Lynxes
Last update: 7/19/96, except as indicated. Many--most--of these links are way outdated.
Here are a few sites MrJumbo finds of interest, arranged loosely by topic.
Web Searches
Friends (A Rogue's Gallery) Updated 5/4/97
Some Other People (Better Not Ask)
Palo Alto
Ask Mr. Wizard
TechnoBuzz! (Better than caffeine!)
Mixed Media (including whales!)
Jenny Holzer
Health Resources Updated 5/4/97
FTP Servers in Croatia
Web Searches
There are a thousand ways to find things on the Web. Naturally, all the good stuff is on this links page, but in case there's something you don't find here, here are a few navigational aids:
Some Other People
It scares me sometimes to see what people do with their spare time. Start with the mild and even laudable:
- We Have Met the Enemy and He is You
A site of high ideals and little pretension, treating the issues of Pogo and the demise of innocence.
- Demonic Possession
There's something not right with people who put up pages like this. We should help them by visiting their sites often.
- BAPA Highway Cleanup
If you don't know the BAPA or why they want to clean up the highway, go back to their main page, which should tell the whole story.
- Funny Stuff About Atheism Or Christianity
You'd think this would be an awfully brief site.
- Other odds and ends
- Greg Marriott
Everyone knows text is dead, right? That nobody will read anymore in an online world? That it has to be interactive if it's really going to make it? Well, I guess I'm a little out of step, then. I believe that where there are words, readers will read, that where a compelling text can be found, probing minds will still seek to understand it, that fools will continue to ignore the power effective communication conveys, but an insatiable curiosity will get the better of any medium. I still believe that just as we will continue to view images online, even non-"interactive" ones, a strong story will remain a strong story whether told in pixels or on paper--and a strong story need not be littered with links, CGI scripts and fancy layouts to interact with the human heart. To wit: Greg Marriott, one of the "Blue Meanie" team of programmers who came up with Macintosh System 7, tells of how he was attacked in his California apartment. It's a well-told story, and I thought a compelling one. But if you're looking for cutting-edge "interactivity" . . . don't go there.
- About Duo Dave
(MrJumbo actually knows DuoDave; his site is just tucked into this section so it ends with someone a little more familiar.)
Privileged Information
Where I'm coming from (This server is getting a lot faster, but it's still a prototype, so be patient, and apologies if it doesn't work every time. Once you're there, BTW, you can see where you're coming from too. MrJumbo sez Check it out.) Here's another way to see where I'm coming from, and here's where to find similar info on other parts of the S.F. Bay Area.
City of Palo Alto, California
Three schools MrJumbo attended in his callow youth:
- Palo Verde Elementary School
(MrJumbo started here in second grade, after his original elementary school, Ross Road, was closed.)
- Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School
(When MrJumbo went here, it was called Ray Lyman Wilbur Middle School. It has since joined the federal witness relocation program.)
- Palo Alto High School
MrJumbo started here in tenth grade, after his original high school, Cubberley, was closed. Paly has three sites on the Web:
The Palo Alto Weekly
The Palo Alto Times, that great institution of Lytton Avenue, gave way years ago to the consolidation of the Chicago Tribune's empire, and Palo Alto was left with the Weekly, plus some newspapers from bigger cities up and down the Bay. There's a new contender for the hearts of Palo Altans, the Palo Alto Daily News, but so far they don't seem to have a Website. We did recently (11/20/96) get this letter, however, from Dave Price:
Mrjumbo,
You are correct sir -- The Palo Alto Daily News lacks a Website. We like running presses more than we like running computers. But we're learning, and we have e-mail. Send letters, hate mail, classified ads, bomb threats, birthday announcements, absolutely items, jokes or whatever to:
price@well.com
Thanks
Dave Price, editor, co-founder, whatever
Caltrans Home Page
Wanna get a job in the Bay Area? Try the San Francisco Bay Area: Employment home page.
The passing of a legend
Ask Mr. Wizard
Who can't stomach a little science? Fiber is good for the intellectual diet, plus of course you might want to know if a black hole was going to hit the planet or something.
Some Hyakutake Stuff
TechnoBuzz!
MrJumbo has a hopeless addiction to technology. Here are some of the unfortunate results of this interest (roughly subdivided into sections on useful information and actual tools).
