Computer and Web Articles

To show the skeptics just how useful the internet can be in daily life and to get regular users thinking about new ways they can put the internet to work for them, I’ve come up with a hypothetical weekend in the life of … er … me.

By the end of this hypothetical weekend of a not-so-hypothetical person, you should hopefully ask yourself how you could save a bit of time and effort with the help of the internet.

Setting the scene: My friend is flying in from Phoenix to visit me for the weekend.

Friday, 3 p.m.

Check to see if my friend’s flight is on time at www.flightarrivals.com. Yep, on time.

As I put new sheets on the guest bed for her, I notice a big glob of candle wax on the bedside table. A quick visit to the Cleaning.com forum (http://cleaning.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php) and it’s gone in no time.

I browse through http://www.recipes.com and gather some tasty (and quick-cooking) ideas for dinner tonight.

Friday, 7 p.m.

Colorado Mountain Express drops my friend off at my front doorstep (I had made travel arrangements from the airport for her earlier in the week at www.cmex.com).

After catching up, my friend sadly informs me that her dear aunt has been quite ill for over a week now. So we visit www.ebay.com, win an auction for two batches of homemade chocolate chip cookies (with eBay’s Buy It Now!), and arrange to have them sent priority mail to her aunt the next day.

Saturday, 11:30 a.m.

As it’s a chilly late morning, my friend suggests we catch a movie. We take a look at www.transluxmovies.com/showtimes.php?tid=9 and find we need to dash over to the Skyline theater in Dillon immediately to catch today’s matinee.

We arrive home from the movie, only to realize we’re both rather hungry. It’s still cold, so a hot soup sounds like it’d hit the spot. We use www.mizuppa.com to discover that today’s soups at MiZuppa in Frisco all sound great. We head over there and grab lunch.

Saturday, 10:45 p.m.

Nothing like a friendly match of Scrabble; well, that is until my friend challenges one of the seven-letter words I’ve placed on the board. She demands to see a dictionary. I admit there’s no such thing in my home, and that she’ll simply have to go to www.dictionary.com to determine who’s correct. (Hypothetically speaking, I was correct, of course.)

Sunday, 9 a.m.

I wake up only to remember that I forgot Friday was my hypothetical sister’s birthday! Uh oh. To make quick amends, I immediately send her a free virtual bouquet of roses from www.virtualflowers.com and then purchase a cool T-shirt and hexagon clutch purse for her from www.elsewares.com. Elsewares.com is an online boutique store where many awesome independent artists and designers sell their goods.

Sunday, 10 p.m.

After my friend left for the airport, I went for a bike ride, cleaned my house and caught up on a bit of work. So to end my long day I sit down at my computer, head over to the pbs.org website and watch a Frontline special. It’s on prescription drugs. (Instead of paying $30 for an episode on DVD, many Frontline episodes can be viewed for free here: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline.

Yep. Just another weekend in my so-called hypothetical life.