Website: Plentyoffish.

com
Category: Dating
http://www.zamzar.com/
You can convert your files into PDFs without installing anything on your computer at zamzar.com. In
fact, looking at the list of file formats, you can convert almost anything into pretty much anything else
- document, audio and video files.

You type in an URL or upload the file from your computer, choose the format you want it to become,
and enter your email address.

Zamzar emails you a link, where you can download your converted file.

Zamzar does involve a lot of uploading and downloading, so this is only a practical option if you are on
broadband.

To make a file conversion direct from other websites even easier, Zamzar provide us with a neat button
you can drag to your Bookmarks toolbar.

Highlight the file you want. Click the Zamzar button, and you are on your way.

http://www.fileinfo.net/
Now a site that is a little more technical but very helpful for those of you stuck with files on your
computer that you cannot identify.

Fileinfo.net is a resource that lists the last three letters of a file - known as a file extension - and
explains what they are, or do.

These last three letters, be they .doc or .mov tell the operating system what programme the file
should be opened with. So the .doc file will very likely be a word processing file opened by Microsoft
Word and the .mov a video file opened by QuickTime.

So if someone sends you a file with an extension you do not recognise you type it into this site and it
will give you a chance to find out what software you need to use or play it.

There is a very useful page explaining the different formats used by MP3 players and what software
will play them. And a nice touch is it talks about both Apple and Windows platforms, an approach that
it repeats for the other files too.

http://www.richkidsmartkid.com/
CutePDF Writer lets you turn your usual documents into more secure and reliable PDF documents
really easily.
Once you have installed the programme, the option to save or print any web page or document as a
PDF just appears in your printer list.

That is it really. There are no adverts foisted on you, no weird watermarks splurged across the pages.

And it is free because they hope that you like it so much you will eventually pay for their advanced
version. But - of course - you do not have to.

http://www.chess.com/

And finally, here is a site for any prospective grandmasters out there. It is a social networking site
dedicated to chess lovers around the world.

Chess.com only launched in June but already has over 10,000 registered users. It is a fairly niche
social networking site, offering its users a platform to share videos, blog and socialise about all things
chess related.

In order to realise the full potential of the site you will need to create a profile.

In the play section you can choose to actually play a game against other users or against the
computer.

If you are yet to master the intricacies of chess, it is a good idea to explore the learn section, here you
will find articles which are updated daily, learn the rules of the game, and even find yourself a coach
virtual or otherwise.

Click Downloads and you will find third party chess applications, some of these are trial or demo
versions, but there are plenty of free full downloads as well.

http://www.goodreads.com/
Good Reads combines social networking with an appreciation for good books. The site is designed to
help you track the books that you and your group of online friends are reading.

The site works mainly through recommendations of good reads from a friend's list.

To get started just register for free, this will create a profile, than create a list of friends from their e-
mail addresses. If you do not have any friends that would be interested in recommending good reads
do not worry, there are plenty of recommendations from existing site users available on your profile
page.

The real fun comes from receiving recommendations from users whose taste you trust.

To start recommending your own books open My Books from the profile page. Next you are presented
with a search option. Just enter the title, author or the ISBN number of the book you are looking for.

Good reads retrieves the books info from Amazon and then it is up to you to write a review for the
site's bookshelf.

Clicking on the Explore option allows you to track the popularity of a book amongst your friends list.

The Meet People option shows you who has read and reviewed the largest amount of books recently
and it allows you to leave messages for other users.

And finally, the writing section is for users who fancy turning their hand to writing themselves. Stories
can be posted here and scrutinised by the rest of the community.

This is a quirky and interesting site that makes choosing what book to read next something of an
adventure.

http://www.taumed.com/
Ever had a health question you have always been too embarrassed to ask? There has always been an
assortment of places to ask on the web but this site offers a social networking twist.

TauMed is an online health community where you can ask questions, share information and give advice
and support to others. You can also browse similar queries by clicking on a particular community, such
as Allergies or Eye Problems.

The topics are pretty comprehensive and are helpfully divided into simple and easily definable sections.
It also includes a helpful pregnancy area, where you can sign up to a weekly newsletter charting your
baby's growth.

TauMed is not just a user-driven site. Each answer is screened by medical professionals, which makes
it much safer than many of the alternatives.

To ask a question you have to register, which also gives you the option of setting up a profile in the My
Health Space section, where you can socialise with other members.

At the moment, most questions only get one or two responses, but that could change. TauMed is still in
beta but says it is the fastest growing health community on the web.

http://www.mediamaster.com/
First up is a new offering which lets you upload your own tracks from your PC and listen to it online
from any other computer with a broadband internet connection.

This is not a new idea, but MediaMaster has given it a neat makeover. Though its aim is to be a
commercial service, at the moment there is no limit to how much of your collection you can upload and
then stream - for absolutely nothing.

After a free and quick registration, you get taken to an unfussy main screen, which allows you to
manage the service.

Even before you add music you will see they have started you off with some classical numbers - a
classy touch. You upload your own material from either a simple interface, which deals with individual
files, or an advanced interface where you can import entire folders.

You can even choose to tweak the upper upload rate to ensure it is not eating too much bandwidth.
Bear in mind only unprotected tracks can be imported and for legal reasons they cannot be re-
downloaded again - only streamed.

When you playback you will notice similarities with desktop music managers - like the ability to rate
tracks and create playlists.

