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DallasArtsRevue: Home Index Calendar Member
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to Join Opportunities ThEdblog Resources Contact
Us Reviews
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are the best. THIS PAGE search digicams shop movies radio mac astrology maps etc net - isp
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the i net
My Favorite Links
These links reflect my own
interests and sensibilities. They are here, so I can access
them from other people's computers — and my own. I change stuff
here rarely, although I eventually delete links I never use. I almost
never add links just because somebody asks me to, and I don't do link
exchanges. This is my page for me.
the best
Digital Photo Review used to be my #2 favorite, now I go instead to
I still visit DPR's Forums, because they haved mucked that up yet, but I assume they will. It's only a matter of time.
Now I might check Digital Camera Resource or even Steve's Digicams but the rest have the same news or less.
There's also Give Me Something to Read and Instapaper and The Best Magazine Articles Ever
I used to believe in Ken Rockwell, link below, but now I place a more faith in Thom Hogan, whose book about the Nikon D7000 (See my D7000 Journal) …
I used to read something from Ken Rockwell's site nearly every week, sometimes more than twice a day. He is a photographer, and is personally kinda mean spirited, he writes online about cameras, lenses and accessories, including reviews and HOW TOs that are invaluable. I have seen online that many believe he'll happily review products that aren't available and that he's never seen. I understand that feeling.
You can get a flavor for his writing from his Recommended Cameras story, although I also use his camera-specific Nikon D300 User's Guide often and before that the one for the D200. I do not use his Nikon D7000 Guide, instead I rely on Thom Hogan's. Rockwell even does a Today's Updates page of what he changed on his site today, and yesterday, etc. Which I should probably do for DallasArtsRevue when I get the energy. ; )
There's a bunch of Credible Digital camera sites listed on my Cameras & Lenses page. Some of the stuff on that page started on my How to Photograph Art, which I still often update and has become one of my most popular pages ever. Which is great, because I'd been wanting to write about photography for a long time. More credible digi-cam sites are somewhere below on this page.
I don't check SlashGear anymore. It always seemed like it was going to be a lot more interesting than it really is, but sometimes they'll have a gem of an article, not just worth reading but worth thinking about. Then, just when it seems to be going someplace important, it stops.
All Things Digital does entrepreneurial news via video that's sometimes interesting, sometimes sleep-inducing. It doesn't have the scope of SlashGear, but neither does it require so much page linking every day.
DC Views links most of the new stories about Digital Cameras and Digital Imaging every week.
TechRadar is often interesting.
Big Think is a copy of TED, and even has music that's eerily similar to the old TED theme. It's got some big thoughts, too, but it's not as smart as it seems to think it is.
other blogs
Kevin Kelly, whose Cool Tools I check every day, gathers his writings in too many blogs to mention into his Lifestream that's often fascinating in tech and understanding directions.
Paul Graham Essays are intelligence and wisdom codified into readable text, sometimes lengthy but arranged in an easy-read narrow column. Some of my faves include Taste for Makers, How Art Can Be Good, How to Do What You Love, Good and Bad Procrastination, How to Write Briefly and Return of the Mac, but I find new favorites every time I visit. New essays are posted often.
TED probably fits in this category as well as its own, although these are typed words, and TED's live and in color video.
ConsumerReports' Electronic Blog, Money & Shopping, Cars and Health.
stories
Longform - outstanding long stories
of interest
in no particular order
Things cockroaches won't eat from roach-growers who know
The Aesthetic Crisis Center - one, big pile of links to all kinds of kinetic, animated, comical, artistic, political and just plain strange places all over the World Wide Web.
The Consumerist - offers often updated excellent consumer-related information and stories.
One Look nets differing dictionaries, some that even pronounce words or have thesauri. Other dictionaries [below]
Astronomy Picture of the Day and NASA Science — sometimes fascinating, sometimes boring
National Geographic Daily Dozen shots
Commoncraft explains things via small animated videos "in Plain English, but maybe a tad commercial.
Lectures at UC Berkely, Princeton, Cornell, Seattle, pop Dartmouth, BioInteractive from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, U of Ediburgh Gifford Lectures, etc. On computer programs, the physical universe, gobs,
Painting Mass Media - the art of fair use with contemporary art by artists who sample media. Long, slow but fascinating video, complete with slide show and thematic sloguns as a young artist explores her dilemma.
