Surviving the Credit Crunch

Even if you’re heartily sick of the term ‘credit crunch’, it’s worth checking out this excellent site www.survivingthecreditcrunch.org.uk It offers a wealth of money-saving tips that could save you thousands of pounds a year.

Launched by debt-busting expert Richard Fenton, it’s an invaluable source of advice on matters such as dealing with creditors, choosing the best savings account and supplementing your income. The big, bold design might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s more visually appealing than rival MoneySavingExpert.com.

A loyal community is already building in the forums and there’s a handy finance calculator to help you work out solutions to your money woes.

Bill Monitor

www.billmonitor.com - Mobile phone plans often involve such confusing combinations of free minutes and texts that it’s hard to tell their true cost.

BillMonitor helps prevent nasty statement surprises by finding you the best contract for your needs. At its simplest, you just specify roughly how many minutes of calls you make and messages you send each month, but there are further options for data use and overseas access. The site then lists the cheapest tariffs and lets you click straight through to the network site. It can also analyse your online bills to give you savings advice.

BillMonitor is a very useful comparison service that is impressively implemented.

My Shopping Tips

www.myshoppingtips.co.uk aims to be your personal shopping assistant by finding you the best quality products at the lowest prices.

That may sound like a price-comparison service, but this site couldn’t be more different. All the bargains are handpicked from a wide range of online stores, and are written up in friendly and frequent blog entries.

Keyword tags make news and reviews of specific items easy to locate, covering everything from art and clothes to gadgets and gifts. There’s also a handy section devoted to sales, offers and discount codes. The design is busy but not baffling, and both content and community are building nicely

Carmony

www.carmony.co.uk If you want to buy a car but don’t know where to start, take this site for a test drive. Carmony helps you choose the perfect vehicle based on your individual needs rather than confusing you with sales patter.

Specify criteria such as how much space you need, the number of passengers you carry, which colours you like and whether you’re environmentally friendly and the site will present details of matching contenders. Alternatively, you can search by manufacturer, model type or price, or just browse the most popular vehicles.

Carmony is very easy to use, and packed with clever features like asking a friend if they can see you in a particular car and saving models you like in an online showroom. It may still be in beta, but this is a site that’s destined to go far.

Qype

Consumer-review website Qype, www.qype.co.uk which covers everything from beauty salons in London to coffee shops in Barrow-in-Furness, has been spruced up.

The layout is now so bursting with information that it seems confusing at first but the fresh, attractive colour scheme helps you find your way around.

On the homepage is a handy local map service, which pinpoints the places you search for, while the main navigation bar can be customised to show your favourite categories.

Another nifty feature records your recently-viewed pages and searches.

With its ever-expanding range of honest, reliable reviews, Qype is an excellent resource for everyone.

Food TV

www.foodtv.co.uk Programmes like Master Chef have turned us into a nation of armchair foodies, but how can we improve our own culinary skills? After having a few clicks around Foodtv.co.uk we reckon we can put together anything from Salmon Florentine to Vegetable Rosti.

This beautifully-presented resource is stuffed with recipes and full-length food programmes. However, it’s the shorter videos that really impress – these are so expertly delivered as to make them as essential in your kitchen as a chopping board.

If we had to find one fault, it would be that the quantity of content makes pages load slowly, but that certainly doesn’t detract from its quality.

Desk Space Genie

Renting desk space is a cost-effective means of securing a place to work on a short-term basis.

This site finds you a desk in the area of your choice, and lets you sort the results by price and proximity.

The average cost of desk rental is around £170 per month, but this also includes internet access, tea and coffee-making facilities and of course a chair.

www.deskspacegenie.co.uk is fantastically easy to use and presents information clearly, complete with photos and maps. Listings are fairly sparse outside of major cities, but you can sign up to receive alerts when space becomes available.

Zefrank

www.zefrank.com is full of toys and interactive widgets - these are pretty simple to handle and make a great original use of interactivity.

The site has also put up a series of charming movies offering some thoughtful and somewhat crazy ideas about life and the world.

Click The Show to watch these films online for free or buy iPod downloads for $5 (£3).

Mildly adult language and humour throughout the site.

1911 Census

This is a site for those serious about researching their family history.

The UK government has taken a census of its population every ten years since 1801, except during World War II in 1941.

The 1911 census is a record of everyone who lived in England and Wales in the year 1911. Take a look at www.1911census.co.uk

After registering, users can add at least one name and surname to begin browsing - but detailed reports are not free.

My Heritage

Plenty of people these days are learning about their roots using the multitude of tools provided online.

Signing up for www.myheritage.com is free and it has all of the features expected from a site of this nature - with the optional paid for premium options.

Storage is free up to 100MB for users wanting to build a family tree and upload pictures to share with family and friends.