MediaMaster even analyses the metadata and fetches album art, which you can also see in the library
view - missing chunks from the cover means you have not imported the entire album.

There is no support at the moment for importing playlists and ratings, though this is coming soon. A
lovely touch is the ability to stream your playlists or what you are listening to now with your friends -
they receive the link and play it through their desktop media player.

And in the spirit of Web 2.0, you can even create a widget of your collection to embed in blogs or
social networking site.
Another music site, of sorts, and some finger tapping action that is really rather clever.
Ever had a song in your head and you cannot remember what it is called? Songtapper.com could be
the answer you have been searching for. The idea is incredibly simple. Just use the space bar on your
keyboard to tap out the rhythm of the song, then ask the website to return a list of possible matches
for you to review.

Click the video example link on the top navigation bar if you need further explanation.

There are currently a little over 50,000 songs in the database, so do not expect it to know the more
obscure ditties running through your mind. But I tried it out on a variety of popular and classic hits and
it was pretty accurate. And as this content is user-generated you can help to build the database
yourself by adding any new tunes you can think of. Click the link at the top of the Song List page to
contribute.
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com

http://www.librivox.org/
Ehow.com

http://www.soundjunction.org/default.aspa
http://scratch.mit.edu/

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://books.google.com/

http://www.last.fm/
Pandora.com
I love anything on the internet that can help me expand my cultural horizons, and introduce me to new
stuff. Our first site fits that bill brilliantly.

Sometimes you know what kind of mood you are in, but you cannot think of any tunes to play. With
musicovery.com you can use the really simple interface to start a radio broadcast of music that match
your mood or the tempo you desire.

The control panel sits on the left of the screen - use the tabs labelled mood and dance to choose how
you want to define your music selection.

Mood is the most interesting for me, allowing you to click to place the locator anywhere from calm to
energetic and dark to positive. If you like some genres more than others then use the tick select boxes
in the list below, and finally hone in on the era the pleases your ears using the date slider above.

The low-fi player is free for unregistered users - the quality is not perfect but is OK, especially if you
are looking for inspiration about what artists to buy to expand your collection.

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/index.htm
Picnik.com
There is so much great stuff on the internet that it is understandable your children are going to want
to join in the fun. But you also need to know how to stay safe in virtual space, and that is where our
next website can help.
NetSmartzKids is the home of Nettie and Webster, two colourful characters who live inside your PC and
are on hand with help and advice for the younger generation of surfers. This bright and colourful site is
perhaps a little too over the top visually for an old fogey like me, but my brother's children love it and
it talks to them in a style and language they engage with, so who am I to be picky about aesthetics?

With a broad selection of games, activities and movies, all designed to lead children towards safe and
sensible surfing, your little ones will find plenty to amuse them here. Use the tabs across the top to
jump to the various sections, then just dive straight in and enjoy the action.

All the games and activities are fully explained when you fire them up. You might want to get a pair of
headphones attached though, as the soundtracks can be quite jarring after a while.

Matrin Hallenberg is a student from Copenhagen in Denmark who has a brilliant way of searching for
budget flights without having to visit loads of websites.

Using Skyscanner could not be simpler, just fill in the details of your trip on the opening page and then
click search. A nice touch here is that you can leave some of the details, such as day, blank, allowing
you to take advantage of the best possible deals if you are flexible on dates, which is ideal for
students!

The next page shows the result of your search, laid out in a bar chart allowing you to quickly see what
days you can get the best prices.

Make your selection on the bar chart for outbound and return flights, and the next page lists the flights
in more details.

When you are happy with your choice, the final page offers you a button to click through to the airlines
website to purchase your flight. Easy.
While we are on the subject of flying, Skytrax is another great example of the internet empowering
consumers so that they can make the best possible choices about what to buy.

Got a long trip to plan? Want to make sure you will have a good flight, and not just a cheap flight?
Skytrax is a place for you to read and review dozens of international airports and airlines.

This website covers every aspect of air travel, from how clean and well designed the airports are, to
how good the in-flight food is. It includes reviews by travellers too, so you can read up on actual
passenger experiences rather than rely on any marketing hype.

The sections are listed in tabs across the top. Go to Airlines and then Preferred Airlines for a snapshot
view of which carriers have achieved quality status, or why not take a look at the passenger opinions
for an airline you are thinking of booking with? You may be surprised what you learn.

http://www.joytube.com/
http://www.nycareerzone.org/

viewer suggestion next, Nauroze sent us nycareerzone.org.

This website might be aimed at a New York audience, but the tips and advice on careers options and
training will be useful to anyone seeking a little direction.

If you are still studying then the career information tab is the way to go, then choose from either a
flash, graphics or text-based site depending on your connection speed, which is a very nice touch.

If you are already in work and looking for inspiration and maybe a change of direction click Find a Job
on the opening page, and then click Career Services from the navigation bar at the top, Planning Your
Career from the new side panel, and then access Your Interests in the main body to bring you to a
page where you can make selections about your areas of interest.

This will return a list of suggested careers with links to information about the role, responsibilities and
qualifications required, and much more.

http://www.bookmooch.com/

Remember BookCrossing, the website which encourages you to leave books lying about for other
people to read?

Now there is the online equivalent to BookCrossing at BookMooch. Books are swapped and given away
through the medium of the internet.

