Zen Monthly Newsletter

Retrospectively yours - a look back at over four years and fifty issues of Zen Monthly.

"Come into my parlour and index my content," said the dynamic Web site to the search engine spider. But can the spider see all the pages that you want the world to know about? Maybe not. Dynamic page content is invisible to most search engine spiders, and doesn't get indexed. Drive more traffic to your dynamic Web site by making your valuable content more accessible to search engine spiders.

Zen Internet is the first ISP in the UK taking orders for RADSL, the latest 'extended reach' development in broadband DSL technology. Zen is extending the availability of ADSL to reach an average 90% of subscribers in every 'broadband enabled' locality. Orders placed now will ensure that our customers are the first to get the new service when it becomes available.

When you need to look up a word, you can find concise English dictionaries on the Internet (like http://www.dictionary.co.uk and http://dictionary.cambridge.org) easily enough. But if you're trying to locate the definition of something more obscure, you could visit several repositories before you get the information you need. Save time at the One Look Dictionaries site, where you can type in any word and get a collection of reference works refined to include only the resources that might have the answer you are looking for.

Spam - the meat that comes in a tin - has been around for 76 years. Surprisingly, the original Spam maker, Hormel, is not put out by the Internet's unflattering re-use of its best selling product's name. The company does object, however, when magazine and Web pages illustrate junk mail stories with pictures of its famous tins. If you'd like to learn more about Spam, the processed meat variety, check the address below.

Dan Dare, hero of the 1950s comic strip first produced in a garden shed in Southport and appearing in print until the 1990s, is returning to Britain via Hollywood this month after a £15m CGI makeover. The 'Pilot of the Future' spaceman helped The Eagle become the most popular comic in British history, selling over 2 million copies per week. The new film series has a British cast, including Robbie Coltrane, Tim Curry and Charles Dance, and features a theme song by Elton John. Executive producer, Colin Frewin, also working to bring Spider-Man to the screen, claims that "the ethos of Dan Dare" has survived computer generated animation in Los Angeles, although citizens of Wigan in Lancashire will be unhappy to see the town's famous son - Dan Dare's resolutely Lancastrian companion Albert Digby - portrayed as a bland Londoner by the son of Stanley Holloway. Channel 5 will show the 26-part series on Saturdays from July 6.

Intelligent people do apparently silly things when they sit in front of a computer for the first time, but it's often the result of bringing experience, logic or intuition that served them well in 'the real world' to an environment where different rules apply. The mouse looks suspiciously like a foot pedal if you are familiar with electric sewing machines, or something to lift in front of the screen if the only point and click device you're familiar with is a TV remote control. We shouldn't laugh. But sometimes it's difficult not to, as the unkindly named Computer Stupidities collection proves - again and again.

When the 'Fax Your MP' Web site was launched last year, it set out to enable constituents to contact their local Member of Parliament quickly and easily, using an online e-mail to fax gateway. Enter a post code, and up pops a photograph of the relevant parliamentary representative and a ready-to-go message blank. Recently, the team of volunteers behind the free service reported on which MPs respond well, and which don't. At the bottom of the list is Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, closely followed by the spinning doctor Peter Mandelson - and there are six who refuse to accept messages at all. The site was established because many MPs don't use e-mail, and most never reply to e-mailed enquiries.

After a six-month test run, the National Library of Scotland has begun offering a new electronic reference service: Ask-A-Librarian. Send a query using the online form and the librarians of the NLS will get back to you directly or pass your question to another library if their resources can't provide the answer. Even if you're not interested in asking a question, take a couple minutes to check out the library's excellent digital collection and history timeline feature.

Zen Internet's headquarters building is located alongside a recently restored and re-opened branch of Britain's inland waterways where landscaping guidelines encourage the planting of indigenous species. To find out what plants are natural natives of your local area, you can search by postcode using the Natural History Museum's splendid online database, which will give you a bespoke listing of annuals, biennials, climbers, perennials, shrubs and trees that you can click on to display photographs and information including propagation tips and associated wildlife references. The site also maintains a list of suppliers offering seeds and plants of known British (and sometimes known local) native origin.

