A Wikipedia article with an extensive list of academic computer science conferences, arranged by category. Useful as an overview.

Click on the link to the Conference Calendar. The papers from these conferences are available in IEEEXplore.

Academic Search is similar to Google Scholar but categorizes results by discipline and type of publication. Click on "Conferences" to start browsing a list of top conferences.

Technical reports may be issued by government agencies, corporations, or universities. Many government and academic report series have been digitized for online access, but many have not. Use this guide to find technical report sites.

What patents are, how they are organized, how to find them, and how to obtain them

Espacenet officially covers European (EPO) and World (WIPO) patents but includes current US and Japan patents. Full searching for the current 24 months. Free (page-by-page) retrieval of individual patents by number (PDF format) varies by country; some begin with 1920. Special note: these patents have alphanumeric subcodes, such as EP 1234567 A3, indicating the presence or lack of supporting documentation.

Find patents using a Google interface. PDFs of all US patents. Also covers European, Japanese, and World Patents.

Japanese patents from 1976. Simple search engine but translates the patents into English.

Excellent search system but does not have PDFs of patents. All US patents since 1792.

Guide that lists subscribed standards and standards freely available. Includes instructions for accessing subscriptions.