owenrudge.net Awards

In the earlier days of my site, I gave out awards to sites I thought were good. You can find the list below, and chortle at the Emma Bunton fan sites and suchlike. I haven't done this since, and you'll have to excuse the fact that many of the sites I probably wouldn't give awards to now having grown up a bit since then! I also can't guarantee the links will work, or the sites will be in the same condition they were back then...

August 2000 Award Winner

emmabunton.co.uk

emmabunton.co.uk is an excellent site for Emma Bunton fans. It contains plenty of information, hundreds of pictures, and has an easy-to-use, attractive interface. A worthy winner of the Gold award!

September 2000 Award Winner

VBWire

VBWire is a great source of Visual Basic news, reviews, hints, tips and many other VB-related things. Also well worth a visit!

October 2000 Award Winner

Microsith

Microsith is a great site for anti-Microsoft people. It's also fine for those of us who like Microsoft. It doesn't really matter if you like Microsoft or not, because it's just a bit of fun. It'd be best if you like Star Wars though... Another great site.

November 2000 Award Winner

Nathan's Toasty Technology Pages

Nathan's Toasty Technology Pages are great. A GUI gallery, some entertaining anti-Microsoft pages (even for a non-anti-Microsofty such as myself), some *ahem* very expert technical advice and a load more. Great stuff. Check this out.

December 2000 Award Winner

.net magazine

The home of .net magazine contains a load of information, hints, tips, reviews and a load more. The magazine's very good as well... :-)

January 2001 Award Winner

TTDX Central

TTDX Central is a good site for Transport Tycoon-related hints, tips, downloads, and a load more. A recommended visit.

February 2001 Award Winner

VBWeb

A well designed site full of information, code, and more on Visual Basic. An excellent site.

March 2001 Award Winner

Window Planet

Window Planet is an excellent site full of information about computers, in particular, Windows and other Microsoft products. "It's people's "window" on our planet that is becoming increasingly dominated by technology" - Nicolàs Martins, Chairman, Window Planet Networks.

April 2001 Award Winner

The Official Star Wars Web Site (aka starwars.com)

starwars.com is a great site for Star Wars fans. Loads of information on the classic trilogy, Episode I and the forthcoming Episode II, plus a databank full of information on characters, locations, vehicles, and so on, with information not only about the movies, but the world of Star Wars comics, magazines, and so on. Plus other features, such as snapshots from the movies, Ask the Jedi Council, and more!

May 2001 Award Winner

TheForce.net

TheForce.net is another Star Wars related site, with loads of information, news, rumours, fun, fan fiction/movies/animations and other stuff about Star Wars. It also has some very popular message boards, where you may find me lurking in the shadows..... :-)

June 2001 Award Winner

Useless Fact Of The Day

A brilliant site for everything useless. Includes a load of useless facts, plus several graffiti walls, a quiz and a useless competition! There's also a daily newsletter containing a useless fact, delivered straight to your Inbox! Well worth a visit!

July 2001 Award Winner

Melissa Joan Hart Central

As you might have noticed, I rather like Melissa Joan Hart and so it seemed appropriate to give this award to a good Melissa site that I visit frequently. Melissa Joan Hart Central (or mjhfan.com as it's often called) has loads of information, pictures and more, and is a good place for Melissa fans. [NOTE: This site is now defunct. :-( Most of the content will be incorporated into a new site of mine, The Melissa Zone, coming soon]

August 2001 Award Winner

Humorix

Humorix is an excellent site with fake news (most of the time!) and jokes about Linux, Microsoft, hacking, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and various other things. Check it out, and be sure to subscribe to the mailing list!

September 2001 Award Winner

The Bad Seal web site

The Bad Seal web site is the home of the SEAL distribution Bad Seal (surprise, surprise). This site is quite a good one in some ways. It may not be perfect, but it's fairly good anyway. :-)
NOTE: This site no longer exists. You can use www.archive.org to view some revisions of it though.

October 2001 Award Winner

melissajoanhart.net

This is an excellent site for Melissa Joan Hart fans. It recently had a facelift and is now even better. One of the best Melissa sites on the web! Check it out!

November 2001 Award Winner

BritneyFans.com

BritneyFans.com is a brilliant Britney Spears web site, with a great design, one of the largest Britney Spears photo galleries on the web, a number of high-quality videos, and more!

December 2001 Award Winner

Allegro.cc

Allegro.cc is a site full of games created with the Allegro game programming library. One of the main features of the site is the forums, which are full of people who are ready to help you if you need it, and who you can have a laugh with. A great site! [UPDATE - 06/03/2002: The much-awaited "Allegro.cc 2" has finally arrived! Check it out!]

January 2002 Award Winner

Computer Stupidities

This is a very interesting site with many stories about people who have been put in front of a computer, and got things wrong. In a very big way. A great site that will guarantee you a laugh.

February 2002 Award Winner

The Sabrina Transcripts

This is an interesting site with transcripts of series 1-5 of Sabrina The Teenage Witch (with season 6 coming soon). Although there are some errors, if you're a Sabrina fan, check it out!

