Open Web Awards: The Finals

The moment is here. After more than 50,000 nominations and in excess of 80,000 verified votes from the web community, we’re pleased to announce the finalists in the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest to find the web’s best sites and services. Congratulations to all the finalists!
Open Web Awards: The Finals

Funny Pic: Lunch

Its the animal kingdom version of a sushi train. Lunch on the run, killer whale style.
Funny Pic: Lunch

Conundrum: A Cold Spoor Warmed Up

No talk show about words and no word column can do without a question about conundrum. Since the label “of unknown origin” has stuck fast to it, the questions will never cease, and therein lies their main beauty.
Conundrum: A Cold Spoor Warmed Up

Women in science group want a female Doctor Who

The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is calling for the next Doctor Who to be a woman, in order to inspire girls to take up careers in science (and time-lording).
Women in science group want a female Doctor Who

AOL 2008 Year in Review: The Hottest Search Trends

The presidential election reigned supreme in the land of America (Online), as politically charged queries ranged across more than 40 categories in AOL’s annual lists of top Web, mobile and video searches. Celebrity news, captivating headlines and pop culture continued to captivate the online audience; emerging mobile devices bumped activity for social apps like MySpace and Facebook, as well as sharing videos downloaded via apps for the iPhone.
AOL 2008 Year in Review: The Hottest Search Trends

Google 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist; Fastest Rising Searches

Google’s official list of the most popular search activity for 2008, aka Zeitgeist, has yet to make its debut, but the search giant has been leaking out tasty tidbits of data to get us salivating for even more search data.
Google 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist; Fastest Rising Searches

12 mental exercises -- zany but productive

Dorothea Brande was an American writer and editor, well known for her books Wake Up and Live and Becoming a Writer (a useful resource for writers, by the way). In Wake Up and Live, she suggests twelve mental exercises to make your mind keener and more flexible.
12 mental exercises -- zany but productive

'Port' and 'sherry' out as Canberra signs wine deal with EU

FIRST it was champagne. Now Australia has agreed to European demands to drop the terms "port" and "sherry" to describe locally made fortified wines.
'Port' and 'sherry' out as Canberra signs wine deal with EU

100+ More Ways to Organize Your Life

From basic to do lists to event planning, fitness, educational organizers, and more, here are 100 new applications to get you even more organized.
100+ More Ways to Organize Your Life

Australia experiences record population growth: ABS

Australia recorded its fastest population growth since 1989, according to figures released today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. As at 30 June 2008, Australia's population had grown to 21,374,000, an increase of 1.7% or 359,000 people. Net overseas migration contributed 213,500 people (or 59% of growth) to Australia's population and natural increase (the excess of births over deaths) contributed 145,500 (41%).
Australia experiences record population growth: ABS

Manage Your Online Reputation

Are you happy with the results people get back when they Google your name? If not, there are easy ways to monitor and guide what information is published about you online. Two years ago we covered how to have a say in what Google says about you, and more recently, and how to track down anyone online. But a rash of social media sites have arisen that give you more tools to help you manage your online reputation and become more findable.
Manage Your Online Reputation

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2008

With politics and the economy foremost on the minds of many, it is no wonder that bailout—a word ubiquitously featured in discussions of the presidency and fiscal policy—took home honors as Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2008.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2008

NORAD TRACKS SANTA 2008

All the preparations for this year are in place! Return on Christmas Eve to track St. Nick on his magical flight around the world! Until then, come back each day to receive updates from the North Pole and to discover new surprises in the Kids' Countdown.
NORAD TRACKS SANTA 2008

Year in Review 2008 from Yahoo! Buzz

Olympian highs and politics as unusual, to celebrity hopefuls and market meltdowns: Through millions of searches and thousands of stories each day, people sought to make sense of the world around them. Take a look back at what captivated our imagination and fueled our passions in 2008, a very historic year indeed.
Year in Review 2008 from Yahoo! Buzz

