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Mark Pollak of Clifton Media on the Alex Trelinski Show

BBC Radio DerbyWelcome! | Hello and welcome to the links page which accompanies the computer advice slot held each Tuesday on Alex Trelinkski's afternoon show (about 4.00pm) on Radio Derby. Please note that none of the links listed below are sponsored in any way and clicking them will open a new browser window or tab.

If you would like me to discuss anything of interest to you in future shows, then please send me an email - mark@clifton-media.co.uk.

About me | My 'day job' is running 'Clifton Media', which specialises in various forms of digital and print Webcam taken of Mark Pollak on the Alex Trelinski showcommunications, including website, CD-Rom and video / dvd. I am also a part time tutor and run various workshops in web design, digital cameras / image editing, Flash and video editing for Derbyshire Adult Education in Wirksworth, Ashbourne and Matlock.

Topics discussed on the show so far ... most recent are listed at the top

Google Docs and Spreadsheet (http://docs.google.com) - (Covered on 17 October 2006)

Google Docs and Spreadsheet allows you to create, edit and upload documents and spreadsheets online for free. You need to register for a google account to use the service. The site also allows you to collaborate and share your documents with other users.

Youtube (www.youtube.com) / Google Video (video.google.com) - (Covered on 17 October 2006)

Youtube is one of the most popular websites on the internet and has just been acquired by Google for about 1.5 billion dollars! Both Google Video and Youtube allows users to upload and host their own videos (for free). You can also embed the videos in your own website or blog.

Flickr (www.flickr.com) - (Covered on 22 August 2006)

Flickr is the best photo sharing website out there. You can set up a basic account up for free and set up galleries of photos which can be shared with others. It is a 'social networking' site - meaning you can add other registered flickr users as 'friends' or 'family''. Photos can either be 'public' or 'private'. If they are public, they are viewable by anyone - if they are private then only your 'friends' or 'family' can see them.

All photos you upload can be given tags which make it easy for you to search for photos (both your own and any public photos)- e.g. London Eye. You can set up groups of photos (e.g. for a holiday or wedding) and people can leave comments about your photos.

Shopping Comparison Websites - (Covered on 22 August 2006)

Shopping Comparison websites allow you to ... yes you guessed it - compare prices on various products online. They can save you a great deal and are especially useful if you know exactly what you are after. For example, I was looking for a digital camera - the pentax optio a10. High Street Price was £230 - pricegrabber found it for £165 a saving of £65!

Money Saving Expert and USwitch- (Covered on 18 July 2006)

If you are looking to save money, then these 2 sites complement each other really well.

Moneysavingexpert (www.moneysavingexpert.com) is a website created by Martin Lewis and contains articles and advice on saving money on Credit Cards, Utility Bills, Broadband suppliers, mortgages and travel. The website design is abit cluttered but it contains some excellent advice and interesting articles.

Uswitch is a website which will actually check the prices and rates from all suppliers to find the best deals for you and help you switch directly online.

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) - (Covered on 18 July 2006)

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. All articles are written collaboratively by people from around the world. This website is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link. This article in the Guardian asks "can you trust wikipedia?".

Compare this to the Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/) which is written solely by experts..

Bookcrossing (www.bookcrossing.com) - (Covered on 4 July 2006)

Bookcrossing (www.bookcrossing.com) calls itself the world's largest book club. The idea is that you read a book, register it on the bookcrossing website and then release it into the world by leaving it in a public place such as a train station with a special note or bookmark in it with the book's unique id number and telling the person who finds it to do the same. The person who finds it will then also then leave their comments on the book through the website and pass it on again.

Upmystreet (www.upmystreet.com) - (Covered on 4 July 2006)

Upmystreet (www.upmystreet.com) allows you to find out everything you could want to know about an area such as property prices, schools, rail and road links, crime rates, contact details for doctors, dentists, police to the neighbourhood's favourite newspaper. There is also a useful forum where you can get questions answered on local issues.

Streamload - (Covered on 6 June 2006)

Streamload (www.streamload.com) gives you a private and secure place to upload, store, access, and share your personal videos, photos, music, and files.The basic plan is free and gives you 25gb of free space to upload your files - but you can only download 100mb per month. For $5 / month you get unlimited storage and can download up to 2gb / month - they also offer other pricing plans

Lost - (Covered on 6 June 2006)

Lost is a television series currently shown on Chanel 4 on Tuesday evenings. There are a number of websites which have sprung up around it.

del.icio.us - (Covered on 11 April 2006)

del.icio.us [NOTE THERE IS NO WWW. IN THE WEB ADDRESS!!] is a free social bookmarking service for storing and sharing web bookmarks - abit like adding websites to your favourites. When you add a website to your del.icio.us account, you can add a description and various 'tags' which define what the site is about. Del.icio.us has recently been acquired by yahoo.

So for example, if you are wanting to do some research on a subject area, just enter the search terms into del.icio.us and it will give you the websites which have been bookmarked by other users for that term. You can, if you wish, choose to make your saved bookmark private meaning no one else will be able to see it.

