Need A Website To....

1. A Website To.. A Service For You

3. A Website To.. Entertain

2. A Website To.. Educate

Stuck for movie ideas ? Randomly suggests what to watch and more importantly a review why they’re good.

Starts search with Random, Best or Latest movies....

Madeon’s Adventure Machine lets you click on three different groups of coloured squares to produce some staggeringly creative musical riffs.

You name it and this website describes how to make it. Now a well-known classic for creative types who just want to know how to make something good. All levels of expertise catered for. Loads of ideas constantly scrolling through the home page.

The ultimate mind-mapping and collaboration tool. The diagrams are very beautiful. Be warned that for anything other than the basics you will need to subscribe for a small cost per month.

Simply Python. Learn Python (computer language) quickly, for free, using this well organised resource.

Literally ask it anything or search the chart for anything that is calcuable !

Upload or create from scratch any T-shirt design and get them made in UK any size and any quantity/quality.

Don’t know enough people or just want to find those of a like mind. Hundreds of groups are meeting up through Meet Up.

Amazon price tracker - as prices fluctuate so much this tracker shows a graph of the price of an item over a period of time giving you a chance to guess when it’s next likely to be at its lowest price.

Structured free courses on: Beauty, Business, Computer Science, Cooking, Health, Humanities, Maths, Science & Social Science.

Internet Archive. Yes it does what it says on the tin: a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites.

Free courses on: Maths, Science, Engineering, Computing, Arts, Humanities, Economics, Finance, Preparation For Exams.

Free videos to stop you watching pap on TV. Informative and intriguing.

A developing new page of useful, educational or entertaining websites in the following sections:

  1. 1.Services

  2. 2.Education

  3. 3.Entertainment

  4. 4.Art                                                           (Click on each logo)

Not a lot of people know that you can make animated GIFs using YouTube itself. Just select your clip and insert it in this URL.

Stuck for book ideas ? Enter the name of a book you recently read and it will suggest 10 similar ones. Simples !

4. A Website To.. Inspire Art

Artists sometimes need inspiration themselves. Here is the place to come.

Art Wolf magazine gives a précis of the 101 most important western artists of all time.

A very impressive compendium of the most famous works of the most famous artists. Note because of copyright not all their work is linked here but can often be found elsewhere.

The Oil Painting Factory produce hand made copies of very famous oil paintings. However their website displays these paintings well lit and in fairly high resolution. I’m not sure how they get round the copyright but hey take a squizz.

Britain’s alternative user submitted upload site for News, Sport, Grub, Sound, Tech. Don’t wanna waste time - don’t go here !

Online panorama maker. I’ve used this for years and it very rarely makes a hash of what you throw at it. And you can throw up to 100 high res images for it to stitch together in wide view or 360°. You must open an account which they use merely to prevent pornography or abuse. If your pic is of somewhere famous you are encouraged to add it to your gallery.

Time on your hands waiting for a bus or train ? Here’s a boatload of puzzles. This link takes you to the crosswords page.

Got a few letters to a word or phrase in the so-called easy crossword. Well take the frustration out and use this smart, no gimmicks online dictionary by Pete Bevin. Does cryptics too !

Find the postcode for any UK address.

Got an idea but don’t know how to improve it, develop it or make money from it ?  Try here.

Got some music from a movie or news site but can’t identify it ?  Upload it here for an instant answer.

Disclaimer

Whilst some care has been taken to check externally linked websites no responsibility is offered nor implied for the suitability, legality or reliability of content therein.

I’ve been using this site for years and it’s consistently more accurate than any other weather forecasting site. This link defaults to London weather - you will need to set your own home region. It also displays quite a range of archive stats.

A similar picture editor which seems to use all the standard symbols. It’s no surprise that there’s limited layer interactions, eg no keying/matte or ‘magic colour erase’ so I had to use ‘Muliply” to make this logo but it has all the correction, effects, blurr and many more controls that all modern editors have. Upload your own JPGs and export as JPG, PNG or its own Sumo format to re-edit later. Just click on free online trial.

If you don’t want to get scammed check out the precautions and advice on Matt’s page.

Lastly I have set aside some of my favourite electronic art here. Mainly Fractals at present.

Know your rights as a consumer or want to get something changed see my links here.

A surprisingly competent picture editor using the standard symbols. It’s works as soon as you hit the website and very very similar to Pixelmator which you pay quite a bit for. Obviously not as good as Photoshop but it has some very good features in its wide range of menus. There’s quite a few layer interactions including Matte. The one thing it lacks is a Magic Erase tool. File handling is very good. If wanting transparency (which I nearly always do) you must upload a transparency able picture format like PNG, GIF etc. Don’t forget to Save either on your disc or online.

Did you notice that song has a familiar clip or riff in it then check out your hunch with this database. Yes it’s covered in ads but just type in your idea and a comprehensive response lists the connections of who did the sampling or what songs were sampled or both. Very natty when you just want to hear what you thought you heard !

Need to edit GIF’s quickly -try this.

Need an unusual TrueType font - this place has thousands. And all freeeeeee...

I love radio. This is the whole world at your finger tips. Not listened - here’s how.

