Net numbers
Bango.net, a start-up in Cambridge, thinks the web would be easier to use if sites had numbers instead of words for addresses - and for people using mobile phones and other primitive devices, or foreign languages, this could well be true. Bango is giving a million numbers away at www.bango.net. However, you have to hand over a valid email address, and the number link must be used at least once a month.
US views
America's PBS public broadcasting network has a new site with a thematic approach: American Photography: A Century of Images. Kodak sponsorship has enabled PBS to build a bigger site than usual but the pictures are still too small. Other new PBS sites continue the theme of presenting the American Experience Online. These include Coney Island and Mr Miami Beach, produced with WGBH in Boston.
Ask OJ
You've asked Jeeves and perhaps beseeched the Internet Oracle: now Ask OJ, for a price. The former American football star found not guilty of murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and restaurant waiter Ron Goldman is scheduled to hold his first live session online today. The website, run by the company behind the all-female VoyeurDorm, charges $7.95 for access or $9.95 on the day of this "Historic Event".
War diary
What happened day by day during four critical months in 1940? The answer is now being revealed on the Battle of Britain History site, where the RAF is publishing the complete Fighter Command Operational Diaries for the first time. The site also includes background information and a regrettably small picture gallery from which the plane above is taken.
World beat
The World Entertainment Network is webcasting the Womad USA world music festival from Seattle (July 28-30). A trailer promoting some of the artists involved is at Wen's site, www.wen.com.
Pilger online
John Pilger will be chatting on the web on Monday to mark the expansion and relaunch of the Carlton TV website devoted to his work. The site offers about 100 video clips and all the award-winning reporter's recent articles: www.carlton.com/pilger.
Spot on
The Spot On controller lets you put together sequences of sites and navigate them with a VCR-style on-screen controller. If you regularly trawl through a series of sites, Spot On preloads pages automatically, so pressing the forward button is as quick as pressing the back button. The control software for Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer can be found at www.spoton.com.
The X factor
Virgin.Net has opened an official website for X-Men at www.virgin.net/x-men, the Twentieth Century Fox film which will be released in the UK on August 18. The site has interviews with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, and the creator of the original comic, Stan Lee. While Virgin's mutant design may have usability problems, it is a lot less horrible than the official American site at www.x-men-the-movie.com.
New and noted
Britain's championship-winning coxless rowers, preparing for the Sydney Olympics, now have a website at www.coxless4.com. Marie Stopes International reckons its redesigned site is the first where visitors can book an abortion online. Timotei, the shampoo, is being promoted with a "viral marketing campaign based on e-cards at www.timotei-naturebursts.co.uk.
Mensa International, the society for people who can pass IQ tests, has opened "the world's first global ideas factory" for inventors and entrepreneurs at www.mensaiqcapital.com.
Wap watch
By Victor Keegan
To use your Wap (wireless application protocol) phone to locate the nearest off licence or filling station try http://offramp.co.uk
Job searching is a natural for Wap, and http://mmm.closecom.com specialises in telecommunications jobs.
Now http://wap.foxkids.co.uk has news and entertainment for kids on the move - with interactivity promised later.
Frustrated with not being able to connect to Wap sites? The online bible at http://wap.mobible.org/may give the solace needed.
Six of the best Free stuff
UK phone calls
www.pc2call.com
SMS messages
www.breathe.com
Faxes
www.efax.com
Voicemail
www.voizmail.com
Computer games
www.freeloader.com
Music files
www.mp3.com
• Sites suggested by Computeractive magazine.
