This is your brain on shopping.
We Americans tend to view shopping as a birthright even though it’s more like an addiction. Still, tough times and looming holidays offer an excellent incentive to bend one of our most cherished habits–if not break it–while the growing profusion of online resources has the power to take the sting out of spending less on ourselves. The links below lead to five exemplary tools and territories. Explore, enjoy, and take comfort in the knowledge that by the time you get through them, at least twice as many new ones will be ready and waiting.
Supercollider: Way less expensive than the collider above, and way less likely to make black holes…unless, of course, black holes are what you want.
1. Supercollider Even the likes of MAX/MSP-using, Ghoastly International recording artist Huntley Miller freely acknowledge this ground-up, music creation engine’s superiority. Granted, the environment’s learning curve is commensurate with its power, but a steadfast community does all it can to help newbies navigate the labyrinth. For a taste of what a savvy producer can accomplish using Supercollider, check out former Minneapolitan Timeblind’s work here and here.
Google Docs: Just waiting to change your life.
2. Google Docs Web-based archiving, familiar, user-friendly interfaces, the ability to import and export files to and from a slew of popular formats and securely share whatever with whomever you choose–Google’s newish online document, spreadsheet, and presentation creation software suite couldn’t offer more bang for its zero-buck asking price without somwhow implementing a coffee-making option.
Offshore Recordings: No slouches at giving stuff away, either.
3. WordPress Packed with features worth thousands (if not millions) by 20th Century standards, our favorite personal publishing platform (whaddya think this blog is running on?) offers way more in the way of possibilities than any of its competitors. Entrepreneurial spirits can even emulate drum ‘n bass label Offshore Recordings and set it up for commerce.
Like other Italian Futurists, noise pioneer Luigi Russolo lives happily ever after at Ubuweb.
4. Ubuweb Founded by poet Kenneth Goldsmith in 1996, Ubuweb offers a selection of avant-garde sound, text, and visual works (late 19th Century through next week) unequalled by all but the greatest librairies. Dig in now, finish maybe…assuming you live to see 300.
At the Internet Sacred Text Archive, death is one of many beginnings.
5. Internet Sacred Text Archive
Whether seeking guidance, researching a paper, or just looking to expand your understanding of the world (a bunch, actually), you’re likely to find satisfaction–if not salvation–at the Internet Sacred Text Archive. This monumental resource harbors hundreds of e-books, ranging from the Bible to Paul Carus’s History of the Devil by way of pretty much every enduring document Earth’s myriad spiritual disciplines have inspired to date.
