Links
This list will keep expanding over time!
INDEX
Click to jump to the corresponding section.
Public domain, CC and similar New
The Small Internet
The Website Obesity Crisis
Recommended read if you don't know about the extent to which the web is unjustifiedly bloated, and how it's affecting you and others.
Project Gemini FAQ
If you liked the last read, take a look at Project Gemini: Geminispace is another Internet of sorts, very early at the moment (2021), with less than 2000 capsules (how websites are called in Geminispace). Gemini is a protocol that doesn't support Javascript or CSS: this is with anticapitalist and accessibility (visual and technological) objectives in mind.
Lagrange
The beautiful client I use to browse Geminispace (see above). For Linux, Windows and MacOS.
LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
Solar-powered website about low-tech solutions to many aspects of life. The sections about setting up a solar-based server are of particular interest.
Read with caution: They have expressed anti-vaccine and anti-medication ideas in the name of low tech, in an article I read.
Wiby
Search engine for curated websites. It returns less results than most other search engines, but they are of higher quality. "In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were personally interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded everything else. [...] Google isn't great at finding them, its focus is on finding answers to technical questions, and it works well; but finding things you didn't know you wanted to know, which was the real joy of web surfing, no longer happens".
Bear and Mataroa Both are very good minimalist blogging platforms. Very fast, without any trackers or ads. I specially like Mataroa.
Content
Internet Archive
Non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Check out the Internet Arcade section under the Software tab for a collection of old games (some of them might be NSFW).
Radio Garden
Allows you to listen to radio stations from all over the world.
Sci-Hub
Website providing mass public access to research papers, "to remove all barriers in the way of science".
Piracy megathread
Thread on the best places for piracy, and general tips on how to avoid malware (stay out of The Pirate Bay). May include NSFW content.
YouTube to mp3 converter New
Easily convert YouTube videos to mp3 (audio) or mp4 (video) files. Add blocker recommended to use it.
Public domain, CC and similar
Works in the public domain are those which have had their copyright expired. They are therefore free to use for personal and commercial purposes with no attribution required to the original author.
For more information on the CC (Creative Commons) licenses, visit the CC website.
Project Gutenberg E-books in the public domain in plain text, .html, .epub and .mobi formats.
Artvee New
Browse and download high-resolution public domain artworks. The user collections are worth browsing too.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection gallery New
Pictures of artworks (including objects) in the Met's collection, released under the public domain.
Irasutoya Offers a really complete, high-quality and style-consistent clip-art (illustrations you can use in your projects) selection by the prolific Mifune Takashi. Many people in Japan use them, including public services. Here's a video about it, which also explains the terms of use for the images (the terms are in Japanese in the website).
Tools
Image
Photopea
Online, free replica of Photoshop from the horrible company Adobe.
Coolors
A color palette generator.
Color blender
To blend and pick colors in Hex or RGB format, with up to 10 midpoints.
Dither Me This and Dither it!
To dither images (it makes them weigh less). Dither Me This has some functions that Dither it! lacks, but the latter has a useful palette import/export feature.
Contrast finder
Finds correct color contrasts for web accessibility.
Drawpile
The best free collaborative drawing program that I know of. With functions similar to GIMP, Photoshop or Krita, but it allows multiple users to remotely work in the same canvas. Great for a digital drawing party.
Miscellaneous
Môsi
Online, tiny but great game engine for those that want to create little stories and worlds but do not have experience with more complex game engines. It's what I used to create some of my games.
Temp Mail
Disposable temporary e-mail adress generator: to avoid spam when forced to provide an e-mail adress to download something, for example.
Bfxr
To generate synthesized sound effects.
The measure of things
To compare all kinds of measurements and units with real-life examples. It's what I use for the scale section at Digipiedra.
How Secure Is My Password? To check how long it would take a computer to crack your password.
Website Carbon Calculator
Automatically estimates a webpage's carbon footprint.
Animal Photo Art References Search
Allows you to search for pictures of many types of animals from any viewing angle.
Playlists.at New
Allows you to drag-and-drop videos from Youtube to create shareable playlists without needing to have a Youtube account or be logged in.
Math and programming
Processing
If you're an artist looking to get into programming, I recommend starting here. "Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology".
W3Schools One of the best places to learn html for free, among other things.
Algorithmic Botany
The website of the University of Calgary's Biological Modeling and Visualization research group, containing software and publications about the modeling, simulation and visualization of plants through code and math.
I especially recommend their free book The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants, about L-Systems, fractals and plants.
Learn X in Y minutes
Very quick tours on many different programming and markup languages, with links for further reading. Good for deciding what to learn next.
Cool sites
Hundred Rabbits
Blog from a two person collective living and working in a sailboat. They write about their way of life and the digital tools they needed to create in order to be able to work with limited energy and Internet access, among other things.
Brutalist Websites
A gallery of visually interesting websites.
Omni
"[Beautiful, interactive site] to play and listen to how [40] different musical scales sound. [...] They have roots from cultures all around the world and some have been in existence for over 50,000 years. The pitch constellation circle will tell you where the tones are situated within an octave and I've included the frequencies for each scale [as well as some information about them]".
Collection of prerendered FFVII backgrounds
Prerendered backgrounds are mostly used in old games due to their limitations. They're static images placed beneath the characters, instead of real-time renders of scenery poligons. They don't permit camera movement but are faster to make, allowing for detailed scenes.
Spyware Watchdog "This website contains articles on popular programs with explanations of the spyware features found in them. Included are easy to understand ratings, detailed explanations, and proof, of how features of these programs can spy on the user".
Global Network of Discovery Helps you discover new music, literature, art or movies based on the artists you already know you like.
Defensive computing checklist Really exhaustive list on internet (and technology in general) threats to be aware of, and specific steps to protect yourself against them.
FogCam! The internet's oldest-running webcam.
Whichbook
Helps you discover new books based on mood, plot or character types.
myNoise
Allows you to generate custom soundscapes to listen to.
Eat every plant
"Documentation of one man's quest to eat every edible plant".
Ian's Shoelace Site New
I never knew shoelaces could be this interesting. Do you suffer from a "Granny knot"?
BugGuide New
Clickable insect identification guide and online community of naturalists. You can request insect identification from pictures.
Politics
The environmental issues with cryptoart "Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are an absolute disaster for so many more reasons than the ecological".