Internet Video and video related sites:
Sections List
Computers
- Computer Glossaries:
- Computer Basics and Guidance:
- All Promise. Computer guidance for oldies (mid 80s to 105 year olds especially welcome) based in Chicago and active primarily in the Chicago area, but providing good basic computer guidance for all. The website is a model of good design.
- Annoyances Org. Collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows. Day to day problems answered by experts. Meet Ricer 46, triplate, Carl, MJB, GM, JAZZ, and many many others in a very helpful and friendly forum.
- Binary. How text is stored in your computer.
- DVI - Digital Monitor Connections Explained.
- Free Computer Books, Tutorials, and Lecture Notes.
- PCMechanic. Offers news, articles, and reviews of all PC and Mac stuff.
- PC Q&A. A computer forum with a difference, it has an off topic section. Recommended by Carl.
- PuPpYpc. Another excellent Windows XP forum. Part of the growing Phpbb community.
- Tech Guy Org. Very helpful forums here on your computer problems. Registration is required, but it is free.
- Answers That Work. Online help desk for computer problems.
- Basics of Computing or Computer Help for people over 50. A useful site for absolute beginners compiled by young Shoban (well, he's only 69).
- Shoban Sen's Help with Windows XP.
- Internet Basics for Seniors. This is a highly recommended 2005 spin-off from Shoban Sen's previous site.
- Computers: How Stuff Works. Excellent basic information, despite some intrusive advertising.
- Computing Net. Forums for computer problems.
- Getting TV on your PC, analogue or digital.
- GlarySoft Registry Repair. This free utility beats all commercial ones.
- Hardware Analysis. Hardware news and some useful forums.
- How to set up your monitor.
- Screen Check.
- How to wipe your drive.
- Installing Windows XP Recovery Console. I wish I had seen this before I installed it, it is exactly the method I used but I had to find out step by step, the hard way. All official instructions to install it involved partial XP reinstalls and pressing R at a precise moment, and of course this is the method you will have to use if you can't boot into Xp. Should you install it? Against: 1. It will slow down your boot process by about 5 seconds. 2. It will take up about 7Mb of disk space. For: 1. The recovery files are stored on the same drive as your Windows system files. 2. You don't need the hassle with BIOS options or boot CDs to recover from serious problems.
- Process Explorer. This is a free Microsoft tool for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and for showing the way Windows and applications work.
- Registry Tips
- themeXP. Some unusual visual themes (screens, wallpaper,etc) for Windows XP.
- Windows: How to start in Safe Mode. Windows' diagnostic mode. Detailed guidance from Symantech.
- Windows BBS. Over 90,000 posts covering all sorts of computer problems.
- Windows XP for beginners. The official Microsoft website.
- Windows Xp: A list of Keyboard shortcuts.
- How to backup files and folders in Windows XP Home Edition.
- XP Problems? Need to reinstall?. Consult Michael Stevens for clear detailed guidance.
- Windows XP Problems. Help and support from John Barnett, computer Journalist.
- Windows XP Newsgroups
- Troubleshooting Windows XP, hosted by Kelly Theriot.
-
Computer History:
- AnandTech. Computer hardware analysis and news.
- Click. The BBC's flagship technology programme.
- Computers - the future.
- Digit Life Com. News and reviews.
- Mike's Hardware. All the latest news on computer development.
- Tom's Hardware Guide - CPU Comparison Charts.
- VR Zone. Hardware news and reviews.
- TechSpot . News and views for Technology enthusiasts.
- Boolean Logic and Transistors.
- Computer Science Links. A gateway compiled by University at Albany, the state university of New York.
- The IR Driver Project. Need an updated driver, or want to know what a driver is? Go here.
- DVD FAQ. DVD demystified.
- File Formats.
- Gizmodo - The Gadgets Weblog. The very latest news on ..well .. just about everything in electronic innovation.
- Intel Pentium 4. An old chip now, but worth seeing the graphics at this website.
- In-Stat MDR. Expert information for the microprocessor industry, a fascinating view behind the scenes.
- PC Pro magazine. News, downloads, and 2,000 searchable reviews.
- The Computer Information Center.
Storage Supersite. News and views on data storage.
- Most powerful computers. This is the site for the very latest news on supercomputers; all information is frequently updated.
- ASCI White, the world's most powerful computer. Well ... it was until Blue Gene came along.
- Blue Gene. World's fastest computer ... for now.
- Blue Gene/L. The world's most powerful computer ... for 2005.
- Blue Gene/L Photographs.
- Most powerful computer under construction. Well ... it was back in 2000. For the moment Blue Gene is top dog.
- Cray Supercomputer.
- eWeek - Storage. News and views on data storage.
- Supercomputers. A comprehensive article in the Wikipedia.
- Top 500 Supercomputer Sites.
- The PC Guide
- Scott Mueller. Resources
- Sematech. The joint semiconductor producer site with their plans for the future.
- Silicon Technology and Manufacturing. Intel gives you a close look at cpu technology.
- Slashdot. News for nerds, stuff that matters.
... and calculators
Parallel Computing technology
- SETI the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Like to take part? But you would need a massive super-computer to trawl millions of galaxies, wouldn't you? Well, all you need to beat the performance of a $50-million mainframe super-computer is a little software and just a fraction of the people on the Internet to run it. There are already over two million participants, resulting in awesome computing power. It is also called peer-to-peer computing. This is the way the Internet will go in the 21st century.
The latest Search Engines, such as Fast and Google, use this technology of parallel inter-connected computers to access billions of pages almost instantly.
Here are some other internet multi-computer project sites:
Sections
List
Dictionaries and Linguistics
- Anagram Generator Not a dictionary, but great fun.
- The Universal Annagram Solver.
- Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. Look up any word online.
- Dictionary Com. A huge online English dictionary.
- Ask Dr Dictionary.
- Free Dictionary Com.
- Your Dictionary.Com. The web of online dictionaries.
