Our favorite links.  We only link to sites we actively use.  (We do not exchange links for PageRank.)  Please enjoy.

Software Development Articles:

Joel on Software - Simply the best software development site, by Joel Spolsky.

"I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site." - Joel Spolsky /  Joel on Software

The Old New Thing - Raymond Chen's MSDN blog.

Larry Osterman's Weblog - Larry Osterman's MSDN blog.  He has 20+ years experience working as a software design engineer at Microsoft.

Software Development Tools:

Evaldraw - Ken Silverman's (of Duke Nukem 3D's Build Engine fame) compile-as-you-type programming environment.  Perfect for quick testing and debugging of graphic algorithms.

"A complete programming environment with built-in compiler and text editor. With Evaldraw, you can make graphs in any dimension (1D, 2D, 3D), animations, custom musical instruments, voxel models, and even your own games! I've included a lot of examples, so even if you're not a programmer, you can enjoy the demos. (Win32 - Requires DirectX)" - Ken Silverman

Website Development:

useit.com - Jakob Nielsen's articles on usability and web design.  Jump right to the Alertbox columns for the articles.

Personal Development:

Steve Pavlina - One of the best personal development sites.  Read the main page for a breakdown of what the site has to offer.

"This site is dedicated to helping you make conscious decisions in your personal development and courageously follow through on them. This means having the maturity to take 100% responsibility for your health, your career, your finances, your relationships, your emotions, your habits, and your spiritual beliefs. It requires taking a hard look at yourself, consciously deciding what kind of person you truly are on the inside, and then getting your actions to be congruent with your true self. The goal is to help you achieve outstanding effectiveness while maintaining internal balance, where your thoughts, feelings, actions, and skills are all working together to create the life you truly desire." - Steve Pavlina

Computer Security:

Security Now! - A weekly audio security column & podcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte.

"TechTV's Leo Laporte and I take 30 to 60 minutes near the end of each week to discuss important issues of personal computer security. Sometimes we'll discuss something that just happened. Sometimes we'll talk about long-standing problems, concerns, or solutions. Either way, every week we endeavor to produce something interesting and important for every personal computer user." - Steve Gibson / Security Now!

Shields Up! - An Internet security vulnerability profiling service by GRC.

"The Internet's quickest, most popular, reliable and trusted, free Internet security checkup and information service. And now in its Port Authority Edition, it's also the most powerful and complete. Check your system here, and begin learning about using the Internet safely." - GRC.com

Sysinternals - Amazing freeware by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell (acquired by Microsoft in July, 2006).

"The Sysinternals web site provides you with advanced utilities, technical information, and source code related to Windows internals that you won't find anywhere else. Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell alone write and update everything here." - Sysinternals

Ben Edelman - Fights against spyware.

"Ben's current research includes analyzing methods and effects of spyware, with a focus on installation methods and revenue sources. Ben has documented advertisers supporting spyware, advertising intermediaries funding spyware, affiliate commission fraud, and click fraud." - benedelman.org

Windows Applications / Tools:

PureText - A small Windows application (uses 3,160k on my system) that allows pasting text without formatting.  If you use Windows Notepad as a intermediary between your copy and pastes to remove formatting, trust me, you will gladly replace that technique with PureText once you try it.  Developed by Steve Miller.

"Have you ever copied some text from a web page or a document and then wanted to paste it as simple text into another application without getting all the formatting from the original source? PureText makes this simple by adding a new Windows hot-key (default is WINDOWS+V) that allows you to paste text to any application without formatting." - Steve Miller

Graphics Applications:

Easy Graphic Converter - A freeware batch image resizer and converter by Etrusoft.

"Easy Graphic Converter is a powerful and easy-to-use graphic converter, image converter and thumbnails maker utility that can covert image files and make thumbnails. It a 32-bit software program that runs on Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows ME Operating Systems. And it's a totally Free tool!" - Etrusoft

News:

Digg - All stories on digg are submitted by digg users (you or I), not digg editors.  Think of it as a democracy instead of a dictatorship.  Created by Kevin Rose of TechTV fame.

"Digg is all about user powered content. Every article on digg is submitted and voted on by the digg community. Share, discover, bookmark, and promote the news that's important to you!" - Digg

General Knowledge:

Wikipedia - It is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.  Co-founded by Jimmy Wales.

Classic Gaming:

Digger - Back and Digitally Remastered - Andrew Jenner's remake of Windmill Software's 1983 Digger.

"Digger was originally created by Windmill software in 1983 and released as a copy-protected, bootable 5.25" floppy disk for the IBM PC. As it requires a genuine CGA card, it didn't work on modern PCs.  In 1998, I created Digger Remastered, which runs on all PCs with CGA or better and plays just like the original." - Digger.org

Another World (aka Out of this World)  High Resolution Collector's Edition - Eric Chahi's amazing video game, remastered for Windows XP.

Personal:

matthewdoucette.com - Personal website of Xona.com co-founder and software developer, Matthew Doucette.

jasondoucette.com - Personal website of Xona.com co-founder and software developer, Jason Doucette.