Links
DIY Ideas
- Hack a Day – Updates regularly and hosts a wealth of creative ideas. Granted, most of them are a bit above ‘entry level,’ but it’s still interesting to see what people are up to out there. The basic idea for the first synthesizer I made came from a post on here.
- Hacked Gadgets – Like Hack a Day, the projects highlighted here usually have an advanced level of difficulty and prerequisite knowledge and experience, it’s also more of a showcase for what people have done than a how-to-guide.
- Tangentsoft’s guide to building a CMOY – This is the most comprehensive guide I’ve found to building the now-ubiquitous ‘altoids-tin-amplifier’ designed by Chu Moy from Headwize. This guide details what parts to use (with suggestions for alternatives and improvements), explains step-by-step how to complete the build and even has sections for troubleshooting and future modifications.
- E-Drums – A fantastic resource for anyone looking to build their own (acoustic or electric) drum kit or modify their Rock Band/Guitar Hero drums.
- Instructables – One of the best places to find ideas and see creative implementations. It’s all user-submitted content and it is on the internet, though, so expect to do some sifting.
- LadyAda – Turning DIY into a veritable cottage industry, she’s transformed her projects into kits that can be purchased. They’re all completely open-source, though, as she includes the exact components, schematics, and assembly instructions on her site. The link is to her Minty Boost project, which turns a tiny mint tin into a portable USB charger, but she’s got a lot of projects that are far more advanced and visibly impressive.
Art – Various artists I find impressive or influential. Just a scant few are being linked here for the time being, as I seem to have misplaced a great deal of bookmarks. (Imagine there’s a scowly-faced emoticon here.)
Will Ashford – Recycled Words – The concept alone is noteworthy, but his execution is what really shines. By taking old books in various states of distress and using a carefully selected page as the backdrop for his work, he’s created some outstanding and poignant work. Typically I regard anything that damages a book as being anathema, but in this case, I not only make an exception, but praise the methodology. His gallery is really quite compelling.
Webcomics - I have quite a few that I check out regularly, since most update only once or twice a week and they’re usually a very quick read. I’ll spare you the full list, and just give you some highlights.
- Subnormality – Features such classics as “Ethel Blackmore, Horror Fiction Lady of the Night,” “Everything’s Better With Cheese!,” “If Hollywood Was a Person,” the relative nature of the relationship between dream and nightmare, and my personal favorite; “If Television Was a Person.”
- Dinosaur Comics – Dinosaurs who (in the same six panels each day) discuss dinosaur philosophy, God’s take on exploding heads, science, recipes, mathematics, etymology, food theft due to the occupation of an alternate reality, dating twins (and the resultant transitive makeouts), and the myriad joys of stomping on things. Also, the website features a search function, which facilitates excessive linking.
- Married to the Sea – A series of one-offs, it’s an assortment of text superimposed over various vintage stock images, to often hilarious ends. I recommend the “Dude, I’m tripping balls” theme-and-variations set.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal – It’s hard to describe SMBC without using words like “The Far Side,” “inappropriate,” “nerd” and “balls,” which leads to a description that doesn’t do it any justice at all. Actually, ignore everything I just said and read it. Trust me, it’s funny.
- Dr. McNinja – This harrowing, epic tale of an Irish Ninja/Doctor teamed with a small mustachioed child gunslinger who rides a velociraptor is laden with the kind of left-field absurdity I love so dearly in a webcomic. As previously mentioned, it does also contain the sage advice that ninjas are unable to grab you if you’re on fire.
Humor
- Photoshop Disasters – Cataloging the worst specimens of professional photochoppery, this one’s as good for the perpetually argumentative comments section as it is for the botched images.
- Cake Wrecks – I wouldn’t think a blog about disastrously bad cakes would be this entertaining, but who knew? If not for the existence of such a website, the world might never have been exposed to the naked mohawk baby carrot jockey cake.
- Cracked – So what if the magazine was aborted almost before it began? The website’s funny eight times out of ten, and that ain’t bad.
Other Online Time Sinks
- Ball Droppings – Physics/music engine. Semi-hypnotic and very hard to put down.
- Canabalt – Flash game that started out as an iPhone app. Run like hell from… something.
- Vector Tower Defense 2 – Abandon all productivity, ye who clicketh here.