- Crossword Solver Or should I say Cross World Servo (anag. 9,6)?
- Dictionaries, Grammars, and other online language resources.
- Etymology Dictionary.
- Asian Language Terminology. Learn about Chinese and Japanese ideograms.
- Ethnologue - Languages of the World. Information on 6,912 living languages (yes, 6,912!) with 41,000 alternate names and dialects. Some superb free fonts here too.
- Foreign Languages for Travellers Sawubona. That, as you will know, is Hello in Zulu.
New! November frengly. A neat translator.
- The Forrest of Rhetoric. Figures of speech.
- Glossarist. A unique collection of thousands of glossaries.
- It was I or It was me?. The pitfalls of English. See also Myth #5 in "Some Grammar Myths Exploded", below.
- Language Guide org. English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic, and Hebrew. This is one of the very best language sites, highly recommended.
- Language Log. An intelligent guide to the use of language.
- Lingua Latina.
- Multilingual. This is a superb site for translations to professional standards and much more.
- On line dictionaries. From Africaans to Xhosa, they are all here!
- Perseus Project: Online classical Greek Dictionary
- Perseus Project: Online Latin Dictionary
- Smart Phrase dot Com. An online phrase book: Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
- Some Grammar Myths Exploded.
- The Word Detective. A first-class collection of etymological ephemera by Evan Morris, updated monthly.
- Tongue Twisters. Over 2,000 entries in 87 languages.
- Word of the day. A word chosen at random from the 22 volume Oxford English Dictionary. Painstaking etymology. Erudition at its best!
- Wordsmith Org.
- Wordsmyth. Dictionary-Thesaurus.
- Word Reference Com. Direct access to Collins Dictionaries. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish. The Spanish dictionary alone has over 160,000 words with more than 230,000 translations.
Sections List
Food and Drink
Food! 
... and Drink.
During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. We were compelled to live on food and water for several days. (W.C.Fields)
Sections List
Spyware Warning! (Click here to skip Spyware information and go to freeware links)
There are some quite useful freeware utilities on the net, some very skilfully programmed. Why free? For many reasons, often because a young programmer wants his/her skills to be publicised, possibly leading to lucrative professional employment.
However, you should be aware that many free programs carry Spy
Ware. Spyware gathers information on your Web surfing activity and secretly transmits it back. But it is not only some freeware which is guilty of this. Netscape, for example, uses spyware and increasingly you can pick up spyware by just visiting many commercial web sites. Now there are thousands of nasty bits of Spyware on the net and this has got so bad that in any session online you will almost certainly pick up spyware, or other malware. A recent survey found that on average a PC is hosting 47 pieces of Spyware, and over a hundred is not uncommon, When challenged all, without exception, claim that you cannot be personally identified and that it is done to direct relevant advertising to you by checking what sites you visit; all however do this covertly. What is particularly bad about spyware is the aggressive way it installs itself without checking if you already carry it. It is not unusual to find twenty or more identical spyware cookies on a machine, all taking up bandwidth and reporting back on your every movement at your expense, and slowing down your machine in the process. If you wish to know what spyware is already infesting your computer get Ad-aware from Lavasoft. a very useful utility (the free version is fully functional) which will detect and remove all spyware.
The only problem with the free version of Ad-aware is that it only detects spyware after it has been installed and a complete check of your computer can take a long time. A more advanced anti-spyware utility with added features is Spybot - Search & Destroy by Patrick M. Kolla, a brilliant German computer student, this can be set for very advanced work but the default setting is easy to use and suitable for beginners. The great advantage of SpyBot is that it stops spyware from being downloaded onto your machine, prevention always being better than cure. Another excellent spyware stopper is SpyBlaster, which can also be set to stop Flash, should you so wish.
Another effective spyware blocker and cookie controller is AnalogX CookieWall from AnalogX. However, Cookie Wall has to be set up in that you have to select which cookies you want blocked. To identify them I now use Spybot or Cookie Sweeper, and having identified them, I block them with CookieWall. I have them all installed and auto-loaded at start-up: Ad-aware, SpyBot, SpyBlaster, and CookieWall, all regularly updated.
To which I have now added IE-SpyAd, far more powerful than CookieWall and a real 'must-have'.
Steve Gibson's OptOut Web Site contains an extensive summary of the issues and problems surrounding the use of advertising agent programs, parasites, and spyware. See also:
Don't be put off by this, just be careful and test for spyware. And now for some freeware sites and utilities:
Sections List
Genealogy
Sections List
Health
Sections List
Humanities
Archaeology and Prehistory
Classics - Latin and Greek
Ozymandias
I MET a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
(Percy Bysshe Shelley) More
poems
Sections List
History
The General
'Good-Morning; good-morning!' the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
'He's a cheery old card,' grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
(Siegfried Sassoon, 1917). More poems
History is lived forwards but is written in retrospect.
We know the end before we consider the beginning
and we can never wholly recapture what it was to
know the beginning only.
(C. V. Wedgewood - William the Silent)
History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindles with pale gleams the passions of former days
(Winston S. Churchill - Speech in tribute to Neville Chamberlain, 14 November 1940)
- History books I have recently acquired and recommend
- American Civil War. A huge collection of resources compiled by historian Dr George H. Hoemann. See also Civil War links in the Militaria section.
- American Historical Documents.
- American Memory. 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
- Angelcynn. Anglo-Saxon history 400 - 900 AD.
- The British Empire. An Internet Gateway compiled by Dr. Jane Samson, Assistant Professor, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, Edmonton.
- History and the WWW. A gateway of links compiled by Sonja Cameron, History Co-ordinator, CTICH.
- History Today. Access to 6 million words in 10,000 history articles by top historians, fully searchable by category or keyword.
- History wiz. For lovers of history.
- History World, by Bamber Gascoigne
- Center for History and New Media. With links to more than 1,500 history web sites.
