Russell - Barrows Dog Walking Legend

Russell Thomson is one of Barrows Characters and is known by most of the locals as a legend in the town as he is seem all over the place at various times of day and night and is always walking someones dog. He now has a website up at www.myspace.com/russ_dog_walker which was put together by someone for him.

The website mentions the dogs that he walks and mentions the recent photo shoot that he did for charity as well as a whole host of things to do with dogs.

Guitar Lessons

www.guitarshredshow.com is the home of Mr Fastfinger, a mystical master axeman and magic carpet owner who likes to share his guitar techniques with anyone who visits the site.

On the home page, clicking the plectrum by "Exploding Guitar" will launch an introduction and a blinding solo, but the real fun is to be had behind the Mountain of Tapping Dwarf.

Each letter of the keyboard is mapped to a guitar riff and you can string them together by pressing one key after another. The result can be really rather fun.

And if you want to play the riffs yourself you can print out the tablature and have a go at learning them yourself.

Cumbria Coastal Way

www.cumbriacoastalway.co.uk Was created to give walkers and visitors alike a pictorial description of the Cumbria Coastal Way including many other walks, especially in the English Lake District.

The Cumbria Coastal Way, is a long distance "Right of Way" from Arnside in the South of the County to Gretna just over the Scottish Border. The distance of this walk is roughly 150 miles or 241 km and follows some of the most beautiful coastline in England.

You can also find some other miscellaneous local walks on this website as well as the Barrow Ramblers Walks. ThE website is constantly being updated with new walks. You can send your comments or suggestions to the Webmaster

Launchy

I stumbled across a program called LAUNCHY which may mean you never have to touch your start menu again. Check it out at www.launchy.net, In a nutshell, you just assign words or keystrokes to programes instead – Type these in and your applications launch and its much quicker than scrolling through menus

Website of the Day

I am on the lokout for some really good websites to review. What you need to do is send me the website address and a bit of info about the site and I will look at it and may use it on the radio show. If your site is reviewed on "Bills website of the day" then you will have it mentioned on the radio and a bit of free publicity for you.

Email me your website to bill @ abbeyfm.co.uk

Monitor your Wireless Network

If you want to keep a close eye on who is and isn’t allowed to use your network then try www.mywifizone.com. It warns you every time a computer tries to gain access to your network and lets you permanently ban or allow their IP and or MAC address. The software at this site can also be used to turn your wireless network into a hotspot that people can pay to use

Time and Date

Ever wondered what time it is in another part of the world or needed to know in case you need to contact someone then try www.timeanddate.com It not only tells the time but can do a host of other things connected with dates, calendars and time. Go check it out and see what I mean

ALL IN ONE SEARCH.

You can now search for online content using Google, Yahoo, MSN live search and Ask.com all at the same time.

A new search engine called Webfetch works by combining the results from several popular search engines as well as more specialist ones such as Kelkoo. Check it out at www.webfetch.co.uk

You can also personalize the Webfetch interface and search through video, audio, images and news.

On the subject of search engines you may want to search yahoo and google at the same time. Check out www.gahooyoogle.com . It’s a great idea and seems to work well.

There are also other search engines that search other engines if you get what I mean. One I`ve been using for years is www.dogpile.com

Food and Wine

Which drink would you have with which food? Easy…. Check out www.matchingfoodandwine.com as it helps you pair meals with wine, beer, cocktails and soft drinks.

Do It Yourself - [D.I.Y]

www.doityourself.com examines every aspect of DIY and is a “must-visit” for everyone who struggles to tell a hammer from a screwdriver. No job is too big, too small or too tedious for this site and all of them are illustrated with photos, diagrams, animation and videos. If you still can’t find an answer to your problem, there’s a busy message board to help you out

Thunderbird

Its not that I don’t like outlook express or other email applications but I am always on the lookout for more secure email readers that have built in spam and phishing filters. I`ve found this in “Thunderbird” and it’s a free download at www.getthunderbird.com it’s a great alternative to Outlook Express as it has anti spam and phishing filters as well as improved security. You need to teach the spam filter to recognize which messages are junk and which aren’t, but this is easy to do and the software improves with the more spam you feed it.

Household Hints

Keeping your home clean and tidy can be a full time job, but www.hintsandthings.co.uk could help reduce your workload.

Head straight for the utility room, where you can read tips like , How to keep your shower cubicle sparkling by using car wax. The site offers the kind of advice you might have got from your grandma. There are lists of practical tips from visitors to the site plus an A-Z of quick, simple solutions

Beat The Computer

Pit your brains against www.20q.net, the artificial intelligence 20 questions game, for a little light relief. Everything the computer programme knows was entered by other people who have played the game – and the more it is played, the smarter it gets. So go on, give the computer a run for its money.

VIRTUAL SAFARI

Fancy going on Safari but can’t be bothered to go all the way to Africa? Well, you’re in look, log onto www.africam.com

The National Parks in Africa has set up numerous live webcams around the parks and you can often see animals like Zebras and Lions to name but a few. There are also webcams attached to trucks that drive round the parks capturing amazing pictures.

OLD SUPERSTITIONS

Do you avoid stepping on cracks in the pavement or never walk under ladders? Well don’t worry, you’re not that strange! If you want to check out some really ridiculous superstitions that have been passed down through the generations then pay a visit to www.oldsuperstitions.com

WACKY WORLD

If you fancy seeing wacky gadgets that even wackier people have invented then take a look at www.tinyurl.com/yt5vu8

From loo roll dispensers with built in iPods to the USB bottom cooler, it’s all on here. The site lists the top 10 funniest gadgets with some very surprising entries

Voice by email

Send voice messages in outlook or outlook express. This is a free plugin available at www.waxmail.biz that lets you attach voice recordings to your emails. Install the software, then click on NEW to begin a new email. Record what you want to say then send the message as normal. The attached audio can be played using any media player.

FREE Directory Enquires

Why pay extortionate rates to call Directory Inquires when you can get the number you want for free. Just visit www.192.com and enter some details and you can get the number you require for free.

Enviropedia

Enviropedia is a good place for those of you that are interested in climate change but are a bit weak on the science. Take a look at www.enviropedia.org.uk

The site itself looks a bit worthy, which I suppose it is, but this is important stuff we are talking about, so it is allowed to look worthy.

Clicking on Contents does exactly what you would expect and introduces you to a world of well written essays on subjects from acid rain to Ozone depletion. As you would expect each essay has links within it explaining words and concepts.

Each subject has a page explaining its subject and is refreshingly clear of the hectoring tone that so many of these kinds of sites have.

Across the top of the page are more headings giving further information on related subjects, including the ubiquitous kids section. Aimed at four to 11-year-olds it has downloadable information sheets for teachers or anyone interested.

While making this kind of information available is only good, I really wonder whether today's kids are going to be wooed by cheap and cheerful Word clip art. All the same this resource is a must for environmental demystification.