All Entires In Internet & Links Category
By Professor Martyn Poliakoff, CBE, of the University of Nottingham presents the Periodic Table of Videos.
My mate Mark is a huge Manchester United fan and something of a stats nerd; which is something I would never have pegged him as when we were younger. Anyway, he has been running a website for about 10 years now and had recently decided it needed sprucing up.
We've sat down a few times together over the last couple of months and had come to a decision to transfer all the content over into Movable Type from Frontpage. However, after I'd transferred about ½ of the content we re-evaluated and came to the decision that Movable Type was really not suitable for the task. After further delving with Frontpage we've came up with a really elegant solution that uses more of Frontpage's core features.
The site did have a sort of uniformed design already; a header, footer, left sidebar and a right sidebar on most of the pages. The rest of the pages just had the header, footer and left sidebar. However, all the pages used inline frames for the header, footer and sidebars.
Mark has spent most of this week playing with Frontpage and has managed to come up with a set of templates that can be assigned to the entire site. The beauty of the system is that Frontpage will update all attached pages if he updates the templates. The test pages he had uploaded looked good but for one or two niggles. I've been up there this evening and have modified the templates to give them a more fluid ability. The newly updated test pages now display great at any resolution of 1024x768 or higher. Previously the right-hand sidebar had expanded to take up all the remaining screen width. Now, the entire page dynamically resizes to take advantage of the extra screen width.
An added advantage is that rather than the updating process taking most of the next month or so we can get it done in only a few nights. I'm due to pop back up to have a look at something else for him next week and fully expect the site to be fully updated to the new template design.
One of the other things we were going to do was add a redirect on his old webspace to point to the new domain. Unfortunately, his old ISP has deleted the old Index pages and won't allow him to upload any files to the space. This has prevented him from installing any sort of redirect. I think the next course of action is to delete the entire site from the old webspace and hope that Google trawls the site again soon, finds no content there, and removes the entries from it's database.
Anyway, the newly relocated site can be found here.
Youniverse was featured on this week's BBC Click magazine show and is a site that uses photos to build a personality profile. It's quite a fascinating process and seems to work pretty well.
The Human Calendar is just what the name implies; a calendar. It's kind of a natural progression of The Human Clock, created by the same guy back in 2001. Apparently the idea was first dreamt up back in 2003 but didn't come to full fruition until 2007. You can even get some portable versions of the calendar to add to your own website.
Here is a nice collection of wallpapers from Western Washington University Planetarium.
Here is a nice collection of anime wallpapers.
Here is a collection of 'Demotivantional' posters.
Here is a rather large collection of cartoons. There's a few gems amongst them all.
Here is the index page of NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day, which has been going strong since June 1995.
The Geek Care & Feeding Guide very firmly has it's tongue planted well into it's cheek.
Best Photoshop Tutorials and Tips Sites is a rather cool collection of links to some Photoshop tips and tricks.
Marc and Angel Hack Life is a site on which the authors share their views and thoughts on a broad range of topics pertaining to life, hacks, productivity, aspirations, health, work, tech and general self improvement.
Not everybody will agree with what they write but they do have some useful insights. 50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do is one of the posts that make useful reading.
Every year about a million children in Africa die as a result of Malaria and this campaign aims to significantly reduce this number. You can donate by American Express, Visa or Mastercard and 100% of your donation goes to purchasing anti-malaria nets.
Visit the website.
Watching Click this morning Kate Russell recommended a site called Planet Scicast.
Planet SciCast started life as an idea from TV kids science producer Jonathan Sanderson, who has worked on programmes like How2 and Big Bang.
Planet Scicast is partnered with NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, ETB, the Engineering and Technology Board, IOP, the Institute Of Physics and Planet Science, a website from NESTA.
Planet Scicast is four things:
- Some training in schools on how to make mini movies of science demonstrations.
- A big UK wide competition to get children, young people, teachers, parents, science communicators and science/engineering/technology professionals all making mini movies to send in to Planet SciCast.
- A web resource of all those movies and the written up activities and experiments, for the use and amusement of all the above.
- Finally, a discussion about who's job it is to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers with entertaining science related material.
Here's a list of Web sites that render more useful the streams of information generated by Twitter's users. Some you may know about; others are more obscure. But if you're a Twitter user who has yet to explore the world built around Twitter, you owe itself to check these out.
- Hashtags -- Track tags designated by a # in Twitter.
