I'd like to be able to play my library of mp3s without opening the laptop, but when I think about using a phone or tablet with some kind of iTunes-like interface (Microsoft Access for music!) I get depressed.

There's gotta be a better way. Somewhere at the intersection of existing public curation a la Discogs (genre/style assignments, album lists), a hypothetical Wikipedia/Allmusic mashup, and a kind of conceptual theme library that overlays different viewpoints on music history and how artists relate to each other ... and ideally a visual experience to match. I've always thought that an ideal music player would actually transform the entire music player, and perhaps your surrounding environment, to match the music being played. A grotty punk club. A swank hotel bar. Coincidentally Apple's Vision Pro comes out this year.

Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society
Currently featuring: visionary architecture (including houses made of living trees), timelines of timelines, cat pianos, the lawn chair balloonist.

nationwide printer profiles
Apparently CostCo is the best place on earth to get digital prints made - excellent printers, and the print cost is less than what you'd pay for ink if you bought your own printer. So this database is both a collection of printer profiles (ie, use this with Photoshop and your print will match what you see on screen) and a useful directory of CostCos to do your printing at.

The New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

free ideas
ShouldExist
Why Not?

Publically submitted ideas for things that should exist. Some of the ideas are good. Just add perspiration, lots of it.

easyRGB color harmonies
Color is a big new scary world for me.

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
For all you Orb fans. With images.

Kickass news aggregator for design-oriented weblogs. Of course, this makes no sense, since checking out the freaky design and graphics is 80% of the reason to visit these sites, but whatever.