mrshl | blog

mrshl’s links for December 18th through December 20th:

• Ask E.T.: Megan Jaegerman’s brilliant news graphics - Edward Tufte, the renowned information design guru shares some of his favorite works from one of his favoriate designers. In a word: awesome.
• “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” tops ‘07 memorable quote list - I’m not sure I remember any OTHER quote from ‘07. But there’s a good list here.
• Remember The Milk - Services / Remember The Milk for Gmail - I have rarely used Remember the Milk, even though it’s probably the best online to-do list. This Firefox extension seamlessly integrates RTM with Gmail. And that’s pretty cool, because unlike Outlook, Gmail never had a built-in to do list. Until now.
• Texas defends new $5-per-visitor strip club fee | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle - Texas finds yet another way to avoid imposing an income tax on its citizens.
• Summize - Discover reviews and blogs on millions of products - A new site that works like Metacritic but for more than just music and games. It includes gadgets and home electronics.

mrshl’s links for December 13th through December 14th:

• Drop.io: Simple, Private Storage & Sharing - The latest site for sharing files allows you to set up temporary collaboration sites. Anyone you invite can download and UPLOAD files to a secure, private space. Good for docs, media, and other files.
• Outlook + Twitter = OutTwit. - Use Outlook as your Twitter front end.
• the human calendar® - Reminds me of the Brady Bunch®.
• Slate writers and editors dissect the Mitchell report. - - Slate Magazine - Excellent group discussion of Baseball’s shining scandal.
• US States Renamed for Countries with Similar GDP - The US economy is as big as these other 50 countries COMBINED. In other news, China can fit all of America into its back pocket.
• Sellout Songs | washingtonpost.com - The Moby Equation tells us that Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” in a commercial is a travesty. But “Takin’ Care of Business,” well, that’s to be expected. Dennis Hopper AND Steppenwolf hawking an investment bank? Totally not covered.
• Garage Mahal - By Witold Rybczynski - Slate Magazine - Architects turn their attention to the problem of parking.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - The Official Blog - Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran - Who knew the dude had a blog? The comments are apparently quite genuine.

mrshl’s links for December 10th through December 12th:

• TrackThePack // Package tracking just got awesome… - Site that allows you track all packages through a single interface.
• ELECTRONIC MUSIC WRITING GUIDE - A how-to guide cum word box for reviewing electronic music.
• Top hits of 2007 on Office Online - Microsoft highlights its top Office downloads for 2007. In particular, I recommend the “Hidden Gems in Excel 2007″ article.
• Free Textures and Background Images - A nice list of backgrounds and textures for…well, whatever you use that stuff for.
• Music I USED to like - The perfect shirt to say, “you have ruined my music by approving it.”
• Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test - Check the download and upload speeds for your ISP, then post your results.

mrshl’s links for December 6th through December 7th:

• ShortcutGuide.com - Learn Free. Work Smart. - Quite simply one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a while: This site organizes keyboard shortcuts for many of the most commonly used programs and operating systems into one convenient reference. Awesome.
• LoudTwitter - Bundles your posts from Twitter.com and posts them to your blog.
• House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites - Nick Lampson, D-Texas, apparently doesn’t understand how the internet works.
• The World According to Americans - Yep. That about covers it.
• Wii Fit gameplay makes us sweat just watching it - Nice first look at Wii Fit, a fitness game from Nintendo.
• Users, Web developers vent over IE7 - How much do you hate IE7?
• First look: ‘Speed Racer’ wheels into live action - Wachowski Brothers allow a sneak peak at some stills from the Speed Racer movie.
• Online Games: Top 10 point and click Games - I don’t think I’ve ever played any of these. But I doubt they’re as good as Kings Quest 5.
• iTunes Folder Watch - The most glaring weakness of iTunes is its deliberate lack of a folder monitoring function. This program solves that problem, automatically adding downloaded files to your iTunes library.

mrshl’s links for December 4th through December 5th:

