Iacta Alea Est: view a random reader

I love the power of random (because is it REALLY random... or not??? hmmm...) - and I recently discovered that there is a parameter you can add to a Delicious tag set to get a random webpage displayed from the list of tagged items - WOW. That is what led to the Iacta Alea Est which you can now find in the right-hand column of the blog, and also as shown below:


It's SO SIMPLE. All you need to know how to do is to create a Delicious URL including some tag(s). For example, here's a Delicious URL for stuff tagged as "tarheelreader" and "latin" and "recommended" -

http://delicious.com/tag/tarheelreader+latin+recommended

See how it works... there is delicious.com, then a search by tag, for "tarheelreader" AND "latin" AND "recommended" - and the result is a page listing all the items tagged in that way.

Well, look at this:

http://delicious.com/tag/tarheelreader+recommended+latin?random=1

All I did was add the parameter "random=1" to the end, and the resulting link has the awesome power to go get a page from that list and display it! (Click on the link and you'll see what I mean!)

SOOOOOOOO, roll the dice! I hope you will have fun with the results!

I have to admit, this may be the neatest random trick I have discovered online. I give Delicious an A+ for this one. :-)

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