Taskbar shuffle

OK, so the nerd in me is surfacing again. I am one of those sad people that gets really annoyed if my taskbar icons (those icons representing open programs that you click on to switch to that program) are in a strange order because that is how you happened to open them up. You would think that Microsoft would give you a way to rearrange these, but they don't ! Step up Taskbar Shuffle - this little app does nothing more than allow you to drag and drop your icons around your takbar - invaluable to someone like me ! Incidentally, for those wanting this at work, you can point the install to any directory (personal network drive, temp directory, wherever) and it doesn't need to install any system files.

Latest TV shows online

Bleenks is a website that has loads of TV shows that you can watch online. We're not talking about 1981 episodes of Dallas - these are all the latest shows - 24, Desperate Housewives, Lost, etc.

Well worth checking out.

Reverse dictionary

A working reverse dictionary is one of the most useful sites out there. We've all had those moments when we know there's a word for some concept, but we don't know what it is. We need something more than a thesaurus, because we don't know an equivalent word. Onelook.com's reverse dictionary helps. You can even enter wildcards, if you know what part of the word looks like.

If you dig a very deep hole...............

In one of the stranger websites I have been to recently, you can answer that question that has always been bothering you - if I dig a very deep hole, where will I end up ? Go here and you can select anywhere on the map (you can zoom in and drag that map around to get to where you want to dig) and it will show you exactly where you would end up. Now isn't that what you have always wanted ?!?

Star Wars in your browser (sort of)

I love this - if you are a fan of Star Wars (which, incidentally, I'm not), you can now see it in your browser window. Go to http://www.asciimation.co.nz/index.php# and you can see a rather different version - in ASCII (that's those pictures made up of letters and numbers - very '80's).

You may not sit through the whole thing, but you have to admit - it's very clever.

Pre-season your game birds

OK, so it's been a while since I last posted, but I'm back and running again !

This is something too good not to post. For anyone out there keen on shooting birds, this is an absolute must. Take a look at Season Shot. This is basically seasoning in a shotgun cartridge, so you effectively season the bird by shooting it. Fantastic - no more removing shot and your bird come pre-seasoned. It doesn't get better than this !

MoneySavingExpert

I spend a large amount of time on the net and have a huge number of bookmarks (anyone who has seen my bookmarks file will vouch for this !), but if I was asked for the most useful site that I know, I would definitely say it was http://www.moneysavingexpert.com. This is only really useful for UK readers (not so much use for US readers), but if you are in the UK, I guarantee that you will save yourself some serious money by visiting the site.

It is split into sections (e.g. Credit Cards, Shopping, Savings & Investments, Travel, Phones & Utilities, etc.) and has lots of articles written by Martyn Lewis (the MoneySavingExpert guru) all designed to save you money. There is also a chat forum which is invaluable - almost as important as the articles. Take a look around the forums and you will find tons of imformation. You can also ask questions from other savers and help out others if you can - it is very interactive.

I have personally saved lots of money by looking at this site and it is the first place I go to before making any kind of financial decision (buying something, subscribing to something, changing electricity/gas/phone provider, etc.).

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Frustrating !

Really cool little game - very simple, but very infuriating ! Basically, them aim is simply to get to the goal by moving your mouse. However to thwart you in doing this the actions of your mouse have been reversed - up is down and down is up, left is right and right is left. Sounds easy, but can get very challenging.

A new way to sketch

OK, I know that this is rather geeky, but I think this is quite cool. Here is a video of someone (who incidentally looks a little like an Open University lecturer, but he is from MIT, so I suppose that's why) demonstrating a new way of sketching. He draws on a whiteboard and hits a 'run' button and the drawing comes to life. It is only using some very basic concepts, but I would be interested to see this develop. Take a look - unleash the geek inside you !

Browster

If you do any web surfing at all (and let's face it, you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't), then there is one small app that you absolutely must get - it is called Browster.

What it does is pop up a little icon when you hover over a link and if you either move to that icon or click on it (depending on how you set your preferences), then it will open up a hovering window with the site displayed. You can follow links from there and enter and submit data. As soon as you are done with the window you move your mouse away from it and it disappears. No more open up lots of windows (or tabs if you use Firefox).

This really makes surfing so much easier - I've been using this for a while now and cannot live without it - it's that good !

Any budding abstract artists ?

If you've ever thought of yourself as a budding abstract artist, now is the time to step up and show everyone what you are made of. Here's a site that allows you to splodge and spatter away with just your mouse and create that priceless work of art. Who knows - you may just be able to make that million after all !

The next Google ?

