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Jonesing for new websites to steal your time (but leave your wallet intact)? We've got your fix.
By Diane Seimetz
It is a little odd to think I spent most of my youth without a TV remote control (my father had one, however...me. 'Diane, turn it to Channel 8, will ya!'), cell phone, DVDs, CDs, an iPod, Bluetooth or digital anything. It was a world, admittedly small and boring, that somehow continued to revolve in spite of the fact that it turned on clumsy dials instead of illuminated buttons and biometric touch-pads. Perhaps that explains why I've grown up to become a technophile. Technogeek, if you prefer. Liken it to the person who binges on Poptarts and Ding Dongs as an adult because Mother forbid them in the house growing up. While my kids and their friends reek with ennui when it comes to the newest Skype phone or ultra-light laptop, I get downright woozy with infatuation at the mere sight of a 52" flat-panel TV. Hi-def? Witness full-blown electronics lust.
This insatiable appetite for all things wired and unwired has been most apparent in my ardor for the Internet. I'm addicted to it. Gotta have it. Love it with a passion only surpassed by that for George Clooney. And apparently I'm not alone. Yahoo! recently conducted a research study on the effects of "Internet withdrawal" asking participants to record their thoughts and feelings after going cold turkey off the web for two weeks. Besides having a nearly impossible time recruiting willing subjects (literally thousands turned them down), Yahoo! discovered what we web junkies secretly already know - we're hooked:
And I thought Starbucks was addictive. But there's more. Add a generous helping of collective Catholic guilt into the equation and you uncover what another study by the Stanford University School of Medicine found out: more than one in eight U.S. adults finds it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time, and about one in 11 tries to hide his or her online habit. The study by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California found one in 8 adults admitted they needed to spend less time online, saying this showed "problematic Internet use" is present in a sizeable portion of the population. It's the American way; overindulge, but don't stop the behavior - just feel bad about it.
Which is the perfect segue into the real point of this newsletter: a collection of websites you may never have heard of that probably won't enrich your life, but will definitely feed your need for 'net. So, as you admit your powerlessness over all things http, and make amends to everyone you ignored, neglected or too-frequently emailed with "Interesting!" URLs, check these out:
PaperToys.comYou're 9 again, going through your origami/paper airplane phase, and only wish you'd known about PaperToys.com This nifty site has downloadable templates for making everything from a Frank Lloyd Wright house to the Taj Mahal to a Jimi Hendrix guitar. Just print out, cut out, and fold 'em up. CookingByNumbers.com Got a half-pound of hamburger, a lemon and a can of cling peaches in the house? You've got dinner, according to CookingByNumbers.com Just enter the contents of your kitchen cupboards and fridge, and get back recipes ranging from Mediterranean pork chops to chocolate cake, and everything in between. Ajaxwrite.com A writer has the right to write on writing, isn't that right? Ajaxwrite.com is actually great for scribes and the writing-challenged alike. What is AJAX, you say? Think of it as a web technique that allows better and more interactive web applications without tiresome downloads. $499 LESS than Microsoft Word, Ajax Write is a fast-loading, fully-featured online word processor that works on any platform (Mac,Win,Lin) and can convert almost any format. It beats Writely, and requires almost no computer resources to use. Gotta have Firefox to use it, though. Concussion.org
Blood. Guts. Gore. Now that I've got your attention, you and your favorite 17 year old boy are sure to dig this wacky compilation of surfing, skating, and snowboarding clips, complete with gnarly, bloody pictures of what happens when skaters hit the pavement. When a band-aid just won't do.
Boxofficemojo.com
No matter how hard I try, I can never seem to see a movie before Dave Wilgus. Even if I hit the 7 p.m. on opening night, he's already been to the matinee. But here's one place I bet I've been before he has: Box Office Mojo. If you're into stellar (or not so stellar) performances, this fun site - along with Films101.com and EricDSnider.com while we're at it - has information about box-office stats past, present, and future. You'll get nice film synopses and theater locations, too. No extra-large buttered popcorn, but then, the web can't do everything. Yet.
LogoGame.com Even as an ad devotee, this addictive guessing game was harder than I thought. If you want to test just how well our biz has engrained their brand image into your mind, take one of the many tests, each with its own theme. Another good reason to watch more TV commercials... Coudal.com Coudal.com is "an ongoing experiment in Web publishing, design, and commerce." But don't let that dry description stop you! This site features such attractions as the Museum of Online Museums; various film projects, and the Society for HandHeld Hushing, which aims to stamp out rude public cell-phone conversations. Etsy.com I sent this website around to the girls in the office, but it's pretty funky browsing for you sensitive, artistic males, too. Etsy.com is a perfect craving-satisfier for the craft fair and art show crowd, where creators and consumers of homemade handicrafts can find each other to sell and shop. Antirebate.com Speaking of shopping (my favorite vice), this discount online shopping site is an instant-gratification lover's dream come true. No snail-mail forms, no 8- to 10-weeks before the check arrives (or worse, the note that you included the wrong UPC code from the side of the box you threw away). Antirebate.com brings you coupon codes, instant rebates, price breaks, free stuff, and other great deals without ever seeing a postman. 5ives.com
Think things only happen in threes? Take a gander (or five) at 5ives.com. From "Five Kitchen Tools that Sound Kind of Dirty" to "Five People Who Are Much More Enjoyable if You Imagine Them as Pro Wrestlers," (hint: Ann Coulter is one of them) you will definitely get your fives fix on here.
PocketMod.com
If you haven't yet become a Crackberry head or Treo toter, PocketMod.com is the Luddite's answer to life organizing. It's affordable (read: free), it's about the size of a business card, and holds all your to-dos, shopping lists, checkbook, and calendar in one neat little low-tech package. GetHuman.com
This consumer-driven site was made for anyone who's finger-drummed through an hour on hold or waded through labyrinthine automated menus trying to get a probably surly but actual live human being on the line to help them. This simple but comprehensive list of major companies' customer-service phone numbers can be a real godsend for time-poor crackpots like yours truly.
YouSendIt.com Ever been on a business trip and needed to send a file that was too big for email? You Send It is a great uploading service that lets you do just that, free. Files up to 100MB in size work beautifully, and the site provides you your own online address book and sent files history to make the process even easier. FindSounds.com There are search engines for just about everything these days, including your family members who came over from Europe in the 1800s, but sounds seem to be the red-headed stepchild in the search wars. Now there's FindSounds to the rescue, helping audiophiles scour the Web for AIFF, AU, and WAV files of everything from exotic birds to antique telephone rings. Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound, or choose the Sounds Like icon to get a new list, with sounds that are related to the one you've chosen. Zunafish.com You've finished with that useless copy of the South Beach Diet. But it's just wrong to throw it away. And heaven knows Half-Price Books won't give you anything for it. Zoom on over to Zunafish, the website that puts a new totally legal twist on peer-to-peer sharing. Instead of swapping electronic files, you swap real live books, CDs, DVDs, and video games with other members of the Zunafish community. When you agree to a trade, you mail the items to the address provided and your trading partner does the same, all for a dollar a trade. Are you paying attention, eBay?
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