Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (b. 1955): British computer scientist. Inventor of the WWW. Proposed an information management system in Mar 1989, implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet in Nov 1989. Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Knighted in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work.
"Stacking" image sequences provided by NASA from the crew at International Space Station (ISS) yields startrails that Christoph Malin compiled and posted on Vimeo. A copy can be found on YouTube.
Movie: Sonnenallee (Sun Alley, 1999) w/ Alexander Scheer (Michael 'Micha' Ehrenreich), Alexander Beyer (Mario), Katharina Thalbach (Mutter Ehrenreich), Teresa Weißbach (Miriam Sommer). Comedy on the life of adolescents on the Eastern side of the Wall in Berlin. Amusing. Overall rating 7 out of 10
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Web: Heidelberger historische Bestände – digital. Includes old manuscripts. Allows downloads in PDF format
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Science: More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci observed a particular relationship between the size of a tree's trunk and the size of its branches. Specifically, the combined cross-sectional areas of a tree's daughter branches are equal to the cross-sectional area of the mother branch. This tree structure may be optimal for enabling trees to resist wind-induced stresses. NPR report. Article.
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Astronomy: Aristarchos of Samos (310 BCE – ca. 230 BCE): Greek astronomer and mathematician. Presented first known heliocentric world model. Later restated by Copernicus (1543) and manifested by Kepler (1617-1621). Finally proven by James Bradley (1725) through discovery of the aberration of light.
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Travel: Roadside America: Travel tips for road trips across the USA. Searchable, e.g. by state. Provides map with location of sights.
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Science: Wilson Bentley (1865-1931): Photographed and research the variety of snowflakes.
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Books: Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (MDZ, in German): Digitized books, including old manuscripts, e.g. of Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
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Maps: Waldseemüller Map of the World from 1507, first naming America, at the Library of Congress is available in high resolution for download.
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Life: Prices for new cars at TrueCar. Very informative.
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Travel: GPS Visualizer: Creates maps and profiles from GPS data (tracks and waypoints, including GPX files), driving routes, street addresses, or simple coordinates. Displays in Google Earth.
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Computer: Apple Apps Store: to find free apps, search for 'free app <search term>'.
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Movie (YouTube): The Light at the Edge of the World (1971). w/ Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner and Samantha Eggar. Directed by Kevin Billington. After the novel 'The Lighthouse at the End of the World (1905)' by Jules Verne. A remote rocky island is taken over by michievous pirates and their leader (Brynner). Living in a cave and haunted by his past, the escaped assistant lighthouse keeper (Douglas) is trying to survive. Story slow. Some gruesome scenes. Poor visual effects. Overall rating: 5 out of 10.
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Movie (YouTube): The Trip (1967). w/ Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Susan Strasberg (wife, dark hair), Salli Sachse (blonde). Directed by Roger Corman. Pre-'Easy Rider' cult movie that describes the first LSD trip of a young man in a personal crisis (Fonda). Story simple. Visual firework trying to imitate the LSD experience. Music could be more catchy. Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
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Web: Lord of the Rings: Gary Appenzeller has compiled three web pages with the differences between books and movies for 'The Fellowship of the Ring' , ‘The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King'
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Medicine: Patient.co.uk: Good information on a variety of diseases. Also more in dept information at PatientPlus. Also has an informative video directory
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Photography: Fotolia: Stock photos for little money
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Maps: Gmap Pedometer: Measures distances of self-chosen routes on a Google map
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Video: You Only Live Twice (1967). w/ Sean Connery (James Bond). Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Bond needs to find out who is behind the hijacking of American and Russian space crafts.The trail leads to Japan, SPECTRE its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Overall rating 4 out of 10.
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Movie: GoldenEye (1995): w/ Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), Sean Bean (Alec Trevelyan),Izabella Scorupco (Natalya Simonova), Famke Janssen (Xenia Onatopp). Directed by Martin Campbell. Bond fights a former colleague (006) who stole a satellite weapon. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
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History: Historypin. Provides map with current and historical photos. Can study how streets have changed over the years.
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Movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). w/ James Franco (Will Rodman), Freida Pinto (Caroline Aranha), Andy Serkis (Cesar). How it all began: Delopmental Alzheimer's drug is tested on monkeys and makes them intelligent. Researcher takes one of them (Cesar) home and raises him there, but eventually has to give him up to a shelter. Cesar escapes and organizes an uprising. Good special effects. Story okay. Andy Serkis also played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
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Computer: Virus online scanners for single files: VirusTotal. Checks a file against 30+ virus scanners. Useful, when you want to counter check the alert received by your local virus scanner. Alternatively, it is possible to check with individual scanners online: Avast Online (max. size 16MB) or Kaspersky (max. size 1MB)
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Medicine: Drugs.com:. Info on drugs and drug companies, including sales figures
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Music: Rapid Library: Search engine for downloadable MP3s
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Music: Spectrasonics: Virtual musiclal instruments. Synthesized sounds out of a computer. Cool. Has interview with and music by Lyle Mays
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Life: Wetterkontor.de: Weather in Germany, including historical data
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Music: Wolfgang's Vault: Concert recordings to stream.
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Patents: Patent Retriever: Full text PDF versions of patents
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Physics: The name electron for the negatively charged subatomic particle originates from the greek word 'electron', which means amber. Amber attracts small objects by electrostatic forces after being rubbed with fur
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Movies: La Vallee (1972). Written and directed by Barbet Schroeder (b. 1941) who also directed the movie 'More' (1969). With Bulle Ogier (Viviane). Four hippies on a journey in search of paradise in the Papua New Guinea bush. Sountrack by Pink Floyd, released as the album 'Obscured by Clouds'. Rating 7 out of 10
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Movies: Mal de Mer (2005). Short film with Bulle Ogier, Michel Piccoli. Retired couple meets two guys by the sea. Rating 7 out of 10
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Computers: FileDropper: Simple way to share/distribute files up to 5GB. No sign-up required. If the files are not downloaded even once within 30 days post upload they are removed
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Movies: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). w/ Kevin McCarthy (Dr. Miles J. Bennell), Dana Wynter (Becky Driscoll). Directed by Don Siegel (Dirty Harry). Doctor in a fight to prevent an alien race's attempt to secretly replace people by identical copies that lack emotions. Good pace. Seems somewhat dated today, but keeps the suspense up. Overall rating 7 out of 10.
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Aphorsims: Collection of quotes in the Liss-Kompendium (in German)
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