Ask Top 2008 Searches

The lowdown on 2008 from Ask.
Ask Top 2008 Searches

Smiley sky above Oz

Jupiter and Venus line up to create a smiley face with the crescent-shaped moon.
Smiley sky above Oz

Woman has perfect "episodic memory"

"People say to me: Oh, how fascinating, it must be a treat to have a perfect memory," she says. Her lips twist into a thin smile. "But it's also agonizing."
Woman has perfect "episodic memory"

The 100 Best Movies of 2008

Times and Sunday Times critics pick their favourite films of the year.
The 100 Best Movies of 2008

How to Choose a Haircut That Flatters Your Facial Shape

Your hair is your crown, so it should be treated like a crown and make you feel like royalty. A good hair day needs a good haircut and good haircuts are made with more than just scissors and gel. The two most noticeable things about you would definitely be your face and your personality (unless of course you have 3 arms or something) so you should definitely take these things in account when choosing your hairstyle.
How to Choose a Haircut That Flatters Your Facial Shape

Diamond Ring Buying Tips

It pays to learn as much as you can before purchasing a diamond ring. Knowing all about the four Cs, having a budget and thoroughly vetting your jeweler are tips that will help you buy the diamond ring of your dreams.
Diamond Ring Buying Tips

HD or Standard Def? One in Five HDTV Owners Don't Know the Difference

If it's flat and has a big-screen, it's high-def, right? Apparently, a lot of HDTV buyers think so.
HD or Standard Def? One in Five HDTV Owners Don't Know the Difference

Laptop Buying Guide

Laptops are diversifying. Depending on your needs, you can find a model with a 7-, 9-, 13-, 14-, 15-, 17, or even 20-inch display. Battery life is getting longer, smaller systems are getting lighter (though at the expense of speed). Larger models are still hefty, but they're getting faster, rivaling desktop models.
Laptop Buying Guide

Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools

The internet has made it easier than ever to share media and data with friends, family, and co-workers, but that doesn't mean burning your own CDs and DVDs is a thing of the past. Blank optical discs are dirt cheap, they work virtually everywhere, and if you bought your computer sometime in the last 5 years, chances are you've got the necessary hardware to quickly burn anything you want to a disc in just a few minutes. Now all you need is the right authoring tools.
Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools

The Best Online Sources To Play & Learn Chess

Sites to play and learn chess.
The Best Online Sources To Play & Learn Chess

Blackstump Australia Issue 44 - November 30, 2008

This weeks latest sites ftom The Black Stump...
Blackstump Australia Issue 44 - November 30, 2008

Why You Shouldn't Care What Others Think About You

Who’s in control of your life? Who’s pulling your strings? For the majority of us, it’s other people – society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed.
Why You Shouldn't Care What Others Think About You

35 Things Every PC User Should Know

Want to speed up your broadband connection? Diagnose mysterious crashes? Move massive files across the Internet? Sooner or later, you will--and you'll find step-by-step instructions for these and other common PC tasks right here.
35 Things Every PC User Should Know

How to Use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT is a drug-free, easy-to-learn technique that may reduce stress or painful emotions associated with thoughts, past experiences, etc. There are several points on your body where you will tap, gently, with your fingers, while holding in mind the troublesome thought.
How to Use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Warren Buffett's 10 Ways To Get Rich

With an estimated fortune of $62 billion, Warren Buffett is the richest man in the entire world. In 1962, when he began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a share cost $7.50. Today, Buffett, 78, is Berkshire's chairman and CEO, and one share of the company's class A stock worth close to $119,000. He credits his astonishing success to several key strategies, which he has shared with writer Alice Schroeder. She spend hundreds of hours interviewing the Sage of Omaha for the new authorized biography The Snowball. Here are some of Buffett's money-making secrets -- and how they could work for you.
Warren Buffett's 10 Ways To Get Rich

Copy iPhone to Computer

iTunes users could not directly copy music files from iPhone to pc desktop or laptop because iTunes blocks iPhone-to-computer song/video transfer. But we can utilize other programs to achieve that. Here is step-by-step guide on how to transfer songs and videos from iPhone to computer.
Copy iPhone to Computer

