These are my own notes, but perhaps they will be of interest to someone else.
Art
My interest in esoteric subjects is not equivalent to belief in any of them. However, my interest here is not really as a skeptic (though I am), nor with an eye to debunking them. I find many esoteric traditions a gold mine of interesting ideas, imaginative art, and different perspectives on the world, which is why I am also interested in radical political philosophies, while subscribing to none of them.
Esotericism
- Pansophers.com - Rosicrucian Website with excellent collection of texts and manifestoes.
- Pegasus of the Firmament - A Rosicrucian text by Daniel Mögling.
- The Pandora of the Sixth Age - Another Rosicrucian text by Daniel Mögling.
- Easter, Ishtar. Eostre, and Eggs - by Tim O'Neill [2017]. Argues from an atheist perspective that the claim that Easter is based on pagan traditions is likely incorrect.
- Is Halloween Pagan? - by Tim O'Neill [2021]. Here, O'Neill also argues that this impression is from ninetheenth century myth.
- Hermetics Resource Site - Resources on Hermeticism.
- The Alchemy web site on Levity.com - The collected projects of Adam McLean, probably the most insightful and prolific enthusiast of alchemical, esoteric, and occult artwork, ideas, and texts on the Internet. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel as well. This website is where my interest in esoteric subjects began: through art. Lots of strange and wonderful stuff here.
- The Ordo Templi Orientis Phenomenon - Peter-Robert Koenig's investigation of Aleister Crowley's OTO. NSFW. It is impossible to understand modern occultism without some familiarity with Crowley, as his influence is felt throughout multiple occult traditions. I am specifically not a fan of his philosophy/religion, Thelema, nor of Crowley. However, once you get past the goofy documentaries about "The Great Beast," the ideas are interesting, if sometimes grotesque. Koenig's site is one of the few which isn't a fawning homage to Crowley.
- United States Grand Lodge - Ordo Templi Orientis Library - Thelemic texts, mainly by Crowley.
- Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass - Video of Crowley's sort-of parody of the Catholic mass, complete with a naked priestess. NSFW. The "Eucharistic wafer" is called a Cake of Light, which contains a bodily effluent. Among other ideas, Crowley believed consumption of these fluids was equivalent to, or suggesting, a kind of gnosis. Whatever one makes of it, the text of the ritual is, I think, well-written, if a bit florid. But hey, it's a religious ritual. The orgasm is fairly central in Thelema both as an actuality and larger principle of creation.
- Confraternity of the Rose Cross Library - Small library of texts from one of the Gary L. Stewart-founded CR+C.
- Wikipedia: Tree Of Life (Kaballah) - Central symbol used in Jewish, Christian, and Hermetic Kabbalah/Qabalah/Cabala.
- The Alchemical Dream - Rebirth of the Great Work - Terence McKenna's fascinating and almost postmodern documentary on alchemy.
- The True Story of the Rosicrucians - by Tobias Churton. The Rosicrucian movement represented, to me, one of the most tantalizing projects of the human enterprise. Unfortunately, the dream was stronger than the actuality, and the Enlightenment made it largely irrelevant. As a promise, it survives on, often in depressingly vacuous new age terms. I cannot help the feeling that there is something salvageable here. If anyone knows what I am talking about, send me a mail. If you think I'm nuts for saying this, well, I agree with you.
- Gnostics - Four part Tobias Churton project made for Channel 4 in the UK. Also excellent. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Free Stuff
- Free Music Archive - Excellent free music. Some of this can be used as soundtracks to videos but be sure to check the specific license and its terms for each first.
- Freesound - Free sounds/effects, licensed under Creative Commons. Check for details of license for each before re-using/re-mixing.
- Incompetech - Royalty-free music, among other things. Two license options.
- Pexels - Free and royalty-free stock photos.
- Unsplash - Freely-usable images
General computing resources
- reddit.tube - Download videos from Reddit with sound
- MAC address and OUI lookup (Arul's Utilities) - Determine manufacturer/vendor by MAC address, or vice-versa
- W3C Developers - HTML validator, CSS validator, link checker, etc.
