Let's get 1/2 of the useful links out of the way

• Knowing.NET’s 15 exercises to teach yourself a programming language, Parts 1, 2, and 3
  This is an awesome primer. I don’t know why I hadn’t subscribed to this blog ages ago but I have now.
• Guy Kawasaki and other business guru presentations
  Great watching if you want to look at different presentation styles. You definitely should be subscribed to this blog if you do any sort of regular presenting.
  

A contrast in styles

• Martin Luther King: “I Have a Dream”
  3/4s down.
  
• The Spirit of Truth: “I come in the name of Jesus…repeat after me bitch!! I said I come in the name of Jesus…”
  I've never heard preaching with "One Nation Under A Groove" for background music. 
  

I Told You I Was Downloading Everything

• 300 pounder does a standing dropkick: Rest in peace, Earthquake 
• Randy Savage Music Video – Speaking From the Heart 
• The World’s Most Important Drum Loop
  
• The History of Bruce Lee’s 1 inch punch
• Kill Bill 1&2 in 120 seconds 
• William Shatner Performs “Rocket Man” 
• Voices From the New American Schoolhouse
  So ends the useful links.
  
  

Can *anyone* explain this to me?

• McGriddle fan fiction

Now this is singing:

• http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/
  Now, if my former group, the U of A Mixed Chorus would do something like this for their 60th anniversary I’d be there for sure!

• Dragon’s Lair start to finish
• Space Ace start to finish (corrected link)
  

Yes, This Is The Only Category

• Ask a Ninja - "Gift card!!  It says YOU DON'T KNOW ME!!  Perfect for a ninja!!"
• Hulk's Diary That Is On The Internet - Self-explanatory
• MC Hammer Blog - Come for the Hammer, stay for the love letter to Barry Bonds
  

Games

• Pumpkin Carving 
• BBC - History - Death in Sakkara
  Online Flash mystery game, based on the Egyptology craze of the 1920s.
  
• Could the PS3 really be delayed until 2007?
  Well, I guess this is probably good considering the mess they've been making of the process so far.

WTF

• Betty Goes Goth
  This must be the most mainstream I've ever seen goth go.
  
• Anarchie
  Wow. And I thought goth Betty was a stretch!
  
• Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout MP3s
  I don't think this needs any description. Actually, it does - who the heck works out to *IT'S RAINING MEN*!??!

Books

• Amazon.com: Books: How To Survive a Robot Uprising : Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion
  *YES*. I'm going to need this when our DVD player gets pissed at its continual mistreatment!

Tools

• Media Player Classic 6.4.8.5
  I love this app - everything good about Windows Media player without all the clutter. Even plays realmedia files with the proper plugin!

Career

• Russell Beattie Notebook » Where’s The Ambition?
  An awesome post decrying the complete lack of true innovation in a lot of recent start-ups. Loved the ending. 
• The Wealthy Blogger » Transitioning to Your Dream Job
  The Wealthy Blogger » Why Have Only One Job?
  Two articles from the wealthy blogger that really speak to anyone who is disenfranchised or attempting to envision their dream job.

Math

• Bluffer's Guide to Fermat's Last Theorem

Okay, we get it, you like generics

• .NET Framework Developer Center: Generics FAQ: .NET Framework
• .NET Framework Developer Center: Generics FAQ: Best Practices
• .NET Framework Developer Center: Generics FAQ: Fundamentals
• .NET Framework Developer Center: Generics FAQ: Tool Support

Other Development

• Ward Pond's SQL Server blog : Database Design: Do Not Fear NULLs
  Food for thought for database designers.
• Coding Horror: Avoiding Booleans
  I know one project where I had unknowingly violated this rule, and it definitely suffered for clarity! If only I had a time machine...;)
  
• .NET Undocumented: That's Impossible
  Wesner always inspires me with his entrepenurial spirit. I sincerely hope the best for whatever he is planning, but it sounds fantasic.

