The Stainless Steel Rat's Jump Pad

Fight the Communications Decency Act!
Fight for Online Free Speech!

Check out the Internet 1996 World Exposition!

Introduction

The term hacker has been misused by the media since the early 1980's. Hackers are totally different people than they have been represented as; one of the ethics held to by the truest hackers is to allow no harm to come as a result of their actions.

This site is dedicated to providing an informational resource and jumping-off point for those who hold themselves to an older and higher standard, of what constitutes a hacker. These are hackers in the tradition of Richard Stallman and Stu Nelson, and others from the old AI Lab at MIT, or the SAIL Lab - these are the hackers who enjoyed programming to the bare metal, and were not afraid to share nor were afraid to break through the artificial bureacratic boundries set up by others. These are the hackers who believed information should be free, who believed that locked doors were to be unlocked, and the goal was to push the envelope: fewer instructions, faster code, and tighter code.

Web Site Purpose

My goal is to provide links to quality resources that hackers will find interesting. It is most certainly not my goal to include all resources; only quality resources. I have visited all of these links, and found them to be top quality.

I also revisit these links occasionally (after all, this is my home page - I use it too!); if you find a link which is missing, please let me know.

I try to update this page frequently, with whatever new links I find. Keep checking back!

New!

August 27, 1998

Added an "anti-Microsoft" script; this will generate a new window explaining to Microsoft Internet Explorer users why they should not use Microsoft products. Want to see it? Not sure what to do with this window; since my employer's standard is Microsoft Internet Explorer, it does tend to get annoying. We'll see. Also cleaned up some problems with images and such which occured after the web site was rearranged into directories and all.

August 26, 1998

Added new sections about Microsoft and Intel - specifically, about anticompetitive practices by these companies and how you can fight back.

August 11, 1998

Added a new section on Linus Torvalds to the People section. Check it out! Also significantly increased links in the DNS section.

August 10, 1998

Forgot to mention the new Telephony section - which has just expanded further with new links added. Did I mention that we have a new Literature section - consisting of books you can buy! Also updated these pages to use Web Safe Colors.

August 7, 1998

Been cleaning up some bad links. Also added numerous Fidonet links and reorganized the Fidonet section. Also added many Linux Parallel Processing links, and added a new section about Beowulf and Beowulf Clusters. Also added a section for the TECO text editor.

June 12, 1998

Just became an Amazon Associate. Now we have a list of books for you to purchase! Also time to check out the inevitable fixes and faulty links....

November 12, 1997

Added quite a number of C/C++ links, as well as a link to Bjarne Stroustrup's Homepage (the creator of C++) and to Liszt, a searchable directory of mail lists.

November 11, 1997

Restructured several programming language sections, including LISP, COBOL, and Forth. Now things should be easier to find, such as implementations, archives, and companies/organizations. Also added some personal commentary to each section, describing my own biases and recommendations. Also added a new page: Computer Language Comparisons - which describes what I feel is right and wrong with today's languages, and how each language stacks up.

November 5, 1997

Added numerous new Eiffel, Pascal, and COBOL links, as well as a few PL/I and APL links.

November 4, 1997

Added a lot of LISP, Forth, and Smalltalk links. Also several other links for various things - one of note is the Inference Find web search engine - it classifies its output - very nice!

September 2, 1997

This site turned black in mourning the passing of Lady Diana, the Princess of Wales, on Sunday, August 31, 1997. She will be missed.

August 27, 1997

Recently added a section for emacs afficionados. I'd rather use vi myself, but emacs is the next best thing. Only thing is, most of the clones don't have enough functionality for my taste (got addicted to the full package, I guess).

August 5, 1997

The Interactive Fiction just kept growing and growing - and I suspect it's not done yet! So now it has its own subheading (outside of the Entertainment section).

July 31, 1997

Many changes have been slowly taking place, including HTML "bug" fixes. Reorganized the Amateur Radio section some more! Should be much easier to use now. Added a section for the programming languages Icon and SNOBOL. Added a new section about Interactive Fiction - how could I forget? Am also trying to rework the introductory paragraphs; some people just don't get it!

