By Sherwin Loh & Tham Yuen-C

The sites on the following pages are numbered, but the numerals are for neat visual order and not to signal any order of merit.

Entertainment

21. Television Without Pity
www.televisionwithoutpity.com

There is simply not enough time in the week to catch all the shows being made for TV and even if there is, it is not as if the local broadcaster airs them all here.

Luckily, TV junkies have Television Without Pity or TWOP.

More than just a review of the latest episodes of hit shows like Lost and Heroes, TWOP is a site with updates on what took place in all episodes aired to date.

Tech Whiz

22. Digg
digg.com

News and blogs are not merely rated - users actually Digg them. A technology news accumulator, Digg collates the articles posted by users around the world. Visitors to the sites rate the worthiness of the article by "Digging" them.

Articles with a bigger Digg count, or rating, will be placed higher on the home page and you will not have to sift through thousands of articles to find out what is important as other readers would have done it for you.

23. Hack N Mod
hacknmod.com

Only geeks would buy a brand new or second-hand drum set, strip it apart and use the pieces to build a better one. Failure means you do not have anything to show for it but that is the essence of Hack N Mod - a site that teaches you how to take a working product and modify it.
This is a fun IT guide to reusing and recycling - the geek way.

24. AfterDawn.com
www.afterdawn.com

If you have watched an online video, downloaded a song or bought software, chances are you can find tips on this site to get the most out of your investments.

The website offers free software download alternatives, from digital music players to programs that catalogue your DVD collection.

It also has step-by-step guides on ways to modify your hardware, like a DVD player or computer.

25. Lifehacker
lifehacker.com

From details of updates for computer software to test-drives of upcoming programs, Lifehacker offers insights and comparisons in simple bite-sized chunks for the technologically challenged.

After all, Lifehacker is a blog for people who want to stay on top of tech developments.

Word play

26. Yahoo! Babel Fish
babelfish.yahoo.com

In the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the babel fish was a fictitious species of yellow-coloured fish that could translate one spoken language to another when inserted into the ear.

The Yahoo! Babel Fish service does not require any insertion and does the same translation, but for text and Web pages.

27. Urban Dictionary
www.urbandictionary.com

If you find it hard to talk to a teenager and not get confused by his lingo, git wit da (get with the) times by checking the Urban Dictionary.

It has more than 3.8 million definitions for slang phrases and words often used by young people.

28. Save The Words
www.savethewords.org

Save The Words is a website set up to deal with the senticous (prickly, thorny) issue of, well, saving words.

Every year, hundreds of words suffer permanent summotion (removal) from dictionaries. They are dropped to make space for newer words simply because they have become less relevant to life today.

The site is a call to arms for word lovers, or just about anyone who wants to abstrigillate (to oppose, resist) the erosion of our collective vocabulary.

29. One Word
www.oneword.com

Writing takes discipline.

Professional writers and authors take years to build up a writing routine and do not just wait around for the words to flow.

One Word helps to build up that discipline for aspiring writers.

Know it all

30. Alltop
alltop.com

Wikipedia might be the online encyclopedia for what has happened in the world but for those who want to know what is happening right now, there is Alltop.

Calling itself a "magazine rack" for popular topics, the site collects headlines of stories from around the world and groups them by topics such as health, sports, culture and technology.

31. How To Clean Stuff.net
www.howtocleanstuff.net

Even if you are a cleanliness guru, there will be some cleaning routines you are not familiar with and this is where How To Clean Stuff can be useful.

From diamonds, old photographs and the PlayStation Portable to your keyboard, the instructions tell you what to brush off and what areas to avoid. There is an extensive listing on how to clean floors, from marble and wood to laminate, and ways to trim the nails of your pet dog.

32. GameFAQs
www.gamefaqs.com

Playing games on the PC or console is simple enough but beating the game as well as getting all the hidden secrets is another matter.

There are various game websites and even tip books on how to do just that, but GameFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) lists the secrets of just about every game made.

33. Howcast
www.howcast.com

There is your mother's method of folding your T-shirts and there is the Howcast way.

In fact, there is the Howcast way for a great many things, from trimming your own bangs, dealing with a flirtatious boss, painting a wall to choosing the bra that accentuates your breasts.

34. How Stuff Works
www.howstuffworks.com

From the interesting to the quirky, How Stuff Works strips off the spin and lays the truth for visitors. With categories ranging from electronics and food to history and people, the site offers basic information on anything and everything.