- ARCHON (Archives Online) is maintained by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. This is the principal gateway for British history primary sources.
- New! November The Avlon Project. Documents in law, history, and diplomacy.
- Brainy History. Who do you share your birthday with?
- British History on Line. A vast collection of primary sources.
- British Prime Ministers, from Robert Walpole in 1721 to Tony Blair.
- Charles Booth Online Archive. Charles Booth and the survey into life and labour in London (1886-1903).
- Chinese, Japanese, and Korean History.
- Churchill: His Life and Times.
- Churchill Archive Centre. With some excellent related links.
- Churchill Speech Interactive. The full Fulton speech.
- Winston Churchill. Text of selected speeches.
- Winston Churchill. Some audio clips here from his WW2 speeches.
- World Statesmen.
- Country Studies. A series of electronic books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress.
- Classical World. A delightful tour of a Roman villa.
- Domesday Book.
- The Diary of Samuel Pepys. An entry for each day.
- Elizabethen England.
- Eye Witness to History dot Com. History through the eyes of those who witnessed it.
- Lincolnshire Convicts transported to Australia, Gibraltar and Bermuda. A fascinating database.
- 18th and 19th century journals. A digital library of complete editions. Every page is online and data fully searchable.
- Paradoxplace. The Renaissance and much much more.
- List of Popes and Patriarchs.
- Office Holders. Lists of officials who served in the departments of central government since the Restoration.
- English History and heritage.
- Today in History or any other day you care to enter. Mainly American history at an elementary level, but with access to a good sound-archive.
- Roman History Timeline
- De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors.
- Virtual catalogue of Roman coins a Web site devoted to helping students and teachers learn more about ancient Roman coins. These pages contain images and descriptions of coins from the Early Republic to the end of the 4th century A.D.
- Rome Reborn. The ongoing digital model of ancient Rome.
- Rome: Republic to Empire.
- Roman Websites. Over 2,000 web sites dedicated to ancient Rome.
- Ron Goldstein's Coin History.
- Rome: in the footsteps of an XVIII century traveller.
- Pompei and Herculaneum. They lay buried since 79AD.
- Byzantine and Medieval Studies Links
- Medieval Resources on the Internet. Compiled by the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.
- The Conqueror and his Companions by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874. Parts obviously outdated in the light of modern research, but some fascinating stuff nonetheless.
- The Internet Medieval Source Book.
- The Presidents of the United States portraits and biographies from George Washington to the present.
- First Ladies' Bibliography with portraits and biographies of every First lady since Mrs Washington.
- History of Money.
- Historical UK TV Website. Devoted to the past, present, and future of TV in the UK.
- Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe . Selected transcriptions, facsimiles and translations.
- Spartacus. A huge range of historical topics here.
- Tenement History. Early immigrants in New York.
- Devil's Rope Museum. The history of barbed wire, the significance of its introduction, and its impact on the development of the Old West.
- The Enlightenment
- The Kindertransport Association.
- Holocaust Timeline.
- The Holocaust Encyclopedia.
- The Holocaust History Project.
- Inside Hitler's Bunker. A guided tour.
- Russian History
- Internet Resources for Russian Studies
- Russian and Soviet History
- USSR/Russia - History
- Victorian History. Excellent links covering Victorian Britain.
- The Victorian London Dictionary. A remarkable site, all aspects of the social history of Victorian London are covered.
- History of Costume c.1861-1880.
- Museum of Costume.
- Extant Clothing of the Middle Ages. An excellent collection by Cynthia du Pré Argent.
- Rough Rider Links to the Past A list of 1300 historical links in chronological order, historical indexes,outlines and directories. This site was designed to help U.S. History students with their research.
- World War Two - Timeline.
- Your Memories 1900-1999
-
Militaria :
Sections
List
Philosophy
The Moderns
Free Thought
What is thought that is not free?
'Tis a lie that runs in grooves,
And by nought and nothing proves
Three times one is one, not three.
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
- René Descartes
David Hume
Immanuel Kant
John Locke
Bertrand Russell
Baruch Spinoza 
Sections List
Sociology
Crime
Beliefs
Internet Stuff
Internet
- 15 years on the Web. Internet Timeline.
- About the World Wide Web.
- Google Trends. What are people searching for right now?
- How many on line?
- Bandwidth Speed Test. The variaton in speed might surprise you.
- Chilling Effects. Do you know your online rights?
- Wik-Id-Game. Sneaky Wikipedia edits.
- Dr Elwell's Broadband Speed Test. Comprehensive statistics, highly praised by most PC magazines and experts. This is more detailed and accurate than the one above.
- Netcraft. Detailed statistics of the Internet.
- Net Meter. If you have a capped broadband account, or are just curious as to how much you are downloading and uploading, this is the meter for you. Free too!
- Internet Com. Internet Technology Channel. Anything to do with the internet can be found here. A vast collection of specialist links.
- iana. Internet Assigned Number Authority.
- Internet Domain Survey.
- JonnyBroadband Com. Links to 250,000 broadband-ready websites. Movie clips, live television, and lots more.
- Netcraft. A monthly Web server survey, it includes a web server search facility.
- NUA. Internet statistics.
- Internet Traffic Report. Monitors the flow of data around the world, updated every 5 minutes.
- Go here to test your modem speed.
- Basic Security For Home Computers. An excellent introduction from CERT.
- Macromedia Flashplayer Security Settings. Nearly everyone uses Flashplayer, but were you aware that you can adjust its security settings?
- Ways you are traced
- New! August Who is?. Check that website at Nominet. Domain names ending in .uk, are they genuine?
- Cyber Geography Reaserch. A fascinating look at the structure of the Internet.
- CAST Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all. Web design at its best.
- Ghost Sites. The flotsam and jetsam of the web, stuffed, embalmed, and ready for the internet museum. A fascinating peep at the good, bad, and the downright ugly of yesterday by Steve Baldwin.
- The Internet Archive. Access to 10 billion archived pages.
