INTERESTING WEBSITES 3

How Stuff Works is a site so crammed with information about anything and everything that you'll wonder how on
earth you managed for all these years without it. This site is all about stuff, any kind of stuff - from computer stuff,
to money stuff, to stuff about people, and stuff about science. You can browse the categories by subject or type a
word or phrase into the search box to return a list of possible subjects that you might want to investigate. This site
is so easy to find your way around it's a dream, and if you want to keep the information for reference later on then
use the 'printable version' button to make a hard copy you can look at when you're not online. There's a huge
library of articles explaining in really simple terms how things work, from acoustic guitars to zippers, all with
accompanying pictures and diagrams where needed, to make the learning experience really rewarding.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Totally absurd is a website that exposes some of the most outrageous inventions ever to be patented, and there
are some pretty bizarre inventions on there. If you've ever looked into the idea of patenting a clever invention
you'll know that it's a lengthy and expensive procedure - and for me, all of the registered US patents displayed on
this website beg one simple question: why? Take this suggestion for creating 'toilet landing lights', complete with
detailed schematics and a description of the key functions - i.e. to light up the opening of a toilet seat at night...
why? Surely just flicking the bathroom light switch on would work just as well? Or how about this ludicrous device
designed to help you when hunting geese… why?

http://totallyabsurd.com/

First up is the Sophos site, a well laid out and simple to navigate place. The news page is a bit wordy and could do
with some graphics to spice it up a little but it's all good information with a very nice page on disinfection
instructions should you have a virus - or at least suspect you have a virus.

http://www.sophos.com/

There is the same sort of thing on the Mcafee site but, as if you need reminding, lets not forget that all these sites
want to sell you their products so do remember you don't have to buy anything to use the sites. Regarding virus
information, the Mcafee site shows you what is happening in the virus world at the moment. Just for my own
interest I ran the on-site security test that checked my machine for security leaks - the result wasn't entirely good!

http://mcafee.com/

Feeling a little trepidatious I went over to Symantec, a site that should be avoided if you are allergic to the colour
yellow. The security response page is easier on the eye and quite well laid out with news and information. I liked
the virus removal tool section that gives you a small program and full instructions on using it to kill of any nasty
viruses you have. I also ran the Symantec security test and this time scored ten out of ten - no prizes for guessing
that my machine was running a Symantec firewall and anti-virus software.

There are many other anti virus manufacturers' sites that cover the same things. If you don't like my suggestions
just pop 'anti virus' into your search engine and stand well back.

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/

CKNow is one of those websites that prove the internet is a good thing. In its computer virus tutorial it takes us
through just about everything you might want to know about viruses. The opening page has a map with a list of
the top ten viruses around the world and, when you are feeling brave enough to learn, it takes you directly into an
introduction to viruses. You can then bounce around the contents where you can look at anything from the
behaviour of viruses to their names, you can even download the information on the site in PDF form, although
beware it is nearly 300 pages long. One thing that caught my eye was the history section, according to which the
first virus in the wild was a virus infecting Apple computers, the old AppleII in fact, which rather puts paid to the
myth that Apple computers don't get viruses. It's a shame that the history is written from the personal computer
view because it neglects to mention the worms and Trojan horses that were effecting mainframe computers in the
early seventies, but hey, you can't have everything.

http://www.cknow.com/vtutor/vtsladecontents.htm

For those of you that can't afford to buy an anti virus programme here's something to help. A lot of you will know
Tucows as being a freeware and shareware site, so what better place to look for free anti-virus software. Once in
the site go to the search box, type in anti virus, hit go and you are shown pages of software programs you can
download. The information on the page is pretty straightforward: you are giving a rating, which is really a
definition of its popularity, the file size, and whether the software is freeware or shareware, essentially the

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difference is one is free and the other you can try before you buy. And if you want something from the big boys
you can also find the likes of Symantec anti-virus here. But obviously you have to pay for it like you would any
other commercial program.

And if all this talk of viruses is making you feel a bit queasy I thought I'd include this fascinating resource on
human diseases. Check out the links under viruses, there's enough reading to get you through many rainy days.

http://www.tucows.com/

http://www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/

How good are you at remembering birthdays? I'm notoriously bad, and I'm always forgetting to send one of my
nephews or nieces a card. Happily, there's now a place where people who have a memory like a sieve can get a
little help. Life Is Busy is a really neat little web tool that allows you to make a record of all the important events
in your life so that you never have to forget them again. From anniversaries to medical appointments, you just
plug in the date, choose when you want to be reminded, then sit back and wait for an email to arrive. It's like
having a web based personal assistant. It can't make you a cup of coffee of course, but if you find yourself with
time on your hands after all, there's also a great collection of flash games you can play to while away the hours.

http://www.lifeisbusy.com/

If you're looking for something a little more adventurous to do with your spare time then have a look at the kinds
of holidays you can find out about at Space Adventures. Did you ever dream of becoming an astronaut when you
were a child? Well, now you can make that dream into a reality! Here you can find out how to experience zero-
gravity flight, by going through the same basic training exercise used by NASA and the Russian Space Agency to
train their astronauts in weightlessness. Amazingly, this can be done in just a weekend, and passengers aboard
the Russian parabolic-flight aircraft experience 30-40 seconds of zero-gravity effect as the aircraft freefalls
towards the ground from a fantastic height. Obviously not a trip for anyone suffering from Acrophobia, but there's
also a section for those interested in exploring the deep - 8,600 feet deep to be precise. This involves sinking to
the bottom of the Pacific ocean to explore the Nine North hydrothermal vent site, one of the greatest scientific
discoveries of the 20th Century. Subaqua tourists can marvel at the diverse marine life that has made an
extraordinary home out of these deep sea chimneys, which shoot 400 degree centigrade mineral-rich water
several hundred feet up into the ice-cold depths.

http://www.spaceadventures.com/

Blue Voice is a charity site crammed full of news, information and features about the desperate plight of so many
of the marine mammals living in our seas, who are suffering the effects of pollution, destructive fishing practises,
and the general selfish attitude of the biggest threat to their welfare: man. This website is not only functional,
with regularly updated news articles and a free newsletter for its members, but it's also really elegantly designed,
with loads of fascinating content about whales and dolphins. You can just tell that the people who put this site
together have a huge passion for these magestic and intelligent creatures. As well as offering practical advice on
how you can help, there's an amazing video archive filled with beautifully produced documentaries about the
subject - but be warned if you're of a sensitive nature - some of these films are bound to bring a tear to your eye.

http://www.bluevoice.org/

Something else that might bring a tear to your eye is dabbing lemon juice on an open cut - but that's exactly what
our final site for today recommends that you do! Among other things, Wacky Uses offers an incredible array of
suggestions for weird and wonderful uses of every day objects. For example, did you know that as well as stopping
a small cut from bleeding, lemon juice can also be used as invisible ink? Or that drawing a line of chalk around
your window frames and doors can help prevent an ant invasion? Well, you do now. The list of useful things you
can do with everyday objects goes on and on - and I actually tried removing a grease stain by rubbing chalk into it
the other day, and do you know what? It really works!

http://www.wackyuses.com/

First let's go on holiday: New Zealand is a place I'd love to get to - and if you haven't already been there yourself,
take a look at what you're missing at Pure NZ, the essential resource for anyone who dreams of travelling to New
Zealand - regardless of whether or not you're actually going to make it there. This stunning and informative site is
packed full of amazing pictures and interesting facts about this diverse and culturally lavish land. It's really well
laid out, and there's plenty of advice on how to get there and what you can do during your stay, whether it's
snowboarding or skiing on the Queenstown peaks, or diving the reefs in the crystal clear waters of the Poor
Knights Islands. There's a brilliantly simple route planner for anyone thinking of driving around to see the sights,
which will help you make the most of your time spent on the road - and you can find inspiration about where to

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start on the travel journal pages, which feature some really well written and illustrated travellers' tales. With its
mystical landscapes and wide-open spaces New Zealand made the perfect setting for JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth -
and the interactive map, introduced by Legolas from the movie, makes a really good way of exploring country.

http://www.purenz.com/

With the Beagle 2 mission on its way to Mars, space travel has been a hot topic in the media just recently, and
there's no better place to find out about this subject than the European Space Agency. Here you can track the
progress of the Mars Express mission and learn all about the incredibly sophisticated technology they'll be using
to gather data when they get there. For the first time ever, scientists will be able to remotely analyse rock and soil
samples collected by Beagle 2s robotic 'paw'. The big question they hope to find the answer to is "is there, or has
there ever been, life on Mars?" Well, with Beagle 2 scheduled to set down on the planet's surface on Christmas
day, I'll definitely be keeping my eye on these pages over the coming months. But there's a lot more to see on the
ESA website. The Space Science pages house a galaxy of information if you're curious about outer space - with
videos and articles about everything from the Rosetta comet, to alternative methods of space travel that wouldn't
look out of place in a science-fiction novel.

http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html

If you're a Superbike fan then you simply have to take a look at this next site from my favourites folder - The
Superbike World Championship Site. This high-octane site is crammed full of so much information about various
Superbike events that it can seem a little bit daunting at first - but it's worth persevering as it's simply the best
source of information on the subject that I've seen on the web. There's news, results, team line ups and rider
profiles, and despite the fact that this website looks so fussy it's actually surprisingly easy to navigate to what you
want once you've settle in. The multimedia tab takes you straight through to all of the most impressive stuff, with
screensavers and desktop images to download for free. Or, if you just want to sit back and enjoy the ride, check
out the video galleries and my favourite, the crash video gallery. One question for the site creators though, what
happened to the sound on all of these videos? Sort it out!

http://www.superbike.it/

For sheer idiocy, and the general cheek of it, I love this quirky little website entitled simply Dean and Nigel - The
Blenders. It's basically been produced by two ordinary guys who like to go out into public places and 'blend' with
the general public. They do this by mimicking them in the street - I have no idea why. With nothing but a bag of
props, a digital camera, and a whole lot of nerve to assist them, the result is some hilarious images of people
being taken completely unawares. There's even a section with advice on how to take up 'blending' yourself if the
mood should take you. These guys really are completely potty, and not even celebrities are safe from the
Blenders!

http://www.deanandnigel.co.uk/

Let's plunge into a search engine with an artistic leaning, suggested by Carlo from Oslo, Norway. PostArt is an
interesting venture which is attempting to create a database of artists of different genres such as painting,
graphic design, photography and video. You can narrow your search also by geography, and once your results are
displayed you can link off to the individual artist's portfolio. Be aware that this site behaves very much like it is in
its infancy. The forums are a little bare and there are just over 700 artists in the database. However, it's important
to develop niche engines such as this, where artists, researchers, art collectors, and students can easily find
information on new artists and exchange ideas about art. I'd keep a close eye on this one.

http://www.postart.org/pa/default.asp

Onto another engine now and have you ever heard of the 'deep net'? According to Turbo10, traditional engines
like Google and Yahoo pull up just 10% of what's out there because they crawl static web pages. This is known as
the surface web. The remaining 90% is known as the Deep Net. Turbo10, like many other search tools, conducts a
meta-search across 10 other engines, chosen from over 1300 other search engines available to them. But if you
want a deeper search involving specialised material, then Turbo10 has access to specialist databases from
business associations, universities, libraries, and government departments. The search appears to send up results
very quickly and the clustering menu on the left helps compartmentalise the mass of results delivered. Coupled
with a clean interface and refreshing lack of pop-ups, banners and ads, this should join your search engine
arsenal. Let me know what you think - could Turbo10 spell the end of Google? Thanks to Deepesh Agarwal in
India for the recommendation.

http://www.turbo10.com/

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Although Mindat is a specialised site about precious stones it's curiously fascinating. The database delivers a
wealth of information from an accessible summary and the etymology of the stone's name, to complex data about
its physical properties and occurrence in the natural world. I'd say the most interesting parts of this site are the
images of minerals and precious stones in their raw unpolished form. For you rockhunters out there, there's a
lively forum in which you can find out about collecting, cleaning and places to visit to add to your collection.
Minerals might not be the biggest specialist topic on the planet or the Web, but Mindat's well put together and the
content is authoritative, so go have a look.

www.mindat.org

Finally an amusing site: Mugshots recommended by Steven Jenkins. Yes, someone has actually created a
directory of celebrities, historical characters and regular people who've all been down the police station and for
one reason or another had their mugshots taken. You'll recognise many of the personalities and the site even
informs you about what crime or misdemeanour led to these flattering photographs being taken. This is a mainly
US based website so not all mugshots will be familiar, but a bizarre visual scrapbook to while away some browsing
time.

www.mugshots.com

If you're interested in developing or improving your Visual Basic skills then head to A1VBcode, recommended by
Poul Martin Jørgensen. Visual Basic, for those of you who don't know, is a programming environment which
involves working with a graphical user interface to choose and modify code written in the BASIC programming
language, hence the Visual bit. The site is self-explanatory and enables you to download code for a huge variety of
programs. The 'most popular' submissions have been accessed thousands of times, so you should feel confident
you're getting robust code. If you're interested in submitting your own you can do it quickly and easily as either a
compressed zip file or just as a snippet using these input forms and your entry may win the developer of the
month prize. If you come across any other user-friendly programming or source code sites, send them my way.

http://www.a1vbcode.com/

With all the acronyms, technical terms and newly invented words that dominate the computer world, you'll be
relieved to know that Hyperdictionary is at hand to help you out. There are over ten thousand terms and the
uncluttered search page keeps things nice and simple. Either enter the specific term you're searching or use the
letter index below to browse through terms you'll have come across many times without exactly knowing their
meaning and origin. A useful site to bookmark!

www.hyperdictionary.com

Thanks to Kathleen from São Paulo for Omniglot, which delves deep into the origins of world languages. There
are five different writing systems that are explored in this site and just looking through the alphabetic one gives
you an indication of the amazing variety that occurs in the written word. Select any alphabet, such as Armenian
for example, for an interesting explanation of its origin and any unique features it may have. There's a huge range
here of both contemporary and historic alphabets. Just as spoken language has evolved, so has written language
to cope with specific human requirements. These alternative writing styles show a variety of scripts invented for
the visually impaired, for computer games and more. Instantly recognisable is Morse code which is still used in
extreme conditions where routine communication mediums are unavailable. Moving onto the complex computer
language called 12480. This writing system can be classified as both an alphabet and a numeral system and the
main point here is that according to Omniglot any writing system based on phonemes will only last as long as the
human voice is used, whereas 12480's binary foundation will last as long as numbers exist. I wonder which one
will stay the distance - we could all be speaking in 12480 before we know it!

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alphabetic.htm

For information on gizmos and gadgets of the past, present and future head to Gizmohighway. There are
interesting articles such as 'how to build your own computer' which is a step by step guide, although it is mainly
text based with very few visuals to really guide you through it's just useful to know how one is constructed. Head
over to the history section for some tech inventions of the past. I wouldn't exactly call Concorde a gizmo but there
are mind-bending facts and figures here about the supersonic jet. It even covers Concorde's Russian competitor
the Tupolev TU-144 which was never as successful as its rival. Finally, the future technology section looks at a
concept car called 'Presto' which manages to change shape according to the parking space you need to fit into, or
the Moller Skycar which does away altogether with roads and takes to the air for a speedy ride!

http://www.gizmohighway.com/

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Apologies if you have seen this site before but I've had so many few emails recommending this next site I'm sure
it's worth sharing with you. With over 2 million readers monthly, Rotten Tomatoes could claim to be the place to
find objective reviews of movies and videos. Checking out the site's Top Movies Of All Time poll may make you
think about who is actually accessing this site - there are some strange entries here and some all time classics
missing - but select a particular film and you can read reviews galore. These are submitted by critics of accredited
media outlets and online film societies. As ever, these sites are multimedia havens, so a new gaming section caters
for all console gaming as well the tomato picker on the left will get you going on your search and deliver a range
of results which can be ordered by release date, reviews and title. With all this data available it's important to be
able to narrow and order your results in this way. There I've reviewed it now and don't want to hear any more
about Rotten Tomatoes for another year at least!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

You may have heard the expression a picture is worth 1000 words, well Worth 1000 is a visual feast. It's a creative
competition and Photoshop contest site on the web. Some of these images are breathtaking, with artists using the
latest digital imaging techniques to create their art. There are thousands of images to look at in hundreds of
galleries and it seems the competition is fierce to get rated as the top talent. If you want to improve your
Photoshop skills and enter the realms of cutting edge digital art, then head to the tutorials submitted by members
themselves which will guide you through techniques such as creating a glass effect on various objects. Finally, the
animation gallery has some great sequences to watch and play with

http://www.worth1000.com/

Finally, motor bike aficionados will enjoy The Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum. This simple niche site
showcases a variety of classic motorbikes, although the emphasis is on racing motorbikes. Each image can be
enlarged, and there's additional commentary which helps explain where the bike was manufactured and what
special points of craftsmenship to look out for. Make sure you check out some of the earliest examples of
motorbike, like the one manufactured in 1910 which had no clutch, and when you stopped you had to peddle to
start up again!

http://www.motosolvang.com/

This week I'd like to kick off with a site for hearing impaired users and those of you interested in sign language:
Handspeak. Although access to the site's full content area is based on paying a subscription fee, there's lots of
free content to broswe to give you a taster of what it's all about. You can learn sign language through GIF
animations, with helpful comments on how to perfect the word you're signing. Just as there are many different
forms of spoken language there are also country-based forms of sign language, and the site details these subtle
differences. Handspeak also provides a forum for debate and there are articles, which it welcomes your opinions
on, about such things as the effect of body language in different cultures.

http://www.handspeak.com/

For those of you who like to dig a little deeper into the world of URLs, top level domain names, and all things
dotcom, here's a handy tool for you. This page handily tells you where the website your looking at could originate
from. It lists every country code, top level domain or ccTLD. This two letter stands for a specific country, but
there's always an exception to the rule. Where most ccTLDs are controlled by the a body in the country they refer
to, a few ccTLDs were sold to private parties. The most well known is .tv. The .tv originally stood for 'Tuvalu', an
island kingdom in the Pacific, but the country gave up all rights over it for at least 10 years, through a commercial
deal. Different restrictions and regulations govern the use of ccTLDs in relation to resale and or who can use
them, so in fact this list is far more interesting that it really looks!

http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm

Vivisimo is what's known as a clustering engine and this is how it works. A meta-search sevice crawls other
engines for the results you're after. Then instead of having to trawl through a huge list of results which you'll
probably lose interst in very soon, Vivisimo clusters the results together and describes them in easy to understand
and helpful topic groupings. You can also use the handy drop down menu at the bottom of the screen to have a
speedy glance at all the URLs that have been delivered for your search. Thanks to Michael Morris in Luxemburg
for the recommendation.

http://vivisimo.com/

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For an injection of art, culture, philosophy and critical theory head to Arts and Letters Daily suggested by Paul
Moor in Berlin. There is a scary amount of text, and an even scarier mass of links to wade through on this front
page, but don't let this put you off. In fact this portal page is well ordered - new items are added daily to the top of
the page as older ones shift down the columns and disappear into their archive after a week or so. This daily e-
zine scours newspapers, journals and wider print media for the latest in opinion, and social commentary. It also
highlights international writers and columnists. My major criticsim of this site would be that clicking on a link
opens the new site in the current window which means you'll be using your browser back button a lot or hitting
control+N to open a new window. It's quite basic but new windows for new sites please!

http://www.aldaily.com/

Finally, for all you jaded webwanderers, if you think you've seen it all before on the 'net try going Random. It does
exactly what it says on the tin in this case. Click on the cartoon and the site will plumb the depths of cyberspace
and dredge up a random site. The site will open in a new browser window and I can't vouch for what the
generator will bring forth but if you find yourself visiting the same boring sites, then give this a try.

http://www.randomwebsite.com/

If aliens, horror and science fiction rock your boat then head over to The Alien Online. This is a site for sci-fi
enthusiasts - in fact most of the content is written by volunteers who are passionate about all things otherworldly.
It has well written reviews, and news coverage of just-published fiction, and even if you're not a fan of the genre
these could just tempt you in. Alien Online has its own blog posted by the editor who lets off steam on a whole
range of topics and invites your feedback, just make sure you know what you're talking about! No sci-fi site would
be complete without a discussion area for fans - where else would they argue about whether Star Trek was better
than Star Wars? - but alien online areas are under construction at the moment, so make sure you check back and
join in when they're up and running.

http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_010.asp

From alien languages to the spoken and written word in our world: Unilang, recommended by Austin, in India, is
a community site for anyone interested in the world's many languages. You can access the site in over 15 different
languages which already proves it has a global reach. If you want to share your interest in and practise languages,
there's lots to keep you busy here. There are free online courses ranging from Gaelic and Esperanto to Hindi and
Thai. If you want to improve your pronunciation, or simply enjoying hearing other languages being spoken, then
'sounds of the world' enables you to play audio clips. This tool also makes it possible for you to print off a basic
vocabulary list in the languages of your choice. Use the dropdown menus to make your selection and determine
what level of wordlist you're after and the database will generate it for you. There is plenty for you polyglots here:
forums, interactive teaching aids and links to lots of language related resources.

http://etud.iut-cachan.u-psud.fr/~unilang/vocabulary.php

Manga and Anime are cartoons and comics that are enormously popular Japan and all around the world. If you're
interested in drawing Manga yourself, How To Draw Manga is well written and lays it out step by step. Julie
Dillon, an acclaimed Manga artist, has put together these tutorials that can get you started. You can watch the
progression of how eyes are created and then the differences between how male and female eyes are drawn. The
guide takes you on to drawing full characters and if you want to take a look at various artists' individual Manga
creations then head to the gallery where there's a fantastic selection, and you can vote on these images as well as
submit your own. So go ahead and submit if you think you're good enough - this lot look like they know what
they're doing! Thanks to Anoop for the recommendation.

http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/tutorial.html

This next site is a reminder that there is still some way to go before the computer literacy becomes a reality, and
I'm talking with people who actually own computers! Computer Stupidities is a compendium of anecdotes and
stories about computers and their users - computer illiterate stories that is. The site is amusingly designed like a
serious portal and there are sub-sections ranging from the misuse of mice to how some view the Internet. Whether
or not these are urban legends, made up spoofs or really real doesn't really matter, it's all amusing and worth
browsing around to make you feel a whole lot better when you and your computer aren't seeing eye to eye. Thank
you Sebastiaan van Beek for this little gem.

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/

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Finally for you news buffs its the Newseum, with their excellent resource 'today's front pages'. Its purpose is to
provide a pictorial exhibit of newspaper's front pages from around the world. Every morning more than 100
newspapers from around the world submit their front pages to the Newseum via the Internet. These are posted up
and provide a fascinating snapshot of the world's news and what key events are gripping different regions and
countries. If a particular paper catches your attention simply select it and it will appear as a PDF file for you to
zoom in on and read. An artistic exhibit and important educational display - definitely worth a look.

http://www.newseum.org/

Mail2web is a great tool which enables you to retrieve messages from your email accounts wherever you are!
Mail2web is an Internet based email client that lets you to pick up your email from almost any POP3 or IMAP4
email server. It's so simple - just enter your email address and password to access your inbox. You can then read,
reply and forward your messages just like your nornal e-mail account. You can even delete large attachments
without downloading them first. Mail2web is not a service like Hotmail or Yahoo, but an application and the good
thing is you can remain totally anonymous and don't even need to register to access your mail. So this is great to
use when you're travelling and need access to multiple mail accounts. Mail2web doesn't download or delete your
messages, you just view the mail waiting on your server. And unless you specifically choose to delete a message or
messages while using mail2web, all your messages will remain on the server. Another groovy reason to use this
application is its cross-platform capability. It can be used on any Internet connected device, so you can pick up
your mail using a desktop PC, notebook computer, Internet TV, mobile phone, or PDA. If I haven't raved enough
about this app, I'll finish by saying that although English is the default language, it's now available in 15 others!

www.mail2web.com

For all of you interested in developing your Flash skills, head to Flash Kit, a resource site that aims to create a one
stop centre for all your creations. Newbies and advanced developers should all take a look at the tutorials which
take you through a step-by-step guide to creating objects, like an orbiting ball, with easy to follow instructions...
soon you could be creating your very own shoot-em-up games. The gallery is bursting with user-submitted images
- you can narrow your search by choosing a genre or by checking boxes to determine the type of image you're
searching for. The site promotes its community feel by encouraging you to vote on all work submitted and you can
download your favourites, setting them as wallpaper for your PC or Mac. There are some excellent sound effects
and, as they're freeware, you can download them and use them for your own multimedia creations. There's so
much to absorb on this site - just stick it in your favourites and return for a top-up. Thanks to Kunle Lawal in
Nigeria for sending it through to us.

www.flashkit.com

Cast your mind to the silver screen. Ever seen a boom microphone showing at the top of the picture? A hole in the
plot of a movie, or a wire holding someone up on screen? If so, you're a nitpicker, so take yourself off to
Nitpickers.com. The latest nitpicks of the week are posted up and judging by the amount you'd think users do
nothing else but watch out for these. Click on one to get lowdown on what error has been noticed. You can also
submit your own nitpick, adding to films or tv shows already gone over with a fine toothcomb, or start a new
nitpick thread on a newly introduced movie. Unfortunately for all the glee you get when you realise how many
mistakes there are in these movies, you'll still have to put up with a site which throws loads of ad banners and
pop-ups at you. Terribly annoying, but with 8 million hits a month, you can see why they're there.

http://www.nitpickers.com/

Let's kick off with a global community project. Lots of you will be familiar with SETI@home, the scientific
experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. You basically
download a program that uses your computer to analyse data. Well, Lifemapper does a similar thing a little closer
to home. Lifemapper crunches data by retrieving records of millions of plants and animals in the world's natural
history museums. While running as your screen saver you help Lifemapper compute, map and provide information
on where these plants and animals could potentially live and where they could spread to across different regions
of the world. You can choose what species you'd like your system to help search, such as marine life or mammals,
as well as which university or zoological institute holding the current data you'd want your computer to help
crunch data for. This application is still in development, but if you want to help assemble an electronic atlas
predicting the Earth's biological diversity, this one's for you. Thank you to George Kredland for such a
fascinating link.