Info
- MacOS-Specific Stuff:
- MacInTouch Home Page
Possibly the single best reference for figuring out why your Mac has developed an odd idiosyncracy. Ric Ford has been keeping track of the buzz on unexpected side effects and undocumented features of Macs for years, and when he says pushing the right three buttons in unison will cause smoke to come from the back of your modem, you can believe him. MrJumbo sez Check it out. It's where MrJumbo goes first when someone reports an odd behavior to him. Also a good source for scoops on cool new shareware, plus cool links to even more hot techno sites than even MrJumbo can list.
- Worldwide Apple Support
You never know when your Mac will give you a little surprise. Here's somewhere else to turn when that happens.
- Apple Open Transport
Here's a page specifically devoted to news and tips on Apple's new networking protocol (standard in MacOS 7.5.3).
- Welcome to MacWEEK
The most up-to-date news on Mac stuff.
- Always Apple
In case you hadn't noticed, MrJumbo uses mainly Macintosh computers. Here's a link to a site with a high Mac chauvinism factor. Please don't take that to mean that MrJumbo is a Mac chauvinist. Feel free to recommend any similarly amusing sites for chauvinism about other operating platforms.
- The Power Macintosh Resources Page and The Power Macintosh Cool Page
I'm sorry, was there something unclear about those site titles?
- Power Computing Corp.
Mac clones? Can you say, "Configure your own"? And get instant answers for how much it would cost to set it up that way . . . Here's a company that sells Macs cheaper than Apple can, and they seem to be hot machines too!
- What's with this DogCow thing?
- EarthLink Home Page
If you sign up for an account with EarthLink, let them know MrJumbo sent you.
- AT&T WorldNet(sm) Service: Home Page
"Internet for Everyone!"--and that means Mac users too, real soon!
- Hypertext Markup Language Reference
Don't like the way this page looks? Design your own--it's easy! Here's how . . .
- Getting Started with Java
What's the latest buzz on the Net? So far it's mostly hype, but here's the latest grind if you're curious (and if you're already running a Java-savvy browser, don't miss Sun's collection of snazzy, so far mostly useless Java Applets).
- NYMUG's Home Page
- When you're really really ready to set up your own network, take a look at Compatible Systems Routers.
- United Computer Exchange Corporation
Where to find new and used computers, cheap.
Tools
- Welcome to Netscape
MrJumbo hates to see people having to suffer through browser envy. Get the latest, the hottest, the definition of the standard. Don't just believe the hype--you can contribute to it!!
- CyberDog
CyberDog is available in beta now. It's a model for the browser of the future. To use it, you'll be wanting OpenDoc (see below).
A browser's nice, but there are tools that will take you far beyond what a simple browser will do:
- If you need to convert your Xpress pages to Web pages, your best bet is BeyondPress, written by a couple of ex-Quarkers.
- Mac Internet Helpers [Framed!]
- RealAudio
How would you like to hear the next State of the Union speech live from your computer? Or surf reports from Hawaii? Or the latest concert from an alternative rock club in Grand Rapids? RealAudio's what you're after.
- PGPfone Home Page
Talk all night on the Internet, free . . . and with Pretty Good Privacy. Of course, the sound quality is reminiscent of what you get with two cans and a piece of string (it's modeled after the Cone of Silence in Get Smart), but why should that stop you?
- CU-SeeMe
(It's from Cornell University--get it?) As if live, streaming audio weren't enough, now you can get live video on the Web as well. Go buy a $100 desktop videocam, and you'll be in videoconference heaven . . . or just download the software and see what other people are broadcasting. (Ed. note: This is an excellent way to avoid the anonymity problem from The Net, where nobody knew Sandra Bullock because all her human interactions took place via computer. Go ahead, order your pizza by modem--but do it using this video software, and there's a slim chance someone will know what you really look like.)
- Whurlwind 3D Viewer
Live audio isn't enough? Telephony isn't enough? Live audio/video isn't enough? Well, all right then--maybe you'd like to try virtual reality. (This is a PowerMac-native app that relies on QuickDraw3D. Other VRML viewers are available for both Mac and other machines; see above.)
- MetroWerks
Don't like the way your program works? Write your own--it's easy! Here's how . . .
- Java: Programming for the Internet
Okay, so now you can program. Now go do something useful with Java. It's sitting there waiting for someone to write its killer app. Go crazy.