India: 80 Reported Dead in Bombay Terror Attacks, 7 Locations Attacked

Terrorists struck at India's financial capital late Wednesday night as at least seven near-simultaneous firings and explosions rocked areas in the vicinity of posh hotels in South Mumbai, leaving ten persons dead and several injured.
India: 80 Reported Dead in Bombay Terror Attacks, 7 Locations Attacked

How to Master the Art of Forgiveness

Many people find it hard to forgive. As we go through life, it’s inevitable that we’ll come across people who wrong us in one way or another. From the one who cuts you off in traffic to the one who puts you on hold and forgets about you, there’s no shortage of people out there who aren’t treating us exactly the way we’d like. Unfortunately, we’re rather limited in our ability to influence their behavior. But the good news is that we have a lot of control over how we react to them.
How to Master the Art of Forgiveness

Get Windows 7's Best Features Right Now

If you're tired of hearing about Windows 7's upcoming features while you sit and stare at your aging XP or Vista desktop, take solace in a few free apps and themes that can give you a taste right now. While it's true that Windows 7 isn't much different from Windows Vista (inside and out), a few neat features are worth trying out, and you can do it without installing the Windows 7 Preview. Here are a few free apps and alternatives that simulate Windows 7's built-in features.
Get Windows 7's Best Features Right Now

Why It Pays to Ignore Financial News

Financial news can be dangerous to the health of your investment portfolio.
Why It Pays to Ignore Financial News

Bargains For The Holidays May Be Just Clicks Away

With the economy in a tailspin, consumers may be looking for every edge they can get this holiday season when they shop for bargains.
Bargains For The Holidays May Be Just Clicks Away

How did turtles get their shells?

Ever wonder how a turtle got its shell? You're not the only one. Evolutionary biologists and paleontologists have long been stumped by the question. But a recently unearthed turtle fossil, the oldest on record, may hold the answer.
How did turtles get their shells?

Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera

If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware.
Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera

Google Maps Gets Its Own Version of Clippy (And Some Useful Street View Updates)

Google Maps has just launched a number of updates that make Street View much more prominent. Now, whenever you’re viewing a map where there is Street View imagery available, you’ll be able to drag “Pegman” from the view slider to the street where you’d like to see a picture.
Google Maps Gets Its Own Version of Clippy (And Some Useful Street View Updates)

Fitness and the Brain: Can a Walk a Day Keep Alzheimer's Away?

Worldwide, more than 100 million people may have Alzheimer’s by the year 2050. As clinicians, we have learned to recognize that jokes about “old-timer’s disease” and “Teflon brain” are often calls for help from seniors worried about their memory lapses. Living longer is obviously no fun if you cannot remember your home address or drive a car.
Fitness and the Brain: Can a Walk a Day Keep Alzheimer's Away?

Australians are living longer

Life expectancy in Australia continues to increase, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The life expectancy of a boy born today is 79.0 years, while for a girl it is 83.7 years. Since 1987, life expectancy at birth has increased by around six years for men and four years for women.
Australians are living longer: ABS

Ninja, Pirate or Zombie: What's Your Attitude to Work?

Are you a ninja, a pirate, or a zombie? Or a bit of all three?
Ninja, Pirate or Zombie: What's Your Attitude to Work?

How to Deal With Difficult Relatives

s one thing dealing with difficult people with whom you have a professional or casual relationship, such as your boss, a co-worker, or anyone you deal with on a regular basis. But if the problem person is a relative and your relationship is personal and permanent, that’s a whole different beast. You must clearly define the boundaries you’re comfortable with, let the other person know what those boundaries are, and then enforce them.
How to Deal With Difficult Relatives

Abandon Your Self-Control.

Studies indicate that we have a limited amount of self-control, and it can be depleted. If you use a lot of self-control at work to resist the urge to yell at a co-worker, it might be harder to push yourself to go for a run when you get home.
Abandon Your Self-Control.