- normalize.css - makes browsers renders all elements more consistently
- Demonsaw - encrypted communications platform providing chat, messaging, and P2P file transfer services
- manualslib - Online searchable library of manuals
- Creating the Perfect PGP Keypair - by Alex Cabal [2013]
- Rico's Cheatsheets - Cheatsheets on a wide range of subjects.
- Wargames - A gamified intruduction to Linux hacking techniques. Really fun.
- Open directory searching on Google - by /u/ElectroXexual [2019-ish]
- Notes on Red Star OS 3.0 - Notes on getting Red Star OS installed in a VM by RichardG [2015]. Red Star is North Korean Linux (skinned to look somewhat like a Mac), which sounds a lot more interesting than it really is. The OS installs with some kind of proxy set up to access a controlled internal network of state-approved resources. You can disable this and browse the Web normally, however I suspect in North Korea there is no routing, so the Internet is simply not accessible. Accordingly, there doesn't appear to be much by way of surveillance/spyware in the OS itself, at least not that I could detect, since the Internet is simply not accessible in that country. I did some packet captures and saw nothing interesting about this and navigating through Korean-language menus is a drag if you don't speak Korean. It is rumored that there is a Red Star v4.0 out there but I have not been able to find it.
Internet Infrastructure
- GeoTraceRoute - Shows, roughly, potentially, kindasorta, the path through the Internet between the site this is hosted on (in San Francisco) and a site on a 3D globe.
- Shodan - The search engine for the Internet of Everything. A search engine for devices hooked up to the Internet (machinery, devices, servers) rather than web pages.
- Submarine Cable Map - Shows the ocean cables which connect the world electronically. Fun to pair with GeoTraceRoute.
- Infrapedia - Interactive map of internet cables and connections.
Manifestoes / Rants
Note: Nothing listed here should suggest I agree with what is being said. My interests in these sort of things often go way beyond personal politics or advocacy (or opposition). I read across the political spectrum, far-right to far-left.
- Goodbye to All That - by Robin Morgan [1970]. Incendiary missive against sexism in New Left from a passionately feminist perspective. "Goodbye, goodbye forever, counterfeit Left, counterleft, male-dominated cracked-glass mirror reflection of the Amerikan Nightmare. Women are the real Left."
- Industrial Society and its Future - aka the Unabomber Manifesto by Ted Kaczynski [1995]. One of the more interesting and orderly serial killer manifestoes. Essentially, Kaczynski was a propaganda-by-the-deed anarcho-primitivist. Like most political extremists, he believed he had the moral authority to murder people in pursuit of the worldview he sought to impose on all of us. "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world."
- Your Politics Are Boring as Fuck - by Nadia C [1997]. "They know that your antiquated styles of protest — your marches, hand held signs, and gatherings — are now powerless to effect real change because they have become such a predictable part of the status quo." Published by CrimethInc, aka CrimethInc Ex-Workers Collective, an anarchist concern. Conversely, CrimethInc's 2009 convergence is a hilarious example of the Left eating itself (and my go-to example) along the axis of identity politics.
- Port Huron Statement - The Students for a Democratic Society [1962] political manifesto, kicking off the most interesting New Left project of the 1960s. The original draft can be read here. The Port Huron Statement was concerned with what I think is still an interesting idea that never seems to catch on sufficiently: participatory democracy. "We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit."
- The SCUM Manifesto - by Valerie Solanas [1967]. [S]ociety for [C]utting [U]p [M]en, people have debated whether this was a provocative tongue-in-cheek rant, or whether she was serious (Personally, I think she was serious). Solanas is probably most famous for shooting Andy Warhol. "Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex."
- Libertarian Party (of the United States) Statement of Principles - John Hospers [1972]. "We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual. We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose. Ayn Rand derided Libertarians as "hippies of the right." Howard Roark LOLed.
- Lost Media Wiki - Dedicated to hunting down video, music, literature, etc. which is out of print or no longer available.
