Randomness has long been identified as a source of inspiration - not only for authors of fiction, poetry, and visual art, but also for businesspeople, scientists or creative thinkers of any type.

Techniques such as "cut-up", "collage", "cut 'n' mix" and "mashup" are all based on a process of recombining previously unrelated words, sounds or images. In business, this process is often referred to as "lateral thinking" - a way to derail the train of thought from it's linear, predictable route into more uncharted, creative territories.

Available online since 1997, the Cut 'n' Mix Word Machine is a word processing application with advanced randomization capabilities.

Cut'n'Mix users include authors, poets, rock musicians and almost anybody who is looking for some means to stimulate creativity or just have some fun with words.

Cut'n'Mix is a tool for generating creative ideas through the juxtapositioning of unrelated words or phrases. At the core of the Cut 'n' Mix application is a process known as "cut-up".

The traditional cut-up method usually involves scissors: you take books, magazines or typed pages and snip out individual words, phrases or sentence fragments and reassemble them either randomly or according to some predefined pattern.

Cut'n'Mix is a unique application thatautomates this process using an audio four-track recorder analogy where different text streams are blended together according to adjustable settings.