Grocery Saving Tips for Carnivores

Looking to make the most of your money saving opportunities while cooking for the meat and potato lovers in your family? Find the cost of your favorite cuts is putting a rather large dent in your child's college fund? Read on. Help has arrived.
Grocery Saving Tips for Carnivores

Five Recession-Proof Ways to Get Hired

Let’s face it—job hunting is a challenge in a good economy and we are now well into a full blown recession. If you dust off that old econ textbook in your mental library, you’ll remember a model called Supply and Demand.
Five Recession-Proof Ways to Get Hired

Tips for Traveling With Kids

The thing that causes the most stress isn’t holiday gifts or basting the turkey, it’s the prospect of a long plane flight or car ride with kids in tow.
Tips for Traveling With Kids

How to Figure Out What You Want in Life

What do you want to be when you grow up? For some it may be a disturbing notion to consider that even in our late twenties, thirties and beyond we may still find ourselves asking this question of ourselves.
How to Figure Out What You Want in Life

How to Maintain Eyeglasses

Eyeglasses can be a pain to care for, what with smears, smudges, fingerprints, fogging...Ever wondered how to look after your glasses, keep them in good repair so they'll last until your next eye exam? Want to be able to see through them without the smudges? Read on.
How to Maintain Eyeglasses

Protect your laptop and data on your USB keys

Here are two free Windows utilities worth trying. The first can help protect your laptop from theft, and the other will hide data (up to 1 GB) on your USB keys from prying eyes.
Useful Tools for Windows - Protect your laptop and data on your USB keys

Live Piracy Map

This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008. If exact coordinates are not provided, estimated positions are shown based on information provided. Zoom-in and click on the pointers to view more information of an individual attack. Pointers may be superimposed on each other.
Live Piracy Map

World's Tallest Bridge Goes Up in China with the Help of Some Rockets

They erected huge towers on either side of the valley to anchor the bridge, first off. Next, they attached 3,200-foot cables to rockets, accurately firing them across the valley to the other side. While other large bridges took care of this process using helicopters or kites, that was just too practical for these guys.
World's Tallest Bridge Goes Up in China with the Help of Some Rockets

Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide

Google SearchWiki — a new feature that allows you to move and comment on search results — has been out for less than a day, and it’s amazing to see how much confusion (as well as commentary) there is already developing. So below, some clarification on how it works, opportunities search marketers should consider, some privacy issues and ideas for improving it.
Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide

Blackstump Australia Issue 43 - November 22, 2008

This weeks latest sites ftom The Black Stump...
Blackstump Australia Issue 43 - November 22, 2008

Holiday toy shopping hints

If you’ve got kids to buy for this holiday season, you’re probably already thinking about what to get them. “Wow” gifts don’t have to be the season’s “hottest” toy. The classics can often hold their interest just as long.
Holiday toy shopping hints

Negotiation: Prices Are Just Suggestions

In the book, Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and The Gender Gap, authors Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever shed light on what should be some startling statistics. For example, men initiate negotiation four times more often than women, and women are 2.5 times more likely to feel apprehension when negotiating.
Negotiation: Prices Are Just Suggestions

The Best Way to Get Clean, Streak-Free Mirrors

Try as I may I cannot get my mirrors as clean as I would like them—and my vanity is not OK with that! Perhaps this solution from TipKing will do the trick.
The Best Way to Get Clean, Streak-Free Mirrors

How to Save Money by Shopping Once a Month

How often do you go to the supermarket? Could you get by making only one trip per month? What if it saved you money? When people shop more often, they buy more stuff. Supermarkets and grocery stores know this, and that's why they often bury the most common items in the back of the store - so you have to walk through the aisles to get there, and the probability of an impulse purchase goes up! Besides making a list and sticking to it, another way to limit your spending is to minimize the amount of time you actually spend in the store. Why make four or more trips per month when you can make just one? That's right--go grocery shopping 12 times a year. It takes time. It also takes organization. Here's how to pull it off.
How to Save Money by Shopping Once a Month

