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he top 20 'best ever, time wasting, addictive, sit on the internet when you've nothing better to do, and make the hours tick by without spending any money' sites
The following is the result of having politely nagged Miles Mendoza, of Radio 2's website of the day fame, to allow me to republish his Top 20 Fun Timewasting sites for this Christmas to New Year break, from his new 'Website of The Day*' book (a deliberate plug as its a fun book, and includes this site as one of the top 15 not to miss!)
The Top 20... enjoy
20. Stamp it out:
A user-friendly site that lets you create your own postage stamps (of the Mickey Mouse variety). Upload photos and it’ll shrink them to stamp size, and give you a number of other options, before allowing you to print a sheet of your stamps replete with mock perforations. Great for the kids.
19. Minnim Mastermind:
A high-tech online version of the Mastermind board game. Challenging and addictive, the web version takes nothing out of the game.
18. Frosty Welcome
A site comprising a virtual fridge door, upon which you can move around alphabet fridge magnets in order to compose a message to a friend. Send it by email, and when it gets opened, your friend will watch in wonder as the letters magically rearrange themselves to spell out your message.
17. Online Simon
The classic memory game…online!
16. The Dialectizer/Whoohoo Translators
Both of these sites provide means of translating English into numerous made-up dialects. Depending on which site you use, possible dialects are cockney, redneck, jive, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Geordie and Ali G.
15. Racing Frogs
This website game was originally devised for 7-13 yr olds, but it has garnered something of a cult following amongst much older people. Racing Frogs is a game in which you take the role of a racing frog trainer (rather a niche occupation), who must choose the right diet for their frog if it is to win races. The added bonus of being able to accessorize your frog means that you can look cool while you win too. You must train every day if you’re to move up the league, making this rather addictive.
14. The Interactive Multi-Lingual Language Demo
Type some text, and choose which accent you want it read back to you in. There are a few to choose from and it’s very amusing to hear Reiner, the virtual German, taking his best guesses at pronouncing your text.
13. Tardis Tennis
Combining Dr.Who and tennis was hardly inevitable, but it certainly works. In this tennis game you can play as a number of historical figures, from the BBCs Great Britons series. Serious fun.
12. Muglets
Upload a picture of yourself (or more likely of somebody else), choose an absurd hair-do, and get dancing! The photo will be grafted onto a virtual funkster, who will move and groove to the clicks of your mouse. You can then email the animation to friends, though if you used a picture of your own face it’s not advised!
11. Sudoku
If Sudoku’s your thing, then here you’ll find plenty of puzzles to test your mettle, no matter how great you consider your skill to be. And yes, that is a challenge.
10. Googlefight
A great way to settle fights without resorting to (cliche) fisticuffs, Googlefight lets you type in two phrases, and watch them do battle via google. Click on the "make a fight" button, and each term will entered in to the search engine. The winner will decided by the number of matches each search retrieves. After a short animated interlude depicting a stickman martial arts showdown, the results will be displayed on a bar chart. Thus, you can finally know for sure that coffee can have tea in a fight, and that Paris Hilton is practically invincible!
09. Monkeehub animations- The JCB Song & Creep
Two websites showcasing the work of monkeehub animations. Many will remember the excellent animation for the JCB Song by Nizlopi from last year, but it is the Radiohead animation which has my vote.
08. Online Rubik’s Cube
An online version of the classic, infuriating Rubik’s cube. It’s made harder by the fact that you can’t simply peel off and replace the stickers in their proper order to win and impress your mum.
07. Tiddles: Tim’s Badly Drawn Cat Site
A site composed entirely of peoples spontaneous cat scribbles. Perhaps the scribble gives an insight into the mind of the person it belongs to. Perhaps not, but its worth checking out anyway.