- MDA. Mobile Data Association, learn all about SMS and the new mobile lingo mobnglish.
- Open Rights Group. Defending your rights and freedom on the Internet.
- Password Security. Test a password similar to your own here.
- Password Chart. Enter a short phrase, then enter a very simple password, such as apple for example.
- Site Advisor. This is a very useful addition to your security.
- Scam Busters. Information on the latest Internet scams.
- 419 Eater. Welcome to the world of Scambaiting. How to attack scammers.
- Free Disk Space.
- Storing files.
- Internet 'Urban Legends'. Some quite nasty, all worth looking at.
- Website Copyright Issues.
- Virgil's Wikiscanner. The Wikipedia Scanner released to the public on 14 August 2007.
- Wik-Id-Game. Sneaky Wikipedia edits.
- Server Error Messages.
- Internet Explorer 7 shortcuts.
Sections List
Blogs and Blogging
E-Mail Web sites
Malware, hijackers, phishing, trojans, worms, and viruses.
If you want to keep your PC safe, follow these four golden rules:
1. Use a good anti-virus application, with regular virus definition updates. Install only ONE.
2. Regularly run anti-spyware utilities, such as Ad-Aware, SpyBot, and of course Windows Defender. Install and use more than one.
3. Keep your operating system up to date with security fixes.
Free antivirus protection, avast! has had excellent reviews.
- AVG Anti-Virus. One of the very best anti-virus programs from Grisoft - and it's free for home users. Latest version protects against spyware too.
- CWShreader. The stand-alone free version traces and destroys all variants of CoolWeb, a name covering a wide range of browser hijackers.
- PC Flank. Test your ports and system for Internet threats.
- GMER. A free rootkit scanning tool, widely hailed as the best at ferreting out stealth rootkits from PCs. Rootkits cannot be detected by most anti-virus programs. Download gmer.zip.
- New! November millersmiles. Upto date news on scams with a massive archive of phishing and identity theft email scams.
- Secunia.The security site. The very latest information on all program vulnerabilities and Internet threats.
- Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. Full information on this automatic tool.
Sections List
Design Web Pages - HTML and JavaScript
If you don't know what HTML (HyperText Markup Language) looks like, you can view the HTML source code of any page by accessing Document Source in the View Menu in Netscape or Source in the View Menu in Internet Explorer. Netscape presents a clear colour coded layout, on the other hand Microsoft's Explorer conveniently puts the code into Notepad, ready to edit. (In the View menu, select Source).
I wrote all the code for my web page on Notepad so I could get to grips with the basics of HTML programming, this page alone now has over a 3,300 lines of coding and I have switched to WordPad to edit it. But if you are not attracted to learning a lot of code and tags, and are not bothered about understanding how it all works, then a good HTML editor will do all the donkey work for you. Take a look at Arachnophilia, an advanced HTML editor, highly professional and free.
The fan shows what can be done with just a few lines of JavaScript:
Other good JavaScript sites are:
Sections List
If you prefer books, rather than an on-line course, I would recommend:
- Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days
- by Laura Lemay (Sams Net, 2nd edition, revised by Denise Tyler, 2000).
The title is clearly in the tradition of that great success Teach Yourself Brain Surgery in 14 Days and at over 800 pages you might be pushed just to read it in that time. Title aside, this is an excellent introduction to HTML. Laura Lemay is a brilliant technical writer and she explains things clearly and well. Visit Laura Lemay's Home Page for a complete surprise. Especially if you like motorbikes!
- Creating Web Pages with HTML and Dynamic HTML - Comprehensive
- by Patrick Carey (New Perspective Series, 2001).
- Probably the best book available on HTML, very detailed examples with colour screen shots. Suitable for beginners and experts alike. There is a good section on JavaScript too. More details here.
- HTML in Plain English
- by Sandra E Eddy (MIS Press, 2nd edition, 1998).
- This is a complete HTML reference book giving thorough information on all tags with appropriate examples.
And:
- HTML For The World Wide Web
- by Elizabeth Castro (Peachpit Press, 4th edition, 2000).
- An out of the ordinary visual guide for beginners and experts alike. You can chat with Liz Castro on the 1st Tuesday of every month at 10 PM Eastern Time (5 PM UK time). She will answer all your knotty technical questions.
(The editions cited are simply the ones I have, check for later editions.)
So, you have finished your HTML code and you have followed the three main rules 1.test, 2.test, 3.test again. Everything seems to be working fine, now what? The next thing is to have your code validated. We all forget closing tags or incorrectly nest tags and even the best HTML Editor programs occasionally churn out bad code. Everything works fine on your computer but some obscure browser can't decipher the page. Only 1% use it? That's around 10 million potential viewers who will see your page as a mess because you failed to validate! The validator I use is
Should you also want a good access counter, I would recommend
from Digits Com. You can see one of their many free counters in action at the bottom of this page.
Sections
List
Leisure
Chess
- There are several free chess programs here. My friend Clara Fortunelli, from the ancient and beautiful city of Vicenza , told me about this excellent Italian chess site.
- ChessBase. Information and news about the chess world, a commercial site with a difference.
- CPT Community. The superb Chess Position Trainer, free.
- Don't miss Tim Mann's Chess Page One of the top free chess programs, Winboard, is here. Tim Mann is the primary author. His page has many excellent chess links.
- Aaron's Winboard Page. Aaron modestly describes his expanded website as a Chess Engine FAQ, but there is a wealth of detailed information here in a well designed and helpful site. If only all FAQs were like this!
- Why Winboard?. Winboard chess expert, Aaron Tay, explains.
- Chess Corner. A superb chess site created by Janet, who describes herself simply as a chess enthusiast.
- Chess Problem Solver. With access to over a dozen lists leading to thousands of chess problems. Beware, only the first key move is given, so you still need to think.
- WWW
Chess Resources Over 70 chess sites
- Play chess on line ... or draughts, backgammon, many card games. All courtesy of Yahoo.
