Probably more difficult to do in the current market environment, there still a chance of making
money on the web without really trying. And don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about being-comfortable-
for-the-rest-of-your-life-with-just-interest-payments-kind of money, but just some pocket change.
Some of you might know Freelotto.com. While I was doing an intership
last year, I used to waste a few minutes of work time to put in some numbers in their daily draw.
Well, this one time I got 5/7 right, and the results can be seen here. Yup, a
check. For obvious reasons, I didn't go cash it, as it holds sentimental value as the first free
money I've gotten from the net.
Another attempt of making some money was AllAdvantage.com. If you
clicked on that link, you'll see what's wrong with that picture: They went bancrupt. Basically, they
had a minimum limit for how small a check they would send you, and every time I reached that limit,
they would make it higher. After reading the insolvency note on their website, I gave up hope. But!
Against all expectations I got a check from them last week: $47,53! Unfortunately, I don't have that
left for scanning any more, as I wanted to make sure I get my money from an already-bancrupt company, so
I cashed it in as soon as I got it. And last time I checked, the money had appeared on my account. Sure,
it took me a year to make not-even 50$, but it's not like I did much for it. Free money, in other
words.
At the moment, I don't have any money-making schemes going, and with the amounts dotcom companies
can afford to pay, it's probably not worth it. What can we learn from this? Not much. If you have
a favorite way of making a buck here or there on the web, let me
know.
Planning on taking a trip in the near future with a plane? See what your chances of crashing are. This is actually pretty cool. For example, on a flight from Helsinki to Vienna (who'd want to fly that?), your chances of crashing are 1 to 16,328,000. I guess it's pretty safe. Or?
So Finland has finally joined the the ever-increasing flanks of countries with major doping-scandals. Two lost medals already and possibly more to come. People getting fired, quitting and put under investigation. I guess Finnish cross-country skiers can soon be put in the same category as Bulgarian weight-lifters. Somebody still remember that scandal couple of years ago, when a skier was accused of using doping, he sued (along with a bunch of other people) and got some money (a lot at first)? Anybody actually do any tests on him then? Because with these new events, his innocense doesn't seem so obvious anymore...
Bored out of your skull? Try reading some comics. I just heard about this site a couple of days ago, and I have to say it's impressive. A lot of comics are published as they come out in the States, and some old classics (like Calvin & Hobbes) are on reruns. You can also sign up for an e-mail that sends you links to the day's comics. What's more, it's free and legal, so you don't have to worry about the service being shut down by some judge. That doesn't mean that you don't have to worry about the service being shut down because no-one's making any money with it. It's free, what do they expect?
I'm sure most people have heard about the writing competition for the worst first sentence in a novel, or at least have heard the phrase "it was a cold and stormy night." Obviously, this is the kind of stuff that couldn't thrive and survive without the Internet, hence the Bulwer-Lytton writing contest. The deadline for entries is the beginning of April, so you still have time to gather all your creative stupidity and participate. But going through the site, it's pretty clear that the competition is very tough.
Nothing better than making fun of George W. Bush. It really doesn't matter
what he will accomplish, he's probably always going to be remembered as an ignorant, coke-snorting alcoholic. Whether those accusations
are fair or not is also irrelevant: that's what he is going to be remembered by. Unless, of course, he manages to screw up big
time in some other way. Failure is always easier to remember than success.
Speaking of which, there's something in the way Clinton exited the White House that's definitely going to be remembered. At
first, I didn't believe all the stuff that was said about what they had done during their final days, but now I'm not so certain,
because the same stuff is mentioned in numerous places. But then again, best stories, even if they're not true, spread the fastest. I mean c'mon,
removing all the Ws from all the White House keyboards and gluing them around the building sounds a bit too good to have actually
happened. But with a guy like Clinton, I guess you never know.
If you have some spare time on you, I suggest you go through the Stickman murder mysteries. An excellent way to totally waste time. I like the way the maker (Normand, I guess) combines lousy graphics, web pages and "adventure" to make a site where 30 minutes just disappear.
Note from the editor: I've learned that Matti Nykänen does indeed have children, so I withdraw my proposal of nominating him for the Darwin Award. I'm actually somewhat disappointed, the only good thing I could come up about the guy turned out not to be true. On the other hand, I'm also very pleased that I haven't read anything about his kids, that means that the media don't follow their every action obsessively. Maybe there is some hope in the world after all.
