Miscellaneous

In the last number of years, some very cool stuff has become available out there, and this is just one of them.Sluggy Freelance is an online cartoon strip, featuring some really amazingly witty characters and storylines. You can also follow this link to the on-line Sluggy Community Be Warned: For some reason the Sluggy Pages are designed with M$ FrontPage - a very broken Web-Page maker. Ugly code ahoy.

If Sluggy isn't quite your bun-bun, then perhaps you should try User Friendly. The content is a tad more, hmmm, geeky that Sluggy, but real laughs can be had from the adventures of the tech-support staff in the strip.

The BBC online news-site. I mostly use it for Sci-Tech and World News. A Word of Warning It is far far too easy to become completely lost in the BBC site, especially if, like me, you love to follow links. This is especially true of the Sci-Tech 'History' links.

The Irish Times. Mostly used by me for Breaking News and Daily Vote. The Journalism is usually of a very high standard. Check out Martyn Turner's Railings if you have a speedy connection (Unlike Me) Do beware their their massive use of cookies and banner ads.

The Law Society of Ireland. My Professional Body. Like a Trade Union except: (a) We have to join them, disassociation is not an option. (b) They are State-Sanctioned.

The Revenue Commissioners. This is used almost daily for tax tables and other Tax related matters. What can I say, IAAL! Other irish government sites can accessed at the official website

When I first started using 'hypertext' we had very few search engines. Things were often found serendipitously. Then we had Yahoo! which became usless when the 'net exploded. Then there was Altavista which eventually sold it's soul. Google at the moment is a quick, effecive uncluttered search engine. Sadly, certain messages appear on it's face which threaten banners and clutter. Through the miracle of internet you can do a Google search right here.

The Internet Movie Database. The Site for every scintilla of information you could ever hope to want about most every movie ever made. I've been using IMDb since I first used the 'net, back when it was a research project on a univesity computer. Since the takeover by Amazon the site has, of course, become clutterred with banner ads and invitations to buy stuff, but still the best way to utterly lose yourself for a few hours on the 'net. In yet another miracle, you can do an IMDB search right here!

Hu's episode guides is another internet antique. Like almost everything else, it has become full of advurts and frames and banners, but it still has the information. The actual number of programmes detailed is quite small, but it does have complete listings for stuf I enjoy - Star Trek, Frasier, Spin City and The Practice.

Scientology, or Dianetics, is a strange religion, based on the scribblings of L. Ron Hubbard, not really any different from hundreds of other 'new-age' religions which ahve sprung up in the last 100 years. I uphold absolutely the freedom of religion. The Church of Scientology, on the other hand, is a deeply flawed organisation, as Andreaas Heldal-Lund says in his FAQ on Clambake

"What I have against CoS is its deceitfulness, its lack of compassion for its members (especially the hard-working staff), its aggressive hard sell, its arrogance, its attack on free speech, its litigiousness, its harassment of its critics, its lack of concern for families, its gross neglect and abuse of children, etc."

The Blue Ribbon Campaign fights to promote Freedom of Speech in the virtual world.

The Campaign Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail is another wothy on-line campaign.