Look, we’ve all done it. We’ve all used a fake, made-up email address for signing up on a webpage when we just need access but don’t want the associated spam. Don’t pretend like you haven’t!

Well, why stop there? Don’t waste all that brain power on coming up with new fake email addresses, or actually registering for some oddball gmail address when you just want one you can use once and throw away.

Well I have got you covered – here is 10 minute mail. It’s a service that provides you with an email address that lasts for only 10 minutes, and you can even get those confirmation emails that require you to click on them before the account is actually activated. Very sneaky, and useful.

That’ll show ’em.

But again, why stop there? Fake email addresses are one thing, but what if you need a whole new identity? What if the registration process demands a whole new you?

In that case, there’s the Fake Name Generator. It won’t just create a new name, it will provide a new username, password, date of birth, occupation, (almost) social security number….it really gives you the once over. It even assigns you a QR code! I’m not sure, but it appears to verge on the illegal. So grab the new you before the NSA does!

The new me!

Of course, if you need to show how socially acceptable you are, you know the only metric that matters there is a Facebook presence. But what if, like me, you don’t have one? Well you can just make your own fake Facebook posts. That’s right, this site allows you to say “I do so have a Facebook profile, it just has, uh, really strong privacy settings.” (Warning: I couldn’t get my picture to upload)

Be social!

But if you have a real Facebook page, why not let people think you’ve finally made it to that parallel universe they all think you were from in the first place? At Fliptext you can flip anything you type into the box upside down and use it on Facebook. The only catch is, when everyone asks you how you did it, you have to answer “Magic!”

Flip text

If Facebooking, which is actually a verb (by the way, in an interesting historical aside, note the date of that entry and the name of the website they reference), still doesn’t give you the social-cred you crave, then maybe you have to take it all to the next level. You know, pseudo-rubbing elbows with celebrities of all types. Whether it’s Bruce Willis, Snoop Dogg, Leonardo DiCaprio, the king of all celebrities Nicholas Cage, or any of a hundred others, Photo with Me has you covered.

It’s an excruciatingly bad design of a page, but the potential is endless, and hilarious. Just get the celebrity, put them into one of your photos, and no one will ever know it’s a fake! If they’re gullible. Very, very gullible.

Yep, Nic Cage. One of many.

Here’s an actually productive one. You know I make a big deal about your writing; not just its content but its quality. While I don’t want you to overuse tools to help with your writing (you should just write well to begin with), here is an interesting site that counts how many times each word in a passage is used. Very useful to see if you’re overusing words or relying to much on a single turn of phrase – get it? Become a Homer (not that Homer), or Shakespeare, or Stephen King.

This…

…becomes this

And finally, there always has to be the great applications of web-based technologies for people who just wish they were Hobbits. Or perhaps some other denizen of Middle-Earth…I don’t know, dragons? This time it’s an interactive map of lands and places from The Hobbit.

I’m not the hugest Hobbit fan in the world, but the site really is incredible. I don’t want to give away too much, but don’t forget to drag right and left (it works with touchscreens too) when you visit specific locations, they did a great job with the whole thing. You won’t be disappointed.