To ensure people do not take advantage of the system they use a points system, which is fully
explained on the About section of the site.

You earn and spend points by offering and taking books, and there is even the option to give your
points to a charity so that they can buy the books they want for their own particular cause.

You can browse the books by keyword, but you will need to register to request a mooch, that is ask for
the book to be sent to you.
At this point you are put in touch with the person offering the book, and it is up to them to cover the
postage, the idea being that you will send a book out yourself and pay the postage in return.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

http://jumpcut.com/
Video blogging is all the rage, and with modern camera phones capable of capturing better quality
footage it will not be long before we are all making our own online TV shows.

But unless you are as perfect as the Click team, you are going to need to edit your captured footage
for the best results.

Enter Jumpcut, a fantastically simple and totally free video editing tool that will have editing like a pro
in no time.

You will need to register to start using the features, but why not take a look at the video tutorial first
by clicking Try A Demo on the opening page.

The tutorial should sort you out with the basics, so I will just add a few tips. Uploaded clips can only be
50MB, so make sure you break them down before starting.

Do not forget you can add music too, but be wary of copyright issues if you are going to publish to the
web.

Once finished you can choose to publish your work to the rest of the vibrant Jumpcut community, or
save it to work on later.

Just click REMIX from the movie play screen to re-open the project at a later date.

http://www.idealpresent.co.uk/
Have you ever been at a loss when buying presents for your own children or for that matter anybody
else's?

This next suggestion was sent in by a Click viewer who runs a great site to help you find the perfect
gift.

How do you keep up with all the latest youth fads and buy the right thing? You bookmark Ideal
Present.

After free registration the first job is to add a child. You will be asked some questions about the kinds
of activities they enjoy, and the next page lets you add more details about their age, the occasion, and
how much you want to spend.

This is a UK based website so the values are in pounds, but the ideas returned are good the whole
world over. Continue filling in as many of the sections as you want, then click submit to return a list of
suggestions from the huge database of presents that have been listed.

In some cases there are links to buy the product, but you do not have to go through this website.
Finally, Instructables is a brilliant website for those with a hands-on approach, and you'll find it at
instructables.

This collaborative project aims to be a place for people to post step-by-step instructions on their latest
cool DIY project.

Whether it is making a bird nest box with a webcam inside, or a battery-powered portable charger for
your MP3 player, you will find dozens and dozens of step-by-step guides here, and if you register an
account you can even add your own.

Search the topics by keyword or just click one of the thumbnails on the opening page. I love the
Tupperware iPod boombox.

Each guide is accompanied by photos and explanations, and even if you never get round to building
anything yourself, it is incredible to see what other people have thought of doing with a few bits and
pieces they found lying around the house.

http://qunu.com/
http://qunu.com/
http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/index.php

http://www.readymech.com/
If you like origami - the art of paper folding - this is a site you might enjoy.

Readymech is one of several projects run by a group of designers from Denver. All you do is click on
one of the very colourful robots there in PDF format, print it out and fold on dotted lines. You can
either use glue or double-sided tape to stick the sides together.

Of course the art of origami is usually more complicated than that and does not come with the dotted
lines for you to use for folding.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/index.html
I thought I would kick off today with something for our younger surfers.

Maths is one of those subjects that makes most children's noses wrinkle up in dread, but what if I told
you that the internet can make learning about numbers fun?

No, really, it can.

It is all down to interactivity, actually getting involved in the process of learning rather than being
bombarded with facts like it used to be in my day.

As you would expect, the web is alive with places for your budding mathematicians to explore, such as
the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics. Catchy name, huh?

This is a great project, supported by America's National Science Foundation.

The foundation aims to develop a unique library of interactive tutorials to help children of all ages
better understand certain concepts of mathematics.

In the Virtual Library you will find a nice menu system allowing you to choose the discipline and key-
stage level you want to explore.

There are loads of fun activities under each section - mainly java based apps, so you will need to have
this feature enabled in your browser security settings to have a go.

http://www.alicebot.org/
And so to our final website, and a nice little chat with Alice - a computer chat program which recently
won, for the third time, a prestigious prize for human-like conversation.

The pages of AliceBot hold a wealth of essential reading about artificial intelligence.

There is even information about the technology used to build Alice, and how you can start
programming a robot for yourself.

Click "Chat with Alice" to begin chatting with the robot herself. It is a unique and surprising experience.

It is only text-based, but the artificial intelligence is really very impressive.

Alice responds politely and with complete relevance, and even asks counter questions from time to
time.

In the past few days I have spent some time trying to trip her up.

Getting into a conversation with her about whether she is real or not was interesting to say the least.

But on the whole, aside from the speed with which she replies, one could almost be fooled into
thinking one is chatting with a person.

http://www.freephotoshop.com/
http://www.slidingpuzzle.com/puzzle.php
In the past few years, we have seen an explosion in the raw talent on the animation scene. Hot new
animators are the talk of Hollywood, and so it is not hard to understand why thousands of hopeful
young computer enthusiasts fancy their chances at a glamorous career with the likes of Pixar.

Now, thanks to viewer Stan Hayward, who sent in his award winning website called Make Movies, there
is a place that budding young talents can begin to flex their creative muscles.

This website is all about making animations - from the very basic principles of flip-book or roller
animations, right up to storyboarding, capturing and editing whole sequences and movies. Stan hopes
his work will encourage youngsters to make movies about community problems, and his site is already
highly thought of by the educational authorities.

