waij

my life in links

Art

The Artchive contains pictures of paintings of all (?) the important painters, as well as information on those painters from Altdorfer to Zurbaran.

Masters of Photography is the photography equivalent of the Artchive, and maintained by the same person. Look up Kiss by the Hotel de Ville by Robert Doisneau.

Travel

OneBag introduces us to the art of "living for an indefinite period of time out of a single (carry-on-sized) bag." What to take, what to take it in and how to pack it.

Art of Travel presents: "How to See the World". Since this can be done on "$25 a day or less", it is clear that this a backpacking site. The author has transformed his experience of traveling to 35 countries into an elaborate website. A list of the 50 most often used words (for you to translate into Swahili), where do you stow your money, essential items to take with you (12 meters of 3 mm braided nylon cord), how to get cheap airline tickets; this is good!

The light weight backpacker describes what happens when you swap your single carry-on bag for a backpack while maintaining the idea of traveling light. There also is overlap with the Art of Travel, for instance in its list of essentials. I particularly like the Make Your Own Gear section.

Books

The Gutenberg project provides electronic books for free. Why buy The Art of War ("All warfare is based on deception.") or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ("Curiouser and curiouser!") when you can download them for free! (Well, maybe you prefer a proper book to reading from the screen ...)
I was just about to remark that the Project should really be called Project Laurens Jz Coster when I noticed that it already exists.

Bookpool sells technical books at a discount. They do not pay for referals so typically do not show up in sites that do price comparisons.

Tango

Radio Tango Argentino plays tango music in streaming mp3 format. All the classics are there, as I write this I see Troilo, Pugliese and Piazzolla on the play list. It can also be reached through Radio Cubik Network, there are a number of channels with different music styles.

On This is the Tango you can listen to three one-hour programs that were broadcast on Canadian CBC-radio. The programs are hosted by Guadalupe Jolicoeur, who takes us from the beginnings of tango upto its modern equivalent.

The Gotan Project is a next step in tango music.

Listening to Piazzolla's Milonga del Angel was my introduction to tango music in 1994. Listen (requires RealAudio).

Les meilleurs disques de Tango is helpful if you have not yet developed your own taste in tango music. It is also helpful if you have. You may prefer the English version.

Photography

Photo Net contains many subjects concerning photography. You can upload photo's, and have them critiqued by others. You can return the favor.

Photozone has a strong focus on equipment reviews. I like the performance surveys. Here people rate aspects of equipment. It is not unusual for a lens to have more than a 100 votes. It then becomes a very good indicator for the quality of that piece of equipment.

Internet

Gibson Research Corporation has lots of information on computer vulnerability. One visit is enough to lose your innocence/ignorance.

Use ZoneEdit if you need a DNS server or want to forward your beautiful domain name to the ugly web adress where your site actually resides. They have other (free and paid) services as well.

Stumbleupon shows you websites which your friends and peers suggest. It is a community-based, word-of-mouth approach to websurfing. Pages you "stumble upon" come from like-minded people who share your interests. Each community member has its own web page, visit my Stumble page.

Bikes

Sheldon Brown is the grandmaster of cyclery.

Games

Snood® is a mix between Tetris and billiards. It is higly addictive, do not download this shareware game.

Clickomania is a free puzzle game in Tetris style. You start with a full board and have to empty it as much as possible. Clickomania is also subject to mathematical study.

Things to buy

Mic-o-mic sells irresistable (to me) cars, motor cycles, planes in bright colors. Tempt the neighbours, park it in front of your house!

Freitag sells bags made from used truck tarps, that cover the otherwise open load compartment. They have several tarps online in different colors and company names and logos. The great thing is that you can select online which parts of the tarp to use for your bag! They then construct your bag and send it to you.