Websites for music, fun, news, system and blogging

Here are some cool websites which I found very useful for music, system, news, fun and blogging.

Music: Laziness is blamed for a lot of humanity’s problems. If you think about it though laziness has inspired us to invent some great things such as the recliner chair, twist cap beer bottles and Last.fm (www.last.fm). Gone are the days, when

you have to open your huge music library that has collected for decades and sift through it to then manually create a playlist. Replace this with Last.fm, which manages your favorites and even notes which songs you play the most and which artists you listen to the most as well. This is because the Last.fm has a concept called “scrobbling” which sends the name of the artist and the song to

the Last.fm database, which keeps a track of it on your Last.fm page and they can automatically update your iPod or PC with this data. With this information, Last.fm actually recommends music to you based on your library. The site is very neat and well organized and keeps a track of your most recent visits as well

as a huge selection of artists which can rival almost any music database.

Even the rarest bands get a mention here and a lot of well known artists are prominently featured here. Last.fm catalogues each artist and has a variety of music, videos, biography, tour dates and events as well as other similar artists. Last.fm is what brings the music you want to you and it is all just a few clicks away.

System: Computers can scare even the smartest people. Sometimes you might not know what’s wrong and you immediately decide to call for help. This can be

time-consuming and costly and may not even be necessary. Before calling the

professionals, try giving www.bleepingcomputer.com a shot. All you have to do is follow the instructions that greet you on the homepage and you are on your way to better PC experience. The Bleeping Computer forums are not always easy for novices but they have a vast array of brilliant members contributing knowledge ranging from system performance to browser issues. The other guides are also very helpful and can really boost your performance and help you with improving your startup time and so on. The Startup programs database is especially useful

to figuring out why the computer seems so slow. It is good to go ahead and register on the site and familiarize yourself with the various sections so

that in the future when you really are stuck in a mess you can locate solutions

for the problem easily. It is very rare to find a website that has such a rich pool

of talented contributors. The members of this website actively share all kinds of information and you can even have a unique problem answered by uploading your specifications and your problem details on the forum. If all else fails, you always have Bleeping Computer to turn to

News: In this day and age of instant information dissemination and worldwide networks, news travels so fast that it gets old within minutes. The time that news takes to reach you from the news event is almost minimal but you want more than just one source that you can trust. This problem is solved by the

innovative people at Newsnow. The site itself resembles an index (www.newsnow.co.uk) which contains many topics that cover world events. You

can check out the latest world news or what is the latest in the business

world. Sports fans have a comprehensive number of options for their favorite

sports and sports teams. This site is so special because it has hyperlinks to all the stories which are relevant to the topic. This news indexing feature essentially brings all the news to the reader, saving a lot of time and dead ends for people to deal with. Many of the world's most trusted sources of news are used by simply accessing their websites and providing links to them in the topics pages  throughout Newsnow. You merely have to leave the topic page which you are interested in, open and the page refreshes itself in order to constantly provide stories from the list of select sites, which it looks into. So you can now view The Guardian's view on a cricket match without looking through their site! This new and unique approach to online journalism is a step in the right direction for all concerned

Fun: Life can get really boring but don’t worry the Internet saves the day yet again with Bored.com (www.bored.com). Bored. com is set up to entertain you with a generous selection of games, videos, jokes, quizzes, how-to videos and so on. These applications are fantastic because they tend to cover a vast array of

activities, so if you don’t feel like playing any games you can still visit the site and

look up a few new jokes or perhaps read a comic or two. While other sites have more content than Bored.com, they tend to be specialized towards categories such as games, but Bored.com has a unique balance that can entertain even the

pickiest visitor. You can solve crossword puzzles, play browser MMOs or even

pour through the various links which claim to give you opportunities to earn

some easy money (we doubt that, but it’s an option). The browser MMOs are

quite interesting and seem to be more than your standard fare of fantasy

games, there is even a mobster MMO! One really unique section is the the

"Funny Pranks" section, which lists thousands of pranks for you to have a

go at. There is a "Music" section which has song lyrics and virtual instruments

for you to try your hand at the drums for instance. There are guides to music,

funny song titles and parodies as well as music facts. The how-to videos are

interesting as well and you do a lot things you've always wondered about.

Whatever it is that tickles your fancy, you ought to find it at Bored.com.

Blogs: Do you love blogging so much that you want to just blog for the rest of your life? It might seem far-fetched but this is a reality now. Blogging has grown so much that a really popular blog can get more hits than many large commercial websites. This is why advertisers seriously consider sponsoring blogs and who knows? It could even be yours. If you want to know more you can check out www.problogger.com and learn how to set up your blog to earn some money. The website is run by Darren Rowse, who has been a professional blogger for

many years and he wants to share his expertise and experience. Many of his posts dominate the site with articles that start from the most fundamental and simple blog creation topics such as the “About Me” space to more complex lessons in the use of Adsense and other advertising programs as well as other important revenue streams. A lot of people visit this site trying to learn more about blogging much like you and interacting with them is also enriching. There is also a large number of guest bloggers, who contribute to the blog and add a

lot of perspective to the goals of the blog. This smart and open approach to blogging can really benefit your blogging skills, even if you don’t want to use your blog to make money.