5 tips to avoid annoying other people

Most of us would like to get along well with others -- whether friends or strangers. One thing to keep in mind is that certain habits tend to get on other people’s nerves. Now you might say, “If someone’s annoyed when I talk on the phone in the grocery store, I don’t care, because that’s ridiculous!” The fact is, whether or not you think it’s ridiculous, some people will be very annoyed. Just know that. Here are some common aggravations to keep in mind.
5 tips to avoid annoying other people

Phishing Scams in Plain English

You’ve probably seen it. You receive an e-mail from your bank or trusted company, and it’s asking you for information. It looks real, but it’s designed to fool you into handing over important information. This is a scam called phishing, and you need to avoid it. This is Phishing Scams in Plain English. This video suggests several ways to minimize the risk of being scammed.
Phishing Scams in Plain English

Vestigial Facts

LiveScience's "Top 10 Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs)" slideshow.
Vestigial Facts

Things It’s Cheaper to Do Yourself

You can make a good argument for hiring out certain tasks because it frees your time or because the person you hire will do a better job. In fact, people have. Author Timothy Ferriss turned the idea of outsourcing your life into a best-selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek. But when money is tight and you’re looking for places to cut, some of the places you’re outsourcing now should get a second look.
Things It’s Cheaper to Do Yourself

Oxford’s Place of the Year 2008: Kosovo

Welcome to Geography Awareness week, the perfect time to announce another Place of the Year.
Oxford’s Place of the Year 2008: Kosovo

LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search

The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen. These are just some of the things you'll see in Google Image Search today.
LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search

20 of your most hated cliches

According to an online survey, cliches like "at the end of the day", "24/7" and "literally" are among the most reviled. Here are 20 more that particularly irk Magazine readers.
20 of your most hated cliches

Beatles hard days night mystery chord Solved with Fourier analysis

his first chord that starts A Hard Day’s Night is one of the most recognizable and famous opening chords in rock & roll. It’s played by George Harrison on his 12 string Rickenbacker.
Beatles hard days night mystery chord Solved with Fourier analysis

How to Open a Difficult Jar

Following these steps, even arthritic or small hands can open a jar with ease. Jars are under a vacuum; if you break the vacuum and let air in, then they are much easier to open.
How to Open a Difficult Jar

2008 Gadget Guide

Looking for the perfect present for that techno geek in your life? This year's guide has plenty to choose from, including a bunch for the socially conscious in search of green tech that helps curb energy usage, cut down on paper pollution and clean up—sans toxic chemicals. The guide also features innovative uses of technology to provide basic services such as water, sanitation and light to areas that lack them.
2008 Gadget Guide

How to Understand Your Digital SLR: 12 steps (with video)

When they were first introduced, digital SLR cameras were enormously expensive and a tool for professionals only. Since then, they have come down in price into the consumer price range. Because of this, many people buy digital SLRs without understanding how they work -- and, consequently, not making the most of them. This article will guide you through the most common functions they have, and to show you how to learn to use one by experiment. The principles herein are the same for any camera; but you will probably not be able to set your shutter and aperture manually on most non-SLR cameras. Read on nonetheless.
How to Understand Your Digital SLR: 12 steps (with video)

A Beginners Guide to Capturing Motion in Your Photography

Photographs, by definition, capture and immortalize a small slice of life. There is little for the viewer to infer what happens before or after that moment. However, there are images that need to communicate motion. For example, you may want to capture a dog running, a train barreling down the tracks, or trees that are blowing in the wind. Each of these scenes can come alive within your photographs if you learn how to convey motion properly.
A Beginners Guide to Capturing Motion in Your Photography

How to Permanently Delete Data from Your Hard Drive

According to the New York Times, a basic privacy measure that is often overlooked is the proper destruction of data on hard drives. An ongoing study by British Telecom says that most people don't realize that deleting a file doesn't actually remove the data from a computer.
How to Permanently Delete Data from Your Hard Drive

