The Tangled Web Problem
The web we've all come to love/hate does easily become a tangled one, whether we wove it or someone else; when it comes to keeping track of useful URLs, sometimes it seems more like a rat's nest. Browsers have bookmarks, but I find that these quickly become unwieldy.
If you're like me (everybody is (to some extent), but nobody is (thanks to goodness, so say some)), you often have to search several levels through disorganized lists, or up and down your browser's menu item of every URL you've ever saved, or do a disk search to find the URL for a particular site (if you weren't able to quickly Google or Bing it).
The Plain Jane Solution / Detangler
I know there are probably many whiz-bang and fancy-pants tools to help you organize your knot (collection) of links but, being the semi/modified Luddite that I am (I am a coder, yes, but I always rooted for John Henry), I decided to finally organize this mess in a straightforward but perhaps somewhat quirky way: By creating a jsfiddle with categories of links. I can then just bookmark that particular jsfiddle page, and quickly search for whichever URL I need.
All I need is a set of H2
HTML tags for categories, and then a bunch of anchor
tags below each of those. What could be easier? I just cobble together some HTML like this:
<h2>Daily</h2>
<a target="_blank" href="http://att.yahoo.com/">att.net Email</a>
<a target="target=" href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox">gmail</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://theweek.com/">The Week (Daily News Synopsis)</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://slashdot.org/">The Slashing of the Dot</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.jw.org/">jw.org</a>
<h2>Search</h2>
<a target="_blank" href="www.google.com">Google</a>
<a target="_blank" href="www.bing.com">Bing</a>
<a target="_blank" href="https://duckduckgo.com/">Duck Duck Go</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">wikipedia</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">gutenberg.org</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/">amazon</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain Images, etc.)</a>
<h2>Work</h2>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.alvinashcraft.com/">Alvin Lee's Mourning Dove</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask">Stack Overboard</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeproject.com/">Code Project</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/MemberArticles.aspx?amid=9040137">My Articles/Tips on Code Project</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://superuser.com/">Super User</a>
<h2>Business</h2>
<a target="_blank" href="http://jsfiddle.net/clayshannon/pRgQL/30/">Released and Upcoming Books from Found in the Translation</a>
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.createspace.com/">CreateSpace</a>
<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/startup/default.aspx">BizSpark</a>
<h2>My Sites</h2>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.awardwinnersonly.com/">Award Winners Only (Books, Movies, Music)</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://usamaporama.azurewebsites.net/">USA Map-o-Rama</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bigsurgarrapata.com/">Garrapata Pix</a>
To prevent the link you click from monopolizing the page (taking the place of the jsfiddle URL-launching page), right-click the link and opt to open it in a new page or so.
Euphony/Epiphany/Synchronicity (and talk about Synergy!)
I can almost hear the bawds of euphony crying out sharply (that's a good thing, BTW (YMMV)). At any rate, to see my list "live," go to that public jsfiddle here.
Note: Whenever you modify your "fiddle", you need to Update it to retain those mods, which changes the URL you'll need to access for the most current version of your URL detangler.
I am in the process of morphing from a software developer into a portrayer of Mark Twain. My monologue (or one-man play, entitled "The Adventures of Mark Twain: As Told By Himself" and set in 1896) features Twain giving an overview of his life up till then. The performance includes the relating of interesting experiences and humorous anecdotes from Twain's boyhood and youth, his time as a riverboat pilot, his wild and woolly adventures in the Territory of Nevada and California, and experiences as a writer and world traveler, including recollections of meetings with many of the famous and powerful of the 19th century - royalty, business magnates, fellow authors, as well as intimate glimpses into his home life (his parents, siblings, wife, and children).
Peripatetic and picaresque, I have lived in eight states; specifically, besides my native California (where I was born and where I now again reside) in chronological order: New York, Montana, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Missouri.
I am also a writer of both fiction (for which I use a nom de plume, "Blackbird Crow Raven", as a nod to my Native American heritage - I am "½ Cowboy, ½ Indian") and nonfiction, including a two-volume social and cultural history of the U.S. which covers important events from 1620-2006: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/blackbirdcraven