Introduction

There are a couple of interesting child pages, so don't forget to check them out, via the site menu.

General Technical

CyberChef - this is a fantastic toolbox to keep handy and does amazing things. You simply drag an Operation into the Recipe and type some Input, then you will see Output. There is an example at From Base64 - CyberChef which might help

Maths

Free Printable Graph Paper - includes a virtual version as well

Sounds

Noisli - Improve Focus and Boost Productivity with Background Noise - does what it says and very well too
Hipstersound | Ambient noise generator to create a positive work environment - an alternative

Untested Software

This is software I am aware of and that should be good but I have not used:

• Glimpse: A Photo Editor For Everyone - a fork of GIMP
• Krita | Digital Painting. Creative Freedom.
• blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software
• Exif Tool by Phil Harvey, which is also available online via Exif Info: view meta-data in your files

Web Browsers

How do browsers work (2012) - http://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2012/05/04/how-browser-engines-work/
What do the different browsers support - Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc
Handy testing site from Microsoft - Interoperability, Browser & Cross-Platform Testing : Microsoft Edge Dev
See how you are tracked - Lightbeam for Firefox — Mozilla
Compare browsers from a privacy perspective - PrivacyTests.org: open-source tests of web browser privacy

Software

Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Handy Directory Sizing - WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics
The Linux version of WinDirStat is called "kdirstat" and should be available via your package manager
PE Studio - winitor for Malware Analysis

Support

Handy support details - Support Details | Tech Support Management

Web Site Icons

Icons for iOS and Android - http://www.zen.co.uk/blog/setting-a-home-screen-icon-for-your-website-on-ios-and-android-devices/
More Detail re iOS - http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/touch-icons

Network Tools

DNS Tools, including propagation, great tool - DNS Checker
Website link, IP and redirect info - Domain Name Data - host.io
What is my IP Address - http://whatismyipaddress.com/
What is my IP - http://www.whatismyip.com/ (preferred)
Working out Subnets and Masks like 10.48.0.0/23 - http://www.subnet-calculator.com/
DomainTools has an excellent WhoIs service - http://www.domaintools.com/research/
Comprehensive tools - http://network-tools.com/
IP Address - http://ipaddress.org/
Mail Testing - http://mxtoolbox.com/

Speed Testing

SpeedTest.net - http://www.speedtest.net/
BT Speed Test - http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ complete with some good advice for testing
NetFlix Speed Test - Internet Speed Test | Fast.com
Cloudflare Speed Test - Internet Speed Test - Measure Network Performance | Cloudflare
Speedtest by Ookla - Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test, also has a command line option, see Speedtest CLI: Internet speed test for the command line. In November 2021, on Windows this was a Zip file with a single, standalone exe and a markdown file for documentation
SamKnows - Agents | SamKnows have a number of options, including What is the Whitebox? - SamKnows Help Centre

Domains

ICANN WHOIS - WHOIS Search | ICANN WHOIS

Geo Location

IP Address Labs - http://www.ipaddresslabs.com/IPGeolocationServiceDemo.do
IP Address to Location - http://www.ip2location.com/demo

Internet Access

SamKnows - Broadband Availability Checker

Dates and Times

Time zone conversion - timeanddate.com
Convert to/from milliseconds - Current Millis ‐ Milliseconds since Unix Epoch

Useful Articles

Window Logon Issue Diagnosis - http://greigmitchell.co.uk/the-case-of-the-delayed-logon-screen/ is a useful article on using SysInternals Process Monitor to diagnose logon issues.
Making a Wi-Fi Hotspot - How to turn your Windows laptop into a WiFI Hot Spot | Dell UK more easily done with your phone

Software Development

Windows 8 Phone App Development - http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Building-Apps-for-Windows-Phone-8-Jump-Start
Storing Passwords - Serious Security: How to store your users’ passwords safely | Naked Security

Web Based Development

Laragon - portable, isolated, fast & powerful universal development environment for PHP, Node.js, Python, Java, Go, Ruby. - this is a handy solution to Web Based development on Windows, where WSL is not an option, or you want an alternative to WSL, it is a WAMP solution

