I just wanted to take this Kodak Moment to say that you people are not mentioning me often enough in your posts. You have been forgiven, for I am a benevolent human being, but you will simply have to do better from now on.
- The BOB(c) (from Usenet newsgroup news.misc)
Thus begins the saga of The BOB(c), net.god and raving egomaniac. Well, there's a reason we're calling these Vanity pages, and The BOB(c), alias Andrew Damick, has done an exceptional job in this extensive shrine to himself. To be fair, there's a lot of material here that doesn't have anything to do with The BOB(c), and a distinction should be made between the online persona and the man behind the curtain. And one more point on the fairness angle: Credit for a lot of the graphic design goes to one Beverly White, another well-known net.god.
The BOB(c) is famous throughout Usenet-landia, and has published a lot of very useful newsgroup how-to information on his site, like "How To Create an Alt Newsgroup." There are archives of postings from newsgroups, which is probably some of the most humorous writing anywhere. The BOB(c)'s link library is incredibly large and very eclectic. Just about all of the most interesting and well-designed places on the Web are listed here.
When asked about the purpose of the site, The BOB(c) replied: "Words are my domain. Playing with them is what I do, and that is evident in my site." It's also pretty evident from his very active Usenet life, where he maintains his own newsgroup, alt.fan.the-bob. And as for communication, The BOB(c) says: "I generally get several pieces of e-mail per day [...] concerning my site." With the amazing advances in Web technology, I had to ask The BOB(c) if he had any plans to incorporate Java or VRML into his site. While he has no immediate intentions to do so, he did suggest adding "some 3D, animated, talking groundhogs to lead you through the pages and read my poetry to you."
And, I should mention that The BOB(c) does not have a list of his CDs on the site.-WKC
A
2oz.Dry
2oz. Dry contains a collection of stuff by Zeke. Inside his realm of Browntown, one will find pictures of Space Toys, a photo album, and some random musings that are the highlight of the site. These little stories are humorous and odd in a Douglas Adams/Terry Prachett sort of way. Some are good, some, incomprehensible. The best one I read was about a myriad of terrible fates that would befall you if you didn't tie your shoe laces. With a few more good pieces like that, the site would be a few ounces heavier.-MM
B
Aaron Fuegi's personal page
Everything you'd want to know about Aaron is here, and he'll send you to the ends of the earth perusing his interests. Aaron likes gaming. Aaron likes backpacking. Aaron likes science fiction. Aaron likes to collect quotes. Aaron likes his job. Aaron also cobbles together some great pages NOT about himself, too. The best of these is his Daily Web Paper, in which he extracts news, sports, weather, and other information from a wide variety of other sources on the Web and edits them together on one sheet. Automatically. To think he almost became a lawyer!-MM
A-
Barbara's Land
The one thing going for Bluebird the Mensa Mom's home page is that she's not a college kid on the Web. Her personality only occasionally shines though her barrage of links. Besides the usual ones to friends' pages, hobbies, and interests, Barbara has created a set of links by color. Red Links go to places that have "red" in their name. Blue Links go to "blue" stuff. You get the idea. There is also an index of humor text documents she keeps handy. You know, the kind that are e-mailed around the world seven times? Some of it's funny, some isn't. Some of this page works. Some doesn't.-MM
C+
I'M FULL OF MYSELF
This woman was crowned Miss-Babes-O-Rama on Babes of the Web. Whatever. Site has more links than Hormel has sausage. The creator admits to a huge ego, though claims this is tongue in cheek. One gets the impression that in real life, she is good natured and perky, but you still wouldn't want to
get cornered at a party by her. The site looks good, with lots of dolphin imagery. It has links to "cool corporate" Web sites, an oxymoron if there ever was one. -RR
C+
Jeff's House of Illegal Bodily Functions
Jeff Gerstmann shows he's a kid with attitude. The very beginning of his home page carries the phrase: "Anger is my business and business is good." Come on, Jeff, let go of the rage. Well, a young man living in Northern California will find a lot to rebel against, and Jeff chooses interesting ways to express himself. There is his page devoted to Jack, the spokes clown for Jack in the Box, the page describing his public access show, Doughnut Wednesday, and his CUD collection, with way too much rap in it.-WKC
