BruceBufford.com

Geek & Life Stuff

• Lifehacker : Awesome geek stuff, awesome life skills stuff. Interesting tidbits and goodies.
• Consumerist : Down to earth consumer reporting.
• Gizmodo : Tech news.
• Engadget : Tech gadgets.
• Uncrate : Stuff you can buy that appeals mainly to men and geeks. From inexpensive toys to VERY expensive cars.

Photography & Photoshop

• Strobist : Lighting.
• Abduzeedo : Design, artistry, photoshop.
• PSDTUTS : Purely photoshop tips and tricks, top notch.
• Environmental Graffiti : An eco-hippie green site, but has MANY good photo-stories on interesting natural topics.

Do-It-Yourself

• Make Magazine : Build things, mainly aimed at geeks and electronics.

Technology

• TechCrunch : Tech news that may or may not hit mainstream, a little offbeat at times but always interesting.
• Steve Rowe’s Blog (microsoft guy) : A manager living in a tech world, from Microsoft.
• Bruce Schneier on Security : Top notch security consultant with a clear-headed perspective on the goals of security.

Entertainment & Comics

• XKCD : Seriously random geek comic, from mathematical formulas to raptors.
• PHD Comics : Comic recounting the tales of a Grad student.
• What The Duck : Photography comic following a self-employed photographer.
• The Escapist: Zero Punctuation : Really fast talking game reviewer.
• Cinemassacre.com : Home of the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewer. Vulgar, crass, rude, and gritty. Funny as hell.

Custom Google Alerts (you can receive updates on any search term as they happen):

• my name (to see if I’m being mentioned in the news, other blogs, social networking sites, etc)
• everyone in my family (same as for my name)
• my hometown (to see if anything is happening around home)
• certain exotic places I’ve traveled to (just to keep tabs on where I’ve been)

Buying something online? Looking to save a few bucks? Many sites accept coupon codes. You can always google for them — but if you want a resonably accurate coupon database, look no further than RetailMeNot.com. Note: Some online retailers request RetailMeNot to not post their site, so your level of success may vary.

[RetailMeNot.com]

Are you really into the internet? Have a lot of sources of information? Like to read blogs? Are you frustrated at how long it takes you to browse each one?

Then use an RSS Reader! What’s that you ask? An RSS Reader allows you to view headlines and articles from many sources of information at once in a single location.

How does it work (without getting too technical)? Websites like CNN, New York Times, and Wired Magazine publish their articles online according to a specific standard which allows content to be read from their site. This content (called RSS Feeds) can then be put into a separate application, called a Reader (sometimes it’s called an Aggregator, since it “aggregates” content to one place). Nearly every blog uses RSS Feeds to share their content, and major news providers do the same.

Huh? Say it in English. Look, this technology is a HUGE timesaver. Think of it like this — you want to browse TEN newspapers a day. That takes a LOT of time turning pages, scanning for articles, and finding what you want. RSS Feeds are the equivalent of having someone make a list of every headline and a short summary of each article, all printed on an 8.5×11″ sheet of paper. If you want to read more, you are given the exact location of the article — or in the digital world, a link to the actual website.

So, what reader applications can I use? There are many available — some are downloadable and some are 100% internet-based. Google Reader, an internet-based RSS Reader, is considered one of the best. It’s easy to use, integrates well with your browser, and has a very well-defined interface. It also can be used in an experimental “offline” mode too.

[Google Reader]