More complicated than the previous two editors. The only one that I currently know of that will rotate a picture by any amount to correct for a camera not being level (the previous two don’t). Better control of interaction of layers.
Don’t click on the adverts on the top banner -even if they say “Load” - THEY ARE STUPID ADVERTS.

Reverses audio just like it says on the tin.

Speed up, pitch change or change tuning of audio -each independent of each other by Fourier Analysis. And reload the same files over and over again to really push the boundaries. Very easy to use and no aliasing - this is the most fun I’ve had (some of these marvelous websites have a habit of disappearing -hope this one doesn’t).

Jonas Wagner is a king.

If you don’t know who is calling you hang up. It may be a very common NHS or Parcel Scam or innocent. Immediately that they claim to be from a bank be on your utmost guard - frankly I’d say No and hang up anyway. Do consider using your phone company’s scam protection service. NEVER DISCLOSE ANYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF - hang up if they ask.

However if you are curious many phone companies offer a service to tell you the last number called eg BT 1471, but they don’t say who it was. This website (left) offers a Reverse Directory Look Up and will estimate how dodgy they are.

(My thanks go to Ian for suggesting)

Setting off on an electronic project - start here. Got ideas that work that you’d like to share with others - deposit here. The online community site for for making making easy !

Manipulate PDFs in the following ways:  Compress*, Merge, Split, Repair, Watermark, Number, Reorganise or Protect.

Or transfer formats to/from: JPG, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint.

* This is very useful however if you created the PDF in the first place always start by ensuring that any pictures are significantly compressed separately - you would be surprised how small a JPG can be and still be very viewable.

Domain Names and IP numbers are the framework upon which the entire web is built. They are assigned by commercial governing bodies (NOT government bodies). Their ‘policing’ requires a modest record of the owner. This is one such body who allows you track the domain owner’s contact details. Do be aware that they are rarely home addresses.

Stuck for places to go ? The UK has so much to see - I have highlighted a tiny number here.

Santayana said that “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to relive it” so how come those great civilisations fell so cataclysmically ? Dr Paul Cooper explains why. His series rivals any by Dan Snow yet he’s quite unknown at the moment - you will hear more ! Understated and utterly factual his team have visited, inside and from above, what remains of the many sites where men ruled the earth. A series of 7 accompanied by a series of 11 podcasts. Re-enactments, poetry and art immerse you in each culture.

World renowned simplicity -does what it says on the can.

(Just take care that it defaults to maintaining aspect ratio which is a good thing like all good editors. If you resize it, which I suggest you do to keep file sizes down, but don’t pick the same aspect ratio as your original then the right or bottom edge will be cropped rightly IMHO).

If you want some clean fun in the dark see what can look so beautiful. Step-by-step instructions given.

If your computer, or most likely your web browser, is running sluggishly then there are logical reasons. Take a glance through strategies and solutions listed on this page (not just Macs but any computer).

There’s an awful lot of audio out there and it’s fascinating. Here’s how to tune in.

Functionality nolonger free

If you want to have a go here are lots of ideas for you to make in your Man Shed or She Shed.

Check before you buy ! You always look over fruit or veg before you buy it but none of us can fully understand what to look out for when it comes to tech - particularly Security cameras. A great site doing reviews for 20years so this guy knows his stuff and says that he’s independent. Areas covered: Phones, Laptops, Tablets, PCs, Software, Printers, Storage, Wearables, Smart Home, Appliances, Wi-Fi and Networking, Audio, Displays, Cameras.

(I’m not keen on Cookies as you know but some just come with the territory so do REJECT ALL cookies then Save & Exit)

2022 - 10th Great Year Of This Webpage

Finally the Internet Of Things is here but sadly it’s confusing. I’ve plumbed for the one system (although I don’t recommend one system above another) and found quite a few banana skins and worked round them.

Seen a highlighted footpath, hike or directions to a venue online ? Seen it superimposed on a map ? Obviously they don’t modify other providers’ maps and besides those would go out of date. Instead they store the route as GPS X,Y coordinates. Very often you can download those coordinates if you know where to look, but they’re not much use to a human because you can’t visualise where they refer to -aha now you can !  (if it can’t read your file click the GPS Babel link)

Inputs are: GPX or KML;  Outputs are: JPG, SVG or PNG.      (Or output the more complex Google Earth imagery here)


HIKE DATA My fav is: National Trails (hit GPX Downloads tab). See also: AllTrails,

All hiking apps offer downloads (some at a price) but don’t forget amateur sites eg: Pinterest-GPX* (this link may break)


HIKING APPS For a long list see: Topografix    


*  You would do well to check out who posted these -his 100 subjects are quite remarkable: Jon Baldry

(As GPS is such a huge subject I may devote a whole subpage to it so this info may move later in 2022)

I have now set up a whole new page for this...

(and it’s now called Identifying Wildlife).

See what little things became big..

Sick of using Google maps ? Want to see the world in detail down to the power pylons, telegraph poles, etc then this is where to come for what some think is a clearer view. Yes it does have distance and route directions (but these aren’t spoken). They say “most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.” This is an ‘open’ project that I’ve used for years.

Someone has changed a document but they look identical. Never fear GoTranscript is here. Just paste each version into each textbox then hit “Compare”. It’s so simples: with removed text in red and new text in green !

Simplicity is the key and it’s completely free !