ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
A rich, expansive resource for music fans more into Handel than hip-hop, Opus 1 provides information on classical-music concerts, festivals and opera in dozens of cities around the globe. Browse by city and calendar month, or try the Venue Finder. Listings include program information and links to where you can buy tickets.
Lose yourself in this vast collection of rare prints, manuscripts, vintage maps and other artifacts from the New York Public Library. There are more than 300,000 digital images of original materials. The My Digital page will save your favorite discoveries.
music.yahoo.com/ unlimited
Yahoo’s new digital-music site offers unlimited downloads from its library of 1 million– plus songs for a flat fee of $7 a month or $60 a year. Tunes will transfer to portable players from iRiver, Creative Labs and others (but not to iPods).
BLOGS
Whether you’re a serious consumer of modern contemporary design or only wish you could be, you’ll enjoy scrolling through page after page of photos and descriptions of cutting-edge products, materials and decorating concepts, organized by category.
Tech news and advice for non-techies. Links cover spyware cleaners, spam filters and much more. Spawned by Gawker Media, creator of the popular Gizmodo.com and Wonkette.com
LIFESTYLE & HOBBIES
This public showroom for personal pics is one of the fastest-growing –and most addictive–social networks on the Web. Upload your images and assign identifying tags to help others find your stuff. Groups share interests: cats, say, or the color blue. Free membership includes 20 MB of uploads a month. Or you can turn Pro and pay $25 a year for a host of perks.
Interactive video tutorials teach non-geeks how to set up HDTV, install a wireless home network or stream digital music from a PC to another room in the house. The Convince Me pages are geared toward the skeptical spouse. Visitors are invited to vote on which projects CNET’s experts should tackle next.
RESOURCES
When you want fast facts about someone or something, try plugging your query into the general search field or browsing the directory of reference material. You’ll get dictionary definitions and encyclopedia articles culled from Wikipedia and other resources licensed from a variety of publishers.
A surge in identity-theft crimes in recent months makes the Identity Theft Resource Center, run by a San Diego–based nonprofit, a must-read for consumers. See Victim Guides, under Victim Resources, for tips on how to avoid trouble and what to do if the worst happens.
This site helps online shoppers find the best price and feel confident that they’re buying from a reputable merchant. You can refine your search by cost, brand and product features. Click on ALL DEPTS at the top of the page to find an alphabetized list of hundreds of specialized product categories, from action figures to yogurtmakers.