Introducing Google Earth Engine

Today, Google launched a new Google Labs product called Google Earth Engine at the International Climate Change Conference in sunny Cancun, Mexico. Google Earth Engine is a new technology platform that puts an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data—current and historical—online for the first time. It enables global-scale monitoring and measurement of changes in the earth’s environment.
Introducing Google Earth Engine

Track Santa in Real-Time With Google Maps This Holiday

Christmas Eve might not be for another 23 days or so, but Google (Google) and NORAD already have the online Santa Tracker ready to go.
Track Santa in Real-Time With Google Maps This Holiday

SalesClark Picks Out the Perfect Computer for Your Needs (So You Don't Have To)

If you're tired of computer shopping for all your friends, SalesClark will help them narrow down what they need with just a few simple questions in a chat-style webapp.
SalesClark Picks Out the Perfect Computer for Your Needs (So You Don't Have To)

Your Online Footprint

The CEO of Google has suggested that once you leave college, you may want to change your name to distance yourself from all the dumb things you did as a younger person and can’t erase from the Internet. Of course if you change your name, you won’t be associated with any of the positive things you did either.
Your Online Footprint

Create a Simple Password Protected Folder in Windows 7 Sans Software

Windows: If you're looking to stash some files away from other users casually browsing your computer but don't need to go full bore with the encryption, you can create a password protected folder with a basic batch script.
Create a Simple Password Protected Folder in Windows 7 Sans Software

Historical Imagery - How a Place Has Changed Over Time?

Google today introduced a new version of Google Earth, which among other new enhancements, sports an easier way for you to explore historical imagery of a place.
Historical Imagery - How a Place Has Changed Over Time?

Top 10 Registry Tweaks that Power Up Windows

The Windows registry is a mysterious place, but if you're comfortable editing it, you have the power to tweak nearly every Windows setting you can imagine. Here are 10 of Lifehacker's favorite registry tweaks that make life easier.
Top 10 Registry Tweaks that Power Up Windows

5 Important Tips for Better Eye Health in a Digital World

In attempting to sum up the world in 2010, one word comes to mind: connected. Everywhere we go we carry devices that keep us connected to something important to us. Be it a sleek new tablet letting you share photos with the person helping load your groceries, or a smartphone making sure you don’t miss that late night e-mail from a colleague; we are now constantly connected to the world around us, more than ever before.
5 Important Tips for Better Eye Health in a Digital World

How to Identify and Resist Manipulative Sales Pitches

Stores everywhere are competing for your hard-earned money (or easily acquired credit) this holiday shopping season, and they're pulling out every sales pitch they know. Here's how to identify some of the most manipulative and resist them.
How to Identify and Resist Manipulative Sales Pitches

The Hacker’s Guide to Tea

Coffee gets a lot of attention, but if tea's more your style, tea guru Tony Gebely offers this guide to understanding and brewing better tea—discussing the process, the kinds, and the care necessary to cultivate a great taste for tea.
The Hacker’s Guide to Tea

Australian Women’s Weekly in National Library of Australia Digital Archive

Hat tip to PC World Australia for the pointer to the new digital archive of Australian Women’s Weekly, brought to you by the National Library of Australia. This archive spans 10 June 1933 to 15 December 1982, which is 2500 issues and 220,000 pages, totaling about 275,000 articles. That’s not small, but I did find some pages that were listed in the search engine but weren’t viewable yet. You can do a keyword search at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/112.
Australian Women’s Weekly in National Library of Australia Digital Archive

Curing Warts, Removing Splinters, and 19 Other Bizarre Uses for Banana Peels

It all started with a rumor that banana peels could be used to polish silver and a bet among friends that it couldn’t. In trying to discover if there is any legitimacy to the silver-polishing properties of banana peels, I found dozens of other unusual applications for them, including splinter removal and wart treatments.
Curing Warts, Removing Splinters, and 19 Other Bizarre Uses for Banana Peels

Curing Warts, Removing Splinters, and 19 Other Bizarre Uses for Banana Peels | Wise Bread

It all started with a rumor that banana peels could be used to polish silver and a bet among friends that it couldn’t. In trying to discover if there is any legitimacy to the silver-polishing properties of banana peels, I found dozens of other unusual applications for them, including splinter removal and wart treatments.
Curing Warts, Removing Splinters, and 19 Other Bizarre Uses for Banana Peels

Short Sharp Science: Looking down on the tallest structure ever built

The 828 metre Burj Khalifa skyscraper towers above downtown Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The no doubt soon-to-be iconic image taken earlier this year by GeoEye 1, the highest resolution satellite in operation, opens the 2011 calendar of parent company GeoEye.
Short Sharp Science: Looking down on the tallest structure ever built

Practice Eye Contact to Generate "Reality Distortion Field" Charisma

Some people, like Bill Clinton and Steve Jobs, have undeniable charisma that even their most ardent detractors are forced to acknowledge. Master the art of eye contact and personal space management to create "Reality Distortion Field" level charisma.
Practice Eye Contact to Generate "Reality Distortion Field" Charisma

How to Find the Person behind an Email Address - Reverse Email Search

You get an email from a person with whom you have never interacted before and therefore, before you reply to that message, you would like to know something more about him or her. How do you do this without directly asking the other person?
How to Find the Person behind an Email Address - Reverse Email Search

Don’t Sleep, Prevent Standby, Hibernate, Shutdown In Windows

The power configuration in Windows determines if the operating system initiates a system state change. This can be an automatic shutdown, a switch to standby mode, hibernation or changes that have less of an impact like turning off the computer monitor.
Don’t Sleep, Prevent Standby, Hibernate, Shutdown In Windows

Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Cheesy Action Movie Edition

This Friday, we’re taking the term “weekend warriors” quite seriously. Today’s YouTube Roundup theme is “Cheesy Action Sequences,” curated by everyone’s favorite former invalid, The Fully Sick Rapper.
NOTE: If cheesy violence — or shouting men — offend you, you may want to skip this roundup.
Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Cheesy Action Movie Edition

9 Notable Tech Flops That Live in Infamy

Not every gadget is destined for greatness. Despite the hype before launch, or the promise of how a shiny new device will change your life, there are some gizmos that just don’t cut it.
9 Notable Tech Flops That Live in Infamy

Win a Coin Toss by Volunteering to Flip the Coin

The person flipping the coin has a significantly higher chance to calling the outcome. Stack the odds in your favor by volunteering to be the flipper.
Win a Coin Toss by Volunteering to Flip the Coin