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

Cheap train tickets, Comedy videos and zoomy 3D photos

Something useful:
>> The Train Line Fare Finder
This new tool helps you find the cheapest long distance rail tickets for your chosen journey if you can be flexible about when to travel.

Something funny:
>> Funny Or Die
Will Ferrell's hugely successful comedy video site launches in the UK with support and exclusive clips from Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

Something whizzy:
>> Cool Iris
This is a small download which changes the way popular photo and video sites (including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Photobucket) appear on your screen. With Cool Iris installed you get a very impressive full-screen 3D view of your photos which lets you quickly zoom in from a photo mozaic to a tiny detail on any photo. It's a bit like Google Earth for your photos.

Money and Magic

>> Kublax – Keep track of all your finances in one place
A particularly timely launch for this new personal finance site. This is designed to help you keep track of all your bank, building society and credit card accounts in one place. Create a free Kublax account and enter your bank details once. The site will automatically retrieve transaction details from multiple accounts, categorise them and display them on a graph or pie-chart so you can see at a glance exactly where your money is going.

The site uses the same levels of security and encryption as online banks and will even alert you about unusual transactions which may indicate possible identity theft.  Additional features include a budget tool to help you track your spending against personal targets, plus links to deals which may save you money on the areas where your spending is currently highest.

>> Merlin’s Magic
A terrific all-animated site to tie in with the launch of BBC One’s new epic sword and sorcery series. If you have a fairly recent Windows PC and a webcam, Merlin’s Magic is a must-try and very cool feature. Download the free software and print out a copy of a ‘Merlinesque’ rune. Turn on your webcam, hold your printout up to the lens, and wait for the magic to unfold  on your computer screen.

Think A Link

>> Think A Link
Just in time for the start of the academic year, here’s a handy learning tool, which harnesses the power of corny punning to commit facts, details spellings and the occasional square root to memory.
For example, when memorising the bones of the body, you’ll know that a mandible is a jaw bone by practising this pithy refrain:

“I went out for a meal the other night. Man, der bill was jaw-dropping!!”

The site’s extensive database of learning links are organised into categories like the Meaning Of Words, Historical Dates, Squared & Cubed Numbers, Battles & Wars, The Periodic Table and many more.
You can rate each pun or link and add your own suggestions to improve on the links already published to help memorise a particular fact.

Monkey Olympics, Proms, Wikipedia rivals and online Pollack-esque artwork.

New this week

>> Monkey Olympics
If you saw Eastenders last night you may have spotted the first trailer for the BBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics, featuring music and animation created by Gorillaz collaborators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Watch the full two minute animation featuring “the immortal Monkey King - as highly skilled in the art of magic as he is in speed, strength and agility” and his cohorts Sandy and Pigsy. The BBC Olympics site introduces the characters and explains how they were inspired by Journey to the West - one of the four most important works of fiction in China's history. More on the BBC Olympics site in a couple of weeks.

>> Google Knol
This is the first public version of a project described by Web User magazine as “Google's Wikipedia rival”. According to Google “A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions"

Something musical

>> Proms 2008
Just ahead of the first ever Doctor Who prom here’s a plug for the Beeb’s online coverage of the UK’s most popular and least stuffy classical music festival. This year’s super-colourful site includes a really good introduction to the history of the festival plus expanded 'Proms Plus' listings, embedded video and audio clips and a selection of wallpapers to download.

Something Arty

>> Wet Paint – Please Touch
We’ve seen a few online paint tools before, but this is the first one which hangs its virtual canvas on the side of an equally virtual building. Your invited to grab a brush, or roller from the side of the kerb in order to create your own “Can-you-tell-what-it-is-yet” style masterpiece. Uniquely there’s even a brush called the Jackson P which can be used to help create your Pollack-esque convas. When you run out of paint you can choose whether to pass it on to another online painter to complete, or whether to declare it finished and have it hung in the public gallery

Wikipedia Vision

>> Wikipedia Vision
Last year we talked about Flickrvision , which uses Google Maps (and the 3D spinning globe FreeEarth) to keep track of new photos uploaded to the popular photo-sharing site Flickr, by pinpointing their location on the map.
The Flickrvision map updates in real-time, making it a particularly addictive way to explore some really terrific photos.