Cinema
Collecting
Sections List
Humour 
Click button to initiate GRAPHICS CARD test. This will take a few seconds only, allowing you to view only genuine cartoons. It will also check to see if your video card can handle linked vector imploded Mk6.04b frame sequences.
- Attractors. An interesting time-waster.
- This is a superb website with extra special effects, sound, visuals, the lot!.
- Questions sent to an Australian Tourist Office These were emailed to me, I thought you might like to enjoy them.
- Comic Verse and Worse Some favourites of mine.
- The Devil's Dictionary. The scintillating wit of Ambrose Bierce, published in 1906, but still as fresh as ever.
- Computer stupidities or the amazing things people ask about Windows.
- Dutch stress relief.
- Disturbing Auctions. Some of the ridiculous trash which has been put up for auction on the Net.
- Real Mail: The Titanium Cranium Awards Could you e-mail me the New York telephone directory please? Well not quite, but these e-mails received by John Walker are almost as idiotic!
- The Darwinian Awards Macabre humour, extremely stupid self-destruction.
- Dumb Laws.
- Hema. A Dutch online store with a difference.
- Hot A.I.R. Annals of improbable research.
- Ig® Noble Awards.
- Murphy's Laws.
- The Flat Earth Society. Er....yes... this should be in the geography .. er .. astronomy section, in'nit?
- The small universe. This would be extremely funny, were it not for the hatred oozing from every page. Sadly, it is deadly serious. Slightly in advance of the flat earth theory, here we have the entire universe revolving around the Earth, 'proving' that astronomy, cosmology, geology, biology, physics, quantum theory, you name it, are totally wrong. Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, along with several thousand other scientists and NASA, have all got it wrong.
- Museum of Hoaxes.
- Further Links A collection of Humour sites from Down Under.
- Circle the cat. An ingenious game, be careful, highly addictive!
- Park the Car. Be warned, this is also addictive!
- Penguin Jump. And so is this.
- The River Crossing brain-teaser. Click the blue round button to play. The following rules apply:
- The raft holds only two persons and only the adults can operate it.
- The father cannot be with any of the daughters without their mother's presence.
- The mother cannot stay with any of the sons without their father's presence.
- The arrested criminal (striped shirt) cannot stay with any family member if the police officer is not there.
- Red Square. Test your agility.
- VB Coding Horrors. If you are a VB programmer you will find this very funny, but for non-programmers it will probably be meaningless.
- Weird and Wonderful. Try taking the shell off the hermit crab.
Sections List
Reference
- ABC Study Links. Web Links for studying anything, compiled by Andrew Roberts.
- Academic Info. Thousands of links compiled and maitained by Mike Madlin.
- Acronym Finder
- Answers dot Com. Just type in a word or question.
- Ask an Expert.
- Ask a Librarian. A volunteer librarian will email a reply to your query on any subject.
- Ask Giraffe United Kingdom Standard Geographic Base data.
- Biographical Dictionary This dictionary includes more than 24,000 notable men and women. It can be searched by name, birth or death years, or by keywords such as positions held, professions, literary works, etc.
- Biography Com. Searchable data on 25,000 prominent lives.
- British Cartoons Archive.
- UK Artists Biographies. Or should it be 'artistes'?
- Currency Converter Live updates, change any currency into any other currency.
- DIY Doctor. A large number of projects here with full guidance.
- Encyclopedia Mythica Ye gods and little fishes!
- Everything2 Reference Desk.
- Famous Name Changes.
- World Flag Database. Over 260 pages on international organizations and national flags.
- FOTW (Flags Of The World). 16,500 pages about flags with more than 29,200 images off flags.
- International Civic Heraldry . The largest heraldry site on the net, with over 35,000 images.
- How Things Work
- Information Please
- Legal Law Help
- Morse Code Translator. Or -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-.
- Quotations.
- Ranks, Trades, and Professions
- RefDesk.The best source for facts on the net, thousands of reference links.
- TopReference. This is a huge gateway to hundreds of websites related to reference.
- Wikipedia. The net's free encyclopedia.
- Telephone Directories on the Web. Over 400 directory links, white pages, yellow pages, and e-mail addresses to over 170 countries.
- Trading Standards(UK). This site provides a wealth of information for consumers in the UK.
- Xrefer. A gateway to over 50 reference resources, all cross-referenced, and itself fast becoming one of the truly great reference works.
- Governments, National Statistics, and Politics :
Sections List
- News and the Press :
- E-Magazines :
- Arounder Magazine. Just leafing through it is sheer delight.
- City Journal. Started as a New York journal, now fast becoming one of the best on the Internet.
- Time and Calendars :
- Weather :
Sections List
Sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics
Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Maths
Physics
Technology
Microscopy
Science Magazines
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Can we actually "know" the universe? My God, it's hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown.
(Woody Allen)
The Moon's current phase - click to enlarge.
Updated every 4 hours, courtesy USNO.
- Moon: site locator. This is my own construction, 'Allow blocked content' to view sites.
- Ancient Planets. A recent Hubble discovery challenges current theory.
- Atlas of the Universe, by Richard Powell.
- Astronomical Applications. US Naval Observatory.
- Astroimaging by Robert Gendler. The universe in colour.
- Binary Neutron Star Collision
- Chandra, celebrating 5 years of the spacecraft observatory.
- Department of Astrophysics Oxford.
- Planetary Photojournal. NASA at its best.
- Moon Phases. Can be set for any date.
- Introduction to astronomy Detailed explanations.
- Whenever you're feeling down, Mrs Brown. ... one of my favourite songs :)
- The Scale of the Universe.
- Scale of the planets and stars.
- Size of our world.
- Royal Observatory, Greenwich
- Home
Planet This sky-observatory program is free! But don't be misled by this, it is better than many commercial programs.
- Deep Sky collections and catalogs
- Evolution of first galaxies. From Science Daily.
