BugMeNot gets you in without a login account

A Web chestnut worthy of regular mention is Bugmenot.com. This handy site gathers and provides, for free, user names and passwords for a large collection of sites worldwide.

Some pay-for-content sites request Bugmenot to not list any passwords, in order to stop people from pouncing on stuff that requires a payment. In that group is the online version of The Spokesman-Review. ( www.spokesmanreview.com). The site honors those requests.

But other news sites, like Nytimes.com, Latimes.com and Washingtonpost.com do not block access for Bugmenot users.

The operators of the site defend their practice in very basic, utilitarian terms. They argue that logins and passwords invade privacy, lead to spam and, as they note, are of little value since so many people use bogus names and information.

Bugmenot has been around for at least five years and its list of accessible sites has reached more than 139,000, according to the site’s operators.

We consider its use valid and fully ethical on sites like the popular movie database site, Imdb.com. Unless you store a name and password there, you’re never allowed to post comments or offer mini-film reviews. Which is half the fun of Imdb.com in the first place.

Popurls.com

If you’re capable of scanning a site that lists — in tiny type— something like 300 ever-changing Web links to interesting tech and news stories posted worldwide, Popurls.com is for you. The site emphasizes volume over design. Its appeal is being a one-stop site that monitors thousands of postings and updates on the Web’s best-known tech and news sites.

For techies, it offers a list of most popular stories appearing on Digg.com, del.icio.us and Reddit.com. News junkies can see plenty of options in lists generated from Newsvine.com, Google.com, News.Yahoo.com and a few others I never knew existed.

Mixed Nuts is a regular feature of .TXT.