Open Thread: What’s Your Web Vice?
January 16th, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 21 CommentsTweet This
We’ve published hundreds of articles on using the web to improve your productivity. We’ve offered advice on convincing your boss to let you telecommute. We’ve offered tips on just about every piece of web software out there. You know, and we know, that the web is a great tool for getting your work done.
OK, are all the bosses safely out of the room now? Great! Let’s take a few minutes today to talk about the part of the web that we usually ignore here at WWD: the big, sprawling, time-wasting, fun part. Here’s your chance to share your guilty pleasures, the sites you visit when everyone just thinks you’re working, in short: your web vices. Can’t stay away from Dilbert? Fascinated by SlashDot? Hypnotized by an obscure MUD? ‘fess up in the comments so the rest of us can play too.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
somethingawful, kdice, urbandead
Instead of listening to my professor preach about formal logic, I check my affiliate stats…
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
Desktop Tower Defense! Desktop Tower Defense!
I play Scrabble on Facebook, watch the stock market, and watch live music videos on YouTube waaaay too much.
Travian!
ask.metafilter.com – I can spend hours and hours on it.
Google Reader, loaded up with every obscure hobby and interest that crosses my mind. It’s a fascinating world. Webcomics, stationery, scale modeling, Linux, illustration, reading, martial arts, web design, outdoor life, etc.
For a while though, I worked at a job where I literally could not find enough work to do. On top of that, our web access was monitored, and I didn’t want to give my boss the satisfaction of finding me surfing. I went through the entire CSS spec that came with Dreamweaver, and then I learned all the Illustrator shortcut keys.
Finally I got so bored, having completed every imaginary project I could think of, that I brought in my PDA and read ebooks all day, every day.
It felt like a mortal sin, but that place was so locked down, even my boss was locked down. I couldn’t talk to him without arousing suspicion. The CEO was on a whole list of prescription drugs and ran the place like it was an atomic submarine. I was once sent a warning because I arrived for work 2 minutes early, rather than the normal 5 minutes early.
Now that I work for myself, I’m grateful that I had that opportunity. It gave me a lot of confidence in myself and trust in my inner compass that tells me what’s right and wrong, rather than letting a mismanaged organization drag me down.
Twitter, twitter and more twitter. Throw in a few hockey blogs, committing stats from NHL.com to memory, obsessively checking my own blog’s statistics, and aimless surfing with stumbleupon, and you have a day well wasted.
YouTube of old movies and music videos. Best swordfight scenes I’ve found so far are Princess Bride (duh), Court Jester (duh), and the Gene Kelly Three Musketeers. My most delightful find may have been a Richard Burton/Julie Andrews version of the title song to Camelot.
And let’s not forget WWD. Ever since making this site my Firefox homepage I get sucked in every morning for longer than I should. Perhaps I should change my homepage to Google spreadsheets instead.
Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter. While I’m more “in the know” than ever before, I’m starting to wonder what hasn’t been said or done already.
Solomon had that same observation. :)
Digg.com, Reddit.com, FARK.com.
Like others, maintaining my own blog is the first thing I do when I have downtime on someone’s WiFi connection… and the social networks branching out from there.
In the old days it was all about ‘ego-surfing’ (now referred to as AutoGoogling?); instead of ‘trying to find ourselves’ (how very 80’s), now it’s more about writing our names on every bathroom wall?
Cartoon Network’s AdultSwim.com. I go for the games.
Who, me? Would I be messing around on the internet when I’m supposed to be working? Would I be off reading blogs and catching up on entertainment news while I’m at the office? How could you even suggest such a thing??
Google Reader, car forums and looking at snow reports!
I watch streaming media, Bones, in particular. YouTube – interviews, classic bands, new bands, MySpace for music. I read my feeds.
My guilty pleasures? DIYPhotography.net and Flickr. I can get lost in other people’s pictures, and not just the “naughty” ones.
My timesink? Pelting the hive mind with my two cents (one penny at a time) @ Grupthink.
iSketch is dangerous fun, as well as Eight Letters a Search of a Word.
Bloglines leads to all sorts of things, only some work-related. B3ta!
Hi Folks!
Just wanted to share my new experience.
If your system fails to start due to an error corresponding to lost HAL.DLL, invalid Boot.ini or any other critical system boot files you can repair this by using the XP installation CD. Simply boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console. Then launch “attrib -H -R -S” on the C:\Boot.ini file and remove it. Launch “Bootcfg /Rebuild” and then Fixboot
Cheers,
Carl