Santanarchy
The official San Francisco police department arrest report apparently said that the suspects were nabbed for behaving in an "unChristmas- like fashion" - which understandably might be a problem when you're talking about a blasphemous legion of 100 men and women in Santa suits. Now an annual phenomenon, the Cheap Suit Santas have caused problems in a number of US cities and also sent a contingent to the Burning Man festival (must have been hot in the desert in those Santa suits). Their shameful - or is it shameless? - exploits are chronicled on the Santarchy in the USA website (www.santarchy.com) , including video clips and a hall of shame picture gallery. Where will they strike in 2000?

Planet kids
Planet Gullane is a new kids' website from Gullane Entertainment, the people who produce Thomas the Tank Engine, Sooty, Pugwash and other characters. There's merchandise, of course, but kids who love the characters will have fun playing around with the games and running the video clips. Needs a fast connection though, or children are likely to get bored waiting for sections to download.

Bluetoothy
Red-M, a company that specialises in networking solutions based on Bluetooth short-range wireless communication technology, has set up a website dedicated to the latest Bluetooth news and developments. In affiliation with the news service Lexis/Nexis, Red-M will send email bulletins to subscribers, with links back to the Bluetooth news site. The service, called M-news, is free but you need to register.

New line-up
The portal site LineOne has relaunched itself with a focus on services and celebrities. There's a call manager to handle calls while surfers are online, a calendar feature, and software agents that will search the web for information of interest to a particular user. In addition, Line One has lined up some intriguing columnists - who can resist lifestyle advice from Joan Collins, de-stressing with Ruby Wax, football views from George Best, games and entertainment news from Craig Charles, and a satirical view of current affairs from Jeremy Hardy.

Code works
Cryptography, the encoding of digital information, is a topic much in the news in recent years as governments, law enforcement agencies, businesses, privacy advocates and citizens argue over who should have the right to use it and how impenetrable systems should be. However, most people probably have only a vague understanding of encryption. A good site for some easy and fun crypto lessons - designed for teaching students but good for self-learning too - are at www.achiever.com/freehmpg/cryptology/crypto.html

Catchy tunes
First MP3s, then peer-to-peer sharing of songs. Now Gotuit, a Boston start-up, has come up with software called Songcatcher to record songs from the radio using a PC. Gotuit says the method is completely legal, too. Download Songcatcher www.songcatcher.com then attach a radio, using an audio or microphone jack. A premium version of Songcatcher is available for $29.95 per year.

New and noted
• Find a romantic getaway at www.BestRomanticInns.com

• Try out an online snowboarding game to win prizes from Thomas Cook at www.thomascook.co.uk/competition/snowboard2001.html

• After the turkey, an alternative to the Queen's message from Aardman Studio's Angry Kid: www.angrykid.com