I remember hearing/reading years ago about a guy in Colorado or somewhere,
who attached a jet engine to his car in the desert to have it go real fast. Some
time later, they then found what was left of him and his car burrowed deep into a
mountain wall. Because of his little experiment, the guy was awarded the "Darwin
Award" for helping to rid the gene pool of some stupidity.
Unfortunately, as I have just found out, this story, which I remember to have told at
least a few people over the years, never really happened. Too good to be true or
something. Fortunately, there really is something called the "Darwin Awards", and
their web site is definitely
something to check out. There’s something in reading about other people’s stupidity
that makes you feel good about yourself.
For all of us who know and remember Matti Nykänen for whatever reason,
whether for his brilliant ski-jumping career or for his not-so-brilliant singing,
stripping or bartending careers that followed, he has opened up his own web site! Finally a place where we can
dwell in our fond memories of him! Strangely, he does seem to emphasize his ski-
jumping, shedding little light on his later accomplishments (I encourage you to try to
find a single occurrence of the word "stripper" on the site). The funny part is that the
opening of his home pages last week made it into a quality newspaper here in Austria,
where I first heard about them. They called Matti an "ex-wonderkid", which leaves
me in doubt of whether the Austrians have been following his ups and (mostly) downs
ever since he beat the crap out of their ski jumpers in the 80s. Then again, today's paper had a reference of him (or actually
Matty Nykänen) passing
out drunk in a hotel somewhere in Lahti. As a Finn, it's interesting to read the Austrian coverage of the Skiing World
Championships currently being held there. I'm telling you, it's not very flattering.
Anyway, I think Matti should definitely be nominated for the Darwin Award, as he has so far
refrained from having any children. Of course, the award would have to be taken away
if that unfortunate event ever happened. Too bad the site's only in Finnish, the rest of you are really missing out on something.
But despair not, there's a promise on the front page that "The service will soon be opened in English"!
As you might have guessed from the newsfeed on the left, I'm something of a fan for space. And right now, it seems like
there's a lot of stuff going on. Not only is the International Space Station Alpha being
constantly expanded, but there's new info about water (and life?) on Mars every week. I'm expecting to see humans on Mars by
2020 which, not having been around for the Moon landing, should make an amazing spectacle. I think it's pretty clear that
the Earth will not be able to sustain humanity forever, which is the single best reason to "franchise" to other planets.
I'm not expecting to be alive to see permanent habitation on the Moon or elsewhere. But permanent human presence in space
might have been already started last November, when the first crew of ISS settled down. That's a start.
Sign a petition for a manned Mars mission in the next decade.
Oh yeah, happy Valentine's. Personally though, this is one festivity that's been taken to the commercial extreme. I can still accept it as a day to remember your ONE loved one (especially if you keep forgetting about them the rest of the year), but making it a day to remember all your friends is just a plot by the postal service to get you to send a bunch of cards. I'm not falling for it. Or maybe I'm just lazy and don't want to go through the extra trouble. You decide.
Holy crap, I just saw my pages on Netscape. Can't make hardly anything out. I'll have to see if I can do something about that at some point. Let me know if you're using Explorer and the pages still look funny.
Well, this is it. After about a month of building the pages, finding a suitable hosting service and whatnot, the Moliis.org web site is finally open. Watch this space for tidbits from around the world in the future.
Feel free to send me any interesting/amusing stuff you find on the net or receive with email, I'll make sure to post it, if it suits my tastes as well. As an example, here's "Classic Instructions" my brother sent me a while back.
I'm not planning on making this page all fun & games, but one game to check out is Planetarion. Basically, you get a planet to control on which you build up a fleet and some other stuff, waiting to get blown up by someone who has been building his fleet for months. I'm just waiting for that to happen at the moment. If you sign up, Let me know so that I can send my fleet to blow you up...
Make sure to check back later, I'll be posting up stuff fast at the beginning, before I'll get sick and tired of the whole page. Last time I created a web site my interest lasted about two months. I'm trying to top that this time.
This is the weirdest Shockwave-movie I've ever seen...
