Because my brain is too small to rememeber all these junks…
Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher for Windows
This has got to be the best Windows utility ever! I’ve used previous version of this, but it looks like they have made lots of enhancements, such as Firefox integration and much better look-and-feel. Its functionality is much like Spotlight of Mac OS X. For Windows power users who don’t like to use mouse, and do things more efficiently, it’s a must-have. Best of all, it’s absolutely free! :-)
(via LifeHacker)
Whole Foods Market : Company : John Mackey’s Blog : Compensation at Whole Foods Market
Some key points:
Whole Foods was touted as being one of the most democratic workplace in US. It’s nice to know there are CEO’s like John. The positive PR on this news must be priceless for Whole Foods, though.
the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does. When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation and this prediction is used to cancel the response of other brain areas to the tickle.
I’ve wondered about this myself. Conversely, I found that if you want resist the ticklish feeling when someone tickles you, just try to imagine that it is you who is doing the tickling.
“self-tickling”… sounds so wrong :-|
Midomi allows people to search for a song by singing, humming or whistling a bit of the tune. The site then offers search results that include commercially recorded tracks or versions of the song recorded by others who have used the site. The technology also lets people listen to the exact section of each of the results that matched their voice sample.
I swear I thought of this idea first back in 2001 :-(
A week before last Christmas, the flat screen TV that I’d been borrowing from Migi suddenly decided to crap out on me :-( It would have cost me $175 to “replace the power supply” but I felt like I was being had by the tv-repair guy (I am suspicious of all service people) who will probably just replace the fuse.
So after a few weeks of agonizing indecision making, I decided to become a good American consumer and plunk down $700 to buy this TV as a replacement - Ha! I showed that tv-repair guy! … :-/
Here’s the run down of the-good and the-bad:
The good:
But…
All in all, I am quite satisfied with this purchase. And come to think of it, I think this was the first TV that I bought for myself so I feel little attached to it… but I’ll probably end up selling it before I move back to CA and upgrade to 32″ :-P
Update (1/25): Make sure the sponge is WET first! LOL
“To guard against the risk of fire, people who wish to sterilize their sponges at home must ensure the sponge is completely wet. Two minutes of microwaving is sufficient for most sterilization. Sponges should also have no metallic content. Last, people should be careful when removing the sponge from the microwave as it will be hot.”
Microwave zaps germs on sponges, study finds
A team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida found that two minutes of microwaving on full power killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge.
I just put it next to the windows after washing dishes to let it dry overnight… wonder if that will that make the bacteria go airborne. Eeek :-/
(via Digg)
Putting the Annual Cost of War in Perspective
NYTimes has this excellent chart that puts the cost of war in Iraq in perspective. From chart: Iraq War is costing US $200 billion per year, which is much more than Universal Health Care, Universal preschool, real Homeland Security, Cancer Research, immunizations for world’s children, COMBINED
That’s pretty much the gist of it, but I highly recommend the accompanying article “What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy“
Shelfari makes it easy to see what your friends are reading and even get and give book recommendations.
Cool. I already have list of books in my blog, but this site adds the community aspect to it.
I see a lot of these small Web 2.0′ish startups popping up these days, like Geni.com I blogged about yesterday. Most of them are small social-media websites that does one thing (sometimes one thing well). If they can lure even the tiniest percentage of web users, it could mean huge in terms of raw numbers (Wired magazine call this mega-niche). And once they have a solid user base, it can either generate $ from running ads or be acquired by bigger companies like Yahoo! or Google for $$$. It smells like the 90’s all over again, doesn’t it? What helps drive this is availability of easy-to-use frameworks like Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, and Django, that makes it relatively easy to create a functional website once you have some cool ideas. Anyone got some? ;-)
Damn Interesting » The Lonely Tree of Ténéré
A few trees are also worthy of note due to being record-holders. The state of California is home to several such trees: the tallest one known, a 155.5 meter redwood called Hyperion; the largest, the 1,450 cubic meter giant sequoia named General Sherman; and the oldest, a 4,800-year-old bristlecone pine known as Methuselah. It’s difficult to be certain of which individual tree is the most remote. For several decades that distinction belonged to the Tree of Ténéré, an acacia tree standing alone in the vast, hostile expanse of the Sahara Desert. However, in 1973 this tree met an exceedingly improbable end.
Dang interesting, indeed.
“Geni is a website that allows families to collaboratively build their family tree. Family members can then use the tree to learn more about each other, share knowledge about common ancestors and relatives, and stay in touch with each other.”
Very cool, with a slick Flash based Family Tree interface. I was looking for a tool just like this, even thought about writing one at some point — so glad I didn’t :D Hope it stays free, and does not have any security breaches. I’m just trying to keep track of all the names of my cousins and their kids for now…
I WAS SERVED A FRENCH DI$$ IN N.Y. CAFE By JENNIFER FERMINO - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
The city Department of Consumer Affairs prohibits restaurants from adding tips onto whatever tables they feel like.
Its rules state that a restaurant can impose a 15 percent gratuity on parties of eight or more as long as it conspicuously prints the policy on the menu.
Remember this when you dine at a restaurants! (restaurants in NYC anyway) This happened to me at some of the restaurants we dined in, e.g. Bari in SoHo. I know better next time they try to pull this on me!
Is soap “self-cleaning” because it’s soap? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
Slate Explainer’s Question of the Year
it’s likely that the bacteria on a dirty bar would just wash off when you rinsed your hands. In other words, you’d be cleaning the soap as you cleaned your hands. (Your hands would probably have been a lot dirtier than the soap to begin with.)
…
Even under the best conditions, washing your hands can actually increase the number of microorganisms present on your hands, thanks to contaminated surfaces near the sink, splashes of contaminated water, or improperly dried hands. (In general, it’s safer to leave your hands unwashed than to leave them wet.) The hand-washing paradox might also result from soap-induced skin damage: Dry skin tends to crack and flake and may become more permeable to infectious agents. (You’re more susceptible to this if you wash many times per day.)
I actually found the other nominated question more fascinating, that “whether we’re likely to have inhaled molecules from the body of Abraham Lincoln.” I have wondered about this myself, and the answer (at least what the physicists say) is assuring, yet still mind-boggling.
Geni - Everyone’s Related
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