Cool websites?

[frugalone]

I'm making an effort not to spend so much time on Facebook. It's really starting to get to me. If it's not the political sh*t-slinging, the rumors being spread or the "look at me having fun on the beach" posts, it's something else.

I have a lot of free time on the job, and can use the Internet for a lot of things. However, I cannot use headphones on the job. I don't like the format of many online courses (and of course, if I can't hear what's being taught and it's not closed captioned...). Anyone have suggestions for intelligent and cool places to hang out online?

Thanks!!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Kindle app for the p.c., read books. I don't know, pretty sick of the net, most of it. There's other social media like pin interest and twitter (the latter is mostly cesspool that I can only imagine being tolerable long term for specialized interests maybe). If you want to subscribe to something you could read proper newspapers and magazines online I guess - so real reading of magazines etc., though I'm thinking there is maybe no shortage of these if you work at a library!

[frugalone]

We're not allowed to have books or magazines at our desks. But playing Candy Crush is fine. Go figure.

I do have the Kindle app on my PC, thanks!

[Gardenarian]

I have been taking a bit of a break from the internet - mainly because I don't have a job with slow times at the desk anymore!
I liked Goodreads, Funny Times (a friend gave me a subscription to the paper last year,) The Onion, Free Rice, and I can spend a lot of time just bouncing around Wikipedia links.
I used to really like Pinterest but it has become much more commercial and is full of dead links and spam.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I do have the Kindle app on my PC, thanks!

yea if not doing anything anyway, it is so much more rewarding to read (virtual) books sometimes than the net again, not that I think any kind of book makes good desk fare - they have to be chosen for that.

[ToomuchStuff]

Let me ask, what is the restriction on headphones? Is it because there are two of them and they need you to be able to hear what is going on around you? If that is the case, what about a single ear bud (not the proper term), like the single ones that used to be used with those portable am radio's from when I was a kid?
Secondly, remember while you may be able to use the Internet, assume it is monitored and sites you are given, may be blocked, because people assume they are being used in order to get a different job. (something that doesn't bore someone, so they have so much freetime)

[frugalone]

Yes, it is because I need to her what is going on around me, in case a patron comes up to the desk. I did try to hook up my Bluetooth with it but I can't get it to work.

I didn't know those single earbuds still existed. I'll have to look around! Thanks!

I don't think they monitor anything here, in the name of academic freedom.



Let me ask, what is the restriction on headphones? Is it because there are two of them and they need you to be able to hear what is going on around you? If that is the case, what about a single ear bud (not the proper term), like the single ones that used to be used with those portable am radio's from when I was a kid?
Secondly, remember while you may be able to use the Internet, assume it is monitored and sites you are given, may be blocked, because people assume they are being used in order to get a different job. (something that doesn't bore someone, so they have so much freetime)

[ToomuchStuff]

Does your computer even have Bluetooth? (a lot of desktops don't, which is why so many keyboards have a dongle that is linked, specifically to a transceiver)
Yes they exist, although you could just as well use one of the others (and keep the other, for if the one side breaks).
I am sure they monitor, probably mostly automated, but due to liability, they need to protect themselves somehow.

[SteveinMN]

I am sure they monitor, probably mostly automated, but due to liability, they need to protect themselves somehow.
The monitor may simply be a proxy server through which all requests for sites are routed; if the site you ask for is "on the list", you're redirected to something safe. Where I used to work, the proxy would knock out porn, "hate sites", gambling, and streaming sites (like Netflix and Pandora). It also would report if you hit the proxy again and again, but they did not collect sites or keystrokes or such.

[freshstart]

I second Goodreads, I love listing all the books I've read and seeing what my friends are enjoying

does your company have the ability to know how long you've been on the internet? and where you go?

I worked in the medical field and I don't know if they had to have advanced security or they were just jerks. An older woman would put a pic of her grandchild as her screen saver, overnight is was deleted, every day she put it back on and this went on like this until someone in IT called her and said to stop.

they could see sites visited and for how long and when my previous boss left, she fessed up that she could read our emails and did. I told my team, stop complaining about management in emails, they can be read. They kept sending out group emails full of bitching and moaning. People are stupid, I swear.

Our internet rules were pretty much you can use the company's links on the homepage to get to databases and such but other than that, we shouldn't be using it. I had a patient with hepatitis who asked me a question to which I did not know the answer. I googled it (it was not complicated enough to use the medical data bases). The next day my boss wanted to know why I had googled on company time? What? 2 mins on Google to look up something about hepatitis? So then she thought I had hepatitis and was using the internet on their time to research it. I even more slowly explained, "no, you moron, this patient (hold up chart) has hepatitis and he had a question. I do not use the internet outside company rules and if I was going to, it would be for something more fun than hepatitis." As i left, she goes, "do not do that again". Really?

and they wondered why I kept turning down middle management jobs, it was because I would have to act like that asshole and only get less than a dollar more an hour.

so coming from a very strict company, I would be cautious, because if they are logging the amount of time you are online and where you go, could you get in trouble? Like they could say you were online so much, how could you have been working? that's just my experience and I suspect most companies aren't as strict as mine

[ToomuchStuff]

The monitor may simply be a proxy server through which all requests for sites are routed; if the site you ask for is "on the list", you're redirected to something safe. Where I used to work, the proxy would knock out porn, "hate sites", gambling, and streaming sites (like Netflix and Pandora). It also would report if you hit the proxy again and again, but they did not collect sites or keystrokes or such.

That is certainly one way. There are several ways to do it. The one I remember a few years ago, was one that posted all the sites to a HTML display page, with the number of times something went to that site. Anyone knowing that page was there, could view it.
But normally schools have more extensive monitors, because of the costs of bandwidth (users or apps start sucking it up, they manage their bandwidth).

[Gardenarian]

Oh, and there's always Craigslist :)

[freshstart]

what about netflix foreign subtitled films with the volume off? IDK, though, most movies without hearing the tenor of the dialogue and the music would not be much fun

[Dhiana]

Check out blogs in subjects you are interested, Visit a site such as www.bloglovin.com and type in a subject and quite a few blogs will show up. You can save the ones you want to return to in a "feed" and each time you go back to Bloglovin there will be just the ones you want to read.

Visit travel sites and plan your dream trip.

Help someone in need: gofundme

Help someone become a success: kickstarter.com or indiegogo.com

Learn to draw or knit: youtube.com You shouldn't need sound for these kinds of demonstrative skills.

What kind of programs are already on the computer that you might like to learn? Creative Cloud?

Feedly is a separate site that will allow you to collect all the sites into a Feed that you want to visit from news to art to gardening to whatever on a single page organized by subject if you'd like. www.feedly.com

Or instead of just being an internet consumer how about starting your own blog and contributing?

November is NaNoWriMo! Write a complete novel in the month of November: http://nanowrimo.org
Check that off your bucket list or read other's attempts.
Maybe you'd prefer to write non-fiction: http://writenonfictionnow.com/about-write-nonfiction-in-november/

Have Fun, Surfin'!