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

http://www.lifemapper.org/

7
Onto culture now, and Romani.org is a site dedicated to the Roma people and was recommended by Ramesh
Kompella in India. The Roma, or Romanies, are the ethnic group sometimes called Gypsies who originated in
Northwest India and now live in many countries throughout the world. This site provides a central resource for
Roma culture, arts and education. This is a good place to learn about this diverse group, and you can read up on
the origins and history of these people. There are articles on Romani dance as well as a translation of the Romani
anthem. This site is interesting and helps dispel some of the myths surrounding the Romani culture. However,
please site creators, spend a bit more time on the design and navigation if you want users to visit and stay!

www.romani.org

Now a site to get you out of a pickle. One Across is a nifty site for crossword and puzzles fans who are stuck on a
word. If you're frustrated with the crossword you're doing, simply enter the clue phrase as you see it, as well as
the pattern of the word, adding question marks on the letters you haven't got yet, or just the word length if you
don't know any letters. Press GO and you've got your answer! It all feels too easy and will make you wish you
didn't know about this site, as it can get addictive and help you out of tight corners. The purity test is interesting,
as it presents what the site thinks are the 100 most common clues used in crossword puzzles.

http://www.oneacross.com/

Finally, let's finish up with some humour with Dumb Laws, sent to us by Lis Thomsen in Copenhagen. It's a site
that cherishes the old and outdated laws of many countries. Click on the country whose laws you want have a
chuckle over. I took a look around old French laws and did you know that no pig may be addressed as Napoleon by
its owner? Or that in England, with the exception of carrots, most goods may not be sold on Sunday? The site's
main focus is on US state laws and you'll find loads of content here. But the other countries are also worth
checking out. Unless they've been repealed these laws are still valid, so if you're thinking of stealing an alligator
in Louisiana you could land in jail for up to ten years!

http://www.dumblaws.com/

Move aside Hollywood and Bollywood blockbusters. Filmwatcher.com has an alternative for the movie watching
public. It showcases short Independent films ('Indies'), as well as creating a community for filmmakers keen to get
their stuff seen on screen. Film submissions fall into many genres and you can post a comment on what you've just
watched and also submit your own short film. There's some strong content here - perhaps even the next Blair
Witch sleeper hit. It's also useful to use the 'last five comments' box to get an idea of what members have viewed
lately and whether it's worth watching. Just be aware that some of the films are quite heavy, as in lots of bytes, so
narrowbanders should aim to find shorter, lighter movies which you'll be able to download more quickly. Finally,
you may need more plug-ins than the familiar Quicktime, Real and WMP. Just head to Help if you don't recognise
the file extension and enjoy your mini-cinema experience. Thanks to A.Aunaruth for the recommendation.

www.filmwatcher.com

Speeding along the internet highway is Roadbike recommeded by Jack Tolbert in Spain. The site creators Fred
and Ed have been into bikes since the 1970s and felt there wasn't a dedicated online resource for roadbiking.
Mountain biking sites are ten a penny apparently, so here you've got an in depth, well written site for all you
roadies out there. 'Ask Coach Fred' provides useful answers to enhance your cycling potential. They're also a good
read if you've only ever used a bike to ride to the shops and back. The site has a humorous side, with road signs,
license plates and quirky notices submitted by road cyclists on their journeys. But the strongest part of this site is
its newsletter, which you'll receive weekly once you've signed up. It offers training, tips, product reviews and
advice on bike maintenance all from the first hand experiences of the site creators themselves. Proof that the 'net
enables useful information put together in niche sites to reach a global audience. Who needs magazines?!!

www.roadbike.com

Have you got something that you just need to get off your chest but can't bear telling someone you know? Well
you should head to Daily Confession. Here you can pour your heart out anonymously and unburden yourself. After
closing the annoying pop-ups that greet you when you load the site, you see that the confessions range from funny
to sad to tragic. Some of the confessions are uncomfortable to read, so approach it cautiously. If you're in any
doubt as to what you can and can't write, the site has strict guidelines. So read them first before you submit.
When you're ready to 'fess up, fill out the form and press confess. Be aware that other users are able to comment
on what you've written, and opinions can be diverse. A thought-provoking site in the public domain, it's both
compelling and a little strange. Thanks though to Manesh in Mumbai for mailing it to us.

http://www.dailyconfession.com/

8
Finally, a literary site recommended by Alan Emmins. Spoiledink is based in Denmark and is an e-zine publishing
short stories, features and reviews from all over the world. The site design is clean and simple, a must when
there's lots of text to read. The addition of art covers designed by the site creators for each story is really
effective. The writing on this site is often hard hitting and very opinionated, but its purpose is to make us think
and generate debate. You can also contribute to spoiledink. Although, it's worth immersing yourself in the site
first, as well as getting their monthly newsletter, so you know what type of writing they're looking for.

http://spoiledink.com/

Now to art and the world of print-making, which has embraced inkjet art in a big way. Worldprintmakers.com is
an online gallery showcasing artists who are experimenting with traditional print-making techniques as well as
digital print-making. This section looks at this relatively new art medium and the effects can be striking. Inkjet
technology is in its infancy when you consider that it was over 500 years ago that artists began printing
engravings and the editorial asks, 'is this really art?'

If you're interested in the practicalities of print-making, there's a handy guide to basic terminology as well as
techniques such as wood cuts, lino cuts and lithography. Finally, take a look at the virtual gallery displaying
artwork from an international group of artists.

www.worldprintmakers.com

Continuing with the theme of digital art, what's the difference between a bog standard holiday snap and a photo?

Well, webphotoschool.com hopes to show you the difference. If you're keen to improve your photography skills,
head for the free photo lessons. One, for example, guides you through shooting small product in detail. It focuses
on how to make the image work as a web picture, advising on what equipment and media you'll need, as well as
how to use your camera and the overall approach you'll need to take.

There are eight free lessons to get you started but if you're interested in learning through online tutorials you'll
have to enroll as a member. That means paying a subscription fee which allows you to access over 200 lessons.
The goal of the site is to teach photographers at all levels how to develop their digital imaging techniques and
improve their use of photography equipment.

Let me know how you get on!

www.webphotoschool.com

Now if you're interested in the last site but don't even own a camera, never fear because imaging-resource.com is
here. This is a huge database of all the latest photography and digital imagery equipment available on the market.

If you don't know where to start, let the site help you with its camera finder. The key boxes to check here are to do
with the pixel size. The mega-pixel rating of a camera determines the maximum size prints you can make from its
images. The way you connect the camera to a computer to download the images is also a factor - firewire, USB or
serial connections all have different speeds. There are indepth reviews on the cameras that are shortlisted and
although the site only shows the cost of each camera in dollars, you can make a comparison based on price as well
as spec.

I'd have to say that the site's 'Getting Started' section must be one of the most comprehensive I've seen. It covers
everything from buying a digital camera, a printer and a desktop scanner to troubleshooting advice when you've
put all the kit together and it still doesn't work.

imaging-resource.com

And finally, a site which proves the net really does cover just about every subject under the sun.

Yes, it's sicksack.com and it's dedicated to air sickness bags.

If you thought air sickness bags were simply functional items you'd be wrong - as the galleries show. They're
collectors' pieces, considered by some as pure art. You'll be amazed at how much thought has gone into designing
some of these bags, with artists being commissioned to create works of art. See bags used for dual purposes, such
as camera film deposit pouches as well as their original purpose, and much, much more.

www.sicksack.com

9
Far and Near is a travel site with a difference, and a refreshing alternative to the average travel webzine. Instead
of the usual fare, Far and Near brings us stories by travellers who depart from the well-worn tourist and
backpacker trails in search of personal experiences with new cultures. It appears to cover diverse destinations
such as Nicaragua, Fiji and Costa Rica through interesting travel dispatches which are personal accounts of
someone's experience in the area. As you'd expect from any travel site, plenty of images have been posted to give
you a flavour of these places which brochures just can't match! A little more thought could be spent on the
navigation - for instance the 'spotlight' section seems to be a treasure chest of mini-guides, building renovation
news and recipes from around the world, all worth a read but all dropped in together and displayed in a not very
inviting way. This e-zone also has an eco-friendly approach and devotes a whole area to highlighting various
conservation and humanitarian aid efforts going on around the world. Far and near works well. It's solidly written,
and even though there's not masses of content here sometimes less is more, and its attempt to promote respect
for all cultures and traditions makes it worth your online time.

http://www.far-and-near.com/

Explorers Web acts as a central news point for all the expeditions taking place around the world, from Everest to
the oceans and poles. It behaves a little like a portal, which means if you're interested in Everest clicking on the
link will open a new browser window housing the microsite. You'll see that the information, as in all the other
sections, is for experienced travellers who are well versed with extreme conditions. This guide is exhaustive,
giving details on everything that needs to be considered before even thinking about scaling Everest; the 7 survival
rules make for some chilling but necessary reading. There's news on mountaineering, ocean sailing, polar treks
and lots more, and a good place to get a feel for this extreme sports community is on the boards, which are busy
and you can interact with climbers and explorers at all levels of experience. A fantastic resource which will leave
you with lots of browser windows crowding your desktop, but a also a sense of adventure.

http://www.explorersweb.com/

Now for a community site that bills itself as a site 'for people who want to discuss the world they live in'. Kuro5hin
- a play on the word corrosion - is a discussion site about technology, culture and anything interesting which
promotes intelligent debate. To get stuck in you must first create an account for yourself and you're nearly ready
to submit a story. It may be worth writing your article in a word processing document and spell checking it before
posting. There are also various html tags that are supported - you'll find out what's allowed in the FAQs. Your
article then enters a moderation queue. This is an area where other members can vote on your article to
determine whether it gets published on the site. It sounds a little harsh, but the site really does work as the
community of both writers and moderators acts as a single organism to get the most thought provoking content
out there. Check out the technology zone to see opinion pieces on Linux as a viable desktop system and a reaction
to radical plans for an alternative called gobolinux. Submitting an article and getting involved can seem a little
complicated at first, so why not take some time to read around the site, become familiar with the hot topics and
overall tone and then go forth and opinionate!

http://www.kuro5hin.org/

Finally, there's just enough time to recommend this nifty tool which helps you cheat on crosswords - well they can
be very frustrating! If you're working on a crossword and find yourself stumped by a word, simply enter the letters
that you know in the corresponding boxes below. Select the length of the word. Click and all words of the length
you've chosen with matching characters in the specific positions will be shown. Then all you have to do is try and
match one to the clue you¹ve been given! No, it's not cheating - you're just a multitasking genius!

http://68.38.162.231/fcgi-bin/complete.pl

Let's start with ToonHound that takes us back to some of the great British cartoons animations, comic strips and
puppet creations. I'd say this site's mainly for adults as it's short on images and streaming media to keep the kids
interested. It's actually more of an e-cyclopaedia and animator's resource, providing summaries and analysis of
each cartoon and the creators behind the animation. Favourites such as the Mister Men and Little Miss series
made in 1975 appear with detailed credits and commentary on how animation has developed over time. A lot of
effort has been put into suggesting interesting and relative links, and the reviews are thoughtful and informative.
I'd say the only thing that lets this site down a little is its lack of multimedia, which would really embed the user in
this nostalgic media experience - after all it's about watching cartoons!

http://www.toonhound.com/

Now for all of you who eschew the pleasures of the PS2, X-box and GameCube there's always the Atari... bet you
hadn't heard that name in a while! The Atari community is alive and kicking buoyantly and The Atari Historical
Society has been created to preserve the history of this video game and console behemoth. This boldly designed
site offers information on all the consoles and gaming systems from the very first home consumer console,
affectionately named 'Pong', to the famous Atari video computer system, or VCS, which dominated the computer

10
gaming market. The editorial is really interesting and it's clear the writer is passionate about Atari. Take a look
through the Arcade systems which show the development of these machines from the basic 1970s models to the
late 90s super-systems where multiple coin-operated consoles can be linked for the ultimate in high speed multi-
player mayhem. As you'd expect there's an Atari forum, and judging from the staggering number of posts this is
one dedicated bunch of fans.

http://www.atarimuseum.com/

Would you recognise a hoax when you see or hear one? Well, put yourself to the test with The Museum Of Hoaxes
recommended to us by Jal Desai. Let me get my grumble out the way first - the site isn't particularly dynamic and
the designers could rethink the way we have to navigate through it, but the content makes up for the lack of
design pizazz. The hoaxes in the post-2000 gallery should be fresh enough to make you chuckle that you ever
believed in them, I certainly saw a few that I thought were true stories. The site summarises the hoax and then
debunks the myth surrounding it. It exposes how it actually became a hoax and how it spread, either by the Web,
on TV or in a newspaper. If you watched our spam show, we covered the troubling nature of chain e-mails and this
hoax shows how the 'net has allowed people to access huge audiences to create self-serving publicity vehicles. On
a lighter note, the historical galleries detailing well known hoaxes going as far back as the 17th century are a
glorious ragbag of funny stories. Finally, the photo gallery shows how easy it is to fool people through image
manipulation.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

From one set of untruths to another: The Museum of Unworkable Devices celebrates inventions that simply don't
work. Many of these devices were dreamt up centuries ago and still have the power to fascinate. The Gallery of
Illusory Art shows examples of art which refuse to adhere to the laws of nature, you can stare at these images for
a while before their impossibility becomes clear. In the Hall of Machinery animated GIFS of overbalanced wheels
challenge the fundamental laws of physics. The commentary by the wheels explain why they can't work. And the
gallery of 3-D drawings require two sorts of viewing - parallel and cross eyed, which help you see the illusion; the
site explains how to do both techniques.

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/unwork.htm

Finally, from a confusing visual conundrum site to a confusing verbal one. It's irritatingly good! Let me introduce
you to the joyful trouble that is the Oxymoron List. As the name implies it's a compendium of all the oxymorons or
combined contradictory terms you can think of. You can scroll down a huge list or head to the top 20. I found most
amusing phrase here was tax return - thinking about this term for the first time made me realise how
contradictory it actually is. If you have an oxymoron you use and don't see listed, send it to the webmaster - I'd say
this was a good junk site!

http://www.oxymoronlist.com/

Let's kick off with one for footie fans, Eurostadiums. The site is an e-catalogue that dishes the info on most of the
major football stadiums around Europe. Click on the map and a list of stadiums in that country will be displayed.
Being a committed Chelsea Football Club fan, I just had to check out Stamford Bridge. You get some stats such as
seating capacity, date of completion and largest recorded attendance figures. And then there are the glorious
pictures! The site is comprehensive covering stadia as wide reaching as the Faroe Islands, with its capacity of
7000, to Spain's Barcelona football arena, with a staggering 98,000 capacity. And there's more to this site than
images and stats about arenas. This page is a treasure trove of facts and tables about football. You can check out
the standings of football teams in seventy five different leagues as well as heading to the super teams and
checking out the World Cup champions since 1930. Thank you to Mek from Poland for this great site.

http://www.eurostadiums.com/

If you're ever dreamt of studying in another country, Braintrack is an excellent educational resource which aims
to provide information on higher education institutions around the world. It's a basic site which can be explored
alphabetically through country or across region. To be able to locate a university in countries ranging from
Mongolia to Papua New Guinea, and as far afield as Antarctica, so quickly and easily is proof that the 'net is useful
after all! There are over 6900 links in over 189 countries, so it's a truly global initiative. The only recommendation
I'd give to the site designers is to ensure that the links to all universities are opened in a new browser window so
that we can continue to refer to the main site.

http://www.braintrack.com/

11
Our next site was recommended by Yogesh Pareek. Cricket is played all over the world and as we enter summer
why not brush up on your own technique with Viva Cricket? The site, based in New Zealand, is excellent because
not only does it have a wealth of information on everything about the game but it helps teach it too. You need to
become a member to access the virtual coaching area but once you've done this there are loads of articles packed
with advice on technique and strategy. As you can see in this batting section you can read up on grip, stance and
general tips. It would be nice to see more images to complement the text and demonstrate the technique being
taught, but overall the pieces are clear and well written. Go and feel inspired in the Cricketing Legends section
where you can meet the stars and relive their glory days.

http://www.vivacricket.co.za/

Now let's slow the pace down a bit and relax with some art. The Hoam Museum, based in South Korea, houses
important collections, and their e-museum enables you to browse through them. Stylistically, the site is beautifully
designed using Flash to enhance the art being displayed without making the site too busy - it makes for very
peaceful viewing. Each piece in a collection is presented in startling clarity with an interesting analysis of its
provenance. Wander outside to the Hee Won Korean garden, opened in 1997, which again, through clever use of
colour and movement, gives you the essence of what the garden must really be like. The interactive map guides
you to each area and we're greeted with stunning images of the landscaping and stonework. If you want a virtual
tour of the garden you'll have to download the available plug-in, but it's worth it for the view!

http://www.hoammuseum.org/english/

Finally, we go behind the scenes to a site for and about tv cameramen recommended by Robert French. TV
Cameramen is a community site about the lives and stories of camera operators. It's thoroughly recommended if
you want a different perspective. It encourages camera operators to anonymously send in their experiences on the
basis that sharing means learning. They make for some amusing reading even if you've never been behind a
camera. This area would probably have the broadest appeal, with articles on how to break into the world of TV
and film. Articles are submitted by working cameramen and the hints and tips are a useful start if you're
interested in developing skills and a career. The travelogue is also useful not only for cameramen but for all
independent travellers. It's got facts and information about many countries, their economies and political climates
as well as handy links such as where to find an ATM machine and what jabs you'll need before you go.

http://www.tvcameramen.com/

Let's kick off with one that has nearly cured my phobia of flying Airliners. Its enthusiasm for flying, and its
appreciation of the marvel that is air travel, just rubs off on you as you look through. No mention of air accident
stats, or none that I found, and it's usually the first thing I encounter on these types of sites! Inspiring images of
Concorde made me want to experience the real thing. These images are sent in by flying fans from around the
globe and you too can contribute a piccy. The site's really interested in old or rare plane images if you have them.
If you're getting into this airborne encyclopaedia the data and aircraft model history section is very readable even
if you haven't a clue how a 199' 11'' wingspan, and economy high density configuration, actually impacts on your
experience when you fly. The site is loaded with images which you can send as e-cards or purchase as large sized
prints. And lest we forget, news. Our very reason for existing is also catered for, with the editorial highlighting the
latest airline headlines all collected here for you to also develop a healthy flying phobia, like me! Thanks to Lou
Nigel in Southern Poland for the recommendation.

http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=107

"History is a set of lies agreed upon, A throne is only a bench covered with velvet, A leader is a dealer in hope"
Have you guessed who spoke these memorable phrases? Well, a whole site has been dedicated to this pint-sized
Corsican and it's well worth a browse of Napoleon Guide, recommended by Richard Moore from Australia. Let's
get the bad bits out the way first. Unlike the man it portrays, the site's not handsome or pioneering. The
navigation bar is a list of unattractive hyperlinked text, and the design feels a little amateur and cobbled together.
Tant pis, as the French would say, the content though really makes up for the lack of design aesthetic. Each
aspect of Napoleon's life is explored, from images of the Emperor as a young man, at his coronation, and in the
battlefield. If the battlefield is an interest area, then maps highlight where combat took place and give an
indication of Napoleon's relentless ambition. There's also more detailed information on the specific area of
conflict. Love letters aren't what Napoleon is most famous for, but they provide a fascinating insight into how he
felt towards Josephine while away on various campaigns. There are also a few to his other lovers which provide an
interesting contrast. The site places Napoleon's life in context with the era, and I couldn't resist highlighting this
particularly gruesome contraption - the guillotine - used to execute around forty thousand people during the
French Revolution.

http://www.napoleonguide.com/

12
This is a handy site if you want a more portability for your bookmarks. Simply called My Bookmarks, it's a free
service that allows you to keep your browser bookmarks and favourites online, which means you can access them
from any computer. Once you've registered, the editor helps you to organize and search your bookmarks online.
Optional touches allow you to personalise the background colour and font of your bookmark library. You can
import bookmarks you've built up over time really easily, and once they're in they can be reordered, edited and
deleted just like a standard favourites folder. Should you feel the urge to share your fave sites, you can share your
page with the public and send emails to friends enabling them direct access to your folders. Just like the Google
toolbar, which we can't seem to do without nowadays, this site has the 'Remark' utility which, once downloaded,
allows you to view and manage your bookmarks without a browser and a host of other useful functions. It lives as
an icon on your toolbar. Thanks to Jose Luis Pulido, from Mexico City for suggesting this useful site.

http://www.mybookmarks.com/

For all you fans of cheese - and no I don't mean Chris Long's reports - the cheese fanatics online home is at
Cheesenet. The World Cheese Index is indeed true to its word, you can search for any type of cheesy matter by
country, name, animal that produces it, or curd process incidentally. I had to try the last one and searched for
uncooked cheeses of the world. The results show a variety from Romania, Spain, Denmark and many more.
Smellovision would be in its element here, but we have to make do with a variety of images and editorial
explaining the cheeses' flavour, its origin and - why oh why - its fat content. For some, cheese has become such a
passion, they've felt inspired to write and some are actually quite good. James Davies 'Ode to Cheesedom' had me
smiling! There's a lot more, from cheesmaking techniques to a glossary on all the unique terms.

http://www.cheesenet.info/

We're always trying to bring you the latest, newest and most up to the minute news on the world of technology,
but what if the adage 'if it ain't broke, don't fix' it were applied to the 'net? Well, Old Version has taken on the
challenge. While upgrading to a newer version can often be a good thing, at other times your computer may not
be compatible with the new version and a conflict occurs. Now, help is at hand. If you're searching for an old
version of software this site archives various programs of yesteryear. For example, they house Internet Explorer
versions as early as IE one - pretty basic when you consider that we're on version six at the moment - but if you
want a simple browser that won't be at war with other programs you've installed it may well be worth
downloading. Something to remember - Old Version currently provides software for Windows operating systems
only.

http://www.oldversion.com/

More help is at hand if you're getting frustrated with the acronyms that pepper the techno world. The Ultimate
Computer Acronyms Finder is a database of computer-related acronyms. It all looks very functional, then again,
why make it pretty? It's here for a purpose which I think it does very well. You can search for acronyms in a
variety of ways. It was interesting just to browse through the alphabetic categories - there are so many the mind
boggles. The site helps when it can, with brief descriptions of what the term you're looking up actually refers to.
So Large Scale of Integration, or LSI, means so much more when you know it relates to the quantity of transistors
that are placed on one chip. If you'd like the database available as a permanent resource you can download a PDF
version of the archive. One other thing - if you know of an acronym that isn't there, why not submit it to be added
to the database.

http://www.acronyms.ch/

The British are famous for their eccentricity but I think on this occasion they have come up trumps. Anything Left
Handed is dedicated to making life a little easier for all you left-handers. I don't usually review e-commerce sites,
but this useful e-shop aims to provide household and garden items specifically made for left-handers. It's only
when you start looking through that you realise how rightist the world is. The kitchen is a prime example of right-
hand bias, full of gadgets which left-handers have to use in an awkward, clumsy fashion. Computer peripherals
are also available and as keyboards become more ergonomic for right-handers, their left hander keyboard should
be just the ticket. Beyond the e-commerce, the site is dedicated to raising awareness and empathy for lefties. Its
community area is very good, too. As a Lefties Club member - there are 23 thousand members already - you'll
receive a regular e-bulletin advising of new products and you get details of the worldwide celebration of Left-
Handers Day which takes place on 13th August each year. Finally, an eye-opening section on all the abuse lefties
have had over the years. Cuddy-wifter and spuddy-handed you may be, but at least you now know of a site that
cares!

http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/

I haven't covered a joke site for ages so when Simon Champion mailed me to look at Bad Puns, I had to go and
have a look. This site wins hands down on clean fun - it's a family-safe funny site which makes you groan and

13
chuckle at the same time. Generate a random shaggy dog story, and if you want more you can call up another
random story within that section or click to find humour in a similar vein - as all the content is cross-indexed.
There are an amusing set of cartoons which are updated regularly and once again you can dig up a random one
from the series to get your funny bone's worth.

www.badpuns.com

Romantics might try to tell you that the only truly international language is love, but they would probably struggle
to persuade the people behind Football Culture, a site recommended by Adam Edmett in Slovakia. The aim of
Football Culture is to explore the culture of the beautiful game around the world, and is a joint initiative by the
BBC and The British Council. In so doing, the global community gets to practise their English by talking about the
sport they love, which sounds like the best way to learn a language if you ask me! Forum debates with topics like
'Football and Race' and 'Should women footballers be paid the same as men?' get responses from all over the
world. I saw postings from Nepal, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany and many more, and if you feel strongly about
the subject being discussed you can add your own views too. Football English is an entertaining area which
develops your English language skills through quizzes, games and word tests all on the subject of footie. There's
so much to look at on this attractively designed site, it's well worth bookmarking for a return visit.

http://www.footballculture.net/

If you're interested in digital photography then take a look at the massively popular Digital Photography Review,
recommended by Raoul Coscia, from Johannesburg, South Africa. From its humble beginnings in 1998, it's grown
to become one of the definitive sites on digital photography and imaging, notching up a whopping 5 million unique
users a month! The camera database is a great resource if you want to compare and contrast the specifications of
current models on the market. All the major brands are represented, and clicking on a particular make will bring
up their stock in reverse chronological order, meaning you get to see the newest ones on the market up at the top.
If you're bamboozled by all the info that's given to you then just use the handy features search tool and the results
will deliver the products most suited to your preferences. If you want to familiarise yourself with the language of
cameras and digital imaging, then the glossary is well organised and covers terms in a good level of detail. The
gallery is a showcase for some fantastic images and these are grouped by the camera that has taken them. Scroll
along the top to view all the images taken by a particular model and enlarge onto the screen for a better look.

http://www.dpreview.com/

If you've had your fill of television news, and want to get stuck into the papers, take a look at the impressive
Paperboy. It's an Australian based portal that links you to over 5000 newspapers from around the world. The site
design is bold and relatively easy to use. Apart from the standard way to access content - by country - a nifty tool
enables you to submit a headline you're interested in reading. The meta-search engine trawls through seven major
online news site databases and delivers the papers writing about your topic of interest. There are an impressive
array of papers from around the world - from Bhutan to Bolivia and over to Botswana - a truly global viewpoint
accessed so easily.

http://www.thepaperboy.com.au/welcome.html

Let's kick off with a site promoting debating. Debating is not just a simple case of standing up and saying the first
thing that comes into your head, so if you want your voice to be heard, then take a look at IDEA: The International
Debate Education Association. The purpose of this site is to act as a central resource for debaters around the
world. If you're not familiar with debating techniques then there are a host of exercises and learning tools to gain
more experience. Once you've prepped up and are familiar with the language of the debating world, take a look at
the IDEA debatabase. The latest debate topics are posted up and give a snapshot of the diverse themes covered on
the site. Each topic presents the pros and cons as well as further resources and related discussion points if you
want to dig deeper. Debate is a powerful means of encouraging critical thinking, personal expression and
tolerance for the opinions of others. If you come across any other sites like this one, I'd like to know about it.

http://www.idebate.org/main/home.asp

Now though to environmental issues and David Reay wrote in asking me to take a look at his site Greenhouse Gas
Online. This is an informative site that gives up to date resources dedicated to greenhouse gas news. Boring,
perhaps? Not at all. Increased awareness of climate change and the issues surrounding global warming are vital if
we are going to try and tackle this problem. If you're unsure about what gases constitute the family of greenhouse
gases, each gas link on the left takes you to an 'about' page detailing concentrations of both naturally occurring
and man-made emissions. Last year there was a lot of talk of the Kyoto protocol, but if you're vague as to what it
was all about then take a look at the site's summary of the targets set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. There are also lots of climate related articles which link to other sites so you can immerse yourself in the

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world around you.

http://www.ghgonline.org/

Gardening and enjoyment of all things green is the focus of this next site recommended by Balachandran
Narayanan. Home And Garden Life is for anyone interested in gardening and approaches the outdoors in an easy,
engaging way. So if you've got a patch of green at the back of your home and want to make it more special, take a
look through the step by step garden design pages which explore pattern, proportion and equipment required to
draft your design. But those of you with an interest in plants and flowers can use the plantfinder wizard which
makes choosing the right plant very easy, just tick your requirements and a list of suitable plant varieties will be
displayed. Each links off to a detailed page explaining what it looks like, when it flowers and other specific
information. Being a bit of a foodie myself, I explored the vegetable pages which makes growing your own edibles
look so easy, again step by step pictures tempt you to try it yourself, far easier than a long list of instructions.

http://www.homeandgardenlife.com/

Taking a natural approach to the body, here is a site about homeopathy. This alternative medicine system based
on treating like with like has been traced back as far as Hippocrates. It is now massively popular worldwide, as its
holisitc approach treats the whole person not just the symptoms in one area of your body. However, it's not a
simple system and requires time and effort to find the right remedy to cure a set of symptoms. And this is where
ABC Homeopathy could help you - its online remedy finder takes you through a series of questions, gathering a
detailed picture of your complaint and then prescribes various remedies. The online questionnaire is quite intense,
it forces you to think hard about your symptoms and can feel a little too much. However, it finally delivers a
suggested remedy, which you can purchase or just find out more about. There's also a directory listing all the
homeopathic remedies, which you can click on for more in-depth information about what symptoms the remedy
can treat. I like this site because it approaches homeopathic healthcare seriously, with an easy to use site, precise
content and good community features such as a health forum, and an area where users recommend treatment for
specific conditions.

http://www.abchomeopathy.com/

Dynamic Drive is for all you website creators who'd like to take advantage of a huge library of DHTML scripts on
offer here and add impressive interactivity to your website. If you're intrigued but unfamiliar with DHTML - which
is like an advanced form of Javascript - just get yourself over to the FAQs for a quick guide. There are loads of
useful scripts, such as ones for drop down boxes which could smarten up your navigation menu. The instructions
are simply displayed and should make the whole process relatively painless. Once you've got the building blocks of
your site you can have some fun with scripts for animated texts, pop-up calendars, and a host of other
sophisticated tools which should keep visitors glued to your site. This site works well because not only does it
offer ready-to-use scripts requiring minimal effort to integrate onto your site, but it's also backed up by good
support content which is essential if you run into problems. So thank you to Phillip Matlary from Oslo in Norway
who suggested we take a look.

