Last Post – Simon’s WebLinks

This will be the last post on Simon’s Web Links.  This site was started in 2009 as a fun way for me to remember website links away from my own computer and experiment with online publishing.

Simon’s Web Links has been published on Google’s free Blogger/BlogSpot platform, but now it’s time to take WebLinks to the next level and give it a slick new responsive 2014 look and domain, published on a self hosted WordPress blog.

Introducing….. www.weblinks.website

(there’s no dot.com, it’s just weblinks.website – like I said, a modern new domain!)

Thanks for reading www.simonsweblinks.com over the past few years, I hope you can also check out the new WebLinks WebSite.

Marine Traffic

Back in July this year I told you about Flight Radar 24, the web site providing live map information of aircraft worldwide. 

Marine Traffic is a similar site for ships – from small fishing and sailing boats to cruise liners and the biggest cargo ships and tankers.  The live position or tracking information and vessel details are shown on Google maps. 

Check it out… www.marinetraffic.com

Discovering Anzacs

As we lead up to the 100th anniversary, in 2015, of the landing at Gallipoli by ANZAC troops, the National Archives of Australia have launched a website to help descendants search for their relatives who served in World War 1 and the Boer War.

Check it out… www.discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au 

Vic Pics

Yes, it’s been a little while since the last WebLinks update.  So where have I been?  Well I’ve been working on a new web site called Vic Pics.  At the moment there’s a couple of blogs and a gallery that’s growing all the time. 

The Vic Pics name is short for Victorian Pictures, showcasing pictures from all over Victoria, Australia.  The site gives some meaning and purpose to my photography hobby.

I’ve chosen one of the new Top Level Domain extensions released earlier this year, dot-pics (“.pics”), and registered the “vic.pics” domain.  It’s nice and short so sub domains, such as blog.vic.pics and gallery.vic.pics, remain simple and easy to remember.

Check it out… www.vic.pics

Phantom Brownlow

For fans of the AFL (Australian Football League) it’s getting towards the pointy end of the season.  The finals are fast approaching, and one of the highlights of the year is the Brownlow Medal presentation.  The Brownlow is the league’s “Best and Fairest” award, voted in secret by the umpires after every match.  Those votes are counted at a presentation during the week before the Grand Final, with the eligible player (or players) receiving the most votes awarded the Brownlow Medal.

There is a lot of speculation from fans and media during the year about who might in the award, but there are differing opinions over which footballers have played well and might have scored votes from the umpire.

The Phantom Brownlow site has lots of information about the Brownlow, it’s history, this year’s contenders and a “Current Standing” chart, listing “Phantom” votes compiled with votes from the football media and Coaches Association.

Check it out… www.phantombrownlow.com.au

(note this auto diverts to www.phantombrownlowmedal.com.au)

Microsoft web page 20 years old

Do you remember when you first went online?  Older readers will recall that “back in the day” you would have to connect your phone line to the beige box and enter the connection phone number of your ISP, listen to some strange buzzing sounds to eventually be online.  Websites were very basic back then too, they had to be, because dial-up internet was really, really slow.  If you came across a site with a picture, well you could count several seconds for it to download. 

How long ago are we talking?  The oldest web-sites are now over 20 years old.  Microsoft are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the microsoft.com site by recreating the way it looked in 1994.

Microsoft have published an interesting post on their Fire-Hose blog, describing the history and how the page was recreated.  The post also includes screenshots of the Microsoft page over the years.

Check it out… http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2014/08/07/throwback-thursday-microsoft-com-among-the-earliest-commercial-websites-has-been-on-the-web-for-20-years/

Bike EXIF

Here’s a site for lovers of motorcycles and great photography.

Bike EXIF features stunning photographs of custom and classic motorbikes and gear.

Check it out… www.bikeexif.com 

 

Way Back Machine

Have you ever needed to get information from a web-site that’s offline, deleted, or been updated without that vital detail you’re looking for? 

Maybe you want to show the kids what the internet used to look like in the days of slow dial-up connections?

What you need is an internet time machine to take you back to see the content of websites in the past, well there is such a beast and it’s called the Way Back Machine – a service from the Internet Archive.

Just enter any web URL, and it will give you a timeline of captures it has on file for that site.

Check it out… https://archive.org/web/ 

The above screen shot shows how Google looked in December 1998, wow!

Dot Melbourne Domain

Every site I refer to here on Simon’s WebLinks refers to a domain, usually ending in a dot-com, or dot-com-dot-au, or another Top-Level-Domain (TLD) extension.  Late last year I told you that new TLD names where on the way, so your local plumber or photographer could get dot-plumber or dot-photography TLDs for their web sites.  There are hundreds of these new domains becoming available.  There are also some location specific domain extensions being released as well, the first for Australia will be dot-melbourne.

If you live, work, or have some other connection to Melbourne, Australia, then you could get a dot-melbourne domain extension for your website.  Say you bake Melbourne’s best cup-cakes, why not show the world with cupcakes.melbourne web address for your site.

If you’re interested, contact your local registrar or check out nic.melbourne

Who Calls Back?

You’re happily talking away on the phone when… the call drops out. 

Then you start to wonder… who calls back?

Should I call the other person back, or wait for them to call me?

It just so happens… there’s a site for that!

According to WhoCallsBack.com the etiquette rule here is the person who initiated the original call should be the one to phone back if the call drops out, however there are exceptions to this rule.  If Nanna rings to wish you Happy Birthday and the connection drops out, it might take her a while to realise, so just call her back your self.

To see all the call-back rules, check it out… whocallsback.com