Check out Curriculum Animation if you want to plan out and guide your youngsters through an
introduction to animation ideas and techniques. Treated in the right way, this could be a really fun and
educational way to spend an afternoon with your child - and it might even spark a passion in them
they will thank you for later on in life.

Older children will be able to skip through the opening lessons and start playing with the technology
they already know under their own steam. You could be surprised how quickly they come back to show
you their first 30 second movie!

http://www.ccleaner.com/
How many of you partitioned off a section of your hard drive to run your operating system on?

If you did, there is a good chance that over time you are finding there is not much space left on it and
are dreading the prospect of having to reformat the drive to get rid of some of the unwanted data.

At CCleaner you will find a most helpful little application that will allow you to put off that dreaded
clean install for another couple of months at least.

I was in this situation myself recently, with only 120MB spare on my C:drive. After installing and
running CCleaner, I was left with 650MB! And all it did was delete temporary files and stuff that has
been cached.

The download and install process is easy to follow. Just click Download on the toolbar at the top and
then choose your desired site.

This software is offered as freeware, which means you do not have to pay to use it and I found no hint
of spyware, which is nice. If you are feeling generous, then that is what the Donate button in the
download window is for.

Using the program is really quite obvious too. Just tick or untick the options you want to delete and
click Analyse to tell you how much space you will create.

Do be aware that things like auto logins on websites you visit regularly are stored as cookies in your
browser software, and deleting them will mean you have to enter your password again next time you
visit - if you can remember it, that is!

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Finally, a quick visit to a website sent in by Geoff Beadle, who liked the World Clock website we
covered on Webscape recently but found this one which he thinks is even better and I have to say I
agree with him

The Time Ticker looks great and sounds pretty funky too, complete with comedy "boinging" effects
when you click to a new area on the map. And it is that easy to find the time anywhere in the world.

The ticking can be turned off using the controls at the bottom and, if you want to hear the time read
out, then use the Announcing Time button on those controls. You can even ask the website to set the
correct time on your computer, but only if you're browsing with Internet Explorer.

http://www.videojug.com/
Next a quick delve into VideoJug, which was suggested by Pat Lee from New Zealand.

"Life explained, on film" is the website's tag-line, and it is basically a directory of video "how-to" films,
covering everything from cooking a 10 minute curry, to juggling with hula-hoops.

It is easy to find your way around. Just use the category links in the left hand panel, or you can search
for a keyword in the box provided.

Once you pick a subject the movie starts playing automatically. All videos offer step-by-step
instructions with a voice over explaining the process.

If you feel you have something to add then you can upload your own how-to movie using the Upload
tab at the top.

Once it has been approved by the site's creators your movie will be added to the directory, and make
sure you send us a link so we can admire your work.

http://www.allexperts.com/
Ever had a question that no-one knows the answer to? Whether it is for homework, a report, or just to
settle an argument between friends, you can be pretty sure of getting a swift and intelligent reply from
All Experts.

To ask a question you need to hunt down an expert. Do so by clicking the appropriate subject header
and then follow the links through to an area of interest. You will eventually be presented with a list of
experts on that subject.

Click View Profile to find out more about a particular expert - you can even read comments from
people they have answered in the past, allowing you to gauge how good an expert they really are.

To ask a question click, Ask a Question - obviously - and then type in the details requested before
clicking to send. According to the website you can expect a reply within three days, and often in less
than 24 hours.

The best thing is the service is totally free and requires no registration. An e-mail address is required
for them to send a reply to, but the privacy policy seems above board.

Finally, if you want to browse other people's questions and their respective answers you can find a link
to this in the final sub-category section under related links.

http://www.lets-linkup.com/
Now a website that helps you get in tune with your community by providing a system of trading
services locally that is quietly gathering momentum.

The Local Exchange Trading System consists of a global chain of not-for-profit organisations, who
distribute a directory of people offering various goods or services in the same area.

For instance photographers, decorators, gardeners, and even web designers. Traded goods could be
something like vegetables from an allotment, or even home baked cakes.

Instead of trading cash, you earn or spend whatever the local exchange currency has been called, be it
Hemplets in Hemel Hempstead, or Hands in Golden Bay, New Zealand.

As well as giving information about the system, this website also contains a directory of contact
information for more than 1000 groups in over 20 countries.

It is up to you whether you want to get in touch, but reading the story under the All About LETS link,
might help you come to a decision.

http://www.seatguru.com/
Anyone who has flown with a commercial airline will probably have experienced the downside of flight
accommodation.

Cramped seats, zero legroom, if only you had known when you checked in that the seat three rows in
front offered so much more comfort. Well, now you can.

Seat Guru is the home of this brilliant resource, where you can check out the seat plan for many of the
main airlines' fleets.

You will need to know the type of plane you are flying in, which you can find out by calling the airline
or your travel agent. You then select the airline from the panel on the left, and select the plane from
the pop-up menu.

Here you will see the full layout of the plane, with the pros and cons of each seat clearly stated.

Hover your mouse over the plan to read the pop-up info. This guide notes everything from extra
legroom, to proximity to noisy areas, such as the toilets.

You can even find out what entertainment is going to be available on your flight by clicking the links in
the boxes that appear when you hover your mouse over Video or Audio.

