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

Give Or Take

>> Give Or Take
I've talked about charity shopping portals and cashback sites before on the programme. Give or Take lets you do most of your Christmas shopping online but gives you the flexibility to choose whether you'll get cashback for the privilege or donate to charity at no extra cost to yourself.
The site is well laid-out and easy to use with simple instructions. Say you usually buy books or cds online from WH Smiths, Woolworths or Amazon ... You can still buy from them, but instead of going straight to their site, you start by going to GiveOrTake, which generates a comission fee from your chosen retailer. You then have the choice of getting that commision as a cashback, or donating it (in full) to the charity of your choice.

Do The Green Thing

>> Do The Green Thing
I’ve featured plenty of sites devoted to tackling climate change - All of them are admirable, lots are highly interactive, but too many of them can be a bit po-faced. So I was pleased to find this green site which manages to convey an environmental message with a good dose of fun and creativity:

Green Thing is for those of us - and there's a lot of us - who don't get turned on by the tree-hugging thing, the guilt thing, the scientific thing or the world-is-at-an-end thing. Green Thing is an easy thing, a fun thing, a creative thing and a community thing

So the site asks you to do a different green thing each month, and encourages you to do that green thing with help from a little video clip, or game or audio download. November’s green thing asks you to ‘turn your lights off early and have some fun in the dark.”

Friday Quick links

>> Hands Up Now
Contribute a virtual handprint to an online gallery to show your support for Anti-Bullying Week
(see also Anti-Bullying Alliance)

>> Doodle
Online game in which your doodled stick-man has to jump from squiggle to squiggle on the page of a notebook, avoiding enemy erasers and other malevolent doodles

>> YouTube clip of the week: Mamma Mia performed on empty bottles
Straight from Good Morning Denmark, here is Scandanavia’s leading bottle orchestra recreating Abba’s classic using only their mouths and a row of about 30 bottles.

I Wish I'd Thought Of That

>> Radio 2: I Wish I'd Thought Of That
>> Share your experiences of using MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites
I Wish I’d Though Of That is Radio 2's new series (hosted by Kate Thornton) profiling some of the big webby innovations and entrepreneurs. I crop up ocassionally during the series in 'talking head' mode.
Tonight's programme tells the story of MySpace - the social networking phenomenon which launched the careers of Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys. Visit the programme's site to find out more, listen again to last week's show and share your experiences of using MySpace and other social networking sites.

Friday Quick Links

>> Poppy.org.uk
The official site for Remembrance Day lets you donate online to the Poppy Appeal, download poppy wallpaper for your mobile, and add a virtual poppy to your Facebook page.

>> Real World Racer
An online racing game which uses the satelite view from Google Maps as your bespoke racetrack. Difficult to master, but worth persevering!

RSPCA Cyberpets

>> RSPCA Cyberpets
The web has plenty of downloadable virtual pets which live on your desktop, but most of them are only available for Windows computers and few of them have any educational value.
Hats off then to the RSPCA whose virtual cartoon cat and dog are available for both Windows and Apple Macs. Before you start your download you’re invited to read through a series of tips about pet care, designed to help younger pet enthusiasts understand the costs and time involved in properly looking after most household pets.