ZoneAlarm 2009 Pro Free Tomorrow Only

The popular Windows firewall application ZoneAlarm Free has a big brother called ZoneAlarm Pro, which boasts a handful of features not available in the free version—including integrated antivirus. Normally $US40, ZoneAlarm Pro will be available tomorrow (November 19 Australian) for the low, low price of free.
ZoneAlarm 2009 Pro Free Tomorrow Only

Dery on decapitation

The evidence for the survival of awareness (as opposed to brain activity) after decapitation remains inconclusive. According to Dr. Ron Wright, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner of Broward County Florida, "After your head is cut off by a guillotine, you have 13 seconds of consciousness (+/- 1 or 2).
Dery on decapitation

HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE: 20+ Tools for Family Travel

From travel planning sites to navigation apps and services to help you keep track of your spending, here are over 20 resources to help you survive the holiday travel season.
HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE: 20+ Tools for Family Travel

How to Stop a So Called Friend from Putting You Down

You have a "friend" who can be funny and fun to be with sometimes, but in front of others, puts you down or uses you as the butt of jokes or pranks. How do you handle this unusual relationship? Is there any chance you can change things?
How to Stop a So Called Friend from Putting You Down

How to Run a Con

If we humans have such big brains, how can we get conned?
How to Run a Con

Wrapping cords and hoses

Despite all the cordless tools that keep showing up on job sites, air hoses and extension cords still need to be rolled out every morning and wrapped up at the end of the day. Coiling them tightly for storage introduces twists and kinks that can cause damage and make them harder to manage around the work zone.
Wrapping cords and hoses

Maps Of Fires In Southern California: November 2008 Edition

Fires are burning in Southern California once again. Here’s an update on how to find maps of where the blazes are at.
Maps Of Fires In Southern California: November 2008 Edition

The Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC's Startup

You just hit the power button your PC, and now you've got enough time to brew a fresh pot of coffee for the entire office—because that's how long it takes for your computer to go from "on" to "ready to work." If your PC's bogged down by a bunch of programs that automatically start up when it does, it can take forever to get started every morning. Without a major hardware upgrade, there's not much you can do to cut the time it takes for Windows to actually boot—but you can trim and tweak the amount of time it takes for your desktop to get to a working state.
The Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC's Startup

20 Essential Sources for Free HD Videos

HD Video isn’t just coming to every television screen, it’s making its way online as well. From well known video sites like YouTube to unknown upstarts like Vuze, many online video services are embracing the new standard.
20 Essential Sources for Free HD Videos

Find Hidden House Prices On Real Estate Sites

The blog at house pricing social network Home Price History offers up a trick for finding prices for houses that are listed online without a dollar figure (a pretty common scenario with auctions). Turns out that both realestateview.com.au and realestate.com.au store background information using Google Base, and if you go hunting through the real estate category on Base, you can often find the asking price in the listing for a particular property.
Find Hidden House Prices On Real Estate Sites

The Lazy Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done

What if I told you that you could be totally lazy and irresponsible, and still accomplish just as much? What if you could slack off, loiter, and essentially do nothing and get more done than the average person. It’s a bit of an art, but you can master this skill with some practice.
The Lazy Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done

Software Updates 46 2008

Most notable updates have been released for VLC Player, the Software Update Monitor SUMo or the new version of Soundbase.
Software Updates 46 2008

Living with and Learning from Layoffs

Earlier today, I shared several lists of recession-proof jobs. The experts who created these lists don’t agree on much, but they do seem to think that both jobs in IT and the health-care industry are fairly safe. That doesn’t mean that all of these jobs are safe, of course.
Living with and Learning from Layoffs

Setting Goals

When you set goals for yourself, do you picture the benefits you’ll receive in a year, five years, ten years? Do you struggle on day by day in activities you don’t particularly enjoy – or actively dislike – because you want to reach a target some day in the distant future?
Setting Goals