There is a genealogy search engine to aide with your research, or just have a look around other people's sites.

The interface is family friendly, and users young and old should have no problems getting to grips with it.

MetaFilter

www.metafilter.com is a blog that anyone can contribute a comment or a link to.
There is no need to be a member to browse through the lively conversations on a variety of topics. Perhaps start with the Popular section to get a taste of the best the site has to offer.

The Tags section is also a nice little feature for anyone wanting to browse content based on a specific subject.

Joining up allows users to write entries and leave comments on others posts - but it costs a one-time payment of $5 (£3).

Creative types can also share and chat about their musical compositions, and take part in regular challenges.

Melzoo

www.melzoo.com looks much the same as any other search engine, until you hit enter on a search term and the screen splits into two.

Results are listed on the left with a preview pane on the right, showing a snapshot of the listing as you hover your mouse over each link.

This is a superfast way to scan through homepages for the information and links you are looking for. Ask.com runs a similar feature with their Binocular Site Previews.

Hushmail

www.hushmail.com has to be one of the most secure free e-mail providers on the web.

If you want to make sure your electronic communications are not being intercepted, by anyone - corporate spies, government agents, even little green men - then a hushmail address is where it is at.

Free account users beware - you have to log in at least every three weeks or your account will be deleted.

VirtualBox

www.virtualbox.org allows you to treat a certain space on your hard drive as a completely new computer.

You can install a whole new operating system you control through a window - a bit like if you were using remote desktop. You can run VirtualBox on Windows, Linux, Solaris or the Mac OS X.

You can run a box with an older or newer version of an operating system or install a completely different one; this might help you to run occasional temperamental software without upending your entire configuration or run software that is not supported by your OS.

Screencast

Following on from yesterdays website review....

screencasting - where you literally broadcast your on-screen activity, adding narration and subtitling to make a kind of movie.

www.screencast.com is a place for you to store, save and share your screencasts - either making them available to the public at large - or to a selected group of people.

It is not the only file sharing service on the internet, but it is geared towards this kind of content. They will not lower the resolution of your piece and you maintain full ownership.

This is tempered by the 2GB storage and bandwidth restrictions for the free account.

The free account should be enough for most users. The bandwidth hungry will have to decide whether to opt for the paid for premium service.

ScreenToaster

Screencasting is a growing fad on the net. You basically record your computer screen activity together with narration & subtitling embedded. It is being used to great effect in a number of different genres.

At www.screentoaster.com a brilliant online software tool exists that allows you to easily create your own screencast content and upload it to the internet compressed to a very acceptable file size.
All you do is register and then hit start recording.

You'll have to tell it if you want to use a microphone or webcam - then use the ALT-S key to toggle recording on and off.

This really is insanely easy to use considering the power of the content you can produce - animated movies, audio-blogs, tutorial guides or entertaining spoken-letters to distant friends and family.

Take a browse round the site at what others are making - the list of possibilities is endless.

Livedrive

www.livedrive.com allows you to save, store and share data over the web.
Once registered you get your drive space URL and can then access and manage the files in much the same way as you would those on your computer's physical hard drive and there is no size limit to how much you can store so on there.

The application works well and fast and that is exactly what you want when you are transferring data back and forth.

If you have video stored on the drive you can stream it directly without having to download it onto your computer first.

This is only free for the duration of the initial 30 days trial period. But if you are thinking of investing in some on-line real estate this is definitely one to check out.

Bikely

www.bikely.com contains a collection of bike trails and cycle paths from all over the world, submitted to the site by a growing and incredibly dedicated community of cyclists.

The site allows you to browse and add to the collection of routes and offers some simple and down to earth information about popular bike brands

Tiltshiftmaker

Tiltshift is a photographic technique that changes the focus of a picture in unusual ways, often making real life scenes look as though they are photographs of a model.
This website contains a tool which allows you to replicate the technique.

Take a look at http://tiltshiftmaker.com

Photos of overall views usually work better than those of a single subject. You can paste a picture's URL into the relevant box on the Tiltshift homepage.

The next screen allows you to adjust the width & position of the focus, and preview the result. You can also choose to upload pictures from your hard drive if you have anything suitable. Once you are happy with the results, you can download your tilt-shifted picture.

Be-at TV

Be-at TV can bring you all the thrill of a musical event with no aching feet or thrumming ears the next day.

Register & login to access the website's exclusive live recordings of some of the world's best DJs in action. The site address is www.be-at.tv

The events are filmed by Be-at TV on four cameras, which are then streamed with the audio from the website for people all over the world to enjoy.

Users can explore hundreds of hours of material.

This is a social networking platform too with the community encouraged to make connections with like-minded people on the site in much the same way as you would with Facebook.