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

Now for yet another search engine, recommended by Terry from Australia. Webwombat is a geographic specific
engine. Web Wombat has been operating as an Internet search engine since 1994, almost ancient in 'net years. It
was one of the world's first 'net search engines, established before the more well known Alta Vista, Inktomi and
Excite. The search facility delivers Australian sites, which can be useful if, like me, you live in the Northern
Hemisphere and want regional results from another part of the world that the large engines don't usually cover.
Webwombat also has non-search content available to browse, so in fact it's more of a search portal than strictly a
simple engine. These vertical channels again focus on media, education finance, lifestyle and much more from an
Ozzie perspective. Looks-wise, Webwombat is a bog-standard portal cum search site, but that doesn't detract from
its usefulness in terms of what content it deliver.

http://www.webwombat.com/

Finally, Brad from Holland suggested a site from Hawaii. You know the flute based music heard on film scores
and unfortunately also in garden centres? Well it's most probably created by pan pipes. Pan-flute.com aims to
reintroduce us to these instruments and the music they create. First off, watch the Flash-animated history of the
pan-flute which takes us through the instrument's origins and development across Europe, the East and South
America. Images of excavated artefacts depicting figures playing the flutes and pan-pipe music overlayed on the
animation create an atmospheric introduction to the rest of the site. Delving in a little deeper, we can see that this
is a family of instruments and you can find pages explaining their origin, how they are played and, the nicest bit,
there's a sound clip attached to each instrument so you can what kind of music is produced. You'll need either
Quicktime or Real Player to hear them. There's lots to look at on this hobby-site, you can even get interactive and

15
play the panpipes using your mouse. Hopefully the site will take pan-pipe music out of elevators and shopping
malls and give it a little context

www.pan-flute.com

Do you know what soncoya, santoli and Salak are? If you don't head straight over to a site dedicated to fruit! The
Fruit Pages are a succulent foray into fruit - why you should eat it, how to eat it and what fruits are out there
beyond apples, oranges and bananas. Nutritional facts and information help us understand the crucial role that
fruit plays in our lives. If this all sounds very tempting, the juice recipes are more so, with names like Martian
boogie power smoothie. The recipe is simple and there are some neat tools on the page, like calculating new
quantities if you need to double up servings of the drink. Reviewers have added their thoughts and variations on
the recipe and down the left you get the solid nutritional facts about these divine drinks.

http://www.thefruitpages.com/

From fruit and fiddly games to something far more active! Mention 'spine' and 'centre T' and most people wouldn't
have the foggiest what you're on about. Well, it's all about kites and Prism Kites is a great place to start if you
want to pick up this sport or just fancy a browse around. It's an e-commerce site, but with a wealth of useful
information on kites, such as how they're constructed. A great section to head for is the flight training zone where
you can pick up handling tips and tricks to get the most out of your kite. The Shockwave animation shows you how
it's done, and you can use the control panel to slow down the action to help you crack the technique. The site has
other great multimedia areas, so float over to the flier's lounge where you can watch video clips of sport kiting in
action. Who said kites were just for kids?!

www.prismkites.com

For my last site, I thought we'd finish up with a food-lovers feast of a site: Mangiare Bene, an Italian recipe
archive and cooking site. The culinary academy presents a host of recipes divided into categories. I was surpised
to see egg having its own section, but then again they are one of the building blocks of Italian cuisine. The
interactive map allows you to explore Italy's regional food culture. Just roll your mouse over the map to choose a
particular region. The site then provides an interesting overview of the area, as well as typical dishes which you
can make yourself. A unique area of this site concentrates on food and its depiction in film. Scroll through the
well-known films and find out food trivia that probably went unnoticed. For example, did you know Humphrey
Bogart and Ingrid Bergman nibbled on tuna canapes in Casablanca?

http://www.mangiarebene.net/

In my endless quest for new search engines I've come across the interestingly named Dogpile. Sifting through the
piles of content to find you what you need on the Web is perhaps the domain name's selling pont. Dogpile is a
meta-search engine, which means that when you enter a search topic it then searches the Internet's top engines
such as About, Ask Jeeves, Google and many more. This ability to simultaneously search these large engines
means you get potentially more relevant and thorough results. It behaves much like any other search engine and
groups the results according to where they've been pulled from. If you find any other search tools out there,
maybe ones that search for one area of content specifically, let me know and I'll pass the word on.

www.dogpile.com

Now we go microscopic with a site for anyone intrigued about the building blocks of lifecells. Cells Alive presents
video clips and computer-enhanced images of living cells and organisms for education and medical research, but
it's not a bookish site and there's lots to pick up here if you just have a passing interest. There's great interactive
content such as this example of how the body reacts when we get a splinter or a scratch. You can test your
knowledge with a quiz attached to each section but be warned, they're not easy. However, if you get a question
wrong you can bring up the related study topic understand more about it. The cell cam is fascinating as it shows
the growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae - a bacteria. This 6 hour series begins 4 times per day: at midnight,
6AM, noon, and finally 6PM. A new image is loaded every minute so you can see the growth of these nasties in
real time.

www.cellsalive.com

From microscopic life to marine life. SeaSky explores the wonderful life found in our fragile oceans. The sea
galleries take you on a tour of the ocean depths and the mammals, fish and coral inhabiting them. The simple
design enables the sharp colours of the images to have maximum impact. The coral reef ecosystem is incredibly
diverse and the site details the various life forms found there. The images, as you can imagine, are amazing. There
are four pages of coral alone, and you can learn about the individual coral, where you can find them and what
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makes them unique. The unusual fish are about as far away from tuna and cod as you can imagine. Some of these
strange residents of the reef don't even look like fish and show the diverse life coral holds. Once your brain begins
to ache from all your newly gained knowledge, take some light relief with the games section, but you'll need a Java
compatible browser to play.

www.seasky.org

SeaSky partners well with this next site if you need a little help in locating coral reefs or any location for that
matter. The Perry-Castaeda Map Collection at the University of Texas displays maps from every world region. This
collection covers the world's political, physical and topographical landscape and there are some beautiful maps to
look at. Check out the historical maps, which show the geographical outline of the worlds countries in Medieval
Times. You can enlarge the map using the icon which appears in the bottom right hand side of your browser.
Theres even a map drawn in 1896 of the tallest buildings in the world, which seems more like art to me than
topography. If you want to focus on city maps the site helpfully lists maps for all the major world cities, including
links to external map sites if this collection doesn't cover it. This map library is worth bookmarking as a
permanent resource to dip into.

http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Maps/

And finally for grown-up kids everywhere, you can enjoy your very own 'mirror, mirror on the wall' moment with
Photomacon. This site allows you to create a self-portrait and send it on to all your mates. The site is all in French
but it's self-explanatory, in fact playing around with it is half the fun. You can choose a startling variety of
caricature features, just click and drag onto the bland character and build a unique portrait. You can even choose
a variety of colours and change outfits and skin tone. Once you're finished simply press the camera icon and your
portrait is created. Copy and paste the code into an email and distribute to family and friends. All they need to do
is use the maconoscope to paste your code into, and up pops your portrait!

http://www.pastaga.net/photomacon/index.html

Abdul Moid from Karachi suggests we take a look at Quoteland, which is definitely worth bookmarking as a
language and encyclopaedic resource. As you’ve probably guessed from the title this is a quotes treasure chest,
designed to help you identify a quote and generate one as well. The site is cleanly laid out, but a little dry.
Author’s quotes, for instance, brings you famous or obscure names and what they said. There’s hundreds and
they’re alphabetically listed. For a more multimedia experience you can browse through the library where you can
find audio and video clips of key events, speeches, and some fun trivia. The library appears to be a growth area, so
do send in your suggestions to help it along.

www.quoteland.com

Vanessa Barlow happened to be watching Click Online in Spain and has recommended Tennis For All. This is a
great resource for all you bat and ball fans, and it’s free to access. The site has a technical leaning and uses
leading tennis players to demonstrate technique and style. There are frame by frame images of players, such as
Marat Safin’s tennis strokes, and great animations, such as this Pat Rafter one, which is looped. This repetition is
useful for understanding the technique. There are also six galleries with some great images of current world
tennis champs. This site makes tennis know how available to everyone - all you need is access to a computer and
you're in. Ultimately, though, you have to get out there and practise, but this is definitely a good place to pick up
training and technique tips.

www.tennisforall.org

From tennis to travel – Sam Daams thinks Travellers Point is worth your surf time. It is a free site and offers
travel advice and tips given by locals or others knowledgeable about a certain destination or area. You need to
register to access information on a variety of countries. The photography pages are still in their infancy – there’s
not many up there, but they're still worth a look. Fellow members have submitted some beautiful pics, so feel free
to submit your own. The most useful part of the site has to be the Lost Friends tool, which helps you reunite you
with friends you may have met on your travels. Use the registration form to give details of where you met, and any
other information which may link you together, and it’ll be posted on the site! Let me know if you come across any
other niche sites like this where you can share your travel tales.

http://www.travellerspoint.com/

Peter Moxom from Singapore wants to share Cannon’s 3D papercraft pages with us. If you’re feeling creative
you can download PDF files of 3D papercraft models which you can then print off and build for yourself. There are

17
hundreds of different patterns to choose from with varying degrees of complexity. Some of these models can be a
bit tricky to assemble, so take a look through the tips section which provides some useful suggestions with stage
by stage images to help improve your skills. And if you’re interested in the web design aspect of how this 3D
papercraft technology is brought to you, take a studio tour and learn more about the process, which is quite
intensive.

http://bj.canon.co.jp/english/3D-papercraft/

Finally, Maciej Czmuda from Poland has recommended Retrospectiv, a unique photographic diary of the world
from 30cm off the ground. Sounds strange? Take a look at the current edition and see for yourself. The images are
thought provoking and the exciting site design makes the viewing experience quite special. There are past
editions or galleries to look through while remembering the Retrospectiv rule of 'keeping a low perspective'. If
you’re interested in submitting your own photo it's important you read through the requirements, as any photo
taken above 30cm won’t be accepted. The site also offers some advice on keeping safe and warm in pursuit of the
low perspective piccy.

http://www.retrospectiv.com/

The Costume Gallery, unlike dress sizes in the world of fashion, is absolutely huge and covers fashion from an
older, gentler age. The emphasis is on images and there are over three and a half thousand of them. If you want to
learn how to make your very own tea gown as worn in 1910, you can join an online classroom. Because the
instructors and students are located worldwide the classes are self-paced. If you're cynical, just take a look at
former students' efforts - they're pretty impressive. And if you're trying to ferret our fashion info take a look
through the fashion library. Stacked on three shelves, there's a wide variety of research material here from
Byzantine clothing through to movie costumes.

http://www.costumegallery.com/

Fashion and beauty are said to be in the eye of the beholder, and Beauty Worlds challenges this perception. It
focuses on aspects of beauty in nature and global cultures. What are the reasons we find things beautiful and what
reaction does beauty evoke? The first thing to do is ignore the bubblegum pink site design and the content layout,
which in themselves challenge the site's purpose. In 'beauty across cultures' there are interesting articles on
chinese footbinding and Japanese costume with some lovely images. Also remember to keep scrolling down as
these articles do go on and at the end you'll find some interesting cross-referenced links for further reading.

http://www.beautyworlds.com/

Fashion is all about clothes but to get the full effect, you have to sort your barnet out. Hair Archives is just the
ticket! The site takes a nostalgic look at vintage hairstyles and once again the Internet provides a perfect medium,
as plenty of images have been posted up. If you want to find out more about bouffants and beehives-types of
hairstyle that were worn by lots of women have a browse through the hair archives - again setting directions are
there if you want to experiment! Let me know of any other hair and fashion sites, niche or huge, which you think I
should know about.

http://www.hairarchives.com/

As online fashion magazines go, Hint is way up there. Go straight to Battlemode - online fashion show where you
can browse through Flash generated shots of models in the latest cutting edge designer gear. And to get up to
speed on your fashion know-how the 'Let icons be icons' features a seminal figure in the world of frocks - Hattie
Carnegie graces this month's issue with wonderful images of her dresses that graced the covers of the world's
fashion magazines.

www.hintmag.com

Finally my favourite fashion statement of all - shoes. Solemates: A Century In Shoes is a fantastic site, beautifully
designed, which takes you through the history of footwear in the 20th century decade by decade. The site is
interactive and uses audio & video to full effect. Each section or decade provides an interesting commentary of
the times as well, so you can get a real feel for how the decade shaped the way people designed and wore fashion.
You'll need Quicktime and Flash plugins to make full sense of the multimedia elements that really give this site the
edge.

http://www.centuryinshoes.com/

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First up this week is a conversion tool brought to you by Digital Dutch which was recommended by Greg Owen
from Sussex in England. The Unit Converter calculates and converts units you probably last came across during a
physics lesson! Use the left hand menu to decide which area you want to convert your unit in and then just use the
two input boxes to find out how your chosen unit appears in a greater or lesser value. It’s also interesting as
values that we rarely come across in everyday life are also included so now you can boast that your entry-level
computer isn’t really just 1.5 gigabytes but .0014 terabytes and leave all your friends perplexed!

http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/

Onto another tool that will work out how long a specific file could take to download based on a variety of internet
connection speeds. Simply enter the estimated file size in the box at the top and the Download Speed
Calculatorinstantly shows you the time it anticipates it will take. The only downside to this tool is that it doesn’t
provide a time value for bandwidth connections higher than ISDN, which given that ADSL is more and more the
connection of choice, makes the tool look a little dated. However it’s useful for a quick gander should you be
wanting to download a monster-sized file during work hours!

http://www.csgnetwork.com/csdlspeedcalc.html

Now onto tools of the technical kind, those that help you repair your ailing PC. If your computer is ready to hit the
PC graveyard a last chance saloon site you should check out Chez Scotty, a simple but informative site that covers
general maintenance, modem and Internet configurations and other useful PC tips and tricks. If you’ve never
‘defragged’ your computer before the site takes you through this simple process. Disk decrementing cleans up and
re-organises your hard-drive so it runs more efficiently. It’s easy to follow and Chez Scotty also provides a
graphical representation or ‘screen grab’ of the route to take through your PC to get to the application. This site
works well because it keeps things simple, which means you don’t have to trawl through a doorstop manual for
these simple maintenance tips.

http://www.chezscotty.com/windows%20tune-up.htm

Finally, onto tools of the physical kind. I know I’ve neglected you DIY enthusiasts out there, so now’s your
moment. The Do It Yourself Network has a cheesy tag line - ‘watch , print, click and do’ - so I couldn’t help putting
it to the test! In the Home Improvement section, as in all parts of the site, there’s a wealth of information and
inspiration DIY tips. I researched indoor painting as I don’t have the first clue about how to paint a wall and will
be getting into my overalls soon! I found the posted articles interesting and thorough enough for the novice and
images also accompany the text to guide you and let you know you're going about it the right way. Cross
referenced links towards the bottom of the page help you with other related areas such as cleaning your paint
brush and coping with messy jobs. If you’re more experienced and know your router from ratchet and the
difference between a flat and round spoke shave ‘cool tools’ is the area for you. It reviews the latest DIY gadgets
highlighting key features and listing the product’s specifications so you can make a comparison before you
purchase. Finally, The DIY network enables you to print off practically everything you’ve researched.

http://www.diynet.com/DIY/0,1014,,FF.html

Khadim Ali Talani from Pakistan has recommended a site that I thought I'd share with you - thanks Khadim! It's
Onlinenewspapers.com. The URL gives the game away but it's basically a portal that links you to thousands of
online newspapers and journals around the world. The homepage is not the most impressive - it's difficult to know
where to start with all the drop down menus - but basically you can find newspapers in various countries listed
alphabetically or by geographical region. It's really interesting to browse around regional papers such as
Bangladesh's 'The Independent'. A nice site that means you can never not know what is going on around the
world.

www.onlinenewspapers.com

Next is another fantastic resource - the 'Visual Thesaurus' brought to us by plumbdesign. It supposedly combines
an experiment in language and an artistic exploration. It's perfect for the web, as it displays the interrelationships
between words and meanings in the form of spatial maps, and in their own words translates 'language into a
visible architecture'. Pretty fancy, but does it work? Well, we put a word in to try it out: Internet. The visual
thesaurus displays the word you typed at its centre. The key is quite simple. Words are connected to meanings by
solid lines and meanings are connected to other meanings by dashed lines. This shows that 'cyberspace' is a
synonym, while 'computer network' is a connected meaning. If you then click on a word, a spider's web of
meaning, synonyms and nouns explodes in front of you in a dynamic display. You can then shift the 3D image and

19
click on the words as they appear.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/index.jsp

Continuing on the theme of words is a slightly stranger site - Banished Words, set up by Lake Superior University.
Every year the site posts a list of 'banished' words and phrases that it asks (for various reasons) should be
dropped from the language as soon as possible. For example the 2002 list has "TOTALLY UNIQUE" and "VERY
UNIQUE" asking how something unique can be slightly unique. Similarly with "POSSIBLE CHOICES"... can you
have 'impossible choices'? The university has been compiling the list since 1976, choosing from nominations sent
from around the world, and this year there were over 3000 nominations. More often than not the entries are
tongue in cheek and it is a lot of fun to take a look through the banished words archive and enjoy the lists of the
seventies and eighties. Why not send me the words you think should be banned from the technology world - and
we'll try not to use them too much ourselves, honest!

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current/

Now, from the meaning of words to their appearance. Move aside Times New Roman and Arial, as Patchwork,
Stingray and Riddleprint are in town at abstractfonts.com. There's a huge selection of free fonts - at last count
9664. There are so many to browse through you may just want to check out the Top 100 fonts which is updated
every day. There's a lot of variety and you can cast your vote for your preferred typeface. Click on 'details' to get
some stats - such as how many of you have downloaded the font. And if you find yourself becoming a 'fontaholic',
go speak about your addiction in the forum - there are over 500 members so be prepared for lots of opinions.

www.abstractfonts.com

And finally, Pranav Kale, from India, saw me recommend mopeyfish in an earlier show and sent in some
recommendations for other virtual pet sites. Neopets was one of them and is definitely worth a mention. Login and
create your own pet using the options available. The site then generates some personality traits unique to your
neopet, then you're ready to head off into Neopia world. Using the interactive map, take your pet on a journey of
discovery through different virtual environments where odd creatures live and play - neopia has over 68 million
pets! Use the interactive map to guide yourself through various worlds - The Lost Desert has game areas and a
food stall where you can haggle to buy dodgy looking grub! You can choose to view Neopia as a flash enhanced
world or, if you find your computer groaning, as html. There's a lot to explore, so what are you waiting for - you
might even meet Click Online's group of Neopets!

http://www.neopets.com/

First up we have the internet society: basically a group of people committed to develop the internet "to benefit all
people in the world". A nice idea of course, but it doesn't really lead to a terribly interesting looking site. But that
isn't why I'm recommending it. It contains one of the best histories of the internet I have come across. Yes, it is a
bit technical but if you want to know how it came about, and the role that TCP/IP played, this is your place.

The other place I wanted to show you was the NUA site - which shows you how many people there are online. The
figures show the number of people in areas that make up the world and even give you a breakdown of the figures
for each country going back over the years. Hardly eye candy, but fascinating reading.

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml#Origins

http://www.nua.com/

On a similar factual theme: timelines. These are fascinating documents, often put together by hobbyists and or
fans, listing the hows and whys of any subject at all, such as Canadian coins... or Sweden. Ken and Wendy Polsson
live in Victoria, British Columbia and produce Polsson's WebWorld a list of timelines on some seriously diverse
subjects from the history of the Chevrolet Corvette motor car to A and W root beer - whatever that is. The timeline
that caught my eye was the history of the personal computer. Starting as far back as 1947 it goes via the
development of the transistor to the Xerox Dynabook to the Apple II to the IBM PC. It isn't the best looking
website in the world, but it is as interesting as they get and well worth a visit.

http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/

Now with a bit more colour we have World Wide Words. Subtitled "Investigating international English from a
British viewpoint" it is a fascinating list of English words and phrases giving not only their meaning but how they
came about. Compiled by Michael Quinion it is clearly laid out and very simple to navigate. The Q and A section is

20
probably the most interactive, where you are invited to ask how phrases and words came about - and don't forget
to look out for the fascinating and entertaining derivation of the phrase "by jove". And by Jove what a terrific site
that is - and don't worry about the lack of pictures or fancy graphics, if you have any interest in the English
language you are going to be there for a while.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

Last, and certainly not least, is a site that does have fancy graphics and is the kind of website that gives the web a
good name, plus it's free it's good and it's helpful - everything a site should strive for. Webmasters take note!
Easytype is the place you go if you want to learn to type free of charge. To start you select an age group to join
and then supply a name, password and email address. Interestingly the site doesn't seem to send anything to the
email address you put in, so you may want to put in an address you don't check very often. Once you have
registered you are off, the characters on the screen explain what to do and the rest is down to practice. The
course is written in Macromedia Flash - which means you will need to have the flash player installed on your PC
for it to run. You have to be online to use it so this isn't the kind of site you visit if you have pay expensive dial up
charges to get on line but for those that have a free online service it is great. There is even a place where you can
go to test your typing skills. An excellent site by any standard and if you want to download a software version of it,
it costs you ten dollars. Don't forget to let me know any other sites that provide a free service like this we should
support them when we can.

http://easytype.com/

First up this week is NASA's Visible Earth site, which offers an amazing look at Earth. Visible Earth is a huge
directory that contains images, visualisations and animations of our planet. The front page presents the areas you
can explore - it does have an educational feel to it and the headings probably make more sense to those who are
familiar with Earth Science. I just used the handy search tool and took pot luck with the results. For instance I
typed in 'Antarctic' and found this amazing visualisation of the Earth showing the hole in the ozone layer. Some of
the other results appeared quite random, as 'Antarctic' threw back an image of the Earth's City lights along with a
fascinating commentary. All the images and animations made available through Visible Earth are generally not
copyrighted, but check as some are. You can download the NASA imagery, video and audio files for your photo
collections or any Internet web pages you're building which is great as there's some amazing material here.

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

For a groovy bit of freeware try Crazy Browser. Crazy Browser is not just another standard browser, download it
and see for yourself. It lets you open multiple sites and windows inside a single browser. Each time you load a new
web page, instead of replacing the one I've just been looking at it appears as a tab at the top of the browser so I
can access all the pages I've viewed with one click of the mouse. Really useful when you're multitasking and want
everything you've found so far at your fingertips. It also has a Smart Popup Filter - which means it blocks all
annoying pop-ups automatically! It supports all Windows based operating systems and is available in many other
languages. Remember this is freeware - it's not a commercial product - so there's no tech support, although you
can send a mail to the guy who's been developing this browser for over two years. Have fun with it though, it
certainly makes browsing easier.

http://www.crazybrowser.com/

Now a gaming site now with lots of shareware: gamextazy. This site has shareware and some freeware games to
suit all types of gamers. All the games are divided into genres as there hundreds. You'll see some well know old
friends in the Tetrises section and can check out how may others have downloaded the game - an indication that
it's popular and worth a look. It's got cool graphics and optional sound effects and is as addictive as ever!

http://www.freedownload-games.com/index.php

Finally, Kartoo is a unique search engine well actually a meta search engine. Why? Well, it displays its results as a
cartographic interface, meaning you get a map like diagram showing how all the results are linked and related -
very clever really, and it creates a real feel of the internet being an interconnected web. First up select the
language of the interface as the words and menus are specific to each country. As soon as you press ok to
generate the search Kartoo analyses your request, and this is the meta-bit, questions the most relevant engines,
selects the best sites and places them on a map. Once you've got your map, when you move the pointer over a
"ball" the description of the site appears on the left giving you a taster of the site's content. You can simply click
on the ball to open the site. And when you move the pointer over a topic, two buttons - a plus and a minus -
appear. The Plus button adds the topic to the search. The Minus button eliminates the sites relative to this topic. I
played around with Kartoo for a while and found the way the site works very organic, helping me to visualise what
I wanted to research. Other engines maybe quicker if you want a straightforward search result, but Kartoo
allowed me to feel like I was exploring the virtual map of the Web to discover my answer.

