Useful or Interesting Apps & Sites
Categories of Links
Bookmarks
It's a dump of links I'll be sorting as I go.
- ooh.directory: A place to find blogs that interest you.
- Wiby: A search directory aimed at classic style "small web" type sites.
- Feedbro: My favorite browser plug-in for reading and managing my RSS feeds.
- LibreWolf: It's my "internet freedom" web browser of choice. Firefox based.
- PortableApps.com: Great for building a USB stick full of useful apps & tools you can plug in and run on any Windows computer.
- Paint.net: If you need an easy paint program for Windows that does layers, etc. this one conveniently does the job,
- Haiku OS: An interesting free operating system based on BeOS. I gotta try it!
- Yunohost: Project to help you install and run your own server on the internet running any of a variety of cool apps.
- FreedomBox: Project to let you run cool digital services from a PC running at home.
- The Yesterweb: A community that was about the whole "Small Internet" and "Reclaim the Net" thing.
- sadgrl.online: She had a ton of resources that helped folks build their own retro web sites.
YouTube Channels
I'm living in the future, which means I watch YouTube more than television or television-like streaming services. Here are some people I watch. I'll be culling this list down to something more reasonable, I promise!
- 424 Recording: Mike's channel mostly about recording on old cassette 4-track machines, but also indie rockin' in general.
- 5CELL: I knew this guy from work, he is an IT consultant, but he also has this band.
- 5 Minutes of Retro: Espen Kraft, known for his '80s synth content, has this side channel about retro-tech.
- Anyone Can Play Guitar: Adrian is awesome. Instructional guitar focused on post punk or early alternative stuff mostly, but a wide variety.
- Alex Ball: Vintage synth and studio gear.
- AMULETS: A lot of soundscapes using tape loops and various old low-fi gear.
- AndyDemos: Andy is very good at demoing FX pedals!
- Adam Millard - The Architect of Games: Fun analysis of mostly video games.
- Astrobiscuit: Great astrophotography channel with a weird kind of "Reality TV" hype production factor.
- AudioPilz: Bad Gear - Reviewing the world's most hated audio tools. Fun reviews of drum machines and synths. Dense.
- Auralnauts: Funny, very well produced nerd content. Star Wars spoof stuff and a lot more.
- baremetalHW: This guy restores mostly old Matchbox style cars.
- Battles: Battles is an odd, entertaining rock band.
- Belinda Carr: She's from Dubai, living in Texas, makes vids about construction materials and technology.
- Blender Guru: That's right, some tutorials on using the 3d program Blender.
- Cannot be Tamed: Pam talks about video games she likes.
- CCP Games: Creators of the Sci-Fi MMO Eve Online
- Chris' Tutorials: Video game creation tutorials.
- CIRCLE OF TONE: He's about getting tones. Metal centered, but also gothy stuff. He's not happy with music these days.
- Clemens Wenners Music: Original material and '80s synth pop covers.
- CLOONER: Clooner is the King of Farmington. This is not good rap.
- Central Michigan University Press: Some of my friends are helping bring games into being through their work at this university press!
- Cyberattack: Interesting dude, mostly vids about using effect pedals in creative, odd ways.
- Damian Bacci: Guitar instruction from a rockabilly, western swing, surf, early rock angle.
- Desmond Doom: "Post-Punk / Surf-Goth", he has good original music, and funny/inspirational "How to sound like (artist) in 1 minute" vids.
- Dirty School of Skate: Debbie Harry (no, not that one), helps show you how to roller skate, talks skating in general.
- discellany: He's into alt/indie/post-punk stuff and has things to say about it.
- DistroTube: Derek is all about free and open source, discusses mostly Linux distributions and applications.
- DJ Cummerbund: A lot of pretty great song mash-ups.
- dopegraffhead | Damu the Fudgemunk: Instrumental hip-hop. Used to follow for his Akai MPC-2000 sets and demos. Old school cool.