WHIZZ

www.whizz.com provides an online tutor to help children at all stages and levels of confidence to improve their maths skills.

Based on the UK and US curriculum, the first five lessons are free so users get a taste of what is to come.

A tailor-made tutor service is also available along with an on-going lesson plan which are part of a paid-for premium package.

Breathing Earth

At breathingearth.net you will find a lovely simulation of the aspects of the life-cycle on Earth, including global birth and death rates, as well as CO2 emissions.

I love the organic sound effect that accompanies the visuals. And having the birth and death rates pointed out in such an obvious way really was quite shocking to me.

It indicates an exploding population, with the continuous counter on the site showing births going up at twice the rate of deaths. Given global concerns about CO2 emissions, the figure underneath those is somewhat worrying too.

Get Fit, Army Style

Want to get fit and healthy without the expense of joining a gym? Do it for free using the greatest fitness and health resource in the world - the US Army. Hooah4Health.com has advice on body, mind, spirit and environment. It has useful exercise tips (like weightlifting and sit-up instructions) as you’d expect, but also advice on spiritual and emotional wellbeing, along with solid healthy eating and PMA tips too (that’s positive mental attitude for the uninitiated!)

All Natural

Fed up with paying a fortune for your beauty products and toiletries?

Well why not make your own.

Just visit allnaturalbeauty.us, a website that promotes natural beauty that is free of chemicals and additives.

It even has an extensive list of beauty recipes that can be made from the kind of things you’d find in your fridge. They even sound good enough to eat!

Yes To Wind

www.yestowind.com doesn’t have anything to do with flatulence, it’s actually a site that has been launched by green groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF-UK to raise awareness of the benefits of wind power and there’s plenty of info on offer.

There’s advice on starting a pro-wind campaign, a message board for activists in rural areas and downloadable posters and leaflets.

Try Trading

Have you always fancied yourself as a City trader but you can’t face the early mornings and potential heart attacks? Well www.bullbearings.co.uk teaches you all the basics of trading and lets you try your hand at the stock market without risking a penny.

Plus it also lets you join simulated trading competitions. The site is also packed with other useful information, such as a trading news section and market overview.

And it’s sure to be a lot less stressful than working in the Square Mile!

Be Ethical

If safeguarding the earth for the next generation is something you feel passionate about, www.ethicalbabe.com could interest you.

The site is dedicated to bringing you the best organic and fairtrade clothes and toys and the finest natural toiletries and cosmetics.

If you’re looking for last-minute birthday gifts, you’ll find one or two ideas, like a hedgehog jigsaw and a frog skipping rope.

There’s lots of practical advice too and information about the environmental benefits of using certain products.

The end is Nigh

I may as well say this now as times change and as one door closes then another one opens and I have decided that this radio blog will come to a close at the end of 2009 into the start of 2010.
It wont acvtually close. It will remain here but it will no longer be updated.

The reason behind this is that I am not on the radio as much as I used to be and producing website reviews on this blog for other people to use has now been exhausted as resources are running out and with new commitments I dont have as much time to spend on the internet reviewing websites.

Various radio stations use this site for their website review of thew day features and they are more than welcome toi uise any material I have posted. In fact this goes for anyone and not just radio stations but sooner ort later the time it takes me to trawl the net looking for new stuff means that this is time I could be spending with more important issues.

In the new year the blog will be split into two. The website reviews and the radio interviews and audio files but nothing more will be updated as I dont have the time anymore

Be Positive

www.relentlessly-positive.com is an antidote to the masses of ultra-critical beauty mags, blogs and celebrity nonsense. The site is aimed at any women (or men) who despair at the negativity of modern times.

It has its own blog and newsletter, as well as sections as diverse as Good Lovin', Never Diet Again and Shiny Happy People.

From fashion magazines that make you feel fat to beauty products that cost the earth, the site looks at some cheery alternatives.

Clothes Swap

If your wardrobe full of sale bargains that you’ve never worn, clothes you swore you’d slim into or simple fashion disasters. Well at www.whatweusedtowear.com you can trade these unwanted articles with other visitors to the site, either in the UK or nationwide

Parenting Tips

In this modern age of both parents working and not enough hours in the day, raising kids is even harder work than it used to be. But www.parenthacks.com could lend you a hand.

This site gives you daily doses of parenting tips, organised by childrens’ ages, activities, and common dilemmas, all submitted by fellow parents.

You can also learn how to stay organised, save some money, and stay healthy. And if you have any top tips of your own, don’t be afraid to share them!

Classic Clips

Have you ever trawled the web for funny clips and thought, there’s got to be a better way to sift through all this crap? Well you’ll be pleased to know that there is. www.classicshowbiz.blogspot.com gives you nothing but the best US TV clips. Perfect if you’re in need of a bit of light relief on a grey autumn day!