Armed with this knowledge you can now ask the check-in staff to place you in a seat you know is going
to be comfortable, but make sure you get to the airport nice and early to avoid disappointment.

http://www.starfall.com/
I thought we would start today with something for the very young surfers among you.

Anu from India suggested Starfall as a great place to allow your children to play on the web, where
they will not only have fun, but will learn to read as well.

It is not always possible to sit and participate in your child's time online, although they should always
be closely monitored. But if your child is learning about words and letters, this website does a really
good job of helping them out when you do not have the time yourself.

The layout is colourful and simple.

There are four sections, from the basic ABC's for complete beginners, right up to assisted interactive
books under I'm Reading.

In this section you can choose from a large selection of books in various categories. Any word that
presents a problem can be clicked on to hear an audio file of the word being spoken.

As well as the books there are plenty of games and interactive activities, all designed to help children
understand the sounds letters make, and how the words fit together.

Although the site is only in English, there is plenty of audio assistance on hand, albeit with an
American accent, which might not suit some of you, but the principles are still the same.

http://www.openoffice.org/
One of the main sources of free software online is so-called open source technology.

We have spoken about it many times before on Click Online, but for those of you who need reminding,
open source software is free in all senses. Free to use, free for you to add to the source code, and free
to share without fear of breaking any laws.

Our first site today is an open source download from Open Office and gives users the choice of a totally
free alternative to a paid-for word processing and office tools suite.

As the opening page states, Open Office is both multi-platform and multi-lingual.

In plain speak, this means you can use it to open and work with documents and presentations from a
number of popular office packages, including Microsoft's own suite.

To see the supported languages just click the multi-lingual link.

You can choose from either the stable and fully tested version, or the beta version, which means it is
still being tested.

The beta version is not as stable, but contains more added features. I have been using this myself for
a little over a week now, and have experienced no problems with its operation.

You get a top-class word processor a lá Word, as well as the open source equivalent of PowerPoint,
called Impress and an Excel-lookalike spreadsheet program called Calc. All for nothing.

So you cannot really complain and at the very least it is worth checking out.

If you want to share your documents with people who are not using Open Office, you will need to save
them in the right format.
Occasionally you will find that compatibility is not quite perfect and you may, for example lose some
formatting details such as the ability to click on links to open them up in a browser but this seems a
small price to pay for free software.

http://www.fontfreak.com/

Fontfreak.com is a great website that offers an impressive collection of free fonts for you to download
and use.

The opening page is a bold and simple statement allowing you to choose which platform you are
working with.

Clicking a platform specific link will take you to dedicated pages in that area, but if you click Enter Here
instead you can access the Font Freak pages directly.

The first choice you are given is to automatically download all 4,700-odd of the site's fonts. There is a
charge for this, to cover the bandwidth usage, so choose to download them one by one for the totally
free option. It might take a while though, so it might better to choose just the ones you are likely to
use.

Inside these pages, the layout is clean and crisp. Click the format you want on the left and then
browse the fonts for ones that you like the look of. Clicking a font in the box will automatically open
your download manager.

Once downloaded you need to unzip the contents, then install the font by going to Control Panel,
Fonts, and then clicking on File and selecting Install New Font.

Your shiny new font will now be available to use in any supported package, such as word processors,
presentations and spreadsheets and graphics packages.

http://www.mapquest.com/
MapQuest Navigator helps you find places, get maps and receive voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions
using the latest GPS technology on your mobile device. Decide where you want to go and MapQuest
Navigator will guide you there quickly and easily, anywhere, anytime!

Free to all MapQuest users! With the Send to Cell service, users can search for places and create maps
and directions on their home or office desktop, and send that information to their cell phones by
clicking on the "Send to Cell" link conveniently found through the MapQuest.com site. Then, while on
the road, they can quickly access the information on their mobile device via a simple text link, and be
directed to their turn by turn directions and detailed maps, all "right-sized" for their cell phones' Web
browser.

• Users can create maps and driving directions utilizing advanced routing options (shortest time,
shortest distance, avoid tolls, avoid highways, walking), reverse directions and multi-point routing
from MapQuest.com, and send the complete information to their cell phone.
• They can access to the 15 million points of interest, places, driving directions and business listings
from the MapQuest database and deliver the results to their mobile device, with "right sized" maps
and other mapping capabilities, including pan and zoom functions.
• The service automatically detects if a user is a MapQuest Mobile subscriber and delivers the best
browsing experience.

www.multimap.com
Multimap is one of the world’s leading providers of online mapping and location-based services. Our
company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my
nearest?") searches to more businesses and consumers than any other supplier in Europe.

The business has two parts: the consumer website and business services.

The Consumer Website

www.multimap.com is Europe’s most popular mapping website, offering a range of free, useful services
to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe,
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and a number of cities worldwide; road maps of the world;
door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs with map overlay; and local information. Multimap
also provides a range of complementary services through its partners. These include hotel, holiday-
cottage, and restaurant-booking services, and the ability to buy both historic and aerial photograph
prints.

Since its launch in 1996, Multimap has become one of the 10 most-visited sites in the UK. The
consumer website regularly receives more than 10 million unique users and delivers more than 190
million page views per month.

