Unix as a Second Language

Bristle.com - High on content, low on frills

Keep on using Google to find answers to the myriad of questions -- technical to personal -- that cross your mind in a day. But when what you need is a densely packed list of links to some of the most useful resources on the web, take a look at bristle.com, specifically http://bristle.com/~fred.

Fred Stluka is an energetic scavenger of useful information, a man who connects people with resources, companies with consultants, programmers with consulting work and everyone else with good advice and practical insights about how to get things done.

Fred collects links on topics as diverse as Java and national politics, Internet standards to recycling. The site is densely packed with links in a large grid. As the subtitle suggests, the site is not much to look at, but it's easy enough to navigate and contains a large collection of particularly useful links to a wide variety of resources on the web.

Here's a sampling:

On bristle.com, you'll find a link for Acronym Finder. Confused when your coworkers can't complete a sentence without using three acronyms? This is a valuable resource, especially in these times when a single acronym might stand for half a dozen different things. I balked at JBOD the other day before when I was asked if I had any JBODs attached to my disk array. I looked it up on Acronym Finder and realized I should have known the term. "Ah, of course", I mumbled, "just a bunch of disks". Check out the Acronym Finder. Even my first name is an acronym!

Fred's also has more than two dozen job sites listed. Wow, that's a lot more than just Monster.com, Dice and Craig's List. One of these sites could provide a lead to your next job! Maybe now's the time to see what kind of jobs they offer and customers they serve.

The best links for information on viruses (Symantec, McAfee, CERT and F-Secure) are available in Fred's links list along with a good selection of links on debunking the hoaxes that come your way. There are also links on effective spam control along with information on how to get yourself added to the the appropriate Do-Not-Call list.

For the shoppers among us, Fred has collected sites that offer price comparisons, rebates, product reviews and auction sites. He also has lots of links on Ajax and Java, plus a generous list of links to desk references -- including thesauruses, translation sites and units of measurement to name just a few.

One of the references on Fred's Links page is a link back to bristle.com which includes Fred's collection of tips on Java, Unix, Windows, the Internet and a group of miscellaneous issues. The Unix tips take the form of a very well organized outline of Unix topics that would provide an excellent introduction to anyone wanting to dive into Unix. The introduction to Java is similarly detailed and would be especially useful in helping a C or C++ programmer get quickly off the ground programming in Java.

Take a look at http://bristle.com/~fred. You might find several categories of links that will be worth your perusing right now and many resources that might turn out to be some of your favorite sites on the web. I've only touched the surface in this review. There's a lot of valuable resources waiting to be discovered. But no frills.

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