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What's New - US Picks - Yahoo! Aust./NZ Picks - Yahoo! Canada Picks - Yahoo! France Picks - Yahoo! Germany Picks
Irish Picks - Scottish Picks - Picks of the Week
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What's New - US Picks - Yahoo! Aust./NZ Picks - Yahoo! Canada Picks - Yahoo! France Picks - Yahoo! Germany Picks
Irish Picks - Scottish Picks - Picks of the Week
We've had fun finding the sites that make Yahoo! UK & Ireland one of the best places to find UK or Irish sites, so we thought we'd share a few with you. If you have any suggestions, please send us a note about them. Also send any general thoughts or comments about Picks of the Week or even suggest sites you'd like us to consider for the next issue. Click here if you only want to view the list of sites.
'Twas the Picks before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for a mouse;
Flickering slowly across the bright screen,
Showcasing web sites that have to be seen.
So much for poetry -- lets get to the Picks. First of all, let us not forget that Christmas is a time for giving as well as receiving. And there are a lot of people less fortunate than you -- MP's for example, whose only reward (apart from a decent salary, free trips overseas, and a lucrative consultancy or two) is that they have to stand for re-election every five years. Now those kind-hearted souls at Stand.co.uk are offering them solace by inviting people to adopt their own MP. Members of Parliament, they say, are like this year's hot Christmas toy -- the furby. Given proper care and attention they will respond and provide a lifetime's contented service. However there is a serious side to the exercise. The site is designed to highlight concerns about impending legislation to control how data is encrypted on the Net. When you adopt an MP you will be given the chance to e-mail them with your comments. You will also receive updates of any statements they make regarding the proposals in the House of Commons. Just remember kids, an MP is for life not just for Christmas.
If you are still hunting for that last-minute Christmas gift and cash isn't much of a consideration, you could do worse that click over to Ice Cool, the London Diamond Jewellery Company's online shop. Here there are all manner of glittering baubles ranging in price from under £50 to several hundred pounds. There are three categories to choose from -- classic, fantasy and cool -- and you can also for items if you know roughly what you want. The search function would be improved if you could search by price band, as well, but that is a minor criticism. Oh, and best of all, registered users qualify for discounts on all purchases.
A more comprehensive selection of last-minute gifts is offered by QVCUK.com, the online arm of the brash television shopping channel. The gift parade takes you through some of the most popular present ideas, while a number of sections such as electrical, fashion, and home and garden lead you through some of the thousands of goods available. There is also a neat guide to the television operation, which is piped to more than six million homes via cable.
Now, picture the scene. It is Christmas Day and all the usual traditions have been dealt with. You've argued with the family, kicked the dog, ingested turkey and ignored the Queen's speech. Just as you are settling into a light doze you are suddenly hit with an idea. Not just any idea -- this is the Big One. This will establish you as the new Bill Gates. You will be able to buy and sell countries at will. You are, in short, sorted! But only, you then realise, if you protect yourself against people who will want to steal the idea and use it for themselves. And you don't have a clue how you can do that. This is where the UK Patent Office can help. Briefly, this government department is the official body for the granting of patents and for the registration of designs and trade marks in the UK and it offers all kinds of help to aspiring inventors. It explains the legal and practical differences between patents, designs, trade marks and copyright, as well as offering a newcomers guide, news services, and information on a variety of special events.
Finally, we couldn't let this one go without a mention, simply because it made us laugh like drains. A few months ago student Lee Derrick subscribed to the online version of a popular newspaper's sports magazine. It almost ruined his life. Finding the regular e-mails he received weren't what he wanted, he attempted to unsubscribe. Nothing happened, so he tried again ... and again ... and again ... and so on. Finally, enraged by the constant stream of unwanted digirubbish, Lee sent a short but pithy message explaining what he thought of the people running the service, and what they could do to themselves. Unfortunately, a glitch in the mail server software forwarded his message to the thousands of other people quite happily taking the service. And boy, did they take it personally. The key events in what Lee has come to regard as "the weirdest of my life" are detailed in Is It Something I Said?, a day-by-day breakdown of how he came to be the butt of thousands of obscene and threatening messages, while getting banned from his college computer network. An object lesson in the dangers of saying what you feel -- even by e-mail. It cheered us up no end.
Well, that is it for this week. If we are not too drunk we'll have another selection for you in seven days. Then we will be back bright-eyed and bushy tailed on January 4, 1999. Have a good one ...