06. HomeRun 2004 (aka Stop the Wobbly Man from Falling Over)
A game in which you’re charged with assisting a thoroughly inebriated gentlemen in making his way home from what, given his state, must have been some kind of office Christmas party. To succeed, you must counterbalance the drunkard’s movements with your mouse; if he falls left, you move right, and vice versa. The longer you keep him standing, the higher your score, but since he refuses to stop swigging some kind of potent moonshine, this gets pretty difficult.
05. The John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project
Years of research, combined with John Lennon fanaticism, have yielded this website, in which you can have an online chat with the Beatles legend. Well, sort of. A team of top boffins have attempted to recreate Lennon’s personality using a ‘chat robot’, which you can ask questions in real time. The Lennon-bot learns from every question it is asked, so the more this site is visited, the more accurate a virtual Beatle it’ll become. A must for Beatles fans.
04. Skateboarding Bulldog
A website dedicated to Tyson, the Californian bulldog who can outskate most humans. His skills don’t end there though; he can also stand, dance, and play tug-of-war. If you like your dogs talented, then you won't be disappointed by Tyson.
03. Bubblesnaps
Upload any digital photo, and then add speech or thought bubbles to put your words into your subjects’ mouths. When you send your bubblesnap, your friends will see the speech bubbles pop up on top of the photo, accompanied by an appropriate bursting-bubble sound. It’s simple, but very effective.
02. Guess The Dictator or Sitcom Character
Choose any TV sitcom character, or real-life dictator, and let this site ask you 20 questions with the aim of finding out which you chose. What is really impressive about all this is the success rate; no matter how niche you consider your choice to be, you’ll struggle to beat the site.
01. Stack the Floating Pigs
Your objective is to stack up a collection of pigs to reach a cupcake in the sky. The game begins with one pig sitting on the lawn and another floating across the screen perched happily atop a large pink bubble. You must burst this bubble as it passes the first pig’s head, so as to begin your pig-stack. Time your bubble-bursting correctly and you’ll edge ever closer to the elusive cupcake, click too soon, and you may not make it. Furthermore, even when you’ve savoured the cupcake’s delights, you can choose from one of the other 56 games on this site, and pick out some favourites of your own. Highly Recommended.
Here's the link for them: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... ml?t=32905
The following is the result of having politely nagged Miles Mendoza, of Radio 2's website of the day fame, to allow me to republish his Top 20 Fun Timewasting sites for this Christmas to New Year break, from his new 'Website of The Day*' book (a deliberate plug as its a fun book, and includes this site as one of the top 15 not to miss!)
The Top 20... enjoy
20. Stamp it out:
A user-friendly site that lets you create your own postage stamps (of the Mickey Mouse variety). Upload photos and it’ll shrink them to stamp size, and give you a number of other options, before allowing you to print a sheet of your stamps replete with mock perforations. Great for the kids.
19. Minnim Mastermind:
A high-tech online version of the Mastermind board game. Challenging and addictive, the web version takes nothing out of the game.
18. Frosty Welcome
A site comprising a virtual fridge door, upon which you can move around alphabet fridge magnets in order to compose a message to a friend. Send it by email, and when it gets opened, your friend will watch in wonder as the letters magically rearrange themselves to spell out your message.
17. Online Simon
The classic memory game…online!
16. The Dialectizer/Whoohoo Translators
Both of these sites provide means of translating English into numerous made-up dialects. Depending on which site you use, possible dialects are cockney, redneck, jive, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Geordie and Ali G.
15. Racing Frogs
This website game was originally devised for 7-13 yr olds, but it has garnered something of a cult following amongst much older people. Racing Frogs is a game in which you take the role of a racing frog trainer (rather a niche occupation), who must choose the right diet for their frog if it is to win races. The added bonus of being able to accessorize your frog means that you can look cool while you win too. You must train every day if you’re to move up the league, making this rather addictive.
14. The Interactive Multi-Lingual Language Demo
Type some text, and choose which accent you want it read back to you in. There are a few to choose from and it’s very amusing to hear Reiner, the virtual German, taking his best guesses at pronouncing your text.