Finance Advice

When it comes to finances, some people are experts and others are complete dunces. If you’re one of the economically puzzled, take a look at getrichslowly.org/blog. Here you’ll find lively discussions and research on a whole host of economics issues, so you should come away feeling far more financial savvy.

Who What Wear

If you dream of looking as effortlessly hip as Kate Moss or Sienna Miller, check out whowhatweardaily.com. Creators Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr are gossip mag fetishists who realised that their addiction was all down to their love of checking out what the celebs were wearing the night before. Laid out in a blog format, this site is a never-ending stream of the most stylish shoes, must-have make-up and hippest hairstyles

Days Out Savings

If you’re planning on a day out in London or the south of England, check www.daysoutguide.co.uk, where you can find many 2 for 1 offers on tickets for attractions such as Madame Tussaud's, the London Dungeons and the London Aquarium. All you need to benefit from these offers is a valid railcard.

Nutritionally Sound

Nutriprofile.com is a free online service for anyone who wishes to improve their diet. You simply fill in a questionnaire, which takes about 20 minutes, and you get a report back within 24 hours telling you where you have deficiencies in your diet. And most of us could do with a little help it seems, as research has shown that on average, Brits only consume two and a half portions of fruit and veg a day.

What’s In A Brand?

A company is often only as successful as its brand. But what exactly does a brand mean? www.brandtags.net gets right to the heart of the matter.

Much in the same way as word association works, when you log on you’re asked to type the first word you think of when you see a famous brand logo.

Then another logo appears and so on. The fun part comes from trawling through the extensive list of brands to find out which words other people have used to describe them.

You’ve Got The Look

Women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine Look has unveiled its new website www.look.co.uk.

On first impressions you might think that the team gave the wardrobe such a thorough cleaning out that there isn’t much left to look at. But after a bit of browsing you’ll find there’s actually quite a lot of content to discover, from beauty and fashion tips to celebrity style.

The homepage features new fashion accessories in the ‘New Today’ section, which is updated daily and lets you purchase all items through the site.

Scream For Salad Cream

Salad cream, it’s one of those things you either love or hate. And if you belong to the former group, check out www.saladcream.com.

his bright and sunny site features a selection of online-exclusive video recipes in which celebrity chef Dan Green prepares a variety of dishes using the mayonnaise substitute.

These include spaghetti nicoise, beef steak wrap and roasted vegetable ciabatta, with the option to send in your own recipes if you think you can do tastier and win up to £30.

Mans Best friend

Its with a sad heart that I have to announce that my dog of seven years old had to be rather unexpectedly put to sleep this week and this in turn has caused a lot of family upset as 24hrs earlier the dog was fine as I walked her on her evening walk.

Unfortunately for the last 3 years she has been having the odd epileptic seizure and this was controlled by medication from the vet but this week she had a massive seizure and it just wouldn't stop no matter what the vets did and so she had to be put to sleep.

This has caused quite a lot of upset and meant a little time away from work

See here for more pics of her in the studio with me on the air http://ukradiojock.blogspot.com/2007/03/now-and-again-i-will-bring-my-dog-with.html

Eco-Shopping

There’s a real boom in green shopping at the moment and www.ecostaurus.com is a one-stop shop for environmentally-friendly products. It sells a variety of eco-items for the home and office as well as a selection of organic skincare products. Pick of the bunch has to be The Tumbleweed Pet Poo Converter, a worm farm that turns dog droppings into food for worms, whose ‘castings’ can then be converted into fertiliser for your garden. Or how about an eco-stapler, which works like a stapler but without using staples?

Weddings With A Difference

Planning a wedding is one of the most stressful things you can ever embark on, but www.somethingdifferentweddings.co.uk could make the process a lot easier. This site rolls a host of services and products into one handy place. Whether you’re in need of bridal fashion advice, need to hire a flash wedding car or you’re searching for a bespoke photographer, the site is a great source of ideas.

Site Launcher

This tool links your most frequently visited web pages to a simple hotkey launcher in Firefox.
Once downloaded, you can access a dashboard with links from the top of your browser window.

The plugin comes with some commonly used sites already hotkeyed, but you are free to change these if you want. Find out more at www.donesmart.com/sitelauncher

One Riot

www.oneriot.com is the site to look at. It’s a search engine that helps you find your way to all the content people are talking about daily.

Oneriot.com keeps the finger on the pulse of popular culture by trawling the links people post on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing sites.

You can search in the usual way, or if you just want to browse the current trends, take a look at the links underneath the search box.

