Bloke Vote | Downloads | Links | Wallpapers (click on the ▲ anywhere to return here)
Bloke Vote (Last updated 21-Nov-2006 10:56:55 GMT)
Here I pose a simple question to the blokes of the world, as a barometer of male opinion around the globe. Sounds grandiose, doesn't it? Don't worry, it isn't! Past surveys include "Carol Smillie or Carol Vorderman?", "Kylie or Dannii?" and "Geri or Posh?" whilst future surveys planned include such high-brow either/ors as... well, I'll think of something nearer the time.
But enough of such high-minded talk. Let's consider...
| The Audi TT: which is better looking, the original or the facelifted version? (24 votes cast) | ||
| Curvy original (83.3%) | ████████████████████ | Angular new version (16.7%) |
| Starlets: who'd you rather see on the red carpet? (10 votes cast) | ||
| Keira Knightley (80%) | ████████████████████ | Scarlett Johansson (20%) |
| Leading ladies: which Oscar-winning actresses gets your award? (24 votes cast) | ||
| Gwyneth Paltrow (54.2%) | ████████████████████ | Julia Roberts (45.8%) |
| Gardening goddesses: whose green fingers do you prefer? (15 votes cast) | ||
| Kim Wilde (26.7%) | ████████████████████ | Rachel De Thame (73.3%) |
| Changing Rooms eye-candy: who would you prefer for a makeover? (32 votes cast) | ||
| Anna-Ryder Richardson (37.5%) | ████████████████████ | Linda Barker (62.5%) |
| Aussies rule: which glorious Antipodean tempts you down under? (60 votes cast) | ||
| Nicole Kidman (66.7%) | ████████████████████ | Elle Macpherson (33.3%) |
| Robot Wars vs Scrapheap Challenge: which techie lass pushes your buttons? (143 votes cast) | ||
| Philippa Forrester (23.1%) | ████████████████████ | Lisa Rogers (76.9%) |
| Wimbledon wonders: who would you rather watch bounce round court? (121 votes cast) | ||
| Anna Kournikova (28.9%) | ████████████████████ | Daniela Hantuchova (71.1%) |
| Spice wars: which Spice tickles your tastebuds? (108 votes cast) | ||
| Geri Halliwell (81.5%) | ████████████████████ | Victoria Beckham (18.5%) |
| Saturday morning TV choices: which presenter would you rather watch? (30 votes cast) | ||
| Cat Deeley (60%) | ████████████████████ | Dani Behr (40%) |
| Minogue Mania: which Aussie songstress do you prefer? (279 votes cast) | ||
| Kylie Minogue (55.6%) | ████████████████████ | Dannii Minogue (44.4%) |
| Carol Wars: which Carol do you prefer? (117 votes cast) | ||
| Carol Smillie (56.4%) | ████████████████████ | Carol Vorderman (43.6%) |
Downloads (last updated 02-Feb-2007 18:09:45 GMT)
Recommended software that I didn't write. There's all kind of stuff here, some useful, some fun. They're all here because I use, or have used them, and find them to be decent. Try them for size. If there are any broken links, drop me a line and let me know.
Essential (all freeware)- Ad-Aware - spots spyware, keyloggers, selected traditional Trojans, diallers, malware, browser hijackers and more.
- AVG Anti-Virus - freeware anti-virus software with all the features of its commercial equivalents.
- Google Toolbar - not only does this integrate the king of search engines into your browser, it also has a superb pop-up blocker.
- Spybot Search & Destroy - another excellent anti-spyware program, with the added bonus of a nifty little "knight moves" easter egg game - see if you can find it!
- ZoneAlarm - not got a firewall on your PC? Are you mad? This is a freeware personal firewall, stopping nasty people doing nasty things to your computer.
- 1st Page 2006 - a comprehensive freeware web-authoring package. Not WYSIWYG but pretty slinky. I've tried just about every free equivalent I can find, and this is the best. Whilst excessive for many users (try the simpler Markup Processor if that's you), it's pretty impressive for a freebie.
