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Remember PONG? I got one of these things when I was 10. My brother and I wore blisters on our little fingers trying to scorch each other with screaming backhands, and instead of being rewarded with the satisfying (( THWACK )) we would have gotten on the tennis court, our ears were treated to a tinny, monotone "... bleep..."
But we loved it. And the reason we loved it was that it was different. It was challenging and interactive. It made us interact. It was the idea that we were using a man-made electronic device to bring us together in a way that we had never experienced before. I've wanted more ever since.
My kids don't know what it's like to NOT have a Playstation or XBOX or whatever is new out there. They even have MP3 players. They listen to the soundtracks of every episode of Star Wars.
You might find this interesting:
- The average age of video game players is 35.
- 40% of gamers are female.
- 26% of gamers are over the age of 50
- Of parents that play games, 66% said that the primary reason they play is to spend time with their kids
- (Read more here)
Not everyone uses computers for games. but most of us find ways to enjoy our computers. Below are listed the top 7 ways you can use your computer to relax and have fun, with a few ideas listed for you as well.
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Surf the internet
We all do this, but try some of these sites you may not have visited before.
- Wikipedia - learn anything about anything
- Snopes- Crack that urban legend or hoax. Can you really blow yourself up with Pop Rocks and a coke? hit Snopes and find out.
- DarwinAwards.com - Find out what they are doing out in Union County. (Just Kidding!)
- Wackyuses.com - If you've ever wondered what you can do with Peanut Butter (in addition to eating it) try this site. Alternate uses for hundreds of household products.
- Roadsideamerica.com lists off-the-wall roadside attractions. Find out where to go to see a life-sized replica of the town of Bedrock from the Flintstones.
- Retroland.com - All things POP and Retro
- Adflip.com - View print ads from just about any decade
- ZARK.com - The first web-based comic book. Been around since 1995.
- I've been doing all my facebook and twitter updates in HAIKU format, so I especially like this one - tinywords.com
- E-Libs.com - Mad Libs only more computerey
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Play Games
Great Sites for games - playing them, reading reviews and anything else you need.
- Reflexive Games - Flash based and downloadable games. Most can be played for up to an hour for free. Find one you like and buy it . . .most are under $10.
- Gamespot.com - Best place to go for reviews or demos. This site has been around forever and it is one of the best.
- Y8 - A Directory of quality FREE online flash games.
- Classicgamesarcade.com- If you want to play PONG right now for free, visit this site and search for it. How about Street Fighter or Donkey Kong? they are all here and they're all free!
- Online Board Games on Yahoo - Monopoly, Checkers, and Clue. All the favorites.
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Listen to Music
- Pandora - If you haven't tried this, do it now. Create a playlist by entering artists that you like, and Pandora generates your own radio station that you stream over the internet, with songs like you artist, or containing songs by your artist.
- Revisit Napster. It's less expensive than itunes and works with all of the popular devices, not just ipods.
- I'm hooked on audio books. Sign up at Audibleand start listening to audio books on your mp3 player or in the car.
- Blip.fm is like Twitter with music. Share a "tweet" and a song.
- Musicovery.comlets you choose your mood, then creates a playlist for you based on how you're feeling. Interesting . . .
- The Live Music Archive - A non-profit site that indexes locations of user-posted links to live concert recordings, mixing board recordings and other rarities.
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Buy Something
- Overstock.comgets overlooked, but it is one of the hottest shopping sites on the internet. They sell (surprise!) overstocked items from a variety of retailers, and the inventory is always changing. Check here when you are not really sure what you are buying, but want to browse for gift or similar item.
- EBAY - I'm sure no one out there is familiar with ebay, but give it a try anyway. Actually, if you haven't sold anything on ebay yet, try it and see how easy it really is. You can find literally anything on EBAY.
- Pricegrabber.comlets you type in what you are looking for and searches over 100 shopping sites to give you the best price.
- E-mealz.com - This site is worth it's weight in gold. Choose normal, vegitarian, low-fat, low-carb. etc, pick your favorite store, and e-mealz will create a menu and shopping list for the entire week. Not only this, but it does it based on what is on sale that week at that store, and gives you an aisle-by-aisle shopping list. It costs about $5 a month, but at my house we save about $40 a week by using this site.