Google have been playing around with some new features. Instead of doing this in their 'live' environment, they have created a new environment called SearchMash without any of the logos, etc. It is definitely Google-maintained, though. There are one or two interesting features:

• Drag and drop the results to order them as you like

• When clicking on a green URL link, you are offered the option of opening the listings in the current window or a new window, seeing more pages from the Web site or finding similar page

• Additional results are added to the bottom of the original results page by clicking on a "more web pages" link

All in all, this looks quite interesting. I think we might be seeing some of this functionality in Google sometime soon, hopefully.

Bored ? Try chatting with a random person.

This is a novel concept - the idea of chatting with a complete stranger at random. You can leave whenever you like and never have to reveal anything about yourself. Sometimes a complete stranger might be just who you need to talk to ! Can't guarantee you will find intellectual conversation, but worth a try.

The most fun you can have with your clothes on ?

Not sure about that, but this certainly looks great fun. IWOOT !

Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living

This is an incredible story of a reporter on a private jet that was involved in a mid-air collision. The line that sent shivers up my spine was "And then the three words I will never forget. “We’ve been hit”" - not something you are likely to forget in a hurry. Read it here.

Amazing footage of Iraqi sandstorm

Take a look at this video - a sandstorm whipping up in Iraq. It's amazing to watch it come in. Some people just wander around very calmy, whilst others are a little more urgent.

The ultimate 'how to' site

My first suggestion for a site (thanks, Linda !) - VideoJug is a great site with 'how to' videos on just about everything that you could possibly think of. They have categories for food, drink, health, beauty, DIY, House & Garden, pets and leisure. The entries range from 'How to perform the perfect golf swing' to 'How to unblock a toilet' to (my personal favourite) 'How to get out of a car without showing your knickers' ! Surely something for everyone at this site.

Today's time waster

I don't know why, but this little game really appeals to me. It is so simple, but very clever nonetheless. All you do is draw a line from top left to bottom right and then press play. Then a little scarfed figure sledges down the hill that you have just created. If you make it too steep or bumpy he will come off. Sounds not very exciting, but it's reall quite fun. Try it out here.

Teddy bear slaughters 2,500 trout

File this under "Weird story of the week" ! There's no words that I can say that will be able to do better than the title, so I'm just going to say click here.

Incredible bike control

This guy is amazing ! I am not into mountain biking (or any other form of biking for that matter !), but just watching this guy makes you question how he does it. His balance and control is phenomenal. Take a look at him in action here.

GroupLoop - a place to share

Now this I think is an idea that has potential - GroupLoop is website for any group of people who want to share ideas, share files, share calendars, have group discussions, etc. It seems to be very simple, but done very effectively. This could benefit all sorts of people and is well worth a look.

Model making - in the extreme

I remember making models as a youngster, but nothing quite like this. Pierre Scerri of Avignon has built a 1:3 scale model of a Ferrari 312PB. But this is no ordinary model - this is exact in every single way. He even learnt how to make glass so that he could get the exact pattern lens for the headlights and learnt how to make rubber so that he could mould his own tyres.

Incredible story - read it here.

Compare size of something before you buy

Sizeasy (not a great name) is a website that visually lets you compare the size of something with familiar objects (a pack of cards, a wine bottle, etc). It's a great idea and works really well. You get front view, side view, top view and best of all a 3D view. Simple and very effective.

Great News !

Someone pointed me to a really good News Reader called (aptly enough) GreatNews. As well as being a first class newsreader, GreatNews has two distinct advantages over it's competitors:

1. It is very competitively priced - FREE ! Can't say fairer than that.

2. It needs no install. That's right - all you need to do is unzip the files to somewhere - your hard drive, network drive, usb stick, etc and then run it. This is especially good for those wanting to run this at work where we are often prevented from installing things.

For those of you that haven't tried a News Reader before, they are great things - they allow you to pull all sorts of feeds into a single place. Take a look at Wikipedia for more information on them here. You can even add this blog as a feed and be updated automatically whenever there is a new post. To do that, just add http://stuffyoumightlike.blogspot.com/atom.xml as the feed URL.

Make your surfing so much easier

I have recently come across an application called Browster which I can safely say will revolutionalise the way that you surf. What it does is provide a small icon next to links when you hover your mouse over them. When you then mouse over the icon it will pop up that link in a hovering window. You can follow links in the window and scroll up and down, but when you mouse away from that window it disappears. You can go through a page of links in seconds without having to open up new windows (or tabs if you use Firefox) each time - saving you so much time and effort.

I think it is fantastic - give it a go. The one version works with both IE and Firefox (sorry, no Opera or Safari right now).

Parking practice

Here's something to fill in a few spare minutes and to practice your parking at the same time - very simple, but quite fun.

Find the wine you're looking for

Wine-Searcher.com lets you search for any wine in any country. I haven't tried other countries, but the UK side of it certainly works. Very cool idea and they have kept it simple. Give it a try.

