Month: December 2008 blog archive
The Best 5 Books I Read in 2008 - 29 Dec 2008

I do a lot of reading. They’re mostly read audio books checked out from the library with a few regular books added to the mix. From the fifty plus books I read this year (at least since I started tracking them on LibraryThing), here’s my top five, in the order that I read them. The […]

Categories: Books
Embed Documents On Your Page - 28 Dec 2008

Embedit lets you embed all sorts of file types directly on your site. It lets visitors see the document conveniently instead of downloading and viewing it in another application. It supports the typical Microsoft Office file types, along with Open Office. It also supports images and text files. The images don’t seem all that useful […]

Categories: Blogging
WordPress 2.7 Released - 11 Dec 2008

WordPress 2.7 is now available. The admin UI has been completely reworked to be easier to use and faster. I’ve been using it since RC1 on a test blog and was impressed with the changes. I’ve now upgraded all my sites to 2.7 and all plugins are functioning as far as I can tell. Get […]

Categories: Blogging,WordPress
4 Gmail Lab Features You Can’t Live Without - 11 Dec 2008

My wife glanced at my browser the other day and said, “Hey, I want that!” She was referring to the embedded Google Calendar in the sidebar. I realized some of you may not be aware of the new features Gmail has been rolling out in the form of Lab features. Here’s a rundown of my […]

Categories: Computers
On the Oregon Trail - 10 Dec 2008

I never played Oregon Trail in school. We played Lemonade Stand and programmed in Logo. Even though Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand were created by the same company (MECC), I never heard about Oregon Trail while I was in junior high school. I’ve since heard enough about it that I wanted to give it a […]

Categories: Computers,Games
Oh the Things Bears Love - 09 Dec 2008

Things Bears Love chronicles the loves of a bear. The images are funny but slightly gruesome. But mostly really funny. (via waxy links)

Categories: Humor
How to Monitor Mortgage Rates - 08 Dec 2008

If you’re looking to buy a house and want to monitor mortgage interest rates, it’s harder than you might think. I was unable to find a single site that had stock market-like mortgage rate tracking. Part of the problem is the variability among mortgage rates depending on your credit score, loan and home value and […]

Categories: Finances
Top 10 Christmas Gifts for the Geek In Your Life - 07 Dec 2008

ThinkGeek is one of the few online shopping locations that cater specifically to geeks. They’ve got some great stuff. If you’re shopping for a geek, or you’re a geek yourself and you want to give others gift ideas, here are my top 10 choices for this year. 10. Play the drums right on your shirt […]

Categories: Commerce
FBI’s Ten Most Wanted - 06 Dec 2008

The FBI is using widgets to enhance their search for the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The widget shown below is by ClearSpring. I know very little about these men or their crimes, but I find it interesting that these men are on the list. Given the high number of murders in say, Chicago, murder alone […]

Categories: Society
Michigan Police Chief Admits Speeding Tickets Are About Money - 05 Dec 2008

The Michigan Police Chief admitted that when they’re short on funds, increasing the number of speeding tickets they give out is an easy way to make up the difference. In small towns the number of tickets went up from 440 to 2,500 – 480 percent.

Categories: Automotive
How to Launch a Bookmarklet with a Keyboard Shortcut - 04 Dec 2008

In keeping with my recent theme of keyboard shortcuts, this post will show you how to launch any bookmarklet you want with a keyboard shortcut. At first I searched high and low for a Firefox extension that would help with this. The closest one I found is called Devo. It’s a command launcher for Firefox, […]

Categories: Web browsers
The Perfect Windows System Monitor - 03 Dec 2008

I’ve been using KlipFolio to monitor CPU and memory usage, but it’s had some problems. The always on top setting didn’t always work. The whole point of having it was to be able to see it whenever I wanted, like when my machine was crawling to a halt, so I could see if it was […]

Categories: Computers
Your Personality Type Derived From Your Blog - 02 Dec 2008

Typealyzer claims to be able to determine someone’s personality type from what they’ve written on their blog. I tried it out with my blog along with several others from the blogs I follow. This blog, along with Cameron, JD (of Get Rich Slowly), Dave Barry, Gina (of Lifehacker) and Steve Pavlina were dubbed ISTP – […]

Categories: Blogging,Society
Christmas Desktop 2008 - 01 Dec 2008

It’s that time of the year again. Since I skipped my annual Christmas desktop showcase last year, I’m going all out for 2008. Not only is there a screenshot, but an animated GIF of the desktop, including a Christmas-themed browser (Firefox). To top it all off, I’ve linked to all the apps and images I […]

Categories: The site