Search Engines

Computer Supplies

Computer Magazines

Microsoft

Antivirus

Local Stuff

Search Engines  It is always worth trying a number of different search engines when you are looking for specific information.  The various search engines each have their own way of working.  Some are largely automatic while others have a significant human intervention.  There are heaps of search engines.  Use one of them and do a search for “search engines” and you will come up with a long list.  Here are a few.

www.google.co.uk Google is probably the best search engine available. It is very fast and thorough.  As well as having the usual subject based search it also has an image and directory search.  It has recently developed a language translation service; you type in what you want translated and choose the language and there it is! There are more specialist search facilities as well such as Scholar, Images, News and so on.  There is also software you can download e.g. PICASSA which catalogues al photos on your hard drive and GOOGLE TOOLBAR that integrates into your Internet Explorer.

www.yahoo.co.uk Yahoo is also one of the most popular search engines.  It employs people to review sites and categorise them appropriately. It has therefore many subject areas in which you may progressively delve deeper to find what you want as well as doing the more usual word or phrase search. There is also a useful link to Yahoo Mail, one of the popular free web-based E-mail services.

www.bing.com Bing is the new search engine from Microsoft.  It is similar to Google although at the moment does not appear to be quite as comprehensive.

www.ask.co.uk Ask Jeeves is a search engine in which you can type search terms in more normal English.  It works by using a number of the other search engines to do the actual web crawling.

www.lycos.co.uk Lycos has some similarity to Yahoo in that it categorises information into different topic areas.

There are many other search engines. Do a Google search for search engines and you will find lots.  You can even find some that use a number of different search engines simultaneously e.g.www.searchthingy.com

Top of page é

Computer Supplies The internet is often a good place to shop around for computer hardware, software and consumables. It is frequently cheaper than high street shops although you have the inconvenience of having to be at home to receive your deliveries. Don’t worry about buying on line with your credit card.  All reputable on-line shops encrypt your details while they are being transmitted in a very secure way.  You know that encryption is occurring when the letters https: occur at the beginning of the address of the web page and a little yellow padlock appears in the bottom right of the browser window.

www.misco.co.uk Misco has a very good range of computer components available at very competitive prices.

www.dabs.com Dabs has an excellent range of computers, monitors and other components. The site is very easily searchable, with useful information provided about the items on offer. Prices are competitive and delivery is very prompt.  Dabs has now been taken over by BT.

www.ebuyer.com Ebuyer has extremely competitive prices.

www.7dayshop.com Again, a very wide range of computer goods. 7dayshop is particularly cheap to memory and camera cards.

www.mx2.co.uk A very cheap source of printer cartridges, both genuine manufacturers and compatibles. They also sell photo papers at very competitive prices.

www.comsumablemad.co.uk The Green Business Company is a very reasonably priced supplier of printer consumables, particularly for Epsom, HP and Cannon.  They also supply a wide range of photo quality paper.

www.amazon.co.uk Although primarily know as a supplier of books, CDs, videos and DVDs, Amazon also supply some software, occasionally at a reasonable price.

Top of page é

Computer Magazines There is a large number of computer magazines published. They offer reviews of equipment and software, tutorials and troubleshooting guides.  The magazines usually come with a disk of software that you can try out.  Magazines obviously can be purchased in newsagents but most can also be obtained by money saving subscription delivered to you by post.

PC Pro www.pcpro.co.uk

Computer Shopper www.computershopper.co.uk

PC Advisor www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Top of page é

Microsoft The Microsoft website is, obviously, a gateway to find out about Microsoft products and somewhere you can download further enhancements to the operating system and programs you already have.  Go to www.microsoft.com

There is also available an extensive support facility where you may try to find answers to any problems you have with Microsoft products.  Go to http://support.microsoft.com

Antivirus and Internet Security Programs It is essential that you have good security in your computer.  If you don’t, it is almost inevitable that you will find that you computer will become infected.  It could cost you a lot in terms of data loss, identity theft and an unusable computer.

Ideally you should install a complete Internet Security Suite which not only has an antivirus feature but also a firewall, hacker prevention, spyware detection and spam filter. There is a large number of different programs available but they are not all equally as good.  In my view, the most common security programs that are preinstalled in new computers (with a 2 - 3 month licence) have a relatively poor track record in preventing problems and often seriously slow the computer down.

I recommend Kaspersky Internet Security which can be downloaded from:

www.kaspersky.co.uk

If you cannot afford to pay for a security program, at least download and install the free and very good antivirus program AVG

http://free.grisoft.com

You can also obtain free Antispyware and Rootkit scanning programs from them.

Top of page é

Local Websites for things of interest in Thanet and the region

www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk Broadstairs Folk Week is a week long folk festival held during the 2nd week of August each year.  Music, dancing, workshops, children’s activities. Broadstairs really comes to life!

www.oystermorris.org.uk Oyster Morris is a dance team with a men’s and a women’s side based around Canterbury.

www.thanetfilm.co.uk Thanet Film Club meets every Tuesday during term time at the Palace Cinema, Harbour Street, Broadstairs at 8 pm. Films that would not normally be seen in Thanet are screened.

www.stella-maris.org.uk A website of information about Broadstairs.

www.visitbroadstairs.co.uk Another Broadstairs website.

www.visitthanet.co.uk A website produced by Thanet District Council for visitors to Thanet.

www.thanetonline.com Another visitors’ website for Thanet

www.oysta.fsnet.co.uk/index2.html Simply Whitstable ... a website for visitors to Whitstable.

Top of page é