WhoisHostingThis has a search plugin and bookmarklet to make it easy to find out what web host a site is using. Just visit a site and click the bookmarklet. I prefer having the bookmarklet open the results on the same page instead of opening a new one. If you feel the same way, here’s the […]

An easy way to increase your productivity is to respond to email at predetermined times instead of all the time. I used to have my email open in a Firefox tab all day every day. I jumped on incoming emails like a hawk on its prey, but that’s inefficient. The distraction decreased my overall productivity […]

Etherpad is an online collaborative editor that tracks every keystroke you type. Paul Graham wrote an essay using Etherpad, and now you can see him writing it. It’s as if you’re looking over his shoulder, giving you a glimpse into his writing process. (Hint: it includes liberal use of the backspace) The playback feature isn’t […]

With the recent release of Safari 4 Beta, there are 4 viable browser options for Windows users. I don’t consider Internet Explorer a good option (measured by security, speed, user friendliness and adherence to web standards) but one could argue there are 5. I’ve heard murmurs that IE 8 is a big improvement, but I’ll […]

Guess the average age a child gets their first cell phone. I’ll wait. Got it? Let’s see how you did. A study of 1,425 people in the UK (where cell phone plans are cheaper than in the US, possibly skewing the results) found the average kid gets a cell phone at age eight (!) Crazy. […]

Futility Closet posted a great quote from a Boston newspaper in 1865 declaring a guy trying to sell telephones a criminal. This was especially interesting to me as I’m currently reading How to License Your Million Dollar Idea where he discusses the process of licensing your new inventions. I read in another book that a […]

On Windows, Freecell game #11982 is impossible to beat. But there is a way, albeit unorthodox. Open up Freecell and hit F3 (or Game -> Select Game) and type in 11982. Hit Control-Shift-F10, then move the 2 of hearts to the 3 of spades and voila, you won the game. At least, that’s what your […]

The Flesch Kincaid Readability Test measures two aspects of a document – the reading ease and grade level. Reading ease is measured from 0 to 100, 0 being incomprehensible and 100 being easily understandable by an average 11 year-old student. The reading level represents the number of years of education needed to understand the text. […]

This YouTube video of a kid after going to the dentist has become surprisingly popular. I wondered what all the buzz was about because it’s not all that amusing. Now I see why we needed the first one – so we could see this one. Chad Vader is brilliant.

I’ve heard the quote, “No one ever wished they spent more time at work on their deathbed” one too many times. I have a beef with it. I understand the intention of the quote and I agree with the sentiment, but it’s dangerous to claim absolutes. A single exception disproves the whole thing. Plus there’s […]

I recently heard a clip of “To Show You My Love” by Mike Schmid (Warning: Music plays automatically). It’s a sappy love song, but I liked it enough to want to own it. I found shortened MP3s of the nearly all the songs on the album page but that wasn’t good enough. The album site […]

One of my favorite cartoon movies is Disney’s Robin Hood. After seeing it several times with my kids I started using the phrase, “Oo de lally” to express surprise or delight and it stuck. My 4 year-old and 2 year-old adopted the phrase too and it makes me laugh every time I hear them say […]

Local storage is great. It’s fast, relatively inexpensive and under your control, but if a natural disaster strikes, on-site backups alone may not preserve your data. Having off-site backups has been expensive in the past, but dozens of free or inexpensive services have been created in the past few years. There are several flavors of […]