Last year, the furthest corners of the Interwebs were explored by this column using the revolutionary technology known as StumbleUpon. Often amusing, frequently frightening and seldom boring, the user-driven results of StumbleUpon provided hours of entertainment for people who would otherwise have to do productive stuff like study, or pay attention in class. Fortunately, the Internet has changed a couple orders of magnitude since this column was last published, meaning there are even more delectable new links for everybody to savour, like a Chianti with flava beans. Except the Chianti’s a quiz about whether the pictured individual is a serial killer or a computer programmer, and the flava beans are actually baked beans. Can’t have everything, you know.
TasteSpotting
Developed by the same people as prolific design blog NotCot, TasteSpotting is a collection of really nice user-submitted photos of food for all the gourmets in the house. While we can’t guarantee your results will look as good as the picture, if nothing else it will give you a mad case of the munchies.
http://www.tastespotting.com
Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?
The aforementioned quiz, this disconcerting game shows a grainy picture and asks the player whether the person pictured invented a programming language or was a serial killer. It never explains what it’s trying to prove, though it proves computer nerds can be creepy- looking if nothing else.
http://www.mattround.freeserve.co.uk/files/killerquiz.swf
YouConvertIt
Given that none of the major software companies can seem to write or adopt universal file formats to save their lives, it sometimes seems more time is spent trying to track down esoteric utilities to either view or convert that exotic file format than actually viewing it. Luckily, YouConvertIt provides a one-stop shop for everything from video to images to documents. It even has a useful unit conversion tool for that most useless of standards, the Imperial system.
http://www.youconvertit.com/
Cliche finder
While a large part of writing is finding and removing cliches from one’s work, sometimes you need a really cheesy comparison to tie a piece together. The Cliche Finder allows users to enter a word which it then uses to search through a fairly decent database of commonly-used English cliches. Unfortunately, it lacks any entries about llamas and is thus incomplete.
http://www.westegg.com/cliche/
Basic.ch live and archived DJ mixes
Skip letting your roommate DJ the next party with his collection of mediocre ’80s rock and instead download a few mixes from Basic.ch. Archived daily, it includes long-play format shows from across the world in a variety of genres. Best of all, it’s totally free because the City of Geneva pays for it! The Swiss kick ass!
http://live.basic.ch
How To Learn Any Language
With resources on how to learn quite literally any language, how-to-learn-any-language.com contains a list of resources useful for those who want a minor (or major, for that matter) in a foreign language but just aren’t sure which one. The forum is also incredibly useful for those seeking penpals in other countries.
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/
Movie-A-Minute
While more humorous for those who’ve seen the movies than useful for those who want to, Movie-A-Minute gives 3-line plot summaries. Particularly good are the David Cronenberg reviews, which make roughly as much sense as his movies. Not recommended as a replacement for a Film Studies course.
http://www.rinkworks.com/movieaminute/
International High IQ Society Trivia Challenge
Challenge your friends to finally decide once and for all who knows the most random, useless shit. Quickly answer questions for as long as you can before getting three in a row wrong. Some of the world records are insane, amounting to days worth of playing. Can you beat them!?
http://www.triviachallenge.org