Vitruvius Yahoo!

Recs & Revs 17

To my new paid subscribers these past two weeks, you put a skip in my step.

And to all my new subscribers,

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I bought my first computer in 1993, a Packard Bell, with, I believe, a 420 MB hard drive. I used floppy discs. My browser was Netscape, and since Yahoo and Lycos and Excite and all the other web portals of the early days of the Web didn’t arrive until the following year, I don’t even recall what the Web looked like to me then. I know I recall that downloading a web page into the browser felt like receiving a transmission from another planet. Anyway, I’ve been browsing the internet nonstop ever since. I’m a sponge for information and sitting on the bridge of the Starship Computerprise was a lot less effort than traveling to libraries. (Please don’t judge me. I sit in an ergonomic chair, work at a Veridesk standing desk, and exercise a lot: I have 2% body fat and can bench press two thousand pounds :).

In those early days, my Bookmarks grew to something approaching the Library at Alexandria in size. I’m not saying that was useful, but it was large. Clever systems for organizing Favorite web sites and computer activity have continued to develop. I use multiple dedicated “desktops” on my computer and multiple dedicated windows in the browser on each desktop, maintain legacy Bookmarks and continuing Favorites, and employ now for the most pressing continuing efforts – such as research for my current novel and various Homo Vitruvius enterprises – Microsoft Edge collections. I just completed my migration from Evernote to Onenote, where I save and notate more different kinds of material than I can name while using, as well, several different integrated but smaller and handier notetaking and task listing apps. I save reading material to Pocket. I do sometimes still employ Zotero, too, for research on more academically aimed projects.

Please do not form the impression from such a descriptive barrage of organizational effort that I am in control of any of this.

I am not.

But such is the life of a sentient sponge seeking to separate the water from the wine.

I attempt this collective enterprise while aimed in the direction of various destinations, during my travel to which, I make regular detours. Even in an auto in Los Angeles or New York or elsewhere, I will be tempted by an open vista down a side street or an alternative road when traffic slows to an unacceptable crawl. The “let’s see where that goes” is the ever-irresistible draw to my exploratory spirit. Sometimes that spirit is rewarded. Sometimes not — on the road.

On the internet – always.

What this means for you, dear, honored denizens of the Vitruvian heights, is that I end with finds to share. That was the notion behind Recs & Revs to begin, and it occurs to me that today’s offering may come the closest to delivering on that original idea – my own, as it were small-scale Vitruvian Yahoo! of old, without any of the hierarchical bluster.

What follows offers a random assortment of sites I find interesting and either visit regularly or plan to consider doing so. Sometimes a newsletter subscription is possible. (There’s an idea!) Smart browsers, with your permission, can in some instances also alert you to new material being published. The information and access are there if you clear the way to any of it that interests you.

And now, first up:

Fadedpage: free eBooks forever

fadedpage.com

Welcome to Fadedpage.com!

Faded Page is an archive of eBooks that are provided completely free to everyone. The books are produced by volunteers all over the world, and we believe they are amongst the highest quality eBooks anywhere. Every one has been scanned, run through OCR software, proofed, formatted and assembled extremely carefully, using hundreds of volunteer hours. These books are public domain in Canada (because we follow the Canadian copyright laws), but if you are in another country, you should satisfy yourself that you are not breaking the copyright laws of your own country by downloading them. You are free to do whatever you like with these books, but we hope that mainly...you will enjoy reading them.

FP now includes 8118 eBooks in its collection.

Medievalists.net

Medievalists.net - Where the Middle Ages Begin

Operated mostly by academics, the site and its programs are aimed at the non-academic, general audience.

We aim to be the first place people go to when they want to learn about the Middle Ages. Our aim is to offer readers news, articles, videos and more about the medieval world and how that history is presented today.

Late to an interest in the Middle Ages myself, I read it frequently for all kinds of fundamental and esoteric, fun knowledge.