Another Random Stumble
Written by
David Dunn on August 5, 2008 – 7:46 pm - 615 views This post, seems to have had quite a positive response from the readers of FerrariDave and also seems to have had a great response from StumbleUpon itself.
So I’ve decided to make this a weekly thing. I know this is much more recent than a week since the last one but I’ve decided that I’ll do one every week on a Tuesday. Some of the posts may be prepared before the Tuesday it is posted but it’ll still contain similar sort of material as found in the last one.
So here goes, five more absolutely random clicks on the Stumble button…
Number One - Funny metaphors found in high school essays (Help.com)
This one is actually quite funny. Just a list of metaphors used by school children.
Some of the funniest quotes I have seen have been from school children as they do seem to come out with some cracking stuff 
The only thing that would make this one better would be if it was quotes from children in the UK. It’s not that I have anything against quotes from the US it’s just I don’t get some of the metaphors but I imagine they would be ten times funnier if I was in the US. Still, it’s worth a thumbs up!
Number Two - Accuradio
This site claims to be ‘The Next Generation of Radio’. This seems to be pretty good actually, just has a load of streaming radio-style stations.
They’re iPhone version also looks pretty good (mentioned further down than my screenshot), will have to check it out on my iPhone when I’m bored some time.
I must however comment on the site design though, I’m not entirely sure what the blue/blank rectangle down the right hand side of the page. I know in this case the content outweighs the site design but to be honest it makes it look a bit poor. Would be alright if the main content was centred and the blue bits were either side though.
Number Three - Confusing Words
This one seems pretty good to me. The first thing that struck me though was the design of the site, it’s minimalistic but looks pretty damn good with it.
Now, onto the actual site, it’s basically a big database of words that can be confusing to writers, ie, two words that are pronounced the same but have two different spellings and completely different meanings.
This one is going to get a thumbs up and a review and probably a bookmark as I’m going to find this one useful in the future. I never have a clue about the difference between affect and effect.
Number Four - A list of government owned IP addresses and ranges (DataStronghold.com)
This is basically a great big list of IP addresses owned by the government and similar authorities. However, I have absolutely no idea why I’d need this information. (If anyone can enlighten me that would be great?)
Until I know what the hell I’m meant to do with this huge amount of data, it’s getting a thumbs down as it is totally irrelevant to me.
Number Five - EmailFuture.com
This actually seems like a really god idea to me. It allows me to send myself an email any time in the future. Seems a bit strange initially, to think of you emailing yourself.
However, when you think about it further, it’s a pretty cool idea to remind yourself of something say 3 years down the line.
You could remind yourself that your car needed servicing on a specific date a few years down the line. Or you could set up an email to be sent in 6 months time when you first fit a filter on your vacuum cleaner, to remind you to change it again.
Summary
To be honest, I really enjoyed doing this again. I’ve came across some pretty good websites and rather than randomly stumbling, it brings some sort of meaning to it. Especially when I have to talk about the site in question.
I’m glad I started this off and I will definitely be doing this on a weekly basis. It also means that any time I am bored, I can just create one of these posts and keep it in my drafts.
Hope you like this one :-)
| 3.7 (1 person) |
Tags: cool, five, random, sites, stumbleupon, weekly
Posted in Internet, Life | 2 Comments »
Random StumbleUpon
Written byDavid Dunn on August 4, 2008 – 7:24 pm - 1,226 views I’ve decided that I am going to now press the StumbleUpon ‘Stumble’ button 5 times, but each time I am going to take a screenshot and I’m going to comment about the page.
The pages are obviously going to be random and if I don’t really want to comment on the page that’s tough because I have decided I have to!
So… here goes…
Number One - Add a Picture
Oh dear… as I have just got myself a new StumbleUpon account, the first page I am given is the page to add a photograph for my profile. Okay well, I guess I will add one, seen as they asked nicely!
That reminds me, I need some friends added to my new StumbleUpon, if you would care to add me, please do… http://buymeaferrari.stumbleupon.com/
Number Two - RetailMeNot.com
Hmm… seems like a great site in theory, however, it appears to be aimed towards an American market, and as I’m in the UK it doesn’t really help me at all.
Oh.. hold on.. I’ve found a UK button That’s a lot better! There’s actually a really good selection for the UK market - didn’t think that there would be as many coupon codes as there is.
This site gets a thumbs up, however, not for the homepage but for the page dedicated to the United Kingdom.
Number Three - Friday, insane time, and this is what we are after
The third site in my random stumble is ‘The Funny Site’ (dfunny.info). And a blog post from them.
First impressions seem to count here as when the page first loaded, I am greeted with what you can see in the above screenshot. Now yes, I am definitely no expert but I know what I like and what I don’t like; all I can pretty much see when it first loads is a load of adverts and links, I can see one line of the post.
I personally prefer to see a bit more of the blog post, I don’t so much mind a load of ads on a homepage of a blog but on single post pages, I prefer to see a lot of the screen dedicated to the blog post itself. Just a personal opinion.
The post itself isn’t really to my taste either - it’s just a load of photographs of drunk people gathered from across the internet, some of which I have seen before.
