Hawera listed in Wikipedia

Hawera has it’s own entry in the global online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawera. Currently the entry is a stub, meaning it’s a basic placeholder entry waiting for content. Wikipedia allows anyone to edit the content of it’s listings, so if you feel like promoting Hawera to the world you can go in and add and update information.

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Flickr updated

The free photo sharing site, Flickr, has undergone a makeover and should be easier to use. Changes include a new navigation menu and search, a new “People” feature, and changes to the Organizer. Flickr is a great way to store your photos and share them with people – sign up for free at http://www.flickr.com

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Updated STDC Menu

I’ve finally gotten round to updating the navigation menu on the South Taranaki District Council website at http://www.stdc.co.nz The menu code needed a revamp to work with modern browsers, so now hopefully you can see the submenus pop out when you hover your mouse over the menus. (You may have to clear your cache or refresh the browser to see the latest version). If you experience any difficulties please drop me a line, or comment on the On The Net blog at http://www.digitalus.co.nz/onthenet/)

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New Yahoo Homepage

The new Yahoo home page, which was previously in private testing, is now available to anyone using IE or Firefox (up to version 1.5) at yahoo.com/preview. There are a number of cosmetic changes, including a wider page layout, a bigger search bar, and intelligent use of Ajax to make the page more interactive (mouse over “mail” in the right sidebar, for example). They’ve also launched Yahoo Pulse!, “a window to the attention stream of our estimated half-billion users”. Check out http://www.yahoo.com/preview

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Google Notebook

Google have released another nifty tool called Google Notebook. Google Notebook lets you save URL clippings, or selections of text from web pages you visit into a “notebook” that can be accessed from a toolbar in your browser or your Google Notebook page. This mean you can access your notebook from any computer. So, as you surf the web, you can add interesting quotes, links, sections of text, images and so on to your notebook and then access those notes from anywhere. It’s definitely a winner and available as a free extension for the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers, downloadable from http://www.google.com/notebook/download/

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Jos Leys Gallery

Jos Leys is an artist who creates images using mathematics. Check out his gallery of amazing and abstract art at http://www.josleys.com/index.php

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Philips Bodygroom

The new ad for the Philips Bodygroom is hilarious to watch and interactive as well – another Flash creation, it can be viewed at http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/

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IKEA Kitchens Ad

This fantastic flash animation/ad for IKEA kitchens is turning heads across the Net – check it out (you’ll need the Flash player installed) http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/dreamkitchen/site/default.html

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80s Movies Rewind

The 80s Movies Rewind site is a great place to learn more about those awesome movies that made the '80s one of the “most exciting and diverse in cinema history”... Like an online eighties encyclopaedia, it lists hundreds of films from the 80s, packed with info, pictures, trivia, DVD and soundtrack details, trailers, filming locations and more. Check out http://www.fast-rewind.com/

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Site Advisor

If you’ve been beset with viruses, spam and spyware, check out Site Advisor. A plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer, SiteAdvisor labels certain websites with a colour-coded security rating to help you identify those that might contain spyware, spam, viruses, and online scams. Using sophisticated computer "robots" the team at Site Advisor trawl millions of websites and analyse the contents, adding the results to their database. The Site Advisor tool then presents its findings to you alongside search engine results from Google, Yahoo! or MSN and labels results as either green, yellow or red. SiteAdvisor says it had already rated sites representing more than 95 per cent of internet traffic, with tests revealing that 5 per cent of all internet traffic warranted a "red" warning rating and a further 2 per cent attracting a "yellow" cautionary rating. It is estimated that internet users make more than 1 billion visits to "red" sites each month resulting in countless spyware infections, spam-filled inboxes and hijacked browsers. Download the free plugin at http://www.siteadvisor.com/

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Photobucket

Photobucket provides free video and photo sharing. Easily host and link your images and videos to social networks, auction sites, blogs, and message boards. Photobucket is reliable and very easy to use. Give it a try at http://www.photobucket.com/

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Oddest USB Toys

USB devices plug into your PC or Mac and use very little power – many digital cameras, mice and portable music players use the USB standard. The Fosfor Gadgets website has published their list of top 10 weirdest USB gadgets at http://gadgets.fosfor.se/the-top-10-weirdest-usb-devices-ever/

