Some of my most memorable musical discoveries were made thanks to meticulously compiled and lovingly decorated mixtapes, created for me by friends with the eclectic tastes and artistic fervor of adolescence.
I know I’ve just utterly and irrevocably dated myself, but I don’t care; just thinking about those tapes makes me happy, reminds me that the world can be a surprising, challenging, delightful place.
Nowadays, my discoveries are more likely to come from Pitchfork or Scott Bolgiano’s weeks-long iTunes playlist. But there’s still nothing like the moment when someone guides you to a masterwork, the one that perfectly resonates, fills your need, and invites you to make it your very own.
So in that spirit, I flipped through my web bookmarks—the vinyl, the cassettes, the CDs, and the MP3s—and put together a mix of online references and resources for you, the ones that surprise me with their comprehensiveness, challenge me to think more broadly, and delight me when they offer up arcane details.
Sometimes, a good tool is all that’s needed to strengthen quality: Here’s hoping you discover something that makes your content creation a little easier and the world seem just a bit friendlier.
1Kuler
http://kuler.adobe.com/
Gorgeous—and inspiring—5-color themes, hosted by Adobe
2Mental Floss Trivia
http://www.mentalfloss.com/trivia/
A companion to the kicky magazine; arcana galore
3Ready America
http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html
Are you ready for a disaster? I’m not ready. But when I get ready to get ready, I know where to look.
4Still Tasty
http://www.stilltasty.com/
Not sure about that can of tuna you put in your Ready America kit last decade? This “Ultimate Shelf-life Guide” can help make that late-night desperation snack possible.
5Classic Reader
http://www.classicreader.com/
Trying to remember who said “My kingdom for a horse!”? Type it into the search at this free repository of public domain books, stories, plays and poetry, and savor the quote in its dramatic context.
6Pew Research Center for People and the Press
http://people-press.org/
Those ubiquitous poll stats have to come from somewhere.
7Bartleby—Great Books Online
http://bartleby.com/
I was crushed when the American Heritage Dictionary was withdrawn from Bartleby’s library, but this is still an easily searched paean to Western literature.
8Epicurious Food Dictionary
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary
Here’s the thing: I don’t know the French diacritics for crème brûlée off the top of my head. But thanks to the exuberant and hunger-pang-inducing website Epicurious.com, I won’t try to frizzle my friseé.
9Web Design Ledger
http://webdesignledger.com/resources/18-seriously-helpful-cheat-sheets-for-easier-coding
A Mr. Henry Jones compiled this list of web-coding cheat sheets. Download a few and improve relations with your favorite developer.
10World Wide Web Consortium’s Site Validator
http://validator.w3.org/unicorn/
w3.org is the home of much essential, carefully documented history and information about the web. But it’s the tools, especially the site validator, that have saved me hours—hours!—of work. As easy as entering a URL.
11Adobe BrowserLab
https://browserlab.adobe.com
Test your site in a variety of browsers/platforms, all with one convenient online app.
12Speakeasy’s Speed Test
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Wondering if that slow load is your connection or a server-side problem? Speakeasy has an online bandwidth speed test that may help.
13Reverso language tools
http://dictionary.reverso.net/
Created by the publisher Collins, this is a stunningly good collection of online language translation and reference tools, including audio pronunciations.
14Signum’s Lenguaje.com
http://www.lenguaje.com/english/tools/tools.php
¿Habla usted español? If you write, or simply work with, Spanish text, visit the fantastic Signum online Spanish grammar tools. Here you can double-check spellings and verb conjugations, correct word breaks and verify regionalisms.
15Self’s Nutrition Data
http://nutritiondata.self.com/
User-friendly and good for a long, deep dive into the subject matter
16USPS ZIP code lookup
http://zip4.usps.com
ZIP codes are among the kind of info you need 15 minutes ago by the time you’re looking. Here they are, straight from the source.
17HowStuffWorks
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Want to know what goes down on the Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour? A little inside scoop on NORAD? Start here. Or, don’t listen to me and start with Wikipedia. No skin off my nose.
18Grammar Girl
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
Accessible and sassy, this site offers written and podcasted answers to grammar FAQs.
19Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Clear, practical and supportive, OWL covers almost all the bases, free.
20Grammarly “English grammar checker, proofreader and plagiarism scanner”
http://www.grammarly.com/
Created for students and their teachers, the plagiarism scanner feature makes good sense for people working with freelancers or hoping to litmus-test their own work.
What are some of your favorite resources? I admit it—I’m a reference junkie. Feed the beast in the comments, please.
[image: tylerburrus]
Pingback: How to Lose Credibility with One Typoe – Engage
Pingback: The Tao of Quality (Or, What I learned from Auto-Tune) – Engage