What is this Ian asking me to do?

A friend of mine, Phil Newby, has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (the famous case is Stephen Hawkins to give you some idea of what it is like). One of the things he is doing is organising a sponsored cycle/run/walk around Rutland Water to raise money for Motor Neurone Research.

I have now completed this great event at Rutland Water 14th June 2015

Thank you for sponsoring me






Monday, 15 June 2015

Ride done

Ride done, a great event for a worthwhile cause. About 200 people took part and raised £29,800 so far.

Here is a couple of photos of Janette en-route and at the finish:


Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Bring the worlds art galleries to your big TV




Artkick transforms Internet-connected TVs into large interactive picture frames you control with your smartphone or tablet. You can display stunning works of art from the world’s top museums, along with magnificent photographs…even your own! Artkick’s basic service is free and includes access to over a half million images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKUkkESv-to&feature=youtu.be

Monday, 8 June 2015

Finding bulky things on ebay in the local area

A great little search  tool fro ebay on the moneysaving expert website:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/local-ebay-deals/pe93aq/60-miles/all/ends/firepit/-/-/1/#results (this example is looking for a firepit, edit the fields to find thing you are looking for)

Sellers often specify that bulky, heavy items must be picked up in person. Many people are loath to travel far, so lack of competition keeps prices low.
Our Local eBay Deals Mapper exploits this. Simply tell it your postcode and how far you’re prepared to go, and it trawls eBay* for hidden gems nearby

A new look at the weather forcast

http://forecast.io/#/f/51.5000,-0.1667 (Web version)
This has wonderful images of the coming weather:


http://darkskyapp.com/ (it is also available as a free app for iphone and ipad)

This is a very useful way to see the trend in the weather over the next week at your location.

Ever wanted to edit a sound track - here is a great tool

http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder

Mindmapping tool - easy to use and colourful

http://www.freeplane.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Freeplane is a free and open source software application that supports thinking, sharing information and getting things done at work, in school and at home. The software can be used for mind mapping and analyzing the information contained in mind maps.

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Jing: a really useful windows tool to grab screen images

https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html


Try Jing for a free and simple way to start sharing images and short videos of your computer screen. Whether for work, home, or play, Jing gives you the ability to add basic visual elements to your captures and share them fast.

NB: On a Mac you can screen grab by doing cmd+SHIFT+4

Friday, 22 May 2015

Ever wondered what Pinterest is...?

This is such a good way to find things that you will like...
https://about.pinterest.com/en-gb

Discover ideas for any projects or interests, hand-picked by people like you.

Working from home: but its too quiet and you wish you were in a trendy coffee shop

Internet Speed Test - without all the adverts

This is a nice simple tool to find out how fast your connection is:
http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/
Here is a version WITH LOTS OF ADVERTS (choose Begin Test, the other things are adverts)
http://www.speedtest.net/



Thursday, 21 May 2015

iPlayer Radio - everyone knows the iplayer for TV, the radio app is also great

There is a lot of world class programmes on iplayer for radio, especially useful are the one demand and podcast features.
- Listen live to all BBC Radio stations
- Browse hundreds of on-demand programmes
- Download podcasts to listen on the go

Here is the PC version
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio

There is also a great app for iphone and ipad
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/iplayer-radio/id560458506?mt=8
Here is the android version:





Anyone can draw something in 3D: Sketchup

Start by drawing lines and shapes. Push and pull surfaces to turn them into 3D forms. Stretch, copy, rotate and paint to make anything you like. If you want to be productive within a couple of hours, you’ve come to the right place.
Ready to start learning? Download free version http://www.sketchup.com/, then...
Find a 3D model of anything

How hilly is it?


Find out how hilly it is between any point A and B

http://www.geocontext.org/publ/2010/04/profiler/en/






TED Talks - short talks by inspiring people

Ted talks:  learn something different today

http://www.ted.com/talks




Look at old maps of where you live

Search for your favourite places here:

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/


Information is Beautiful

Helping you see what is going on with great visuals and infographics

A wide range of visualisations are here http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

Is your password high up in this list?... if so then its time to change it
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/top-500-passwords-visualized/



I like this one:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/rhetological-fallacies/ 

Your name over time

Doing useful things with numbers

Worlfram Alpha


This does for numbers what Google Search does for text .
https://www.wolframalpha.com/