Author Archives: Diane

Bookmark This! May 6, 2010 posted by Diane

Smories – Stories for kids, read by kids

Smories is an online storytelling video site for kids. Just launched, it has 50 story videos currently available but with 50 more to be added each month you can see it promises to keep shortstuff occupied. Stories are graded by suggested age and are read by anonymous (British) kids. Free, free, free. [Thanks Hiren!] Smories are free original stories for kids, read by kids. 50 added every month. Tags: online+kids+videos, childrens+stories, online+childrens+stories

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Smories – Stories for kids, read by kids
Awesome May 5, 2010 posted by Diane

Popville – Pop-up brilliance

Popville is a charming little pop-up book that takes your child on a journey of urban growth. From the first pop-up church and steeple you flip the pages to build a bustling town. There are no words, but endless stories to be found in the process. Available for £17.50 as a prerelease (due for main release May 11 2010). Take a trip to Popville, it’s our kinda town! With the turn of each page the pop up town will build…

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Popville – Pop-up brilliance
general April 29, 2010 posted by Diane

Royal teabags – Tea for QE2

Or should that be Royalty-bags. With Yamatuti’s Royal Teabags you can enjoy a nice steaming hot cup of Great Britain’s Royal Family with your crumpets. I wonder if it would make the Infinite Improbability Drive implode. About �11 for the set of 5. (Thanks Hiren!) A hot bath – just you and Prince William? A dream finally comes true. Relax with a cup of tea in the circles of the Royal Family! Tags: royal+teabags, kitchen+gadget

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Royal teabags – Tea for QE2
Fun & Games April 7, 2010 posted by Diane

Poisson Rouge – Games people play … when they can’t read

Poisson Rouge is a treasure trove of simple, lovely, wordless online games for children. Everything about this site is remarkably easy to use, intuitive and so simple to navigate. And like all good childrens’ games, these ones teach through play – whether it’s the alphabet and reading, numbers and counting, or shape and colour matching, the learning is carefully designed to be as fun as can be. If you get stuck though, there’s a user guide written specially for the…

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Poisson Rouge – Games people play … when they can’t read
Free Software April 1, 2010 posted by Diane

DesktopOK – Multi-level desktop icon management

Everyone’s done it once in their life – accidentally-on-purpose changed their monitor resolution just to see what would happen, and when you go back to reality you realise the only thing that did happen is that your desktop icons went skewiff. Luckily you’d already installed DesktopOK and you have a handy restore point that you made before your ill-starred resolution experiment. Oh wait, your restore point is from 3 weeks ago. No fear, DesktopOK made an auto-save file in the…

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DesktopOK – Multi-level desktop icon management
Fun & Games March 31, 2010 posted by Diane

Trivial Pursuit Experiment – Play it for your generation

The classic bored board game Trivial Pursuit rampages into the 21st century by going all online and social network-y. Sign in and choose a team – over-30’s or under-30’s – then start turning those cards over and answering the questions. You never know, you might end up proving that the older younger your generation knows something after all. Though, you’re more likely to prove that more under-30’s bother with this kind of thing than over-30’s. Free, but if you want…

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Trivial Pursuit Experiment – Play it for your generation
general March 30, 2010 posted by Diane

Kudamemo fruit notepads – Deliciously sticky notes

These Kudamemo fruit notepads by D-BROS are just what the teacher ordered. Delicious-looking apple or pear shaped pads of sticky notes. They even ship in a crate like, ahem, fruit. At �28 or thereabouts I doubt that many will be used for their stated purpose. The “Kudamemo” note-pads designed by Masashi Tentaku are the latest release from Japanese product design project D-BROS. “Kudamemo” is a combined word of “Kudamono (Fruit)” and “Memo”, and as you can see, they’re shaped and…

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Kudamemo fruit notepads – Deliciously sticky notes
Bookmark This! March 29, 2010 posted by Diane