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www.kartoo.com

Welcome clicksters! Today's chair-bound perambulation among the corruscating webland that is the network
interconnected (or the internet, to the less well educated) brings many brings munificent masterpieces. Okay
enough of my verbosity - it's only because I've made dictionary.com's word of the day my default homepage.
Honest! It's a simple site filled with all the words you'll ever need. As you'll see from the front page, the site acts
as an umbrella portal for all sorts of word-based resources. 'Ask Doctor Dictionary' is a really helpful search
facility for all you grammar-heads out there - just type in anything you want to know and the results should display
relevant hyperlinked questions. And as I mentioned earlier if you set 'word of the day' as your browser homepage
it's a sneaky way to improve your vocabulary - somehow it just manages to stick! You can also subscribe to the
'word of the day mailing list' and receive a mail with a new word to master.

www.dictionary.com

Now for another hugely useful resource - this time if you're thinking about travelling. Mats Henricson has created
an essential guide on what to take when you go travelling whether it's a fortnight holiday or a round-the-world
trip. The site is very basic - maybe even a little dated in its design, using frames so that you can quickly and easily
navigate from the menu on the left. As for the content, it's basically a load of lists but it's invaluable as it does all
the thinking for you. Covering everything from what clothing to take away with you to what hygiene products you
may want to pack as well. The beauty of this site is that it exists soley to make your life easier. So if you want you
can save the whole thing as a file and use it as a checklist, deleting the bits that don't apply to you and adding
stuff you'd never leave home without. You can also synch up your list with your fellow travellers and help save
packing two lots of the same item. And do send in your recommendations if you come across any good travel
guides like this one - I'm always on the lookout - you never know when the click team will invite me to go abroad!

http://upl.codeq.info/customizeform.html

Another useful site for travellers and non-travellers is timeanddate.com. You can find out what the time is
anywhere in the world just using this simple search. There are other tools that, such as one that lets you calculate
your time zone in relation to a country you might be visiting. But I think this useless trivia about your birthday is
worth a look. I now know I will have lived 10000 days on January 17, 2003 just by typing in my birth date. Scary
thought! Anyway, a nice utility to bookmark when you need quick access to timezone information.

www.timeanddate.com

Finally,for an alternative site try Emode.com, which bills itself as the number one destination for self-discovery - I
just can't help wanting to put it to the test! The homepage screams touchy feely with its pastel colours and
sunflower logo. Never mind. It gets more bizarre when you notice tests like 'What breed of dog are you?' and
'Who's your movie star double?' However, dig a little deeper and there are some interesting, well maybe not even
interesting but entertaining tests you can try out. I took 'What's your workout?' and e-mode has enlightened me -
apparently I need to do some kind of aerobic or dance based exercise - and that's from answering just 20
questions. So if your're in the mood for a bit of light-hearted web therapy why not take a look! That's about it from
me - by the way, I turned out to be a golden retriever!

www.emode.com

Lets get off to a flying start with a small but dedicated group who specialise in Kite Aerial Photography! Next time
someone tells you to go fly a kite – listen up! Charles Benton has created a site explaining his passion and showing
some great images for your viewing pleasure. Kite Aerial Photography, or KAT as it's known, involves using large
kites to lift cameras up to 500 feet above the ground. These low-height air photos can give unique views of the
Earth's surface over land or water. Before getting into the detail, go straight to the gallery to get hooked on the
breathtaking images. The photography can achieve detail and a sense of grandeur at the same time. Some of the
images certainly challenge the way we look at things too - take a look at these images of the Bryce Canyon in
California. If you're interested in taking a hobby like this up, the site provides some useful starter points. The
equipment page is in depth and explains what kit you need and how to assemble it as well as a useful section if
you want to get going but are a bit strapped for cash. And if you find this site gets your camera air-bound, send
me jpgs of your kite photography - I'd be really interested to see them!

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/gal030.html

Next up is a site that supposedly came about when a grandmother discovered her granddaughter had let her
plants die when away on holiday. It’s called Hints and Things. It's been set up by a silver surfer, June Jackson, who
wanted to pass knowledge and ways of doing things across the generation gap, and how better than to do it
22
through the 'net. Use the house floor plan to navigate your way through three hundred pages of hints, tips, trivia,
suggestions. For instance the 'kennel' section has a useful glossary for the names of groups of animals - did you
know for instance that it's an intrusion of cockroaches and an unkindness of ravens? Move over to the bathroom
and the site offers up gems like 'how to get rid of hair lice' and handy first aid hints. June Jackson has basically
collated all the bits of info she finds useful or matter to her so it has the personal touch - if you want to learn how
to dry flowers in your microwave or simple car repairs, head over to her virtual house straightaway.

http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/

If you've ever wanted a pet but felt jittery at the thought of being responsible for a real one, you can own a virtual
pet from Mopyfish. Download the fish tank which will live as your screensaver. You can then name your fish who
swims happily around your screen. The fish has been developed to mimic the natural behaviour of a Parrot fish
and will respond as a real fish would. Mopyfish is a sensitive pet, so you must remember to feed it daily or else it'll
get grumpy and if you abandon it for more than five days, you might find it floating at the top of your screen, dead.
Your mopyfish can also get some exercise if you keep clicking your mouse rapidly it'll race round the tank, but
don't go overboard or you'll traumatise it! You can reward your mopyfish with habitat enhancing fish tank
furniture. Each time you use your printer from your computer you collect 20 MOP points - that's mopy original
printout points. Once you have a certain number of points, you can redeem them against rocks and plants and
even a thermometer for your fish's tank. Who said virtual pets were the hassle-free option, I'd like to know!

www.mopyfish.net

Finally, this site has been recommended by Roni, who must be our youngest viewer at the age of four! He and his
dad enjoy building bricks - Lego actually - and so suggested we take a look at lego.com. There's masses of content
here to keep adults and kids busy. The movies are fun and multiple formats and bit-rates are available so you
should have no problem streaming them. If you're up for some game playing Junkbot Undercover is a Shockwave
game that challenges you to investigate the mysterious Project X! You'll have to build bridges, stairs, walls and
keep Junkbot from getting caught by the guardbots meanwhile helping him find all the trash cans in the
underground facility. It's not that easy, as the game monitors how many pieces you move to create a pathway for
Junkbot, the less the better - and if you collect keycards you get automatic entry into the next level. It's a bonus if
you become a member as it allows you to save the levels of the game you get through as well as allowing you
access to many more adventures!

https://club.lego.com/build/junkbot2.asp

We kick off with a site dedicated to all the things you were never taught at school! Soyouwanna gives crash
courses on leisure activities, etiquette and all sorts of things you might have wondered about but never got around
to doing. The front page looks and behaves like a directory and the site design isn't particularly promising but
keep with it, as the content is well written and useful. The topics are handled in a humorous way and each topic
links to a crash course which will have you wised-up and ready to boast about your new found knowledge in no
time at all.

If you want to 'fake an appreciation for art', you can whiz through the history and development of art from 500 BC
right through to the 20th century movements. The site even helps you acquire pretentious art speak, which is for
chuckle factor only - please don't attempt to repeat these expressions if you're walking through an art gallery!
Links on the right of the page also suggest related topics which may interest you, so have a browse. And if these
guides are still too long and you find your mind wondering, the site brings you 'mini-wanna' which are potted
versions of the full-length topics, how conscientious is that!

http://www.soyouwanna.com/

Airline Equality a site for those of you who travel on aeroplanes, regularly or once in a blue moon. Put together by
a UK company that specialises in auditing service standards on airlines, there's lots of information to digest here,
so I'll tell you about the key areas that are worth dipping into first.

If you want to know which airlines they think are scoring 5 stars and supply the highest quality performance to
passengers, you can check the rankings - I was relieved to see that no airline scored as low as 1 star but they
don't do all airlines. Once you've decided which carriers you prefer, you can go the whole hog and check out
what's being debated in the 'airport opinion pages', where passengers post what they think about the airports
they've used - and it makes for interesting reading. If you're travelling long haul, you can check out the seat pitch
of the plane, or the distance between the seats for us non experts. There's quite a difference between airlines and
those few inches of leg-room could make all the difference when you're stuck in a plane for hours and hours. And
'Inflight Health' gives the low-down on deep vein thrombosis and what you can do to minimise the risk of
developing it while flying- definitely worth a read. An interesting site to bookmark as a resource even if like me,
you hate flying and try hard never to get on a plane!

http://www.airlinequality.com/

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Here's a Flash based site with lots of interactive games - it's Globz. The games are colourful, such as 'food frenzy'
which is simply designed but quite addictive with its funny sound effects and comic animation - you might think
it's easy but the animals keep swapping around so you need to be on the ball! If you have a low bandwidth
connection, you may find it takes some time to load the games but Globz has won various awards for its
interactive games and should definitely be on your click list.

http://www.globz.net/

Lord of The Rings, J R R Tolkien's famous fantasy adventure has a massive fan base on the Internet, and it's
growing daily now that the film version of 'The Two towers' will be in our cinemas soon. So take a look at a really
well constructed Lord of the Rings fanatic site. There's lots of them out there, but I thought this one a cut above
the rest. Read up on Tolkien's biography - there's two versions, one more detailed than the other if you're a die-
hard fan, or read through a transcript of an interview he did in 1957 with the BBC. These galleries house some
wonderful conceptual art by various artists who give their own interpretations to the novel. And finally, try your
hand at the 'quest quiz 'which has 111 questions in varying degrees of difficulty - in fact you need to pass Level 1
and be given a code to step up to Level 2 and so on - see if you are a true Middle Earth fanatic!

http://www.lordotrings.com/

This week I thought I'd bring you sites from two extremes - art and sport. So let's kick off with one of Scotland's
most influential artists - Charles Rennie Macintosh. And with a global network of members, the Charles Rennie
Macintosh Society should be our first stop on the web. The site has been sensitively designed to complement the
artist's own work and there are some nice interactive features. The Society has its head office at Queen's cross
church and through this virtual visit you can see the striking pulpit and windows Macintosh designed. You can
also use the interactive map of Glasgow to locate some of the most famous Macintosh buildings and other works of
art. I would've perhaps wanted to explore more of Macintosh's furniture and art through images and more text,
but do dip in, as it's a good place start if you've never heard of him before.

http://www.crmsociety.com/

did say that I'd be talking about the extremes of art and sport, but the two happily co-exist in this next site.
ArtRacing is for all you Formula 1 and car racing fans out there. Head straight for the Gallery, where there are
conceptual art and photographic images of racing cars. Click further to see enlarged images that are exciting
even if you're not a motor racing fan. You can also step back in time to racing days of old, with images of classic
cars battling it out on the racetrack. The site is essentially e-commerce focussed and encourages you to purchase
what you've seen. However, if you don't want to part with you money just browse around the fantastic galleries
and immerse yourself for free!

www.artracing.com

If you’re looking for the ultimate Web site about the Web you need to take the plunge with EchoEcho. It is a
Danish site that is a one-stop shop for all your web-related issues. Its tutorials are easy to follow yet thorough, so
you start with the building blocks and work through to achieve sophisticated results. If your web skills are already
developed then their online tools could give your website that extra degree of snazzyness and, most important of
all, traffic! There are a host of Javascript and DHTML tools which are easy to work through and do most of the
hard work for you. By simply following the instructions and pop-up windows, drop down menus and a customised
scroll-bar could be gracing your website within moments! And although getting the code and technical elements
right are crucial, there’s no excuse for a poorly designed website or one which is difficult for users to navigate
through. Well, worry not, the site’s own design magazine (D-Zine) addresses these issues. The articles are
interesting and show that creating a successful site is actually quite hard work. And last but not least, if you think
of yourself as a bit of a hotshot developer, take the echoecho quiz and test your know how. A very useful site for
dedicated web watchers.

www.echoecho.com

Another hugely useful site is Hostels.com – a worldwide database of hostels and guesthouses which can help you
find places to stay that won’t cost the earth. Use the map to navigate your way to a specific country and the listing
of hostels in that country. Some hostels enable you to reserve online through the site, so you can plan your trip in
advance. You can interact on the bulletin boards - there’s an international one and also themed forums. Roadwise
is the site’s features-based area offering advice about travelling safely. There are lots of interesting articles,
although the most recent one was written in January of this year – hopefully a timely feature will be submitted
soon. A very useful site with so many links and information resources that you could be there a while.

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www.hostels.com

Travel Scribbles is perfect for armchair travellers and those of you who like spending hours sitting in a metal tube
30,000ft in the air. It’s a pleasant-looking site with an interactive map encouraging you to click on any continent
and explore the world of travel features, news and tips. The site’s main aim is to collate quality travel journalism
so that you can learn more about a country than you find in a travel brochure. In each article, links take you
through to relevant sites – don’t worry though, you won’t leave Travel Scribbles because the links just open up a
new browser window which you can close to return to your reading - like on this very page! The news section has
broad appeal and not only covers countries around the world, but has discounts and news on offers that are all
current – some running until January of next year, so you’ll have plenty of time to book! If you subscribe to the
‘quote of the month’ Travel Scribbles will deliver words of wisdom straight to your e-mail inbox. What better way
to inspire you to travel?

http://www.travelscribbles.com/

On my travels through cyberspace I recently came across WiseNut a newish search engine, so let me know what
you think of it and feel free to suggest any others which I can add to my burgeoning list of engines. Wisenut
launched just over a year ago and claims it has trawled through over 1.5 billion web pages and, after sieving out
the guff, has built a database of over 800 million web pages. Sounds impressive but how does the site actually
behave? Mirroring Google’s simple, uncluttered strategy, the front page simply has a search box. Once you’ve
submitted your query Wisenut delivers the results in a clean, easy to read format. An automatic feature of
Wisenut, is its ‘wiseguide’ search functionality. If you enter a generic word, the wiseguide search automatically
generates categories that are semantically linked to the words in your search. For very general queries, or for
words with multiple meanings, this type of search could help you find things much more quickly.

www.wisenut.com

Cool Archive is a fantastic resource for those of you interested in web-design and cool graphics. It offers
hundreds of free clipart graphics, fonts and other bit n’ pieces for you to use free of charge – but remember you
can use them for personal and non-profit sites only and you can’t distribute them to anyone without getting the
site's permission first. In the clip art section there are thousands of images and they’re handily sorted into themes
which makes finding stuff very easy. Once you found the image you want to use, just right-click on it and choose
‘save image as’. And if you’re a Mac-user hold the mouse button on the image and choose 'Save Image'. You could
also wile away some time in the font section. Not that you’ll need 950 extra fonts, but they’re fun to look at and
you may find something you want to download. And the good news is that the fonts work on both PCs and Macs. A
great and very generous site for all you budding designers out there.

www.coolarchive.com

Powered by Google, the Alexa Toolbar is a free ‘search and navigation companion’ that provides useful
information about the sites you visit without interrupting your Web browsing. The toolbar installs very quickly and
easily. My favourite feature is the Wayback button – if you find yourself having trouble getting access to your
favourite site, or want to see what it looked like in the past, just click the Wayback button, select a date, and you’ll
be transported back in time to see archived copies of your favourite sites. Very smart. Alexa’s toolbar is really
effective because it remains permanently on your browser frame so you can access it immediately when you get
itchy fingers to do a search.

http://download.alexa.com/alexa65/startpage.html?p=Dest_W_g_40_L1

We start with sites of a bookish nature. If collecting rare and out of print books is your thing, then Abebooks
should be on your click list.

There are various national versions of the site as well as a more general .com. Just use the search field to find the
author or book you're looking for. The results show listings for books varying in price, age and condition. You'll
see that the information has been aggregated from a global search which will save you a lot of effort rummaging
around bookshops at home and abroad. The features area 'reading room' has some interesting extras such as
Booksleuth, which enables users to ask for help in finding books they can't locate.

If you want to purchase a book, just go through the standard procedure of setting up an account and away you go.

http://www.abebooks.com/

At some point or another we have all been affected by computer viruses that have the potential do lots of damage.
But how do you tell the difference between a benign virus travelling globally though e-mail, or the more worrying
ones that destroy precious data?
25
Viruslist is a site available in both Russian and English, which posts the most up to date virus alerts and advice. If
you think you’re harbouring a computer virus, check the Virus Calendar which displays the viruses that are
currently active on a day to day basis. Selecting any of these viruses delivers a page describing what the virus
does and what effect it has on your system. A handy glossary section to the right of the page helps break down
some of the more obscure terms you may not have come across before. There’s also a useful hoax section detailing
the viruses that aren’t actually viruses at all.

Each topic leads to a message board where you can post your own questions and gather further information from
other users – although it would be useful perhaps to develop this into a threaded message board, where users can
see not just the questions that have been posted, but all the replies as well. And if you find your system infected
with a virus, you can always download protection software from virus police such as McAfee or Symantec.

http://www.viruslist.com/; www.mcafee.com; www.symantec.com

Finally, property prices in the UK have been rocketing over the past few years, so I’m beginning to think I need to
look a little further a field to find my ideal bolthole. So when I came across Lunar Embassy I thought my dreams
had been answered.

The site enables you to buy your very own piece of real estate on a host of different planets. A loop in the Outer
Space Treaty of 1967 has led to Lunar Embassy selling plots of moonscape. You can buy a one acre plot and have
it registered under your name for eternity, or so they say! You’re just a couple of clicks away from being able to
purchase your plot. When you’ve paid, you’ll receive a deed of your lunar acreage and a map detailing where your
plot actually is. So if you fancy becoming a property tycoon, why not buy plots on Mars and Venus as well!

www.lunarembassy.com

While us mere mortals are going about our daily business on Earth, scientists on the Deep Impact project are
looking towards comets and the origins of life.

Deep Impact will be the first mission aimed at making a huge football field-sized crater on a speeding comet.
Images from both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor will then be sent back to Earth as data in near-real time.
This is a fascinating site that not only outlines its mission objectives but also has loads of interesting facts and
information about comets. On the project timeline you can see, by rolling over key dates, exactly what the
scientist will be hoping to achieve and when. July 2005 will be the big month.

Animations show what the scientists hope will happen as the spacecraft heads towards the comet and releases the
impactor. And if you fancy a bit of light relief after all this scientific information, check out the discovery area with
its facts and figures, or these images drawn by young astronauts of the future.

http://deepimpact.umd.edu/index.html

Back on Earth, Niroj sent me a mail asking about physics and chemistry sites that could help with schoolwork.
I've found the twin sites - Physics 4 Kids and Chem 4 Kids. Lets take a quick tour.

At Physics 4 Kids you click on the coloured blocks at the top of the page to navigate through the wonderful wacky
world of physics. Clicking on any one of the subject areas takes you to a sub-homepage and an overview of the
topic. The layout and content areas are clearly presented and easy to understand - something that kids and adults
alike should appreciate with a subject like Physics! You'll need a couple of plug-ins as well - Flash and Quicktime -
although the majority of the content is text based.

Chem 4 Kids follows the same path, giving an overview of the main subject areas. Topics are covered in quite a lot
of detail with some nice graphics to lighten it all up a bit. The Activities section has some fun quizzes which will
test your grey matter and again you'll need Flash if you want to play

Both sites are good tools to use alongside what you're being taught at school and for all you adults past school
age, why not dip in and test your memory - you'll be amazed at how much you remember.

http://www.physics4kids.com/; www.chem4kids.com

Now a search engine, and I don't want you to send me 'not another search engine!' emails because this site is
more than slightly different to the well-known giant search engines of the Web.

Ditto is a visual search engine that focuses on retrieving information that is multimedia based. So when you type
in Elvis Presley, Ditto delivers a host of images on the subject of The King as well as links to other relevant
multimedia products and services, should you be wanting an Elvis style jumpsuit and wig. Results can be viewed
in both a compact and detailed way, giving information on the source, file size and date of the image.

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All in all it's a fast and successful way of locating multimedia on the Web - not only for Elvis fans though.

www.ditto.com

Finally, a site that's very useful and seems to have been compiled by one man on a mission to debunk the
confusing language of the computer world.

Jon Storm has created 'What did he say?!' It's a page of the all the confusing terms and acronyms used in the
computer and internet world, which he has translated into easily digestible definitions. Terms vary from colloquial
expressions used in text messaging and email right through to the more obscure technical jargon. Not much of a
looker as sites go, but a useful page to bookmark as a quick reference tool.

http://www.jonstorm.com/glossary/

First we have a site for adrenaline junkies that like nicely ironed clothes. Extreme Ironing is the place to go for
neatly dressed extreme sports fans everywhere.

The site presents us with an outdoor activity that combines the danger and excitement of an 'extreme' sport with
the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt. It involves taking an iron and board (if at all possible) to remote locations
and ironing a few items of laundry. This can involve ironing on a mountainside, preferably on a difficult climb, or
doing the ironing while skiing, snowboarding or canoeing - and there are pictures too, to give you an idea of how
extreme ironing is done. It’s already a global sport – expect to see it in the Olympics very soon! And if you’re
wondering whether these enthusiasts really do iron while hiking, biking and cycling, the FAQs section will answer
the obvious question. Oh, and it's battery powered irons apparently!

www.extremeironing.com

A couple of shows ago I talked about a site that did lots of different conversions and we got floods of emails asking
about it. One of the emails was from Nick in the UK, who wanted to know about any maths conversion tables to
that would help him prepare for his exams. I found one and I wish it had been around when I was at school.

Math2 is a helpful site for those of you who are studying maths at school and also for those of us who may be a bit
rusty with algebra, graphs, trig etc.

It’s simple to use. On the left there are a range of reference and conversion tables such as a fraction to decimal
conversion table. Suddenly seven sixteenths turns from brain numbing gobbledegook to a pleasantly
digestible .4375. The site also has a lively community on its message boards, where you can post any maths
related question and learn interesting facts and maths aids. One of the best features about this site is that it’s
available in English, French and Spanish so now there’s no excuse for not knowing what polynomials are!

www.math2.org

After all these years of surfing I still come across innovative ways in which the 'net is being used. Wish Republic is
a fiendishly simple website that lets you create a wish list online for your friends and family to dip into when gift-
giving moments come around.

Once you've registered you can begin creating your lists. It's really easy - just create a subject header, and a short
description of why you've created this list, and away you go and begin adding the pressies you'd like to receive.
The site enables you to categorise what you want and also lets you log what is still a 'wanted' item and what has
been 'received'. A very simple idea that uses the global reach of the web very well. Now there's no excuse for your
friends and family to buy unwanted gifts!

http://www.wishrepublic.com/

Finally over to body bits - Medtropolis has an interesting way of bringing the human body alive – or more alive if
you aren’t dead yet. The Virtual Body looks at the body's major systems and lets you explore them interactively.
You can watch an interesting narrated tour of the heart, showing you how it functions. This is replicated with the
digestive tract model, where it encourages you to scroll over a particular section and then brings up the names of
the organs. It's also quite helpful to see the system which processes the food we eat, without all the other bits of
the body getting in the way! There is no question that this site is extremely informative and a great study aid for
all ages – and it is good looking too.

http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

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This online exhibition takes you on a journey through the history of the electric guitar. As you can see the site
design is very attractive, with a themed navigation bar and bold use of colour. The site is mainly text-based and
makes for interesting reading. But they also ahve plenty of images of guitars that have made it into the electric
guitar Hall of Fame.

But in the pictures section the site decides to behave slightly strangely and you have to scroll across to see the full
range of models. Once at the far right, you'll see some secondary navigation taking you through to a few more
picture galleries. Selecting any of these guitars brings up a small potted history of its development and its
importance in the evolution of this instrument.

http://www.si.edu/lemelson/guitars/

If you're bored of listening to your usual radio, why not listen to internet radio. To help you find your ultimate
station this handy site will pinpoint the radio stations that are streaming over the 'net and open up a whole new
world of sound. Just use the drop down boxes and make your selection - my search for Internet radio in New
Zealand came up with a good selection like radio active fm based in Wellington. The lightening icon on the left
indicates that this station is broadcasting over the Internet, so all you need to do is click on the link and you'll be
taken to the station where you can connect to their live feed. You can also search via music genre - so if you're
into 'smooth jazz', you'll be spoilt for choice.

Radio-locator is currently for 'terrestrial' radio stations who have an Internet presence. The site plans to add an
Internet-only radio stations section so, excuse the pun, stay tuned.

http://www.radio-locator.com/

For all you classical music afficionados out there, the classical music archives promotes itself as the largest
archive of you guessed it, classical music on the Web.

The site is very big, so take some time to look around. As you can see from the index page, there are various ways
of finding music to stream - I opted for the timeline which helps guide you through the various music styles from
the 14th century through to the present day. I picked Debussy, as he's one of my favourite composers and his
page is literally bursting with his genius. Just click on the file to begin the stream. The majority of the files in the
archives are in a format known as MIDI which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface format. The upside
of MIDI files is their very small size. Downside? Well, you'll need to have a good sound card or external
synthesiser to get good renditions. Some music is also available in Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. Luckily for
much maligned Mac-users, like me, you're able to download a Mac-compatible windows media player from the site
so you should have no problems listening to the music.

And just when you thought this site was all about a calm passive music experience it hits you with some practice
guides - which are useful, so stop being lazy, go and read them and improve your arpeggios! There are thousands
of music tracks to listen to - so try and ignore the site look and feel, which makes me feel like I'm in a Parisian
dancing hall in the 40s (except tackier) and use this great and mostly free resource to become a Classic music
whizz - that is if you aren't one already.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/

And lastly a cool music community on the 'net known as InternetDJ. This network aims to bring DJs and
independent musicians and artists together in one cohesive community.

The news and features is a good place to start for an overview of what's happening in the scene - as you can see
the site offers newsbites, interviews, MP3s, and DJ profiles. Another feature I liked was flip it or spin it - to mortals
like us that means we'd bin it or like it so much if we were DJ's we'd play it ourselves - just use your mouse-power
and let them know what you think of this track!

This site relies on its community to generate the content - but if you take a look at the top clubs, you'll see
countries without any clubs to their name - so if you've visited a good one lately you can register and submit your
recommendation.