Stress or Load Testing

Intel Processor Diagnostics Tool - http://www.intel.com/support/utilitytools.htm
Older SysInternals tools - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vijaysk/archive/2012/10/27/tools-to-simulate-cpu-memory-disk-load.aspx, I recommend using the -c parameter with testlimit, the memory tool, -c with a suitable number stops it grabbing all the memory which can render your machine unusable!
See also Consume in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit

Web Site Testing

Sitespeed.io - Welcome to the wonderful world of Web Performance
WebPagetest - Website Performance and Optimization Test

Windows 10

Download for Installing - Windows 10

Windows 7

Wireless Networking - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff847520.aspx

English Language

The Apostrophe - http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe

Translation

DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator
Bing Microsoft Translator

Shell Scripts

Bash Guide - http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide/Practices
Portable Shell Scripts - http://www.in-ulm.de/~mascheck/various/portability/
Making Bash Scripts Portable - http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/scripting/nonportable

Software Analysis

PEStudio, used in anti-malware - winitor

Passwords

• Choosing Strong Passwords - How to choose a strong password | Naked Security
• Testing password strength - How long would it take to crack your password? | Naked Security
• Password selection advice from Bruce Schneier - Choosing Secure Passwords - Schneier on Security
• Excellent password manager, well worth paying for - 1Password
• Great free password manager - Password Safe with an Android port PasswdSafe / Wiki / Home
• 2FA Authenticator - Authy - Two-Factor Authentication App

Security Tools

Security Tools Top 10 (2013) - ToolsWatch.org – The Hackers Arsenal Tools » 2013 Top Security Tools as Voted by ToolsWatch.org Readers
MD5 File - HTML5 File Hash Online Calculator - MD5, SHA1, SHA2 (SHA-256), SHA-384, SHA-512
Security Planner - gives some good security advice

SSL

Also and preferably known as TLS:

SSL Labs - Qualys SSL Labs - Projects / SSL Server Test
Symantec - SSL Toolbox
Hardeniuze, site testing - Hardenize: Comprehensive web site configuration test
Handy site for manual testing of handling bad certificates etc - badssl.com

Hardware

CPU (Processor) Benchmarks - PassMark Software - CPU Benchmark Charts
SMART Hard Drive Status Utility - smartmontools
Using smartmontools blog page - Mike's Technology and Finance Blog: How To Detect a Failing Hard Drive
Web Cam Information - Webcam Test

Phonetic Alphabet

NATO phonetic alphabet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

UK Motoring

• Vehicle registration plates of the United Kingdom, Crown dependencies and overseas territories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Great Britain road numbering scheme - Wikipedia
• Roman Roads of Britain – Sasha Trubetskoy
• Motorway Traffic Cameras - Live CCTV images and traffic news
• Motorway Services - every British motorway service area reviewed and rated
• Pathetic Motorways - includes the non-pathetic ones....
• Road closure report - National Highways - road works information

Government

• Drive in a clean air zone - GOV.UK - check if you need to pay to drive in a clean air zone
• Check the MOT history of a vehicle - GOV.UK - view MOT history with advisory details, and also recall status
• Check the MOT status of a vehicle - GOV.UK - check MOT and Road Tax status
• Check if a vehicle, part or accessory has been recalled - GOV.UK

Google

Google Location history

AppData files

Linux uses AppData files to show application information.
Chapter 2. Upstream Metadata
AppData Specification

Unicode

Dark corners of Unicode / fuzzy notepad

AS2

This is a file transfer format, however OpenAS2 Server Application is a useful open source product.