The site also has some interesting applications under the Apps link, including search toolbars for your MySpace and Facebook account

Game Crawler

www.gamecrawler.co.uk is the site you want to look at. This handy site finds you the best bargains on video games by comparing the prices of thousands of titles.
Game Crawler covers a wide range of leading retailers, including Amazon, Game.co.uk and HMV.com. The presentation of results is clear and concise, so you can instantly see the biggest savings and where to find them, and then click straight through to the store to make your purchase. Game Crawler also offers a useful Price Watch tool, which emails you as soon as a game becomes available for a price you’re willing to pay.

Slow It Down

As you get older, life seems to speed up. But do you ever wonder what you really do with your time? www.wheredidthetimego.com attempts to answer this question. Simply type your details into this website and it’ll tell you exactly how much time you’ve wasted doing mundane yet essential tasks in your lifetime, like eating, sleeping and photocopying!

Speciality Foods

www.hardtofindfoods.co.uk offers a large range of speciality and gourmet foods that you probably won’t find on the shelves of your local supermarket. The list of foods includes products from around the world, and you can fill your cupboards with speciality herbs and spices, oils, vinegars, pickles and preservatives. So whatever you’re looking for, let this website find it for you!

Pozzitive

This promo site for production company Pozzitive Television describes itself as an “online encyclopaedia of British comedy”.

www.pozzitive.co.uk is the address. While it’s too focused on its own ‘talent’ to justify that claim, there’s still plenty of interesting content to browse.

This includes behind-the-scenes photos from Pozzitive TV shows like Coogan’s Run and Dinnerladies, extracts from radio programmes like the 99p Challenge and an online store selling DVDs and videos of popular series. Design-wise, the perpetually rolling photos and links prove distracting rather than enticing, but it’s worth a visit.

Lets with Pets

Take a look at www.letswithpets.org.uk and you will see that This brilliantly named website, launched by the Dogs Trust, hopes to encourage landlords to accept tenants with pets.

Lets with Pets provides a wealth of information on renting privately as an animal owner, such as explaining how to get a reference for your pet and a general guide to pet care. While it’s great that this attractive site caters for pet owners, landlords and letting agents, it’s a shame there’s no forum for these parties to connect with each other directly.

Job Blues

It’s Monday morning and there’s nothing worse than starting your week by dragging yourself back into a job you can’t stand. Whether it’s the work, the environment, your boss or the hours, log on to www.careershifters.org, and say it’s time for a change! Here you can find help, advice and job vacancies, and who knows, you could find that perfect job.

Feeling Fabulous

If you’re a bit down and in need of an emotional boost, why not check out www.feeling-fab.com. This site promises to make you feel fabulous by helping you ‘change your life in just eight minutes’. It may sound like a tall order, but for a one-off fee of £10, you’ll get 24 eight-minute audio tracks that attempt to inspire you to feel good about yourself. And to make you feel even better, £1 from each subscription will be donated to the charity of your choice.

Exist For Eternity

If you like the thought of leaving something behind when you finally shuffle off this mortal coil, then www.posterity.com is a website for you. On here you can store your photos, thoughts and writings for eternity, so your ancestors can find out all about your life. The site is free to join and will stay online forever, accessible by password for anyone that wants to take a look.

Tuned In

Are you convinced you’re a great singer but other people think you’re tone deaf? Find out once and for all at www.bored.com/musictests. This site allows you to compare different pieces of music, and will then tell you how tone deaf you are. But don’t get too upset with your score as even the best musicians rarely get more than 80% correct!

Colour Quiz

If you love personality quizzes you might want to check out www.colorquiz.com, which claims that the type of colours you go for reveals a lot about your personality. Simply click on the blocks of colour in your order of preference and a detailed anaylisis of your personality will appear – although how it can tell that from coloured blocks we’ll never know!

Perfect Pick-Ups!

If your chat-up lines haven’t evolved past ‘do you come here often?’, it may be about time you got some help. Check out pickuphelp.com where a helpful list of pick-up lines can be found to come to your rescue. On the other hand, if chat-up lines aren’t your style, the website won’t fail to provide cringe-worthy content that’s guaranteed to give you a whole lunch break worth of entertainment!

Annoying Things

If for some reason you want to get on the wrong side of your friends, family and colleagues then it would be a good idea to look at bored.com/getannoyed. On this site there are thousands of ways to upset people, including becoming a mime, pushing all the elevator buttons and not wearing deodorant!

National Allotments Week

National Allotment Week begins today, and runs until 17th August. It’s a week to promote awareness and availability of allotments both locally and nationally, as well as showing the public and local authorities the strength of support and interest for the heritage of allotment culture. The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners wants to encourage as many gardeners to support the drive as possible. To find out more visit www.nsalg.org.uk.

