A lot of the internet is bad. I spend a lot of time looking for the good parts and writing about them.
Sometimes, though, I don’t have a lot to say about good websites, generally because they’re useful in a way that’s not necessarily interesting. These clog up my pitch list over time, because while I can’t convince publications to let me write about them I also can’t bring myself to delete them from my idea list.
That ends now. Here are some Actually Good Websites™you can check out.
- FreeGraphPaper.net is perfect if own a printer and only occasionally need graph paper. You can use this site to print out not only graph paper but also isometric paper for 3D sketching or paper for music notation.
- Seat61 has information about basically any train trip you could possibly imagine, seemingly anywhere on earth. It’s the work of one man, Mark Smith, and it’s one of those old-fashioned passion projects the internet used to be full of. Consult this site anytime you even consider riding a train.
- 808.html is a virtual drum machine. I’ve had fun messing around with this so I’ve got a beat to practice my guitar scales to, but you can also use it to annoy your spouse, roommate, or parent. You can even create a beat and send it to a friend, so they can jam over it.
- MarineTraffic.com is a map of seemingly every boat in the world. Whether you’re at the beach or strolling next to a river, you can quickly answer the questions everyone has: where’s that boat coming from, and where is it going?
Honestly, just bookmark all of these—you’ll thank me later. Let me know if you’d like to see more roundups like this, and if you’ve got any websites or apps that would be a good fit.
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