The World Wide Web is a wonderful way to waste time. But it's also packed with tools you can use to map a route, look up a word, convert to metric, consult the weather forecast, find out when a movie starts, get a quote from a classic and perform dozens of other tasks.

Think of the list that follows as essential bookmarks, an Internet Swiss army knife stocked with sites you can put to work with no more heavy lifting than a bit of typing and a few mouse clicks. Some of the sites are international in scope and others local.

All are free to anyone with Internet access.

Area Codes: Type in a city and state at http://www.555-1212.com/geo.jsp to get the area code.

Currency Converter: To change dollars into euros, lira, pounds, yen or any other of more than 180 currencies, go to the continually updated converter at http://www.xe.com/ucc.

Dictionary: Several are available online. At http://www.dictionary.com are definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary and Webster's Revised Unabridged. At http://www.m-w.com you'll find the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Earthquakes: If a local earthquake hits and you still have electricity, you can check its intensity at pasadena http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/index.html.

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