Weird Web – Sites For When You’re Truly Bored
AOL Stalker – In 2006 AOL accidentally released private search data from its users setting off a wave of controversy around how search companies such as AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google store and use data. Today Microsoft keeps personally identifiable information (a user’s IP address) for 18 months. Yahoo destroys this information after 90 days and Google keeps an IP address for nine months. After that time some companies will delete the whole address while other companies will delete the last two digits only. Even this is a point of controversy as the preceding digits can still tell a lot about a users location much like the first few digits of a phone number such as the area code.
AOL stalker is a private website that was set up in 2006, when the AOL search data was leaked. That data did not come attached with names, however the user numbers are listed. The site allowed visitors to type in either a user number or search term and see the results which were at times funny, strange, or tragic -searches that describe pregnancies that may or may not have resulted in birth, cancer scares, and bizarre searches around murders and crime scenes.
Today users can see the 2006 results or up to the minute results that show IP addresses minus the last two digits.
Cracked.com – Cracked.com is one of those wonderful websites that serves absolutely no useful purpose but will keep you occupied for hours. Where else can you find artciles with titles like “9 Awesome Places to Have Sex (And the Horrific Consequences)”?
My recommendations for passing the time during a particularly boring workday:
25 Worst Rapper Names of All Time
7 Crappiest “Super Heroes” in Comic Book History
The 10 Creepiest Craigslist Sexual Encounters
5 Homeless Guys Who Accomplished Awesome Things
419eater.com – Unless you have managed to avoid getting an email account, you have likely received a message at one time that promised a large inheritance, said you won the lottery, or offered money for cashing checks. Perhaps you received a strange email that looked something like this:
I am Mrs. Rose Nkama. I was married to late Mr.Nkama,The CEO Veekrol Link Ltd London United Kingdom, a seasoned contractor in England.Before he died in the year 2006. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness. When my husband was alive,he deposited EUR 4.3 EURO with a security company…
Most of these scams fall under the broad umbrella known as advance-fee fraud or “419 scams” -so named because 419 is the code for fraud under Nigeran law and many of these scams once originated in Nigeria. Today they are in place all over the world including Russia, Vietnam, the UK, and the United States, and some of the first advance fee fraud scams started in Spain and were known as Spanish Prisoner scams.
419Eater is a site devoted to turning the table on the scam artists. Site members answer these emails and “bait” the scammers by pretending to be victims, often adopting funny character names such as “Luke Skywalker” or “Captain Morgan” with surprisingly funny results. It’s easy to loose hours of time reading this correspondence, browsing scam artist photos and watching videos.
Popularity: 56% [?]
Related posts
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Crime / Scams, News, Oddities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
linhui November 24th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Ugg Australia has recruited designers like Manolo Blahnik, Carlos Falchi, Rebecca Minkoff, Rafe pictured,and more to design high-end versions of the brand’s trademark boots for its seventh annual Art & Sole auction.I have to assume these will be filed under unaffordable (which is good – more money for St. Jude!), but I’ll still be going to the pickyouruggs.com Web site on December 1 to window shop and see what these designers have cooked up.I am trying to picture what I would do to make these high end… Real Italian leather? A pearl brooch? Other expensive ingredients and sparkles? Maybe the differences won’t be that extreme, but I hope each designer puts his personal touch on the shoe. I’m certain at the very least you’ll be able to pick out which Uggs came from Betsey Johnson (UGG Classic tall 5815 boots, please!).The event is likely to inspire as many interesting Ugg knockoffs as there are regular Ugg knockoffs, so it is possible we’ll see something like this around town next year. It’s not only a great event for charity but probably also a good move to keep Uggs alive and relevant… especially with the number of people who’d like to see them disappear for good!UGG boots on sale!I will of course keep wearing my Uggs because A) I have them and B) they are warm, but if your kid asks Santa for Where the Wild Things Are UGG boots… I feel for ya.