- Craigslist.org - Connect with sellers in your area to buy almost anything in your own town.
- woot.com - w00t is an online gaming term in the 133t or "elite" internet subculture that means "Yes!" or "Excellent!" (Maybe we'll do a newsletter on internet subcultures, that would be interesting.) The shopping site woot.com has one electronics item a day, with prices so good that you may buy one of "it" even if you weren't looking for "it".
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Stay in Touch with Friends
Social networking is the big thing right now and it isn't going away. You can use sites like Facebook and MySpace to find people you haven't seen in a long time, or stay in touch with family that lives far away. BEBO and Friendster are similar to other social networking sites, and Twitter lets you communicate with friends in "tweets" or microblogs that consist of a sentence or two.
Use Flickr.com to post and share pictures with your personal friends or everyone in the world. Flickr allows "geotagging" so if you browse to a picture you like, you can click to see on the map where in the world it was taken. I have a friend from South Africa, and I searched Flickr.com for pictures from that area and set them as my friend's desktop background. Look at pictures of your next vacation destination before you get there.
To share pictures, I use Picasa, a google product that allows you to organize and edit your photos from your pc and post them online with literally 2 clicks. Storage online is free but if you have lots of pics you may need to upgrade to the $10 per year subscription. If you have ever used Apple's iPhoto you will appreciate the feel of Picasa
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Watch Something
- Hulu.com has nearly every tv show you can think of. From Andy Griffith to CSI, you can watch them on hulu.com.
- YouTube.com - You know YouTube. Post your own videos or watch almost anything online. For a fun afternoon, search for "skateboard crashes" and prepare to wince. you may see me in there on one or two. The quality isn't as good a hulu or freetube, but the variety is endless. And YouTube is still the best resource for old "Aardvark and Ant" cartoons.
- Freetube.com gives you internet tv streams. It's not broadcast tv, but more specialized by genre. So if you browse through "Sports" in the "B"'s you'll find Ballroom Dancing and Backyard Wrestling. Watch Scuba Diving channels if you are so inclined. These channels alone should be enough to get you watching. I also like that they have a family friendly filter that makes sure you don't see anything too graphic.
- All of the major stations now have shows online, in most cases in HD. Go to NBC.com, CBS.com or ABC.com and stream all of your favorites whenever you want. Who needs TIVO?
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Create Something
- Open Source Poetry takes the concept of "open source" - accepting contributions and additions from anyone on the internet - to the world of rhyme and meter. You can write your own poems for others to see and critique, or take part in interactive poetry, where you write one line and someone else writes the next.
- Origami anyone? This Canadian site has hundreds of patterns and instructions for origami designs. Not quite as sophsticated as origami, this site has lots of paper airplanes you can make for a quick cubicle dive-bomb when the day gets slow.
- Blurb.com -Upload your photos and organize them into pages. Add captions and a title and Blurb.com will ship you the book you just created. You can get various sizes and themes and choose from soft cover or hardcover. I have made these before and they are beautiful. Pricing is reasonable as well. Check it out!
- I'm sure I'll get in trouble for this link but here it is anyway. Thinkgeek.com has a complete listing of Office Warfare products. Get a usb missile launcher or an airzooka and take out the guys from Accounting. Who needs them anyway? They also have Melvin's red Swingline stapler.
- If you like taking pictures, take a look at DigitalPhotographySchool.com. This site is loaded with quality instruction on all kinds of picture taking, from macro to nudes (really! but don't worry, there are no samples). learn about lighting and composition for any kind of photography. Great equipment reviews too.
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Notice how just about everything on this list is internet-related? That's how much the internet has changed the way we use our computers.
Technology makes me work harder. Most of us are trying to spend less time with our computers and more time out of the office, but if you find yourself stuck inside with some time to spare, google whatever you are into and find something enjoyable to do. There will be no shortage of possibilities. (Even Pong!) blip . . .blip . . .blip . . . nice!
For information on any of the information in this month's newsletter, please call Available Technology at 864.232.1234
If you have a site that you enjoy visiting on the internet, or just a favorite game, I would love to hear about it. Email me at lane@available-tech.net and I'll post your submission next month. |