- Loud Twitter -- Post Twitter updates to a blog.
- Politweets -- Tracking political discussion on Twitter.
- Quotably -- Threads Twitter conversations, with varying results.
- Summize -- Yet another Twitter search engine. Also uses topics trending up.
- Terraminds -- Another Twitter search engine.
- Track This -- Track packages using Twitter.
- Tweetburner -- Track links you share on Twitter.
- Tweeterboard -- Find Twitter's most influential users.
- Tweet Scan -- Search Twitter using keywords.
- TweetStats -- Want to know just how addicted you are to Twitter? Graph your usage!
- TweetWire.com -- See links submitted to Twitter organized by category: Election 2008, tech, sports, celebrity.
- Twist -- Graph and compare usage of keywords and topics in Twitter.
- Twistori -- What Twitter users are loving, wishing for, feeling, hating and believing, right now.
- TwitLinks -- Links submitted to Twitter by a select list of tech luminaries.
- TwitPic -- Because a picture is worth more than 140 characters.
- Twitslikeme -- Find other Twitter users who may share your interests.
- TwittEarth -- Live Twitter updates shown on a spinning 3D globe. Very similar to Twittervision 3D.
- TwitterBuzz -- Popular links on Twitter.
- Twitter Census -- Ask a question, use this to tally the results.
- Twitterfeed -- Send an RSS feed to Twitter. Great for alerting friends to blog posts.
- Twitter Guide -- Not a tool, but a nice Twitter explainer and etiquette guide.
- Twitterholic -- Find out who has the most followers, friends or updates.
- Twitter Local -- Find local Twitter users. There's also an Adobe AIR application you can run on your desktop.
- Twitter Quotient -- Rates your Twitter activity.
- TwitterSnooze! -- Temporarily unfollow someone, then re-follow them at an assigned time. WARNING: Saves your Twitter name and password to its servers until it re-follows.
- Twitterverse -- Common terms being used over a given period of time, arranged in tag-cloud fashion.
- Twittervision -- Map Twitter updates on a map or a 3D globe. There's also a Mac OS screen saver.
- Twubble -- Searches friends of your friends to suggest more people to follow.
- @timer - Send this account a message and it will respond with a reminder at the time you specifiy.
For all you Flickr fans have a look at Tag Galaxy; a rather spiffy new way to browse Flickr.
Miro: A free application that turns your computer into an internet TV video player. You can download it here for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
RadioPaq: RadioPaq is a portal that makes internet radio simpler than ever, with visual, interactive and on-demand services for news, podcasts and global stations.
PaperToys: A website full of paper toys, models, cut-outs, trains, airplanes, paper party gifts, party hats, paper cars, paper motorcycles and cards.
I've found a couple of really cool websites, a mind-blowing Firefox extension and a wee bit of PC nostalgia.
First up is Dungeon & Dragons Adventures; a pretty useful resource for all the D&D geeks out there. It includes Adventures, Articles, Downloads and Forums.
Next up is CyberNet News; which has a host of technology news and productivity tips and is the site where I discovered the most jaw-dropping Firefox extension I think I've ever seen.
Tab Effects is a Firefox extension that takes advantage of Direct X 8 and higher to add a rather awesome transition effect when switching tabs.
The nostalgia is a clone of the Flying Toasters sceensaver that Berkley Systems released as part of the After Dark series on the PC way back in 1989. Anyway, ToasterClone works under Apple OSX and Windows.
Quick Online Tips was featured on BBC Click over the weekend and is quite a useful resource. From their 'About Us' page:
Quick Online Tips is a popular blog regularly publishing Technology news, smart blogging tips, new media, web 2.0 services, useful computer software, advertising and how to make money online.
Go and have a look.
Scoot ordered some merchandise recently and handed me a copy of the catalogue he used. The company offer a wide variety of music merchandise such as t-shirts, long sleeves, hoodies and jewellery. They can be found here.
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test
You are Spider-Man You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky
and have great power and responsibility.
Spider-Man 80% Green Lantern 60% Robin 55% Catwoman 50% Hulk 40% Supergirl 32% Batman 30% Wonder Woman 27% Iron Man 25% The Flash 20% Superman 20%
Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz
You are Mr. Freeze You are cold and you think everyone
else should be also, literally.