I use this site instead of using the 'Favourites' in Internet Explorer. There are other geeky things you can do with your bookmarks like add your bookmarks to blogs and RSS feeds

www.yousendit.com - (Covered on 11 April 2006)

www.yousendit.com allows you to send large file attachments (up to 50mb) to someone else for free. There is no user registration and the process is very straightforward - you enter your friend's email address, browse to the attachment and click send. The clever bit is that the file attachment doesn't actually get sent to your friend's email address box (as it would clog it up and possibly get rejected) but gets stored on the yousendit web servers. Your friend gets an email with a link to the attachment which they click and then can choose whether or not to save to their computer.

If you want to, you can register and pay to upgrade the service allowing you to send larger files with no adverts on the download pages.

Watch Live TV broadcasts on the internet - (Covered on 4 April 2006)

www.tv4all.com is a 'portal' with links to a over 1000 Live internet TV stations and video feeds. Broadband is required.

www.Songtapper.com - (Covered on 4 April2006)

www.songtapper.com lets you search for a song, by tapping the rhythm of its words (lyrics).

Let's say you have a song stuck in your head, and you don't know the name of it. Never fear! Load up our search screen, and try tapping the rhythm of the song on your space bar while humming the tune.

I tried it for a number of songs and it really does work!

Prevent 'Phishing' email scams - (Covered on 29 March 2006)

Phishing is a scam where criminals send emails to thousands of people. These emails pretend to come from banks, credit card companies, online shops and auction sites as well as other trusted organisations. They usually contain a compelling but bogus reason to go to the site, for example to update your password before your account is suspended. Victims click on an embedded link in the email itself which takes them to a website that looks exactly like the real thing but is, in fact, a fake designed to trick victims into entering personal information such as a password or credit card number.

  • See www.getsafeonline.org which is an excellent website providing invormation on how to protect yourself from these sort of scams.

Tripadvisor - (Covered on 29 March 2006)

This website allows users to register and post reviews about hotels, attractions and restaurants around the world. It also has a number of online forums where you can search for and then discuss your own experiences. It currently contains over 4 million reviews - though you do have to wade through the advertising at the top of each page.

Ebay - (Covered on 14 March 2006)

eBay is a very successful website, at which people from all around the world buy and sell goods and services. As a seller you can place goods 'for auction' or you can sell them at a fixed price - what ebay calls 'buy it now - www.ebay.co.uk

Listening to the Radio through your Computer - (Covered on 7 March 2006)

The BBC Radio Player lets you listen to all the BBC radio stations live through your Computer's broadband connection - go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio and click the 'Launch BBC Radio Player' link which will open the Radio Player in a new window. You will need to have a program called Realplayer installed to listen to the programs which is free to download - If you don't have it installed, click the 'get help listening' link. As well as listening to live radio, you can also 'listen again' to programs which have already taken place - these are categorised on the right hand side of the player e.g. comedy / quizzes, blues soul & reggae, music documentary, sport, science etc.

There is also an excellent site which has links to other radio stations around the world categorised by location and format - www.mikesradioworld.com

Instant Messaging (Covered on 7 March 2006)

Using Instant messaging (IM) software you can chat online via text, voice, mobile phone or even video conversation -- in real time -- with your friends, family, or colleagues. You can download instant messaging software for free from the following websites:

Online Photo Sharing and Printing Websites - (Covered on 28 February 2006)

These websites all offer you the ability to store your photos online, share them with friends and have them printed and delivered to your door. The costs start at about 5p per print and are substantially cheaper than printing at home. Most also offer the ability to make photo gifts such as mugs, t-shirts, albums, calendars, mousemats etc etc. To see a full list of google results of available options, click here.

Retail Eyes - Mystery Shopping website - Get paid to eat, drink and shop! (Covered on 28 February 2006)

Retail Eyes (www.retaileyes.co.uk) allows people to register with them and then go on mystery shopping assignments to pubs, shops, bars, restaurants, opticians, museums around the UK. You get paid a fee plus your expenses for completing the questionnaire, which again is completed onlone. You can search for assignments anywhere in the UK, and when you see one you want to undertake, you accept it. Everything is done entirely online through their website. There are more jobs posted around the holiday periods - especially Christmas! Best Man Wedding Speech

Advice on buying a computer

This article gives an excellent overview of what you should look for when buying a computer.

Virus Protection

If you are having problems removing Norton AntiVirus from your PC using Add/Remove Programs, then follow these instructions - they are quite detailed so good luck! If you are still having problems, then do a google search for 'uninstall norton' and you'll find you're not the only one!

Search Engines

A search engines help users find web pages on a given subject. Popular search engines are:

Google Earth

Google Earth puts a planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. View exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals, schools, and more.

Download Google Earth from http://earth.google.com/

Open Office

A Free office suite to rival Microsoft Office and it's totally FREE!

Download Open Office from http://www.openoffice.org/.

Blogging Websites

A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

Backup Software

Thanks to Jo James who sent in this little reminder about backing up

My Work Experience

A website to help students on work experience in the UK

Duprez Website Design

A website design agency based in Derby, East Midlands

Subservient Chicken

A man in a chicken suit at your command! www.subservientchicken.com