- Drain Addict: Ollie from around Sydney, Austrailia. He clears blocked drains.
- DrewTalks: He reviews gear and packages related to video game emulation.
- Shaun Overton | DUSTUPS: A guy trying to make a desert forest on some property he bought in Texas.
- Espen Kraft: Synths and '80s synth music.
- Gameranx: The mostly make listicles about modern video game subjects, but I like them.
- Geography King: Kyle has all kinds of interesting things to say about the geography, cities and parks of North America.
- Giraffe Academy: Various instructional material around programing languages and web-tech.
- gwEm's gwEmbassy: Mostly synth and drum machine stuff, though guitars and basses make appearances.
- Helena's Astrophotography: Helena does cool astrophotograhy, great vibes, super Scottish accent.
- Hola Spanish: It's Brenda Romaniello. She's from Argentina, lives in Australia, and teaches you Spanish, mostly speaking Spanish.
- Hybrid Calisthenics: Hampton is a friendly guy who steps you through calisthenics, has a program and book, etc.
- IcarusLIVES: He reviews FPS games and mods with a focus on Doom and earlier era "Boomer Shooter" style games.
- iFanboy: It's a comic books podcast, mostly. Reviews of the current books, and special shows for other media.
- InCamera: They show how they execute some amazing visual effects, usually using practical, non-CGI methods.
- Jenny Nicholson: She'll make a 20 hour video examining some obscure nerd content, and you'll watch it and love it in its full-on intelligent obsessiveness.
- jensen trani: Guitar song lessons.
- Jexus: Made freaky videos with freaky synth sounds way back in the day, he's come back to making somewhat more tame vids these days.
- Jface Games: He likes to talk about RPG and board game mechanics.
- JP Coovert: He makes RPG maps, but also reviews a lot of indie-RPG stuff with his raspy voice and relentlessly upbeat demeanor.
- JustinGuitar: Justin provides mostly basic beginning guitar lessons.
- Keen on Keys: Mostly provides slick breakdowns of toy and semi-pro keyboards, impressing you with what they can do.
- Knobs: Guitar FX demo channel. Maybe originated the aesthetic a lot of these channels use.
- Kurt's Comic Review: He talks about comics. He also checks out every comic store wherever he lives and reviews them.
- LavenderTowne: It's Haley and she draws and has opinions and instructions around manga-esque art making.
- Law Creations: Great down-to-earth guy who makes dioramas and modifies toy figures.
- Let's Talk About Math Rock: It's Steve. He currently lives in Korea, lots of instructional vids focusing on Math Rock.
- Lost Lakes: From Ontario on Lake Superior's north shore, kayaking, hiking and camping mostly in the Canadian north.
- Macaron Afterparty: A musician who makes a kind of synth music he calls "Archwave", short for "Archive-wave".
- mac glocky: Covers in the "What if this band did this song?" style.
- markcrilley: He has a lot of tutorials on drawing.
- Matt Freeman's Bass Bunker: The bassist of Rancid, mostly showing you how he plays his own awesome songs on the couch.
- Julia Galef: She wrote "The Scout Mindset" and is into the philosophy, science, rationality scene.
- MIDERA: An electronic artist, does some fun fiddling with ye ol electronic instruments
- Midwest Magic Cleaning: He's odd and cleans a lot of hoarder level houses, plus general cleaning/refinishing skills.
- MonarchsFactory: She just has a wide variety of RPG content. Advice, reviews, whatever.
- Mozilla Developer: About web-tech and web programming from a Mozilla/Firefox centric point of view.
- Floyd Steinberg: Mostly a synth music guy. I like his vids about the Yamaha QY70.
- mrinvisiblehiphop: Mr. Invisible, a hip-hop group, do some cool routines on MPC and other gear.
- Ms Mad Lemon: She likes Amiga, tracker music, retro-tech, and making some charmingly independent stuff. She is originally from Egypt I believe.
- New Frame Plus: A channel all about video game animation.
