Thursday, October 23, 2008

How to Keep Important Stuff from Slipping Through the Cracks

There are many, many days where I feel completely buried in little tasks. Pay the bills. Help my son draw a picture. Make dinner. Write an article. Write another article. Answer correspondence. Do a phone interview. Vacuum the carpet. Do the dishes. Wash the kitchen floor. Do a load of laundry. And on … and on … and on.
How to Keep Important Stuff from Slipping Through the Cracks

The 5 worst kitchen design goofs

Before picking products, consult the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s “Kitchen Planning Guidelines,” available at www.nkba.org, for tips on designing a functional layout. And aim to avoid these mistakes:
The 5 worst kitchen design goofs

How to Shuffle a Deck of Cards (Riffle Bridge): 6 steps (with video)

A riffle is a common way to shuffle cards often used in dealing poker and other games.[1] It looks challenging, but with practice, it's easy to do.
How to Shuffle a Deck of Cards (Riffle Bridge): 6 steps (with video)

Fewer calories, longer life

Previous research has shown that animals that eat 30 to 50 percent less food live significantly longer lives—sometimes up to 50 percent longer than animals fed regular diets—and have fewer age-related diseases compared to their peers.
Fewer calories, longer life

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Consumer Price Index, Australia, Sep 2008

From the ABS...
The most significant price rises this quarter were for rents (+2.1%), water and sewerage (+12.3%), house purchase (+1.3%), automotive fuel (+2.0%), deposit and loan facilities (+1.9%), overseas holiday travel and accommodation (+4.9%), electricity (+4.6%) and property rates and charges (+6.1%).
Consumer Price Index, Australia, Sep 2008

Stop Wasting Money on Disposable Things

When you go to the grocery store or to the department store, many of the things you buy are disposable - they wind up in the trash. Packages. Plastic wrap. Boxes. Bags. It’s just trash, right? If you look a bit closer, though, you’ll see something else in there. Money.
Stop Wasting Money on Disposable Things

9 Tricks for Getting a Table (and Being a VIP) at Hot Restaurants

An evening out should be special, especially if it’s an expensive evening.
9 Tricks for Getting a Table (and Being a VIP) at Hot Restaurants

Driver of damaged car pretends nothing is wrong

When my car acts up, I try to ignore it, hoping it will fix itself. The driver of this car shares my sense of optimism in spades.
Driver of damaged car pretends nothing is wrong

Tapping Nature's Headache Remedies

Dear EarthTalk: Are there natural headache remedies that can get me off of Tylenol, Advil and other medicines whose side effects can be as bad as or worse than the pain that led me to use them?
Tapping Nature's Headache Remedies

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Free Hoyts Movie Ticket in Australia

Hoyts are giving away a free movie ticket to all new Movie Club Members and existing member who confirm their membership details.
Free Hoyts Movie Ticket in Australia

Online Activity Doesn't Reduce Family Communication

Unlike watching television—which generally reduces conversation between family members in the home—more than 50% of people who live with a spouse and child are likely to surf the web together and share things online with one another.
Online Activity Doesn't Reduce Family Communication

The Psychology of Con Men

My all-time favourite [short con] only makes the con artist a few dollars every time he does it, but I absolutely love it. These guys used to go door-to-door in the 1970s selling lightbulbs and they would offer to replace every single lightbulb in your house, so all your old lightbulbs would be replaced with a brand new lightbulb, and it would cost you, say $5, so a fraction of the cost of what new lightbulbs would cost.
The Psychology of Con Men

Monday, October 20, 2008

Slimming down the bloated iTunes 8 installer

How do you supersize a simple music manager? Ask Apple. The Windows version of iTunes 8, released earlier this month and quickly patched after it caused an outbreak of blue-screen crashes, is a 64MB download. (For the sake of comparison, Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP is just over 24 MB.) The full iTunes 8 installation takes up nearly 200MB of space on a Windows PC.
Slimming down the bloated iTunes 8 installer

How to Come up With Good Conversation Topics

Even if you know how to start a conversation and make it a good one, there's still the issue of choosing what you're going to talk about. Some topics are inappropriate in some situations, and some are just plain boring. Here are some topics to keep the conversation alive while keeping your foot out of your mouth.
How to Come up With Good Conversation Topics

Looking On The Bright Side: How to Find A Silver Lining In The Current Financial Crisis

There was a standard mantra in my house when I was growing up: "make the best of what you've got". If we were between paydays, that might mean eating grilled cheese sandwiches or eggs and biscuits for dinner, taking our lunch to school or foregoing that new outfit at the mall. To my Dad, it meant finding a way to make due in order to avoid even the smallest expenses. And my Dad lived what he preached, tying knots in his broken shoelaces and sewing up holes in his socks.
Looking On The Bright Side: How to Find A Silver Lining In The Current Financial Crisis

Sunday, October 19, 2008

How to Make Work Feel Effortless

Sometimes work can be a drag. You get caught up in trying to be more productive and suddenly your life turns into a series of to-do lists. You gauge your measure of success by how much you accomplish. You even determine how happy you allow yourself to be by how much you’ve gotten done in the day.
How to Make Work Feel Effortless

How to Put VHS-C Videos into Your Computer

Learn how to put VHS-C videos into your computer so you can edit them, upload them to the internet, and/or burn them to DVD.
How to Put VHS-C Videos into Your Computer

Saturday, October 18, 2008

How to sync an iPhone with two (or more) Computers

(Or, How to sync an iPhone with one computer and manually manage music and videos on another).
How to sync an iPhone with two (or more) Computers

Friday, October 17, 2008

Commonly Misused Words and Phrases

English is a difficult language. With words and phrases constantly entering and exiting our vernacular, reflecting changing trends, slang, and technology, it’s no surprise that some words are misinterpreted and some clichés sound as if they were passed through a game of telephone since their current form bears no relation to their beginnings.
Commonly Misused Words and Phrases

How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail

You don’t have to be psychic to predict your hard drive’s imminent failure. You just need to recognize the warning signs.
How to Tell When Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail