Cyrus Eyster's Home Page

Rudyard Kipling is awesome
("Pretty hip for a dead white guy," I think someone once said.)
I have less evidence on which to base my opinion of G.K.Chesterton, but he has written some good stuff, like The Last Hero (also here)

Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years
Some Stuff On HTML
How To Be A Programmer
Software Release Practice HOWTO
Basic Linux and Unix Bibliography
technicat - excellent writing, including Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers
Joel on Software, reddit: Joel on Software - what's new online

"Personal Development for Smart People - Steve Pavlina

Ant Manual
Zelix Klassmaster Documentation

MMO forums:
WoW
CoV
AO
TenTonHammer (WoW)
Synergy Factor (AO)
Ascendance (WoW) [link dead]
Adrenaline Rush (AO) [guild now called Infinity after merging with... Notum Force? and... link dead]

EMS Network - a site for first responders? Interesting Hurricane Katrina links.

More blogs:
Wonkette
Marginal Revolution
Cattalarchy
The Huffington Post
David Friedman

Java Code Conventions

The Daily WTF - samples of bad code
How to Write Unmaintainable Code

CoH/CoV character builder

David Friedman's web site - neat guy; also known as Cariadoc in the SCA

Ursus got excellent photos at Pennsic.
Balfar in the Heroic Champions Tourney

Northern Army Practice Sites

Some livejournals I've come across, for people I know:
Vis. I've read back to May 31st.
Tibicen. She had a neat post on War and the Warrior, which linked to an interesting article on the psychological impact of shooting at people (more or less) on Blog on the Run ("a moderate Republican blog", Tibicen called it).
And one for a friend of theirs I ran into at Burning Man once (small world):
Patri, who has a web site.
Ajax, who was quoted by Vis a while back.
Answers from Vis to questions Tibicen asked. Includes a list of books that I'd like to read.
Richard Gilbert, aka Richard DeLacy, an SCA guy I met at Pennsic a few years back

My friend Bruce's blog.

"Informed Consent" - Juan Cole's blog

Factcheck.org - I love these guys
The Cato Institute (Libertarian public policy research foundation)

Healing Our World, an optimistic book espousing Libertarianism. I like it.

Hello, Dollar! - financial advice site
The Mortgage Professor
Emigrant Direct - an FDIC-insured bank offering 3.5% interest (!)

Schlock Mercenary is so sweet. I started reading from the end and got to here and started reading from the beginning and got to here. Then I started from the end again and got to here. Um, yeah. Anyway, it's a great web comic, done by Howard Tayler.
I've been looking at a couple of other web comics, lately. These are bookmarks for how far back in their archives I've gotten.
Little Gamers
White Ninja
Sam and Fuzzy
...
Okay, here's another good episode from Schlock Mercenary, complete with quotations from "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates."
Niego is another web comic I've been reading.
Sort of on-topic is that the guys from Penny Arcade have started a... er, some WoW guilds for their fans (well yeah okay, they started one or two, the fans started the others... the story is hilarious). Anyway, they have a web site for these guilds.

Python (could have sworn I linked to that somewhere else, but I can't find it now...)
Partway through an intro to the language

Java 1.4.2 Docs

Regexp Syntax Summary

The Pennsic Book (for Pennsic 34, in 2005)

Hammer User's Guide
Other Source SDK Documentation
VERC Collective Forum (front page), the actual forums

Coldwell Banker
Commonwealth Realtors

Harvard Extension School
Cambridge Center for Adult Ed

MIT Parking Info

HTGAMIT Restaurant Info Editor

Boston Craigslist (classifieds)

Recently, I got spam advertising Mark Skousen's investment advice. It wasn't as bad as most of the spam I get, so I'm sorry to say that I read it and looked into whether he might have interesting stuff to say. Here's a FAQ I found which mentions some of the places he's invested.
I found some articles he'd written, although the site they are on has really obnoxious ads. If you think you can take that, here is the link. One of the articles from that site, also with obnoxious ads, lists textbooks teaching economics from a free-market perspective.
Here is an article he wrote called Persuasion Versus Force, in which he argues that "the triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society." I like that reasoning a lot.

Apparently I have a livejournal now. With a whopping one entry. Woohoo. Here's a more useful (to me) link.

Lamellar armor pics, and some more

Serenity Trailer (trailer for the new Firefly movie)

Apparently, blogs are all over. It looks like for now I'm just going to link to whatever I find that seems interesting. Maybe I'll pare this down later.
Winds of Change.NET (War on Terror stuff... some good info... some of the "if you're anti-war, you're anti-US" sentiment, I think)
Phil and Becky (he's serving in the US military overseas, and writes well)
malungtvnews (I think this site is trying to publicize the London Muslim community's outlook.)