- SmartFTP - okay, so there are loads of freeware FTP programs out there but this stands out: highly configurable, with a cracking interface, SmartFTP lets you "drag'n'drop" to transfer files.
- Xenu LinkSleuth - a freeware alternative to WebAnalyzer, Xenu checks all the hyperlinks on a web-page (or pages) to see if they are current, and presents results in a colour-coded format. These can then be printed, or exported to the format of your choice. Makes keeping your site up-to-date a doddle.
- Icon Collector Graphics Editor - an icon editor offering more features, even in the slightly feature-limited shareware version, than any other editor I've seen.
- MWSnap - a small but powerful freeware screen capture tool, with a sensible range of capturing options. Handy for producing documentation screenshots.
- Setup Generator - so you're a programmer who wants to build an installation kit but doesn't want to shell out for InstallShield, Wise or similar? This is for you then - it builds robust setup executables, including configurable dialogue boxes, shortcut and registry key creation, uninstallation support, and so on. And it's completely free!
- TextPad - a tremendous shareware (uncrippled - it just nags occasionally) text editor with configurable syntax files, so programmers and web-authors can view colour-coded text. Also has the fantastically useful feature of being able to find/replace across all open documents at once.
- CKRename - excellent, flexible tool for bulk-renaming files. Very handy, with many user-defined options. Freeware.
- Eraser - even after you delete files on your PC and empty the Recycle Bin they can still be recovered. Eraser is freeware that integrates with Explorer and lets you completely remove all trace of deleted files. Choose the 35-pass cleaning mode and be sure that no-one can retrieve anything once it has been "erased".
- Files and Folders - another essential utility that lets you review and, in some cases, modify file properties. A must-have if you need to modify a file's datestamp information. Freeware.
- InfoRapid - a powerful text replacement utility. Search for and replace text in files across a folder, directory or drive. Comes with file type filters and other options. Can save a LOT of time. Freeware
- Restorer 2000 - you've deleted a file and emptied your Recycle Bin... but now you need the file back. This small program may be able to help! Shareware.
- STG FolderPrint - a handy tool for producing lists of files in a directory or drive. Lists can then be exported or printed. Highly configurable and invaluable when archiving or trying to clear down old drives. Shareware.
- CamStudio - open-source project that enables you to record screen activity as an AVI file! Freeware.
- CD-Burner XP Pro - excellent freeware CD ripper, essentially a clone of Nero's commerical offering.
- Crap Cleaner - this utility protects you by cleaning up all the unwanted history data on your computer. With one click, it can erase the cache, cookies, history, typed URLs, autocomplete memory, index.dat from your browsers, and Window's temp folder, run history, search history, open/save history, recent documents, even Registry rubblish. Freeware
- Gimp - as good a graphics/drawing package as you can get without paying - like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop but better 'cos it's free!
- SnapGraphics - can't afford Visio? Get this instead - it's free! Old... but good. Win 3.x+ (1.32MB).
- TMPGenc - convert innumerable video formats to MPEGs. Freeware, of course.
- WordWeb - fed up with the crap thesauri you get in things like Word? Then try this, it's freeware and even gives you the option to embed it (to a certain extent) in your word-processor. There's also a commercial "pro" version, which allows wildcarded word searches and does anagrams, but the freeware version is enough for most folk.
Links (last updated 13-Dec-2006 12:08:15 GMT)
Software- Download - a veritable feast of downloadable software
- E-Warehouse - get freeware, shareware and demo's online
- Easter Eggs - find the goodies hidden in your favourite software
- FAST FTP Search - find any file you want, any where
- Freeware - so, theoretically, no nag messages (yeah, right)
- Freeware Files - more freeware, but a bit more organised (and hence less exciting) than Freeware (above)
- Last Free Version - a good idea that could do with a better search facility, this site hosts the last free version of some popular software.
