The Runners Up

There are a number of useful link blogs out there.

First runner up is learning .net (Christopher Steen). Chris has been doing this a long time, so he's a good bet for outlasting the others. No real structure given to the links, so it's not as quick to scan as the others.

Matt Hinze re-publishes his del.icio.us links as a blog. I consider this more of a backup in case the other linkers are on holidays or something:

• n links today (matt hinze)

A separate category... these are irregular, more personality-rich blogs with less links. Worth visiting weekly, rather than daily:

• new and notable (Sam Gentile)
• morning coffee (Harry Pierson)

And if you're checking for a weekly round up of information -- Rhonda Tipton's new weekly link post is excellent:

• Weekly Link Post (rhonda tipton)

Finally also an honourable mention goes to 'Things that Caught my Attention' series at K, Now! Blog by David Green (no relation).

But The Winner Is...

But the winner of 'The Inaugural TimeSnapper Professional 'MikeG.Next' Honorary Award Of Linkblogging Excellence' is....

Three People! I'm a coward I guess, and could't see a reason to put any one of these above the other two:

• A continuous learner's weblog (Steve Pietrek)

Steve has an absolutely flawless link blog. He's regular, informative, uses headings to speed up the scanning, and uses asterisks and bold to make some links stand out further.

• Arjan's world (Arjan Zuidhof)

A relative newcomer, I might be jumping the gun here -- does he have the stamina to keep doing this year in, year out? -- Arjan's listings are excellent and reliable.

• interesting finds (Jason Haley)

Jason's use of grouping and headings makes for a list that can be scanned very quickly. He's tried to back out of writing this linkblog in the past -- but he's kept at it. Thanks again Jason!

I strongly recommend the use of these human-aggregated link blogs for keeping up to date with the programming (and .net) world. If and when they link to your site, or when they send you to a particularly useful article or piece of software, why not thank them, in a comment or an email.

I'll give each of them a TimeSnapper Professional license for themselves and a few to hand out as well. They'll also earn the right to paste the 'Next Mike Gunderloy' badge on their site.

Side Story

While looking for an image of Mike Gunderloy to use for this award -- I happened across this story:

Before Blogs, There were Zines

In 1992, Mike Gunderloy, the former editor of Factsheet Five, issued a press release announcing his intention of donating his huge collection of zines to a library...

...The Factsheet Five collection at the New York State Library occupies 300 cubic feet of shelf space, includes between 10,000 and 20,000 titles, and is the biggest and most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. "Mike got copies of zine that were being published by all kinds of obscure groups in the 1980s," Aul explained. "It's a phenomenal collection."

As a devout mike-fan, I've heard of his zine days before, but never heard about this admirable way in which he gave closure to the zine portion of his life.

I've always tried to stop myself from becomming a 'collector' of anything. I fear that I'll turn into one of those crazy old ladies with all the plastic bags and the newspapers and the cats. Except a man, not a lady. I also fear ending up as one of those guys with a big jar full of belly-button lint or toenail clippings. You get the idea. But by ending his zine harvesting days in such a neat way, I think Mike's given a fine example of how to be a collector, but not end up drowning in old junk.