Classmates.com is pretty neat.

And what mid-nineties-era-style home page would be complete without a bunch of unrelated links:
Just Cause Law Collective
I love quotations
sharkbanana
East Kingdom Combat Authorization Form
Illustrations for Gravity's Rainbow
Alien Swarm: Infested
Bruce Schneier's Site
Check out May 10 here
Turkish Star Trek
Hani in the news
A nice speech from Ted Kennedy
CodeProject
Thomas, "U.S. Congress on the Internet"
NIN + Ray Parker Jr
Hiroo Onoda learned about the end of World War II 29 years after the fact. Amazing.
Google map of the Burning Man area
American Prospect Online, a Progressive magazine
stuff.mit.edu, and possible future stuff for stuff

Eclipse (the game, not the development environment), and Samurai Legends are a couple of student-written Half-Life 2 mods. Studly.
(Apparently, Southern Methodist University has a computer game design program called The Guildhall. Go them.)

Little Fluffy Industries: Free Online Games Daily
Molly's Mom's Vacation Photos

Here's a quotation from this link:

We write to alert you to a proposed U.S. federal action to remove an important geospatial resource from the public domain. The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has proposed to withdraw all aeronautical data and products from public distribution.

Seems like a bad idea to me.

Links to some Interesting Images

The Programmer's Guild (Seems to mostly be about trying to fight the trend to move US programming jobs to non-US workers. I don't know much about it, but here's a link to a paper recommending changes to work visa laws in the US. The argument is that we are letting lots of foreigners into the country who are then taking programming jobs away from US citizens. Here are some more links from the paper's author. I sort of wish that Programmers Guild site had some resources that might help people become better programmers, rather than being entirely about protecting jobs in like legislative ways.) (Also note that my use of apostrophes in this entry is intended to match their own: sometimes used, and in singular ownership form when used.) (...)

Freestar Media, LLC (Don't know much about these guys, either.)
Buena Vista Rock Climbing (my sister's in one of their photos!)

A link to intellectual property insanity in Chicago. There's a sculpture in a public park at which security guards won't let folks take photos without a permit because the city wants to be the only entity selling photos of the art. I know everyone wants to make a buck, but that seems a little weak to me. Here's an update about it.

Richard Guy is a guy I knew at MIT. He died of asphyxiation while using nitrous oxide. His parent recently settled their lawsuit against MIT. MIT agreed to establish "the Rick Guy Fund to sponsor students in pre-orientation programs", according to this link. Apparently, as of the article's writing, there are two other wrongful death suits pending against MIT, each for something like $20 million. Those amounts seem excessive to me.

Stuff from the CS Monitor on Ethical Investing
FCC forms are fun!
Neat CS Monitor article on citizens running their own disaster relief. Power to the people, Marty.
Some people really don't like gmail. Enough that I'm making a separate page of links.
New Beer Tap
"Why Do You Work So Hard?" - career advice
Globe review of Basta Pasta, an outstanding restaurant a couple of blocks from where I live

The Globe had an article on a group called Springboard, which helps folks with like learning disabilities or something to get together and socialize with other folks similar to them. Good for them. I think it sounds awesome. I checked out their web site and found some art that I liked.

This Viking action figure looks pretty accurate. I'm impressed.

Home Depot openings... The interesting thing here is apparently that Home Depot does extensive demographic analysis before opening new branches. The claim that I have heard is that if a Home Depot is opening somewhere, it's a safe bet that that area will grow more populous in the near future, so it might be a reasonable place to invest in housing.

Some democrats have written a Dissent Regarding the Patriot Act, which I think makes for interesting reading, and which I think makes strong arguments for rolling back some of the provisions of the Patriot Act.
FAQ about some political quiz. I like the Libertarian book links at the end.
This is an awesome art project. I love it. I wish I'd thought of it.

Washington DC airspace may be restricted for good. That doesn't sound good to me. I... that... it... the... This is sort of the tip of the iceberg of a long rant that Molly endures from time to time. The gist of one part of it is that government should not insulate itself from people. Its power is already insulating. Those in power should endeavor to break down barriers such that people feel comfortable talking to them about issues. That's what representative government should be, in my opinion. There should be leadership, but also discussion. And not just at election time. And discussion is not just extremists trying to out-shout each other. I feel like restricting the DC airspace is saying that DC is more special than other parts of the country, and although I realize that this helps against certain threats, I feel like it's the wrong thing.