- Nonags - excellent freeware site, and each program has been given a very trustworthy Nonags rating.
- Old Version - as the name suggests, let you download old versions of shareware and freeware.
- Pricelessware - well worth a look, compiled over years and with wide input
- Shareware - a close relative of the Download site above
- Softseek - find the software of your dreams... if you have very sad dreams about software, that is!
- Winsite - shareware for the Bill Gates world
- ZDNet - a veritable feast... oh, you get the idea by now
- Babes - trust me, your pin-up girl WILL be here, with pic's and FAQs
- FHM - For Him Magazine, obviously
- GQ - also for him and a magazine, but a bit less obviously
- Loaded - the web-site for men who should know better
- Maxim - a way of life, apparently
- CD Covers - find the artwork for your CD collection
- Cemetry Gates - a dreaded sunny day, so I'll meet you at this web-site...
- Chordie - the guitar tab website of choice
- Cooking Vinyl - rub Internet-shoulders with The Wedding Present & Billy Bragg
- Island Records - home to all kinds of interesting artistes...
- Parlophone - a fine site indeed; start here for Blur, Strangelove, The Sundays...
- Q - the magazine for music and more...
- Radiohead - their (bizarre) official site
- Accessory - excellent resource for developers of Microsoft Access databases
- Alumni Net - make yourself known to old Uni friends just by registering here
- Amazon - buy an increasingly wide range of products, including books, CDs, DVDs, toys, gifts... cheap too.
- Ant Veal's Good Pub Guide - insider info on fine houses of the publican... all worth a visit or twelve
- Flash Earth - a bit like Google Earth in that you can zoom into places anywhere in the world, but you don't need a big software download, it's all Flash-based and in your browser. Interesting.
- Great Weather - a one-stop resouce shop for all weather-heads.
- Spacetime - interesting site offering detailed information about our solar system, especially near-Earth objects
- 192.com - search the UK's phone books and electoral rolls to find that long-lost friend
- Britannica - the encyclopaedia
- Dictionary.com - self-explanatory?
- Link - find your nearest Link ATM (see... really boring)
- Met Office - UK 24 hour forecast
- National Express - coach timetables for the UK
- PhonenetUK - directory enquiries for UK phone numbers
- The RAC - traffic info for the UK, updated every half hour
- National Rail enquiries - rail timetables for the UK
- Royal Mail postcode address file - find that missing postcode online
- ScienceNet - got a tricky question? Post it here and someone smart will get back to you
- STD Search - find where that STD code comes from - for the UK
Wallpapers (last updated 21-Nov-2006 10:56:55 GMT)
If your monitor is a traditional size (e.g. 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024), download the 4:3 ratio wallpapers. If your monitor is widescreen (e.g. 1280x768), download the 16:9 ratio wallpapers.
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Beaver 4:3 ratio (621KB) |
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Gwyneth Paltrow 16:9 ratio (472KB) 4:3 ratio (119KB) |
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Jasmine Lowson 16:9 ratio (122KB) 4:3 ratio (119KB) |
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Kylie Minogue 16:9 ratio (137KB) 4:3 ratio (140KB) |
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Melanie Sykes 16:9 ratio (226KB) 4:3 ratio (230KB) |
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Raven and the First Men 4:3 ratio (429KB) |
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Samantha Mathis 16:9 ratio (187KB) 4:3 ratio (171KB) |
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Sea Otter 4:3 ratio (556KB) |
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Stonehenge 4:3 ratio (405KB) |
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Vancouver 4:3 ratio (419KB) |
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To download a wallpaper, right-click on a link above and select 'Save Target As...'.
To install, right-click on your current Desktop, click 'Properties'. In the resultant dialogue box, select the 'Desktop' tab and browse to wherever you've saved the wallpaper to. If necessary, select to a wallpaper position of 'Stretch', then click OK.