Interesting People

On the Internet, the content is other people.

David Gerard

Sometimes I happen to run across someone's web page for one reason and then end up reading through all sorts of other fascinating things that that person is interested in or has been involved in. Sometimes a web page is only on one topic, but it has such a sense of creativity and personality that it goes on the list of sites that I read regularly. This is a collection of some of those pages.

For journals and similar regularly updated web sites that I read regularly, see the sidebar of my journal.

Dan Bernstein

The controversial and difficult to get along with author of qmail, daemontools, djbdns, ucspi-tcp, and other extremely useful software packages. Dan Bernstein is a professor of computer science and mathematics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has a lot of interesting information on his pages about Internet e-mail, DNS, portable software, and software law. I frequently don't agree with him, and think he's far too vicious to people he doesn't agree with, but I use quite a bit of his reliable, high-quality software.

Penny Arcade

It may seem odd to list an on-line comic strip in the interesting people category, but as any long-time Penny Arcade reader can tell you, the meat of the site is really the news posts. Unless you're really into video games, this site probably won't be your thing, but it's my favorite source of video game news, rumors, opinions, and vicious snark.

Karl Schroeder

The author of several books that I liked quite a bit (Ventus, Permanence, and Lady of Mazes), Karl Schroeder maintains two blogs on his web site, one about science and science fiction and another entitled Age of Embodiment about modernism and what comes after. The latter frequently has articles that I've found very thought-provoking, even if I didn't entirely agree with them.

XKCD

The only on-line comic strip that I find both regularly funny and insightful and in which I recognize things I care about, conversations I have, and things that wander through my head. It's probably one of those things that either you get or that's beyond explanation. If I had to pick one site on the Internet that most often finds a way to express something I couldn't put into words, it's this one.

Jamie Zawinski

JWZ is probably best known for being one of the founders of Netscape, back in the day, but he also worked on XEmacs, has been involved in many other free software / open source projects, and is currently running a nightclub in San Francisco. He is a wonderfully entertaining writer; the cries for help link off his home page is particularly good. Also don't miss his LiveJournal, which is full of entertaining pictures and quotes, and the DNA Lounge blog.

Last spun 2022-02-06 from thread modified 2020-01-10