Junk Food

In this day and age where everyone is obsessed with healthy eating, admitting you like junk food once in a while can make you feel like a social outcast. But if you’re craving some naughty treats, check out www.junkfoodnews.net. Feast your eyes on the world’s largest smoothie, the longest hot dog in the world and a car made completely from cheddar cheese!

Organically Good

If you’re into organic produce, check out www.organicgarden.com, where you can find out information on how to grow your own or where to buy it. It gives practical advice for small-scale producers of organic foods, and even tasty recipes on what to do with all the fruit and veg you will harvest.

Backwards Talk

If you’ve ever wanted to know what the world sounds like backwards, try out www.talkbackwards.com. Here you can enter music tracks to see if there are subliminal messages hidden inside the lyrics when played backwards, or what amusing word occurs when your name is spelt the wrong way round. You can even upload your own voice to hear what you sound like when talking backwards.

Nagging Notes

www.passiveaggressivenotes.com is a site dedicated to all those ‘helpful’ notes, busybody emails and stroppy memos sent to ‘all’ in the workplace. From notes asking people not to use all the teabags, or emails about keeping desks tidy, they should raise a knowing smile in everyone who’s ever worked in an office or lived in communal housing. You can also submit your own example passive aggressive notes to make everyone else smile!

Dig Holes

Have you ever wondered where you would end up if you dug a tremendously huge hole through the centre if the earth? Well you can find out if you visit bored.com/digholes. Find any location on the planet and the website will calculate where you would end up. It’s wishful thinking, but it would certainly make Australia much easier to visit!

Food Fun

If you’ve got a taste for fine food (or you’re desperately bored) take a look at judgemylunch.com where you can view an array of some of the finest and some of the foulest food, and judge for yourself on a ranking system that goes from ‘yuk’ to ‘yum’. But be warned, the content of the website could make you very hungry!

TV Take

www.lowculture.co.uk is a British website that offers a different take on what’s happening on telly. From reality and talent shows like ‘X-Factor’ and ‘Big Brother’ to entertainment series like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Doctor Who’, this site offers a unique spin on proceedings. The message board also has various categories for users to participate in, including soaps and movie culture.

Park Life

It’s often said that being green begins in the home, but if you’re concerned about the state of the green spaces around your home, then go to www.greenstat.org.uk. This is an online forum allowing residents of areas across the UK the opportunity to comment on the state of their local park, and puts pressure on the authorities to do something about it.

Celebed Out

If you like watching how the mighty are fallen, and the glow of celebrity can quickly be tarnished, head over to www.avenue11.com. This entertainment website keeps abreast of celebrity ups and downs with an up-to-date news and gossip section, in addition to movies and music, where you can watch all the latest celeb clips and interviews.

Slow It Down

As you get older, life seems to speed up. But do you ever wonder what you really do with your time?

www.wheredidthetimego.com attempts to answer this question. Simply type your details into this website and it’ll tell you exactly how much time you’ve wasted doing mundane yet essential tasks in your lifetime, like eating, sleeping and photocopying!

Speciality Foods

www.hardtofindfoods.co.uk offers a large range of speciality and gourmet foods that you probably won’t find on the shelves of your local supermarket.

The list of foods includes products from around the world, and you can fill your cupboards with speciality herbs and spices, oils, vinegars, pickles and preservatives. So whatever you’re looking for, let this website find it for you!

Crazy Hobbies

www.mycrazyhobby.com is about one man’s unusual penchant for street signs and traffic lights. His extensive collection has been acquired legally from online auctions, at antique stores and flea markets, and once in a while, a highway department offers him old and disused signs and lights. So if you’ve ever wanted to see a massive collection of old street signs and traffic lights, then this is the site for you!

Caffeine Curse

With subsections like Death by Caffeine and How Many of Your Favourite Caffeinated Drinks Would It Take To Kill You, you get the impression that the creators of www.energy fiend.com don’t sit around sipping frothy cappuccinos all day.

In fact, you might even be right to assume that they’re decidedly anti-caffeine. If you too believe that caffeinated drinks are evil, then check out this site for some like-minded information.

All Cures

If you’re a bit of a hypochondriac or just can’t be bothered going down the local chemist, log on to www.allcures.com, which is the UK’s first online pharmacy.

There are lots of big brands and a wide range of products available, as well as toiletries, beauty and alternative medicine. You can even arrange to have your prescription delivered to your door for no extra cost.

Turn Tricks

If you’re a bit strapped for cash and fancy doing something a bit unusual to raise some funds, www.youwhores.com is the site for you.

Don’t worry, you’re not expected to turn tricks, instead you can advertise what you are willing to do and the price you are willing to do it for. Sub-sections of things you can buy and sell include art, advice and the slightly more elusive category, anything. Everyone has their price – what’s yours?!