- Nihn Ly: He describes the rules of tons of sports and competitions, even very obscure ones. He also likes guitars.
- Numberphile: Awesome channel about math!
- OtaKing Animation: This guy makes amazing 2d anime styled animations.
- Other Record Labels: Tips for running your own record label, promoting music, etc.
- Ozzy Man Reviews: He's from Australia and mostly just comments on funny videos, in classic internet fashion.
- Pat Finnerty: "What Makes This Song Stink", heartfelt and funny commentary on Gen-X-ish music.
- pedal partners: Dreamy shoegaze soundscapes and equipment musing.
- post 10: He clears drains and culverts, visits abandoned places. New England area. It's a vibe.
- Power DX7: A channel full of a lot of Yamaha DX7 style content.
- ProGuitarShopDemos: This is where Andy used to demo FX pedals.
- Prong Music: It's the channel for Tommy Victor's band, Prong. Not much here.
- Spanish with Qroo Paul: Qroo Paul is from Florida, ex-cop. He gives interesting Spanish lessons from a different point of view.
- Retrosoft Studios: They make RetroMania Wrestling, which I wish would come out on GOG.
- Reverb: The site that sells music gear, they have decent review or recording technique vids as well.
- Rick Beato: Song breakdowns, musician interviews, music theory, commentary on modern popular music
- Ron Edwards | Adept Play: Everybody remembers the Forge in RPG circles. Some theory, actual play and general RPG talk.
- SankeyMagic: Jay Sankey is a magician and this channel teaches plenty of magic tricks.
- Secret Galaxy: Even more of Dan Larson's coverage of '70s - '90s entertainment properties.
- Signals Music Studio: A guy that covers some decent music theory.
- SpaceHey: Nothing much here, but SpaceHey is a MySpace clone made by this young German guy.
- Sparky Guitar: He does guitar covers that act as decent lessons.
- SPVIDZ: This guy mostly is about tips for the Roland SP-404 Mk. 2, but he covers the other models and other sampling gear sometimes.
- stonefilmsnyc: A lot of in-depth interviews with musicans from the metal, punk and hardcore scenes mainly.
- STRANJAH: Broadly an "In the DAW" style electronic music producer with plenty of tricks and tips.
- Sunder: Video game reviews and analysis.
- Synthesaurus Rex: Synth stuff, but he also makes patches for the Korg Kross 1/2.
- SynthMania: It's Paolo. Tons of synth jams and gear reviews & instruction, he also features a lot of his own music.
- The 8-bit Guy: David's awesome channel mostly about retro-computing, but also some tech in general.
- TheDMsCraft: A guy who mostly has vids about making terrain and props for use in your TTRPGs.
- TheHappieCat: She made a ton of video game programming content, about the real nitty gritty stuff.
- The Old Net: Not much here. It's the YouTube Channel for The Old Net, which you should check out.
- TheSynthFreq: Synth music, a lot of it DX7 based.
- Mozilla Thunderbird: You know, the e-mail client. Just a channel covering what they are up to.
- Time Rift Arcade: The 8-bit Guy and some partners opened an arcade. Coverage on the machines and restorations, etc.
- Dan Larson | Toy Galaxy: Toy Galaxy covers mostly toy figures, but also documentaries about a lot of series and properties.
- twooba: She plays guitar. She's like an annoying quirky younger sister.
- Underrated: Just some random music discovery.
- Veronica Explains: Veronica is into Linux and various old computer stuff.
- Verysickbeats: He makes beats with samplers and has tips and tricks about that.
- Video Game Animation Study: Very interesting study of video game animation across various games.
- VWestlife: A review of all kinds of older electronics technology. Very informative.
- Zizaco: Zizaco is into making indie-video game stuff.
There are a number of sites I still follow using RSS. I've followed RSS feeds a variety of ways over the years, but currently I read my feeds using Feedbro, a browser plugin that works with most of the web browsers out there. I probably need to cull this list quite a bit. Some of these sites are dead.