Computers

Besides music, computers play a important rôle in my life. Currently, I'm a reseacher on computer science seurity. Besides, it's much fun too.

Computer Humour

At least for Geeks this is humorous...

• Dilbert - Interesting cartoon. Every CS engineer should read this.
• User Friendly - Another interesting computer comic, quite anti-Microsoft but not just that.
• Geek Code - A very concise manner to tell lots about yourself only useful tho for other geeks. It uses a kind of C like syntax to describe all kinds of properties. See below for my geek code.
• BOFH - Bastard Operator From Hell pages. Funny stories about the worst sysadmin or something... or something.
• Computer stupidities - A large collection of stories and anecdotes about clueless computer lusers.
• Automatic Complaint-letter generator - If you ever want to complain about some one, get a neat complaint letter generated here.
• IOCCC - The international obfuscated C code contest.
• RFC Humour - All the joke RFCs together on a single page.
• Tim Kuik - A hero of the copyright resistance.

Linux

I am a long time Linux user and try to install it on every computer I can get my fingers on ;-). The only bad thing of Linux is that hardware support isn't really top of the bill. This isn't really a fault of Linux but is caused by the Industry, that is lacking in support with Linux drivers. Well here are some interesting links on Linux.

• Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings. Gnome-based, easy-to-install Linux distrubtions derived from Debian.
• RedHat Linux - Fedora Project - Easy to install Linux distribution, but not as stable as used to be.
• Dutch Linux Homepage- start page for Dutch Linux users (in Dutch)
• Linux Documentation Project - All guides, Howtos, FAQs and such for Linux
• Linux Questions - A forum where you can post all kinds of linux-related questions.
• Kernel Trap - This site contains many interesting posts on the various open source kernels out there and especially focuses on the Linux Kernel
• The Linux Kernel - Get your latest vanilla kernel here.
• CygWIN - Ports of many Linux tools and an entire Linux-like API on top of the Win32 API. If you're kinda happy with Windows but want to try out Linux. Try this one. Or if you're stuck with Windows and want to use all your favourite Linux tools, like grep, lynx, wget, ls and soon, get this one. Also this is the only source of a secure shell (SSH) daemon I found for Windows.
• In the Beginning was the Command Line - An entire book written by Neal Stephenson (writer of Cryptonomicon and Snowcrash amongst others) about the history of operating systems.

Operating Systems

Here it is, some interesting links about other operating systems especially various unices.

• OS News - An news site dedicated to operating systems.
• FreeBSD - So you don't want Linux, but still would like a Unix variant; try FreeBSD then.
• openBSD - So you want a secure OS and a Unix variant: try OpenBSD then.
• Multics - A research project that became a huge influence to modern operating systems and especially Unix.
• Windows Annoyances - Overview of annoyances gathered by actual users
• Capability-Based Computer Systems - A book written by Henry M. Levy about a different approach to OS design with a strong focus on security.

Programming

Websites that can be of use when doing some programming.

• GNU - GNU's not Unix. Lots of free software, mostly for unices.
• Dr. Dobb's - Interesting magazine, with tons of source codes.
• Coronado - Programming tutorials for C, C++, Pascal, Ada and Java.
• Cetus - Links on Objects and components.
• C FAQ - Frequently asked questions about C, from the newsgroup comp.lang.c
• PaintLib - A free graphics library.
• STL Guide - Programmer's guide for the C++ Standard Template Library
• Boost - Extension of the C++ STL library with many useful classes
• PHP - A C like programming language frequently used for building dynamic website. I even co-wrote an entire programme in it: URD
• The Art of Unix Programming - An online book about programming in the Unix Environment by Eric S. Raymond

Compilers & Tools

Helpful tools, compilers and interpreters for various languages and platforms.

• Free compilers and interpreters - Links to free compilers, interpreter and related tools
• Amanda Interpreter - A free interpreter for the Miranda-alike functional language.
• SmallEiffel - Free compiler for the OO language Eiffel.
• Dolphin Smalltalk - A free compiler for the OO language Smalltalk.
• Back Orifice 2000 - The remote administration tool for Windows, by the Cult Of The Dead Cow.
• GhostScript - A Postscript viewer and related tools.
• SysInternals - Freeware advanced utilities and source code related to Windows 9x and NT internals.
• Classbuilder - An OO front-end to C++ compilers.
• Freshmeat - Newly released software for Linux
• Python - an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language

Internet

Good resources for knowing more about the Internet and it protocols.

• The Internet Engineering Task Force - The people behind Internet standards, like IP, TCP, UDP, SMTP. If you want to obtain the standards or submit some of your own you'd go here. Every one can participate in the standardisation process and there are three general IETF meeting a year.
• RFCs - 'Homepage' of the Requests For Comments. The specifications for most internet related protocols. This is a direct link to the RFC from the IETD
• Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia - A comprehensive source of technical information concerning the Internet. Including descriptive and instructive texts of the various Internet related protocols.
• WWW Consortium - Everything about the world wide web. These guys wrote the HTML and XHTML standards. They also have a pretty good validator for HTML pages. I use it for most of my pages to ensure they conform the standard. Also they provide a text-based reference browser.
• TCP/IP Introduction - Good informational page about the TCP/IP protocol suite.
• HTML Reference - An overview of HTML 4.0
• CSS reference - An overview of Cascading Style Sheets
• NIST Net - A Linux based network emulaltion tool. It turns a PC into a router that can emulate a wide variety of network conditions. This includes delay, and packet loss.