And how can I leave a network site without mentioning the word 'forum' - there I've done it now. And you'll be
pleased to know that InternetDJ's forum is bursting with messages, and it appears to have a global audience
already.

www.internetdj.com

First up is Spiked, a webzine with in-your-face journalism and a series of unorthodox views that immediately draw
you in. As you scroll down the page you can read through archived articles and columns which manage to remain

28
as relevant now as when they were written. Take note, the site challenges views with outrageous opinions on
everything from politics to sport.

You can also subscribe to an e-mail newsletter that highlights the features posted on the site that day. A cleanly
designed site that delivers a strong voice over the Web.

http://www.spiked-online.com/

Ever wondered how other people like you live? 'Who Lives Here?' is an online project to create a global
community

The idea is that if you see the living spaces of people of different nationalities and various countries, you'll have a
better understanding of humanity and the need to live peacefully with each other.

Although personally I'm not entirely sure about this philosophy, it is a fascinating view into the way others live.
Just pick one of the apartments from the drop-down box.

The images of the rooms are generally home snaps and each inhabitant includes a little write-up about their lives.
Taken individually these pages perhaps don't mean much, but collectively you get a real sense of connection
between people from opposite ends of the Earth. And if you want to live in 'Apartment Earth' click on 'application'
and fill out the web form, but you'll have to send the digital images of your living space via e-mail - all in all a good
small-scale project with global ambitions.

http://www.wholiveshere.com/

Metaplanets, on the other hand, delivers a different kind of grey matter stimulation. This site enables you to look
at the planets in our solar system in 3 dimensions. Once you've downloaded the media viewer plug-in, just pick
from the right hand navigation bar and within moments you'll be in control of a planet!

As you can see, the site provides the key facts about the planet you've picked, although the focus is really on the
visual impact these revolving planets have. I found the 3D model of Earth a fascinating experience. Use the
control panel on the left to manipulate Earth's movement - you can zoom in to specific zones such as the Nile delta
and rotate it too. If you can't get your hands on a model globe, this site provides a unique view of our planet.

www.metaplanets.com

Finally, here's a site using technology as a tool to fight for human rights. Like Spiked it is politically
uncompromising and its plan is simple: it gives video and web broadcasting equipment to enable people to tell
their story.

Witness allows human rights campaigners to film injustice as it happens. Its website acts as a portal through
which the public can be mobilised to act and campaign against human rights violations. Clicking on any of the
images running along the top of the homepage opens a Quicktime player through which you can watch video
shorts of thought-provoking and often disturbing accounts of human rights violations. These are produced monthly
and feature both domestic and international issues.

And although it's not an area I'd usually recommend, the 'links' page of the site is a very useful resource if you
want a deeper understanding of the areas Witness is involved in, as well as the partner organisations it works
alongside. As you can see their connections reach around the globe, so the site also behaves like a well-referenced
portal.

You may not agree with all the points the people on the site make but they are all guaranteed to make you think
about their story. Definitely worthy of your attention.

www.witness.org

Metacritic's mission is to help you make an informed decision about how to spend your money on entertainment.
What began as a simple idea back in the summer of 1999--to both provide access to and summarize the
vast amount of entertainment criticism available online--has evolved into one of the Web's best
resources for critical information about film, video, music, games, and, beginning at the end of 2004,
books.

http://www.metacritic.com/

29
OneWorld.net. We bring together the latest news and views from over 1,600 organizations promoting human
rights awareness and fighting poverty worldwide

http://www.oneworld.net/

Well, look no further Sue, as Lingo2Word is the home for 'net lingo, text messaging and emoticons. At its most
simple, you just type the lingo into the search box, handily positioned on the front page and hey presto -
Lingo2Word not only gives you the definition but suggests some alternatives as well. If you think you know your
RUF2T from AML, then take the 60 second challenge - you get just one minute to translate some words - trust me,
it's really hard!

If you use your mobile to text message, you'll know that symbols begin to take on a whole new meaning :-)
Emoticons started off as the simple smiley face, but there are hundreds of them listed on the site.

And finally, if your friend has sent you a lingo message and you haven't a clue what they're on about, just use the
translator. Cut and paste their message in and it'll all become clear.

www.lingo2word.com

Next up is Movie Mistakes, a site that you can dip into and think - how on earth could they have let that one slip?
The top 20 most mistake-filled films gives you an idea of how famous films can be full of gaffes.

Take Titanic for example, with a whopping 136 errors - considering the film is based on historical information,
these mistakes really shouldn't be there. The facts are funny and sometimes downright obvious and the site
encourages you to vote for the mistake you think is the best - or in fact worst. The most highly voted for mistakes
find their way to the Top Twenty - which are totally cringe worthy, such as the car that can be seen dashing across
a field in the Lord of the Rings.

The site does focus on US and English language films, so surfers, start spotting errors in International films and
send them in!

http://www.movie-mistakes.com/

World Hum is a travel site that focuses on writing from independent travellers. The rest of the site is simple and
uncluttered, and relies on the quality of the journalism to give you an idea of places you should visit and avoid.
The homepage also lists some interesting topical travel news pieces on the right, and these have cross-referenced
links to other articles and sites. A good example of a travel site using working as a global information network.

www.worldhum.com

Larry from Madrid has asked me to recommend some 'silver surfer' sites, for those of you who are at an age
where you remember watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon, or perhaps bought the first video game 'Pong' in
1973... for your children!.

Let me introduce The Oldie which bills itself as the magazine for those with the benefit of hindsight! Although the
site is there to encourage a subscription to The Oldie Magazine, there are fantastic features and interviews with
respected celebrities. There's also some lovely photojournalism such as this one dedicated to our canine friends.
And if you find yourself in London, take advantage of The Oldie Events which include wine tasting.

http://www.theoldie.co.uk/

First up, thank you to Sue who sent me a mail asking about sites that make e-mail and mobile phone lingo a lot
easier to understand.

Well, look no further Sue, as Lingo2Word is the home for 'net lingo, text messaging and emoticons. At its most
simple, you just type the lingo into the search box, handily positioned on the front page and hey presto -
Lingo2Word not only gives you the definition but suggests some alternatives as well. If you think you know your
RUF2T from AML, then take the 60 second challenge - you get just one minute to translate some words - trust me,
it's really hard!

If you use your mobile to text message, you'll know that symbols begin to take on a whole new meaning :-)
Emoticons started off as the simple smiley face, but there are hundreds of them listed on the site.

And finally, if your friend has sent you a lingo message and you haven't a clue what they're on about, just use the

30
translator. Cut and paste their message in and it'll all become clear.

www.lingo2word.com

Next up is Movie Mistakes, a site that you can dip into and think - how on earth could they have let that one slip?
The top 20 most mistake-filled films gives you an idea of how famous films can be full of gaffes.

Take Titanic for example, with a whopping 136 errors - considering the film is based on historical information,
these mistakes really shouldn't be there. The facts are funny and sometimes downright obvious and the site
encourages you to vote for the mistake you think is the best - or in fact worst. The most highly voted for mistakes
find their way to the Top Twenty - which are totally cringe worthy, such as the car that can be seen dashing across
a field in the Lord of the Rings.

The site does focus on US and English language films, so surfers, start spotting errors in International films and
send them in!

http://www.movie-mistakes.com/

World Hum is a travel site that focuses on writing from independent travellers. The rest of the site is simple and
uncluttered, and relies on the quality of the journalism to give you an idea of places you should visit and avoid.
The homepage also lists some interesting topical travel news pieces on the right, and these have cross-referenced
links to other articles and sites. A good example of a travel site using working as a global information network.

www.worldhum.com

Larry from Madrid has asked me to recommend some 'silver surfer' sites, for those of you who are at an age
where you remember watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon, or perhaps bought the first video game 'Pong' in
1973... for your children!.

Let me introduce The Oldie which bills itself as the magazine for those with the benefit of hindsight! Although the
site is there to encourage a subscription to The Oldie Magazine, there are fantastic features and interviews with
respected celebrities. There's also some lovely photojournalism such as this one dedicated to our canine friends.
And if you find yourself in London, take advantage of The Oldie Events which include wine tasting.

http://www.theoldie.co.uk/

First, a tip top gaming site: Netbaby have taken a traditional gaming site and incorporated it into a community
based one. The result is that once you enter the site, you need to create your own character before you can play
any of the Shockwave based games.

Once you've created your little character, you're ready to play. There are lots of single-player games like 'high
jump' that actually aren't as easy to play as you might think!

The site looks good and its groovy design has a Japanese comic feel to it, but the play box could have been a bit
bigger as sometimes your character can appear quite small when you're racing against other figures on the
screen.

A level up takes you to Netbaby's multiplayer games - but modem users beware you need to download Netbaby's
player before you start competing. All in all, this is a good entry-level site with bags of character, for those of you
who are new to Internet gaming.

www.netbabyworld.com

Do you like finding out about different continents - or perhaps even your own continent? Then you should check
out All Africa, which is a great resource for news and information about Africa and its countries.

You can search for news via a drop down box, which shows a country list. This takes you to local news and events
which the site aggregates from multiple African news feeds and agencies.

Then using the links on the left for theme based content, you can find out, for example, what the latest technology
developments are from a pan-African perspective

The site goes into depth editorially with special reports covering local and global events related to Africa. This is
an important site for anyone interested in detailed news about Africa.

31
www.allafrica.com

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is arguably more beautiful than the art it houses, but this site will let you
judge for yourself - the building itself is a design masterpiece

clicking on any of the thumbnail images on the right takes you through a photo-gallery of all the images so you
can get a real sense of this amazing structure.

When you look through the collections, you'll see the site has obviously spent quite a bit of time evaluating each
exhibition and providing the viewer with a taster of what they should visit! However, for a museum promoting art,
there is a surprising lack of pictures and visual media on the site itself. All the same well worth a visit before you
purchase a plane ticket.

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/edificio/el_edificio.htm

Last but not least is The Classic TV Database, which should be your first port of call for all those cheesy TV shows
you might have been glued to through the decades.

The site design is nothing special - it has the feel of a portal, but the content - well you just can't help melting with
nostalgia. The 1960s lists shows you probably thought had been buried forever.

Shows like Bewitched have gained cult status and on this site you'll get information on the cast and characters as
well as e-commerce links so that you can buy Bewitched merchandise.

And if you have difficulty remembering what the show was about, jog your memory with the theme tune.

The site also presents its top 100 shows, giving a quick synopsis of each. You'll notice that all the shows on this
site are American, but over the years they've been syndicated round the world, so you should see some you
recognise. The Classic TV Database gives you a good overview of what we were watching all those years ago.

http://www.classic-tv.com/

Mailwasher does exactly what you think - it puts your e-mails through a scrubber to get rid of any unwanted dirt!
I'd advise downloading the last full version of Mailwasher, as there is a new beta-version available but it could be
a bit buggy. This software acts as the first line of defence against all that spam mail.

It lets you see what mails are arriving and from where, plus if you have more than one e-mail account it can tell
you what inbox these mails are heading for. The rest is just as simple. All you have to do is choose the mails you
want to delete, and best of all select the bounce function for all that nasty spam that clogs up your inbox -
Mailwasher will send a fake 'address not found' message to the address that the message came from. Then simply
click the 'process mail' button and all the requests you've made are put into action.

The beauty of Mailwasher is that it works on the front-line directly with your server and, unlike standard e-mail
accounts, you can tell Mailwasher to do a variety of actions, such as deleting junk mail, avoiding large
attachments, all at server level, in other words - without having to download any mails. Mac-users, like myself, will
have to wait as Mailwasher is currently only available for Windows-based operating systems.

www.mailwasher.net

Now, part of my next choice was based on looks - I had to pick Zone Zero simply for the fantastic image on its
front page - luckily it is a good site too. This Latin American site looks at the evolution of photography from
analogue through to digital. In the galleries take a look through the exhibitions.

The stories behind the images can be very powerful and each artist writes about their own work. You can also
submit your own work and join a growing list of artists in the portfolio pages. As you can see from the index at the
top of the page, theme based images allow you to view artists specialising in a particular field. Should you want to
add your portfolio, e-mail the site and you can be part of this wonderful online gallery.

www.zonezero.com

Next up is Reelfresh.tv for all you broadband sports junkies out there. The funky navigation gives a taster of the
alternative sports the site covers. Pick one of the clips and you'll see some amazing visuals. The controls on the
player allow you to slo-mo the action and this gives you a DVD like picture where you're in control of the viewing
experience.

Reelfresh's streaming videos are unique in that they use point of view videography, which means we can see the
32
action through the eyes of the athletes. They do this by attaching small cigar-sized video cameras on the athletes
to get as close to the action as possible. This site definitely takes sports streaming to the next level!

www.reelfresh.tv

Music lovers of the world unite with Sputnik7. This site is entertainment all the way with real time audio and
video streaming of the latest music and music videos.

It offers music through video-on-demand as well as film and anime. The design is edgy and youth-orientated and
this is matched with the type of content Sputnik7 streams. And the Features area houses some thought-provoking
articles with cross referenced audio clips so you can read and listen all at the same time! And by the way,
Sputnik7 streams media at four different bandwidths so you should have no problems viewing it with a
narrowband connection.

www.sputnik7.com

Finally, a site that is a must if you are a digeridoo fan - and is also pretty good for those of you interested in
Australian history. Indig is a great site if you want to learn about indigenous Australian culture and specifically
the digeridoo. There's lots to look at here so I thought I'd take a look around and also get a bit of tutoring on my
circular breathing. A Flash-animated tutorial takes you through what a digeridoo actually is and what they sound
like when played.

As I said, you can also learn circular breathing so that the digeridoo, like bagpipes, never stops playing even when
you take a breath! And if you're feeling musically creative, use the virtual studio where you can choose from
various loops to play in the background and then add your own beats and digeridoo sounds using the beat box
interface. The design is really evocative of the colours and feel of the Australian Aboriginal culture.

There's lots of other content to explore here, so bookmark now it for another virtual visit Down Under - or Up
Over if you happen to live Australia.

www.indig.com

You may be a Google addict and believe it's the only search engine that delivers good results, or altavista might be
your oracle of choice, but Teoma - launched at the beginning of April - is aspiring to be the Next Big Thing in the
world of search engines. Teoma (which, by the way, means 'expert' in Gaelic) offers a sophisticated addition to the
traditional search engine approach: it divides the results of your search into three areas - resources, refinements
and results. Each offering a different angle on the information you are searching for.

So, if you type in, 'football', you first of all get your traditional list of results as you would from any search engine.
Teoma determines the best answer for a search by asking experts within a specific subject community about who
they believe is the best resource for that subject. It also offers a selection of headings refining your search like
fantasy football, football news, and football clubs. All offering to help you better decide what it is you're really
looking for. And finally, it finishes things off with a resource centre which features lists of other authoritative sites
and links relating to your search topic.

Teoma's technology is already being used by Ask Jeeves.com - which is not that surprising since Jeeves acquired
Teoma back in September last year - and like Google this slick site presents a clean, no-nonsense homepage giving
clear results. A definite contender, I think, and one which I'll be keeping a track on over the coming months.

www.teoma.com

Next up is a fantastic site called Playtonium and it is a must for people that like playing games on the web. The
site design is simple and uncluttered, which is a definite plus point as so often games sites are bursting at the
seams with buttons and flashing links everywhere and it all becomes too much.

Playtonium focuses on making the games interactive but not in the usual sense of playing them; where it is
different is that the site encourages you to make your own games and then allows you to license them and send to
your friends.

For a simple taster, try creating your own word finder crossword. Just follow the simple instructions and your
game will be ready in under 10 minutes. You can personalise the game for friends by choosing specific words, you
can even make a coded party invitation or announcement with it. And once you've finished picking your words and
deciding how hard your game will be, you can send it to up to 10 friends with a personal message. This is just one
of many fun games, so bookmark the site and return to challenge your game-crafting skills.

www.playtonium.com

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Fancy a trip back in time? Well, Total 80s plunges you right back to the 1980s, although looking at some of the
fashions you might want to forget about it - but it's worth the trip I think. The easy navigation takes you year by
year through the decade. Once you've chosen a year there's a treasure chest of archived content to look at. 1980
news for example covers the massive cult of the Rubik's cube as well as serious events such as assassination of
John Lennon.

I do think the content could go into a little more depth, but the site does well to create snapshot of a moment in
history. The music page for 1980 presents a good selection of what was playing that year and you can listen to
audio clips of bands like the Police and Abba using Real Player. You may find Total 80s leans a bit too much
towards British news and events, but there¹s lots of international content that really gives you a sense of what
happened during this turbulent decade.

http://www.total80s.com/

Sacred Texts bills itself as a 'quiet place in cyberspace' where you can explore an archive of world religions,
mythology and other esoteric subjects. As you can see from the index on the home page, there's a lot of content
here! Clicking on any one of these links takes you to a simple page which lists the archived content on this topic.
The texts are mainly presented in English but some are in their original language. If you feel overwhelmed by the
amount of content here, explore these features which I think help to guide you around the site and summarise
some of the more obscure religions. Sacred Texts is an amazing resource that promotes religious tolerance and
definitely helps to expand the mind!

http://www.sacred-texts.com/

Ask A Librarian invites you to ask it a question and hopes to get an answer back for you within two working days,
but don¹t think you can go and ask them any old query, it has to be of a factual nature and the service won¹t
undertake any original research. Nontheless, whatever you want to know, if it¹s out there already, the site will
deliver you what you need to know. If you¹re interested to see what questions other users have posed, this section
is fascinating. You¹ll see that the questions are quite specific. The site uses the network of public libraries in the
UK and out-sources your queries to librarian staff who are able to research the answers. Although this is a UK
service, they are aware of the global presence of the Internet and welcome everybody¹s questions.

http://www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/

MusicBrigade brings you music videos on demand, which means you can watch your choice of pop videos
spanning different decades and genres. You¹ll have to pay a monthly subscription fee to be able to watch the
music videos fully, but you can also browse around for nothing, and listen to lots of 30 second preview clips.
MusicBrigade provides connectivity at four different bandwidths, but those lucky ones amongst you who have
Broadband will find the experience more enjoyable as the streamed video is crystal clear. And once you have
become a member you can create your own playlists from the archives that house hundreds of music videos from
hip-hop through to oldies. The interface is really easy to use, with a good sized player which you can expand to
allow you to enjoy the experience on a full screen.

www.musicbrigade.com

This next site is unusual and quite unique - Zen takes you through a series of beautifully designed, interactive
pages using Flash technology that explain the basic principles of Zen philosophy. The text is kept to a minimum
and the images seem to float on the black background creating a really calming experience. For those of you who
have lower bandwidth connections, you may find the site is slow and therefore a little frustrating.

http://www.do-not-zzz.com/

And finally to Backflip. This site allows you to store your bookmarks online so that you can access them from any
computer free of charge. Once you¹ve registered, the first step is to drag the Backflip icon onto your toolbar. And
when you¹ve done that any web page you want to bookmark can be saved into your personal directory by just
clicking on the icon. The system recognises what sites you visit most and creates a Top Ten list making it really
quick to access them. And if you fancy a bit of a nose around, take a look through the public directories to see
what other surfers are bookmarking.

www.backflip.com

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This next site is going to grab all of you budding Hollywood and Bollywood film directors out there. Called Digital
Video Editing it is site dedicated to all the various aspects of digital video production. While aimed at people
taking digital video seriously there is information for newcomers and experts alike - with features on how to get
the best out of your video editing package to solving problems with Windows XP. There are hints and tips features
and a forum for enthusiasts and professionals to discuss their problems, plus a buyers guide to help you through
any purchases.

http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/

For all you PC types Ars Techcnica is a must. It's an opinionated treasure-trove of information on all things PC. It
tells you what it thinks about everything: the best case, the best processor, the best sound cards, the best
anything. It also has an enormous range of tips and tricks in its "how to's and tweaks" section that will answer just
about any question you might have when working with the insides of your computer. And for those of you who
want extra technology on your technology you should visit the technology black papers section where every last
bit of information is wrung out of a subject and put in front of you. A definite must for all PC users who what to
know more.

http://www.arstechnica.com/

First up, a site that's compulsory for getting up to date news on almost anything to do in the world of technology -
slashdot, or more accurately, /. Famous among uber techno geeks around the world, the tagline is 'news for nerds,
stuff that matters'. It's not just computers and I.T. either, /. features links and items submitted by readers on
anything high tech that catches their attention. It might be something as obscure and technical as latest changes
to the Linux kernel, or links to sites that have just broken major technology or science news. When Time Canada
accidentally put photos of the new flat panel iMac on their website before Steve Jobs unveiled the machine /.
gleefully posted links to the Time site, and mirror sites around the world. There are also discussion groups and a
whole series of links to helpful technical sites. /. does lean towards open-source operating systems and less
mainstream applications but it's an interesting site to help you broaden your I.T. and technical horizons.
Macusers, there's a Macslash just for you and your machines.

http://www.slashdot.org/; http://macslash.org/

There are many clock and time conversion sites on the web but this one has some additonal features which you
may find quite helpful. As well as telling current local time, World Clock has a meeting planner. It's helpful if you
find it a mathematical headache to work out the time difference between two points on the globe. You can also set
the local time in a particular location on a particular date, and then the site will show you the corresponding local
time at any other point on the globe, adjusted for local summer time as well, if that is relevant. Very useful if you
have to plan meetings, phone calls or trips. No more getting the time wrong by an hour in either direction if you
forget that they're currently on daylight saving time in the place you're calling.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

This next one's for conspiracy theorists worldwide - welcome to Cryptome. It's possibly one of the most plain,
vanilla looking sites on the web, but at times it features some very interesting postings. There are a lot US Federal
government documents released under the Freedom of Information act. There's stuff on the FBI, intelligence
agencies, wire tapping - you name it. Some of it is extraordinarily tedious, releases of federal regulations for the
transport of hazardous materials for example. But occasionally you'll come across something really intriguing.
Cryptome is the website ex-MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson spoke to while on the run from British authorities. It
also has postings and links on electronic privacy, and cryptography.

www.cryptome.org; http://www.five.org.uk/security/mi6org/tomlinson.htm

When it comes to computers and the 'net, at times you can feel like you're drowning in a sea of acronyms,
abbreviations and oscure technical terms. Confused by C#? Bewildered by the three letters BSD? Frustrated by
the term Fibre Channel over IP? You need to go to whatis.com. Basically, it's a full technical dictionary of I.T. and
some science terminology, in simple, plain language, with links. It reveals that C# is a new Microsoft
programming language. Click on BSD and you'll find it's short for Berkley Software Distribution, a flavour of the
industrial strength operating system UNIX. And Fibre channel over IP, you don't want to know, you can look that
one up for yourselves. There are even cyberculture references - an entry for The Matrix for example, which
doesn't refer to the film as you might expect, but rather the William Gibson novels that pre-dated it.

www.whatis.com

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From space of a cyber kind, to the real thing. It's been over a decade since scientists discovered hard evidence of
the existence of planets outside our own solar system. Many, many more have since been discovered. Extrasolar
Visions keeps you up to date on the latest news in the search for other worlds. But it also offers a few extras,
including some beautiful artwork impressions of what some of these worlds might look like. Make sure you check
out the virtual reality markup language files that can be downloaded to allow you to actually fly throughsome of
these planetary systems, looking at stars, pulsars and proto-planetary discs. Here's a link to allow you to download
the cosmo VR player if your browser isn't set up to handle VRML.

http://www.jtwinc.com/Extrasolar/mainframes.html
http://www.cai.com/cosmo/
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci214153,00.html

News that the European union has approved the building of the Galileo Satellite system sent me off to the
European Space Agency's website to find out more. The ESA's site tells you all about Galileo, which many of you
will know rivals the American Global Positioning System (GPS). But this website has a lot more besides. Designed
by an Italian company, it's stylish and packed full of information about the ESA and its activities. There are
detailed pages showing all of the ESA's current rocket launchers, including the giant Ariane Five. This launcher
can carry loads of nearly six tonnes into orbit. You can click on the various stages and boosters to learn about
each one. There are similar pages for planned future versions of both Ariane and other new launchers. When you
spent enough time there, you can follow the trip a satellite makes to the ESA's launch site in Kourou, French
Guiana, before it's sent into space. Once there, you can take a virtual tour around the launch site. Clicking on the
various buildings will tell you what each one is for. Finally, there's a countdown, and video clips of launches
themselves.

http://www.esa.int/

Now, let me take you to an award winning site that explains some of the most advanced ideas in science today in
simple, clear terms. The Particle Adventure is all about those exotically named tiny, tiny particles that are smaller
than atoms, the fundamental building blocks of matter. This site explains - quite literally - what our world is made
of, and the forces that hold it together. You'll find yourself actually understanding what Quarks, Leptons, Muons
and anti-matter are and how they all relate to each other. The creators of the site are as authorative as it gets: the
Particle Data Group at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in the US. And for the skeptics among you
there's a page answering how scientists have worked out all these fabulously complex theories.

http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/index.html

Speaking of skepticism, here's a site that's just for you if you're a questioning or inquisitive type. Skeptic.com is
the site of the US Skeptics society. I should warn you, if you believe in the occult, magic or psychic forces for
example, you may find some of the material, articles and links on this site 'challenging' to say the least. There's
also material about the evolving relationship between science and religion, and creationism versus evolution.
There are links to the skeptic society's magazine, and interviews with its Director Michael Shermer. He's at pains
to point out that being skeptical is not the same as being cynical or nilhistic. There is a skeptics booklist and even
details on how to teach young people the skills of critical thinking.

www.skeptic.com

Finally, after all that heavy left brain thinking, lets get into some right brain taste, design, artsy stuff. At the
Vector Lounge you can explore inverse and forward kinematics which - to you and me - means using your
puppetry skills to manipulate a virtual skeleton. You can change the posture and movement of the figure by either
dragging the red control points on its body or if you're in 'walk mode' just drag the points at the top of the screen.
And if you've conquered one puppet, click on duo for, you guessed it, two figures. The walk designer panel allows
you to adjust the way both figures walk - in fact it looks like they're involved in a slo-motion dance.

http://www.vectorlounge.com/05_Singapour/vectorlounge_home_uk.html

Although Incidents.org makes you feel like you've entered a techno-scientific laboratory it is an important
resource that tracks the internet and e-mail viruses that are circulating the globe and infecting our computers.
Founded in 1989, the System Administration, Networking, and Security Institute helps the community keep up
with the most current information security issues and helps us to respond to those issues. Although the site may
look daunting and very technical to begin with, take a look at the news section that gives latest details on the
Code Red worm that affected vulnerable computers in 2001. You can also find out about the top 10 attackers
currently working their way through the World Wide Web - the site gives you their IP addresses and host names.
And if you find yourself confused with the acronyms and technical jargon, there's a useful Internet Primer that
explains the meaning of terms such as firewalls, IP, and FTP.

