Learning Websites
This entry is going to break format in many ways.
- First, it's going to list a variety of related sites, creating a collection of our own
- Second, no screenshots of the reviewed sites
- Third, no real reviews to speak of - just a list and a few word about what they do
- Finally, these really aren't weird in and of themselves. But who thought the Web would be a place people go to in order to learn a subject?
Here is a variety of site that offer to teach you something. Most are entirely free, although they will hit you up for a donation now and then. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of these, so if your favorite isn't listed, please accept our apologies. The Doctor only has so much time to surf and write reviews...and these days he prefers the former.
duolingo.com - learn a language in five minutes a day
khanacademy.org - Math, Science, Finance, Music - it seems that Khan Academy intends to become Khan University!
codecademy.com - learn to program in just about any computer language
w3schools.com - another programming site, but with all emphasis on web-based tech
lynda.com - video training for design, photography, programming, business and more
We hope these give you a start on a career, a career change, a hobby or a fun way to stay out of trouble on rainy days.
If you'd rather read random content and not worry about "learning" per se, you can go to Wikipedia.org's Random Article link and find something interesting....weird!
- Written by Walter Walter
No Body Cases
If there can be a weirder collection site than one assembled by a former federal homicide prosecutor, the Doctor is hard pressed to think of it. The website created by Tad DiBiase discusses the intricacies of investigating and prosecuting murder cases where the body of the victim has not been found. I'm sure one of the questions he answers is the Doctor's first: How do you know a murder has been committed if there is no body to be found?
If this is something that YOU want to investigate, you'll be welcome to read all the details Mr. DiBiase makes available.
Ted DiBiase's book, "No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting, and Winning Cases When the Victim Is Missing" is available directly from the publisher.
- Written by Walter Walter
Naming Schemes
Every now and again, the Doctor needs a list of names that can be used to label things. For example, his large server farm needs unique names for each server. The medical center he is building in the sub-basement of his vacation home will have many conference and exam rooms, and he wants a consistent theme for how they are all named. Now he has the perfect resource for finding such themed names: Naming Schemes provides a trove of names, organized into lists by description. For example, look up "Rockets" and you get a list of almost three dozen different rockets! We're not recommending he name medical exam rooms after rockets. Maybe something like the list of Medical Illnesses would be better? If you have a similar need, check out Naming Schemes. They use a wiki-type layout for easy update and a clean look, but it would be nice if each list was sorted.
- Written by Walter Walter
Gone and Forgotten
Over the years comic book superheros have come and gone. Some become bigger than life itself, while others just seem to vanish into the desk drawers and ink bottles of their creators.
Chris Ware is a comic book artist and he has put together a collection of stories about the comic characters who are "Gone and Forgotten". As he explains on the site:
Gone & Forgotten is a blog dedicated to the bottom of the comic book barrel; the Secret Wars IIs, the Kitty Pryde and Wolverines, the Green Teams and John Targitts and the one time Krypto swore like a drunken sailor on shore leave.
This blog has been around in some form or the other since 1997 or so, meaning you owe it, like, ten birthday gifts. Some father you are.
While not scoring high on the humor chart, Gone and Forgotten is certainly a collection of WEIRD.
- Written by Walter Walter
Empty States
Empty Spaces is a weird collection of page layouts informing the user that there is nothing found...the "empty set" of results. The tag line "Delight users by designing the empty states" indicates their desire that designers and developers not just leave a default "Page Not Found" error for the user to decipher.
The simple layout allows for scrolling through all the page images, searching for a key word, or browsing through six categories segmenting the collection. An inspiration for designers and a collection of things for average users to wonder at...either way its weird!
- Written by Walter Walter
The Candy Wrapper Museum
If you can remember back to the 1970s, where Dr. Weird Web still thinks he is, you'll know that many things have changed since then. Pet Rocks came and went. Disco came and went. Bell bottoms came and went. But even through all those changes and the assorted fashion and social changes, candy has stayed a societal constant. Sure, some preferences migrated from chocolate and mint to sour balls and cinnamon. But the desire for something (usually sweet) to enjoy as a guilty pleasure has continued through it all.
Darlene Lacey didn't know what she was getting herself in back then. Here she tells her story to "The Chocolate Cult" Blog:
When I was a teenager, I was impressed by some older friends’ collections of beer bottles from around the world. I thought the idea of collecting and displaying them for their artistic qualities was quite interesting. I wanted to do something like this, but I was too young (and too broke!) to collect beer bottles, so I decided to start keeping something I bought all the time, candy wrappers. However, I didn’t want to just create a catalog of everything out there; I wanted to only collect wrappers that I thought had some interest or merit. Therefore, I came up with the concept to collect with an eye toward artistic merit, humor (as in “What were they thinking!”), and nostalgia. I aimed to collect not only the “icons” of the industry, but also the oddball candies that quickly came and left the shelves.
Needless to say, wrappers from the 1920s to the present day make for a weird collection. And because it only exists on the Internet, it is certainly a place you'll want to visit.
- Written by Walter Walter