Scrooge finds gems on the net
Published: 23 Dec 1999 11:57 GMT
And really, I have to say my initial reaction was boy oh boy is the internet a pile of pants. For a start take that picture of me up there on the left. Like I'm gonna stand any chance of interesting Sandra Bullock or Gina Davis with a picture like that -- but that's the web for you, a picture was needed, we all rushed around like mad people and due to the fact that I don't have a digital camera and the last person I met that did had a warped sense of humour that picture is only one we had. Thus totally ruining my chances with any Hollywood star.
And talking about pictures you need to check out The People's Photos ("An archive of photos found on the street by me and you"). Yup literally; he publishes photographs he finds on the floor, now there's someone with too much time on their hands.
Mustn't forget Precious Pictures a site that for around $15 will put pictures of your baby on the web -- saves on stamps I guess.
And then there is this predilection of the less interesting among us to make a web page to tell us about them. I called up the Yahoo listing of home pages it has thousand upon thousand of peoples home pages -- I found two Chris Longs there, one Brit and one Australian, and neither of them seemed to have colds.
Bored with my name I attempted to find out if Father Christmas had succumbed to the internet and built himself a home page and guess what -- he hasn't, but Denise Christmas has, and I discovered she is a teacher and drives a red Camero.
And I was getting depressed is this really what the internet is about; thousands of sites that make one vaguely uneasy about the people that put them up there? I think I hit rock bottom (the pinnacle of oddness if you want to put a positive spin on it) with Trent's Police Car Pictures -- and I am not making this up -- a web site dedicated to pictures of police cars.
And it that isn't bizarre enough there is a police car web ring called the "CopCar Web Ring" ("Linking the World of Police Vehicle Websites and Photograph Collectors"). For those that are interested the ring's address is on Trent's page.
Then things started to look up....
I had all but given up and decided to write a damning piece about how trashy the internet is when I came across the Hubble Telescope site, which has some stunning pictures that you wouldn't see anywhere else. My resolve to dislike the web began to ebb, this ebb turned into a flow when yesterday a chum emailed me a story about a 400 year old device which has got its own millennium bug. I didn't believe him but I managed to come up with a BBC new archive story that proved it -- and there is no way I would be able to confirm a story like that as quickly without the web.
And then to cap it all there is buying stuff you would never dream existed. In an attempt to get a vaguely original present for a chum I checked out a tip and went to Counterpoint Music. They have some rather interesting CDs there, the one I wanted was called "Nick Bougas Presents: Celebrities...At Their Worst"! and is a collection of out takes and recordings of stars loosing it from John Wayne to Bing Crosby and Richard Pryor to Peter Sellers.
And if you want a laugh over Christmas then I suggest you try out Bob River's Twisted Tunes not only does he have a funny music clip on the site, but it allows you to buy the song 'Walking round in women's underwear' sung to the tune 'Walking around in a Winter Wonderland' -- trust me it is very funny.
And it was at this point that despite my headache and sore throat I realised that the net isn't that bad -- sure there are an extraordinary number of saddos up there but when you come across a gem of a site it's worth the naffness.
So that's it for me, grump over -- hope you all have a brilliant Christmas, but if you feel you need to send me a present, its either Sandra Bullock/Gena Davis phone number or some Lemsip.
Happy Christmas.
If you want to send Sandra Bullock over to Chris, forwarn him that she's on her way by coming to our TalkBack forums and have your say ...
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