Hey, it's the weekend

• Gamasutra - Feature - "How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days"
  This is where I located the addictive Tower of Goo game. See it and more of the 40+ games produced here - or if that doesn't work, check out the mirror site.
  
• Wired News: Sir, the Gamers Are Revolting!
  This is another game I'd like to try - a non-violent revolutionary simulation.
  
• Wired News: Colossus Is Giant Leap for Games
  Speaking of innovative boundary-breakers...
  
• Revolution controller slagged as magnet for "crappy, cheap" games
  Not every innovation, of course, is met with enthusiasm.
  
• GSc | Diamond reports developer discontent with PS3 tools I have to admit, if I were looking to have an awesome set of release software, this isn't the behavior I'd be displaying.

Writing

• A List Apart: Articles: Attack of the Zombie Copy
  I'm sure we've all worked for companies like this at one point in our lives (some of us still do!)

Misc

• Forbes's Trashy Blog Attack | Bayosphere
  I can't think of anything to say regarding this other than it seems decidedly obvious that Forbes is actually terrified of bloggers and the online community.
  
• Stephen King adapts the Dark Tower series for Marvel comics
  This could be the biggest break for "graphic fiction" in years. I hope it does well. Has anyone out there actually read the Dark Tower series? Is it any good?
  
• Was Einstein a Space Alien?
  Misleading title, but a great article.

Nerd Alert

• Introduction to the fascinating patterns of Visual Math
  This will be a huge time-waster next weekend if I can't find any of those MENSA books.

Development?

• Amazon.com: Books: Dating Design Patterns
  This isn't really a necessity for me, being married, but might be a great Christmas gift for that lonely software developer you're courting...

Okay, *this* is development...

• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)
  MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer
  Microsoft's new certification program is officially released.
  
• Cyrus' Blather : OMG. I can't believe it's over!
  One of the developers behind Visual Studio 2005 talks about what it is like to have built part of the software that millions of people will use. 
• Representing void methods with generic delegates
  More new version spelunking with Roy Osherove.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

WTF

Career

• Empowerment and Office Culture 
• Creating Passionate Users: Attenuation and the suck threshold

Development

• The Simpleton Design Pattern - The Daily WTF
  A little knowledge (or in this case, none whatsoever) is a dangerous thing...
  
• Brad Abrams : The SLAR (vol2) on System.Net.Authorization
  
• CarlosAg Excel Xml Writer Library
  
• Introduction to Generics (C#)
  Now that VS2005 is out, I can't wait to start playing with this stuff... 
• John Papa : CodeRush vs Resharper - Round 2
  More analysis of refactoring tools - although how relevant this would be to the 2005 early adopters is anyone's guess.
• Suzanne Cook's .NET CLR Loader Notes : LoadFile vs. LoadFrom
  Suzanne Cook's .NET CLR Loader Notes : ReflectionTypeLoadException
  I suppose it's pretty obvious where my attention has been the last day or so...
  

Tools

• Sysinternals Freeware - Autoruns 8.3
  Free software - find out everything that you've got running at startup.  Great for clearing out first load clutter!

More Sleep

• The Soleil Sun Alarm
  If it weren't $75 US, I'd be getting this right away.
  
• Guide to a Good Night's Sleep

Art

• The Official M.C. Escher Website
  Archives of all of Escher's work. 
• ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog
  Project to archive all of Hollywood's previous animation work.  Ambitious to be sure...
  

Books

• Microsoft Reader Catalog of eBooks
  Metric *tons* of books available for free. 
• The Hacker's Diet
  Also available for free, it is apparently a discussion of weight loss from an engineer's perspective. Somewhat interesting, but with all the other stuff I want to read it will have to wait. 
• Amazon.com: Books: Retro Gaming HacksAdapt your old-school A2600 controller to be plugged into your computer, as well as discussions of emulators for every system imaginable.

Misc

• Men's Wearhouse: How To Choose the Perfect Gift
  This all struck me as relatively obvious, but some might get more out of it?

