Russell's Favorite Links

Reference material
Google	With apologies to all the other search engines, this is simply the only one you'll ever need. Not only is it fast and thorough, but it also has a very useful Usenet search as well as news.
Bartleby	The most comprehensive reference site available; it has a dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus, quotation books, English style reference, all rolled into one. One search fits all.
Dictionary.com	Another dictionary, slightly easier to remember.
Wikipedia	This is kind of interesting. It's an "open source" encyclopedia. Anyone can just come in and write an article or edit an existing one, but the changes get reviewed by other people and the bias gets weeded out. I know it sounds weird, but check out some articles and you may be surprised by how good they are.
White Pages Yellow Pages	You'll never need a phone book again.
Web Indispensibles
Yahoo Messenger AOL Messenger Mirabilis ICQ	Take your pick from three of the best known instant message programs. Always know when your friends are online; send messages and chat in real-time.
Travelocity	Find out flight schedules, track down the cheapest prices, reserve your tickets, and choose your seats without ever talking to a single customer service person! It's a traveling misanthrope's dream come true.
	The "magic map" site. Find a complete street map and detailed directions from anywhere in the world to anywhere else. Locate restaurants of any type you choose in your immediate area.
	Source of books, videos, and music at great prices. It's getting so that I buy more stuff here than in real stores.
Personal
The Non-Prophets	I'm the producer of a neat little internet audio show called "The Non-Prophets". We discuss politics and rational thinking among other things, and we never predict anything. Check it out.
Interactive Fiction Archive: 1996 IF Competition	My first text adventure is on-line for the 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition. For more details, see the samples page.
Wordsmart	This is the official web page of Smartek Software, Inc., where I used to work. Smartek makes educational software for adults who want to expand their vocabulary. Go over there, challenge yourself with the WordSmart quiz, and order three or four dozen copies for yourself and all your friends.
Los Alamos High School	Here's where I went to high school from 1988 to 1992. Why, back in MY day, they didn't have fancy things like school web pages! I had to write articles for the school newspaper in print! And we liked it that way!
University of California, San Diego The UCSD Computer Science department	Man, for a while I thought I'd NEVER make it out of there!!! I did it though... pulling off my BS in computer science in 1997. I don't know if they were the best years of my life or anything, but I do think it was worth it.
Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw	The World Wide Web page of the Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw radio show on WKGB in San Diego. After being a fan for a while, I helped construct this web page in 1995. Although today the site bears no resemblance to what I made, I did do a lot of the original content creation. I recorded some of the sound effects, wrote fake biographies of the show's characters, and described the games they play. It was the first web page I ever did, and it helped me get enough experience to do THIS page.
People
Ginny Glasser	Ah, what can I say? Ginny is the love of my life and my reason for living in Texas. Artist, chef, enchantress, and a swell mom and all around great person. A beautiful and caring individual who makes me very happy.
Jeff Dee Manda	Husband and wife, counted among our best friends and a couple of the smartest people I know. Jeff designs a games for a living; his current project is Ashen Empires. Jeff is also host of the Non-Prophets (see above). Manda designs a game known as Furcadia.
Gil Quintana	"Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man." -- Genesis 27:11 Unfortunately you no longer have the opportunity to meet the ultimate Hairy Man, as he hasn't maintained a web site since college. But I'll leave this link up in the hopes that Gil will return to the web one day. My bro here teaches junior high in Santa Fe, plays chess and classic computer games; he's a ripping good guitarist, an incredible lady's man, a helluva writer, and an all around cool and froody Floyd. Mightily evil.
Will Lorentz	(Dead link) The artist formerly known as "Willy" is an old C++ student of mine, and now my webmaster. I was his personal tutor in 1995-1997. Together, we did some great programming, like a fractal project for a science fair that won several awards. Someday Willy will be a force to be reckoned with. In the meantime, I would like to go on the record as saying that his obsession with Linux, and his callous refusal to acknowledge the awesome power of object-oriented programming, are not my fault.
