My Web Site List

You might think from my earlier blogs that I don't spend all that much time on the Internet.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I write this blog on Google Docs, so I can work on it wherever and whenever.  I have a Google Chrome browser up at all times with seven Google services always open.  I have Firefox up at all times to handle RSS feeds and Google searches.  I regularly seek information from the three sources of all knowledge (Google, Wikipedia and YouTube).  Take my browsers away and I stumble upon this Earth.  

We all have our favorite web sites and I'll share mine with you.  Most you're probably familiar with, but even one new winner is worth perusing the list.  Here goes....

• Kayak.com - I use this for all my travel planning.  It is by far the best web site I've found for quickly finding good airfares.  It works like this:  (1) pick your cities and pick your date, (2) all the data for all the flights is sent to your browser, and (3) by using check boxes, sliders and buttons you can narrow or widen your search criteria and never go back to the web site for another long search.  
• SportingNewsToday.com - Part of my morning ritual.  Make coffee, let the dog out and then read "my morning paper".  SportingNewsToday has the best layout.  Quick and easy to find just the parts you like or skim the day's issue.  More like reading "the sports page" than drilling up and down the typical hierarchical web site.
• Gutenberg.org and Librivox.org - Books in the public domain are available at Gutenberg.org.  Audiobooks in the public domain are at Librivox.org.  I particularly like Audiobooks for car commutes and have gone through most of the Sherlock Holmes and Wizard of Oz books (there are over a dozen of each).  Volunteers record the Audiobooks, but I think you'll be amazed at how well most of them do.  
• Pandora.com - There are a number of good music sites and Pandora is my favorite, although Grooveshark, Finetune and Last.fm are among the other fine choices.  You build "stations" in Pandora based on an artist or song, and it uses that to play songs by the artist and songs similar to that style.  You can rate individual songs "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" to further tune the station to your liking.  Even cooler running on my Droid phone in the car.  "Radio" with no commercials. Sweet.
• Cio.com - My personal choice for balanced and professional reporting of technology news and topics.  Digg, Slashdot and Lifehacker are good too, but a little too much chaff, opinion and irrelevance.
• GeekBrief.tv - Cali Lewis delivers up-to-date technology news via a 3-5 minute video several times a week.  Particularly fond of Apple computers and Japanese robots, Cali delivers a lot of information in a very short time with shots of humor.  Nice not to read for a few minutes every morning, but it's still part of "my morning paper".
• Shoeknots.com - I just had to mention this web site although it contains a single page.  One day, many years ago, I was ranting about my new pair of dress shoes.  The dang shoe strings would not stay tied.  Now this was a problem I've had all my life, but this pair of strings was really bad.  I went on the Internet to find someone who sold "slipless" shoestrings.  I would pay anything.  I found Shoeknots.com, which taught me how to properly tie shoelaces.  I had been tying "granny knots" all my life.  Now I tie "square knots".  This web site taught me to seek out the knowledge of others.  A defining moment as I truly entered the age of search.  
• Bloom County and Dilbert - At www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty and www.dilbert.com.  Gotta have my morning dose of humor.  Bloom County is still hilarious the second time around.