It’s our first Multipost of the year 2005, and it is a really varied bunch.

You see, I have a problem: I am a link addict. I collect hundreds and hundreds of links, planning to post them all. There is simply no way I could post them all. Impossible.

So, here are some of the winners I’ve gleaned before I severely culled the massive herd of links I had cooped up in my browser. Enjoy.

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Firstly, we have the story of The Rocket Car. All of you, at some point, have heard this urban legend.

And, yes, I’m pretty certain I’ve written about this before. I’m doing it again because it is so cool.

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I’m a big fan of reading novels in Dead Tree Format (i.e., books), but I do read a fair number of them on my PDA - doc format is my favorite. Here are a few resources for finding online reading material:

Manybooks has a lot of openly available – public domain – books for download. If you like their service remember to donate.
Also, you can browse the University of Virginia ebook repository.
Finally, I was surprised to find that Baen books has some of their title up for free download. You should buy something from these people – they actually get it. Check out their reasons for doing this to see why I say this.

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Do you like electronic music? Fond of trance, techno, etc.? Then you need to read Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music. (Sorry, flash required).

A very comprehensive guide that shows the roots of this type of music, the different influences and even includes audio examples of the myriad styles and schools.

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So, your friend gave you a pirated copy of Photoshop and you’ve opened it up, ready to start airbrushing your cousin out of all of the family photos… and once you see all of the tools and dialogs that Photoshop has to offer you realize that you are in way over your head.

Fear not! There are many online resources for the newbie photoshopper; the best one I’ve found so far is The Photoshop Guru’s Handbook.

Tutorials, community postings, examples. It’s all there. However, I wouldn’t let on that your copy of Photoshop is stolen. They frown on that.

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This one is pretty much meant for Cliff, but others may enjoy it

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Where is the nearest WiFi hotspot?

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IRC – Internet Relay Chat – is a very popular service full of – ahem – interesting people. Interesting people who, during their many conversations, post links to pictures.

IRC Images is a website that caches and links to the pictures that are linked to/discussed on IRC server. Very not safe for work, but quite interesting at times.

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Battleship Island is an abandoned island off the coast of Japan that, at one time, was highly populated.

This is a web site devoted to documenting the eerie island and the effects that time and weathering have on it.

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Like Hong Kong Cinema? Get your fill here and here

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My son loves his guitar, and I’m eventually going to have to pay for a professional to teach him – I’m simply not good enough to give him a solid background in the art of guitar.

I was good enough to teach him the main riff of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water. Sadly, that’s all I knew at the time and it has really stuck. And I really, really need to get him to learn the rest of that song before he drives everyone nuts with that riff. I may be too late.

Enter online guitar tablature. Wish me luck.

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And, finally, this… this is also very cool – even if it is in Wired.