- A cataclismic clash of four galaxies.
- ARP87. The dance of galaxies.
- Great Debates in Astronomy.
- Greatest explosion observed by humans?
- Herschel's numbers for Messier objects
- Hubble Site
- Hubble Space Telescope Gallery. An index of HST images.
- The Hubble Picture Album. Some of the finest shots taken by the Hubble telescope.
- The James Webb Space Telescope.
- New! November The Large Binocular Telescope. The LBT, still under construction, is the most advanced telescope in the world.
- Magnetars. strange, physically-extreme stars. Unimaginable powerful magnets.
- Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope.
- More Messier related Internet Resources
- New! November NASA space station tracker.
- Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial.
- Non-Messier Objects Indexes
- The Messier Catalog. SEDS Messier Database.
- The Additional Messier Objects
- New Planets. Planets recently discovered around near stars.
- Lunar Apogee and Perigee Calculator. New and full moon dates calculated for any year, by John Walker.
- The Moon at Perigee and Apogee. Another fine site by John Walker.
- Lunar and Planetry Observation and CDD imaging. Possibly the best lunar site on the net, by António Cidadão.
- NSSDC Photo Gallery - Earth and Moon
- Full Moon. 20 consecutive full moons (May '05 to December '06) showing true variation in apparent size and libration (wobble). From Photoastronomique Net - Over 800 photos.
- Solar System Live. The solar system as it is right now, a superb real-time simulation.
- Spinning effect of light on asteroids.
- Planemos. Strange new objects.
- Plot of the inner solar system.
- Solar System Simulator. Detailed view, also in real-time, from a wide choice of view points.
- Space Watch. Potential catastrophe from asteroid impact.
- The Nine Planets. An excellent site in Arizona.
- Black holes. Scientifically accurate computer animations by top astrophysicists.
- The Five Minute Guide To Black Holes.
- Astronomy Today
- Sky Charts. Free Astronomy Software.
- Astronomy Picture of the Day. Each day a different image or photograph, courtesy of NASA, together with an explanation from a professional astronomer.
- NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
- NASA Connect - Today's Apod. Watch and enjoy.
- NASA Home Page
- Non-technical astronomy links
- Universe Time Line.
- WMAP. An astounding satellite giving the first detailed full sky picture of the oldest light in the universe.
- Web Resources. A fine collection of astronomy links by Anders Västerberg.
Sections
List Science
choices
Biology
- Arkive. A vast audiovisual permanent record of the world’s 15,000 animals, plants and fungi, currently threatened with extinction.
- New! October Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group. Some stunning images here from 2001 to this year.
- Cells Alive!.
- The Cell.
- The cell (Wikipedia).
- Cellupedia: cell anatomy.
- Cell structure and processes.
- Natural History Magazine.
- Tree of Life Project.
- Human :
- Evolution and Palaeontology :
- A lecture by Eugenie Scott at the University of Michigan.
- AHOB. Ancient Human Occupation of Britain.
- The Complete Works of Charles Darwin.
- Darwin Correspondence Project. This is a huge project, Darwin was a prodigious writer and his letters cover thirty hefty volumes. I have "The Calendar to the correspondence of Charles Darwin", which contains details, including brief summaries, of all the known letters.
- Charles Darwin. The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana.
- Darwin Online. The complete works of Darwin digitised, 50,000 searchable text pages.
- New! November Don't Diss Darwin.
- Charles Darwin Research Station Galapagos
- Design on the Defensive.
- Creationism's Trojan Horse.
- EU Report on the dangers of Creationism.
- Dinosauria On Line . Dinosaur omnipedia.
- Early Human Philogeny.
- Evolutionary Arms Race.
- From Ardipithecus ramidus to Homo sapiens.
- Hominid Species Timeline.
- The Antiquity of Man. Exploring human evolution.
- The Journey of Human Evolution.
- Evolution of the Wild cats.
- Cats. More on their evolution.
- Fossil collections of the World. This is a huge site with a vast collection of links, the work of Simon Biggs.
- Godzilla. Dakosaurus andiniensis, a 135-million-year-old formidable sea monster.
- Intelligent Design.
- 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.
- Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District. The full transcript of the verdict. Intelligent Design, formerly known as 'Creationism', exposed for what it is. The quack pseudo-science which dates all the way back to 1988.
- The Panda's Thumb: 10 things (at least) right about Kitzmiller.
- Remarkable Kitzmiller Reactions. The “we wuz done” brigade.
- Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
- New views on human origins. Royal Society - Chris Stinger's lecture (watch and listen).
- Professor Steve Jones Lecture: Why Creationism is wrong and Evolution is right.
- Some books on evolution.
- The World of Amber.
- The Amber Gallery.
- Alfred Correya's Baltic amber collection. Some striking pictures.
- Insects in amber.
- Archaeology Info. Human evolution.
- PaleoAnthropology - A Short Journey Through Time.
- Palaeontology.
- Palaeontology. Journal Information.
- Pliosaurus 2006, the monster from the north. University of Oslo Natural History Museum report.
- Pliosaurus 2006. BBC Science report.
- Professor Massimo Pigliucci. Why we should not interpret the Bible as a science text book.
- Science and Creationism.
- The Talk Origins Archive.
- Links for Palaeobotanists. From the University of Würzburg.
- Evolution links from the NCSE of America.
- Transisional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ.
Section List Science choices
- Botany :
- BBC - Gardening.
- Garden Web Glossary. 4,400 botanical terms.
- Down Garden Services. This is one of the best garden sites I have found, a labour of love.
- Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms.
- Beautiful Orchids
- Orchid Care Made Easy.
- Encyclopedia of orchid species.
- Orchid Species from A to Z. Some fine photos here.
- Petite Plaisance: Orchid Species from around the world. A commercial site with some excellent photographs of orchids.
- Orchid Mall. This interesting site has a huge collection of orchid Photographic Sites links.