36
www.incidents.org

Continuing on this theme, vmyths.com is a much more user-friendly site where we are invited to learn about
computer virus myths and hoaxes and the implications if you believe in them. Topics include how to spot a hoax
computer virus - the questions link to in depth information such as what to do if you're the recipient of an e-mail
you think might harbour a virus and also enables you to add your sighting to the growing research database. This
is a deep site with a full archive dating back to 1996. Hot News makes for interesting reading and it highlights
just how many real and fake viruses are making their way towards you.

www.vmyths.com

The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis have enchanted and perplexed humans for hundreds of years - they are
the mysterious flares of light seen in the skies of the polar regions such as Alaska, Norway and Finland. The
Northern Lights Planetarium based in Norway has created a beautifully designed and informative site where you
can explore this strange phenomenon. Head straight for the photo gallery that shows the spectacular images of
the Lights. You can vote here for your favourite image for 2002 so far, although I have to agree with the judges
overall winner of 2001. You can experience the aurora online through this video available in various formats and
although it can't be anything close to seeing it firsthand, it does gives an idea of what they look like. However, if
you do want to see them for yourself time is running out as the Northern lights are most frequent during late
autumn and Early Spring - so book your plane ticket!

http://www.northern-lights.no/

First up on this week's Click Surf is a generous offering from freefoto. Over 25 thousand images are available to
download free for non-commercial use. If you are going to use the image on your own website, make sure you
credit freefoto - you can find details on how to do this in 'site information'. There are hundreds of categories
housing all sorts of images both for leisure use and work - such as backgrounds for powerpoint presentations. This
site's worth bookmarking as infringement of copyright has become a real problem on the 'net when it comes to
using images, and with freefoto you can be sure that what you use you're welcome to.

www.freefoto.com

Next up is Spike Magazine - that takes a look at popular culture. The site has a literary slant and is packed with
views, news and debate. There are some great interviews with writers such as Douglas Copeland (of Generation X
fame) and the author of 'The Beach' Alex Garland. I also dipped into 'new writing' and while some of the work may
only ever get published on this site, there is real talent here. However, I found the 'splinters daily weblog' the
most compelling part of the site. Snippets of opinion pieces and links to larger features on a wide variety of topics
make you itch to click through, and this is what the site is good at - after an hour you really feel you've been lost in
a literary cyber-world that has exercised the grey matter.

http://www.spikemagazine.com/index.php

I've been trawling the web for a while to find a good magic site, and I think I've finally found one. All Magic is
unique in many ways, as so many other magic sites attempt to teach you a few tricks while really just pushing the
e-commerce element down your throat. All Magic is refreshingly different. There's lots of card tricks and stage
magic and the site takes you through each trick, explaining how it is achieved and even some advice on your
performance, so you begin to feel and move like a magician ! Community feel is created through the 'Ask Mr
Magic' pages where Mr Magic explains the stuff you need to know - just use the e-mail form at the bottom of the
page. Users have submitted questions like' how to clean a pack of cards' and 'why escape acts don't work today'.
There are also some good feature pieces from well known names in the industry and overall there is a sense that
this site isn't trying to sell you tricks and tools for your own magic show, but is more of a fan's emporium,
celebrating the art of magic

www.allmagic.com

925cafe is a site for all those office workers out there who feel trapped in their daily routine. The site attempts to
break your boredom by providing you with areas in which to relax, play games and just make you smile. In 'games'
Sydney's Olympics is a hilarious competition which tests your finger speed, although I don't know if it relaxed me -
I ended up getting really competitive, but for a change you actually begin to enjoy clicking the mouse and cursor
keys. And when you're stressed, the Relax room offers you 'a day in the life of a tree' - just sit back and relax to
sounds of chirping birds and a peaceful nature scene. And if danger in the form of your boss is walking towards
you, don't fear - just press the panic button on the right of the screen and a large document will pop up which of

37
course 'you've spent the last hour writing!!

www.925café.com

We started with a freebie site so, I'll end with one - Bibliomania is a library housing over 2000 scripts freely
available to read. Use the drop down menus to pick a genre and writer and it's as simple as that. I picked drama
and found a good selection of playwrights ranging from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde. However, I felt World
Literature wasn't well represented but hopefully the site will continue to grow and add diverse literature to its
database. If you're a student or teacher or just a bookworm, the study guides section is invaluable as it provides
analysis and debate on the writer you're researching - I wish I'd found this when I was studying! Do return to this
site as they're in the process of building a library of World Religion which should be an important area of content.
That's it from me - I'm off to read Chapter 1 of Nicholas Nickelby!

www.bibliomania.com

If you're the kind of person that questions what you've just been told turn your scepticism to Conspire.com. The
site supposedly aims to 'better your life through paranoia'. Take a look through current and age-old conspiracy
theories such as the mystery of the Turin Shroud and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And of course no
conspiracy theory site would be complete without a section dedicated to UFOs, in particular the Roswell alien
story. The tone of the site is, as you'd imagine, cynical, although my cynicism stemmed only from the site design -
which I have to admit is pretty dire. Still, the site does make you think twice about things you may have believed
straight away, and if you really get into the conspiratorial swing of things, you can join the Conspirewire and
share your doubt with others in the site's message group.

www.conspire.com

The Nobel Prize is famous all over the world and yet how much do we really know about its founder and who
actually wins these worthy awards? Well, the Nobel e-Museum site provides a fascinating log of who has won what
and why. The site is beautifully and simply designed, and explains the reason for the awards given by the Nobel
Foundation. There's also a potted biography of founding father Alfred Nobel, who incidentally invented dynamite.
This is definitely a site to linger over as you can drill down through the lists of laureates into details on the
individual prizewinner's work and life. For example, Kofi Annan, the secretary General of the United Nations, won
the Nobel Peace prize last year and his page links through to the lecture he gave when he received the award as
well as press releases and other resources. With lectures and interviews from laureates past and present, this is a
worthy site that shows how humans are exploring and challenging the boundaries of literature and natural
sciences, and of course promoting peace.

http://nobelprize.org/

Cooltext.com will create your own customised logo absolutely free. Just follow the simple step-by-step process and
the site will render a logo or button within seconds. Textures, fonts and colours can all be individually selected for
a unique result. You can even make the background of your logo transparent - simply select a .GIF or .PNG as
your filetype - be aware though that most browsers don't support .PNG files with transparencies yet. And when
you're done, the logo or button can be saved as a gif or jpeg. Make sure you do this, as it'll remain on the site's
servers for less than an hour and then disappear and you'll have lost your work! This site's a great way to design
your own unique logo without having to spend lots of money on design software packages.

www.cooltext.com

Another hugely useful site is netlingo. NetLingo is an online dictionary about the Internet. It contains thousands of
words and definitions that explain the technology and community of the World Wide Web, e-mail, chat, and
newsgroups. I went straight for the emoticons - which alongside abbreviated words are the established language
for text-messaging and e-mail. I never knew there were so many - beyond the simple smiley face, there's Homer
and Marge Simpson as well as faces expressing sarcasm, smirking and kissing. And you know those abbreviated
words I mentioned, well here they are and there's masses of them. They've always been an integral part of
computer culture but with the explosion in text-messaging this is a good page to study up on to save yourself
precious typing seconds. There's loads more to look at on this site for potential web-designers and 'net enthusiasts
so I'll leave you to it!

www.netlingo.com

First up - the silver screen. Greatest Films is a niche movie site that provides reviews, commentary and historical
background for hundreds of classic Hollywood and other American films. The site is quite text heavy as it
highlights the key American films produced over the last Century - so for some visual relief take a look through
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the 'film movie posters'. There are hundreds to look at - from classics such as 'To catch a Thief' to 3 posters of
Scorcese's dark film 'Taxi Driver'. The 'film star legends' have some fantastic portraits of film divas such as Lauren
Bacall and Claudette Colbert with useful filmographies detailing what other roles they've played. All in all, a great
resource on the early American film industry.

http://www.filmsite.org/

You can't really call this a web site as it's a page really, but the Universal Currency Converter must be one of the
most indispensable tools on the web. Simply use the dropdown boxes to choose the currency you want to convert
from one type to another and press the conversion button for an immediate result. This conversion engine uses
live currency rates so get really up to the minute results. The front page contains the standard, more well known
currencies, but for the more obscure currencies, there is a full conversion table containing every known world
currency - and there are over 180 of them!

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Radio Science Orchestra is an intriguing site that explains how a Theremin, the world's first electronic musical
instrument, creates sound. The site design is very pleasant, using a linear format which means you have to scroll
across from left to right for all the content. And once you've found out about this strange musical phenomenon, try
the virtual Theremin - although the volume is fixed, you can play around with the pitch to create some haunting
sounds. The site uses Flash and Real Audio, so make sure you have these plug-ins first to enjoy the experience.

http://www.radioscience.com/

If you're body and soul are in need of a rest, Retreats Online could help. This is a global resource providing
information on places to just get away from the world and relax. The home page has a useful interactive map to
choose where in the world you want to retreat to. Or if you don't know where you want to go, but know the type of
break you need, such as a back to nature holiday or a meditation week, use the navigation above. There's a good
diversity here of interfaith and secular retreats catering for pretty much everyone. And many of the retreats
included here link off to their own detailed sites giving you a true flavour of what they're about.

http://www.retreatsonline.com/

Word of mouth has led to this site getting very heavy traffic, so for a bit of light entertainment, Dancing Paul
should keep you amused oh, at least for a minute! Just load a tune for Paul to dance to, and within moments the
figure on your screen will be movin' and groovin' to some funky tunes. You can even set the background scene,
from Miami to India and if you feel Paul needs some friends to dance with, just use 'backup' to introduce his mates
into the swing of things. All in all, a nice contrast to the standard websites out there and proof that the adage
'content is king' on the Web doesn't necessarily mean it has to be useful or informative!

www.dancingpaul.com

First up is Useless Knowledge. If you've an insatiable appetite for trivia, make your way to this vast portal of
uselessness. Test your knowledge in these quizzes - a new one is added each week, and some can really put your
brain in a pickle. For me, the most interesting area is the 'word and phrase origin' section, where you can find out
where phrases such as 'the whole shebang' and 'kit and caboodle' actually originate from. Definitely a site to
bookmark and dip into for some light relief.

http://www.uselessknowledge.com/

If you find yourself wanting to find out more about philosophy, head for the - strangely named Erratic Impact. This
portal is a huge resource for discourse on all philosophical matters. You can search the site either by the
philosopher's name or by the school of philosophy you're interested in. I, of course, had to look at Freud's entry
and found a well indexed page offering links to Freud's own writing, in addition to analysis and feature articles
from Freudian specialists. The site also delivers information in German, Italian & Spanish. Finally if you're looking
for a philosophy book, old or new, the powerful search tools should deliver successful results.

http://www.erraticimpact.com/

This next site is both interesting and of important value to the WWW. The Internet Archive site has been steadily
building a digital database of Internet sites as a library for posterity. The jewel of the site however is its 'wayback

39
machine' that enables you to see old sites that don't exist anymore. There are billions of archived pages which
provide a fascinating insight into the development of the Web. Simply type in the URL of a site you know is now
defunct and the archive will drag it up for you. Another must-see is the 'pioneers' section which takes a look at the
Internet revolution from its earliest days. It covers topics like the 'net's first search engine, Webcrawler through
to The Well, the web's first bulletin board, first arriving on the 'net over a decade ago!

http://www.archive.org/

If you're green fingered, Garden Guides should keep you happy while you're away from your beloved flowers and
veg. The site itself is very well laid out, with easy navigation, For example, you can get guide sheets on specific
flowers which in turn are cross-indexed with their ideal growing environment. 'Tips and techniques' has a
frightening list of subjects which even if you're not a keen gardener are pretty interesting, such as what to plant if
you want your garden to be completely edible.

www.gardenguides.com

As one of the last great wildernesses on Earth, Antarctica is an amazing place, especially when you can reach it
via the Web. The Australian Antarctic Division based in Tasmania, have recently sent out international scientists
on a study of the Southern ocean and the home page tells us that the expedition has finished this week and the
scientists are on their way back. However, the most exciting part of the site though is 'virtual Antarctica'. Make
sure you have the Quicktime plug-in installed to view a rookery of penguins just standing around as well as
breathtaking 360 degree panoramas of the area around the South Pole. You can then return to the home page
where the Quicktime version of the antarctic map allows you to click through to web cams situated in the research
camps and updated on the hour.

http://www.antdiv.gov.au/

First up is e-greetings. Although it looks and feels like a search-engine, drill down a bit deeper and there is a
fantastic selection of bright colourful e-cards. Have a play around with these interactive cards that are cleverly
designed using Flash. There's also a useful calendar to remind you of important occasions, but I think over-tip
your waiter week and 'opposites attract day' are taking things a little too far

www.egreetings.com

And now to Jangle, a creatively designed site where you can send digital postcards. You can choose sounds,
backgrounds and images all for that unique greeting. How does it work? Well you simply click on a link to send a
digi-card. Your friend will get a message in their e-mail inbox. Just go to Jangle and pick up the card. The site is
also packed with lots of other good content. They've got rubber-stamping (know in the industry as a sticky
application because it makes you come back to the site) and a craft area - both are worth a good browse. Jangle
also allows you to send cards in 24 different languages so if your bored with English why not try Suomi!

www.jangle.com

E-greeting aren't the only way to stay in touch, so let's take a look at instant messaging. It's reckoned that a 180
million of us will be instant messaging by 2004 and sending a whopping 2 trillion messages worldwide. You may
remember that we covered ICQ in a past programme, but let's take another look at this granddaddy of Instant
Messaging sites. It basically allows you to create a chat room come message board with another person, but make
sure you have the same software as your friend otherwise you won't be able to communicate. ICQ allows you to
choose the way you communicate. If it's chat, voice, data conferencing, or internet games, ICQ gets your message
across in real time.

www.icq.com

Over to an altogether groovier site, moove. Moove is an avatar based virtual chat world. An avatar is a three
dimensional animated character that lives on the Web. Moove allows you to send instant 3D messages. Once
you've loaded their chat browser, you can create your own personal 3D house where your avatar friends can drop
by for a visit to exchange messages, again all in real time. I found it a fun way of messaging. Moove's avatar's can
display a full range of emotions and postures and gives a really good interactive experience.

www.moove.com

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Lets start with AltMedicine. It might not be the most attractive site, but it acts as a fantastic gateway to all you'd
want to know about nutrition, herbal medicines and alternative therapies such as music therapy and homeopathy.
Have a play around with the section called 'fast food facts'. It's basically a search engine that allows you to find
out what you're eating when you tuck into that delicious hamburger or pizza! You can then create your own
nutritional profile for lots of different foods and print it off for reference. Altmedicine is packed with information &
articles, so be prepared for a long stay.

www.altmedicine.com

Now lets look at Healthy. You can navigate through a virtual health world with this useful map. If you click on the
fountain that says 'wellness centre' there are useful articles on yoga and meditation. The 'games & exercises'
section is fun, with calming games designed to relieve stress and help develop your inner creativity - all sound a
bit airy-fairy? Have a go and see for yourself. You'll need the Real Player plug-in to download and stream the
games; each of the games has a warm-up followed by the game itself. Try 'Be here now', it's supposedly meant to
balance your mind and clarify your thoughts - let me know how you get on.

www.healthy.net

If you find yourself getting confused about the many vitamins and mineral supplements out there, what they do
and how they help, check out The Health Supplements Information Service, a solid informational site that aims to
sort out the facts from the myths about all these health pills we pop. There are also helpful factsheets that you can
print . They include information on where the nutrient can be found in food, who might benefit from taking it and
if there are any side effects/precautions. It's not the flashiest of sites, but delivers what you want to know in an
easy, navigable format.

www.hsis.org

Finally, if you were beginning to think that I'd forgotten the 'alternative' in alternative health - take a look at
Spiritweb. This is quite a wacky site that covers everything from healing and meditation through to spiritual
awakenings and reincarnation. The 'Healing' section, which you can find on the homepage main menu, gives a
comprehensive look at the ancient techniques of Ayurvedic medicine, Herbalism and lots more. The site also
attaches bulletin boards below each page, so scroll down for other peoples' news and views.

www.spiritweb.org

If you find it difficult to put pen to paper and express your feelings to someone you care about, Cyrano will
compose you a poem or letter for your special someone to pick up. Choose what kind of note you'd like to send -
from a Valentine's ditty to a break-up elegy - and you'll be guided through various input forms. These allow you to
enter names and words associated with you and the recipient to make the message unique.

http://www.nando.net/toys/cyrano.html

As our entree, let's start with the Kitchen Link.

For me, the pleasure of food lies in talking about it, whether it's over a restaurant meal or having friends round
for a barbecue. Kitchen Link translates this into a well-developed sense of community. Use the drop-down menus
on the home page to navigate through the wealth of material here. The message boards are buzzing with recipe
suggestions and advice that all come from enthusiastic users who love the food they make. Make sure you use
your mouse to scroll down the home page and subsequent pages - there's lots of content below the fold that isn't
obviously sign-posted. If you arrive at this site searching for ideas on what to eat, click on 'Surf for your Supper'.
You can find nutritious and tasty ideas for each day of the week. The site has a huge searchable database of over
20,000 recipes and useful information in their 'Disaster & Hunger relief' section - such as preparing food during a
power failure.

www.kitchenlink.com

For all those interested in vegetarian or vegan nutrition, I'd recommend Living Foods.
The site believes that eating a plant-based diet that is raw, unheated and unprocessed in any way is beneficial to
our well being. Although I'd urge caution before attempting to change your eating habits, the types of food you
can rustle up are bursting with goodness and are worth a try. Again, community features highly on this site and in
addition to the usual bulletin boards, you can enter a real-time discussion zone in the Living Foods chat room.
Click on 'recipes' to access a comprehensive list of food including smoothies and tempting desserts.

http://www.living-foods.com/

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It would be easy to list many sites that indulge in food content, but I thought I'd look at the other end of the
spectrum - hunger and famine, so The Hunger Site is well worthy of a mention.
By simply clicking on the front-page button 'donate food', you will contribute real food to the starving nations in
the world. You can click on once a day, so bookmark the site and come back for a further donation.
If you select the 'donations total' links on the main menu, you can see how the hunger site is donating up to 2.5
million cups of food a day to the world's hungry.

www.thehungersite.com

Similarly The Hunger Project has been established to highlight chronic world hunger and its commitment to
eradicate it. Available in multiple languages, the site is well designed, with classic left-hand navigation and latest
news displayed in the central panel. Using RealPlayer, you can listen to the 1000-person global conference call
held in January to highlight the organisations aims.

www.thp.org

And finally, let us end on the strange and wonderful cuisine found throughout the world. Roll on Ray's List of
Weird and Disgusting foods. Be aware that design hasn't touched this site - approach for content only!
Ray Bruman views the strange foods of different cultures as social markers - an extreme form of saying 'we're
different from our neighbours'. The page lists food from maggot-cheese through to owl soup. Scroll down further
and there's a glossary, explaining the some of the unusual foods eaten round the world. You can learn why the
fruit durian is banned in public places in South East Asia and also find various insect recipes. The nice thing about
this site is its combination of fact and user's views on the food they've experienced.

http://www.andreas.com/food.html

As one of the great museums of the world, the Louvre in Paris looks back in time to the works of the Grand
Masters, but also forward to the web environment.
As you enter the homepage of this former palace of the King's, the simple navigation and elegant look and feel,
make this site a pleasure to browse. But be aware that some content areas haven't been translated yet and are in
French only. Click on virtual tour You can take virtual walk around the magnificent galleries. If you don't have it
already, download the QuickTime plug-in and you'll be able to see a 360-degree view of the Paintings gallery
housing the mysterious Mona Lisa.

www.louvre.fr

If a museum means art to you, then think again, because this site re-defines the word.
The Waikiki Aquarium of Hawaii was founded in 1904 to educate visitors about aquatic life in the Pacific. The
website is atmospheric, with fabulous imagery and interesting content.
A virtual tour takes you around the 'Edge of the Reef' where you can explore the plant and animal life that inhabit
coral.
If you have time, check out the webcams. The cams use a Java applet to update the image, so make sure your
browser is Java compliant if you want to see the action.

http://www.mic.hawaii.edu/aquarium

From the depths of ocean life, let's go stellar with the website of Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England.
This online site details Jodrell Bank's space research - the latest news was that astronomers had found a possible
black hole.
Click on 'virtual Guided Tour' for a look behind the scenes at the day to day running of the Centre.
As there is no public access to these areas, this website provides a unique insight into what goes on in areas such
as the Control Room which houses the huge Lovell telescope.
It's been probing space and is one of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world so check out the webcam
attached to it.

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/

The Smithsonian Institute is one of the world's foremost museums and research centres.
The Smithsonian Institute's homepage is austere and relatively static apart from the scrolling ticker which
highlights the latest news and events. However, the 'Virtual Smithsonian' area has been designed with good
interactive features. Explore the museum's exhibits with audio & visual streams - again you'll need Quicktime for
this . Also, zoom and 3-D functionality allow you to bring the artefacts to life on screen. However, this part of the
site has been designed with a high bandwidth connectivity in mind, so if you have a 56k or lower connection you
may find it frustrating to use

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www.si.edu

And finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous - The museum of virtual mousepads. There are literally hundreds of
different images of mousepads sourced from around the world.

http://www.expa.hvu.nl/ajvdhek/gallery.html

First off is the aptly named Classic Car. The site interface is fantastic, with easy to understand navigation on the
left and community tools, such as newsletters and e-mail, along the top. If you go into 'classic features', there are
archived articles on a whole range of classic cars such as the 1968 Mustang 350 and the famous 1931 Cadillac.
Scroll further down the page and you'll come across articles offering advice on restoration and repair.

www.classiccar.com

Next up is Mini.com, an umbrella portal that houses sub-sites from various countries. Although it has been created
predominantly to promote the launch of the new Mini, you can click on Mini USA for a fascinating timeline
chronicling the racy history of this little car.

For a fan-site view of the Mini, look at Minipark. The design is quite simple and slightly dated but the site houses
a vast bank of Mini images. Owners can 'park' their car in a club page, so check out the Bogota or Malaga parking
lot. These images then link off to club sites from around the world.

www.mini.com; http://www.minipark.lantis.co.uk/

From this diminutive favourite to a group of classic cars known as 'muscle cars'. Power and speed dominated the
USA car industry in the 1960s and the result is spectacular. Blue Moon Gear is THE home on the Web for Muscle
cars. Persevere with the design, which makes for hard viewing, because the content is great and there's loads of it
- Oldsmobiles, Chevys, Pontiacs - they're all here.

http://www.bluemoongear.com/

Over now to the Aston Martin official site. Time and money have quite clearly been spent here, as the design and
overall feel is very sophisticated. It's a Flash-based site so make sure you have Macromedia's Flash Player 5
installed. As you'd expect the site content revolves around the heritage and glamour of the Aston. Clicking on any
of the models, such as the DB7 or Vantage, details the history and development of the car up to its present day
incarnation.

http://www.astonmartin.com/

Classicsportscars.com is a rich site that covers a vast range of cars from all over the world including Japanese and
Swedish Sports cars. Although slightly over-designed with its bold use of colour, the site content easily makes up
for it. There's a good variety of cars displayed and car logos take you off to the respective manufacturer.

www.classicsportscars.com

And finally an image-based site called motional memories. The site is a great library of high resolution classic car
images. Click on the pre-war section for some stunning examples of Bugattis and Jaguars - a visual feast.

http://www.seriouswheels.com/

If you have any interest in aviation the web's a fantastic resource for staying right up to date with the latest
developments in aerospace.

One site I try to visit often is Aviation and Space Technology Week (www.aviationnow.com), arguably the world's
most well informed Aviation magazine. Their nickname in the industry is Aviation Leak! Their website's updated
daily with the latest news on military and commercial aviation and spaceflight.

Almost every airforce worldwide has some kind of website, and Great Britain's Royal Airforce (www.raf.mod.uk) is
no exception. Their site has a great collection of photos, some of them quite arty, but you have to choose a log-in
name and a password to get access to them. The US Air Force (www.af.mil) have a predictably massive site, with
pages on almost every aircraft that you can think of.

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Some of the manufacturers that supply the USAF have very interesting sites of their own. Boeing
(www.boeing.com), for example, have grown into a massive combined commercial and Defense Aerospace
manufacturer. Their site has an impressive photo archive of their airliners, military aircraft and space vehicles
over the past few decades. They also have a rather cool screensaver you can download that cycles through the
different planes, helicopters and rockets they manufacture.

Another American manufacturer, Lockheed Martin (www.lockheedmartin.com) , is well worth a visit. Their top
secret Skunk (www.skunkworks.net) works built famous spyplanes like the U2 and SR71 Blackbird. They also
make the F117 Stealth Fighter.

There are also numerous sites about some of the other less publicised programmes that the US Air Force is
thought to be working on. The Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org) is a fantastic resource for this sort
of stuff. The much rumoured Mach 5+ Aurora spyplane (www.abovetopsecret.com/svalk.html) is mentioned here,
along with some very strange projects that probably explain a lot of UFO sightings. There's lots here on spy
satellites too and some of it makes for very interesting reading!

If you fly or plane spot aircraft a bit lower and slower than a spyplane or fast jet, Landings (www.landings.com) is
the place for you. As well as a host of general aviation links they've got links to gliding sites, skydiving, base
jumping - in fact just about anything you can do while airborne. Landings also links to all major General Aviation
manufacturers - everyone from Cessna to Learjet.

Russia has a long and proud aviation history. Military Parade (www.milparade.com) is a general military site, but
their section on Russian airpower has some good analytical pieces and pictures of heavy iron Russian fighters.
Another good site is Trima Avia (http://www.trima.lv/avia/) which has pictures of Russian Airliners, plus an online
spares market for that spare turbo compressor you might need for your ageing Tupolev.

Of course not all wings are fixed in the aviation world... which is another way of saying if you like or fly
helicopters, there's a lot in cyberspace for you too. Where better to start than Bell Textron
(http://www.bellhelicopter.textron.com) who brought us icons like the Bell 47 and the Jetranger, and are now
trying to iron out the problems with their V22 Osprey Tiltrotor. And for a bit of history, check out Helis
(www.helis.com) which traces the evolution of the helicopter all the way from Leonardo Da Vinci through to the
father of the modern helicopter, Igor Sikorsky.