Mr. Freeze 54% Venom 33% The Joker 29% Dr. Doom 29% Dark Phoenix 28% Poison Ivy 27% Lex Luthor 21% Mystique 20% Riddler 18% Apocalypse 18% Green Goblin 16% Two-Face 16% Kingpin 16% Magneto 14% Catwoman 14% Juggernaut 12%
Open Doors is another of those seemingly simple flash games that are a lot harder that they first appear. I'm stuck on level 13.
Listropolis is a site that aggregates lists. The lists include such gems as The 10 Most Sexually Unappealing Craigslist Postings, Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software and 9 Outrageously Handy Websites Everyone Should Try.
Blank Is Like Blank is a website of 'Analogies To Live By.' I especially like the 'Using a semicolon is like barbecuing' analogy.
I'm off to cheer Newcastle United on this afternoon and then I'm off roleplaying this evening. Have fun.
These toilet signs are quite funny.
Compulse is another of those deceptively simple-looking flash games.
Cali Lewis mentioned a rather useful website in yesterday's GeekBrief podcast; Down For Everyone Or Just Me? is a website that enables users to check and see if a website is really down or if the problem is actually with their own connection.
Do you have a favourite website that you enjoy visiting but are annoyed that it doesn't have an RSS feed?
This is where Page2RSS comes in. Just give it a URL of a website that doesn't have an RSS feed and it'll supply options to subscribe to an RSS feed that it'll create for you. All the feed entries point back to the Page2RSS page first but it feels like a small price to pay for such a valuable service.
I've just discovered a rather awesome Battlestar Galactica podcast; the Galactica Watercooler. The podcast has a definite talk-radio feel and includes phone-ins.
I've just created a Twitter profile for myself. Anybody interested can follow me. Shockingly, 'Bowch' was already taken so I'm signed up as 'BowchUK'. In fact, further delving reveals that the 'Bowch' username is actually me when I signed up for Liberal Democrat updates back in January. Unfortunately, I don't know what email address or password was used and can't seem to recover it. So, I'm 'BowchUK' on Twitter.
I originally spotted this quick little test on Wil Wheaton's blog and had to share.
Studenthacks.org is a site primarily aimed at students but it has some useful bits and pieces for everybody. Especially, if you have a need to do any sort of research on the web. The Research Resources link on the site lists 100 online resources of some use.
HMV currently have a sale on. I was going to buy myself a copy of The Simpsons Movie for only £4.99 but instead spotted The Omen: Pentology for only £7.99 instead. There were loads of other things I could've also bought but restricted myself to just the one item.
I have recently discovered a rather awesome fan written web comic called The Ten Doctors. If you're a fan of Doctor Who I suggest you go and check it out. The previous link will take you to the archives so you can start reading from Page 1 without spoiling future pages.
I came across a rather useful website for Vista users earlier today. The Windows Vista User Guide aims to provide a concise, easy to follow guide on how to get started with Windows Vista. The guides are written to help everybody from the inexperienced, absolute beginner to the more advanced user.
I was watching a podcast earlier concerning the Microsoft Techfest 2008 and the Live Translator site was mentioned. Like many of the other translating sites on the net it'll take inputted text in one of several languages and output a translated version. What really stands out though is the way it translates whole sites. I've got a Firefox plugin that will render a translated version of any site in another tab/window but Live Translator does a side-by-side translation in the same tab/window. Quite cool.
Cali Lewis covered Twitter In Plain English from Common Craft on a recent episode of GeekBrief.TV. I'm not a Twitter user. I get the idea, but it just doesn't interest me. However, their website also includes instruction concerning Blogs, RSS Feeds and the undoubted highlight; Zombies. Go and take a look.
I don't know about other people but I sometimes find it rather difficult to get to sleep at night and if there's no Ice Hockey or Basketball on the tv I end up listening to the radio for a good couple of hours before finally succumbing. The show that I tend to listen to is Up All Night presented nightly from 1am by either Dotun Adebayo or Rhod Sharp on BBC Radio 5Live.
Monday morning is a book phone in, Tuesday morning is pods & blogs, Wednesday morning is US sports, Thursday morning is a science phone in, Friday morning is a Medical phone in, Saturday morning is a world football phone in and Sunday morning is a film phone in.
The website offers you the opportunity to listen again to the various shows and subscribe to the podcasts.
To coincide with the Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall campaign to raise awareness of the plight of chickens, the RSPCA has challenged supermarkets to become the first to pledge to only sell 100% welfare-friendly chicken by 2010.
Eight-hundred and sixty million chickens are reared for their meat in the UK each year. The majority of these chickens are reared to standards the RSPCA believe are unacceptably low.