Wikipedia Vision uses a similar idea but applies it to Wikipedia. I’ve always described Wikipedia as a vibrant living breathing encyclopaedia; Now this site lets you see at a glance where in the world someone has just updated a wikipedia entry.
Each map pin displays the title of the updated article, location of the Wikipedia user and a link for the full article. With new map pins popping up every few seconds it’s a fantastic way to see one of the world’s most popular free reference tools growing in real time.

>> Read Miles’ original review of Flickr
>> Read Miles’ original review of Flickrvision
>> Read Miles’ original review of Wikipedia

Walkit / YMail / Cheddarvision

>> Walkit.com
The UK’s excellent online route-planning site for pedestrians has just expanded its service to include interactive walking maps for Leeds Derby, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Type in any two points in the cities it covers to get a walking route map and journey time between them.  Each route also includes an estimate of the number of calories the walker will burn, and the amount of carbon saved by not travelling by taxi, car or bus.
>> Read Miles’ original review

>> YMail
Yahoo’s webmail service has just launched new ymail addresses. If you’re currently saddled with a cumbersome email address with lots of surplus dots and numbers you may find you can get yourname@ymail.com address if you sign up quickly. The front page does say that current yahoomail account holders may switch to a ymail address, but doesn’t explain how to do so. I’m waiting to hear back from Yahoo, and will post instructions here when I get them.

>> Cheddarometer
From the people behind last year’s Cheddarvision webcam comes this new site aiming to devise the perfect cheese sandwich via a sophisticated mathematical formula. You’re asked to enter your choices of bread and filling … the computer then looks at all the variables and calculates the correct thickness of each ingredient to arrive at the perfect cheese sandwich.

>> Wimbledon: Official site
>> Wimbledon on BBC Sport

Encyclopedia Britanica / Simpsons Catapault Game

New this week:
>> Revamped Google Video Search
>> Live Chat on Facebook
>> Encyclopedia Britanica Webshare

And a splendid Friday game:
>> Simpsons Ride: Catapult to Krustyland

Boat Race, British Summertime and Free Online Photo Editing

Something Sporty:
>> The Boat Race
All tributaries lead to the Thames this weekend for the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race. The event’s official site is a good ‘un with plenty of video and photos, tips on the best vantage points for spectators and links to reviews of all the pubs along the route.

Something Topical:
>> World Time Engine
Avert post clock-change transatlantic-call catastrophe with this definitive guide to what time it is in any city (or even village) worldwide. Just type in a location to find out whether their clocks have changed yet, or use the meeting planner to work out the best time to make that call.

Something Useful:
>> Photoshop Express
For over a decade Photoshop has been the tool of choice for professional photographers and designers for editing and enhancing digital photos. But at around £600 it’s not a realistic option for cash-strapped amateur photographers. This week Photoshop have launched a completely free online service which provides beginner-friendly online photo editing along with 2Gb of online photo storage for each user.

Yahoo Finds 2007

>> Yahoo Finds 2007
Search engine Yahoo's selection of the most innovative and interesting sites of 2007 includes several past Website of the Day selections:
>> Move Me
>> Doggy Snaps (and Catster)
>> Do The Green Thing

Christmas How-To videos on VideoJug

>> Christmas How-To videos on VideoJug
We’ve featured VideoJug before on the show: It’s a YouTube style site specialising in handy short films teaching you how to do the stuff they didn’t teach you at school (get a perfect wet shave, tie a bow tie, carve a roast dinner etc)
They’ve created an excellent section of short films to help you cope with any aspect of the festive season – From dancing at office parties to removing mulled wine stains, curing indigestion, or wrapping unusually shaped presents. Indispensible!