Brute Force Calculator

Have you ever wondered how long it would take for a typical computer bought in 2008 to brute force your passwords? Now you can find out with the Brute Force Calculator. While it does not provide scientific results it could be interesting to see how long it could take to brute force your passwords to make sure they are hard enough to crack.
Brute Force Calculator

How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate multi-tasker: an accomplished scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. If you want to be a Renaissance Man (or Renaissance Woman), you can learn a lot from how Leonardo da Vinci lived and thought. Based on studying the life and work of this famous polymath[1] anyone can emulate da Vinci with the following steps.
How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

Breast-feed and boost your child's immunity

Need help strengthening your child's developing immune system? There is strong evidence that nursing decreases the incidence and severity of ear and respiratory-tract infections, diarrhea, meningitis, and urinary-tract infections.
Breast-feed and boost your child's immunity

New Laptop Batteries to Last 8 Times Longer Than Current Crop

Researchers at Hanyang University in South Korea have developed new Lithium batteries that can last a whopping eight times longer than today's models.
New Laptop Batteries to Last 8 Times Longer Than Current Crop

Easy Way to Defrost Your Freezer

Anytime you have to remove the contents of your freezer it’s a hassle—though it does help you remove items that have past their shelf life! Next time you need to defrost, do it quickly and easily using this great idea from Tips for Girls. (Yes men, you can read, too.)
Easy Way to Defrost Your Freezer

Medicine cabinet dos and don'ts

There are 39 types of Tylenol, 18 versions of Alka-Seltzer, six of Excedrin, and 18 of Sudafed. With so many options at the drugstore, how can you make the best choices? We listed our top picks of everything you need for a well-stocked medicine cabinet. Also, see our "Drug Don'ts." It turns out that over-the-counter medications can be just as risky as prescription drugs.
Medicine cabinet dos and don'ts

Coping with Holiday Stress

The thought of holidays may warm our hearts and have the kids excitingly anticipating all the fun. However, the holidays can also be a stressful time, making you dread what may lie ahead …
Coping with Holiday Stress

AVG 8 Update Marked User32.dll As Virus Infected

An update of the popular anti-virus software program AVG let a false positive slip through quality control which caused widespread panic on the Internet by desperate AVG users looking for help. The update detected a virus, more precisely Trojan Horse PSW.BANKER4.APSA, in the important system file user32.dll in Windows XP. User32.dll allows programs to implement a graphical user interface and is considered a core component of the Windows XP operating system.
AVG 8 Update Marked User32.dll As Virus Infected

Could You Eat Healthfully on One Dollar a Day?

“How much does it really cost to eat a healthy diet?”
Could You Eat Healthfully on One Dollar a Day?

Internet filtering? Just say no

There's lots of heat and little light in the debate surrounding the Australian government's Internet censorship plan - and the minister responsible isn't helping.
Internet filtering? Just say no

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.
Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

Let The Computer Make Decisions For You

Are you one of those people that are hard pressed whenever they have to make a decision? It can be about basic things like asking a girl out, eating or buying some new household items. It could also be about life changing things like jobs, moving or buying larger items like cars or apartments.
Let The Computer Make Decisions For You

Six Simple Housework Hacks

Need things to be easier? No available budget monies for a cleaning service? Boy, do I hear you! Here are six simple things I've started doing to maintain housework sanity on the home front.
Six Simple Housework Hacks

Can Men Be Trained To Understand Women?

According to Michael Gurian, co-author of Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business with Barbara Annis, not only can men be trained to understand and value the sometimes nurturing and collaborative leadership styles of some women, but women can learn to respect what they might perceive as the hyper-competitiveness and abruptness of some men. These traits, they argue, are hard-wired rather than created purely through cultural and societal influences.
Can Men Be Trained To Understand Women?

A cure for itchy shirt labels

Why did I never think of this before hacking off a bunch of my daughter's shirt tags? (I inevitably break the thread of the neck and a hole is born.)
A cure for itchy shirt labels

Blackstump Australia Issue 42 - November 9, 2008

This weeks latest sites ftom The Black Stump...
Blackstump Australia Issue 42 - November 9, 2008