Mobile sites

35. Wapedia
wapedia.mobi/en/

There is Wikipedia when you need to find out what a lamprey eel is.

However, if you are not at the desk, a better bet would be Wapedia, which you can surf on your mobile phone.

36. Netvibes
m.netvibes.com

Tapping out the addresses of websites on your mobile phone's little keypad can be a pain. The alternative - scrolling through a long list of bookmarks - is equally tedious.

With Netvibes, you get a start page that you can customise to display links, feeds and the latest content from your favourite news sites, blogs and even your inbox.

37. Skweezer
www.skweezer.com

Prevent text clutter on the mobile phone screen with Skweezer.

The online mobile app squeezes information on websites onto tiny screens, even if they are not optimised for that.

All about style

38. Red Carpet Fashion Awards
www.redcarpetfashionawards.com

From movie premieres, TV appearances to award shows, this site keeps tabs on the Who's Who of Tinseltown as well as where their fashion inspiration comes from.

39. AskMen.com
www.askmen.com

Those who readily believe that men do not know anything have not really attempted to ask the men anything. Even if you did, most of the answers may have come from this site. Modelled after men's magazines, expect a slant towards the testosterone-heavy audience.

Topics revolve around beer, women, cars, pictures of women and, well, you get the picture.

40. The Cool Hunter
www.thecoolhunter.net

Providing a peek into the design world, this site highlights items with a certain polish to them.

From ingenious table designs and curtains to radios and fancy hotels, The Cool Hunter is a showcase of things that you do not see every day.

Conversions

41. Online Conversion
www.onlineconversion.com

From simple time clocks and cooking measurements to complex conversion of joules and newtons, Online Conversion does all the math for you.

Reviews

42. Metacritic
www.metacritic.com

On Metacritic, you can read the reviews of movies, music, DVD releases and video games.

If you find the reviews familiar, it is because Metacritic does not commission any of them. The site collates all credible reviews written about a particular new title, then lists and links them conveniently on one page.

Bookworms

43. Internet Sacred Text Archive
www.sacred-texts.com

From Christianity to Taoism, Confucianism to Zoroastrianism and Atlantis to UFOs, the Internet Sacred Text Archive hosts a collection of free electronic books covering religion, mythology and legends, folklore and the occult.

These are not your modern fiction either, as the site offers scans of the original books - where possible - with some dating back to the 1800s.

44. Project Gutenberg
www.gutenberg.org

When it comes to free electronic books, there is no greater resource than Project Gutenberg. While Google Book Search (books.google.com) attempts to bring more electronic books to the masses, including free ones and those for sale, this site is all about books in the public domain.

45. Gocomics.com
www.gocomics.com

One of the joys of reading newspapers is the comic strips where readers can have a few laughs.

From the popular Calvin and Hobbes, classic Dick Tracy to the under-appreciated Heathcliff, comic strips are updated daily and the free service lets you organise your online comic collection from the website.

46. DailyLit
www.dailylit.com

It is ironic that most of us spend the bulk of our daily hours reading e-mail messages but not books. DailyLit comes to the rescue. It offers free public domain books in little chapters.

The premise is simple: pick a book title and choose to have the site e-mail you the chapters in instalments.

Travel

47. SeatGuru
www.seatguru.com

It provides seat maps of all makes and models of planes from some 80 different airlines.

Although it is a United States-based website, airlines popular with travellers here, such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and China Airlines are all represented.

Getting a good seat is especially crucial for long flights. You can check the seat plans before selecting where you want to sit to make sure you do not choose one with limited recline or reduced legroom due to life-vest boxes.

48. Oanda.com
www.oanda.com

Unlike other currency converters you can find on the Internet, Oanda does not just convert a single amount.

It has an FxCheatSheet feature, which lets you create a currency conversion table that lists the conversions for smaller amounts from one to 10 to big amounts up to a few hundred dollars.

It is wallet-sized too, so you can print it, cut it out and take it with you.

49. Tripadvisor
www.tripadvisor.com

Tripadvisor is the most comprehensive travel site with reviews of hotels around the world submitted by regular travellers.

50. Gothere
gothere.sg

What makes Gothere different is the fact that it was created by Singaporeans for Singaporeans.

You can use the service to find out how to get to, say, Tuas Avenue 1 by car, bus or the MRT.

Gothere.com takes into account all factors that make transportation unique in Singapore such as fluctuating Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges and taxi surcharges.

This article was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.