¿uʍop ǝpısdn …ǝƃɐd qǝʍ ɐ uo ʇxǝʇ ǝʇıɹʍ oʇ pǝʇuɐʍ ɹǝʌǝ

Hey, who hasn’t? Now you can have the coolest sig on every forum across the web using this nifty online tool. It replaces regular ascii characters with substitution symbols that closely resemble an upside down equivalent. It won’t work everywhere, unfortunately, since it depends on the character set for your current font, but still pretty damn neat.

Source: Random Good Stuff

Have you always wanted to start a blog, but thought maybe you didn’t have enough time in your busy schedule to update it? Perhaps you’re always on the go or simply have nothing particularly profound to say. But guess what… no matter how lazy you are, you’ve always got time for Twitter!

Twitter is a web service that boils blogging down to its core, and then crushes that core into a fine powder. Just when you thought our attention spans had been all but obliterated, along comes something even more fast-paced and streamlined to make us question our sanity. Twitter is kind of like a mini-blog that you can post short messages to using your cell phone or instant messaging software. The idea is that you use it to inform people about whatever you’re currently doing, whether it be “Eating candy and drinking soda as I work on my photography.” or “I’m about to watch American Idol.” (yes those are actual messages that were just posted at the time I was writing this). Don’t some people use their Messenger display names for this already? Hey, I’m all for simplifying things, but the concept does strike me as a little bit odd.

I’m somewhat torn on the idea behind Twitter. On the one hand, it’s a seemingly useless time waster, and adds very little to the web in terms of quality content. Are we so addicted to publishing meaningless information about ourselves on the web, that we have to update it every few minutes, no matter where we are? Not only is it disturbing for the people posting on Twitter, but there’s also something creepy about obsessively following someone’s posts. In essence you are stalking them and tracking their every waking thought!

At the same time, I know that I’m already halfway there. I find myself tempted to sign up for a Twitter account right now and start texting every single thing I do in the span of a day. It just seems fun for some reason, and yet something tells me that there’s a line here that shouldn’t be crossed. There is something to be said for the immediacy and ease of use that Twitter offers (it would be great for live blogging an event, for example) but come on now… don’t people have anything better to do? Be sure to check back next week to find out if I’ve cracked and set up my own Twitter account in the sidebar of this website. (Just kidding. Or am I?)

Link: Twitter

I’ve spent more than a few hours of my life engrossed in virtual worlds like those found in online games such as City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, but ultimately I never really let myself get too attached to them, because, well… this may sound weird but I value my real life too. Not that it’s necessarily action-packed, but sometimes I actually prefer it to the thrill of mining for virtual iron ore so that I can craft it into a virtual sword to be traded for a virtual magic amulet so that I can slay a virtual goblin shaman. And so on. Ultimately I think it’s the time commitment for these games that’s a problem for me, because if you’re not dedicating every waking minute to them, it almost feels like there’s no point in playing.

I have yet to try out this thing called Second Life, however, for many of the same reasons I listed above, although I am curious about it. The thing I find most interesting is that it’s starting to gain a large user base and it’s not even really a “game” at all. It is merely a virtual world where you can socialize, shop, build virtual real estate, and even attend online classes from schools like Harvard. I don’t quite understand it, but it’s truly becoming a digital representation of real places and real people from the real world.

And now at last, I am getting to my point. This lengthy pre-amble was really just a justification for pointing you towards an amusing parody website created by Darren Barefoot called “Get A First Life”. It points out the irony of getting caught up in all of these artificial realities, and although it’s just a single page joke, it does make you stop and think about how strange it really is. Now all someone has to do is create another virtual world based on his concept, call it First Life, and allow the self-referential jokes to cause a tear in the space-time continuum.

Link: Get A First Life

Now I don’t necessarily advocate web surfing in the workplace, but there’s always an argument to be made that a well-informed worker is an efficient worker… or something like that. Let’s face it, we all do it to some extent, whether it’s checking your Gmail, sharing YouTube vids, or quickly scanning some news headlines, the web is a forbidden fruit that we all indulge in at one time or another. It’s the equivalent of the mythical water cooler, but available 8 hours a day, at your fingertips.

So let’s just say, hypothetically speaking, that you wanted to covertly monitor some of your favourite websites throughout the day without fear of reprisal. Well, just head on over to workfriendly.net and enter in a URL, to see that site pop-up in a window that emulates the look and feel of a Microsoft Word document! Now you can read all your favourite blogs and still look like you’re doing something productive. Genius.

Link: Work Friendly