- Apple's OpenDoc Site
Ever wonder how people are going to be publishing on the Web and on paper in a few years? Take a look at tomorrow's technology here. CyberDog is only one example of how modular applications are going to change the way you work and create.
- NASA
What could be more technological than a space program?
A Mixed Bag of Media
MrJumbo's primary employment is in our nation's publishing industry. Consequently he has an interest in the press, as well as in the various other media surrounding and infiltrating us today. Here, then, a little collection of favorite media references. To make life easier to comprehend, it's been subdivided into three sections: 1) news sources and other relatively nonfictional sites, 2) stuff that could only happen on the Web, and 3) other cultural links, many of them to things that exist in the real world as well as online, some of which have to do with exploding whales.
News
- CNN Interactive
The latest news, complete with attached video, sound and graphics files, plus links to related sites and archived news files. A nice treatment of news online.
- Pathfinder Latest Top Stories
The latest headlines from Reuters. This, by the way, is the same list AOL gives you when you go to their new, overblown, too-slow-to-download news area. Minimal graphics (an exception to the rest of the Pathfinder site).
- The San Francisco Chronicle (and Examiner)
You might especially want to try the so-called Bondage collection, which really has nothing to do with bondage at all.
- New Scientist: Planet Science
One of the best magazines around, in any category, is Britain's New Scientist. This is their foray into the online world. One of MrJumbo's favorite parts of the site (and there are many gems here) is Strange Ways: The Last Word. You'll need to register to see this site, but it's free.
- http://www.journalism.now
The Columbia Journalism Review took a good close look at where journalism is going in an online world, then after printing it in their paper edition they posted it online, where it immediately became richer, replete with links and live examples.
- Top Reuters Headlines
Generally updated hourly on the half-hour. This probably is not as current a link as the Pathfinder link above.
- Pathfinder
The home page for TIME Warner's megalithic Website, including all those magazines, plus other stuff. MrJumbo's browser crashes *every*single*time* he goes here. It's been well trained.
- AllPolitics - Campaign '96 Ads
CNN and TIME Warner (now all under one big happy roof) joined efforts to produce AllPolitics, a site devoted to online coverage of the '96 campaigns. Here's a sample of what they can offer that you won't find in your average newspaper: a collection of actual TV ads that have run in various markets, at various phases of the campaign. Check out ads by candidates you'd forgotten were ever running . . . check out ads you never got a chance to see. (Now will someone please post the Charlton Heston "I Love You, Man!" beer ad, so we can get some real content on the Web?)
- WBAL Radio NewsDidja miss the Pope's visit? Well, you can revisit it right here, in the archives of this Baltimore radio station.
- TimesFax
There's a newspaper on the East Coast called the New York Times. It's struggling to develop an online presence.
- The Mercury Center
There's a newspaper on the West Coast called the San Jose Murky News. It's been online since forever, and seems to get it.
- Welcome to Reader's Digest Online!
You'll need a Secret Password to get in here until the site officially launches sometime in June. (The address will probably change then too.)
Only on the Net
- Internet World Expo '96
Not a lot of people know that the official site for the 1996 World Expo is the Internet. Usually the Expo is held in a city, like Montreal or Tokyo or Seattle. This time around it's on the Net. There are bazillions of cool displays here. Check it out.
- Welcome to The Last Best Thing
Interactive Web fiction, from the San Jose Mercury Center. Well, it turns out it's not that participatory. But it's still got some great links.
- FringeWare Inc.
Man, if you try out some of this stuff, it's your own fault. Who sent you here, anyway? (Very slick home page.)
- the blue dot
Just because it's not fiction doesn't mean it can't be fun.
- Rome Lab Snowball Cam
More fun. This site doesn't prove anything, but it is an example of how your federal research dollars can make the world a better place (as if the existence of the Internet weren't already demonstration enough.
- QuickTime VR Samples
Kinda fun 360-degree photography. They call it virtual reality, but it's only a simulation.
- Cameras on the Web
And don't miss The Continuously Refreshing Fishcam.
- Internet Radio Hawaii
This site alone is enough to justify the existence of RealAudio. If you already have RealAudio installed, check out this hello from Oahu.
- AudioNet Home Page
Kinda like radio, but you don't have to wait for your favorite program to come along. Downside is, you have to decide what you like.