- My 60s TV - Watch TV clips and commercials from the 60s
- My 70s TV - Watch TV clips and commercials from the 70s
- My 80s TV - Watch TV clips and commercials from the 80s
- My 90s TV - Watch TV clips and commercials from the 90s
- My 2000s TV - Watch TV clips and commercials from the 2000s
- Documentary Mania - Lots of documentaries to stream, sorted by subject
- 360 Gigapixels - Massive, finely-detailed zoomable/scrollable panormas of major world cities. The closest thing I've seen to the mythical "Enhance" button in movies.
- Recordo Obscura - Obscuro recordings. Mainly old, obscure records.
- The Freedom Archives - Leftie archive focused on preservation of progressive audio, video, and print materials documenting progressive movements and culture from the 1960s to the 1990s.
- NASA Image and Video Library - NASA search engine
- The Mod Archive - Database of .MOD audio tracker files, a format originating on the Amiga computer in 1987.
- Reddit: /r/vintageobscura - Obscuro recordings. The ultimate online crate-dig and maybe my favorite subreddit.
- Reddit: /r/obscuremedia - Obscure media, mainly video.
Miscellaneous Utilities
- Fretboard Explorer - my friend Kevin's project to display different tunings and scales on a guitar fretboard
- 8mbvideo - Optimally compresses video files to make them 8, 50, or 100 MB.
- MAC address and OUI lookup - Look up manufacturer of a device based on its MAC address.
- Stolen Camera Finder - Presumably searches for other photos with EXIF data matching the serial number of your camera.
- VirusTotal - Analyze suspicious domains, IPs, URLs, and files for malware. Files may be dragged-and-dropped.
- ShellCheck - Finds bugs in shell scripts.
- Mobile Friendly Text - by Google. Analyzes a web page for things which won't render well on a small screen.
- Mozilla Observatory - Analyzes the security of websites.
- Music Map - Search on an artist and it will show you bands which are aesthetically similar or linked. Good way to find bands like the ones you already like.
- GeoTraceRoute - Shows, roughly, potentially, kindasorta, the path through the Internet between the site this is hosted on (in San Francisco) and a site on a 3D globe.
- Shodan - The search engine for the Internet of Everything. A search engine for devices hooked up to the Internet (machinery, devices, servers) rather than web pages.
- justbeamit - Quick way to transfer files. Drag file to web browser, and then it generates a download link. File is allegedly deleted after ten minutes. I'd encrypt or use it only for non-private data, obviously.
- Securesha.re - Self-destructing, single-use file sharing.
- Pixel Speech Bubble - Generates an 8-bit speech bubble with text you specify.
- WhatTheFont - Upload an image and it will try to identify the font.
- Online Tone Generator - Generate a variety of sounds, including speech synthesis. You can also test your hearing and subwoofers.
- removebg - Removes backgrounds from images.
- In-the-Sky.org - Guide to what is visible in the night sky.
- Related Words - Enter a word, and it will returns synonyms and other related words and concepts
- Word Count Tools - Counts words of pasted text, but also determines readability based on syntax choice. Also counts unique words, difficult words, etc.
- Light Pollution Map - Interactive map of light pollution. Find dark sky spots for stargazing...if you can.
- YouTube GeoFind - Search by location for Geotagged YouTube videos.
- ShadeMap - Uses topological features to show where there is shade (i.e., cast by mountains and hills) in a particular location during a particular time of day.
- Mailvelope - Browser-add on to integrate PGP with major mail providers./li>
- FotoForensics - Analyzes images for possible embedded/steganographic content, strings, metadata, etc.
- Fake Name Generator - Fake identify generator. Includes name, SSN, location, age, and other info.
- 10minutemail.com - Disposable e-mail service.
OSINT
Personal Websites and Blogs
It depresses me that personal home pages are scarce enough these days that I can endeavor to simply list ones I encounter here. If you've got one, please e-mail me using the Contact link, and I will list it here. I still find these quite interesting -- possibly more interesting than most of the rest of the Internet.
Psychogeography
- Wikipedia: Psychogeography - A strange rabbit hole I have been down of late.
