Satisfy your voyeuristic inclinations with "workplace diaries"--accounts from fellow stiffs on the front lines of inane corporate culture.

You'll find features ranging from "Is My job Killing Me?" to "Twisted Knickers" (dealing with office romances). There is also a place to "Speak Up" on the job-related discussion board. Garner some free advice on your workplace dilemmas and test your workplace stress with the "Stress-O-Meter". Then visit the "Action Guide" and move beyond bitching.

Another aptly named work-related site is Disgruntled (www.disgruntled.com). The most interesting thing on Disgruntled is the plethora of short work-related horror stories posted by many wage slaves.

Or to fume at. Equally entertaining is the hate mail Cliff has received as a result of his contest, also available on the site.

SàGG features "Your daily dose," a science brief for the day that is well written and entertaining. The briefs range from discoveries made trawling the patent databases (such as cell phone companies applying for a patent on radiation shielding for cell phones--even though they're not dangerous, right?) to a story on how junk food has less carcinogens than a restaurant-cooked steak.

You'll also find "Elsewhere," which is a quirky science story that appeared elsewhere.

Check out "Eureka," a contest where you can win a prize. SàGG provides a question for the month (i.e. Define the Value of a Parking Spot), and the best answer wins.

Or you can visit their bookstore, with bite-sized book reviews of a few featured science books. And there's always the gift shop, where you can get cool geek gifts, such as the backwards clock or a gyroscope.

You'll also find Top Two + 2, the equivalent of a short Top-10 list. For example, the "Top Two things Jean Chrétien says pepper spray isn't as bad as: 1. The gas chamber." Visit the site to get the rest of that list.

22online includes a daily one-liner for use around the water cooler and a nice North/South poll based on current events chez our southern neighbours.

Another site always worthy of mention is the Onion (www.theonion.com), the news parody site by which all others should be judged. Probably one of the funniest sites online, the Onion prefers to mock the whole concept of serious news. Sample headline: "State Department to Hold Enemy Tryouts Next Week." Sadly, the Onion is only updated on a weekly basis.

Designed to be your internet valet, Ask Jeeves allows you to ask questions in plain English. It then gives you a concise list of possible links. Jeeves will also query other search engines for you, and return the top 10 from those sites.

Obviously, Jeeves isn't nearly as smart as computers in Star Trek, but it's a start -and it's a good idea for a search-engine alternative.

Jeeves also features a virtual "keyhole" that you can peep through to see a random sample of questions others are currently submitting.

Every daily selection is not necessarily a winner, but there are enough good ones to make this site a fine springboard for your time-wasting endeavours.

PS: In the cruel history section, you'll find a link to a Sony Cam Night Shot page, in case you were wondering what all the fuss was about.

Personally, I'm not too concerned about the four horsemen riding into town. My main concern lies in the reams of code and hundreds of thousands of embedded computer chips that make our modern playland work, and that might just fall like dominoes when the digits roll to "00".

Enter the Cassandra project a non-profit group dedicated to spreading info on Y2K and how to get prepared . A non-alarmist site, they see the problem as more of a social issue, and are trying to raise awareness about the potential magnitude of the problem. They believe it would be negligent to not have some form of contingency plan.

In any case, it's a good starting point to look into the issue for yourself.

Alert: There's a new Mac virus going around, and it's pretty nasty. Point your browser to http://www.macintouch.com/graphacc.html to get the skinny.

Billing itself as "the soft white underbelly of the Net," rotten dot com collects images and info from various sources on bad things that happen to people, and its contents can make people with weak stomachs lose their lunch.

The site features a number of autopsy photos, including one of Tupac Shakur. As well, you can also find the Fuck of the Month Club, some famous photos (one of Hitler's pants being burned) and some viewer submissions. My fave is the "today in rotten history," a compilation of rotten events on this day over the years.

Oh, and don't forget to stop at the gift shop on your way out.

The site has nine categories of messages: movies, TV, comedy, musical, adult, serious, people, weird and other. Obviously, not all the messages are winners, but browse around a bit and you'll be sure to find one you like--audio clips from King of the Hill, The Muppet Show and Ren & Stimpy. Inventive original items include, "this answering machine has been connected to a 5,000-volt power supply that has been wired to this small kitten..."

Tech note: the messages come in either .wav or the much more compact MP3 formats.