In 2007, Multimap.com won the ‘Best site’ category of the prestigious Imperatives Digital Awards, for
the second year running (covering 2005 and 2006), and the site was named as the top-performing
website by visits in the 'Travel - Maps' category for both 2005 and 2006, by Hitwise UK, the online
competitive intelligence service. Also in 2006, Multimap was voted the ‘Most popular navigation site’
for the second year in a row in a survey conducted by MetrixLabs, the online market research agency
and, in September 2006, Multimap featured in Hitwise's Top 20 most searched for brands in the UK.

http://www.faststone.org/
We all love free stuff, right? It is one of the things that makes the internet so much fun, and image
management software is always a popular choice, which presumably is why viewer Malcolm Pitt
suggested this next download from Faststone.

We have seen a few online image viewers recently, but this one is for offline browsing, editing and
management. It has got loads of great features and is really easy to use and, best of all, it is freeware,
so you do not have to pay a penny.

Faststone actually has quite a few free downloads, but it is the Image Viewer 2.20 that we want. To
begin, select Download in the far right of the top row. It is only 2.5MB, so it should not take too long.

Opening the software reveals an interface that should be quite familiar, as it looks like a normal
Explorer window.

As with Explorer, selecting a location in the tree structure on the left opens the content thumbnails in
the right-hand pane, but you will also see an enlarged thumbnail of the selected image under the file
tree.

Once you have the image you want to work with selected, double-click this enlarged thumbnail to open
it full screen. You can now make adjustments such as rotation, resizing, brightness and contrast etc.

Sliding your mouse pointer to the edge of the screen reveals the pop-up editing menus. Check all four
edges as there are menus under each. You can even set up a slide show or make a screen capture,
available under the menu at the bottom.

http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/deskpins.html
This next website, sent in by Richard watching in the UK, contains another really useful little
application that is totally free to download.

Deskpins is the name of the application and it is such a simple concept, and yet I find it supremely
useful.

After downloading and installing, it basically allows you to attach a pin to any folder open on your
desktop. This pin has the same effect as the "always on top" function on programs like media players,
but it can be quickly and easily applied to any folder or program.

Just click the icon in the task bar and then click to place your pin. When you have finished what you
are doing, a right-click on the icon in the task bar reveals the option to remove all pins, with no
complicated sub-menus to navigate through.

Or just click on the individual pins in the windows to take them off one by one.

I find this most useful for pinning folders to the top so that I can transfer files backwards and forwards,
and for keeping my winTV window on display occasionally when I am multi-tasking.
http://www.tugzip.com/index.html

We mentioned Google Earth on the show a few weeks back and it is now well into its Beta testing
phase and showing some very promising results, so I thought it was time to give you a slightly more
in-depth guided tour.

This downloadable program has become so popular so quickly that you might find you have better luck
downloading it during off-peak hours when the servers are not overloaded.

Once downloaded and installed you still need to be connected to the web for the images to update, and
I am afraid those of you with a narrowband connection will find this a chore.

The program itself offers you the world on your desktop, quite literally. The images are taken from
satellite photography and really are very impressive, and in some areas very high resolution.

Type a city or place you want to visit into the FlyTo box and sit back as your view of the globe is spun
around and you zoom straight in to street level. You can even type in a postcode or address and take a
look at where you live.

Once you are in an area you can conduct a local search for businesses and service providers you might
find useful, a function which uses the power of Google's search engine.

There is so much more to explore here, such as the direction finder, and ways to store and use this
information, but I guarantee once you start playing with it you will pick it up fast, as this is an
incredibly intuitive piece of software to use.

http://earth.google.com/
A download for you now, a smart little freeware tool called Tugzip, a totally free compression tool with
a really impressive list of supported formats.
From the homepage click on Downloads and choose the latest version. As always with this kind of
thing, it is worth checking the FAQs and forum before installing in case there are any known conflicts
with your particular set-up.

Once downloaded just double click the .exe file and follow the installation instructions. There are some
choices to make about configuration, which only you can do I am afraid - every system is different. If
you are worried about anything I suggest you bang it into your favourite search engine, to check for
known issues before proceeding.

Personally I have gone for the explorer view, and have enabled the explorer shell extension, which
allows compression integration with your normal computer windows. I found a couple of posts saying
that this extension can make the program unstable, but many more posts saying it runs perfectly well
- and I have had no problems myself.

In fact I have been so happy with it that I have not used any of my other compression tools since I
installed it. Worth every penny in my book, which, in fact, was zero.

http://www.uploadr.com/

This very useful website was sent in by Jon from England. If you have ever had problems sending large
file attachments through e-mail, you are going to love Upload'r.

One aspect of this website is that it can shorten URLs, which is very useful when posting links on
notice boards, especially if you do not want to annoy the moderator by breaking their tables with a
mile-long web address.

Just paste it in and click to see your shortened link in small blue text in the top right hand corner.

For file transfers, just use the browse button to locate the file you want to send, and then click to
upload the file.
Unlike other FTP sites, there are no restrictions on file type, though certain files will be compressed to
protect the server from malicious code. Click the Restrictions Apply link for more information.

You can upload files up to 25mb in size, and they will be stored temporarily for your recipients to
download at the URL given in the top right hand corner.

http://www.cartoonster.com/

I would like today to introduce you to a new hobby of mine - animation.

Whether you are interested in learning a new craft to adorn your website or just want to try the digital
equivalent of doodling, Cartoonster is a great place to start.

Despite the child-like presentation, this website is more than suitable for anyone starting out in
animation, kids and adults alike.

