One of the joys of being alive is being able to be thoroughly disenchanted and cynical over and over again – and now there’s online support for this growing positive antisocial attitude. Take a stroll through over 700 reasons to be cynical, and read the supportive goodies on offer at The Cynics Dictionary.
If you’re curious to see just how social perspectives have changed over time, try a glimpse at the often bizarre but always fascinating site dedicated to answering readers’ questions on a variety of subjects, taken from historical sources between 1891 and 1978. (Read the ‘How to Make My Husband More Popular’ letter from the 1950s, for example.) Go to Miss Abigail’s Q&A.
You figured your job sucked beyond anyone else’s. Discover the joys of being made cheerful by other people’s online despair. (Read the pizza maker’s diatribe, which includes the alarming fact that one of the Pro’s of his job is being able to spit on the pizzas of pain-in-the-ass customers.) Be afraid, as you examine what other people consider to be The Worst Job in the World!
Then a strange site which someone needs to make a local version of, is this next one which lets you listen to sound recordings of six real on-the-street beggars (or ‘panhandlers’ as they’re called Stateside) and then choose an amount to give them. Social comment? Cruel? Take a look and listen to the Panhandler Effectiveness Survey.
If you were lucky enough to read a book called The Henry Root Letters a few years back, you’ll know the fun to be had when a real person decides to deliberately target companies and individuals with insane letters. Try this site which follows the same route towards gleeful payback at Prank Mail.
Interested in expensive things like ‘health’? Take a look at the fairly academic but intensive resources for the health-conscious at Science in the Public Interest. Then for some teeth-rotting fun and scary stats, try their section on Soft Drinks and Health.
So you’ve been hanging around with geeks and haven’t wanted to blow your reputation by continually asking what things mean. At last there’s a place to go to look up all the words you ever wanted, at the Online Dictionary of PC Hardware Terms.
Very hardcore geek stuff. You know how data packets travel across the Internet – well – there’s a new way of doing it now, which has just been patented. For now, mainly for intelligence services who want to hide their traffic — who knows, it might be useful in future for citizens who want to hide their online traffic from the spies. Take a look at this new method called Onion Routing. Or to see how it’s described in the patent application, look up Patent Number 6,266,704 at Patents.
And now wireless networks aren’t safe anymore with the release of two open-source tools designed to snoop. Take a look at Air Snort and WeP Crack. And for the story, visit Wired News.
Now we’ve all discovered that Communists are just as boring and tedious as any other group in the political spectrum, take a look at their one big saving grace – the very cool PC wallpaper that their propaganda posters are good for. Browse in a sprightly militant fashion through an online exhibit of Communist Propaganda Posters!
Looking for something to do with that Palm Pilot you spent a lot of money on before discovering how massively vulnerable it is to hacker and virus attacks? Why not try building a robot? I’m not kidding, take a look at the pix and info on How to Build a Palm Pilot Robot.
And finally, just to prove that the Internet isn’t only about totally useless sites… we know you’ve been hunting for a long time to find pictures of dogs’ noses, for reasons best known to yourself. Well, your search is at an end. For a fairly large selection of close-up pix of dogs’ noses, try Dognose Heaven!
Until the next time, if Communists and Palm Pilot owners don’t get me.
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.