• Renting: Landlord-Tenant Law For Every State - Consumerist comes through with links to every state Landlord-Tenant statute.
• ThinkGeek :: Giant Plush Microbes - Stuffed animals that look your worst invisible nightmares.
• Aim: Get SmarterChild in Gmail - This chat bot (now accessible through AIM in Gmail) is actually a pretty cool reference and resource.
• Livescribe :: Turn Your Paper On - Oh, man. This looks cool. Jesus, I’m a dork.
• Giuliani’s heroic experience - I love This Modern World.
• PrawfsBlawg: Some Questions About Star Wars - A famous law professo takes some time to discuss the dumbest elements of the Star Wars saga. Enjoy.
• Via Reddit: The World’s Most Redundant Book Title - You CAN make this stuff up. Here’s how.

mrshl’s links for December 3rd:

• U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work - Unanimous word from intelligence agencies indicates they were wrong, and that Iran may have been telling the truth (at least in part). It now appears that Iran continued to be coy about the issue in order to increase its bargaining power and reputation in
• How America Lost the War on Drugs : Rolling Stone - Think the war on terror’s going bad? Take a look at one of our other wars on nouns. Warning: this article is really long. But it’s really, really good.
• HealthBlawg: EHR/PHR pros and cons - Useful and interesting post on the benefits and potential hazards of electronic health information, and the various storage options available. As always, people are (understandably) freaked out about privacy
• Public Domain Pictures, Free Photos, Royalty Free Stock Images - Another source for free images.
• I like my women like I like my coffee… - Adorably sexist.

mrshl’s links for November 28th through November 29th:

• 11 Widespread Food Statements Demystified >> Diethack - Prunes are still good for you. Damn.
• Daily Kos: Dead Man Debating - Allegations that Rudy Giuliani billed his adultery expenses to NYC taxpayers might doom his presidential chances. Good.
• The 9 Most Badass Bible Verses | Cracked.com - Verily, lol.
• Korean man killed by exploding cellphone - Engadget - I normally carry mine in my front pants pocket. Not sure if that’s actually worse.
• Sleater-Kinney’s guitarist tests out Rock Band -
• The Wilhelm Scream - How a sound effect recorded in 1951 became the most famous and familiar sound clip in movie history.

mrshl’s links for November 26th through November 27th:

• Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music - Official support response from Microsoft. “No, no, when it plays Canon in D Major…it’s not a virus.”
• How to Develop a Mindset for Math | BetterExplained - An interesting approach to understanding how math works and why it works.
• 120 War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week - An average of 17 every day.
• Spray-On Snug Fit Condom For All Sizes | Inventor Spot - One spray fits all.
• How to Memorize Anything -
• The top 10 IT disasters of all time - ZDNet UK -
• definr - incredibly fast dictionary - Definer reinvents the online dictionary, and it’s faster and more useful than any you’ve ever seen. Words appear as you type, and results are not only speedy, but it’s actually more like using a real dictionary because you can see adjacent word choices.
• befuddlr! - This site makes puzzles of any flickr image. Then you can solve them. A super dumb time waster? Yes. But it’s pretty well done.

mrshl’s links for November 23rd through November 24th:

• The golden age of videogames? -
• Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Free Wallpaper, Fonts and Icon Sources -
• Jeep Renegade inspired by the Warthog from Halo? | Auto Unleashed - New Jeep concept looks an awful lot like that cool vehicle from Microsoft’s Halo.
• Lootist - Specialist-Guided Product Discovery - Product recommendations from experts. Interestingly, the site carries no advertising, which increases its credibility exponentially. Know a crapload about a particular niche (e.g., photography gear, cookware)? Sign up to be an expert.
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If you’ve ever tried to explain a Web site to your folks (or a dense pal), you know how difficult it can be to include both the nuts and bolts of how a site works and why a site is useful in the first place.  For social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us or Magnol.ia, the problem is more difficult because the benefits aren’t as obvious as they are with YouTube or Flickr. 

This video does an excellent job explaining the how and why of social bookmarking and del.icio.us. The dude’s voice is a bit annoying, but it neatly simplifies one of the most useful, exciting applications the web has to offer.

del.icio.us / blog: how to explain delicious to your parents