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Web Singletons?

Posted by timothy on from the magrathea-dot-com dept.

tcmb writes "There are an uncounted number of web mail and picture sharing services, there are more than enough web sites for online bookmark management and friend-finding, but as far as I know there is only one Internet Archive. Which are the true web singletons, services that exist only once in this form?" And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

28 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously what?

    1. Re:What? by mollymoo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well a singleton is a software design pattern designed to allow exactly zero or one instances of a class to exist (typically a database connection). But whoever thought the term applies to the services provided by web apps is just an idiot.

      The word "singleton" wasn't invented to describe the design pattern, douchebag. It means there is only one of something and is used correctly in TFS.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
    2. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      He isn't a douchebag, just a simpleton.

    3. Re:What? by Minwee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But whoever thought the term applies to the services provided by web apps is just an idiot.

      Some day, I'm going to have to introduce you to a new game called 'Bridge', something called 'set theory' or perhaps just to the concept of 'twins'. Then you might learn a few whole new meanings for that word and wonder why you were such an idiot about it before.

    4. Re:What? by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The good part for the Internet Archive is they can't rip off the idea and do it better because they'd have to go back in time to get the data.

    5. Re:What? by roguetrick · · Score: 4, Insightful

      On the subject of patent trolls, Blackboard fits this, despite being such a horrible piece of crap.

      --
      -The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
    6. Re:What? by daeg · · Score: 4, Funny

      (Archive the archive (the archive (the archive (the archive))))

    7. Re:What? by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      Pandora has been archiving the australian web sites

      Both of them?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Zombo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone knows about Zombo of course. You could waste hours there without even thinking about it.

  3. There can be only one... by statemachine · · Score: 4, Funny

    Timecube.

    Unique and a waste of time.

    1. Re:There can be only one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wrong; not a singleton: http://www.thymecube.com/

  4. What site is this again? by John+Whitley · · Score: 5, Funny

    And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

    looks up at teh awesome bar (cough).

    looks at uid.

    sighs.

  5. Slashdot by zobier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say /. is relatively unique.

    --
    Me lost me cookie at the disco.
  6. I hope it's unique! by techno-vampire · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's one site that I certainly hope is unique: goatse.cx.

    --
    Good, inexpensive web hosting
    1. Re:I hope it's unique! by tsalmark · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I am not Googling meatspin.

  7. Yeah, for time wasting by toby · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can't beat /.

    --
    you had me at #!
  8. Singletons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear that eharmony is a good place to find singletons.

  9. Uh... by meeotch · · Score: 5, Funny

    And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

    You must be new here.

  10. TinEye.com by kinabrew · · Score: 4, Interesting

    TinEye.com is an image search engine that works like this:

    It analyzes images it finds online, by looking at their pixels and dimensions.

    To search, a user uploads an image, and TinEye returns a list of links to similar images, said images' dimensions, and links to the pages on which said images are posted.

    It's useful for finding originals from photoshopped images and for finding images in a series if you have only one image and know it's part of a series.

    And no, I don't work for them(but I do use the site almost daily).

  11. Re:I'm Sorry, but . . . by treeves · · Score: 4, Funny
    Well yeah, because even if you win, you lose.

    Usually, I'd rather be right than happy.

    --
    ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  12. wheresgeorge.com by treeves · · Score: 4, Informative
    was/is probably a "singleton".

    I lost interest when it seemed like very few of the bills I entered were later tracked.

    --
    ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  13. The grand-daddy of them all... by Nick+Driver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is still alive!

  14. TV Tropes by roystgnr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

    Google for "TV Tropes". No, I'm not giving you a URL. If I had to go find the URL, I might accidentally look at the URL. And then I'd end up clicking some of the links there. But there's no way to read through a Trope page without being curious enough to click on at least two of the links there, and then two of the links on each of those, and then... well, I just put dinner in the oven and I do not want to suddenly snap out of a fascinated reverie an hour from now when the smoke from my kitchen burning down reminds me that I'm starving.

  15. Re:Here's a semi-unique time waster for 'ya ... by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Singletons are the loneliest objects that I've ever seen...
    Factories can be as bad as a Singletons
    They're the loneliest objects since the Singleton

    False is the saddest value that you'll ever know,
    True, it's the saddest value that you'll ever know...

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  16. LHC destruction monitor by ninjapiratemonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    AFAIK, this is the only site which will tell you if the LHC has destroyed the world yet. You can waste hours of time by checking it frequently, making sure that you're not dead yet! http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/ and the source is fairly humourous as well.

    --
    01110000 01010111 01101110 00110011 01100100
  17. Re:I'm Sorry, but . . . by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wives tend to do that.
    Win, I mean.

    They do if you have any sense.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  18. No, no, you got it wrong by omuls+are+tasty · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's "fool me once, shame on... shame on you; fool me you can't get fooled again".

  19. Re:Here's a semi-unique time waster for 'ya ... by stiller · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, it was first recorded by Three Dog Night in 1969 and written by Harry Nilsson. allmusic