This site is best viewed with a real browser like Firefox, Safari or Opera, but you will still be able to use older and less sophisticated browsers like Internet Explorer.
Use 
to enhance your Internet experience and 
to regain control of your inbox.
You can also check out www.northernlab.co.uk for some more info on me, and to see some more of my work.
By the way, you might notice some google add stuff on this site at the moment, I am currently looking at incorporating these on my main site, but I thought I would test them here first. Don't be scared, if you want to click on them then go for it!
This site is my playground. I use it to test new techniques and show some of my work. There are currently 3 techniques I am trying to implement, but I am having some issues with the scripts clashing. Come back to check on my progress.
I also designed this site so I could share all those nice little programs and sites that I have found over the years. After years of having all these cool programs and not sharing them I decided to create this site to improve my Karma and feel better about myself. I feel that the force is with me, and that I have restored the balance of Yin and Yang.
Enjoy the site and the programs. If you have other stuff you would like to share with the world just send me a message. convert@northernlab.co.uk
Here is a list of some of my favourite sites. These sites are either cool sites, reference sites, or sites that have helped me learn new concepts and techniques. I have also added a del.icio.us tag cloud. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager and web exploration tool, through it and its community I have found many valuable resources.
Firefox resources - Extensions and Themes FF.
Thunderbird resources - Extensions and Themes for TB.
SourceForge - Source of Open Source software.
Apple - The best computers in the world.
BBC News - Keep up to date with current events.
SKY News - For your bite size news
Northern Lab - Web Design company.
Bobby Watchfire -
Accessibility testing tool
Del.icio.us - Social bookmarking tool and online bookmarks.
Google - Best search engine out there.
Konfabulator Widgets - Widgets for the PC and Windows.
Amazon - Shop online.
Ebay - Auctions
1 and 1 - Website hosting, domain name registration and more.
W3C - Source of accessibility standards, testing and useful community
Montastic - Online site monitor. Get notified if your site goes down.
The Web Standards Project - Web Standards
Flikr - Photography and community site.
Halo2Junk - Stats galore for Halo2
Bungie - The makers of the best game ever.
IKEA - if you don't know IKEA then get out!
RED v BLUE - Halo 2 fan site
Web Agent 007 - Cool Site.
Hub.lo - Online game.
I am currently working as a web developer in the North of England. I was born in London, grew up in Barcelona, Spain. Retuned to the UK in 1992.
My wife and I met in 1996 and we got married in 1999. We moved to the North of England from London in 2003 and we have 4 wonderful children.
Here are a few photos of me and my family, including the chickens, sadly the chickens are no longer with us, but they remain a much treasured memory, especially for the children.
Here is a list of things I find useful, or that are just cool, all programs here are tried and tested, I use them on a regular basis, or have used them in the past without any problems. Before anything else, I would like to thank the Open Source community, where most of this stuff has come from, and those individuals who have shared their work and knowledge with the rest of us.
Due to bandwidth restrictions I'm unable to provide a direct download from this site, but I will direct you to the website where you can download the programs.
For Windows PC's
OpenOfffice - Free Word processing program equal to Microsoft Office.
Firefox - A standard compliant, fast, reliable, extendable web browser.
Thunderbird - Replace Outlook Express and Outlook (extensions required).
Konfabulator - MAC like widgets on your PC.
Director for del.icio.us - An nice interface for del.icio.us. (del.icio.us account required)
RK Launcher - A MAC Dock bar for windows, highly customisable.
YZ shadows - Add shadows and transparency to windows and menus. (PC)
Skype - Free phone calls and video conferencing.
Hamachi VPN - Create a secure VPN connection without any hassle.
FinchSync - Allows you to Sync thunderbird and Calendar with you PDA
Google Earth - Awesome program, satellite imaging and detail maps.
Itunes - Music program, organise, burn and download music.
Picasa - Photo editor, a little like iPhoto for PC.
NVU - Web authoring software
Opera - A super web browser.
Google Talk - Communicate with others and keep an eye on your Gmail account
Trillian - Keep all your communication accounts in one place, supports MSN (hotmail), AIM, Yahoo, IRC, and more, one program, 5 channels
AVG anti virus - Free anti virus software
Ad-aware - Free spyware remover
ZoneAlarm Firewall - Free firewall to secure your system
CCleaner - Clean your PC.
Ethereal - Network traffic monitor.
SpywareBlaster - Secures your system against spyware.
Spybot Search and Destroy - Searches and Destroys spyware and other malicious stuff.