- S. P. Q. R. The Quest Begins
A Pathfinder online game.
Other Culture
- About the Exploding Whale
A few years ago, a meme started making its way around the Net that told the story of the Oregon highway department's innovative method of disposing of a beached whale carcass. Not too long after that, a meme started following the first meme around, noting that the first meme was not some anonymous apocryphon but in fact the tail end (if you will) of a Dave Barry column. It was inevitable that finally someone should digitize the movie, so we all could see what Dave was talking about. Rather than reprint and repost here, I'll simply offer links to what I've just described:
- Exploding Animals (here's the entire original Dave Barry column, found in a humor archive at Stanford)
- The Infamous Exploding Whale (this is actually the best Web version of the story I've seen . . . it bypasses the Dave Barry version completely and tells the story with photos and captions, then offers a download of the entire TV clip that Dave Barry refers to)
- Exploding a 45-foot Whale Carcass on an Oregon Beach (here just the whale part of the column is posted, in Oregon, by someone who thinks Dave Barry or maybe a guy from the Coast Guard wrote the story--but at least this person is clever enough to have found the video online already; he also includes a link to another site on the whale trail)
- The Exploding Whale Story! (someone else posts just the whale part, with a possible attribution to Dave Barry)
- Todd's Humor Archive: Cetaceans Aloft: An experiment in chaos... (fwd) (and again it's posted, here with no attribution)
-
dead-whale (here it is posted on a server in Denmark, this time attributed to Dave Barry; note that in this post the last few sentences, about the U.S. Capitol, have been clipped off)
- The Risks Digest Volume 15: Issue 67 (here we have the story reposted in the U.K., as part of an academic discourse on, appropriately enough, risk taking)
- The Risks Digest Volume 15: Issue 68 (and here comes the attribution)
- Exploding Whales (here someone in New Mexico suspects it's Dave Barry, but can't make a positive ID--same title as the version in Todd's Humor Archive, BTW)
- Other Funny Stuff (you'll have to scroll a bit to find it here--and again you'll see it's got the title that refers to the Far Side, misspelled)
- whale (another post of the whale part of the story, in answer to a query)
- Godzilla
Hard to believe we live in a century that has brought us both self-defrosting refrigerators and Godzilla, but here we are. This page will tell you more than you probably needed to know about the latter.
- River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, UK
Self-defrosting refrigerators, Godzilla, AND instant info on what rowing conditions are like on the Thames, right now.
- "Star Trek Lost Episodes" transcript
Somehow this episode never made it into production. Perhaps the plot can be saved and used for one of those multimillion-dollar reunion extravaganza films. (This too is posted all over the Net.)
- The Capt. James T. Kirk Sing-a-long Page
Self-defrosting refrigerators, Godzilla, Thames river conditions, and . . . never mind. Includes links to Spock, Data, and Uhura singing too, if you can stand it.
- Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Sadly we mourn the demise of this great retrospective on American culture. Gladly our hearts lift to realize that the Website is still here.
- Survival Research Laboratories.
An important experimental institution in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Roadkill
Ooooooo. Sounds tasty.
- Guggenheim Museum Home Page
- The Online Literature Library
- Shakespeare
- The Tech Classics Archive
- The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Museums
- TWIN PEAKS FAQ 2.3
- Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
New take on an old story.
- Doonesbury Welcome Page
- HA: Humor Archive
- Suck.
The site's name speaks pretty much for itself. It has a bit of antiestablishment attitude, but it's really just a byproduct of the world of Wired. This particular installment, in fact, has to do with that very mag.
- Welcome to NetKing
Israeli online hub. Including (alas) an Israeli Terror Victims Hotline.
- Welcome to the Metaverse
Something put together by On Ramp. Pop culture-oriented 3D journalism, if you can call it that.
- Ask the Scotch Guy
Did I hear you say Scotch? (MrJumbo is still looking for the online Martini Page, and if he doesn't find it, he'll have to get around to hosting it.)
These sites were stolen shamelessly from the site of Mindy McAdams, a former colleague. She has a way cool site of her own, which she keeps up to date with the times. (She also has an extensive section on copy editing, probably the only site like it on the Web.) MrJumbo sez Check it out!
Back to Mr. Jumbo's home page.