Extra bandwidth? Here’s how to burn it
December may be the only month where the cap on the ADSL account isn’t reached faster than you can say ‘where’d that gigabyte go?’ As a result you may just find yourself with a bit of extra with which to indulge yourself.
(Already) Old favourites like YouTube allow you to reminisce by checking out music videos and more from yesteryear, amuse yourself with comedic clips of everything from Eddie Izzard and the Fast Show to that kid missing his dive into the swimming pool, and even to cringe in sympathetic embarrassment for the inane (should that be insane?) babbling of Miss Teen USA contestant Caitlin Upton. She has, of course, single-handedly given ‘normal’ people a reason to watch such trite nonsense in any form at all.
Wikipedia remains a font of knowledge to those interested in learning something new; www.snopes.com is indispensable in debunking the nauseating myths which continue to do the rounds on email.
Despite the joys of the Internet, many people remain remarkably ignorant of politics and the world we live in (which is why Snopes continues to hold currency). Most of the newspapers publish online as well as in print; what better way to stay in the know than by bookmarking www.sundaytimes.co.za; www.news24.com; www.iol.co.za and www.mg.co.za. If your curiosity extends beyond the relatively sanitized versions of events offered by these papers, surf over to www.noseweek.co.za to see what editor Martin Welz has been getting his proboscis into. That old chestnut ‘knowledge is power’ may be an appalling cliché, but the aphorism rings true.
But, it is holiday season, so let the games begin. The online games, in this case. If you haven’t been bored stupid by it yet, check out www.secondlife.com. You may have a bit more excitement from Half Life and other first person shooters, which now offer the ability to cuss your opponents with VoIP integration. Adds a new dimension to any frag fest, just stay away from the Germans and the Finns, everything they say sounds like a swearword.
It could also be the time to finally get that open source project under way. Download some Ubuntu Linux, maybe take a shufti (don’t know what a shufti is? – find out at www.worldwidewords.org) at OpenOffice.org, and cock a snook at everyone’s favourite computer villain, Microsoft.
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