Todo.ly – Sweet tasks o’mine

[Image from flickr] Sure, there are loads of web-based todo list tools out there. Sure, a lot of them are free. Sure, some of them are even cute looking, or easy-to-use, or both. But todo.ly is my brand-new favourite for free, cute and easy todo listmaking. Signup is as easy as can be (enter your email address and make up a password) and then you’re away. The default project gets you started by giving hints disguised as todos: There’s a…

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Todo.ly – Sweet tasks o’mine
general March 24, 2010 posted by Diane

Undercover Laptop Sleeve – Pushing the envelope

The Undercover Laptop Sleeve is another sneaky neat idea, in the same vein as previously posted, to hide your technology from those pesky thieves. On the outside – a tired looking generic padded envelope. On the inside -� a padded, quilted, red satin lining and a velcro closure which adjusts to fit most laptops 8″-17″ wide. Oh, and like most envelopes, you can write on it, but it’s also handily splashproof and tearproof (unlike most envelopes). �14.99. Turn your laptop…

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Undercover Laptop Sleeve – Pushing the envelope
Bookmark This! March 23, 2010 posted by Diane

devcheatsheet – Because even developers get the blues

If you’re a software developer, nerd, 1337 h4x0r, or just a run-of-the-mill Office junkie, you will like devcheatsheet – a collection of cheat sheets made just for you. The 1100+ entries in the collection include several language types (COBOL, anyone?), libraries, operating systems, databases, blog and text editors (finally, some help with that WordPress malarkey), a long list of applications, and more. You can search or browse by name, category, or tag. Most cheat sheets are PDF files so you…

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devcheatsheet – Because even developers get the blues
leisure links March 9, 2010 posted by Diane

Kideos – Kidsized YouTube

One of the best things about the ‘Net is that it stops you plonking your kids down in front of the television for hours at a time, instead you can sit them in front of YouTube and follow [insert children’s television show character here]-related video links for hours at a time. Unfortunately that does lead you, on occasion, to some not-kidsafe content. Kideos provides a subset of YouTube selected by a panel of parents, where each video has been deemed…

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Kideos – Kidsized YouTube
Free Software December 4, 2009 posted by Diane

OmmWriter – Zen and the art of the great novel

If you find yourself distracted while writing, struggling to hear your inner voice over the hullabaloo (and you use a Mac), then go and download OmmWriter and disappear into writing bliss. Designed as a writing aid for a busy design office, OmmWriter gives you the choice of a snowy field, white linen or stark white as backdrops. Stick your headphones and disappear into sinister sounds, ocean breezes or the babble of a wandering brook. You can even choose what sound…

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OmmWriter – Zen and the art of the great novel
Free Software October 27, 2009 posted by Diane

Dead Man’s Switch – send email from the afterlife

[photo] While dead men may tell no tales, there’s now a way for them to send emails. Dead Man’s Switch is a free service where you can compose meaningful messages to be sent out should you shuffle off the mortal coil leaving important unfinished business, like who gets your collection of monitor pets. Although, if it was that important, you probably should have written a proper will. All you do is compose your emails, then wait. The service will email…

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Dead Man’s Switch – send email from the afterlife
Awesome October 26, 2009 posted by Diane

Mealopedia – plan, shop, cook the 21st Century way

[photo] We all know that preparing dinner at home is cheaper and better for you than getting takeaway every night. But planning each meal, and shopping for ingredients, is pretty time-consuming. And if you’re like me you’re unlikely to take the recipe book with you to the supermarket so most of the time you end up either lacking one or two vital ingredients, or with far too much of something else. Conversely you could sit down and plan your meals…

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Mealopedia – plan, shop, cook the 21st Century way
Bookmark This! October 22, 2009 posted by Diane

WhenIsGood – no-fuss online meeting planner

If you have ever tried to coordinate a teleconference, meeting, or even dinner with your mates you know how hard it can be to find a time that is good for everyone. What’s more, if you’re doing this by email it can be pretty complicated keeping track of who replied and when they said they could make it. In most office situations there would be some enterprise application to help out, but outside of the office what can you use?…

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WhenIsGood – no-fuss online meeting planner