- The Orchid Lady's Illustrated Orchid Encyclopedia
- British Trees. With some excellent forestry links.
- John Muir Exhibition.
- Malta Wild Plants. This is one of the finest botanical websites on the net. Most of these plants are not confined to malta, of course.
- Noël Kingsley. Kingsley specialises in photographing trees.
- Rhubarb. I didn't know whether to put this in the fixations category, dedication, or botany :)
- Roger's Mushrooms.
- Roger's Roses.
- Roger's Trees and Shrubs.
- Top Trees UK, a searchable database of over 2,600 notable UK trees. You can search by location, tree name and dimensions.
- Plane Trees around London, by I. M. Chengappa.
- The Natural History of Selborne - Gilbert White. Full text.
- Tree Guide. An American site, commercial, but with some good information.
- Tree Database.
- Trees of the Pacific Northwest of America.
- Tree Preservation Orders. A guide to the law and good practice in the UK.
- Trees of Eastern North American forests.
- Pennsylvania's common trees.
- The
gigantic Sierra Redwoods.
- Guide to the trees and shrubs of Virginia.
- UK Woodland Trust. Find the nearest wood to you by entering your postcode, map and route provided.
The Animal Kingdom
- Birds :
Section List Science choices
- Fishes, Sea Mammals, and other Sea Creatures :
See also Oceanography
- Insects and Spiders :
- Land Mammals and Reptiles :
- Parasites and Microscopic Life :
Sections
List Science
choices
Chemistry
Earth Sciences
Geology
Geography
- NASA's Earth Observatory. The very latest satellite imagery and scientific information.
- Four excellent Route Planners for the UK and continental Europe:
- The Coal Pits of Britain.
- Transport For London. Journey planner in London, road and tube.
- Gazetteer for Scotland . A vast encyclopedia of Scotland with over 13,000 entries.
- Glasgow Urban Model. See Glasgow in 3D.
- GoogleGlobeTrotting.
- Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
- Get-a-Map. Free large scale maps of the UK.
- Hants Map. A fascinating collection of old ordnance maps of Hampshire.
- Multimap. Comprehensive street maps of mainland UK. excellent worldwide maps, and much more. A superb site.
- Maps. From the ancient to the modern world.
- Maps of Scotland. A huge digitised collection of maps in the National Library of Scotland.
- The Munros. When you get to the page select a region of Scotland, you will then see all the Munros listed for that region. The Munros are the 284 Scottish peaks (all listed here) over 3,000 feet (914m) high.
- Undiscovered Scotland.
- National Geographic.
- Ruavista. See cities as never before.
- Everest. 360° panoramic view from summit. And many other panoramic views. Superb!
- New! September 360cities. Panoramic views.
- Panorama: Eiffel Tower. Stunning views.
- Panorama: London Eye.
- Seety. A virtual tour of London. View the city street by street.
- Cables and Satellites Mapping the geography of fibre optic cables, submarine cables and communications satellites.
- SIR-C/X-SAR Radar Picture Gallery. Microwave images of the earth.
- Tar sands of Alberta.
- UK Environment Agency.
- The American South West. The web at its very best, this is a huge gateway to Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Extensive links and photographs, compiled and maintained by John Crossley.
- Virtual Pilot. Test your knowledge of geography.
- World Atlas You will find much more than maps here.
- The World Of Maps. Gateway to extensive map links compiled by the Swiss Library Association.
- Early Maps of South-East Asia.
- The World Wide Panorama. An interactive collection of stunning panoramas.
- World Facts. Know how much the Earth weighs? Fascinating data from World Atlas Com.
Oceanography
Sections List Science choices
Math
- Chance and Probability my observations.
- Algebra Help... and much more!
- Calculators - Calculate anything.
- Calculus tools onthe Web.
- Online Math. Finite maths and applied calculus.
- Curious and Useful Math
- Equation Grapher. Graph any equation for free, on FreeMathHelp.
- Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Mean.
- Infinity.
- Math
Forum - College Level and Beyond
- The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. From the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The biographies section gives unrivalled coverage of world prominent mathematicians.
- The Math Forum, from Drexel University. This is a huge gateway to hundreds of specialised math links.
- MathDL. The MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library.
- Names of large numbers. Know what a nonillion is, or a doudecillion?
- Prime Numbers
- History of Mathematics
- Useful Math's Links
- Math-on-web
- Units Converter. Weight, volume, length, area, speed, pressure, temperature, circular measure, and time; the script will convert miles to kilometres, ounces to metric tons, and centuries to seconds, or any other combination you want.
- Weird Math. What does 1 + 1 mean?
- Learn Binary
- The Binary System. A more formal tutorial for mastering binary.
- Math Teacher Link: Binary
- Wolfram Math World. A huge collection of math formulae and mathematical resources.
- The Wolfram Integrator. Just enter any function.
- Zeno's Paradox. Achilles and the tortoise.
Sections
List Science
choices
Physics
Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.
It did not last: the Devil howling "Ho!
Let Einstein be!" restored the status quo.
Sections List Science
choices
Technology
- Technology Review. MIT's magazine of innovation.
- The 20th Century's Greatest Engineering Achievements
- How Stuff Works. From your body to tanks, from locks to jet planes, you name it, it's here.
- World War 1 - New Technologies.
- Aviation :
Section List Science choices
- Rockets and Space Flight :
- A tribute to space shuttle Columbia and her crew.
- ACCESS (Advanced Cosmic-ray Composition Experiment on the Space Station).
- ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer)
- ACRIMSAT. Solar monitoring mission.
- ACTS: Advanced Communications Technology Satellite.
- American Astronautical Society
- Astronautix. Encyclopaedia Astronautica: chronology, technology, rockets, spacecraft, ... the lot.
- BNSC. The British National Space Centre.
- Heavens Above. This is an excellent site for tracking satellites in real time, developed and maintained by Chris Peat.
- History of Space Exploration.