Art
DallasArtsRevue has more than 400 pages of Dallas- (,Texas, USA) centric visual art news, views, reviews and a oft-updated calendar. Our Resources are helpful and our reviews are opiniated. We publish both positive and vicious nasty feedback, too.
Weberating the iNet
Down For Everyone or Just me? I need to know if my sites are online and whether they're not working for everyone or just me. This is simple and free.
Need to send an image or something else too big to upload, use UpLoad.sc to temporarily load and send using their site. Anna uses this often. I like the standalone program YouSendIt, which is free for one image per email, costs for more, but I stick to free. It easily handles files that overpower my email client. You gotta be registered at www.yousendit.com.
W3C Markup Validation Service - You input your URL, and it checks that page for validation issues.
Some links I want to check out: Cross Browser Testing Link Checker W3C Link Checker Xenu's Link Sleuth Link Tiger popuri.us Search Engine Marketing FAQ
Video/TV/Music/Media
NPR Music links audio of all sorts of music somebody there thinks is good. Great variety, often full new albums, for us to listen to.
Netflix' previews are absorbing and accumulating. Moviefone's are smaller with lower res and volume.
I review Movies. More than 1,570 this century. So far.
are fabulous but limited, since they try to sell them. Jon Stewart's The DailyShow is sometimes funny. Maybe.
I'd been thinking iPod thoughts, even bought a Shuffle for Anna, but it seemed so limited, so I tracked down a cheaper, more versatile, possibly better alternative, the Sansa Clip, which I use often. My first one was only two gigs but only costs $50. My latest one hold 8 gigs and still only cost 50-something bucks.
I have bought two pairs of Senheiser PX-100 fold-away headphone that's very comfy and sounds great without blocking traffic and bird noises (if I turn it down). But I've learned that their connection from the wire to the plug-in is extremely weak and frays completely under stress, so I wrap tape around that end of it soon as it's mine.
I like its FM radio and voice recording capability, which is fabulous for a roving journalist. All I have to do is fiddle with maybe three menu items, and it'll record for as long as I want. I have several five-hour recordings from it, though I doubt I'll ever get to transcribing them.
When I was a teenager I used to dream that when I grew up I'd have access to all the great cars, but they're all in Jay's Garage.
Eventually all TV — like movies — will come down the net — Broadcast TV is dead and surely knows it by now, digital or analog. Cable is at the end of its long and usurious life. Satellites are so last century and junking up space, and YouTube is yesterday's state of science — but fun.
ABC, CBS, NBC, the CW, Hulu and lately the elderly WB (extraordinarily loud but mercifully quick — untill you get to see it a couple hundred times — ads every ten minutes) have shows online with only one commercial every six minutes, so I can catch up and try new (and faved old) programs. Stupid old Fox doesn't show its better (either of them) shows on the net (although House has been available for awhile.)
Now there's Fancast's Full TV Episodes and probably others.
Online TV has one ad — not a string — interrupting programming less often than TV, but often it's the same stupid ad repeated. CW only advertises itself. ABC makes you push a button to continue programming, handy if you're left the room.
Digicams
I've been a professional photog since 1964, so I read lens, camera and gismo reviews often, always hoping for something interesting or practical. My Nikon D300 just sorta quit working, and I thought it was a pretty good camera, but like most dSLRs it's stupid, because it doesn't show a live view of what I'm shooting while I'm shooting, tipping me off to bad exposure, wrong ISO or color balance, like even cheap consumer digicams do. Worse, it's heavy as a rock.
So in 2011 I bought a little Panasonic Lumic G2, which I love. It's light, powerful and only has a few major drawbacks. The full skiny on my relation to it is on My G2 Journal. Before that was my S90 Journal, and immensely more popular than either of those was my early and long unupdated Canon s90/95 Tips & Accessories page.
Tripods 101 - wish I'd read this before I bought the cheap (crummy design), expensive ($100 but it's so clumsy I can't use the damned thing. I wrote an honest, clear-headed review for Amazon, but they have not posted it.), so-called Tilt-all tripod.
I've had a genuine Leitz Brothers Tiltall tripod since 1974 that was amazing till it recently became reluctant to bend one leg. When the spring that tightens twisting and raising the central column quit, I knew I had to get a new one. So I bought another "Tiltall (my review near the bottom of that page)," except the brothers apparently sold the name, and who makes them now sucks at it. Tripods 101 is extensive and inclusive. One of those amazing educational experiences free on the web.