Death Becomes Her

www.mydeath.net is a slightly morbid website where you’re encouraged to think of your funeral as a celebration instead of a time for sorrow.

Here you can plan your ‘final party’ in as much detail as you want, and you can decide whether you want to be buried or cremated, at sea or inland, or at the crematorium up the road or even on a funeral pyre on the banks of the Ganges.

Professional Producer

If you’re ready to make the leap from bedroom music producer to a professional, then visit www.homestudiotips.com.

This site gives you a good opportunity to start recording like a professional and upgrade your skills.

You can join a network of musician and producers who will give you all the information you need, and may be able to answer all your production questions.

Maths Help

If you’re no whiz kid when it comes to maths, www.maths-help.co.uk is here to help. You can email your maths problems to the site and someone will email you back in a couple of days. You can also visit the knowledge bank to see past queries and answers. This basic site is updated every week and has even won an academic excellence award

Best Bars

Whether you’re going on a two-week jaunt or travelling around the world for a year, www.worldsbestbars.com is a site you should take a look at. Each time you go to a new place this site can lead you to the best place to grab a beer.

You can search places by alphabetical order, and many bars and pubs also have customer reviews. There are also features like Top 5 Cocktails and Bar of the Month, although as this could be anywhere in the world, the chances of you actually getting to it aren’t great!

Weighed Up

www.weirdconvertor.com is a great site if you’ve ever wondered how much you weigh in terms of potatoes. This site converts height and weight into completely unrelated items, so check it out to discover how many human eyeballs Jennifer Aniston weighs, or how many male polar bears would be heavier than a mid-size car.

More Radio stuff

Its been a busy week for me sorting out website reviews as well as putting some stuff together for my production library and making up a few demos as well as doing a bit of taxi driving. This blog seems to be attarcting the attention of lots of people who are interested in my website review of the day and just a reminder that this is also open to other radio stations. If you are a radio presenter and looking for a website review of the day then please feel free to use any that are posted on this blog.

As for other radio stuff, I have not been doing much in the way of presenting but have been involved in a bit of background work producing sweepers and idents for a few stations. The other thing I have been doing is trying to keep up with the live music scene so if you are a musicianm and yopu have a gig in Cumbria then please email me and let me know and we can get it promoted here for you. Best of all , its all FREE of charge and lots of people read this blog.

I still have some airchecks and snippets from my shows on various radio stations and will eventually get round to uploaidng them onto my youtube site.

If you want to see videos of guests in the studio with me then check out www.youtube.com/billclarkontheradio

Below is a short video demo I`ve done.

FinderMonkey

People-search services offer a quick and easy means of tracking someone down online. www.findermonkey.co.uk differs from most sites in several ways:

it’s UK-specific, it searches land registry documents to find details of property ownership and employs trained staff rather than algorithms to conduct each search.

FinderMonkey is straightforward to use, with the different search types (people, land, buildings and companies) presented in a clear manner.

However, this handy service comes at a price – it costs £4.50 to trace one person and £29.99 to conduct a property search

Funny Junk

If you’re the type of person that appreciates toilet humour and likes long lunch breaks, take a look at funnyjunk.com.

This website provides a whole archive of dark and silly pictures, videos and games to be played with. It’s fun and entertaining, and will definitely make a pleasant change from solitaire!

15 Minutes

Andy Warhol once said that one day, everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame. And if you’re dying to have yours, why not pay a visit to www.15minutesonline.com?

The site acts as a media agency for people that want to appear on talk shows, newspaper and magazine features, and as walk-ons for film and TV. For a small annual fee you get your own website to use as a promotional tool and put you in touch with different media.

Helen Of Troy

If you’re a fan of everyone from M.I.A to KT Tunstall, head over to countertopwritings.blogspot.com, and read up on the very best female music around.

This well-written bi-weekly blog offers reviews on new music releases and gigs, as well as opinions, comments and predictions on everything from feminist rockers to folksy singer-songwriters.

World Stats

If you’re a fan of up-to-date general knowledge and statistics, check out www.worldometers.info. This fascinating site has real-time world statistics, where you can watch as the global population increases by the second. You can also watch the numbers of people dying and being born each day increase, and also see how many tonnes of CO2 emissions are being pumped into the air on a daily basis.

Excuses, Excuses

Although you’ve probably just come back from your summer holiday, you’re sure to want some more time off soon.

But if you have no holiday allowance left, or you’ve run out of excuses for a day off work, head over to excuselist.com.

Here you can view an excuse for every occasion, ranging from days off work to getting out of an unanticipated date, very handy if you’re no good at saying ‘no’!