Development

• Programming The Nintendo Game Boy Advance by Jonathan S. Harbour
  All *right*. This is a platform I'm looking forward to hacking around on!
  
• Jeremy D. Miller -- The Shade Tree Developer : What’s so great about Inversion of Control?
  Great discussion of the Inversion of Control pattern and how it can refactor a set of unit tests.
  
• The New Generation of Microsoft CertificationsThe new wave of Microsoft certifications have arrived. Fortunately for some, the old certifcation is still in effect for a little while.

Entertainment

• The Jolly Green Giant has passed away.
  And yet another marker of our childhood falls by the wayside...
• "Muppet Idol" - coming soon
  Forget about this, they need to hold an American Idol to get a writer for the Muppets that is actually *funny*, like they had in the original show.

Speaking of Funny

• Strong Bad Babysits The Cheat
  "Adventures of Lolo?? You'd better still have the receipt!!"

WTF

• NJ Private High School Bans Blogging

Books

• Amazon.com: Books: Cartoon History of the Universe 1 (Cartoon History of the Universe)
  Wow. This series looks amazing!
  
• Amazon.com: Books: Fantastic Voyage : Live Long Enough to Live Forever
  Central concept: if we can just survive for 50 years longer, technology will have progressed to the point that we can keep ourselves alive indefinitely...
  
• Amazon.com: Books: This Perfect Day: A Novel
  From Amazon, guaranteed to be TechEmbassy's new favorite book: "It is the tale of a lad named Chip, in a future world in which the great socialist dream has finally been realized. Preferring one person to another is a sign of social maladjustment. "Fight" is a dirty word; "f**k" is just the usual term for an activity no more important than sleeping or urination. Everyone is told what to do by "Uni," the great computer that organizes society and keeps track of everyone's location via electronic bracelet. (And one of the dirtiest, most maladjusted and antisocial expressions anyone can utter is "Fight Uni.")".
• Amazon.com: Books: The Build Master : Microsoft's Software Configuration Management Best Practices (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology)
  I need this book, and not just because of the cover! Perhaps yet another Christmas gift...

Misc

• Ian Rowland: The Mindreader, The Mind Motivator. Mr Angry and Mrs Calm
  Really neat optical illusion. 
• Straight Dope Staff Report: Why do we say "God bless you" after a sneeze? 
• Hide My Ass! Free Anonymous Browsing.
  Poor choice of name for an awesome service - bypass those pesky proxies!

Productivity

• Getting To Done: Roll Your Own Business - Lifehacker
• Guest post: More on distractions, from Paul Ford | 43 Folders
  More on the debate as to whether distractions in the office bolster or destroy productivity.  I feel that the truth, as in many cases, is somewhere inbetween.

Well, at least *I* find them exciting

• Mathematical Background
  Mathematical review for the uber-geeky among us who want to go back over set theory, lambda calculus, and the like. 
• Reach for A*: Efficient Point-to-Point Shortest Path Algorithms 
• UNIX top 10 commands
  
• ACN - Top Twelve Unix Commands
  

Development

• John Papa : Resharper vs CodeRush and Refactor Pro - Round 1
  Interesting comparison of various refactoring tools. At some point I'll have to try these out myself - I used CodeRush for a while but felt it kind of got in my way a little too much (maybe I wasn't used to the shortcuts?) 
• Atlas Class Browser
  
• Steve Eichert's Blog - It looks Agile, It sounds Agile, but Is it really Agile?
  
• Jeremy D. Miller -- The Shade Tree Developer : Qualities of a Good Unit Test
  Every developer who unit tests - and if you don't, why not? - should be reading this. 
• Peter's Gekko : Building an Excel sheet in C# the easy way
  
• Reliable Software - Michael Stiefel
  Discussion of risk-oriented software.
  
• Nerdherding for Beginners
  Love this blog...definitely material I seek out more and more often. Great for developer leads!
  

So much free information, so little time...

• Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005
  I'm sure I've posted this before, but the PDC slides and presentations are now all freely available!
• Slides and Code from CodeCamp
  Quite the nice set of presentations and code. I wish everyone would do this!
  