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Evolution of Dance Video

Another very popular video doing the rounds at YouTube is Comedian Judson Laipply’s hilarious Evolution of Dance. Performed on stage, he dances in a number of styles to music from Elvis to Eminem. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvVbuVGtGSE

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Mr. T Video

Mr T’s Mother’s Day video is hilarious and at the same time an embarrassing flashback to the eighties – he’s singing, and wearing shorts. Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo

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Email Spoofing

E-mail “spoofing” is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Distributors of spam often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, their solicitations. Spoofed e-mail may appear to be from someone in a position of authority, asking for sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or other personal information - any of which can be used for a variety of criminal purposes. To avoid being a victim of fraud as a result of spoofed email, you should be suspicious of any email message (say from a bank, PayPal or eBay) that asks you go to go online and “verify” your details in any way – no email from a reputable authority will ever ask you for your password or personal details. Bear in mind you may receive emails that appear to be from people you know or who are in your address book, and these may contain viruses or other malicious software as attachments. Another technique is to visit websites mentioned in an email by typing in the url directly into your browser. For example, an email may ask you to verify your PayPal account details and offer a link to https://www.paypal.com but when you click the link, you’re actually taken to a site like https://www.paypalcom.com which might look like paypal, but it isnt. So when you enter your login details, you’re actually simply providing them to a spammer or fraudster. In those situations you are better off to enter the URL of the site manually into your browser, like https://www.paypal.com, or search for the company using Google to get the correct address. As always, it’s important to be vigilant and make sure you have antivirus and anti spam software installed on your computer and ensure it is up-to-date. If you have any questions about email security, or any other web-related issues, please feel free to add comments to the online version of this article at http://www.digitalus.co.nz/onthenet/ You’ll need a free blogger account – this protects me from spam

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TV Shows Online

Hundreds of TV shows, both old and new, have been placed online for you to view free at http://peekvid.com/ The list includes episodes of 24, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Smurfs and many more

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Fifty Writing Tools

Roy Peter Clark writes “At times, it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. You can borrow a writing tool at any time. And here's a secret: Unlike hammers, chisels, and rakes, writing tools never have to be returned. They can be cleaned, sharpened, and passed on.” He’s collected 50 writing tools and techniques that have been useful to him on his website at http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=61811 If you’re a writer of any description, they’re well worth checking out.

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Pretty Planet

The photos at http://www.mrdeckard.com/links/Pretty_Planet.htm highlight how amazing our planet can look from space – check out shots of sandstorms crossing North Africa, night arriving in Europe, hurricanes in Florida and more, all taken from space.

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Increasing Intelligence

Dr. Timothy Leary suggested that human evolution was a continuous process with clearly defined stages. He wrote that specific actions could accelerate this development, and that you and I - with a little help from our friends - could learn how to navigate our own nervous systems. Are you smart enough to get smarter? Check out http://www.increasingintelligence.com/

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Free Tech Books

http://www.freetechbooks.com/ lists free online computer science and engineering books, some with lecture notes, all of which are freely and legally available over the Internet. All the books listed on the site are available for free, as they are hosted on websites that belong to the authors or the publishers. Note that every author or publisher has their own terms and conditions, but generally you are most welcome to view, download and print the books for your own private use at no charge.

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43 Things

Making a list of achievable, measurable goals has always been one way to become successful and do what you want to do with your life. The 43 Things website at http://www.43things.com/ allows you to set up a free account and simply enter your goals. As well as reminding you about those goals on a regular basis, the site helps you get inspiration from others. Adopt someone else’s goal as your own or set up your own goals from scratch. 43 Things can help you document your success, share information, and make progress on what matters to you most.

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Ziki

Ziki is a place where you can piece together your digital life, discover new multimedia content and connect with people, groups and businesses based on what you are interested in and looking for. By “tagging” yourself and describing who you are, what you like and what you do (eg. musician, scuba diving, internet, consulting...), you make it easier for people to find you. You also enable Ziki to suggest other interesting people you might like to meet - Ziki matches your tags against those of the other Ziki members to find the 10 members with whom you've got most tags in common. What are tags, you ask? Tags are keywords which you can use to describe yourself, your interests, your background, your goals, etc - anything you'd like to tell others about yourself. You may for example tag yourself with keywords such as : marketing, singing, writing, music, skiing, internet, cars etc. Any word which you deem fit to give people a better idea of who you are. If you're part of a group you can also tag your group to describe what it is about. To join Ziki visit http://ziki.com/

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