Finally a personal favourite: the ejection site (http://www.bestweb.net/~kcoyne/index.html). They say "eject, eject,
eject" are the three words no aviator ever wants to hear. If you like detail, this site's got a lot about the technology
that ensures pilots can escape from stricken aircraft in a fraction of a second. There are also some astonishing
stories about escapes using ejection seats, including one underwater and another where a navigator was left
hanging out of an airborne US Navy plane and lived to tell the tale!

For all you hip chicks out there, hardcandy. will hit the spot. The site has a cheeky, glamour-puss look and feel
using baby blue and pink colour backgrounds. Graphics are clean with a nice navigation wheel on the home page.
Although now part of the burgeoning Louis Vitton Moet Hennessey empire, the feel is still of a niche cosmetic
house supplying funky colours to a trendy market. If you browse around, the full range of colours available are
displayed on a scolling ticker and there are useful tips on how to apply the make-up for the perfect look.

www.hardcandy.com

Next up is the designer Anna Sui's site that oozes web and couture chic. You can navigate through the site using
the homepage which is a delectable boudoir - just scroll over the furniture to travel into Anna Sui's weird and
wonderful world of fashion design. If you click on the tv graphic, you can watch streamed clips of her couture
shows. This site is all about reflecting Sui's unique style and it is very well constructed. The transactional part is
simple and fuss-free, and for an insight into this Sui's creative process - check out the modestly named 'genius
files' that look at her influences from Mick Jagger to Mickey Mouse.

www.annasui.com

First up is a site that's a pioneer in streaming short films and animation over the 'net - Atom Films. This site oozes
cool, its slick homepage and navigation enticing you deeper into it. If you click on 'cinema' on the top navi bar,
you'll immediately get a sense of the site's incredible depth and content. You can watch this week's short films or
browse the cinema archive by genre - so if it's romance, international or sci-fi you want, it's probably here. The
streamed films vary in length and Atom enables you to select your media format - and whether you have a hefty
bandwith connection or, like the majority of us mere mortals, a 56k or lower modem, you'll still get a good visual
experience. Atom are constantly on the lookout for short films, so if you've got one in the can, why not submit it?

www.atomfilms.com

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On now to a film database that is so large you could be browsing for hours. The Internet Movie Database, or IMDb
as it's known, is a fantastic resource providing information on movies, actors, famous quotes, plots and much
more. It's well cross-referenced - for example I typed 'Harrison Ford' into the search tool and the results delivered
a photo gallery and full filmography as well as a potted biography of Mr Indiana Jones. The site also has some
interactive elements such as message boards and games, but is essentially a fantastic film encyclopaedia online.

http://www.imdb.com/

India's film industry has been booming since the 1950s and now Bollywood films, as they're known, have a cult
following around the world. There are many Bollywood sites out there but I plumped for Simply Bollywood. The
site is literally bursting with content - pictures, reviews and streamed music from golden oldies to the latest
movies. If you select 'Bollywood History' there's a fascinating article charting the development of the industry
through the last century. And for the movie stars themselves, who seem to challenge Hollywood's leading lights in
the popularity stakes, the channel 'actresses' pictures' has an enormous searchable database of images that can
also be sent as e-cards.

www.simplybollywood.com

Now onto a festival site. The Cannes Film Festival will be glittering away until 20 May, so if you can't be there the
official site's the next best thing. Select the small video icon on the homepage to access edited video-diaries of the
festival such as the opening ceremony.

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/

And finally, Aardman, the animators that brought Chicken Run to the big screen. As you can imagine the site is
fun right from the homepage - the characters are all animated, making you feel as though you've entered a real
community. If you select Chicken Run, you'll be taken to the official site where you can watch a slide show and
streamed trailers from the movie which are very amusing.

http://www.aardman.com/

If your head spins at all the jargon that flies about in techy land, your first stop should be Webopedia.com, a free
online dictionary of computing and Internet-related terms. The home-page is a no-nonsense search tool - I typed in
'boot' and was led to a refreshingly clear explanation of a term few of us (if we were being honest) would be able
to define and explain the origin of. Around the definition are useful related category and word links, so if 'bootable
diskette' or 'operating systems' get you curious, just click through.

www.webopedia.com

Once you've mastered the meaning of all the bits that make up your PC, and if the Internet seems like a planet
you're still not sure about visiting, then look at Internet101.org, a site purely for those new to the World Wide
Web. It will get you started and provide you with enough knowledge to set off on your own. Ignore the large,
simplistic font-size and rainbow-coloured headings as the content is actually very sound. You'll find the navigation
at the bottom of each page - I dipped into 'The Internet' and 'The Web' sections (and yes they are two different
things!). The information is clear and interesting - for example taking you through the meanings of URL and 'http'
and also describing the history of the Internet from its military beginnings to what it is today.

www.internet101.org

Learnthenet.com is another useful information site. It's available in five languages and it's a friendly advice centre
for all you need to know about the web. Take a look at the 'how to enjoy multimedia' section. It takes you through
the world of plug-ins and how to install them onto your computer and explores MP3 - a file format that enables
you to download digital quality audio super quickly so you can sing to your hearts content - BUT beware of
copyright laws!

www.learnthenet.com

Enough of the virtual world - let's get back to the PC. Geek.com is a huge website so be strong - you could get lost
in it for hours. The homepage entices you deeper into the site with features on PCs and the 'net for grandparents,
and a newsletter exploring whether our lives have become simpler since the global phenomenon that is the 'net.
However, gloss over the fluff and get stuck in. Take a look at the 'tips & tricks' sections for ways to increase the
productivity of your software. Or, if you're really serious about building your own PC, the site presents a table

45
listing all the standard components with both a recommended and minimum spec, so you can make an informed
choice.

www.geek.com

Finally if you're at the end of your tether, nothing's working and you feel like throwing the computer out the
window, fear not - simply go to PC Help Online. There's a dicsussion board so you can share your computer woes
and the site itself will guide you to the organisations and resources to contact to sort it out!

http://www.pchelponline.com/

For a truly British tabloid feel celeb site, look no further than Peoplenews. The swift refresh - up to twenty times a
day - makes it worth bookmarking, you just want to keep coming back to see what star news has broken.
Celebrities featured tend to be more from the British and US scene, but it's still comprehensive and design-wise
pretty slick. 'Hotspots' gives you an insider's guide to where the stars hang out, while 'style' features some
interesting features and opinion pieces.

www.peoplenews.com

International viewers could try Chinastar which as the name suggests is a site devoted to Chinese show business.
There's a quick search facility on the homepage which helps if you know who you're looking for. If not, scroll down
to the 'most popular' chart where hyperlinks take you to the individual celebrities, their photos, filmographies etc.
It's staggering to see the thousands of votes generated on this site for favourite stars.

www.chinastar.com

Celebrity sites don't come any bigger than Mr.showbiz. Nice visuals and the depth of content is impressive. Go to
the 'headlines' pages for up to the minute news on what the A-list are up to. The features are all cross-referenced,
so once you find out what Eminem feels about Madonna's recent world tour, you can link to a photo-gallery and
biography for the material girl. You could also try am-latino.com, which is dedicated to South American
celebrities, from Penelope Cruz to that lovely Antonio Banderas. It's got the feel of a small fan operation, although
navigation and general quality are quite high.

http://mrshowbiz.go.com/

For the retro fans among you Reelclassics is primarily a movie site, but you'll find a wealth of classic celebrity info
here. From screen divas like Lauren Bacall and Marilyn to smouldering legends Cary Grant and Clark Gable, the
supernovas of the screen are all here. The site has a particularly good rich media area, where you can download
movie sound files and classic movie quotes.

http://www.reelclassics.com/

First of all, for all those budding Beethoven's and BB King's out there, learn to read music on Learn2. Seven easy
steps take you through all you need to know about treble clefs, sharp, flats and how to make your sweet music
'molto allegro'!

www.learn2.com

If you're a proficient musician however, skip to The Practice Spot. The content is quite basic in tone, but the
advice is useful. There are tips on playing scales and managing a performance and within the reference section
you'll find a useful dictionary of over a thousand musical terms.

http://www.practicespot.com/

If you really want to annoy the neighbours have a look at Drummersweb. Here you'll find all the rudiments and
tips you'll need to become the noisiest member of the band, plus interviews with top drummers and tests of
percussion equipment of all kinds.

http://www.drummersweb.com/

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If you want to use your Mac or PC to make music Steinberg should keep you happily occupied. This German
company makes software that turns your computer into anything from a basic 8 track demo recorder into a fully
fledged multitrack studio. If you're new to all this just click on 'tutorial' for a comprehensive introduction. In terms
of products there are both entry level and fully professional digital audio solutions, many of which are also Mac-
compatible.

http://www.steinberg.net/

Emagic are Steinberg's great rival in the music software business - you'll find their Logic Audio software
everywhere from computers owned by home music enthusiasts, right up to the PC's and Macs that run some of the
world's biggest commerical recording studios.

http://www.emagic.de/english/index.html

If you've had enough of your own creativity and want to listen to some true genius, you'd reach for your
CD/minidisc/DVD shelf wouldn't you? well halt there, as rare albums provide a unique pleasure of their own.
Rooting them out can be difficult until you browse Gerry's rare vinyl records. There are a over 40000+ albums and
EPs. If you like what you see and are interested in buying make sure you check the 'grading' page that lists the
quality grading system applied to each vinyl. The site ships internationally, but there's no e-commerce element so
if you want to buy, you'll have to pick up the phone.

http://www.rarevinylrecords.com/

Stepping up a gear is Music Imports. Nearly quarter of a million CD imports, rare vinyl records and CDs are
logged here. This site is more sophisticated navigationally and in its ability to offer online purchasing. Music has
been split by genre, but if you need to find what's available on a particular artist, use the search facility. When I
typed in Queen, I found imports available from the Netherlands through to Japan. Pretty impressive.

http://www.musicimports.com/

Unless you've been living on Planet Zog, you'll know all about Napster, Aimster, Gnutella and all the other peer to
peer file sharing sites. But if you want to check out some other MP3 sites, just look at the imaginatively named
Top 25 mp3 Sites. It's a straightforward links-based site and a good place to start if you feel there's too many sites
vying for your attention.

http://www.top25mp3.com/

And last but not least, the slam-dunk, mega mother of music sites is NME, the New Musical Express. As a
magazine - a British classic - they used to say it could make or break musical careers. As a site it's a veritable
bible for music lovers. It's all here: news, reviews, charts, and NME's own gig search so you can find out when and
where Eminem or the Black Crowes will be rocking the house in the near future.

www.nme.com

If you're one of those gadget-heads that own a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit, Geo Caching provides an
adventure game to satisfy global treasure hunters. Along with thousands of others, you can participate in a cache
hunt where you can store caches (or concealed treasure) all over the world and then use the internet to locate the
booty. This may be anything from a simple logbook saying "I was here" or rewards such as money, games and
gifts. Take a look through the various forums to get a feel for this fun community who take treasure hunting into a
techno world.

http://www.geocaching.com/

Game Spot is a leviathan gaming site. As you'd expect it's got the reviews, previews, downloads and game guides
that create the bulk of this quality site. However, I think its navigation, design and other features keeping you
hooked to the site and make it a clear leader in the gaming market. Plaform-specific gaming info allows you to
delve into the latest news on the likes of the PS2, X-box and Gamecube which, by the way, we'll be covering in
much more detail in next week's show. There's also a downloadable browser provided by Mediadome giving you a

47
wonderful view of the 'net in unfettered 3-dimensions, so multiple Gamespot pages can be seen all in the same
window.

www.gamespot.com

If you're after some light amusement The Comedy Lab has all the one-line gags and insults you could hope for. My
only warning is leave morality and prudishness at home. No one is spared on this site! Jokes can be accessed via a
PDA and the videograms you can e-mail to a friend had me in stitches.

www.thecomedylab.com

If comics and cartoons are your thing, check out Comics.com. This American site has an impressive line-up of
comic archives and editorial cartoons from Dilbert to Peanuts. Browse by title or cartoonist using the drop-down
boxes on the homepage. The site is amusement heaven, so bookmark it for endless moments of unadulterated
chuckle time.

www.comics.com

For those with a deeper interest about animation on the Web, Animation Artist is the place to go for the digital
community with in-depth articles and advice on Web art at its most advanced.

http://www.animationartist.com/

Thanks to Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady", the cockney accent has been imprinted in the minds of millions -
even though she didn't get it quite right. So for a real taste of life around the Bow Bells, look at cockney.co.uk. So
if you don't know your dinky doos from your daisy roots, this is the site for you. It presents a geographic
community proud of their roots and history. And if you're eager to brush up on your cockney speak delve into a
monster online dictionary of Cockney Rhyming Slang. it has over a thousand phrases and words and a handy
translation tool!

www.cockney.co.uk

Finally, adrenalin junkies should race over to Planet-F1. The people behind the site are obviously passionate about
the sport, as there's strong editorial content and good visuals. For added features, there are some fun added
extras like the ability to bet, an online store and trivia games if you think you know it all!

http://www.planet-f1.com/

Fray has long been one of the best sites on the 'net for people who have stories to tell, and Sept 11th has given
rise to hundreds. Why not add your voice to the fray.

http://www.fray.com/hope/pieces/

Among many sites that contain original news, photojournalism and multimedia the award winning site Journal-E is
the most acclaimed. Check out their coverage here.

http://journale.com/stories/america-attacked/index.html

The Independent Media Centre has long been the most popular and respected under-the-radar news site.
Collecting reports from independent media sources all over the world it provides a window on events that has not
been filtered through the huge news corporations or networks, instead opting for grassroots reportage.

www.indymedia.org

The Nation, Znet and Salon have all built strong worldwide followings online. Their mix of comment and fact has
produced some of the most incisive comment on the attacks, and the subsequent preparations for war. The Nation
has articles by such journalists as Tariq Ali, Naomi Klein and Robert Fisk, the British journalist who is hailed in
many quarters as the foremost journalist working in the Middle East. Znet also features pieces by Fisk and Ali, but
also has articles written by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger.

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www.thenation.com; www.zmag.org; www.salon.com

The Terrorism Research Centre is "dedicated to informing the public of the phenomena of terrorism and
information warfare". The site features essays, news and information designed to help the reader understand the
causes of terrorism, the motives of the perpetrators and the context which gives rise to such events and people.

www.terrorism.com

Pass The Shareware may not be the most visually exciting site on the web, but it rocks in terms of the software
available to download. As there's such a wealth, use the software categories page to decide what you want to
download. The software has been well indexed and whether you're after fun and games, or serious applications
like security and encryption programms, this site has pretty much got it all. I had a look at the word-processing
packages and there was an impressive list with a brief review of what each application offers. These are then
available to download, usually for a trial period of a month, allowing you to tinker around with them before
committing yourself. And if you're looking for freeware - which has no strings attached - there's recommended
links taking you to all the software you're ever likely to want and tons you probably never will.

www.passtheshareware.com

Here in the UK the weather's a national obsession, so we had to include one at least weather-orientated site. If
you want to explore extreme global weather patterns take a look at the Operational Significant Event Imagery
site. The site covers everything from tropical cyclones to dust storms and seismic activity. Its intuitive
organisation makes finding the images really easy, and topical sections like the Image of the Day keep you up-to-
date with the latest in global phenomena. One warning though, if you're thinking of saving any of the
downloadable images, they can eat up sizeable wodges of your hard drive; one way round this is to use the
preview option. It's said a picture's worth a thousand words, and that really is true here, there's not much in the
way of explanation, but it really is one the most stunning satellite sites around.

http://www.osei.noaa.gov/

Lonely Planet must be a global favourite and it's easy to see why. Far from being like other travel sites that
attempt to describe a country or place in three words and then sell you a package holiday, Lonely Planet strives to
create a truly global community spirit through travel. An interactive map makes an easy job of picking where you
fancy travelling to. I took a look at Finland, famous for its large unspoilt wilderness and saunas! As with each
country, there are helpful tips for the traveller and links to the Thorn Tree bulletin board that sees an impressive
amount of activity - a sure sign that this site is a credible place to visit if you want to pick up information. The
links page is pretty good too - a lot of thought has gone into picking sites that complement the Lonely Planet ethos
- valuing culture and diversity.

www.lonelyplanet.com

And last but not least, Live Journal is another interactive site, which is thriving largely through the power of viral
marketing - that's word of mouth to you and me. This is a clever service that allows you to create and customise
your very own diary that you keep online. You can update it with short entries many times a day, or with long
entries a few times a week, it's up to you. The navigation on the homepage helps you through the process of
setting up an account and roaming the community pages. And once you're up and running you can post entries
and images which will stay in your journal indefinitely. There are various security levels as well, so you can decide
what's private or okay for friends to view. Click on 'random' to see an example of a live diary with daily entries.
This site is developed and maintained by a voluntary community. So if you really like what you see, you can offer
your services.

www.livejournal.com

If you consider yourself a bit of a doodler, you can now do it online to amazing effect at Sodaplay. This type of
creative play is totally addictive. On the site you can construct 3-D models that walk, bounce, roll, or jiggle their
way across the screen, depending on your design. Each model is made of joints and springs that move a particular
way when you apply pressure to them. Click on 'sodaconstructor' to begin. The game has two main modes, which
you can choose from the popup menu - 'simulate' to animate and play with a model or 'construct' to stop the
animation so that you can add new masses and springs. And if you're really proud of your artwork you can add
your animation to the 'sodazoo' which houses some bizarre-looking shapes or, having set up an account, you can
also e-mail it on to your friends. Mac users, just be aware that as this is a Javascript program, you may have
problems running it in a Netscape browser - Internet Explorer works fine.

www.sodaplay.com
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For all those with a broadband connection, you'll find Hi-speed Zone a good place to test that extra bandwidth. It's
designed as a portal, with theme-based links to many different optimal-bandwidth sites. For instance the Movies
and Video section highlights sites that are already well known such as Atom Films and Reel.com as well as niche
sites which focus on particular areas of interest.

www.hispeedzone.com

E-mail attachments have become notorious, whizzing around the world and gaining cult status. Miniclip has a
selection of attachable video-clips with that potential. They're practically all animated clips of celebrities and poke
good-natured fun at them. You can send these clips via e-mails to friends as well as posting the clips up on your
own web-site - if you have one that is. Well developed animation clips such as 'shock bowl' also function as basic 3-
D games. And as with many of these games you'll need to have Shockwave to play them.

www.miniclip.com

From practical explanation to strange whisperings - The Urban Legends Archive. There's always been a strong
tradition of storytelling and folklore appearing mysteriously and spreading spontaneously, and these urban
legends that have gone round and round the world are now available on this site. The site design is quite
simplistic - in fact clicking on a genre area presents yet another long list of links to stories. Persevere however, as
the tales themselves are pretty entertaining. You can discover the real meaning of famous songs such as
'American Pie' and Australia's famous 'Waltzing Mathilda' (songs section). And in the 'zeitgeist' you can find out
about all those e-mail hoaxes which - admit it - had you taken in momentarily! A site to be taken with a massive
pinch of salt!

http://www.urbanlegends.com/

Becoming Human is a fantastic site with an interactive documentary that tells us the story of our origins - what
makes us human. It's been primarily designed for those of you with broadband connections and don't forget, you'll
also need Flash 5. For standard connections, don't worry as there's other stuff to keep you interested. Discover
the latest advances the scientists are making (news and views) and find out what a prehistoric archaeologist
actually does. Make sure you return to this site again, as it's expanding and there'll be lots more to explore.

http://www.becominghuman.org/

And finally a site that'll make you stay connected long after you should be! Illusionworks is an online world of
illusions that fascinates and frustrates in equal measures. The introductory page provides a link to a beginner's
guide to illusions and perception, but it's difficult to concentrate on this when you know that just beyond there's
so much to actually interact with.The Illusions in art pages show examples of artists weaving their optical magic -
the ones by Dutch artist MC Escher are simply amazing and there's a mini-gallery of Escher's art with interesting
analysis of his work. if you want to get deeper into the puzzles take a look at 'Interactive demonstrations' Here,
you can fiddle and experiment for hours with impossible shapes and camouflages illusions. There's actually so
much content here - images, animations and commentary just bookmark it and keep going back.

http://www.illusionworks.com/

Trivia websites are always so interesting and this one is no exception. At Famous Name Changes, you can find out
what the real names of celebrities and people in the public eye are before they became famous. I dipped into
'sport' and found it covered sporting heroes from around the world. The content is pretty basic, but under each
name there's a potted biography, so and as well as finding out for example that Mohammed Ali's name was
actually Cassius Marcellus Clay, his entry is also linked with the artist Andy Warhol who created four prints of this
boxing legend. Visit this site when you feel like a break from the computer and want to find out a useless fact!

http://www.famousnamechanges.com/

Now for a bit of art appreciation. Artcyclopedia claims to be the biggest online directory for fine art. The irony is
that this site has very few images but don't be surprised - Artcyclopedia is primarily an information resource - and
a powerful one at that. If you want a global gallop through the world's art museums, start here. Each link goes off
to a museum microsite and there are hundreds to choose from and this directory is constantly growing. If
however, you like a particular artist, use the artist search tool. I searched for the painter Arshile Gorky. The
results provided information on the museums where I can see his art, as well as a couple of feature articles. The
strength of this site is that so much appears to be cross-referenced, so Arshile Gorky as an abstract expressionist

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painter is linked to other artists of this school. This is a great site for building your knowledge of global art
culture. The monthly feature is the only major editorial content on the site and well worth reading. All in all a
great database and reference tool to bookmark.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/

For art of a digital kind, take a look at Clickhere! Usually, if you enter most sites, the chances are you'll be
bombarded with banner ads, superstitial ads and all things flashing. Clickhere! presents a refreshing perspective
on all this commercialism with an online gallery housing an exhibition of anti-banner ads. Enter each level and
click to reveal walls of cleverly designed and thought provoking art. The idea, according to the site's creators, is to
convert the much hated, annoying banner ad into an artform and fill it with sense & beauty. It will definitely make
you think twice about what you see on a standard web page!

http://www.hi-res.net/sb/clickhere.html

And finally, for those of you with wanderlust from a cyber-perspective, indulge in the Seregenti National Park's
official site. From the start you'll be drawn into the magnificent panoramic screenshots of the landscape. There's
simply so much to look at here, so I opted to explore the wildlife known as The Big Five - the park's largest
mammals that are now thankfully only hunted with a camera lens. Each animal - such as the African Elephant -
has a dedicated page with fantastic images and detailed commentary. And if you thought that the park was unique
as an ecosystem for animals, paleontological research suggests this is where mankind began. And if the site has
persuaded you to visit Africa and the Serengeti, make sure you learn all the useful phrases in the beginner's
Swahili page. So from me it's 'kwa heri'.

http://www.serengetipark.org/

First up is the Solar System Simulator site. I love sites that present multi-option content for the user and this site
does just that. The simulator enables you to pick and choose what you want to see in Space from a particular
perspective and the result is a fantastic colour image from the cosmos. For example, I chose to look at Jupiter
from the perspective of the Voyager 2 Spacecraft. Further options, such as the time, when the image was taken,
and the field of view allows the site to generate a detailed simulation. The result was a stunning visual of Jupiter
with its amazing swirls of colour. You can also look through the site's map-database which features lots of maps of
individual planetary systems, satellites and Earth itself.

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

If you want to explore creation nearer to home, take a look at this site which provides an illustrated history of
sculpture in Italy through the centuries. First impressions are that the site design is austere yet beautiful, the
simple colour palette of the site shows these amazing sculptures at their best. Use the navigation to look at the art
either by where it is in Italy or by the artist's name. I went straight for the Godfather of Renaissance Art,
Michelangelo. An image of each sculpture is shown along with details of its size and where it can be found. The
text is both in Italian and English. Clicking on each graphic will take you to an enlarged version which in turn can
be magnified again. If you want to explore Art on a global scale, this section looks at many other great civilisations
such as Islamic and Greek architecture. All in all, this site is a great resource for discovery and art appreciation,
so make sure you bookmark it.

http://www.thais.it/scultura/default_uk.htm

If you're itching for a workout of the mental kind test your grey matter on the Mensa web site. The home page
launches you into the world of the brain through a 'workout' test of 30 questions to be answered in 30 minutes -
and although Mensa stress this quiz is provided for entertainment purposes only, trust me it's not that easy! If by
the time you've finished, you're hooked, search out your local group via this global database. Each country link
provides contact details and some of them have their own dedicated web presence - you can even do the sample
test in 'Hong Kong's' local Mensa site.

www.mensa.org

If all that exercise makes you crave something more peaceful, take a relaxed look through Poetry Portal. It is a
global resource for poetry lovers and be aware, there is absolutely masses to look at. The left hand navigation
gives a glimpse of the diversity on offer. Urdu, Persian and Chinese poetry links take you through to culturally
enriching sites, many of which are run by by individual enthusiasts who want to share rare and popular work with
the rest of us. And for cynics out there, the poetrymagic search tool enables you to ask the question 'why write
poetry'. The overall design of the portal and the micro-sites attached to it can be patchy, but ignore this, as the

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content can hold its own. Once you've read up on structure, use of metaphor and alliteration, assonance,
hyperbole and, well once you're ready to pen your own stuff, take a look through the competitions and enter your
work.

http://www.poetry-portal.com/

If you've had enough of hearing about the PS2, X-Box and fancy a trip down memory lane, immerse yourself in
Classic Gaming. It aims to be the definitive source of downloadable classic games. I hear you ask 'how do you
define 'classic'?. Well the site has decided it's basically anything that's discontinued. So from arcade games to
ancient home consoles, it should all be here. If brand names like Commodore 64 and Atari make you chuckle with
nostalgia head for the 'game vault', a staggering database of games for old platforms you'll have forgotten about. I
had a look around the 'arcade' library and there are literally hundreds of games to play. of course, I had to go for
the old favourite - Pong! Remember to register as a member before you begin downloading though.

www.classicgaming.com

Now for a site dedicated to the world's favourite drink, tea. In Tea Health connoisseurs can read all about how to
make the perfect brew and 'the origins of tea' pages provide a fascinating insight into how tea has become a
global drink. And if you really want to impress your friends with your knowledge of 'tea-speak' then take a look
through the tea-tasting glossary and discover what descriptions like 'well twisted', 'ragged' and 'mushy' tea
actually mean. You'll never look at your cuppa in the same way again!

www.teahealth.co.uk

This next site is a labour-of-love site that is truly amazing. Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine site is dedicated to
vintage music from the early decades of the 20th Century. Original 78 rpm discs used on those classic
phonographs have been digitised into a real audio format for your unadulterated pleasure. The site owner has so
far built up four volumes of hits including artists such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and early Louis Armstrong.
Once you've had your fill of these, take a look in the acoustic recordings section. You may feel that these tunes
sound flat and tinny, but persevere for a music-trip back in time. And finally, if you really like what you hear, you
can download the music onto your hard drive - just follow the instructions on the 'download' page.

http://www.dismuke.org/Electric/index.html

Now for a curious yet interesting site, explore the e-skeletons project. The website enables you to view the bones
of a human, gorilla, and baboon. I chose to look at various bones in a human skeleton via the drop down boxes.
Once you've seen these in isolation, you can compare our anatomy to that of a gorilla or baboon - the similarities
are eerie. And don't worry if the medical terms are way over your head, there's a useful anatomical glossary that
defines all the terms used on the site.

http://www.eskeletons.org/

And last but not least, Kiss This Guy, a fun compendium of all the misheard lyrics from famous songs - the title in
fact originated from Hendrix's lyric 'Excuse me while I kiss the sky'. Site structure is very basic and the use of
frames makes the whole thing look a little antiquated. But it's highly amusing to see how so many people have
distorted song lyrics. You can search for lyrics by song name or by artist. Anyone can contribute to this site - a
man remembers going into a record shop aged 12 and asking for an album called 'Another One' by Stardust. This
turned out to be a Queen hit 'Another One Bites the Dust'!

www.kissthisguy.com

The news is filled with reports from war-torn regions, countries in crisis and going through change. Surely the
best people to report on these sensitive issues are the people who live and experience the news each day? This is
the basic theory behind The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, recommended to us by one of its creators, Alan
Davis.