The latest entry in our occasional Top of the (Tech) Pops series invites you to sing along this month to 'Gig Flapping' and the soulful lament: "Pinging with no reply"...

Last month, we recommended an 'on this day 300 years ago' Web site with daily jottings by diarist Samuel Pepys. Our follow-up this month is a same-formula BBC showcase of significant and quirky news stories broadcast on today's date, beginning in 1950. Most items contain video or audio and are presented as if the event had only just occurred, drawing on archive media, old newspapers and reference books. The Beeb would like to hear from you if you spot yourself in the crowd in one of the old videos, or attended an event featured in a news report.

The 'Buyer Protection Program' on eBay doesn't apply unless you spend more than £15, according to recently ripped-off customers. "People need to know that there are few things easier to do with a computer than set up a fraudulent eBay auction," said one, interviewed by The Register, after a Great Yarmouth man failed to deliver DVDs priced at £14.99 to an estimated 2,000 punters.

Global Climate Change caused by unchecked energy use is the cause of ever more severe storms, crop failures and rising sea levels. The issues are global, but solutions can be local. The National Energy Foundation was set up in 1990 to help UK citizens with practical advice and help on using green and sustainable energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, biomass, and hydropower in their own homes and businesses.

Make toys that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles with common household materials, says Scitoys.com, inviting you, and any spare children you can find, to "have fun with high voltage", or try your hand at "a plastic hydrogen bomb", "a simple rocket engine", "a three-penny radio" and "the world's simplest steam boat".

How safe is your name? Does the Companies Act protect your company name and how do you avoid choosing someone else’s? What can you do if someone is ‘cyber squatting’ on a Web address relevant to you? The government-backed and generally excellent New Business magazine has some of the answers.

See the front pages from 270 of today's daily newspapers in 35 countries as PDFs that you can browse, read online, zoom-navigate, download or print. The site is 'Newseum' and it's completely free. Note that default thumbnails are displayed alphabetically by country, not by title, which means that the (many) USA papers and the (three) UK organs included are at the far end of the queue. Also try NewspaperDirect, a similar site (40 countries, 160 papers) that goes beyond front page snapshots to reproduce full print editions, including complete copies of several UK tabloids. It's a commercial service, but there's a free trial.

Weapons of virus destruction and protection on parade. This is a comprehensive list of available anti-virus software downloads, including two that are completely free for personal use: AntiVir and the excellent AVG.

Microsoft offers several no-charge online support services including: The Knowledge Base, "thousands of technical articles on Microsoft products" at: http://zen.notlong.com and Online Newsgroups where you can view and post information in an open forum at: http://zen2.notlong.com. But links on microsoft.com and msn.com that invite feedback, or allow users to "Contact Us" with simple queries or comments via e-mail, have all but disappeared. What may be the last working link to the last still-free Microsoft feedback form is here:

The Plain English Campaign offers a Crystal Mark logo for printed documents that pass its rigorous 'less bull' testing, which it carries out with help from members of the public. Now the organisation is offering a similar stamp of approval - the Internet Crystal Mark - for Web sites, calling it "the only mark of clarity that matters".

How many times have you downloaded a movie or audio file only to find you need a new player or different codec to view it on your machine? There are so many different media formats now that you need an arsenal of software just to keep up. Or you could try the one size fits all solution offered by VideoLAN, a non-profit organisation based in Paris. The group's VLC media player is a totally free, Open Source utility that works with any format, on any platform, including Mac and Linux. There are no additional codecs to install, even for DivX and Xvid.

Next time you find something on the Web that you simply must let someone know about right away, you can do better than sending the URL and hoping that the recipient will spot the relevant bit for themselves. Snip anything you like from a Web page and send a virtual cutting instead.

Complete Zen's 'What makes an effective business Web site?' survey for a chance to win an iPod. Entries must be in by next Friday.