| This
Month's Topic
Ultimate
Boot Disk
Future Meetings
Below is a list of dates for 2008, these dates have been confirmed.
June 4th
July 2nd
August 20th
September 17th
October 15th
November 12th
December 10th
Last
Month….
Taking advantage
of being able to access the internet on club nights, we decided
to have a look at the sort of websites that the membership have
found interesting and/or useful. So how did we get on? We certainly
had a wide range of topics as you can see from the article.
First
up Keith Allen offered us a chilling reminder of big brother and
its desire to monitor our internet usage.
www.webwise.com monitors a user’s web browsing habits. This
is what it has to say for itself on the site.
Webwise is provided by major Internet Service Providers in response
to consumers’ growing concerns and frustrations with the
Internet. Webwise can help protect you from suspected fraudulent
“phishing” websites that may put your financial and
personal data at risk. It also helps reduce the number of irrelevant,
untargeted ads you see. Webwise automatically checks web addresses
you browse to, even ones you click on accidentally, against key
industry blacklists of known fraudulent websites. These lists
are constantly updated by the top companies in this field. Sites
that appear on those lists will be flagged with a warning notice
before you reach them, giving you an opportunity to avoid them.
Keith’s
next offering was a little closer to home.
www.lhmp.co.uk is the location of our local medical practice at
Latham House. Offering a whole host of facilities such as appointment
booking and repeat prescriptions on line, the site saves you the
hassle of having to physically go down to the surgery to make
an appointment etc. You have to firstly obtain the documentation
from the surgery which entails formal identification such as your
passport. You then obtain a personal logon registry password.
Once in, you have access to the full facilities. If you are not
already on the database it is well worth registering for the future.
Have a look and see.
Alan
Danbury offered us a massive freeware/shareware site
www.lists.thedatalist.com gives you access to a huge content of
shareware and freeware software all catagorised for simple access.
If you need a specific piece of software for that awkward task
then it is sure to be in here somewhere. Your opportunity for
hours of browsing.
Barry
Gilchrist came armed with a variety of sites.
www.easypeasy.com/anagrams is a puzzlers delight. An anagram engine
that will solve and create anagrams, solve crossword clues and
even help Scrabble users.
www.techrepublic.com
appears to be an Information Technology site. There are hosts
of areas to explore including blogs, forums, video and photo downloads.
The site offers all the latest news in the IT world. So if you
want the latest news on Microsoft, it might well be here.
http://thesaurus.reference.com/
is a site that offers a whole range of facilities including the
thesaurus, dictionary and encyclopedia. For all sorts of general
information, this site seems to offer it. Certainly worth a visit.
www.grc.com
is the home of Gibson Research, a site that we have visited in
the past and a particular favourite of Alan Danbury. Gibson research
is the home of Spinrite, the hard drive data recovery package.
It also has Shields Up which is a reliable and trusted free internet
security checkup package. The site also contains many more offerings
including software and video articles.
www.grisoft.com
is where you can find the AVG anti virus software. This excellent
package offers much in the way of internet security. There is
a free version and for an annual subscription a more powerful
and updated on a regular basis.
www.skype.com
Want to make cheap phone call from your computer around the world.
This could be for you. Check it out and see if it is for you.
www.thisishouseprices.co.uk.
Want to know how much houses are being sold for in specific areas.
Good guide to the value of your own property. This site contains
a database of house sales which can be accessed by region or even
postcode.
www.leics.gov.uk/libraries
Forgotten to renew those library books, looking for that elusive
novel. This section of the local governments site gives you access
to all the library facilities you would expect from the comfort
of your own home. The site is huge and offers information on pretty
well anything to do with Leicestershire local government services.
www.royalmail.com
Anything to do with the Royal Mail be it postal tariffs to finding
a postcode. This is where you will find it. One particularly useful
function is the ability to track registered and recorded mail
right to the delivery point. You can also buy any Royal Mail merchandise
directly from here as well.
Derek
Taylor offered us some sites that hunt down the best shopping
deals around.
www.hotukdeals.com as its name implies has loads of the latest
deals on offer from all over the country. You can filter by merchant
and even find voucher offers.
www.quidco.com
is a cashback website that rewards you for using their operation.
You have to register and pay an annual fee of £5. The site
offers all sorts of deals and the cashback is arranged with the
supplier. I do not know how it works but Derek reckons it’s
a winner. Have a look and see.
www.whiteboxdeals.co.uk
Want a new fridge or washing machine. Here is a site that again
hunts down the bargains in this case white goods.
www.majorgeek.com
is a site to assist you to get the most out of your computer.
It offers all sorts of tools to do the numerous spring cleaning
jobs around your machine. It also finds best deals but they appear
to be USA based. Its major role appears to be around its software
offerings. Have a look and see.
www.wunderground.com
Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about the weather
anywhere in the world. This information is mind boggling but very
useful to check out local weather before a trip or holiday. There
are some amazing images in the photo section. Never get caught
without your brolly again.
www.mmps.info
is the home of Melton Mowbray Photographic society. A nice site,
I believe maintained by Chris Fox-Mapletoft. The members gallery
has some excellent pictures including some of Chris’s. The
links page sends you to all sorts of websites that will help improve
your photographic skills.
www.photoanswers.co.uk
Is one that I would recommend to anybody who wants to improve
their digital skills. This is Practical Photographer and Digital
Photo’s website. Not only are there lots of reviews and
advice there are also tutorials in Adobe PDF format but lots of
video tutorial as well to watch.
www.nasa.gov
is the site for all you budding Patrick Moors. Loads of information
regarding the latest NASA projects. Currently there are lots of
images from the latest Mars probe.
www.hubble.org
If you like pictures of space then the Hubble telescope website
has some fantastic photographs of the star systems.
www.gutenberg.org
is a book catalogue with lots of out of print books available
for download in PDF format. An interesting site that has over
25000 free books available for download.
www.bl.uk/treasures/treasuresinfull.html
This is the British Libraries website and it offer you the chance
to see wonderful historic manuscripts in the comfort of your own
home.
Obviously
there are thousands of sites to visit and these are only a taster
from the members. I hope you find something useful amongst them
and our thanks to all who contributed.
Dave Robb
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