• WPF Hands-On Labs
  More labs for the Windows Presentation Foundation.  Maybe sometime in 2008 I'll have the time to take a look at these?

WTF

• poplockin
  Make your own groove (with your own face) and send to your friends. I will probably now spend the rest of my week attempting to make Anand or TechEmbassy dance.
• Slow Wave
  Commissioned drawings of other people's dreams!  Weird.
• Something about these Mario drawings just seems wrong...

Misc

• Daily Scans
  Great comic-related blog - the author does the best to either find the crappiest (or sexually questionable) dialogue!
• I-Mockery.com | Halloween III - Season of the Witch! Halloween 3
• MapStats
  Get an RSS feed (or just HTML output) of where the last ten visitors of your site came from! 
  
• Alarm Clocks are Bad To Wake Up To
  I'm a total sleep/productivity junkie, so this stuff always fascinates me.  Your mileage may vary...
• The Portable Freeware Collection

Development

• Ranter Ryan
  The second coming of causticPhil might be fast upon us if he sticks to it.
• Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?
  The text of a (very rare) Charles Petzold talk.  Fascinating stuff that you owe it to yourself to read if you are a software developer.
• User Experience Design
  Peter Morville goes over the 7 major factors of user experience - useful, usable, desirable,  valuable, findable, credible, accessible.

Humor

• 

  Five crappy movies that everyone loves.
  Featuring the Tom Clancy Plot Generator!
• CompUSA - A Few Suggestions
  Worth the read if only for the revised Comp USA logo.

Video Games

• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow NintendoDS Review from 1UP.com
  I already promised myself that I wouldn't buy any other DS games until after Christmas, but Konami is making it very difficult to keep my promise...
• Lost Garden: Game Design Review: DS Training for Adults
  Review of a fascinating title in Japan. I'd love to pick something like this up for my parents or grandparents...

Career

• Maximize Your Raise
  No description required!
• Excerpt: The Art Of Project Management
  Read the 10th chapter of Scott Berkun's book.
• When to leave your (first, second, third or nth) tech job
  Good article. Hits a lot of similar notes to many I have heard from others in the development industry: "While the occasional (paid) overtime is nice, long hours put more wear and tear on you, and over time, can cost you the passion you had for developing quality software. No amount of profit sharing, casual dress or office perk can get that back for you."
• Jim Stroud's "I Blog Therefore I Am"
  Jim Stroud, one of the premier recruiters at Microsoft, now has his own blog.

Arts and Entertainment

• Theo bleckmann -- singer and composer
  The singer, composer and performance artist uses his voice like an other-worldly instrument: "you're going to a Theo Bleckmann concert? Forget everything you have heard before!" (Chicago Reader).

Development

• James Kovacs' Weblog - Tools of the Trade slidedeck posted
  James Kovacs presentation on various .NET tools is now publically available.
• Visual Studio Launch: ASP.NET 2.0
  Run some virtual labs on ASP.NET 2.0 from Microsoft.
• Brad Abrams : The SLAR (vol2) on System.AppDomain
  More goodness from the Annotated Reference, one of my favorite series of books.
• Petzold Book Blog
  Charles Petzold, possibly the best author of any WinForms development books, has a new blog detailing his writing process on his new book.
• CLR Hoser - The Wonders of Whidbey Factoring Features – Part II: Type Forwarders in Detail
  Fascinating article on some of the new bits of the CLR.  Warning: Not everyone will find this as exciting.  =)

Misc

• Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly®
  How to win at Monopoly, if you love reading statistics.
  
• Moleskine/Where To Buy In Person/Americas/Canada - 43FoldersWiki
  Where to buy the infamous Moleskine journals in Edmonton, Alberta.
• The Best Geek Quotes, Sayings, and Phrases - 1 to 10
  "Roses are #FF0000
  Violets are #0000FF
  All my base Are belong to you"
  And with that, I've likely alienated 90% of the readership of this blog! ;)