Encyclopedias & FAQs
109 sites
http://searchenginesoftheworld.com/search_engines_of_europe
A comprehensive directory of search engines and web directories organized by European country, covering every nation from Albania to Vatican City. Running since 1996, this long-lived resource helps users find country-specific search tools and indexes across the entire European continent.
http://audio.textfiles.com/
A massive audio archive from the textfiles.com project, collecting historical recordings from the early internet and hacker culture including conference speeches, phone phreaking pranks, and computer-themed music. Curated by Jason Scott, this repository preserves rare sound artifacts from hacker cons like DEF CON, telephone conferences, and other digital history ephemera.
https://searchenginemap.com/
The Search Engine Map is an interactive visual reference that maps all English-language search engines, showing what type each is and where they source their organic results. It distinguishes crawler-based engines from metasearch engines and illustrates the relationships between them in a network graph format.
http://repairfaq.org/
Samuel M. Goldwasser's massive electronics repair reference hub, featuring his legendary 'Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of...' series covering consumer electronics, lasers, and household devices. With over a thousand links to technology resources and the comprehensive Sam's Laser FAQ, this is a go-to destination for electronics hobbyists, technicians, and engineers tackling real-world repairs.
http://digest.textfiles.com/
A subdomain of the legendary Textfiles.com, this archive hosts over 1,400 digitized digest files spanning decades of early internet culture, including the Computer Privacy Digest, Computer Underground Digest, and Telecommunications Digest. Researchers and digital historians will find an invaluable primary source collection documenting hacker culture, privacy debates, and telecom policy from the 1980s through the late 1990s.
https://ron.ludism.org/hotlist.html
Ron Hale-Evans's personal bookmarks hotlist from May 2003, preserved as a sprawling snapshot of early-web browsing habits covering science fiction indexes, Linux resources, book finders, and general web utilities. With nearly 4,000 links organized into categories like Comp, Booksearch, and Misc, it offers a fascinating time-capsule view of what a well-read, technically-minded internet user kept bookmarked at the dawn of the modern web.
https://ripped.guide/
Ripped is a community-curated guide to trusted sites and tools for ripping and archiving media, covering everything from CD audio ripping with EAC to manga, e-books, games, anime, and movies. It serves as a structured reference directory for private trackers, scene terminology, and platform-specific software across PC, Android, iOS, and consoles.
https://ss64.com/
SS64 is a comprehensive command line reference covering Linux, macOS, Windows CMD, PowerShell, VBScript, and more, maintained since 1999. It serves as an essential quick-reference tool for sysadmins, developers, and power users who need syntax and usage details for hundreds of shell commands.
http://tscm.com/
Granite Island Group, founded in 1987 near Boston, is a comprehensive resource on Technical Surveillance Counter Measures (TSCM), bug sweeps, wiretap detection, and counterintelligence, claiming to be the largest and most complete site of its kind online. Visitors can explore an extensive TSCM library covering topics like TEMPEST, spread spectrum, RF analysis, tracking device detection, and surveillance technology, alongside information about professional sweep services and equipment.
https://blue-pages.bitbucket.io/
The Blue Pages is a curated old-web and indie-web directory that functions like a digital yellow pages, listing sites across dozens of categories including tilde servers, webrings, Gemini/Gopher hosts, and retro communities. Built as an alternative to algorithm-driven search engines, it embraces pure human-curated web indexing with a nostalgic small-web philosophy.