Disk Utilities

Linux based partition utility - GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions, not use myself
Commercial disk/partition utility - Disk Management Software - Acronis Disk Director 12 which I heartily recommend

HTML 5

<input> - HTML | MDN - be sure to use the correct or best type
HTML Standard - the definitive spec on HTML 5
HTML5test - How well does your browser support HTML5? - test your browser

Linux

Relax-and-Recover - Linux Disaster Recovery - stumbled upon this, never used but looks interesting

Travel

Network West Midlands - Tram or National Express Midland Metro - Birmingham Trams
Stagecoach Supertram: home - Sheffield Trams
Every Journey Matters - Transport for London - TfL

Railways

• Realtime Trains
• Live Train Times | Rail Record
• OpenTrainTimes
  OpenTrainTimes: Live map of Kings Cross and Moorgate to Hitchin
• Traksy - real time information, including on track maps
  St Pancras Canal Tunnel Junction: Live Train Map |Traksy
• Raildar - Historic train arrival times
• East Coast Digital Programme

Qt

How to start with Qt? | nidomiro - a good introduction
C++ Qt Programming - YouTube - some introduction videos

General

Alexa Top 500 Global Sites - most popular websites
Have I been pwned? Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach - "haveibeenpwned" is run by Troy Hunt, security researcher, so can be trusted
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Final text neatly arranged - for the full GDPR documentation

Sightseeing Ideas

Tower Bridge | London’s Famous Bridges | London Landmarks

Personal Security/Safety

Stay safe in London | The Met
Theft tactics: Be Aware of thieves' tactics | British Transport Police

Mapping

• Election maps - handy if you need to see which constituency you are in, for a variety of elections
• Election Maps UK - a useful site for UK elections
• Tube Heartbeat
• Submarine Cable Map
• National Library of Scotland - Map Images - this is a very place to see historic maps and put them side by side with modern ones
• what3words | Addressing the world - the world split into 3 metre squares with names, like sleep.rings.driver
• Plus codes - also known as Open Location Code, originally developed by Google, 9C3XGV2G+65 is an example, but sometimes just GV2G+65 is used
• Flood Map: Elevation Map, Sea Level Rise Map see when you get flooded with different rises in sea levels....

History

• Rail Map online - historical rail maps
• The Bradfield Archives - parish archives

Gaming

Godot Engine - Free and open source 2D and 3D game engine

Remote Working

Home | mRemoteNG - colleagues have used this, looks worth trying
Remote Desktop Manager - Remote connection and password management software - installed on client's machines, commercial product, possibly worth a look

Sheffield

Picture Sheffield - Images of Sheffield from the council archive
Northern Powergrid | Power Cuts - check if you have an electrical power cut in Sheffield, Yorkshire or the North East

Health

BMI healthy weight calculator - Health tools - NHS Choices

Speaking

Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen | TED Talk

Audio Visual

• Open Broadcaster Software | Home - for video recording and live streaming, suggested by Watch How-To Training for Technology Professionals for Free
• Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN
• A Music Library / Editor / Player — Quod Libet

Quod Libet is written in Python and uses a Python library for manipulating audio file metadata, specifically the tags, see Overview — mutagen for details.

Communication

• Discord - Free Voice and Text Chat for Gamers - for gamers to replace Skype or TeamSpeak but can be used generally
• Video Meetings, Video Conferencing, and Screen Sharing - Whereby (formally appear.in) - meeting focused, supports screen sharing, either with a Chrome extension, or it just works in Firefox
• Zoom - supports conferences
• Jitsi Meet - secure and free video conferencing
• Signal >> Home - secure messaging
• The messenger - Delta Chat - secure chat via e-mail

Boot CD

I have used Hiren's Boot CD in the past, not really sure where to get it from now, possibly Hiren's BootCD PE but maybe Hiren's BootCD 15.2 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info.

System Integration

The following sites might be useful for solutions you are building:

• Send real letters from the Internet - PC2Paper
• Outgoing authenticated SMTP server and email relay service (solves most SMTP and email relay errors).

Coronavirus

Specifically COVID-19

• UKRI Coronavirus Hub - UK Research and Innovation
• Coronavirus Research | Research | University of Oxford
• NIHR's response to COVID-19 | NIHR, which includes Welcome — RECOVERY Trial
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Office for National Statistics