This is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and offers training to local journalists in 19 conflicted and
transitional countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. The by-product of this is a place on the web
where you'll find honest and in-depth reporting on some of the world's worst tragedies, all with a local by-line. It's
a real eye opener to browse the pages of this site.

Access the region you're interested in, and then browse the various headlines before clicking through to read the
complete report. Each article is published in English, and whatever other languages are relevant to the region.

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Most of the stories are text-heavy, but if you want to see a few more images click the link to Galleries on the right
and then make your selection from the photographic diaries and reports.

As well as providing excellent grass-roots news coverage on the website, the work of the IWPR is having an
impact on the global media, with more and more reports being picked up and published by the mainstream press.
For those interested in working in the journalism field in these war-ravaged areas, all the links you need to gain
training and help are laid out clearly.

http://www.iwpr.net/

If browsing the pages of IWPR made you realise there are a few holes in your knowledge of international leaders,
then this next website might come in handy.

Who You Should Know is a great idea. It basically lists profiles and information about many of the world's leaders -
from Armenia to Zimbabwe. The information is incredibly easy to access, with a featured daily profile always on
display on the opening page.

If you're looking for a particular world leader then click the archive link on the right. Once looking at a profile
you'll see a photograph and some basic information about the leader and their region. There's also a map and flag
displayed to help you place the leader in the physical world. Click the links through to Biography and More
Information on the country if you want to research in a little more depth.

You can also sign up for the email service presenting you with a new world leader in your inbox each day of the
working week. I read through the privacy policy though, and be warned, you have to opt out of allowing the site to
permit third parties to send you marketing material - and they say this opt out can take up to 90 days to action
after initial registration. In other words, expect some spam.

http://www.whoyoushouldknow.com/

How would you like to give your PC a bit of a makeover with some nice new icons, like the ones at Icon Archive?
It's worth noting there are literally dozens and dozens of great websites offering free and shareware icons, but
this one caught my eye because of the great layout of what is a massive library.

Click the subject heading on the left and a subsection menu appears where necessary. Once you click on a
collection you'll see them in the main window. If you like what you see, just click the link to download in either PC
or Macintosh formats.

The icons come in a zip file, and all you have to do is unzip them into any directory on your hard drive - personally
I have made a special directory called icons on my C: drive.

To change your icons just right click the shortcut, choose properties and then click on Change Icon. Click Browse
in the window that opens, and locate the icon where you saved it on the hard drive. Easy.

http://www.iconarchive.com/

Finally, health issues are always on our minds. Nobody likes going to the doctor for a check up, but you can get a
head start by keeping an eye on yourself between appointments at Self Checkup.

This is basically a little online application that allows you to estimate your standing in a number of key health-
related areas - such as body fat, blood alcohol levels and heart rate. Just click through to the section that interests
you, then input the required data to make the calculation. There is even a due-date and ovulation calculator for
those either in, or wanting to be in, the family way.

It's important to reiterate a point made by the website here - these calculations are an estimate only, so should not
be taken as an absolute, or used as an alternative to getting proper professional advice.

http://www.selfcheckup.com/

What would you take with you if you had five minutes to leave home? It's a frightening thought, having to leave
behind everything and everyone you know, but for many hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by war and
politics, it's a very harsh reality.

Beyond The Fire is a startling website that aims to help us try and understand what a refugee goes through. Told
through the eyes of teenage children who've had to flee their homes with their families, the website houses a
collection of terrifying, yet inspiring stories.

53
After the flash intro sequence you can begin to explore by clicking on a person on the world map. Clicking through
to a country will open a screen including information cards displaying a potted political history for the region.

Once you've learned the basics you can click through and hear the stories, actually narrated by the teenage
refugees themselves. These moving stories are told through photographs and words. The images seem mostly to
be taken from the narrators' own albums, and have been given a subtle twist with the use of flash camera moves
and effects.

At the end of your first visit you'll be invited to get your own world passport - in other words register. If you do,
you collect stamps for watching and commenting on the various stories, and once you've collected 15 stamps your
comments will be displayed with everyone else's in the right-hand panel of each storyboard.

http://www.itvs.org/beyondthefire/

NEO's, or Near Earth Objects, are the topic of conversation on FAIR Society, which was sent in by its creator
David Fagan. Before you go dismissing this as a load of old alarmist nonsense - as I did when I first started to
browse - take the time to have a read. I found the articles, which are all about things that have, will, or might
collide with Earth, to be well written, balanced, and highly informed.

I was shocked to learn about the near misses, and even direct hits, from space rocks and asteroids that we've
suffered in the past. Once I got stuck in I actually spent far more time exploring this site than I'd planned, which is
always a good sign. Design-wise though, I would recommend a few simple frames to make navigation easier -
especially on a site with so much information on board.

Apart from the first class content and links, there is another point to this website. It seems NEO scientists find it
hard to get funding, which seems strange when you consider that the odds are more in favour of you getting
wiped out by an asteroid than a tornado, according to one linked article from space.com.

Fair Society gives you the chance to donate hard cash to the effort of protecting our planet from interstellar flying
objects. There is absolutely no obligation to do so, but I love the fact you can actually see photographs of the
equipment paid for by donations so far.

http://www.fair-society.org/

Since we seemed to be focused on things that affect Earth, let's turn the tables on the last website now and take a
step outside the atmosphere to try and learn more about the way our planet exists.

Visible Earth is our destination - and it houses a stunning catalogue of NASA images taken looking back down at
Earth from outer space. There are thumbnails on the opening page for one-click gratification through to favourite
and most recently added images, or you can choose to browse the archives using one of the categories listed on
the right.

Topics range from biosphere to solar physics, each one containing subcategory upon subcategory of glorious,
extreme-altitude imagery. Many are downloadable as desktop images, though the usual warning about high-
resolution pics on your desktop sucking up memory applies here.

It's also worth noting that pages on this site will generally take a longer time to load, especially if you're using a
narrowband connection.

http://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/

Finally, a web based phenomenon that my brother put me onto actually - thanks Matt!

Freecycle is the home of a growing collection of people from around the world who want to bond in localised
communities, with the purpose of recycling their unwanted stuff for free. It really is no more complex than that.

Click through to a community local to you using the link on the left. As you scroll through the long list of groups,
organised by country, you can see how many members are in each group. Click the Go To button to have a look at
the kinds of items posted.

These groups are all run in Yahoogroups, so you'll need to register a Yahoo account on application. Clicking Join
will open an email requesting registration with that group.

Once joined up, you'll start receiving messages from people in your group either giving away, or looking for - well,
just stuff really. Beware, if you join a large group, like I did, you could experience an sudden flood of emails in
your inbox. If this happens just pop along to the groups homepage and edit your subscription to exclude emails.
You can participate at anytime by browsing the posts online.

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http://www.freecycle.org/

Ever been out of the office, and wished you could get at that spreadsheet you store on your hard drive? Or maybe
you're like me, and you need to work from different locations, but don't want to lug a laptop around with you?
Well, if you have a Gmail account, you can answer those needs by getting a GMail Drive shell extension.

This is a hugely useful application that allows you to map the space from your free web-mail Gmail account as part
of your own collection of hard drives.

Click the Gmail Drive link in the ATL section to access the download. Once you've installed it you don't even need
to think about using it. Your Gmail space will automatically appear in your drive tree under My Computers. Just
treat it like any other drive - drag and drop files & folders onto it - and when you're out and about, just log in to
your Gmail account and click All Mails to access the documents you've placed there. Marvellous.

David Chesterfield from the UK has drawn our attention to Bebo. Here you'll find another one of those online
address book managers - useful because it allows you to keep up-to-date with all the people you link to... well,
those who choose to participate anyway.

It's quick and easy to register, and you need only include your email address and a few cursory personal details.
Then you can start inviting friends to join your network, and you can do it in a way that means they remain
anonymous should they choose to decline. Just copy and paste the text under the request details tab into an email
message.

As well as the usual networking links this kind of service gives you, you can upload pictures to share, and keep a
blog style journal, meaning your friends and family really can keep up with what's going on in your life.

www.bebo.com

SeniorMag is an online magazine aimed at seniors. I stumbled across it when I was looking up medical definitions.
It has an amazing set of glossaries if you're interested in that area, but what amazed me most was the amount of
really useful and friendly articles there were, across a broad range of subjects from health, to legal issues, to
practical advice, and so on.

This is an American site so any information about healthcare centres and such like will only be relevant to
American citizens, but there is plenty of other great content here too. Click through to the video section, advice
about healthcare, the wisdom & humour section - or even the computer corner section, which contains some really
nice tutorials on things like sending email attachments and online shopping.

www.seniormag.com

Here's a really natty little tool called Lens Magnifying Glass. This is basically a graphics tool that allows you to
view any area on your screen in whatever magnification you want. Use the plus and minus buttons on the handle
to change the view to whatever is suitable, and then move the glass about by clicking and holding anywhere on
the handle or frame.

Once you've got the hang of it you can change the look of the glass, and affect other basic settings, by right-
clicking anywhere on the image and making a choice from the pop-up menu. It is worth mentioning that you
cannot click links through the glass.

http://www.abf-dev.com/krp-regions-library.shtml

If you want to stay plugged into the world of politics, technology, show business or any other area of professional
or personal interest, you have to read Web logs, a.k.a. blogs, regularly-updated personal or collaborative online
journals. The best ones are in some ways more relevant and more influential than mainstream media outlets. To
keep up, let Bloglines track your favorites and deliver their latest posts in one neat package. Other good blog-
aggregator services include Kinja.com, a similar though somewhat shaky service (it just launched a few months
ago) that shows promise as a tour guide for those entering the blogosphere for the first time, and Blogdex.net,
MIT Media Lab's study in "contagious media" that lists the fastest-spreading ideas and news items based on how
many blogs are buzzing about them.

Bloglines.com

The site for tips and step-by-step instructions on how to do stuff. There's the practical (how to teach a child how to
tie his shoes), the creative (how to make tile mosaics) and the merely suggestive (how to exercise at the beach).
The site's ads, supplied by Google and relevant to your searches, were some of the least obnoxious we've seen.
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Ehow.com

Click here to get your daily fix of showbiz and celebrity news. Articles are short and sweet, which works for us:
how much do you really need to read about Britney Spears' knee injury or why Tom Cruise was chosen to carry
the Olympic Torch?

ET.tv.yahoo.com/newslink

Voters, if you're sick of being spun, take heart: here's a breath — make that blast — of fresh air from the
Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The articles and feature stories pick apart
speeches, press releases, TV ads and other public statements by politicians of all stripes — these days, mainly
Bush and Kerry — to set the record straight.

Factcheck.org

Not the sexiest site on our list, to be sure, but incredibly useful for gathering statistics and reports from more
than 100 government agencies. Click on Key Statistic next to an agency's name (they're listed alphabetically) to
pull up links to other Web pages containing relevant info. You'll have to dig a little, but for many kinds of research
this is a great place to start.

Fedstats.gov

Type "elephant" into the "One-Stop Research" search field to pull up maps, facts and photos from the National
Geographic archive. Designed for educators, the site includes lesson plans in various subject areas and a teacher
store where you can search for materials based on subject (mainly Sciences and Social Studies, as you'd expect)
resource type (books, maps, software, etc.) or grade (K-12). Another must-click: nationalgeographic.com/news.

Nationalgeographic.com/education

Keyword searches pull up links to the latest stories, each with a note indicating when it first appeared. The
returns are culled from thousands of online news sources based in the U.S. and abroad. You can sort results by
date or relevance; you can also request e-mail alerts so you know when new articles are posted.

News.google.com

If you missed it on TV, click here to catch POV's Borders, a thought-provoking PBS series about the environment.
Topics are timely and the content is playfully organized, with layered title pages and lots of video clips, plus a
couple of interactive games (see the Earth section).

PBS.org/pov/borders/index_flash.html

An invaluable resource for anyone interested in business, investing and finance, now more than ever, thanks to
new search tools and options. See "Filings and Forms" (a.k.a. EDGAR) to access any public company's earnings
reports and other public documents, including mutual fund prospectuses.

SEC.gov

Despite several copycat efforts in recent months, this is still the best place to buy music, legally, and it's more
popular than ever, selling 2.7 million songs a week. Choose from more than 700,000 tracks or check out the new
celebrity playlists (Mischa Barton is a Guns 'N Roses fan ? Who knew?). Another new treat: music videos (a video
link will appear on the artist's main page, if there are any in the offing). Before you can visit the store, though,
you'll need the iTunes software, which is free and runs on both Macs and Windows PCs (Macs need OS X; PCs
Windows 2000 or XP). Get it at apple.com/itunes/download.

Produced by The Nemours Foundation, KidsHealth is really three sites in one, with each section written and
designed differently to appeal to its target audience. The Parents section offers all sorts of guidance on keeping
children healthy and caring for them when they get sick. The Kids section features games and other activities; and
the Teens page links to articles about the Body (Finding the Right Bra, Why Exercise is Wise), Mind (Binge Eating,
Depression), Sexual Health (All About Menstruation) and Drugs & Alcohol (Are Steroids Worth the Risk?).
kidshealth.org

A great online resource for cancer patients and their families. The profile tool delivers information tailored to a
specific cancer diagnosis. Register with an email address to receive news of new therapies and treatment options.

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Then take a moment to stop by thebreastcancersite.com. Click on the big pink button for a page of ads from
sponsors that donate mammograms to poor women based on the number of click-throughs.

Cancerfacts.com

Forgive us, but we couldn't tell the difference between these two competing blogs written by gearheads, for
gearheads. Fanatics may want to bookmark both to make sure they don't miss anything about upcoming product
releases, trends in tech culture and the like. To fully submerge yourself in this world, make slashdot.org your
home page. To avoid looking like a complete geek, stick with CNET's news.com.

Engadget.com, Gizmodo.com

The home of "The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation" seeks to teach kids problem-solving and critical-
thinking skills while introducing them to other places and cultures. To participate, you must choose a mission,
follow instructions and answer questions to help foil evil plots. Cute and clever.

FFFBI.com

This New York City-based home-delivery service is what every food shopping site should aspire to be. Ordering is
a snap, and it's beautifully illustrated with bright and colorful photos (even the raw slabs of beef look pretty). Even
if you don't live in the Big Apple, the site is worth visiting for its wealth of information. In the potato section, for
example, it doesn't just list 16 varieties; it describes each one in detail, rates its taste and texture and offers
serving suggestions.

Freshdirect.com

See what all the critics are saying about that movie you want to see, that album you want to buy or that video
game you want to play. The "Metascores" show the critical consensus at a glance; they are a weighted average of
all the critics' grades. When you click on a particular title (the searchable database covers the last five years),
you'll still get the master index of current releases along the right-hand side, in alphabetical order, with color-
coded scores attached. Yellow star, good. Red box, dud.

Metacritic.com

Find out when Blues Traveler will be performing in your neck of the woods, or shop around for shows to attend
the week you'll be visiting friends in Seattle. You can search the concert database by artist, city or venue. The
MyMojam feature allows registered users to save their favorite searches so that they can get the results
immediately upon signing in.
Mojam.com

Great games and other forms of "edu-tainment" for pre-school-aged children based on Miffy, Maisy, Oobi and
other popular shows from the cable TV network of the same name. Honorable mention goes to pbskids.org, home
to Arthur and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Noggin.com

We're always interested in what this guy has to say about politics and the world, and so do a lot of other people,
which is why Joshua Micah Marshall — a freelance journalist based in Washington and the site's creator and chief
contributor — is one of the most popular bloggers online today. He doesn't rant, he reasons, and he often supports
his arguments with source material.

Talkingpointsmemo.com

Calling itself the Online Magazine for International Literature, Words Without Borders publishes stories, poems
and essays by foreign authors translated into English — a rare opportunity to get a non-American perspective on
things, given that so little of these kinds of works get published in the U.S. through traditional channels.

Wordswithoutborders.org

A huge hit in Europe, this fashion e-tailer is making headway in the American market thanks to a slick site and the
best selection of high-end designer clothing for both men and women we've seen anywhere on the Web. Much of
the inventory is last season, so prices are slashed. Browse by designer (15 are featured, including Armani, Gucci
and Prada, and there are dozens more listed in the search engine's pull-down menu); category (choices include
seven different styles of trousers and five types of skirts); and size range (XXS through XXXL).

Yoox.com

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Rather than sift through anonymous profiles to find a date, Friendsters work their personal networks and meet
people through mutual friends. Set up your own community and invite everybody you know. (They can be single,
married, married with kids or whatever, because Friendsters can also work the network to find new friends, or
play matchmaker for someone else.) Encourage them to invite everybody they know, and so on. The farther it
goes, the bigger pond you'll have to fish in.
Friendster.com

If you're one of the millions of consumers who now seem permanently attached to an Apple iPod, here's your home
base. Get the full run-down on all the device's available accessories or head to the Forums to swap tips and tricks.
If you recently acquired one of these portable digital music players, iPod 101 (see Articles) offers a primer. The
site is independently run.

iPodlounge.com

This site is full of ideas on how to fight discrimination and bigotry. Read the articles to learn ways you can battle
hate and promote tolerance where you live and work. The Teens tab links to Mix It Up, home base for student
activists working to break down social barriers. Articles in the For Parents section suggest ways to talk to the kids
about same-sex marriage, gender-bashing and other issues.
Tolerance.org

A place for aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters to get feedback on their work and, possibly, some exposure
within the industry. Register, upload your masterpiece and subject it to the scrutiny of thousands. The site hosts
its own festivals; judges include industry heavyweights like Danny DeVito and Cameron Crowe. You'll need
RealOne player and QuickTime to watch the shorts; if you don't already have these free programs, the site
provides links to where you can download them.
Triggerstreet.com

Recently hatched, this newfangled search engine, created by an Amazon.com spin-off, conducts general Web
searches but also a separate book search just in case you're wondering what Amazon has in store on the subject.
Book results are kept under a separate tab, and include links to full-page views, part of Amazon's nifty Search
Inside the Book offering, though you have to be a registered user of Amazon to access them.
A9.com

Copy and paste a Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese or Russian word or phrase into one field
and the English translation appears almost instantly in another. It also works the other way: the site translates
English into one of 10 different languages, including two forms of Chinese (though for this, you'd probably need to
install what's called a "language pack" so your PC can display the characters). Don't push things too far; longer
passages quickly reveal the program's limitations, so if your text is going to end up in a business letter, you might
want to put a human translator on the case. The site will provide one, for a fee.
Freetranslation.com

Before you buy anything online, look for it here. What we like best about Google's shopping search engine is that
it limits search results to one product per website, making it easier to see which different vendors carry the
product (or something like it) without having to scroll so much. Just click "More from…" to see other items in a
particular store's selection.
Froogle.com

Everything you always wanted to know about Wi-Fi but were afraid to ask. This comprehensive guide covers the
increasingly popular wireless technology as both a tool for networking your home computers and as a way to
connect to the Internet when you're out in the world. Includes product reviews and practical tips such as "Top Ten
Ways to Avoid Wi-Fi Hijacking." The handy hotspot finder, a database of nearly 42,000 public places in 60
countries where you can log on, includes pricing.
JiWire.com

Google's local search engine asks for keywords and a specific address before delivering the goods — nearby pet
groomers, say, or some other person, place or thing. You can save locations, narrow the search by distance and
view the results on a map.
Local.google.com

The cool new SmartView feature points out train stations, movie theaters, hiking trails and other points of
interest. Select what you want to see from the SmartView menu and little yellow icons pop up on the map; run the
mouse over a particular icon and more information appears. We still like to get our driving directions from
randmcnally.com, but two sources are always better than one.
Maps.yahoo.com

We love this travel search engine for the same reason we loved our Palm Pilot: it does one job really well. Plug in
your travel dates and the site will cull options from popular travel sites like Orbitz and Travelocity, travel
consolidators such as Airfares.com and the airlines (both U.S.- and foreign-based) so you don't have to.
Mobissimo.com

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Our favorite way to share digital photos with friends and family. Uploading and organizing images is easy, and
there's even a tool for fixing red-eye. Shutterbugs will appreciate the free unlimited storage.
Photos.yahoo.com

All things reference. Be sure to try the Visual Thesaurus; the link is on the left-hand side of the home page, near
other basic tools such as a dictionary and calendar. Delve deeper and you could get overwhelmed by all the
resources listed, but it's reasonably well organized so you shouldn't get lost.
Refdesk.com

Why limit yourself to just epicurious or allrecipes.com? This Google hack scans several major recipe sites to give
you as many options as possible, and all you have to do is type in your key ingredients. You can further narrow the
search by selecting a specific recipe type, such as Atkins, vegan or seafood.
ResearchBuzz.org/archives/001404.shtml

How fast are you driving? Find the right test for your broadband connection to see what upload and download
speeds you're getting and how they stack up against the norm for your type of service (cable modem, ISDN, etc.)
Don't have a high-speed link to the Net yet but want to get one? Broadbandreports.com will list the options in your
area, help you compare prices and identify top-rated providers based on user reviews.
Testmyspeed.com

An interactive art installation created by Marie Sester, a media artist based in New York. Video clips and still
images show anonymous individuals tracked in public places by a robotic spotlight that responds to sound and
motion. Interesting and creepy at the same time.
Accessproject.net

Watch the best bits from South Park, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and other faves, both current and classic
(there's some great old stuff from the Kids in the Hall). Or try your hand at games like Reno! 911 Petty Theft
Bicycle or Insomniac Bar Hopper. For Chapelle's Show fans, there's Sound Board, where you mix and match your
favorite character quips to a background beat.
Comedycentral.com

Funniest eBay post ever: A few months back, a tattooed biker from Seattle poses in his ex-wife's wedding dress
hoping to raise enough dough at auction to buy Mariners tickets and a few beers, and ends up netting close to
four grand.
eBay.com

Try this trivia quiz from the interactive museum of news. There are three levels: intern, reporter and editor, and if
you don't answer fast enough, host Rita will scold you.Newseum.org/newsmania

In this multiplayer online role-playing game, you're a pirate that solves arcade-style puzzles to win treasure and
further the story of your character, your crew and the virtual ocean world around you. Fans call it addictive; even
game snobs admit it's amusing. Yo ho ho!
Puzzlepirates.com

A study in how to promote a movie, this highly entertaining site is sure to help turn Mario Van Peebles' new
movie, Baadasssss! (based on a true story about his filmmaker dad, Melvin, and the birth of independent black
cinema) into a cult classic. Watch the trailer, read the production notes or just let the theme song play.
Sonyclassics.com/badass

A chatroom with a twist: instead of just reading each other's text, you get to meet people in the virtual flesh. Type
in what you want to say and it appears in a speech balloon over your onscreen character's head. You can do stuff
like shop for clothes and race dune buggies, or just hang out and socialize.
There.com

A delightful bit of interactive flash. Wait a moment for the page to load then use your arrow keys to send the nice
line-drawn guy with curly black hair gliding among the clouds. Stay close to Earth and you'll encounter various
other flying objects and individuals, or head straight up into outer space. Eventually you'll find yourself on a
tropical island with a girl and a monkey dancing the hula. It's not a bad place to be.
Trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy

There's never any shortage of bad news on the web, but here's a site I found that moves the notion of news in a
whole new direction - and it's a direction I rather like.
Good News India is exactly that - a collection of news stories and articles with a positive overtone. The layout here
is functional yet uninspired, which seems a shame given the inspirational content. The most recent articles and
supplements are listed on the opening page.
To read a story just click the appropriate link. They are all text-heavy I'm afraid, with just a spattering of pictures
to illustrate them, but the pages load super fast, and I'm sure our narrowband surfers will find this a refreshing
change.

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Once you're reading a story, a funny little menu appears in the top right hand corner of your screen. Here you can
opt for a printable version, with or without pictures, or use the links to navigate your way back to other sections of
the site.

www.goodnewsindia.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing as this is a show about technology in India, we couldn't have an India-themed webscape without paying
homage to its technological culture. Enter a blog that takes it name from India's popular technology magazine
Indian Magazine Digit, diGit Blog.
This site was suggested by its creator, Lovedeep Wadhwa. It's not associated with the magazine, stating that it
was set up and is being maintained by people passionate about technology - and like most blogs on the web the
content is all text, text, text. But it's a good read if you want to know more about the technology making headlines
in India.
Written in a friendly and informative way, with links to articles elsewhere on the web to support its comments,
these guys are clearly committed to bringing you regular news updates from their own perspective. Use the
navigation panel on the right to jump to the various sections, either by date, category, or you can search for a
specific term if you know what you're looking for.

http://digit.igeek.info/
------------------------------------------

Finally, a very quick look at a website that brings to life the colour and spectacle of Indian culture more generally
- from music to cooking to TV and sports, you'll find it all at SifyMax.
This site is enormous, so I'll just point out a few highlights and let you take over the task of exploring on your own.
With its simple but vibrant layout it's easy to find your way to the content you want, using the navigation panel on
the left.
The cookery section contains some delicious looking dishes, and for a real flavour of India check out the
Bollywood trailers and music videos. The video blog section also contains a very random selection of short videos
that are worth a browse for curiosity's sake - but the in-browser media player on this page crashed Firefox when I
tried to watch a clip, so I had to use Internet Explorer instead.

www.sifymax.com
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