took place in Toronto.
CULT MOVIES
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Weird Fiction: The collected works of the great pulp
writers of yesteryear, appearing
in WEIRD TALES,
AMAZING STORIES, WEIRD SCIENCE, ASTOUNDING MYSTERY TALES, etc.
HERE ARE SOME GREAT JUMP POINTS FOR PULP ERA FICTION
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My Library System
TheFairfax Country Library System Online, one of the finest in the world
Digital Magazines (Back to Main)
Do you have any idea what kind of work goes into making a magazine? For the most part, it's a thankless task-- especially in the print world, where there is some expectation that you might, someday, make some money at it. That's why I'm astonished at the individuals out there who decide, for some altruistic reason, that they will not ONLY create a high-quality periodical (with all the attendant blood, sweat and tears this involves), but then put it online for anyone to grab for the download!! That's altruisim. Well, it is unless the zine sucks. These don't:
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TITLE/LINK |
THEME |
FORMAT(S) |
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Horror, SF, Noir |
P | |
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Historical SF/VSF/STEAMPUNK |
H | |
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Hardboiled, Noir Fiction |
H,D,P | |
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SF, Fantasy, Poetry |
H | |
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QUANTA (dead, but nice archive) |
SF, Fantasy, Poetry |
H,P |
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Nice Overview Site, Good Links |
H | |
Pretty Danged funny. Humor magazine, somewhat commercial |
H |
| Delivery Methods: | |
| P | PDF Format |
| H | HTML Format |
| D | pDa Format |
| C | Other Doc Format |
Web Radio
| BRS Web Radio | Mega Directory of various formats and arranged various ways |
| Radio Locator | Search Engine for global and domestic Web Radio broadcasts |
| Live 365.com |
Great, eclectic mix of various stations, arranged by
category. |
| TV | Yes, I actually think there are a few things on TV that don't hugely suck |
| Mister Show with Bob and David | |
| Six Feet Under | |
| The Sopranos |
Cryptology/Cyphers/Codes/Secret Writing
Cypherpunks Mirror
Site (on Yuggoth)
Cryptome
Mirror (on Yuggoth)
Cyphernomicon (on Yuggoth)
Communications, Codes and
Cyphers
Secret Codes and
Cyphers (very intro, good stuff)
Codes and
Cyphers (more in depth)
Victorian Era
Codes and Secret Writing
Cypher
Solver
Cryptography (Theory, site not
finished)
Codes and Code Breaking (links to Simon Singh's
pages)
Cryptograms (great site... )
Substitution Cypher
Cracker's
Workbench
CryptoGimp
Fidonet
Way back when, there was a whole 'nother type of Internet. It was a 'net of hobbyists and enthusiasts, who ran various Dial-in freenets that moved the mail (and other items) around the world by sending information to each other via dial-in packets. This was called Fidonet, mostly. There aren't many 'nodes' left these days. Here's a few Fido resources. Most of them are located in Zone 1,| FIDONET.ORG | Not the most informative site ever, but ostensibly 'home base' |
| FIDONEWS.ORG | Much more useful... latest node news, sites, software, bbs search, etc. |
| Fidonet Primer | A show and tell site by the author of TERMINATE. |
| Fidonet Webring | Lots of useful Fido Sites, in random order |
| Waldo's Place | Pretty cool Internet-capable Fidonet site. I'm "Hotspur" there. |
| FidoTel | Another Internet Capable Fido site. Telnet only, Virginia Beach. I'm "Walter O'Hara" there |
| Diamond Mine | Another Telenet Fido site. In Fredericksburg, VA I'm "Hotspur" there. |
| HARF! BBS | Another fine Telnet only Fidonet node I'm "Hotspur" there. |
Alternative History Sites
The great "What ifs" of literature. I love this sort of thing.
| Uchronia | The great survey site of alt-history literature on the web. Not to be missed! |
| alt.history.what-if | The USENET group of silly historical speculation. |
| AlternativeHistory.Com | Another survey site, lightweight compared to Uchronia, but it has EXCELLENT bookmarks. |
| La Porte des Monde | Nice survey site, not as indepth as Uchronia, but good interviews. French. |
Vexillology - The study of flags
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FLAG DETECTIVE: A FLAG RESEARCH SITE |
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Flags of the World SEARCH UTILITY |
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Mini Flag Icons |
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FLAGS OF THE WORLD |
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FLAGS OF ALL COUNTRIES |
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CLICKABLE MAP OF THE WORLD MAP REFERENCE |
Modelling/Terrain/Building things out of Junk!
Free Reads on the PDA
You are probably already acquainted with the ubiquitious PDA (personal digital assistant, which is rapidly becoming part of life for the well-connected. It's certainly a truism that they are handy beasts... you can play games, check your email, use it as a pager, a TV remote, a memo jotter, a calendar and address book, and lots of other cool and useful tricks. What I LOVE about the PDA is the simple capacity to read a book on it. The internet is starting to yield tons of free and semi-free stories by both unknown and fairly famous authors. It's a great time to be alive!!! Here's a few great sources for free/semifree literature you can tote around in a gadget the size of a pack of cigarettes.
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Free Speculative Fiction Online (An
index of free stories online, mostly F & SF authors. |
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Memoware (maybe the best of the best) |
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Baen Free Library (Free F & SF stories) |
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E-Text Station (A Generalist Site) |
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The Classic Reader (literature site, focusing on "classics") |
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Free E-Press.com (A Generalist) |
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Black Mask Online (huge storehouse of early pulp literature) |
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Planet E-Book (Little Bit of Everything) |
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HandHeld Crime A Noir E-Text Service |
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Fictionwise (pay site, has some free files) |
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Gutenberg (the granddaddy of them all) |
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Mind's Eye (E-Fiction Commercial Pioneer) |
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The Dogpatch (Lots of Fairy tales and Folk Tales) |