Site of the Fortnight
Windows
Vista Sidebar Gallery
The Windows Vista Sidebar is a very useful way of show information in the form
of small gadgets. These can report on remaining battery life, the latest news or
can even be used to take notes. The Vista Sidebar Gallery has lots of extra
gadgets including Google searchbars and shortcuts to instant messaging programs.
Help is also available to create your own gadgets.
Google's Tenth
Birthday
This celebratory website has a surf back in time link that lets you search in
its oldest available index, dated 2001.
Widgenie
A useful website for including graphs in blogs or even Facebook. Ideal for
homework and registration is free.
Babbel
If you fancy brushing up your language skills, Babbel has multimedia tutorials
for Spanish, French, Italian and German.
User Name Check
Simple but very effective. If you want a new username, this website checks lots
of websites to see if it is available.
Videos
Learn how to fit a Blu-ray
drive
Blu-ray is the technology used in the most modern optical discs and enables them
to store considerably more information than a normal DVD or CD. This video shows
how to install a Blu-ray drive in a computer, which can then be used for backups
or, if the computer is fast enough, to play films in high definition.
The son shine of our
lives
A touching video this one, created entirely in stop-motion video, with real
models rather than computer-generated ones. This video tells the story of a
couple and their son, accompanied by some moving music. It is also available in
high definition by signing up to Vimeo. More information can be found at
www.snipurl.com/40s8b .
Do you believe in
magic?
David Zanthor from Videojug shows how to set up the magic trick where you throw
a seemingly random card through a window. We won't spoil the secret here, but
suffice it to say that if you want to to recreate it you'll need do do some
preparation, as well as find an assistant and have some skill with playing
cards.
Wild Beasts music
video
This curiously hypnotic music video is based on an unfinished print by MC Escher
using the Droste Effect, where a smaller version of a picture appears in the
main image. Escher never finished his version, but this one uses video special
effects. It's the coolest effect weÕve seen since Bohemian Rhapsody.
