From the 1st November 2012 issue of the Newsletter:
I mentioned I’d had another idea. Which is that you must have websites you’ve found particularly useful… and chances are not everyone else who reads this would have heard of them.
So I’ve put together a special webpage (that’s this one) where you can leave a comment saying what websites you find useful or interesting… and you can read what everyone else has said.
Below you can leave a quick note saying what websites you like and to read what everyone else says. It’ll be interesting to see what’s popular!
(just mention the website address within your comment and don’t worry if it tells you your comment is “awaiting moderation” – it just means the computer isn’t sure it wasn’t spam and I’ll be able to say “no, it was a real comment” later in the day)
Update: comments now closed to stop evil spammers putting fake comments! You can still read the useful comments from other readers, though.
This one’s good for anything medical
http://www.altavista.com
This one’s really interesting for seeing what the sunrise and sunset times are in various cities. This link is for London, but you can go back to the “Home” tab to change the location.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=136
I should have mentioned another of my favourites – http://www.tidetimes.org.uk/
It tells you when the high and low tides are – handy when we want to take the boys to the beach.
Mercola.com for some alternative views on health
TravelZoo is one of my favourite websites, they show loads of cheap hotels and holidays.
I find this site quite useful for categories similar to what I am searching for http://www.stumbleupon.com
purplecows.net is good for all things crafty! well made products and good videos. American, but products are available in UK and from ebay.
I think “Fantastic Fiction” is a great website.
You can keep track of your favourite authors and find when their new books are due out and also a review of the contents.
http://www.fillthathole.org.uk
FillThatHole is the easy way to report potholes and road defects. The right people are contacted to get the roads repaired. Councils are generally quick to respond.
http://www.mysociety.org/projects/fixmystreet
FixMyStreet helps people report street problems to their local authority – and get them fixed. It covers all types of street issue, from potholes to broken street lights, uneven paving to dog fouling etc.
http://www.mysociety.org/projects/fixmytransport
FixMyTransport enables people to contact any public transport operator in Britain – sending their message direct to the relevant Customer Services department.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk
Obtain online detailed streetmaps of Great Britain. Includes search by postcode, place name, London streetname or OS grid reference.
http://www.seatguru.com/
If you travel quite a bit (or even at all) this shows the seating layout of every plane for every airline.
Hovering the cursor over the seats tells you which seats have extra legroom or which seats are near the lavatory etc. I wouldn’t leave home without it.
not being a confirmed “BROWSER” I tend to go to wikipedia mostly, despite the fact that it’s a mainly american edition
Try http://www.topdocumentaryfilms.com – one site quoted by Tim. Plenty of subjects to choose from and even if you do not watch the videos, the introductory stories are quite interesting. “Tongue in cheek” though with some of the reviews and comments
I play Harmonica and just typed in ‘Harmonica’ and found lots of interesting sites. Also some brilliant little videos of some amazing players . For anyone interested try Dannecker Harmonicas.com. Really good.
Try: http://www.thedailybeast.com. Its Newsweek, covers US and other world items, excellent reporting and links. The recent “Sandy” and Presidential Election news riveting.
Also: http://www.ukphoneinfo.com Put in a caller’s number and it sometimes gives you their identity. Try those “cold calls”!
http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/original/
Great fun for railway anoraks, see where all the London Underground trains are moving live with click on facility to view their reporting number and destination. I sometimes switch on at 3am and there are works and other trains moving around!
http://countdown.tfl.gov.uk/#|searchTerm=154
See how many minutes real time until your London bus arrives. This reaches route 154 but when the screen comes up you can type in the boxes any route number and bus stop. I can now see my bus coming two or three minutes away and walk across the road to the stop from home and cut out the waiting by the roadside.
http://www.camvista.com/england/london/albert-bridge-river-thames-live-london-webcam-streaming.php
Live streaming webcam of London’s Albert Bridge and River Thames. See what’s going on without leaving home!
I was looking for advice on keeping fuchsias over winter and found (among others) jwjonline.net which not only gave well illustrated advice but also has items of other interest eg on watercolour painting, poems and various miscellany.
A whimsical enjoyable read.
over65magazine.co.uk is an interesting and helpful monthly production for older people and those approaching retirement or even potential redundancy. There is an archive of previous editions, a pre-retirement course, monthly mag in separate PDF file which can be read online or saved for future ref. and lots of useful links. I believe there is an over 50s publication too.
How many of us have looked up to see an aircraft going overhead and wonder where it’s come from or where it’s going.Go to http://www.flightradar24.co to see a picture of the plane,and allsorts of data live time.
I have http://www.bbc.co,uk as my home page. An easy read and large reliable coverage for news and sport.
As a community site try http://www.h2g2.com/