- History of the Space Shuttle.
- Space Shuttle Launches.
- The International Space Station. The largest and most complex international scientific project in history.
- Johnson Space Center.
- Kennedy Space Center.
- Marshall Space Flight Center.
- Sea Launch. This company of American, Russian, Ukrainian and Norwegian partners will launch a satellite for you. Cost? About £70 million. Hurry, while stocks last!
- Spaceflight Now. The best source for online space flight news.
- Where is the Hubble Space Station (HST) at this very moment?. This is a Java applet which locates all major space stations (HST, Chandra, COBE, IMAGE, Station (Zarya), UARS) in real time.
- Orbital elements. Essential data required for live satellite tracking.
- Satellite Tracking Software.
- Position of Space Craft. Real time tracking.
- Hubble Location. If your browser is not Java enabled, then you can view the position of HST here,
...and chandra's location here
- Chandra.
- Chandra News
- Why did the USSR lose the moon race? Article in Pravda.
Section List Science choices
- Cars :
- Motorcycles :
- Ships :
- Supertankers.
- New! October Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C. The most powerful diesel engine in the world.
- Yacht Spotters.
- Sail :
- Steam :
- Steam Traction :
Section List Science choices
Search the Net
Book search engines are in the Books section.
In 1998 there were about 200 million web pages on the Internet, by June 2000 the estimate was one billion. There are now well over 8 billion web pages generated by over 58 million domains, an unimaginable colossal number, and the Internet is growing by leaps and bounds. Assuming you visited 100 different sites every day, it would take over 27,000 years to visit a billion sites and 274,000 years to visit 10 billion! And that is not taking into account the many thousands of Newsgroups.
Given our meagre life span, a search engine is essential for finding our way to what we want. But how could you possibly search 10 billion pages in a few seconds? The answer is use parallel computing,
thousands of computers linked together. This is what the latest search engines do, and none better than :
Running on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software, Google's speed can be attributed in part to the efficiency of the search algorithm developed at Stanford University by Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's they've networked together to create a superfast search engine. The result is a lightning fast search of over 8 billion Web Pages. A test search I made produced over 4 million results. The 4 million results themselves were then searched for another word in 0.03 seconds, resulting in 159 highly relevant hits. Google is now streets ahead of the nearest competition and is now my first choice and my home page. What truly makes it outstanding is the relevance of its search results coupled with a constantly expanding set of options.
- Google Guide.
- Google World. I suppose it was inevitable, given Google's well deserved huge success. Now Google itself has become an object of research.
Beware, though, of hits 'found' and hits 'accessible'. Google, like all other search engines, curtails the millions of hits you can access to the top 1,000. Apart from taking you days to view 1,000 documents, this isn't a real handicap as web pages are generally linked to other relevant pages.
But with such good search engines why bother with a web site like mine? Well, for a start, I aim to list the very best sites either for quality and relevance or for giving extensive lists of further relevant links. All this saves you sifting through many hundreds of hits thrown up by search engines.
Other very useful tools and search sites are :
- alltheweb - find it all, images, MP3 recordings, video, audio.
- Google Web Directory. Organised by topic. This is a true gateway to the World Wide Web. A gigantic tree which from an initial list of 21 categories finally branches out to 1.5 million web pages. While Google's regular web search is likely to be the fastest way to find information on a specific subject, the Google directory is particularly useful when you're not sure how to narrow your search from a broad category.
- DMOZ - Open Directory Project. Maintained and owned by Netscape, The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors.
- ezresult. A HUGE portal, if you dig down you can access hundreds of thousands of websites. Essential Results Open Search Engine, dedicated to keeping the Internet free.
- About. A collection of over 700 specially selected sites. A web directory with a difference, the human touch.
- Argus Clearinghouse.Expert information. A selective collection of topical guides, carefully assessed and rated.
- New! November bing. Microsoft's new search engine.
- New! November Engines2go. Multiple search engines.
- Kart00. A search engine with a nice graphic interface, an entirely new approach.
- Web Robots FAQ. Compiled by Martijn Koster.
- Moreover. Search news content.
- Northern Light. Strong on scientific topic searches.
- Search Engine Enthusiasts. A cornucopia of search goodies here.
- Search Engine Showdown. Search engine news and topics.
- Search Utilities Page. A gateway to many thousands of search engines. A superb collection compiled by Wayne Paulson.
- New! November Wolfram Alpha. A new search engine with a difference, your questions answered on any topic and a superb mathematical tool.
- What people search for. There are several links here to what surfers are currently looking for.
The next two are multi-engined search programs which you have to download and install on your computer. I have them both, although I tend to use Google and Fast in the first instance.
- WebFerret This is a freeware program. When I first found WebFerret in 1998 it used 9 search engines, even then I was very impressed with it and thought it was very fast and thorough, typically returning over a thousand hits within minutes. Release 3.5 used 16 search engines, presumably the current release uses many more. A superb search tool, the free version is superior to many commercial competitors I've tried. An enhanced commercial version is also available.
- Copernic Agent Basic is another freeware multiple search engine program which is very good, it uses over 90 search engines grouped into 10 categories and has a very easy to use interface. Copernic or WebFerret? A matter of personal choice, but use both for in-depth searches since some of the search engines are not duplicated. Copernic now includes Fast Search in its search engines, perhaps giving it the edge.
- Discussion Forums
Sections
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Click here to add your comments about this website. Found any dead links? Please let me know.
visitors since 30 October 2000.
Revised 1 January 2009.
elcome to WebOrama 2009. Here you will find over fourteen hundred links to specially selected web sites, portals to thousands more. Additionally there are links to pages of my digital photos, favourite poems, computing, genealogy of my name, and the odd jotting on this and that. This is not, however, a general list of links from A to Z. It is limited to subjects I care about or of which I find of interest. This explains why I have chosen this artist rather than another or that author rather than someone perhaps more famous.
Chinese calligraphy.