13. Tardis Tennis
Combining Dr.Who and tennis was hardly inevitable, but it certainly works. In this tennis game you can play as a number of historical figures, from the BBCs Great Britons series. Serious fun.
12. Muglets
Upload a picture of yourself (or more likely of somebody else), choose an absurd hair-do, and get dancing! The photo will be grafted onto a virtual funkster, who will move and groove to the clicks of your mouse. You can then email the animation to friends, though if you used a picture of your own face it’s not advised!
11. Sudoku
If Sudoku’s your thing, then here you’ll find plenty of puzzles to test your mettle, no matter how great you consider your skill to be. And yes, that is a challenge.
10. Googlefight
A great way to settle fights without resorting to (cliche) fisticuffs, Googlefight lets you type in two phrases, and watch them do battle via google. Click on the "make a fight" button, and each term will entered in to the search engine. The winner will decided by the number of matches each search retrieves. After a short animated interlude depicting a stickman martial arts showdown, the results will be displayed on a bar chart. Thus, you can finally know for sure that coffee can have tea in a fight, and that Paris Hilton is practically invincible!
09. Monkeehub animations- The JCB Song & Creep
Two websites showcasing the work of monkeehub animations. Many will remember the excellent animation for the JCB Song by Nizlopi from last year, but it is the Radiohead animation which has my vote.
08. Online Rubik’s Cube
An online version of the classic, infuriating Rubik’s cube. It’s made harder by the fact that you can’t simply peel off and replace the stickers in their proper order to win and impress your mum.
07. Tiddles: Tim’s Badly Drawn Cat Site
A site composed entirely of peoples spontaneous cat scribbles. Perhaps the scribble gives an insight into the mind of the person it belongs to. Perhaps not, but its worth checking out anyway.
06. HomeRun 2004 (aka Stop the Wobbly Man from Falling Over)
A game in which you’re charged with assisting a thoroughly inebriated gentlemen in making his way home from what, given his state, must have been some kind of office Christmas party. To succeed, you must counterbalance the drunkard’s movements with your mouse; if he falls left, you move right, and vice versa. The longer you keep him standing, the higher your score, but since he refuses to stop swigging some kind of potent moonshine, this gets pretty difficult.
05. The John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project
Years of research, combined with John Lennon fanaticism, have yielded this website, in which you can have an online chat with the Beatles legend. Well, sort of. A team of top boffins have attempted to recreate Lennon’s personality using a ‘chat robot’, which you can ask questions in real time. The Lennon-bot learns from every question it is asked, so the more this site is visited, the more accurate a virtual Beatle it’ll become. A must for Beatles fans.
04. Skateboarding Bulldog
A website dedicated to Tyson, the Californian bulldog who can outskate most humans. His skills don’t end there though; he can also stand, dance, and play tug-of-war. If you like your dogs talented, then you won't be disappointed by Tyson.
03. Bubblesnaps
Upload any digital photo, and then add speech or thought bubbles to put your words into your subjects’ mouths. When you send your bubblesnap, your friends will see the speech bubbles pop up on top of the photo, accompanied by an appropriate bursting-bubble sound. It’s simple, but very effective.
02. Guess The Dictator or Sitcom Character
Choose any TV sitcom character, or real-life dictator, and let this site ask you 20 questions with the aim of finding out which you chose. What is really impressive about all this is the success rate; no matter how niche you consider your choice to be, you’ll struggle to beat the site.
01. Stack the Floating Pigs
Your objective is to stack up a collection of pigs to reach a cupcake in the sky. The game begins with one pig sitting on the lawn and another floating across the screen perched happily atop a large pink bubble. You must burst this bubble as it passes the first pig’s head, so as to begin your pig-stack. Time your bubble-bursting correctly and you’ll edge ever closer to the elusive cupcake, click too soon, and you may not make it. Furthermore, even when you’ve savoured the cupcake’s delights, you can choose from one of the other 56 games on this site, and pick out some favourites of your own. Highly Recommended.
Here's the link for them: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... ml?t=32905
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