Music
Queensryche Screaming In Digital	Queensryche: the world's greatest rock band. Their Promised Land tour in May of 95 turned me into an eternal fan. Queensryche's music is generally described as "progressive metal," meaning that they are much more musically refined than your average thrash band. Check out my Operation: Mindcrime page if you're interested in seeing an analysis of their most excellent album. Ryche on!
Aerosmith	Aerosmith! The second greatest rock band. I've been a fan since early high school, and they only succumbed to the awesome power of Queensryche after a pretty brutal fight. But Aerosmith is still a great rock band. And furthermore, they launched Alicia Silverstone's career (for whatever THAT'S worth).
Classical Music MIDI Archives	Chock-full of classical musicy goodness. You may not find every piece ever written here, but chances are you'll find a lot of music by whatever composer you look for. FYI, my favorite composers are Mozart, Bach, and Saint-Saens.
The Gilbert and Sullivan collection	William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were, respectively, a playwright and composer in the late 19th century who never amounted much until they met each other and began writing in collaboration. Together, they produced some of the best-known musicals ever made. Their plays/music paved the way for some of my earliest love of music and theater, at the age of 11.
Computer Games
Game Spot Game Spy	Two of my favorite places to read about upcoming games and download demos.
Game FAQs	Need a hint? Need a review? Need to cheat? Wondering what platforms a game was released on? This site is a virtual catalog of information on most of the games that have ever been available on every platform in existence.
Gamasutra Loony Games	Two places to read about the philosophy and practice of designing and producing games.
	Blizzard has long held the honor of being called My Favorite Game Company. Their works include the real time strategy series Warcraft and Starcraft, and the action-packed quasi-roleplaying Diablo series. They also run a free online gaming service called Battle.Net.
Id Software 3D Realms	Good places to check out state-of-the-art 3d action shooters. Id's baby is the Quake series; 3D Realms does the Duke Nukem franchise. Id practically defined the genre of 3d action, beginning with Castle Wolfenstein 3d and later with Doom.
Ultima Online Everquest	These are both "massively multiplayer games". At any given time, you are actually playing with thousands of other people in the online world... although the world itself is so very large that most of you will never see each other. I don't play these games currently, but the whole genre is worth paying attention to for future developments. Blizzard is also coming out with a new massive multiplayer game called World of Warcraft.
Classic Gaming	Just what it sounds like... classic video games (arcade and home system)
Home of the Underdogs	Dedicated to making sure that classic old PC games will never be lost, this site has a big downloadable stash of old games and manuals that you're sure to love if you're into the nostalgia thing.
The Interactive Fiction Home Page	A decent place to start reading if you're an old-school text adventure fan like me. Although it hasn't been updated for quite a long time, it has a good collection of information and links. Here you will find the SPAG (Society for Preservation of Adventure Games) newsletter, articles on game authorship, homespun games, contests, and so on.
Guide to the IF Archive	Download free games and bring you Interactive Fiction collection up to date.
Online Toys
Paint by Numbers	I am so addicted to this game. It's art, it's a puzzle, it beats the heck out of solitaire for killing time on a computer.
Planarity	It's a topology game. Don't think you understand it until you've beaten level 8 or so.
Pop Cap Games	Lots of fun Java-based strategy games. Atomica and Mummy Maze are the best.
Kings of Chaos	It's an online game where you attack other players and steal their gold. Click the link and you can help me get extra troops! And if you decide you want to play, you can join my army! Please?
Jumble	Hey, it's everybody's favorite dumb little puzzle/comic strip, online! If you like doing these things, don't forget to check into the site at least a couple of times each week, because the puzzles go away after a few days.
Serious geek links
Perl	A nice language for text parsing and developing CGI applications. Very professional and helpful web site as well.
Java	A nice, solid object-oriented language with great potential for future development.
Web Developer's Journal	Neatly divided into sections that appeal to each of the major developer types: "Suits" (business), "Propeller Heads" (programming), and "Ponytails" (artistic).
Slashdot	New for nerds. Stuff that matters.