Yes, of course this will be to some people’s taste, but to be honest, it isn’t to mine. This one is getting a thumbs down, not because I think the post is useless because it will appeal to some people, but it because it doesn’t personally appeal to me.
Number Four - BookMooch
As you can see from the boldness of my RoboForm toolbar, I am already a member on BookMooch. However, I can’t remember the last time I logged in.
I personally much prefer a site I found after BookMooch and that is ReadItSwapIt - to me it’s so much easier and seems to have more books to my taste.
However, I am still going to give BookMooch a thumbs up as it is still a really good website it’s just I have found a better resource to suit mu needs. The website itself has a decent design and functions pretty much as I would expect it to.
Number Five - There’s a method behind StumbleUpon’s madness (VentureBeat)
In all honesty, this is the most interesting blog post I have read in a while - MG Siegler is talking about the workings of StumbleUpon and explores the StumbleUpon Recommendation Engine.
I knew a little bit about it and the different methods the toolbar uses to recommend you pages but I didn’t really know about it to this extent.
I’m also glad to real that the co-founder he talked to has said that the limitation on the amount of friends you can have is going to be raised from 200 to 1000. On my previous account I struggled to shuffle the friends around so I could have a decent friend base but still keep within the limits (yes, I know, it probably doesn’t seem like it with my new account but it will grow :-))
This page is definitely going to get a thumbs up, a review and I am even going to comment on the blog itself as I really did enjoy reading the post.
Summary
I really enjoyed implementing this idea and actually talking about each of the sites which I stumbled upon. It made me really think about the site rather than just aimlessly stumbling, thumbs up/down then moving on.
This will definitely be something I will do again on FerrariDave as like I said, I really enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy reading the above. If you did, or have any other similar ideas that I could have a go with, please don’t hesitate to leave me a quick comment
| 3.6 (1 person) |
Tags: blog, cool, General, Internet, site, stumbleupon
Posted in General, Internet | 4 Comments »
Things That Annoy Me Around The Internet
Written byDavid Dunn on December 30, 2007 – 8:51 pm - 339 views Pretty much every single day, I’ll visit a bunch of websites on a various amount of different subjects. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of these websites have a lot of great information on them.
However, not everything is sweet on the internet. Some website have a selection of little annoyances that really get on my nerves whilst browsing around the internet.
The following two posts on different blogs inspired me to write about these things: Irritating Design & Web Annoyances and 10 Ways To Annoy A Website Designer.
Sites that resize my browser window
This one really gets me annoyed, I have my browser maximised pretty much all of the time and it’s like that because I like to see as much of the website as possible. Therefore, as it is my browser, you shouldn’t be able to resize my window to something much smaller; I don’t care what resolution the website was designed for, I’m viewing it 1280×800 and that’s how I want it to stay.
Auto-playing music
Nine times out of ten, while I am browsing the internet, I’m listening to my own choice of music through iTunes. This tends to mean that I really don’t want some other random rubbish playing through my speakers at the same time. When I’m not listening to music through iTunes, it is usually quite late at night and my Mam is in bed, now sometimes I have the habit of leaving my speakers connected and quite high, if I go onto a website and it auto-plays through my speakers, it’s likely to wake her - something I really would rather not do.
Requires Internet Explorer
As most of us already know, Firefox is by far the better browser in terms of reliability, security, etc. etc. Internet Explorer is crap, simple as. Even websites designed for Internet Explorer will usually load in Firefox. Some web designers seem to be unable to grasp this and decline access to their site unless I am using IE, something I refuse to do.
Another point about requiring IE; I enjoy filling out surveys for a few companies on the internet. When a survey comes up that allegedly requires Internet Explorer to run I’ll just simply avoid this survey, whether it pays top dollar or not, I aint doing it when I am required to use Internet Explorer.
Unexpected pop-ups
I’m pretty sure I can safely say that nearly everyone hates pop-ups. I have to agree completely with what Mark Lloyd says in his article about how he closes pop-ups immediately, I am exactly the same. I also, like Mark, hate when I begin to read an article or just a page on a website when 30 seconds into the article a pop-up takes up where I was in the article - very annoying.
Flashing banners
This kind of links on to the last point I made as some of these banners come in pop-up form. I never ever want to see a advertisement banner which flashes repeatedly between two completely contrasting colours. Not only does it distract me from whatever I’m reading, if I am reading a long article the flashing of the banner will eventually give me a migraine or at least a headache. I especially hate ones where I am supposed to be the 1,000,000th viewer of the website, yeah right, me along with the other 100s of people viewing the banner.
Rollover ads
Yep, this is another advert rant. I can’t stand it if I’m browsing a website, reading the new for example when my mouse accidentally touches one of the Flash banners and the thing rolls out and covers my whole browser window.
Requires Real Audio plugin
I’ve never ever liked the Real Audio plugin so I no longer install this onto my computer. Some websites only offer their audio content in the Real Audio format. This confuses me, why not offer the files in MP3 format? Surely this is much more widely accepted?
I think that just about covers all of my pet hates on the internet, I’m sure there are a few more but those above are the main ones that really get on my nerves. If you can think of any I have forgotten or would like to show me some annoying websites adapting some of these tactics, please do leave a comment
| 2.5 |
Tags: ad, annoy, hate, Internet
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