Translation of Star Wars Episode 3 from English to Chinese and back again. This is high-larious.
This is a pretty incredible piece of footage of an octopus kicking a shark's butt.
ACLU stuff on FBI files - I didn't find much useful here, but I figured I'd keep the link around
ACLU links to government documents on torture. The FOIA is a good thing.
Matt Herper wrote an article on infection of soldiers by bacteria from the soil in Iraq.
Recently (relative to August 9, 2005), The Campaign for America put the spotlight on some Democratic Members of Congress for "voting with the right wing on the Bankruptcy Bill, the so-called Tort Reform bill, CAFTA and the Energy Bill." Accountability is good.
A while back, I heard a great song on the radio. It was The Girl With the Flyaway Hair, by Annie Gallup. Based on her web site, her stuff seems pretty neat.
Mary Chung's menu links and a recipe for suan la chow show.
Christopher Walken for President, 2008

NYTimes article: U.S. Defends Detentions at Airports ... some assertions by our government strike me as insane... I mean... they realize that if they can do it to other nations' citizens, those nations should be able to do that to our citizens, right? That's bad!
This woman's Canadian husband was detained while changing planes in the US on a trip from Tunisia to Montreal. The US deported him to Syria on suspicion of terrorist involvement. After over a year, he was released.
This article is about that man's efforts to sue US officials, who then made arguments mentioned 2 links ago.

The Washington Monthly, some political thing
The Arctic Beacon - freedom of the press is good. Fact-checking can be cool, too.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer, animated. This song has such an innocuous sound, and yet it seems to be about a serial killer. The animation is graphic. I find the whole thing sad and disturbing.
Viking Resources for the Re-enactor - good stuff
Nice Wisby Coat reconstruction photos
E-Budo.com forums
Review of a book about living mortgage free by buying land, building temporary housing next to your building site, and then building your own home. Amazon carries it, and has more reviews.
Advice for web page accessibility
Lyrics for (Metallica version of) Turn the Page, a song I love. Er. I haven't heard their version, but I love the original.
Past Senior House, potential new SH page
Robertson, Chavez, and Bush - An Unholy Trinity - interesting article
Michael Zalewski's site - computer security expert, seems like a cool guy, has a book out. Here's an excerpt. Neat stuff.
Somehow I've also run across another interesting-looking book, Freakonomics.
GreyDove's Songbook (includes Catalan Vengeance)
THE THINGS I WILL NOT DO WHEN I DIRECT A SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTION, ON STAGE OR FILM
Beowabbit
A Wired article by Neal Stephenson
Energy Generating Backpack
Power Strip Alternative!
Form to contribute to MASS CANN/NORML, a Massachusetts group working for decriminalization of marijuana
Link to Renstore.com sale on the book Arte Gladiatoria
Info on Novice Schola, a local SCA event coming up (as I write this) this Sunday, Sept 11, 2005
Info on local SCA fencing practices
Time management tips from CodeProject.
Things I've Learned from British Folk Ballads
Broussard on Meet the Press - state of things in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Waiver to do athletic stuff at MIT
Interesting-looking house
Chocolate and wine can be part of a heart-healthy diet
FEMA Internment Camp - seems a little ominous
Vikings are just Swedish pirates
Cthulego
Really Excellent Artwork (by Ken Wong)
Trogdor Turns 3
Battlestar Galacticsimpsons (aw, so cute)
What code DOESN'T do in real life (that it does in the movies)
The World of the Vikings
Mortgage Rate Trends
Havamal
Amon Amarth - Viking Metal
Edward Tufte Courses
Stupid, Ugly, and Rich
The Skeptical Environmentalist
Video on Robert Anton Wilson
Stanford Center for Internet and Society
Toothpaste for Dinner on Second Life
Book online - The Authoritarians
LewRockwell.com ("anti-state, anti-war, pro-market")
Doubleyou Tee Eff (Operations Northwoods)
4guysfromviewpoint.com
redhill.net.au is awesome
Fatmouse likes to eat. (Er. There used to be an article there. Sigh. "Silly internet meme" indeed. Fatmouse likes to eat!)
And this ad used to contain amusing declarative sentences in a similar style to the original Fatmouse page. It looked something like this.
Background checks at the Canadian border
"Man files suit after Cheney encounter"
here and here are some very cool sculptures
Possum 1 on "What do you want for Christmas?"
Religious videos with Rage's Wake Up
ISPs selling clickstream data? article, source
Nova - Great Excape
Krazy Kat
10 Anti-Phishing Firefox Extensions
Candidates@Google: John McCain

Books:
Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold'em
The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law

Old News

My old home page

I last changed this on or after December 15, 2006.

It used to be cool to put mailto tags in home pages. Now I get a lot of spam.