06 February,2011 10:42 AM IST | | Lindsay Pereira
One of the nicest things the Internet has done is make the exercise of whiling away a few hours a lot more pleasurable. Bertrand Russell would have backed me on this, were he to find himself on a list of my Facebook friends. He did, after all, observe that 'the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.'
Among the people sharing that worldview are, quite possibly, the guys who created Lamebook (.com), a very fine repository of the worst that Facebook has to offer. It's powered by people the world over who like nothing better than to collate pointless status updates, awful photographs and more embarrassing gaffes that Mark Zuckerberg's rapidly growing nest-egg continues to yield on a regular basis. A great way to waste an hour, or three.
Another option is Howjsay (.com), a free 'talking dictionary' of English pronunciation that, at last count, boasted 1,39,129 entries. You will no longer have to worry about how the words 'trogyllium', 'paionia' or 'sesquialtera' ought to sound, the next time they crop up in conversation with the woman (or man) you think you love.
For something as frivolous, yet mildly helpful, Memorari (.us) plays the role of secretary with finesse. It memorises everything you need to do and sends you reminders via email, phone or email at a specified date and time. Nice interface, too. Also as useful, but only for those obsessed with social networking, is the 'Social Dashboard' called Hellotxt (.com) for web, iPhone, iPad and Android platforms.
It lets you post text and media to multiple networks, publishing platforms and micro-communication services, faster than you can say, 'Is Quora the next big thing?'
If none of these appeal to you, there's always the option of pestering Google with a series of rhetorical questions.
As for those who turn their noses up at the idea of visiting sites that aren't educative, consider this: A blog showcasing funny pictures of cats with misspelled slogans (icanhascheezburger.com) just received funding of around $30 million. Who's laughing now?
Howjsay (.com) is a free 'talking dictionary' of English pronunciation that, at last count, boasted 139,129 entries. You need not worry about how 'trogyllium' ought to sound.