At the moment the site consists of five step-by-step tutorials taking you through the basic principles of
animation, from using frames to create the illusion of movement, to working in the "stretch and
squash" method of breathing life into your animations.

Completing the tutorials could not be easier. Just follow the on-screen prompts, clicking the arrows at
the bottom of the screen to move back and forth through the stages.

At one point the website's creator shows you how to animate using a paper flip-book. This can just as
easily be done in Photoshop, making a new layer for each frame and then porting the layers into
Imageready or another animation package of that nature, to compile them into a sequence.

If you have already completed some of the tutorials, click the Menu View arrow on the left of the
screen and jump to your desired stage.
I was really impressed with this website and even more so when I discovered from reading the About
section that it was made by a 17-year-old who taught himself.

It is amazing work and the website has quite rightly won many awards.

http://www.good-tutorials.com/

If you want to get a little deeper into animation, then Good-Tutorials.com offers a raft of great tutorials
at many different levels and in many different skills.

Whether you want to take the next steps in advancing your animation skills or you want to create
stunning still images, web graphics, textures and designs in general, there are literally dozens and
dozens of linked tutorials to chose from here.

The layout is nice and easy to get to grips with, as you would expect of a design website. Just click a
category on the left or choose one of the featured daily tutorials in the main section.

Some tutorials are easier to follow than others but on the whole I found the standard really good, with
most of them containing step-by-step screen shots to help you along the way.

It is worth mentioning that this site simply links to tutorials submitted by its users, so parental
guidance is always a good idea for younger surfers. There is a Report Tutorial button in the frame at
the top, which you can use if you feel any of them contain unsuitable material.

http://www.auditmysoftware.com/software.php

http://www.auditmysoftware.com/
In the normal course of using a computer, many additional applications and processes can get installed
over time. This can slow your processor down dramatically, and often it can be hard to see what you
need to be running, and what is just eating up valuable resources.

The download, provided by Audit My Software provides an answer to this quandary by listing all
running processes and how they are connected to your operating system.

Download the application first by clicking the link on the opening page. It is a very quick download,
and once installed you can access it by launching the System Tracker from the link placed on your
desktop.

Now you will see all of the applications and processes you are running listed in the main window. If a
process is using up memory it will be shown in the CPU usage column under the Processes tab. If it is
unnecessary just highlight it from the list and click the X to kill it.

There are also tabs to see what is going on in your registry, and what programs are scheduled to run
at start up. Keeping control of your computer's activity has never been so easy.

https://secure.logmein.com/
A useful little tool for anyone who does business on the move can be found at LogMeIn.

The basis of this application is that it allows you to log in to your home or work computer remotely
from anywhere in the world, provided you have left the computer you want to access turned on and
operational.

To get the free application just click Get Started. Registration is quick and no sensitive personal details
are required - just an email address and password.

Once logged in you can start adding computers to access.

The process is made incredibly simple by clear, step-by-step instructions. I will not belabour the point
as it is not a very visually inspiring process.

You need to choose the 30-day trial of the full software first and, at the end of the trial period, convert
it into the free version if you do not want to pay.

This does involve a download on to the computer you want to access. That puts a piece of software on
to your hard drive that allows you to connect to it remotely.

Obviously one has to consider security when looking at an application like this. For a full rundown of
what they call "bulletproof security", read up on the link you can access from the opening page.

Once installed, you can remote-access this computer from the website login page.

It will require an ActiveX controller to be installed on the PC you are accessing it from, so make sure
you have permission from the computer's owner.

Then you can choose "file transfer" to synchronise folders, "click" to share files too large for email, or
"remote control", which opens the remote PC desktop within your browser window.
It is a brilliant idea and so easy to use.

Unfortunately it does not work in any of the alternative browsers I have tried it in, so you will have to
stick to Internet Explorer to make use of it.

http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

Ever been out of the office, and wished you could get at that spreadsheet you store on your hard
drive?

Or maybe you are like me, and you need to work from different locations, and do not want to lug a
laptop around with you?

Well, if you have a Gmail account, you can answer those needs by getting a Gmail drive shell
extension.

This is a hugely useful application that allows you to map, as part of your own collection of hard drives,
the space from your free web-mail Gmail account.

Click the "Gmail drive" link in the ATL section to access the download - and once you have installed it
you do not even need to think about using it.

Your Gmail space will automatically appear in your drive tree under "My Computers".

Just treat it like any other drive - drag and drop files and folders onto it - and when you are out and
about, just log in to your Gmail account and click "All Mails" to access the documents you have placed
there. Marvellous.
http://www.timeanddate.com/

We finish today with something I have found extremely useful, especially when I need to make contact
with someone who is living in another country.

Nothing will make you more unpopular than phoning your friend who lives in New York for a chat, only
to find it is 3am on a Wednesday there and they have a big meeting the next morning.

Time and Date will help you avoid those embarrassing moments by letting you know at a glance what
time it is anywhere in the world. For this invaluable information, click the World Clock link on the
opening page.

It is simple in design, but then I feel it does not need to be anything more than functional. There are
some nice little touches to the extended features, such as the ability to customise your own personal
world clock.

No registration either but you must have cookies enabled. You can customise your own calendar for
the site too, and even calculate the time between two dates, if that is the kind of thing you like to do.

http://www.selfcheckup.com
Finally, health issues are always on our minds.

