Rediff Search Logo
  Banner Ads
Line
Channels: Astrology | Broadband | Chat | Contests | E-cards | Money | Movies | Romance | Weather | Wedding | Women
Partner Channels: Auctions | Auto | Bill Pay | Education | Jobs | Lifestyle | TechJobs | Technology | Travel
Line

Home > Search > Feature Articles
 December 2, 2000      TIPS to search 1billion Web pages fast!

 > Feature Articles

 > Site Tours

 > Very Useful Sites

 > Archives


 
  Search
Submit a site
Feedback
The joys of aimless browsing E-Mail this report to a friend

My wife tells me I am absentminded. I disagree.

meradin- the new secretary But when a friend suggested this site... hmm... err... hang on folks... (checking my history folder)... ok, here it is... www.meradin.com...

Now, where was I...

Yeah, Meradin, my friend promised, would make my day. And my wife's too.

It did. I had just got myself a new secretary to remind me of all those little detials that I tend to forget like our wedding anniversary or the last date to pay the electricity bill.

The site -- which is also WAP-enabled, allowing you to browse anytime, anywhere using a mobile device -- is an online time and information manager. Once you register, it helps you plan your day, organise your calendar, schedule appointments, remember birthdays and anniversaries, generate to-do lists... It also features a host of other goodies. Like, a TV viewing planner. Choose TV Programs, select programmes in the category and channel of your choice, and it gets added to your favourite programmes list. Then, there's a personalised horoscope, an address book, a world time clock, a virtual folder with 10 MB of space to save your documents, and even help to write those legal and business letters.

Don't depend on it, though, if you are planning to write one to your VC. There are better options. And one of the best is the Web Economy Bullshit Generator. Whether you want to "incubate real-time Web-readiness'' or ''embrace stick paradigms'' or "whiteboard integrated systems"... just follow your nose, says the site, and it will make it happen. How it does it is pretty simple. A collection of verbs (envisioneer, incentivize, reintermediate), adjectives (granular, mission-critical, user-centric) and nouns (deliverables, infomediaries, ROI) are randomly strung together by a Java Script to make the bullshit happen. What's more, you can even make it happen on your mobile phone.

But who needs a VC if you have an idea like Am I Hot Or Not? Launched over a month ago as a joke by two roommates, the site is attracting more than three million page views a day. You can upload your picture to the site, and visitors will rate you on a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is hot and 1 is not). About 90,000 photographs have already been uploaded, and nearly 4,000 pictures are trickling in by the day.

If you think your mug deserves a perfect 10, and your partner disagrees, upload it and let the world decide. As for me, I just can't handle that kind of attention. What I can are simple, addictive games, the kind kids play on trains and grown-ups on their mobile phones. Addicrive GamesWhich is why I loved Addictivegames.com. Put up by a hardcore gamer, it offers a huge selection of classic games, like Nineball, Tic Tac Toe, Chicken and Eggs, Checkers, Astroballs, etc. On the anvil, are a collection of brainteasers and card games.

While I am busy trying to shoot up the last of the aliens on my desktop, 39 million people across the world are equally busy trying merely to survive. Uprooted by war, they are living on little more than hope. RefugeeCamp.org is a story of their lives. Put up by Doctors Without Borders, this superbly-designed and thought-provoking site gives an inside peek into life in a makeshift home, covering issues like sanitation, food, water, cholera, latrines and landmines. The personal stories of the displaced people and those working in the camps are poignant and moving.

refugeecamp I will leave you with the words of 12-year-old Shahnaz, a refugee from Afghanistan: ``In Kabul, I used to sew, just for fun. I sewed dresses for my dolls. Sometimes, when I really can't take any more of this war, I climb onto the roof of our house and I imagine that I am somewhere else, in some magnificent place that doesn't look anything at all like Kamaz. I don't really know where that is. Perhaps in Kabul, perhaps not. But it's very beautiful.

I dream of my life before the war.
I sew and I'm happy and forget my worries.''

Tell us what u think of this article