HOME
General Links
These are general internet links which you might find helpful.
- Libraries
- Institutions
- Dictionaries etc
- Finding People & Places
- Phones & Cheap Calls
- Art / Design / Events
- Law, Patents & IPR
- Travel
Cambridge University Library
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/
On-Line Data Bases
Cambridge University Library has a guide to services available to UK Academic
Institutions
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/InformationServices/eis.html
Scientific abstacts
I use: Web Of Science (WoS), which is a commerical service, with free
access provided through MIMAS (Manchester Information & Associated
Services - a UK Higher Education Service) using an ATHENS (National
Authentication System) password.
http://wos.mimas.ac.uk/
NASA Technical Information
A Collosal amount of information - if you can just find it!! http://www.sti.nasa.gov/
Mathworld
Compiled by Eric W. Weisstein, published in book form by CRC Press
and hosted online by Wolfram Research, the makers of Mathematica. A good online
mathematics reference, but don't rely on any unconfirmed web resource - for
example ask Wolfram's 'Integrator' the integral of ln(x) http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
To find European Governmental Publications use Cordis
http://www.cordis.lu
The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (UK)
Link to Library Service: http://www.imeche.org.uk/ils/index.htm
Words & Literature...Dictionaries
Dictionary.com
It's great. It references real, published dictionaries and gives a selection
of entries. Includes example uses and origin. Also have lots of
other related things like Roget's Thesaurus, a word of the day email option...
and TINY advertisements!! It is of course American...so colour is considered
a variant of color...but nothing is perfect...
http://dictionary.com/
Visual Thesaurus
A visual representation of the english language: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online/index.html
(UK) National Information Services and Systems (NISS) - Dictionaries
and References
Range of dictionaries and references as recomended by this Academic Information
Resource
http://www.niss.ac.uk/lis/dictres.html
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/
Postcode searching and maps for mainland Britain
US Postal Service
US Zip codes etc http://www.usps.gov/
Yellow Pages etc
Yellow Pages UK: http://www.yell.co.uk
Access to international buisness and residential directories through
ATT Toll Free Number Finder: http://www.tollfree.att.net/tf.html
For cheap calls from mobile phones in the UK try Telco. With certain contracts, such as Orange EveryDay 50, 0800 and 0500 number calls are free, hence calling cards can be used. The catch is that networks recognise and charge for such numbers...the fix is using Telco who have some kind of agreement with Orange so that calls to their service remain free. Contact Telco on 0800 594 1000 and tell them which network you are on. By registering your phone you can save having to enter you account and pass number with every call. (you can register multiple phones which is handy if you want to help technophobe parents contact you cheaply when travelling). Approx Rates are: UK Landline - 3.5p peak (8-6), 1.7p off peak; UK Mobile 23 peak, 16p off peak; USA 3p always. If you use this service please give my name (Ben Todd) and phone number (07974 240 612) and we both recieve £5 of free calls !
Burning Man
The Ultimate art meets engineering meets spirituality meets madness meets
making things happen meets environment meets beauty
http://www.burningman.com/
Power Labs
The things people can do with brains, curiosity and a screwdriver http://www.powerlabs.org/
Art Nomad Design
Design, Music, Style... http://www.artnomad.com/
The world of Patents and IPR is a nasty place...you don't want to get involved!! But if you must a basic search can be done using both European and American Patent Offices. In my limited experience, the European Office is better as it allows you to search European, American, World & Japanese Patents simultaneously. Remember that if it is a recent patent application it won't have been processed yet (they seem to take 1-2 years) so you need to search Patent Applications (easy search facility at European Office). An overview of Fuel Cell Patents by Steve Barrett of Fuel Cells Bulletin can be found here .
American (you will need to download a TIFF viewer to see illustrations...use
help provided): http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
European (select link corresponding to your location from the list given):
http://www.european-patent-office.org/espacenet/info/access.htm
Need a lawer? See Legalease for advice: http://www.legalease.co.uk
Air New Zealand allow free flight changes up to 2 days before departure!
Cheap flights from:
- Bridge The World: Tel: 0870 444 7474 - http://www.bridgetheworld.com/flights.asp
- eBookers: http://www.ebookers.com
- EasyJet: http://www.easyjet.com/en/
- RyanAir: 0871 246 0000 - http://www.ryanair.com
- GO (Bought buy EasyJet): http://www.gofly.com/
- Buzz (Gone bust?):http://www.buzzaway.com/index.html
Student and Under 26s (i.e. need ISIC Card)
Prices not always better than the above, but allow cheap (15 pounds) schedule
changes on most flights.
- STA: Tel 0870 1 60 60 70 / 0161 834 0668 - http://www.statravel.co.uk/
- USIT Campus: Has Gone Bust!!
UK Coaches: http://www.gobycoach.com/
Ekit: Fairly cheap calls from anywhere to anywhere http://www.ekit.com/ekit/home
Culture Shock
Culture shock is a widely recognised phenomenon, but one we often forget to
acknowledge for ourselves. Generally there are four stages of adjustment.
- Honeymoon stage - everything is new and exciting.
- Anxiety stage - How am I going to cope? Here the symptoms develop.
- Rejection or regression stage - many small problems emerge and if not overcome may result in permanent withdrawal.
- Adjustment stage - you learn to cope, accept differences and embrace the new environment.
An interesting diagram is contained in this PDF - http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/images/shock.pdf
More information available by searching Google for "culture shock student"
which brings up a wide range of University International student support pages.