IPv6

The new generation of the Internet protocol. One day we all must switch; why not start now.

• IPv6.org - A page providing information about IPv6.
• IPv6 Google - Google over IPv6.
• SixXS - A web site that provides access to IPv4 only sites over IPv6 and vice versa.
• Sixy - A web site that keeps a list of IPv6 enabled sites.
• IP Next Generation - Collection of resources for the Next Generation of the Internet protocol now also known as IPv6.

Security

Interesting sites for those interested in computer security and cryptography.

• Security.nl - Dutch Security site.
• IT Security cookbook - An introduction to security
• PGP - International PGP homepage . If you value your privacy, you'd install it yesterday.
• TrueCrypt - A utility to encrypt an entire partition and access it like any drive. The use of a container file is also possible. For Windows and Linux.
• Crypt Lib - A library of cryptographic functions with a good uniform API.
• Insecure.org - Many exploits and tools, including the infamous nmap.
• Kerberos - The Kerberos Network Authentication Service.
• Kerberos - The Moron's guide to Kerberos.
• Counterpane - The homepage of the author 'Applied cryptography'. Tons of links and articles.
• Rivest's security page - Tons of security links.
• Terry Ritter - Terry Ritters security site.
• Java Security Model - Introduces and discusses the security model used in the Java platform
• DCE 1.1: Authentication and Security services - Security procotols in distributed computing environments. Includes an introduction to security in general.
• Handbook of Applied Cryptography - Free download of chapters from this book
• WWW Security FAQ - Discussion of security implications of running a Web server and using web browsers
• Java Security Issues - Discusses the security issues concenring Java applets.
• Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list - A attempt standardaize the names for all publicly known vulnerabilities and security exposures.
• Cryptography Timeline
• 2600 - The hackor Quarterly. An interesting magazine for hacker by hackers.
• Department of Defense Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria - The Orange book

Demigods

Highly influential people when it comes to computer science; listed here as a tribute. They are roughly ordered in chronological order of establishing Divinity.

• Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871) - Analytical Engine
• George Boole (1815 - 1864) - Boolean algebra
• Alan Mathison Turning (1912 - 1954) - Computer Science and Turing Machines
• Janos (John) Von Neumann (1903 - 1957) - Modern computer architecture
• Ken Thompson (? - ) - Unix
• Donald E. Knuth (1938 - ) - TeX, The Art of Computer Programming
• Dennis M. Ritchie (1941 - ) - C
• Brian Wilson Kernighan (? - ) - C
• Jonathan B. Postel (1943 - 1998) - Internet protocols
• Richard M. Stallman (? - ) - Emacs, GNU
• Bjarne Stroustrup (1950 - ) - C++
• Larry Wall (? - ) - Perl
• Linus Benedict Torvalds (? - ) - Linux (The Rampantly Unofficial Linux Torvalds FAQ)
• James Gosling (? - ) - Java
• Charles Darwin (?) - Evolution... ok no computer science though, but worth a mentioning here anyway

Digital Rights

Freedom of speech and other digital rights movements

• Burn All .gifs - Stop using GIF file format - read here why.
• Petition against soft patents - Defend the Parliament's Directive against Bolkestein & Council Patent Lawyers! Software patents and patents in general are a bad thing. It only ensures that large companies can suppress other companies and individuals.
• Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Center for Democracy and Technology
• Bits of Freedom - Dutch Digital rights site
• Spamvrij.nl - Dutch ati-spam site
• www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/ - A dutch site about voting computers and why they should not be trusted.
• NoSoftwarepatents.com - A site that publish information about why software patents should not happen in Europe. Help spread the word that software patents are a bad thing and link to this site
• Bad Vista - Alternative to the M$ Get the Facts campaign. This discusses why using Microsoft products and Vista in particular limits your freedom as a user. Anyway... there are better OSes out there anyway.

General

Some general information about computer science and related information can be found here.

• Jargon File Resources - A comprehensive list of hackers' jargon.
• FOLDOC - Free on-line dictionary of computing. Contains explanations of many computer terms.
• Webopedia - The on-line dictionary and search engine for computer and Internet technology
• Hein Pragt - Tons of links and some interesting articles (some English, some Dutch).
• Simtel.Net - A large collection of shareware, freeware and public domain software.
• Firefox - Currently I'm running Mozilla Firefox, which is based on Mozilla. The reason largely is that it has this nice extension called ad-block which removes ads from web pages. Most sites now look much better.
• SlashDot - News for Nerds.
• Tweakers - Dutch Nerdy news site.
• Wotsit's Format - Contains descriptions of all kinds of file formats.
• The Register - computer related news site