March 2002 Award Winner

Dude Studios

Home of the brilliant Star Dudes saga, Dude Studios is an entertaining site which is sure to keep you amused if you're bored or feeling down. Star Dudes: Episode I is coming out very soon! :-)

April 2002 Award Winner

HowStuffWorks

HowStuffWorks is a very interesting site describing how many things you encounter in day-to-day life, and some things you probably don't encounter very often, work. The site is very detailed - you will spend ages reading through the fascinating articles!

May 2002 Award Winner

Microsoft Software Forum Network

The Microsoft Software Forum Network (MSFN) is a very useful set of forums providing you with help, support and tips on using Microsoft products, specifically the XP range (e.g., Windows XP, Office XP, IE6, etc). If you have a problem with Windows XP, post a message here!

June 2002 Award Winner

The Transport Tycoon Semi-FAQ

The TT Semi-FAQ is a great site with loads of information on the Transport Tycoon games, including hints and strategies on how to play the best game. A recommended site for any TT player.

July 2002 Award Winner

Linux Mandrake

Mandrake is an excellent Linux distribution, with plenty of apps, a friendly interface and loads of help. The web site provides plenty of information on Mandrake. A recommended web site for a recommended Linux distribution.

August 2002 Award Winner

Guess The Dictator Or Sit-Com Character

Guess The Dictator Or Sit-Com Character is a brilliant site! Just think of a sitcom character or dictator and answer the questions - it's got mine correct almost every time, whether I picked Sabrina from Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Compo from Last of the Summer Wine or Seth from Emmerdale! Some of these aren't even sitcoms, but they're still in there! This will keep you amused for hours! Well, it did for me anyway...

September 2002 Award Winner

TV Home/TV Forum

If, like me, you're interested in television idents, theme tunes, and so on, then you'll like TV Home. This site contains a number of idents, old and new ones, such as the old BBC Balloon idents, the new BBC 1 'dancers' idents, the ITV Hearts idents, and the new idents for ITV1, which will hit our screens this month. (Well, actually, it won't hit my screen, as I receive Grampian, which, along with Scottish, has its own idents, but anyway...) Complementing the site is TV Forum, a very active set of forums where you can discuss television matters, post mock ident and logo designs, request idents and themes and also just have a general chat. Recommended!

October 2002 Award Winner

TTDPatch

TTDPatch is a brilliant patch for Transport Tycoon Deluxe - indeed, it is the patch for TTD. It includes many enhancements, new features, bug fixes, and so on - larger stations, more vehicles, new ships, subsidiary management - you name it, TTDPatch does it. Well, mostly. TTDPatch 1.9 was released very recently - go and get it now if you don't already!

November 2002 Award Winner

MSDN

A huge site, with a good, clear design, and bucket loads of information on programming for Windows, IIS, .NET, DirectX, and other Microsoft technologies. Recommended for any Windows developer.

December 2002 Award Winner

Dan's 20th Century Abandonware

A very interesting site with information, screenshots, etc on hundreds of older programs for DOS, Windows, GEM, Macintosh and other platforms. Well worth a visit if you're interested in older software.

January 2003 Award Winner

MSN Gaming Zone

If you're looking for a way to spend some time, and you like online gaming, the MSN Gaming Zone is a great place to hang out. Loads of games can be played, including freely downloadable games and commercial games such as Age of Empires and Flight Simulator, plus many others. Well worth a visit.

February 2003 Award Winner

PHP.net

The official PHP web site provides a lot of information on PHP (which this site is powered by), as well as documentation, examples and more. Includes links to newsgroups, mailing lists and forums where you can get help with PHP. If you're a PHP developer, or are interested in web development, this site is recommended.

March 2003 Award Winner

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon is probably the UK's best known online shopping site. Amazon carries thousands of DVDs, videos, CDs, books, plus computer software and hardware, home electronics, even kitchenware! Price-cutting special offers are regular, and delivery is prompt. Highly recommended!

April 2003 Award Winner

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar

The SCUMM Bar is a brilliant site about the Monkey Island games by LucasArts. The site has a great design, and plenty of content to keep you busy. In addition, it is regularly updated with Monkey Island news, and has an active forum about the game. If you're not a Monkey Island fan, you should be! Check it out!

May 2003 Award Winner

AudioScrobbler

AudioScrobbler is an innovative site that creates a personalised list of the music you listen to, the songs you most listen to, and other users who listen to music like you. You can download plug-ins for many popular media players, including Winamp (2.x and Winamp3), Windows Media Player and iTunes, and if you're not connected to the Internet all the time, don't worry - tracks are cached and sent when you go online.

June 2003 Award Winner

Channel 4's Big Brother UK site

Either you love Big Brother or you hate it... I personally fit into the first category (in particular this year as there is someone from Orkney on the series, which is where I live!). Channel 4's Big Brother site has a nice design, and is constantly updated every day with news on the housemates, the weekly task, and other features. You can talk about Big Brother in the forums, and also vote online if you register with BT (requires a credit card).

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Also, owenrudge.net has won some awards itself! This site has won the 2001-2002 Golden Web Award, plus the 2003-2004 Golden Web Award! It has also won the 2002-2003 Junior Web Award!