- SFZero - SFZero players earn points by completing a wide variety of different tasks,
often with a focus on creativity, exploration, community, or performance.
- Dérive / Drift starter kit - a way of exploring environments, experiencing them directly and immediately, and forming new associations.
- Dérive - "drift"; - an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants drop their everyday relations to the environment and "let themselves
be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there"
- Flânerie / Flâneur - the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. A flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life.
Psychology
- Wikipedia: Frequency Illusion - aka the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias. After noticing something the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often or believe that the phenomenon occurs with sudden frequency.
- Wikipedia: Availability Cascade - A novel idea or insight, usually one that seems to explain a complex process in a simple or straightforward manner, gains rapid currency in the popular discourse by its very simplicity and by its apparent insightfulness. The Internet seems to intensify the phenomenon.
- Wikipedia: Liminality - a quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a right of passage. Often uncanny.
- Wikipedia: The Society of the Spectacle - a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord, in which the author develops and presents the concept of The Spectacle
- Wikipedia: Parasocial Interaction - The one-sided interaction between a viewer of media and media personalities in which the viewer believes they have some sort of personal relationship with the individual in media ("my TV friend!"). Encountering this phenomenon has perplexed and disturbed me my entire life.
Radio Waves
Realtime Internet
- RSOE EDIS - Emergency & Disaster Information Service
- Insecam - Webcams from around the globe, including, most notably, unsecured ones probably not intended for a worldwide audience (garages, etc.).
- WikipediaVision - Watch edits to Wikipedia articles in real-time on a global map.
- Trendsmap - Realtime and historical Internet hashtag trends on interactive map.
- ADS-B Exchange - Interactive map showing current planes in the air
- Blitzortung.org - Realtime lightning strike map
- Namib Desert (Namibia) Live Stream - Reservoir in Gondwana Namib Park
- Deep Space Network NOW - Shows status of Deep Space Network and what the dishes are communicating with (e.g., Voyager) at the current time.
Religion
Research Resources
- GovernmentAttic.org - Interesting documents acquired via the Freedom of Information Act
- Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room - Hosted by the CIA. Search for various documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. Also curated into collections.
- Behind the Name - Get opinions, facts, and timelines for common names
- Archie - FTP site search. Archie is a very old search engine, predating Web search engines and is used to index FTP sites.
- Mamont's open FTP Index - Search engine and browser for publicly-accessible FTP sites.
- File Pursuit - Search engine for files, rather than web pages. Many dead links, but useful nonetheless. Lots of PDFs.
- Dark Web Map - Browsable map of the tor network. The disclaimer states: "These sites include mature and/or offensive content, including pornography, violence, and racism." Be sure to accept the disclaimer...if you dare. Wisely, the .onion addresses are obscured.
- Google Books Ngram Viewer - Word frequency in books, over time.
- Open Directory Search Tool - Enter a keyword and the tool will wrap the keyword appropriately to search in open directories via Google.
- Exploseek - Metasearch engine for specific file types, like music, images, etc.
- manualslib - Manual / Documentation search
- The Name Geek - Find out information on first and last names (frequency, etc.)
Retrocomputing
- Reddit Retrocomputing multireddit - Combines many retrocomputing forums on Reddit.
- Wardialers.org - lucidphreak's database of wardialing software.
- Contiki - Oliver Schmidt's Contiki OS with TCP/IP for 8 bit computers. You can download pre-made disk images for the Apple //e, C64, C128, or Atari 8 Bit Systems at this page on a2retrosystems.com
- BlueBoard BBS - lucidphreak's quest to unearth Martin Sykes's lost BlueBoard BBS software.
- Burrowing a Gopher Hole - Article from Tedium on the gopher protocol [2017].
- Gopher Project's failed attempt to charge for gopherd - The University of Minnesota's attempt to charge money to continue gopher development (1993-Mar-11 mailing list post)
- View from ASCRAEUS: Running Down a Gopherhole - Great introduction to running a gopher site by Daniel Goldsmith [2016]
- FrogFind - A search engine for old browsers and computers. Returns hits in basic HTML.