Your very own igloo

I so want one of these ! In the US, they have produced a 15ft high inflatable igloo for the pool. Three sides of the igloo have grips for climbing and the fourth side is a gigantic slide. As the guy in the article says "If only I had a swimming pool and $8,860, my life would be complete."

The ultimate Lego rubber band gun

Engadget has got a story of the making of the ultimate Lego rubber band gun (this, of course, works under the premise that there have been countless Lego rubber band guns made before this one - this is certainly the first that I have seen). I have to say that I would never be dedicated enough to actually make one of these, but take a look at the video, because it looks "way cool" in action.

This site can read your mind...........

http://www.20q.net/

Inventor Robin Burgener programmed a simple neural net on a DOS machine 1988. He taught it 20 questions about a cat. He than passed the program around to friends on a floppy and had them challenge the neural net with their yes/no answers to the object they had in mind. The neural net learns only when it plays a game; no data is added except for the yes/no answers of visitors. So the more people who test it, the more they teach it. In 1995 Burgener put the now robust neural net onto the new web where anyone could play it (that is, train it) 24 hours a day. And they did. Burgener's genius was to turn the hard tedious work of training a neural net into a fun game for humans.

Last year, after 1 million rounds of 20 questions online, the neural net had accumulated 10 million synaptic associations. It has a 73% success rate of guessing what you thought.

Give it a try - it's quite uncanny !

Suicide squirrel in opera-hating kamikaze bike spoke mangle

From The Register:

A Helsinki squirrel dived into the bicycle wheel of passing opera singer Esa Ruuttunen, hospitalising him and killing itself.

The squirrel - apparently not an opera fan - ran headlong at Ruuttunen's spokes. Alarmed, the bicycling bass baritone hit the deck.

Instead of attending rehearsals for new Finnish opus Kaarmeen hetki (Hour of the Serpent), Ruuttunen attended casualty with concussion and a broken nose.

Fans of Scandinavian-language "passion-laden thriller[s]" looking forward to the aforementioned "wild drama delving into the soul of a woman" needn't begin a candlelit prayer vigil for Ruuttunen's recovery though. A Finnish National Opera spokeswoman told Reuters: "He is not yet singing in rehearsals, but thinks he will be able to perform at the world premiere."

Jesus is a tough act to follow !

From WorldNetDaily.com:

An evangelist who tried replicating Jesus' miracle of walking on water has reportedly drowned off the western coast of Africa. Pastor Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, and he attempted it from a beach in Gabon's capital of Libreville.

"He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus," an eyewitness told the Glasgow Daily Record.

"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat. He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."

Some very clever ads

Take a look at the following: http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/clever-ads-p1.php - some very clever ads from around the world. It just goes to show that when it's done well, advertising really is an art form.

Scream !

OK, file this one under....................just plain weird ! Scream! is a little app that sits quietly away in your system tray doing nothing until you get frustrated with your computer/software/colleagues/ whatever and you start yelling at the computer (don't say you've never done that !). At that point it uses your computers in-built microphone to detects these and makes your windows react accordingly - scream a little and they will shake a little, scream a lot and they will really go to town ! Absolutely no practical use whatsoever, but fun nonetheless !

I'm liking the look of this

This could be the answer to me trying to organise my life ! It's not released yet (due in October), but I think it could be the way things are heading. Take a look: http://synapselife.com/

Free calls over the internet - to REGULAR phones

Here is a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) package (VOIPcheap.com) that works for regular (landline) phones. We've all heard about Skype & Vonage, but those are only free for other users of that system or for people who are sitting at their PC. The beauty of this package is that if you are sitting at your PC, you can ring anyone for free ! I am trying to see if there is a way to use a standard phone with an adapter for something like this. Watch this space !

Dolphin Olympics

For those wanting to spend some 'downtime' during their day, take a look at Dolphin Olympics - it will keep you amused (for a short while, anyway !).

Free online music storage

This looks quite interesting - http://www.mp3tunes.com/ is offering 1Gb of online storage space specifically for music files. The best part of it is that it is free.

They say that you can store up to 1000 songs, but in reality 1Gb will only let you store about 300 songs in any decent quality. Once uploaded you can sync with up to 3 computers so that you can keep your online music in sync between e.g. work and home. You can either download the music whenever you want or stream it to any PC with a web connection.

I've just registered with them, so will report back with any findings.

My first post !

OK, so here goes nothing. Just thought that as I read all this stuff every day and I sometimes forward on the interesting bits to people, I may as well post all that stuff that I find interesting and people can simply look at my blog - will save me sending all those emails !

This post is just to say Hi and keep watching - hopefully this will grow into something interesting.