Amazing compendium of info about Nikon Lenses
Another Nikon resource I stumbled on online is The Nikonians, which linked me to a great page of Nikon lens review links.
LensTip also offers credible photographic lens reviews, among more and more other clutter and the usual boring and bad consumer reviews.
Others test lenses, but many don't know what they're doing or are trying to sell something. In this category is Photography Review dot com's tests "tested" by lots of readers, whose comments are highly subjective and only useful in the aggregate, if that.
Less exacting are Megapixel, CNET and LetsGoDigital and too many others hardly worth keeping up with.
Storing Your Digital Images is good advice.
The Online Photographer is fascinating and nicely old-fashioned.
SEARCH
Goo sends a lot of hits to DallasArtsRevue.com, but until very recently I preferred to find things net via Yahoo Advanced Search.
Now I use Google's Search, which includes all "my" sites in one seek.
Most sites work better if you don't phrase your search as a question. When you just have to, Ask.
SHOPPING
I have browsed and bought books, computers, monitors, software, hardware and music from
Amazon is cheaper, doesn't charge sales tax, is mostly honest (their prices change by availability and for no reason at all — sometimes in a list of several "similar items" there'll be more than one of the same item with hugely different prices), so it's worthwhile to pick and choose carefully, but they have almost everything.
Even if I don't buy it there, I learn what's best from their reviews. I do not buy from other companies through Amazon. Too much trouble. I've had a lens crushed, products not as advertised and two that never showed up. Luckily, Amazon is good about tracking down recalcitrant dealers, and I've got my money back every time.
Calumet Photograpphic is quick and has about the same prices as Amazon for the photo products they have. I've bought a couple things from them that Amazon did not have, and I have been very pleased. They're quick shipping, too. For the last six years, Ritz Camera has been very good to me.
Adorama has been much more difficult. I try to avoid using them.
RADIO & Voice
Austin's KUT is usually worth the listen, especially on their wonderfully diverse mornings and early afternoons music programs.
Texas Radio Stations Online lets me listen live to stations all over this state. I get KNTU FM 88.1 in my car, but it's distorted in my bedroom and I can't get it a all in my office. D Magazine says it's the best station in Dallas, neatly overlooking amateurish DJs, Off Topic weekends, low power and 40-mile distance from Dallas. But for real jazz here, there's only KNTU and KNON FM-89.3 after midnight.
National Public Radio - NPR Podcast Directory
Public Radio International - PRI Podcasts
American Public Media Podcasts
WYNC is amazing. The depth of their programming, especially in music has been fascinating to explore for this omni-music variety buff. But I guess New York City is like that.
MAC INFO/Shareware
Nothing is as complete and up-to-date as
Calibrate Monitor and or Calibrate Your Monitor may help us see the right colors and tones.
ASTRO
Astrology on the Web tells when the next Mercury Retrograde will strike. Sometime in May 2009.
MAPS
Google Earth, MapQuest and City of Dallas Interactive Maps shows me aerial photographs of some neighborhoods.
LEXICON
There are many dictionaries and encyclopedias online. My favorite encyclopedia is Wikipedia, but I'll add more here, since I often use this page to link to sites from other people's computers. If I were the only person to access this page, it's worth its while.
Urban Dictionary is fun and they add lotsa words every day. 941 today.
Divorce Predictor is uncomfy enough to get me off my ass and communicate with my girlfriend.
The Copyright Website reminds me about the circle c demons.
A Review of Review Sites - helpful page of critiqued review site links from Cool Tools. [above]
One of the more comprehensive computer-rlated gizmo testing sites is good old PC Magazine. Lots of very helpful consumer info.
Gizmodo - "so much in love with shiny new toys, it's unnatural" with a sizable Mac section.
I wasted time and money subscribing to Angie's List, which must be something somewhere else, but not here in Dallas. After I joined at $7.50/month, a $15 one-time charge jumped out of — and goes — nowhere. The agreement goes on and on, so they can afford a lawyer, but not a good web person. The site is ragged primitive. I repeatedly listed "carpenters" or "foundation repair" but the interface automatically popped me back to "pick a category." Plus numerous niggling navigation problems. Foundation Repair is not even a category, and the listed carpenters only make expensive bookcases. A hearty Bronx cheer for Angie and her list.
Texas Birding
Red-tailed Hawk Up Close and Nearly Personal from my journal
The Amateur Birder's Journal - is my own thrice-weekly walk through White Rock Lake inside the City Limits of Dallas, Texas, USA. In the journal you will find thousands of my photographs of the birds of White Rock and some other places, day by day through the seasons since June 2006, though I don't usually get this close to hawks.