- 68k.news - News headlines and stories for old browsers and computers. Basic HTML.
- Telnet BBS Guide - Telnet BBS Guide - The most comprehensive, and possibly the oldest.
- IPTIA Consulting - "I ping, therefore I am." This site takes a different approach uses network scanning to log BBSes and MUDs all over the world.
- BBS Guide - A list of bulletin board systems.
- Image BBS Software - Image BBS Software for Commodore 8 bit computers and emulators. Currently developed and updated.
- Official GBBS Pro Repository - Classic BBS software for Apple II systems.
- Atari BBS Listing - List of BBSes hosted on Atari 8 bit systems, or Stari STs, or emulated versions thereof (yep, they're up and running, folks!)
- Hobbes OS/2 Archive - Software archive for the IBM OS/2 operating system. I emulate Warp in VirtualBox.
- evolt.org browser archive - Archive of old web browsers, including the likes of NCSA Mosaic, and the Tim Berners-Lee authored WorldWideWeb (Nexus)
- Snoopi Botten's archive of DECtalk songs. DECtalk is a software version of the speech synthesizer Stephen Hawking used. Some of the results here are adorable. Try Bohemian Rhapsody. Just paste the text into the main window. You can download the DECTalk software here.
- telnet.org - Places to telnet. Hey, we all have our hobbies. Some oddities here, but also MUDs, talkers, and BBSes.
- MagViz+ Ddial - A sort of re-imagined Diversi-Dial which runs in a browser window. Lots of additions and enhancements making this far more capable than the original. Use //? for a menu once you log in.
- Q-Link Reloaded - Quantum Link (AOL, before AOL was AOL, and was a Commodore-only online service). There are currently servers running which can be accessed via Telnet, using the original Quantum Link software.
- Time Warp - BBS'ing with an Atari 8-bit emulator - by Jeff Piepmeier from his Technically Distracted blog.
- Set up an OS/2 Warp4 Virtual Machine with networking (and shared folders) - by ghr, from the VirtualBox.org forums [2014]
- Two-Bit History: Computing through the ages - fascinating blog about ARPANET, 8 bit systems, programming, etc.
- Multics - Now runnable on modern systems via the DPS8M simulator. Multics pre-dates Unix and was developed in the 1960s. It is one of the most footnoted projects when reading about the history of operating systems.
- 1st Edition Unix: Emulation via simh - Run 1st edition Unix on a simulated PDP-11! [1971 Unix Programmer's Manual]
- Ancient UNIX/BSD emulation on Windows - 4.3BSD on SIMH - with TCP/IP networking (self-contained installer for Windows)
- Telstar Videotex System - Modern internet-accessible Videotex system with clients for Mac, Linux, Windows
Web Toys
- The Geocities-izer - Re-formats a URL you provide to look like an old, amateur, garish Geocities page. Kind of hilarious. Doesn't seem to work with https://. Be sure to turn your volume up for sweet, sweet autoplay.
- myNoise - Configurable soundscapes for relaxation, sleep, etc. More than just sound recordings, different elements may be emphasized or de-emphasized (e.g., increase bird noise in a forest)
- Pink Trombone - A horrifying yet hilarious mouth/nose/soft palate emulator.
- Sapndspiel - Simulated sandbox, with organic and inorganic elements
- orb.farm - Simulate artificial life in a terrarium/fish tank. Modify ecosystems, bacteria, fish, plants, and watch their effects on the whole ecosystem. LIFE-DESTROYING TIME SINK.
- URLRoulette - Submit a URL, and get redirected to the previous user's URL. You may need to turn off ad blockers.
- WebGL Fluid Simulation - Like playing with pools of oil or paint. Highly satisfying.
- Jellyfish - Jellyfish simulator. Increase count to test browser performance.
- sharkle.com - Generator of Random Awesomeness. Links to random web toys, WebGL, and three.js experiments. Several of the above links were discovered via this site.
- 2020 Game - Hilarious in-browser platform game where you attempt to navigate the year 2020. Avoid the COVID-19 virus!