Other Computer-Oriented Sites
Siggraph	Siggraph is a yearly convention focused on computer graphics in art, science, business and entertainment. To put it mildly, Siggraph is a blast. You can take classes on game design and artificial intelligence from the best in the business, see an extravagant showcase of computer animations, demo new hardware and software, and generally witness state of the art futuristic technology. I've been to Siggraph three times, in LA in 1995 and 97, New Orleans in 1996, and San Antonio in 2002.
Dell Computers	My last several computers have been Dells... occasionally I like to browse for deals.
Philosophy and Knowledge
	Everything you ever wanted to know about money: how to make it and how to keep it. Mostly advice on investing, told with wit and humor that actually makes the boring subject of finance seem so entertaining that you will be overwhelmed by the urge to pull people aside and explain things like "Price to Earnings Ratios" to them. While this might not necessarily make you a big hit at parties, it will definitely be nice for your bank account. Be sure to read their best-selling books, "The Motley Fool Investment Guide" and "You Have More Than You Think." The site also has message boards and daily business news.
The Skeptic's Dictionary	This invaluable site contains lots of information which is intended to expose frauds in many diverse categories: bizarre religions, UFO's, hypnotic recovery of "repressed" memories, chain letters, etc. I came across this web page at a time when I was seriously considering getting involved with the Amway corporation. Reading the "Amway" entry on this page, and the associated links, saved me from devoting time and money to a horrible mistake. Hard facts about a great many subjects.
The Talk.Origins Archive	Current scientific thought about the origins of the universe and life.
How Stuff Works	Very cool site where this guy named Marshall Brain (supposedly his real name) explains... well, everything. Engines. CDs. Toilets. Programming. Timekeeping. Y2K. Go here and expand your mind.
Snopes	A site dedicated to myths and urban legends of all kinds. The next time you receive a piece of junk mail warning you about a new virus or a dubious story, check here. It's probably been investigated and thoroughly debunked.
Quatloos	All about scams - how they work, how to recognize them, good reasons to avoid them.
The New York Times Austin American-Statesman	Back in the old days, we had these things called "newspapers" that got printed on paper and delivered to millions of homes every day. In this enlightened age, when the news is online and free, we tend to forget the struggles that our ancestors had to go through to stay informed.
Salon Buzzflash Lying Socialist Weasels	Depending on your particular political leaning, you might or might not enjoy these sites. Read at your own risk.
Entertainment and Humor
The Onion	The internet's most excellent humor newspaper.
Something Awful	My favorite nasty humor site. They've raised mockery to an art form. My favorite part is when they trap casual readers into writing their comedy for them, in the form of stupidly uninformed flame mail. Funniest parts are Jeff K and the lawsuit page.
X-Entertainment	No, not x-rated. It's entertainment for Generation X. It's got funny articles about classic cartoons, shows and movies, breakfast cereals, pop figures and fads. It's even got several complete downloadable episodes of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe".
The Book of Ratings	Hilarious ratings of various things in life, from cartoon characters to state quarters to breakfast cereals. Updated once a week, if we're lucky.
Dave Barry	The man is just plain funny. I've been reading his material since high school.
Television Without Pity	Missed an episode of your favorite show? Tune in to this site instead, and read a humorous recap in excruciating detail.
The Internet Movie Database	It made me wonder why no one thought of this sooner. It's the complete index of every movie every made, cross-referenced by every actor who ever lived. Also has links to reviews and memorable lines from each movie.
Ain't It Cool News	Actually it is pretty cool. Movie reviews, rumors, and dirt by this fat guy in Austin named Harry Knowles. He's a weird sort of pop culture icon on the web.
Comic Strips
Fox Trot Non Sequitur Doonesbury Calvin and Hobbes Dilbert	These comic strips were well known in the offline world before they made their transition to digital.
Player vs. Player Real Life SinFest	These cartoons were born, drawn, and distributed online. Some of them are geek oriented and some have adult humor.
This Modern World (Tuesdays) Nodwick (Thursdays) Tom the Dancing Bug (Saturdays)	These cartoons are updated weekly.