Nobody likes going to the doctor for a check up, but you can get a head start by keeping an eye on
yourself between appointments at Self Check-up.

This is basically a little online application that allows you to estimate your standing in a number of key
health-related areas - such as body fat, blood alcohol levels and heart rate.

Just click through to the section that interests you, then input the required data to make the
calculation.

There is even a due-date and ovulation calculator for those either in, or wanting to be in, the family
way.

It is important to reiterate a point made by the website here - these calculations are an estimate only,
so should not be taken as an absolute, or used as an alternative to getting proper professional advice.

If you have any questions or queries, please visit "Contact us" (link on the top right-hand side of this
page) to get in touch.

http://best.online.docus.googlepages.com/
http://www.textmefree.com/
Have you ever found yourself sitting at your PC and felt the urge to text someone? I know I have.

Well, over the past few years, dozens of websites have sprung up allowing you to do just that.

Unfortunately you have to pay for most of them, and the ones you don't have to pay for usually have
other strings attached.

If you want to find out more, one site I found genuinely useful is TextMeFree, a portal that lists free
text service providers for your region.

It also has some pages of advice and information about the possible pitfalls of finding free text
services.

Another service which expands on the idea of PC to mobile is Vazu.

http://www.avantgo.com/frontdoor/index_uk.html
Next up, another content synchronising service - Avantgo - but this one is only for smartphones and
PDA users.

In a nutshell, this free application lets you download and synchronize web content from your PC onto
your device so you can view it later on, while you are "on the go".

Every time you synchronise, it updates the information.

Once you have downloaded the application and set up an account, you are free to choose channel
content specially formatted for your device, making it easy to read and navigate.

Alternatively you can create your own custom channels from any website you care to mention.

This really is an invaluable addition to the armoury of any suitably equipped mobile user.

http://www.textamerica.com/
From making good use of your phone, to just using it for fun - the mobile phone version of the popular
internet craze blogging, is called moblogging.

Textamerica is one of the most established places to see moblogs - pictures and text sent from mobiles
from people eager to create diary-style records of their life and travels.

Whether you want to make your own moblog, or just enjoy others, there are plenty of pages
explaining how to set up and participate, either as an individual or by joining one of the themed
communities.

http://www.king.com/
We finish with another one of those great game collections.

This time what I like about the site is the more intellectual style of gaming.

Midas Player calls itself a skill gaming site.

You will not find Pacman and Sonic here.

Instead you will have your grey matter tested with logic and word puzzles that are more reminiscent of
a game of Scrabble with the family than a night down at the amusement arcade with your friends.

The free games are easy to spot from the front page.

Unfortunately the games themselves only work in Internet Explorer, which is a bit annoying if you use
another browser.

There really is no reason not to program your sites for any browser to use these days, so I hope they
fix that soon.

My favourite game is the Word Link one, that asks you to link letters together to make as many words
as possible in a given time period.

It is worth noting that there are premium and registration-only elements to this website, but you do
not need to use any of these features to fully enjoy the games on the opening page.

http://www.gifworks.com/
Moving on into more creative tools now, and a website sent in by Adrian Wells.

This is a really useful web-based application that allows you to edit and manipulate images online.

Gifworks is a free internet based program, which means there is nothing to download or install, you
can use it absolutely anywhere there is a PC connected to the Internet.

It works much like any other art package, just click File and open the image you want to work with.

If the image is on the Internet, input the URL instead of opening a file on your hard drive, and then
use the drop-down menus to apply special effects, filters and such like. When you are done, just save
and exit.

It is not a particularly sophisticated art package, but if you are away from your normal PC and need to
make a few tweaks to an animated gif before sending it out to a friend or uploading it to your website,
it is a very useful thing indeed.

http://www.papercdcase.com/
I thought I would finish this week with a couple of quick URLs that came to my attention as I browsed
around the web.

This first one contains an amazingly simple idea that anyone who buys CDs to burn in a spindle, will
find really useful.

PaperCDcase is just that - a couple of pages that contain templates and instructions for printing out
and making your own folded paper CD cases.

Not only does this make them very cheap, but it is also good sense environmentally.

All you need to do is type out the details for your CD case and click to create.

You will need Acrobat Reader installed, which is free, and then you can print out the paper in the usual
way.

Now, simply fold as instructed by the diagram and voila - instant, disposable, fully biodegradable CD
cases.

And finally a very quick one that I stumbled upon and it made me laugh.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Next up a suggestion by a friend of mine, Adrian Wells. How many times have you downloaded a
movie or audio file only to find you need a new player, or different codecs, to view it on your machine?

There are so many different media formats now that you need an arsenal of software just to keep up!
Well, not any more.

If you are fed up with never having the right software for the job, get yourself along to
videolan.org/vlc. The VLC player is a totally free, Open Source media player that works with any
format, on any platform. That is it.

I am sure there are some of you reading this thinking, "it can't possibly work with everything!" But it
does - on Macs and Linux - no additional codecs to install, even for DivX and Xvid.

To some of you those words will not mean much, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating as they
say, so download it and try it for yourself.

The download is quite fast, and there is no installation required, just unzip the contents of the
download to a folder on your hard drive, then double click the .exe to launch the player.

It has not got as many bells and whistles as your other media players, but is definitely good to have as
a backup when you come across a file they won't play.

http://www.chacha.com/