Celeb Shock

Gossip blog sites like Perez Hilton and Pop Bitch are well known the internet world over, with their bitchy take on the lives of celebrities. But there are lesser-known sites out there that offer even more salacious gossip and Hollywood news. Check www.breathoffreshink.com for shocking photos, online polls and all the stories about the lives of the A-listers.

Try Thai

If you fancy cooking up a storm for friends and family tonight, but aren’t sure what to make, take a look at www.easy-thaifood.com for inspiration.

From tasty Pad Thai to delicious green chicken curry, all the recipes are easy to create in your own kitchen and serve four. But be warned -although not all Thai dishes are hot, chillies are essential to Thai cuisine, so you may want to adapt them slightly if you prefer something milder!

Love Poems

If you want to pen an ode to a loved one, or get some romantic inspiration, head over to www.love-poems.name.

On this site you’ll find a collection of traditional and modern love poems written by some of the world’s greatest poets. Guaranteed to charm even the most embittered cynic (maybe), it’s an essential site for anyone in the first flush of love. Well it worked for Mr Big in Sex and the City!

World’s Worst Work

If you’re fed up with your job, or just plain sick of working – take a look at www.worst-jobs.com to cheer yourself up. After reading about some of the truly awful jobs that are out there, you’ll probably begin to think you’re lucky to have the job you do!

Teenage Kicks

www.teenfront.co.uk is a great site for teenagers and is packed with everything you could want including a chat room, games arcade, music, games and film news and reviews. There’s also links so you can get access to other teen websites, and interactive elements like quizzes and polls. As well as this, there’s a list of five different things to do every day and hundreds of prizes are up for grabs each week.

Time For A Change

If you’re considering making some life-changing decisions in the near future, why not pay a visit to www.freshties.com.

This site lets you chat to other people and get advice on a range of things from career moves to parenting and travelling. It’s free to use, you need to register to join, and you can also create a blog on the site to tell other members what you are up to.

End Of The Net

Have you ever wondered what the end of the internet would look like? Well you can see for yourself at www.mdesmond.com/end-of-the-internet. Just make sure you turn off the lights while you’re there.

Lie To Me

Have you had enough reality for today? Then take a look at uncyclopedia.org. This spoof wikipedia-style encyclopedia is a collection of false entries, where nothing is true. This hilarious website is a great way to idle away an afternoon.

What’s The Weather Like?

www.weather.com is the king of the weather websites. This reliable source has more information than you could possibly imagine you might need, including pollen counts to surf forecasts.

Home Videos

Watching home movies can get a bit boring after a while. So if you want yours to stand out from the rest of the crowd’s go to www.flipclips.com. This animated website will turn your home videos into flipbooks. This means you can carry them around with you to show to all your friends.

Website review of the day

The website review of the day feature is still going strong and used on a few radio stations (AM, FM and Internet based) that I have struck deals with so if you want your website reviewing on this blog then get in touch with me with the web address and a description about it.

If its reviewed then it will appear in this blog (allow time as there's so many and a backlog from people who have emailed) and once its in this blog then radio stations will lift it from the blog and use it in their programming so you never know whos`s gonna hear about it or read it.

Leave details in the comments section or email me direct

Peeping Toms

If you’ve ever wondered how much your friends’ homes are worth, or are thinking of buying or selling a house, check out www.zoopla.com.

This voyeuristic new property site lets you search for value estimates on more than 26 million UK homes. Figures are based on factors like recent sale prices and property characteristics, and are accompanied by useful local details like crime and council tax rates.

You can submit and request further information about specific properties and areas, and even sell your home through the site for free.

Let It Shine

Is green tea the solution to all your problems? What hilarious mistake will Britney Spears make next? Find the answers to these questions and more at http://shine.yahoo.com, a new site for women that addresses the shocking lack of celebrity gossip and diet tips on the web!

On The Radio

Just an update to let you know that I`m not doing much radio work on the air at the moment but I am still doing bits behind the scenes in the way of production and some other stuff that I don`t want to go into as its a very competitive market out there.

If you want to download any of my audio clips, wind up phone calls, interviews and airchecks then you will find thewm all by clicking on the AUDIO link above or by clicking here

Only Two Clicks

With millions of websites available online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. So if there’s only a few pages you visit each day, you need www.only2clicks.com.

Only2Clicks lets you create a home page that links to all your favourite websites so you don’t have to waste time typing in long addresses.

Other Inbox

www.otherinbox.com looks at e-mails coming into your inbox, and creates rules to filter the useful from the trash.

This means e-mails do not need to be sorted manually, which makes the whole process of getting to relevant messages quicker and cleaner.

The service currently only works with Gmail accounts, but the site states other popular mail clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express, will be included in the future.

The free service is in beta and currently looks back 30 days - you can upgrade to the premium version for around $20 (£13) a year.