Don't dump that dog-basket!

Recycling is like dieting – noble ambitions tend to be gnawed and nibbled by human nature. The ideal diet and the ideal recycling plan should be fun to follow and easy to understand. Any chance…?

Free to a good home

Freecycle scores heavily on ease of understanding. The only purpose of the website is to put you in touch with a local group who subscribe to the Freecycle ethos. So what’s the big idea?

The idea is that I advertise stuff which I can’t use any more (or never could use), and my advert is answered by someone who can use it. And to keep it simple – no long-distance correspondence, no postage and packing – the movement is organised into local groups.

Since I live in Westminster, naturally I followed the link to Westminster Freecycle. I had to have a Yahoo login, as the group is formed as a Yahoo Group. If you haven’t got a login, signing up to Yahoo is reasonably straightforward. So I was in – what did I find?

Messages are displayed last-first. There have been 190 in the last week. They consist of offers (a car seat, a single bed, some coloured pipe cleaners for children’s crafts), items wanted (a radio, a USB cable, “as many jam jars as possible”) and subsequent messages confirming that offers have been accepted and goods collected.

It’s a global idea, but it’s also a parish-pump affair – that’s its biggest strength. Of course there are risks involved – in any transaction with another person, even a free transaction, you have to take precautions. The local group’s website gives prominent warning on its home page, and this is backed up by the main Freecycle website.

Other local groups can participate, as long as they are not-for-profit. This is great because it makes it easier to find a good home for, say, curtain material which is no longer fashionable or to your taste, but can be eagerly transmogrified into exotic costumes by the kids in the local playgroup.

I rather fancied the hammock and the wind-up gramophone. I could just see myself relaxing to the scratchy strains of some old records, but they’ve both been snapped up. Pity… perhaps I’ll just go for the sandwich toaster, and while I’m at it I’ll get rid of that giant panda that’s blocking the wardrobe…

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Environment & geography”. Freecycle is under “Going green”. There is a separate link to the Westminster Freecycle group.)


Boris’s bin-liner reduction strategy

There’s just room for a quick mention of Recycle for London, the Mayor’s colourful shop window for the many official and voluntary schemes to starve our black bin-liners and redirect the waste which isn’t really waste at all.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Environment & geography”. Recycle for London is under “Going green”.)

The next blockbuster?

Got a novel inside you? Just putting the finishing touches to that pithy poem? Maybe illustration is your thing, or journalism, or travel writing? Let’s see if we can share it with a grateful public…

An expert eye

I wonder how many budding writers have not looked at the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook at least once. I also wonder how many of them realised that this biblical work is available online, through KnowUK, to Westminster Libraries members.

Without minimising the difficulties you will face if you want your literary or artistic baby to be made available to the world, the Yearbook gives lots of practical hints on how to get your stuff accepted and, even more valuable, how you can plan for a successful outcome even before you start scribbling.

Want to write fantasy novels? – read Terry Pratchett first. Fancy being a cartoonist? – Martin Rowson will set you straight. Whatever your chosen (or not-yet-chosen) métier, the Yearbook has words of wisdom from a successful practitioner.

As well as being a repository for these wise words, the Yearbook acts as a directory of agents, publishers, producers, and almost anyone else who might turn your hobby into a livelihood. Legal and financial considerations are well covered, as are resources such as writers’ retreats.

A couple of words of caution. The online version is dated 2008, whereas the 2009 printed edition (branded 2010 but recently published) has already hit the shelves. Most of the content does not date “dangerously”, but it’s something to bear in mind. Also, the online version does not seem to include the introductory note from Richard & Judy. Just an oversight, I expect.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Books & literature”. The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is a Key Link. Remember that you will need your membership card number to log in, if you are not using a Westminster Libraries computer.)


The source

As I said, the Yearbook is just one brick in the KnowUK wall, and what a huge wall it is. This resource suffers from being just too big and diverse. Because it covers a vast range of subjects from Arts and Media to Tourism and Leisure - by way of careers, government, law, personal finance and many more subjects – it’s difficult to pin down. That’s why we have extracted resources like the Yearbook and given them their own links on the Gateway.

We can’t do that for every resource – if we did, the Gateway would be rather obese! So if you have a query which might be answered by using a directory or guidebook, whether professional or local, official or tourist, try KnowUK first. You will be surprised how often it comes up trumps.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Quick reference: directories”, where you will find KnowUK. Remember that you will need your membership card number to log in, if you are not using a Westminster Libraries computer.)

Does it squeak?

I’ve been conducting some public training courses in various aspects of computers and their uses. As a personal mental work-out it’s great: however hard you prepare, unexpected questions come from all angles. For instance, you keep talking about the mouse, but what is it? Why is it called a mouse? What crazy person thought of it? Let’s see if we can get some help…

Not exactly catsmeat

TechEncyclopedia has had an honoured place on the Gateway for as long as I can remember. The claim is that it holds definitions for “more than 20,000 IT terms”. I haven’t tested the number, but I bet it’s true because this is a website to rely on. So are mice on the menu here?

The TechEncyclopedia entry on “mouse” is a model of its kind. A five-word basic definition is followed by some history, an explanation of why it’s called a mouse (because it looks a bit like a mouse – duh!), and lots more techy stuff for those that want it. There’s a picture of the first mouse, looking more like a miniature angle grinder, and a line-up of bizarre mice which somehow didn’t catch on.

Some of the definitions raise more questions than answers – no criticism, these things are sometimes, necessarily, complicated – and there are linked microsites which get into very deep waters indeed. But if all you need is a basic definition of a straightforward piece of hardware or software, this should be your first port of call.

By the way, if the first thing you get is a full-page advert, you can easily skip it.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Computers & the Internet”. TechEncyclopedia is a Key Link.)


Hair today, united tomorrow

Talking of why things are called what they are called, Digital Unite used to be called Hairnet, and I’ve no idea why. Probably a snappy acronym. No matter – now it’s Digital Unite and it’s good at its job, which is to help “people over 50 use IT - from internet & email to social networking & blogs.”

They do this in a number of ways, but probably the most useful to the people we’ve been training in the library is that they can supplement group sessions with one-to-one help and advice on the things they most want to do with computers.

If you click the “Tutors and Training” button on the website, you will see the “Find a Tutor” feature. This has changed: previously you could pop in your postcode and get a list of tutors. Now, presumably to fend off the attentions of machines which access and misuse such lists, you have to send them your details; either a nearby tutor or Digital Unite themselves will contact you (alternatively you can phone a freephone number).

This is not a free service: they quote a price of “around £25 per hour, plus travel”. Discounts, although mentioned, are unspecified. But for a beginner or for someone wanting specialised advice, if they can afford it, this is probably 25 quid well spent.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Computers and the Internet” Digital Unite is under “Accessibility”.)