Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day ... and more!

Gay Pride in the North East

Website of the Day: Friday July 16th

Hats off to listener John Mac for his email pointing out the lack of gay sites in the Website of the Day archive. So with Newcastle’s Gay Pride event taking place this weekend, it’s a perfect time to put things right with this selection of sites for people heading to the North-East for tomorrow’s event.

>> Pride on Tyne 2004
The event’s official site has full line-up details for tomorrow’s festivities

>> Gay North
This is the leading online community for the lesbian, gay and bisexual
community in the north of the UK. The forums are strictly monitored and moderated to ensure that no pornography, pornographic links, or other inappropriate content appears. As a result this site may go some way towards dispelling the ignorant stereotype of all gay people being promiscuous and sex-obsessed. There are two satellite sites from the same stable:
>> Gay Cumbria
>> Gay Newcastle

>> BBC Tyne and Queer
Rather appropriately the BBC’s North-East studios are based in Fenham, in a building known as The Pink Palace to locals. This is BBC Tyne’s mini-site for the gay community in the North East

And thanks again to John for recommending a couple of sites which should be of interest to any visitors to Newcastle irrespective of sexuality:
>> Pubs Newcastle
>> The English to Geordie Translator

Spiderman 2

Website of the Day: Friday July 16th

>> Spiderman 2 (official UK site)
Loads of exclusive content for webslinging fans on the official site for this year’s biggest sequel. You’ll find virtual tours of the film’s sets, exclusive interviews and online journals from the production team, plus a wealth of downloads including screensavers, wallpaper and trailers.
Meanwhile for those who’ve enjoyed the films and want to did deeper into Spiderman’s universe, Spiderfan is probably the ultimate unofficial guide to the characters and villains who populate Peter Parker’s comic-book world.

Proms 2004

Website of the Day: Friday July 16th

>> BBC Music: Proms 2004
This weekend also sees the start of the world’s greatest classical music festival. The first night of the proms tonight has Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra for Elgar's Music Makers, Holst’s The Planets and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue with live coverage on BBC 2 and Radio 3. The official site has the full line up for the whole season, an excellent beginner’s guide for newcomers to the Proms and an online & text vote for Nation’s Favourite Overture

Guilfest

Website of the Day: Friday July 16th

>> Guilfest on Radio 2
>> Guilfest Official Site
Once again Radio 2 is broadcasting live from this year’s with shows from
Richard Allinson, Bob Harris and Janice Long as well as a special programme featuring live music highlights from Simple Minds Stranglers, Katie Melua, Rolf Harris and Blondie. You can listen live on the Radio 2 site and check the official site for updates, reviews and interviews throughout the weekend.

I’m really, really, really sorry...

Website of the Day: Thursday July 15th

>> The Apologist
When Observer food critic, Jay (son-of-Clare) Rayner set up this site to help publicise a satirical novel, he thought he’d get one or two visits from family and friends. In fact the site has taken on a life of its own as thousands of visitors have recognised the cathartic effect of apologising in public. You can investigate the top 6 laws of apology, or jump straight into the Apology Log and choose what category of apology you'd like to make. There are separate forums (or should that be fora?) for apologies to friends, lovers, family, employers, teachers, strangers and a special area for quick fire instant apologies.

By the way, I really wasn't sure what archive catgory to put this site in - email suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!!!

“You’ll never guess what I saw in the town centre...”

Website of the Day: Wednesday July 14th

>> Big Whale on a Lorry
I’ve always enjoyed a site that tells a story, and this story concerns a man called Steve Deput and a 70 ft, 70 ton blue whale called Jonah. Now the blue whale is
a) the biggest animal ever seen on this planet
b) indigenous to the Pacific
and
c) rarely seen up close.
But Steve saw Jonah at very close quarters ... on the back of a 100 ft lorry in the centre of Barnsley. For years he thought he imagined the whole thing, but the site explains how he pieced the story together and discovered evidence of other urban whale sightings throughout the UK from the late fifties to the early seventies! See also:
>> The Whale Tale on Radio 4's Home Truths

Get your own back on an email scammer.

Thanks to the lovely Mrs Website of the Day for drawing my attention to a brilliant story from BBC News Online. If you've been online for more than a year or two you may well have recieved an scam email offering you untold riches if you help an alleged "official" representing a foreign government or agency with a business transaction which essentially involves money laundering. The BBC News story concerns a group called 419eater.com who use their web and email expertise to have some fun at the expense of these email scammers.
>> Read the full (and very amusing) story here

Big Brother meets Changing Rooms?

Website of the Day: Tuesday July 13th

>> The Big Build
Billed as “the next best thing to Big Brother interactively” this is effectively an online version of a TV makeover show. The project has been put together by Gavin Lowe from BBC1’s Big Strong Boys. Under the scrutiny of a constantly updating webcam, Gavin and his team aim to completely rebuild a family house, chronicling the whole process in an online diary. Gavin does a great job of demystifying a big renovation job, by explaining the whole process and answering questions by email – The end result is a surprisingly entertaining read.

What does Google think of you?

>> Googlism
The more common your name is, the more fun you can have with this. Type in a name, or a brand, or a date to find a list of random sentances plucked from different sites, which provide a snapshot of what the web thinks about that phrase: Thus we learn that Radio 2 is cool, Miles Mendoza is a fan, Steve Wright is the author of ozark trout tales and Sally Traffic is getting abuse from Johnnie Walker!!

Free Security CD for Windows

>> Order your free Windows Security Update CD
Many computer viruses spread by exploiting loopholes in the security of web browsing and email software. Whenever Microsoft identify a loophole in their software they issue a free security 'patch' or update on their Windows Update site which you can download to safeguard your system from infection.

However these patches are often large files which can take many hours to download on a dial-up connection. Now, to save time and expense, you can go to Microsoft's security site and order a free CD containing all Windows security updates issued up until October 2003.

Once you have installed the updates on the CD we recommend that you revisit Windows Update to download more recent "Critical Updates".

In addition, we recommend that you install antivirus and firewall software and update that at least once a week. If you do not already have an antivirus or firewall programme, the Microsoft CD includes software which comes complete with a trial subscription or you can find links to free software in the AntiVirus section of our Website of the Day archive.