B-
koolthing.html
This site is a portfolio of sorts for a design firm, and it shows. The look is clean and simple. The photomontage artwork is first-class. The content mostly consists of links -- to galleries on the Web, arty sites, and to other links. The whole effect comes off as a bit pretentious, with each grouping of links headed by a wordy introduction espousing random postmodern drivel. And if you're one of the 10 percent who use a text browser, don't bother to visit. he place becomes unnavigable. Otherwise, it's a nice set of links to places I didn't feel like going.-MM
B-
Marcel Valcarce's Place
Marcel's a computer guy, and it shows. His personal page is very well-designed, but mostly consists of a resume and a gallery of his 3-D art and animation. A pictorial series of an alien invasion of Earth is really cool and worth checking out. And the rest of the sci-fi themed pictures are almost as imaginative. The resume, though, is another story. It's just a dry litany of the millions of programs and systems Marcel is an expert at. For some reason, it gets equal billing with the gallery. Maybe something more personal or revealing would have been better.-MM
B
Odd Todd's Home Page of Immaturity
Is Todd Odd? Not any more bizarre than any other net denizen. Todd just documents his life on the Web. In detail. Kermit the frog greets you and with a friendly Hi-Ho points you to learn about Todd's band, the music he likes, the friends he keeps. There's a special page dedicated to the ceiling of his room. It's all pretty amusing. I especially liked the dictionary of terms he uses in his Web page for words like Erg, Blah, and Farq. Rice University might not be the same without Todd. Just don't call him Weird.
-MM
A-
Phil's Plethora of Pages
Phil swears his pages suck, but they don't. His Werewolf page is really fun, and his Disney Pages are a great resource for fans. Some of his pages however, have a hastily, slapped-together look. If he took the time to index and conform the design of all his pages and personal information a bit more, he'd have a nice portfolio here. It could have something to do with living in Lynchburg, VA. Last time I was there, it reeked of dog food from a local factory.-MM
B+
Redmond Rose
This chronicles Joan L. Grove Brewer's big beef against her former employer, Microsoft. Her story, supported by memos and newspaper articles, is either a truly horrific example of corporate abuse, the ranting of an embittered nutball, or both. She claims that as a consequence of pointing out software flaws, corporate Microgoons beat her up, resulting in a severe spinal injury. Her argument loses some credibility toward the end, where she goes off on a diatribe about demons, angels and plagues. An altogether strange tale definitely worth looking at.-RR
A-
Richard Quodomine's CS cluster home page
Richard is an International and world Trade Major and Computer minor who likes Motley Crue, the Buffalo Bills, and his friend's home pages. Because he can, he has decided to share this with the world. Good for him. If you like International and World Trade, computers, the Buffalo Bills, and Motley Crue, too, maybe you and Richard can exchange e-mail. I'm sure he'd like that.-RR
C-
The Home Page of Randal L Schwartz at Thu 30 Nov 1995 22 54 14 GMT
Randal Schwartz is a .net -god who's been "surfing" since it was possible to read every Usenet message posted that day in about 30 minutes. Randal has his hands in many pots. In addition to his well-known standing as a PERL language expert, he writes computer books, pilots planes, karaokes until eardrums pop, and skis down hills very fast. He's also been busted by the Oregon authorities for stealing passwords from Intel. Follow the scandalous story here, and you will not be disappointed.-MM
A
The Wonderful World of Sam Padgett
Sam leads a charmed life. He's posted pictures of his friends with links to their home pages, photos of him on his recent trip to Israel, and links to his favorite places. I liked his buttons best. I've seen thousands of hyper-linked buttons before, but these are special. I just wanted to keep on pressing them. Forever. After immersing myself in Sam's world, I think I might be able to walk up to his dorm and insinuate myself into his life, insisting I was his best friend in Israel or something.-MM
B
