links
the amount of time i spend just browsing the web is just too sad. but there's just so much interesting stuff out there. just keeping up with technology usually takes an hour or two of idle time away from me (yes, i do read that much random stuff). so, if you're a little bored, here are some sites that should garner some of your time.
technology
still the best hardware review site in my opinion. nice in-depth reviews and comparisons that keep the average enthusiast up to date with the latest tech.
the tech site that i should probably read more. lots of nice tech news commentary on the front page along with very, very in-depth reviews of all sorts of tech goodies.
you use an operating system don't you? lots of nice news, articles, and commentary about the os we all love (windows), alternative oses (*nix), and really alternative oses (cosmoe, skyos, etc ...).
the community news site that leaves a path of destruction in its wake. a must read just because it's the sort of thing people are supposed to read.
another hardware review site. tom's along with anand are the biggies of the hardware review world in my mind. personally, i like anand better, but tom's is a pretty nice read as well.
music
sure it's not really being exposed to all of jpop, but music videos are hard enough to come by, and high quality (~300k) streamed stuff is more than good enough for me.
it usually has all the most recent jpop singles on direct download. it's the only easy way to get recent jpop in these dark p2p days.
need some anime/jpop music? ask and you will most likely receive. check out the member sites as well, they're all rather well done.
music scrounging, the old fashioned way. about as good as ftp searches get, i guess.
find streaming radio stations all around the world.
the best place to find high quality streaming audio.
anime
a useful database of most anime. it includes fansub information, production information, and other stuff you might want to know.
a pretty reasonable anime review site. it tends to have a lot of the recent animes, which i usually find more useful than older stuff.
a nice anime news site. this guy basically searches out and translates japan's anime news for us, japanese-impaired people.
rather nice anime wallpapers.
comics
scanslator of a multitude of manga. fairly quick and most releases are reasonably interesting. the main draw for me? kare kano and fruits basket.
the only web comic i read. a mixture of the l33t and anime worlds with some vaguely cheesy drama and some high class comedy thrown in for good measure. it's good stuff.
language tools
unfortunately the world doesn't seem to care about making their web pages in english as much as they used to. so this is indispensable for somewhat getting the gist of what those interesting foreign sites are about.
it sure as heck is faster and easier than using a real dictionary. plus it has a bunch of other useful stuff learning/using chinese.
web development
stuff i should read if i was really serious about web design. very interesting stuff, but out of my league.
it's all in the specs ... so give them a read. after you get a hold of the basics, w3's documentation is about all you need.
other useful stuff
video editing in almost understandable terms. the ultimate resource for all your encoding needs.
it's good to see that deja news' archives weren't lost. it's useful for getting access to those pesky class newsgroups when your isp's news server sucks (as mine kinda does). plus usenet is still a pretty happening and interesting place.
if it keeps copies of old stuff i've put on the web it's gotta be cool.