Community

Reference

• Bartelby.com lets you search a number of useful reference, fiction, and non fiction works.
• Refdesk.com is a very dense collection of online resources. It has links to news, reference information, tools, and direct access to search resources.
• Word Spy is devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases.
• mapping.com has a list of Geographic Resources, Links, Tools, Maps, & Books including things like airport codes and country and city name changes since 1990.
• The NY Times Navigator, a list of seach starting points that Times reporters use.
• The Wikipedia is a open content encyclopedia that you can contribute to.
• Area codes and the North American Numbering Plan .
• An Atlas of Cyberspace
• Phone Number Anagrammer .
• E-How : Tips on how to do things from hanging drywall on a ceiling to asking for a phone number.
• The Encyclopaedia Britannica
• The CIA World Factbook.
• My Web Tools page has some reference information related to working on the web.

Words and Symbols

• The Dict Development Group (dict.org) has an interface that lets you search many public domain reference works.
• Merriam-Webster
• Dictionary.com.
• Look up acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms with the Acronym Finder.
• The WordNet "online lexical reference system" is a great resource for dinding synonyms, related words, etc as well as definitions.
• An online encyclopedia of graphic symbols.
• A Visual Thesaurus that shows how words relate to each other.
• The Jargon Dictionary.
• Word Detective is the online version of a newspaper column about words and language.

Learning Resources

• How Everyday Things are Made, from Stanford University, shows you how things from Chocolate and Jelly Beans to Cars are made.

Citizens, Government, The Law, and the Local Community

• Boston, Arlington & Massachusetts related links. The Arlington Mailing List is a wonderful forum for discussing topics of interest to Arlington residents.
• AnnualCreditReport.com provides you with a way to get a copy of your free annual credit report, as provided by federal law.
• Register in the National Do Not Call Registry to cut down on telemarketing calls. Residents of Massachusetts can register for the state Do Not Call Program to reduce calls from telemarketers.
• Government, Civil Liberties and Privacy Links.
• A list of Dead Zones for cell phones, organized by community and carrier.
• Architecture, home repair and restoration resources. Includes links to places that have cool architecture.
• My Government Page also has some law, government and policy related links.

Health and Diet

• USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promition has tools and resources for managing your diet, including Interactive Healthy Eating Index and Interactive Physical Activity which lets you track and manage your eating habits and lifestyle.
• The FDA Catalog of FDA Approved Drug Products.

Getting Rid of Stuff

If you are cleaning out your closet, or need to get rid of some things, here are some useful places to check out if you need to buy or sell things.

• You can place free classified ads for all sorts of things on Craigs List (Boston).
• If you want to give things away you can post a message on the Greater-Boston Reuse list.
• The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide has some starting points if you have potentially useful stuff that you want to get rid of.
• If you have an old cell phone that you would like to donate look into The Wireless Foundation.

Associates, Friends and Family

Here are some links to friends and colleagues who have interesting web pages (or who are just interesting people with web pages).

• Dirk Riehle has a many interesting links, technical, humorous, and also about his experiences in Business School.
• Linda Rising is an independent consultant who knows about patterns, project retrospectives and introducting new ideas into organizations.
• Martin Fowler has written a number of quite useful books and papers on software development.
• Brad Appleton has worked with me on patterns for using software configuration management effectively. He has a great collection of software engineering related links on his web site.
• Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt, the Pragmatic Programmers have some great resources on their web site.
• Ian Kahn runs Lumis Mentis Books which specializes in "fine first editions and rarities."

State and Federal Government Information

• The Federal Citizen Information Center has some very useful publications.
• FedStats is the The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies.
• State Specific News.
• OSHA Regulations online.
• The United States Federal Government Information Locator

Massachusetts & Boston Government

• At the Middlesex County Registry of Deeds you can search for title records for your property and even get images of the recorded documents.
• The Big Dig
• 02133.org: Massachusetts Politics and Policy Online
• The MassPort web site, with information about flights to & from Logan Airport.
• The City of Boston Web Site.
• The City of Cambridge web site.
• Massachusetts State Government Web Page.
• Information on Licensed Professionals in Massachusetts (MA Division of Registration). You can also look up doctors with the Association of State Medical Board Executive Directors' DocFinder

Copyright and DMCA

• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act textand assorted reference material.
• The classic Betamax Case. This is one of many interesting resources at The Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Links about the technical and legal issues surrounding Digital Rights Management
• The Campaign for Digital Rights is an on-line consumer group concerned with fair use of digital media.
• The Creative Commons Project presents an interesting way of allowing reuse of content on the web.

Law & Public Policy

Privacy & Civil Liberties Resources

• The Privacy Journal is a great resource for information about protecting your privacy, including a collection of tips for individuals and organizations.
• American Civil Liberties Union & its Massachusetts Chapter
• Electronic Privacy Information Center
• The Privacy Foundation
• Center For Democracy and Technology
• Americans For Computer Privacy
• The Digital Future Coalition

Taxation

• Per-Capita Tax Burder and Return on Tax Dollars.
• The Citizens for Tax Justice page details about how the Tax Burden is distributed among the states.
• Another site with per-capita tax burden information.
• Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center analyzes state budget and tax policies.

Amusing and Fun Things

• News, Media & other Fun things.