Please visit the RSPCA for more information and also please sign the petition.
GoComics is a site where you can either view comics online for free or register and get comics emailed to you. Registration requires a minimum amount of information and enables GoComics to send you the comics you are interested in and allows them to describe the aggregate demographics of their sites to advertisers. Specific user information is not disclosed to any third parties.
Giveaway of the Day is a project that, on a daily basis, offers licensed software for FREE that you would normally have to buy! Every day they nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software will be available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by the software publisher) and that software will be absolutely free. That means - not a trial, not a limited version - but a registered and legal version of the software.
Game Giveaway of the Day is their companion site. No prizes for guessing what you can get there.
Datamancer, to use his own description, is a dweeb. He builds wacky stuff and dabbles in a little bit of everything.
One of the highlights of the site is a Victorian Steampunk Laptop which features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, customized wireless network card and turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts
Reading about the subject of my previous post; Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, got me thinking about how censorship of the internet affects people around the world and led me to discover the following sites:
The OpenNet Initiative's aim is to investigate, expose and analyze Internet filtering and surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion and to uncover the potential pitfalls and unintended consequences of these practices.
Reporters Without Frontiers has fought for press freedom on a daily basis since it was founded in 1985. All the organisation's press releases and publications are available online in five languages (Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Persian) at its website which keeps a daily-updated list of journalists killed or imprisoned around the world. It also contains detailed reports on special cases and invites the public to sign online petitions for the release of jailed journalists.
Wikileaks is an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. They expose oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. They are also of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights since it was founded in July 1990.
Freaking News is the top News Photoshop Pictures site on the web. Actual news stories fuel their Photoshop picture contests with scores of wacky doctored pictures. Members get cash for participating and winning the daily contests.
Crazy and Fun is a site about some of the crazy and fun stuff that you can find on the internet. There are many funny pictures, videos, stories and news stories. You can also find sports material and music for all.
Gadgettastic is another of the myriad of sites that aim to bring you the latest news on gadgets and technology from around the world. If your looking for the latest gadgets, gizmos, and geek stuff you will find it Gadgettastic.
Nikon Universcale is one of the coolest size comparison animations I've seen.
Fulfillment on The Sect of Homokasu is a seemingly simple piece-fitting puzzle game that soon gets tricky. There are also a selection of other games there.
A quite funny Quicksand Prank.
Unexplained Mysteries is a website devoted to paranormal phenomena and the worlds greatest unexplained mysteries.
Silly Photos from Bored.com.
Ever felt frustrated enough to want to go and destroy something? Visit Netdisaster and destroy the web.
Diet Blog is all about filtering the best of diet news and advice - and combining it with real-world application and opinion. The whole spectrum is covered - everything from body image to fast food.
Open Source Living is an archive of the Web's best Open Source software, applications and references.
Fark is a news aggregator and an edited social networking news site. Every day Fark receives 2,000 or so news submissions from its readership. Fark is what fills space when mass media runs out of news. Fark is supposed to look like news... but it's not news. It's Fark.
A better quality version of the teaser I mentioned previously has now appeared on the official Star Trek movie site. The trailer's no different than the previous one other than improved quality. There is also the option to watch the trailer in HD and also to register for updates.
GreatInventions.tv, as seen on TV - Innovative products for your home.
10 Strange Keyboards, a list of ten of the most unique keyboards on the market, or soon to be on the market.
Browsing across the web I've come across this site a few times.
Most recently it was referenced here; which details some of the sites that were in existence back in 1996.
Looking for some of my old sites I couldn't find any references to my old Compuserve site from way back in 1997 but did find my Clara.net site from January 21st, 1998. And, although I started using this domain back in April 2000, the first archive I could find was from January 24th, 2001. Even though this blog has records only from April 2003 onwards I was posting info/blog entries even way back then, in January 2001 and do remember that I had been updating people even earlier than that.
I also found an archive of my old Quest site: Dawnraiders HQ; and We Are Borg; a site that I had an idea for but never progressed. It used to forward to an old MUD; Trekker's Rest, that I frequented at one point.
I stumbled across Widgetbox by accident and after having a play around I've added a couple of the available widgets to my MySpace page. I may also add 1 or 2 here if I can find the right ones.
Anyway, from the Background page at Widgetbox:
Widgetbox™ is an open web widget marketplace and syndication platform. It serves both the developers who create widgets and the web publishers who use widgets on their sites.
