Mystikan's Favourite Sites

Welcome to my Links Page. Here you can follow my trails around the Web, meet interesting people, and learn many new things! I've provided links to the manufacturers of the programs I use, so you can check them out; and there are also links to various sites and forums of interest. Be sure to check out the Forum sites, as I often post there, and I'll see you online!

Quick jump to links on this page:

C64 Hall Of Fame - The 80's Demo Scene
Kevin's Watch - Thomas Covenant Fansite
FileSharingTalk - Filesharing News and Forums
Methlabs - Get PeerGuardian!
VHEMT - Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (!)
Internode - Australia's best ISP!
Planetside Software - Makers of Terragen
World-Machine.com - Makers of World Machine
Maxon Computer - Makers of Cinema4D
Borland - Makers of C++ Builder
Adobe - Makers of Photoshop

1. Sites of Interest

Visit C64 Hall Of Fame
C64 1980s Demo Scene

The C64 Hall Of Fame is the definitive archive of all those demos getting around on the venerable Commodore 64 in the 1980's! For those too young to remember these heady days, the 1980s was the decade the computer first began making inroads into domestic life. The C64 had a 1.0 MHz, 8-bit processor, 64KB of RAM, and floppy drive was an optional (and expensive) extra. No such thing as hard drives back in those days buddy! Its video chip, VIC-II, could display all of 16 fixed colours in "hi-res" (320 x 200, 2 colours per 8 x 8 square) or "multi-colour" (160 x 200, 4 colours per 8 x 8 square with 2 of them same for whole screen)! Its sound chip, SID, had 3 wave-synthesised channels (plus an undocumented glitch in the volume control that allowed you to create a fourth "digi" channel - albeit at an atrocious 4-bit sample width).
In the 1980s, an entire culture grew up around this simple machine. Before the days of the Internet, crews around the world competed with each other to see who could squeeze the most out of this tiny computer. They created "demos", small programs designed solely to show off the crews' technical and coding prowess. You can catch most of these demos and learn about the fascinating c64 '80s demo scene on this site. And the humble C64 is still going!

Visit Kevin's Watch
Thomas Covenant Fansite

Kevin's Watchis the premier site for fans the epic series of books, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. If you have not read this six-book soul-searing saga, you have not experienced the height of literature. In brief, this is the story of one man, Thomas Covenant, who contracts leprosy and is shunned by his community. Through a mysterious accident, he one day finds himself in a mythical Land of magic and lore, where he is worshipped as the reincarnation of a long-dead hero. Unable to cope with the contradiction between his outcast status in the "real" world and his heroic status in the Land, he undergoes a perilous journey with the sole object of returning to reality - while the people of the Land desperately need him to save them from the evil Despiser. On the way, he begins to recover his faith in himself.
The Kevin's Watch fan site contains much more information about the books, fan art (including some of mine!), meetings and readings. If you've read and liked the books, go to Kevin's Watch today and share your thoughts with like-minded fans!

Visit FileSharingTalk
Filesharing News and Forums

FileSharingTalk is the site for you if you're into filesharing with Kazaa, Bittorrent, Soulseek, Overnet, WinMX and others. All the latest filesharing news, program updates, forums and more. Find out how to speed up your downloads, why it is important to share files, how you can publicise your own work through the filsharing networks, and how you can make a difference to the draconian crackdowns by the record industry. The RIAA wants to stop all filesharing so they can control what music you listen to, so they can stifle the wealth of independent talent to secure their own profits. Stand up for your freedom and the freedom to share your works - sign up today!

Visit Methlabs
The place to get PeerGuardian

Methlabs is another vital site for you if you are into filesharing. Here, you can get the essential filesharing protection tool, PeerGuardian. What this does is to set up a "blocklist" of IP addresses to protect you from P2P enemies like the RIAA, and hide your files from all sorts of government snoops and malicious hackers. When one of these people tries to access your shared files, PeerGuardian blocks their access. It's not 100% foolproof, of course, but it goes a long way towards preventing unauthorised access to your files and improves the odds in your favour. There are many other tools and a wealth of information about filesharing, not to mention more forums where you can air your views and find out what's happening in the P2P world. And if you aren't running PeerGuardian (or Protowall), go there RIGHT NOW and get it! It's free, and it's essential!

Visit VHEMT
Help solve the population crisis

The VHEMT (Voluntary Human Extinction Movement)^™ is a controversial website that frankly addresses a serious issue: the burgeoning human overpopulation problem. With our numbers increasing exponentially amidst dwindling resources, we face a future in which our children will live in starvation and poverty unless we address this issue now. This website offers some thought-provoking ideas and will give the politically-minded a definite rude awakening. Have a look at VHEMT and let me know what you think!

Visit Internode
Australia's best ISP!

Internode^™ is the ISP that hosts this website and provides me with awesome broadband internet at great rates (better than Telstra!) If you live in Australia and are looking for hot broadband, service and tech support that is second to none, and a great online community, Internode is the place to go. Their service is so great, that a group of their customers recently did a whip round and treated the Internode staff to a free piss-up! As far as I know, Internode is the ONLY ISP in the world whose customers have done this for them! Check them out today!

2. Producers of Applications I use

Visit Planetside Software
Makers of Terragen

Planetside Software are the creators of the incredible FREE landscape generation and rendering program, Terragen. With Terragen, you can easily and quickly create photorealistic landscape images, with lifelike clouds and natural-looking water. Powerful procedural texturing and surface distribution make for realistic valley floors, reflecting lakes, and snow-capped mountains even at close range. Extensive atmosphere and cloud mapping tools, combined with volumetric lighting, make it easy to create glorious sunsets or even depict the surfaces of alien worlds. Download Terragen today!

Visit World-Machine.com
Makers of World Machine

World-Machine.com produce only one program so far: World-Machine. But WHAT a program! This powerful landscape generation package uses a flow-chart style interface to simulate the real-world effects of erosion and weathering on landscape maps. You can import grayscale heightmaps or use a range of Perlin and Multifractal noise generators to build the original landscape, then run them through the Erosion and Weathering filters to make them look real! A multitude of powerful tools and settings will enable you to create any geological formations including terraces, rock strata, screeslopes and more. And it can export directly to Terragen's terrain format as well as a multitude of other formats. Download World Machine today!

Visit Maxon Computer
Makers of Cinema4D

Maxon Computer^® are the creators of the world's best 3D modelling program, Cinema4D^®. It features an intuitive, easily-grasped interface and advanced lighting abilities including volumetric shadowing, radiosity and caustics (the effects such as focusing the sun through a lens). It is suited to both low-polygon and NPR (Near Photo-Realistic) work, and can import/export files in dozens of formats including 3D Studio, DXF, USGS DEM and pure Direct3D files. I use and recommend Cinema4D for both beginners and professionals in the imaging, animation and game development industries. If you don't have it, download the demo version from Maxon today!

Visit Borland
Makers of C++ Builder

Borland^® are the creators of the powerful C/C++ application programming suite C++ Builder^™. A superior alternative to Microsoft's VC++ offering, C++ Builder is an intuitive, easily learned package that makes programming in C++ a breeze and a pleasure. It features a visual design interface and component object libraries that streamline the software development life cycle and maximise rapid application development. Download the demo version from Borland's web site today!

Visit Adobe
Makers of Photoshop

Adobe^® are the creators of the world-famous image editing suite Photoshop^®. This application is widely recognised as the industry standard in graphics production and rightly so. It needs no further spiel from me! You can download a demo version of the latest Photoshop suite from Adobe's web site.