Jalbum - Create an interactive Java based album.
Tiffany Screens - Remote presentation and training tool.
What's running - See what's running on your system.
Hijack this - useful tool to check if your system has been compromised. (caution recommended)
Wise FTP - FTP client.
Filezilla - Another FTP client.
Jbid Watcher - Watch all your e-bay auctions and track items.
Easy thumbnails - Create thumbnails from images or entire folders.
Icons and Wallpapers - Great resource for icons of all types.
Ubuntu - An alternative free operating system
Firefox Extensions (EXT) and Themes (TH):
EXT - FasterFox - Speed up firefox
EXT - IE Tab - Preview pages in IE within Firefox
EXT - DownThemAll - Download manager
EXT - TabMixPlus - Add extra options to your tabs
EXT - Googlepedia - Add a wikipedia sidebar to all google search pages
EXT - Fire FTP- FTP extension for firefox
EXT - HTML Validator - Shows level of compliance for pages you view
EXT - Cute Menus - Adds cool icons to menus
EXT - JS view - Allows you to view all related JS and CSS associated with the page you are viewing
EXT - PDF Download - PDF Download enhancer with extra options
EXT - Image Zoom - Allows you to zoom any image
EXT - Bookmark Duplicate detector - Detects duplicate bookmarks
EXT - Menu buttons - buttons
EXT - Flickr sidebar - Flikr sidebar
EXT - Google preview - Adds a preview to google results
EXT - Toolbar buttons - More buttons
EXT - Restart Tabbed - Allows you to restart FF with all current tabbs
EXT - FEBE - Extension backup utility
EXT - Advanced Search sidebar - Search
EXT - Stealther - Stay safe online
EXT - Launchy - Launch current page on other browser
EXT - CTRL Tab preview - Cool preview of all open tabs
EXT - Delicious sidebar - Delicious sidebar
EXT - Delicious extension - Tag pages directly from the menu
EXT - Print/Print preview - adds extra options to print menu
EXT - SEO Open - SEO help
EXT - Web developer toolbar - Must have for any web developer
EXT - Viamatic foXpose - Allows you to see all open tabs at once
EXT - Sage - RSS reader
EXT - Add bookmark here - Allows you to add a bookmark to any menu
EXT - Locate in bookmarks - Search your bookmarks
EXT - ColorZilla - Find out the RGB or hex value of any on screen colour
EXT - Clean and Close - Download manager extension
EXT - Download manager tweak - Download manager extension
EXT - Photo Map - Display user contributed photos on google maps
EXT - Video Downloader - Download embeded video
EXT - Measure it - Measure any onscreen element
EXT - Total validator - Validate your page or site
TH - IFox smooth - MAC like Theme
TH - Orbit Grey
TH - Noia
TH - IPox
TH - Brushed
Thunderbird Extensions (EXT) and Themes (TH):
EXT - Web Mail hotmail - Mail enhancer get your hotmail e-mails in TB
EXT - Contact side bar - adds a sidebar with your contacts
EXT - Mozilla calendar - Calendar extension
EXT - Calendar button - Adds an open calendar button to the TB toolbar
TH - CrossOver
TH - Tiger Mail
For Apple MAC
All you will ever need for your mac:
Apple -The gods
Free macware - A source of great free software and inspiration
Boot Camp - A first offering from Apple. Allows you to run WinXP alongside MAC OS X. Great functionality and works like a dream.
Parallel Desktops - Allows you to run other OS on your MAC OS X. (virtual machines). You have to buy this product, but it is awesome. It has proved invaluable to me when developing application for different OS's.
Freemacware.com - A site dedicated to free software for Apple Mac.
More to follow
Don't hesitate to contact me, to praise me or abuse me, or just to say hello. Feedback is always appreciated. convert@northernlab.co.uk
You can also use the for below to send me your comments.
Powered by WufooI am currently working as a freelance web designer (see www.northernlab.co.uk for more details), as well as being employed by Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council.
I design accessible, standard compliant CSS and XHTML sites. I use a variety of tools and techniques to achieve this, from XHTML and CSS through PHP and Dreameaver, as well as JavaScript and Fireworks.
I am in the process of developing and implementing a Content Management System that will encompass all Council services and will merge several system together.
If you are interested and want to find out more, you can download a copy of my CV in PDF format here.
Below are some of the sites I have recently worked on.
Well, you have reached the end of the journey, thanks for visiting and I hope you have found something useful here. Come again soon.