A web widget is a small piece of interactive content (like an ad or a game) that can be dynamically embedded into a web page. Widgets allow for a new level of expression and creativity as personal web publishers use them to create value and interest in their blogs, social networks, personal home pages, and web sites. Widgetbox enables developers to easily build, distribute, promote, monitor and monetize widgets. It enables web publishers to easily find, configure, integrate and manage widgets.
Web publishers can search the Widgetbox gallery and use the categories, ratings and reviews to find the right widget. Once a widget is selected, Live Preview™ enables the web publisher to see the widget exactly as it will look configured for their site. The configuration is done without coding and the installation to the blog or web site is a visual process. In addition to this ease of use, Widgetbox has unique capabilities that make widgets smarter and more useful:
- Widget Panels: Drag & drop placement makes it easy to install and manage widgets within Widgetbox.
- Widget Metrics: Widget publishers get a metrics dashboard that allows them to track the spread of their widgets across the web.
- Live Widgets: Widgets are always “live” within blogs and web pages. They can be re-configured instantly and without touching HTML code.
- Smart Blogs: Widgets can be “tag aware”, meaning a web publisher can make widgets react to the content of their web site. For example, an image widget might display images related to the content of the most recent blog post.
Money Blogger isn't a site I've really visited before today but a mention on Pewari's Prattle about a competition piqued my interest. Dom Ramsey, the guy behind the site, is offering his own personal 8gb iPod Nano as a competion prize.
The idea behind Money Blogger is quite simple; to see how much money he can make in a year from blogging. I will be revisiting his site at semi-regular intervals to keep up with his progress.
OnMyList is a site full of lists. From 10 Amazing Optical Illusions to Why Having a Roommate Sucks to Celebrity Scientologists to Signs You Are Having A Bad Day to Best Pictures from Google Street View. All these and more.
Seatwave.com is quite a useful site if you're thinking of going to a gig or sporting event and cannot find tickets.
This puppy is about as cute as you can get.
A teaser trailer for the new Star Trek movie has managed to find it's way onto the web. It's very dark and low quality but can be seen here. It's likely the trailer may play alongside Cloverfield in the cinema.
This site was quite cool. It will change your browser resolution but do no lasting damage.
Due to the current rules regarding licensing fees for Internet music services Pandora are to block access to its service by UK users. Pandora founder Tim Westergren recently sent out an e-mail to Pandora users explaining that the U.K. version of the site would have to shut down. In the e-mail Westergren writes, “both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.”
There is a petition on the 10 Downing Street website asking the government to look at the current situation and legislate if necessary. Please visit and sign the petition.
Instructions on how to create Mii Characters based on famous people and characters.
Please check out: FreeRice.com.
As the title above suggests, this link is a collection of statues and sculptures. The comments on the page also includes a few extra links to other statues.
A list of Digg's best 25 images from 2007 can be found here.
I may have blogged about this site in the past but thought now was a good time to direct you there again.
Please check out Order of the Stick.
Click here to check these out.
As the subject suggests; some pretty creative ads here.
The 2007 Darwin Awards.
Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.
Here is the glorious winner:
1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach , California , would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
Was just browsing about and came across this. A neat, little site about the night sky.
Why complicate such a simple game as Rock, Paper, Scissors?
Must admit this does look kind of cool though.
I ordered a new Sapphire X1950 Pro 512mb ATI Radeon X1950 Pro gfx card for my PC from CCL Online. Paid via Google Checkout and now wish I hadn't.
My bank has issued payment but Google are saying my card has been declined and haven't forwarded the order to CCL.
Once I get it sorted I'm going to go back to using either Paypal or the vendor's own checkout process.
Currently awaiting some form of response from Google.
Having a clearout of some of my old bits and bobs.
Currently got a load of books and pc games listed on eBay and will be adding some XBox games by the weekend.
Click Here If Interested.
Job's a good 'un.
Burning Safari is quite a cool French CGI animated film. Check it out.
With the price of oil continuing to rise the cost of fuel for the average motorist is heading closer and closer to £1 a litre. With that in mind I came across a very useful web site.
Check this out.
This is funny.
Lifted from Mark A's Blog.
This made me laugh.
How fast can you punch the monkey? 315mph is my best.
This is cool and tricky. My highest score is 17130, on level 6.
A collection of Comic Strips.
For anybody interested it's located here.