July 25, 1997

Added a new section for vi - you are a vi lover aren't you? Added a new section on Legos! Added various and scattered new links in most all pages. Reworked this introductory page, with some new graphics and some old graphics gone.

July 23, 1997

Added even more Amateur Radio links, and reorganized it so it was easier to find things. Added a section to Culture called Cool Hacks, with links to sites about hacks people have done. For instance, have you ever lit your barbeque with Liquid Oxygen?? Have you ever tried to generate a random number using six lava lamps? These folks did!

July 22, 1997

Added many more Amateur Radio links, including a new section on Equipment for Sale or Trade.

July 16, 1997

Added numerous Amateur Radio and Space links; of special interest is the Mars Pathfinder links.

May 16, 1997

Added some HTML fixes. Add many links to the Lynx section, including a new section on Other Browsers. Also added a new subsection to the HTML Programming Language section about designing Web pages that are friendly to the disabled.

May 7, 1997

Added some organizations and conferences to the Organization section. Corrected some bugs, added a link to a page describing the particularly nasty security hole involving ActiveX. Added a link to the Dutch ISP XS4All, who was briefly censored by the German authorities.

April 30, 1997

Added a pointer to my favorite free email service, NetAddress. Also added many new links relating to Amateur Radio and The Internet (especially Internet protocols). Added some new Macintosh Archives and a new Multi-Platform Archive, that you have got to visit: Filez! (over 75 million files).

April 17, 1997

Added CGI to Programming Languages page. Added Tables of Content to Programming Languages page and to Human Languages page. Added a few HTML links and a lot more Miscellaneous links - check out the Free Fax and Free Email links!

April 15, 1997

Tax Day in the United States! (bah humbug!)

Added a variety of links, including some Esperanto links, and HTML links. Dramatically restructured the HTML section, so it should be easier to find what you're looking for. Added numerous links in the Viruses section. Added considerable number of Videocameras on the Net and separated out into their own subcategory. Folded much of the software and archives into the main hacker page under Software Archives. Added some minor navigational aids at the top of the pages.

March 25, 1997

Removed background image to speed up loading, and to improve viewing on all screens (including 16-color screens like mine! :-) Added some Esperanto links. Started breaking down Linux links into more categories, so links can be found quicker: added sections for getting Linux by NFS, Linux History, Linux Kernel, and Linux Software. Added some links to the Issues and Politics section (mostly about censorship and privacy issues). Added new Companies links. Finally corrected that "updated" date at the bottom of the page :-)

March 20, 1997

Added many more links - mostly censorship links, Communications Decency Act links, and privacy links. Still trying to get these pages in line with HTML 3.0 without Netscape or Explorer code.

March 17, 1997

Cleaned out all those scraps of paper - thus, added many various new links. New links include Esperanto links, French links, Virus links, Linux links, and more!

March 12, 1997

Continuing progress on bringing pages into compliance with HTML 3.0; also making pages easy to read in Lynx - for many people, text is the only option: don't ignore it! Lots of new Esperanto information in the Human Languages section.

February 27, 1997

Added many pages relating to Lynx (a character-based Web browser) and the use of non-browser specific HTML code. Also added several links to Linux resources and to more HTML code verifiers.

February 26, 1997

Added many new links in the Human Languages section, including Russian, French, and Multi-Lingual. Found some icons I like for new items; you'll see them about. Also added Newsgroups section and new data on the CDA to the Hacker page.

February 20, 1997

Started keeping track of new items, so visitors would have a quick idea of what was new. I would like to add a "new" icon but haven't yet found the right one.

Added new category to the Hackers page, with numerous links to pages on Space, especially the Space Shuttle.

Programs Used in Creation of This Web Site

Normally, I wouldn't recommend shareware. I try to avoid it wherever possible; but sometimes there aren't any freebies as good as the shareware versions (if there are any freeware programs available). I know that Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer are free, but Netscape and Microsoft is...... well.... Microsoft.

vi - the best text editor ever made on any platform! (DOS, UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, Macintosh...)
Netscape
Microsoft Internet Explorer
BBEdit
PageSpinner