Passport to Texas - Birding is a link list, but I hit ten links at random, and none of them went anywhere, so I'm not linking it here.
I tried the American Birding Association Birding Festival Search for "North Texas," and it gave me a listing for Galveston, which is not in North Texas. I tried East Texas, and it gave me a list of events in Virginia, so I gave up.
Birding.com's Texas bird watching page has so many bad links it's almost useless — no illustrations and no map, so I felt lost there.
Audubon Dallas wants me to review their site even though nothing's on their site. Last time I was there, there was a lot there. Now nothing.
Oh, wrong link. But this one is right. And there's Bird Chat. That's what I was looking for in the line above.
The Trinity River Audubon Center opens to the public October 18 & 19. There's already Roseate Spoonbills, Ibis, and the usual crowd of herons and egrets sighted there. I gotta go. Says here, it's "tucked away off South Loop 12, in a dense forest that most Dallas residents don't know exists" and it's rising, literally, from the ashes." But it doesn't say where, exactly. Oh, yeah, Goog knows all, 6500 S. Loop 12
Gulf Coast Birding
an afternoon's obsessing:
David Sarkozi's Birds of the Upper Texas Coast is informative and replete — gobs of info and in all kinds of directions — deep info, but they have an aversion to photographs or illustrations or maps on the same page as text, so it's visually dull. Probably fine for linear thinkers, but seeing a page of descriptions of photographs to choose from confuses me, when the picture could have been right there...
Their Birding Locations of the Upper Texas Coast page is fascinating and off-pissing, because it lists lots of places in that bird-rich vicinity but there's no maps to show where they are, lots of typos,
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory's site is navigationally adverse, difficult to get around in. Several links go nowhere. I'm still curious about it, but not willing to deal with that site anymore.
Rockport-Fulton - The Charm of the Texas Coast - sounds good for early spring - bird species named and described in the first paragraph. There's a picture. Amateur beautiful, but informative. Nice. For spring.
Finding Birds On The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast - It's a book from Sarkozi's site. Might be just what I'm looking for. Might not. Probably worth $18
Exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Highlights of a Birding Mecca's book description mentions "the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a state-designated driving route connecting more than 300 birdwatching sites from the Louisiana state line to the Mexican border. Brown highway signs, marked with the profile of a Black Skimmer, point the way to these bird-rich destinations," which fascinates this birder. paperback $11.86 today on Amazon.
Great Texas Wildlife Trails - is a nice-looking site that eventaully leads to a private bookstore that sells maps of places in Texas that have great birds. The Texas AgriLife Extension Bookstore continues the visual , but ya have to click one more page for prices, $4 each. Several pages later I still didn't know what shipping would be. Then I snapped that theirs were the same maps friends gave me last spring. Now to find them.
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge has Whooping Cranes and it is accessible by car, uh, maybe. The cranes can be seen from the observation tower from late October to mid-April. (For information about commercial boat tours to see the cranes and other birds, call the Rockport Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-242-0071.)
Rocky Mountain BIRDING
http://rockymountainnationalpark.com/pages/backyard_birdlist_estes.html
http://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/colorado/rocky-mountain-np/activities.html
http://slybird.blogspot.com/2007/08/trip-report-part-6-rocky-mountain.html
http://www.hawkowlsnest.com/2006/08/rocky-mountain-high.html
http://wgrc1971.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-3-2006-rocky-mountain-national.html
Software I use
El Camino's my favorite browser, because it lets me pile on bookmarks in the wrapping bookmark bar. Would love to do without the icons, many of which are generic, to save even more room. I also use Firefox, but its bookmarks disappear off the right edge while El Camino's wrap. Safari is a big mistake that's actually dangerous to use.
Dreamweaver web production basically sucks but it's supposedly the best. I miss PageMill, which was easy, fast and certain. Then Adobe bought it, because it competed with Dreamweaver, and dropped it.
Photoshop, of course, although I don't feel obligated to do every update. But then I'm still at OSX (not ten, X) Tiger and waiting for OSXX.
Apple's Mail is adequate. Their Adress Book crashed on me, taking with it all my addresses.
Interarchy is still the best FTP-er, although every webhost I've ever had claims to never have heard of it. Their loss.
My latest email address is always on the Contact page.
Galveston Weather
10 Day Weather for High Island