#40 Firefox Bookmark Keyword – For some reason I've never effectively used bookmarks to keep track of websites. Out of habit I tend to start typing a URL and wait for my browser to auto-fill the full address. With Firefox, though, I can combine the best of both methods. Save one of your favorite websites (i.e., www.evangelicaloutpost.com) as a bookmark. Then go to Manage Boomarks and click on Properties. Enter a letter or keyword (e.g., EO) and click enter. Now instead of hunting down the bookmark or typing out the URL all you have to do is punch the keyword into the location bar and hit enter. (HT: Lifehacker)
#41 Keyboard Washer – So you’ve spilled a Slurpee on your keyboard (again) and now the “e” and the “r” keys are welded together into one sticky "er" key. Time to throw out the keyboard? No, just time to throw it in the dishwasher. Scott Moschella has a few tips to ensure you have a dishwasher safe experience. (Note: While I’ve never tried this tip, when I was in the Marines we used to scrub circuit boards with dish soap and water and leave them out to dry. If it didn’t hurt $50,000 avionics equipment it shouldn’t hurt your $39 Radio Shack keyboard.)
#42 Sleep Hack -- How to Become an Early Riser (See also: Part II)
#43 Field Expedient Equipment -- Make a cheap heated neck pillow by taking a cotton tube sock, filling it two-thirds full of rice, and tying off the end. Pop it in the microwave for two minutes and apply to sore neck or lower back. (HT: Frugal For Life)
#44 A Mini-Lesson in Critical Thinking - Part 5: Logical Fallacies
#45 Homepage Hack -- If you’re like me you probably open several websites at a time (i.e., Gmail, Sitemeter, your blog). Using Firefox you can set your homepage to open several tabs open them all at one time. From Firefox’s Tools menu click Options, General, and then enter the addresses of sites separated by a pipe symbol ( | ). If that's too complicated, simply open up all the sites in tabs and hit the “Use Current Pages” button. (HT: Lifehacker)
#46 Lost and Found -- Twice a year, make a photocopy of the contents of your wallet. Add the phone numbers you’ll need to call to cancel credit cards or to renew a membership. Waiting until after your wallet has been lost or stolen is not the best time to try to remember what you carried around with you.
#47 Grill Master -- Think you're the master of the backyard barbeque? Robert Brown says that everything you know about grilling is wrong.
#48 Faking It -- Don't know the difference between Merlot and MD 20/20? Learn how to fake being a wine expert.
#49 Step by Step -- 11 Steps To a Better Brain
See also: YSR #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5.
Have a useful recommendation for making life more pleasant? Send them to me at jpcarter[at]evangelicaloutpost.com.
1
Did you hear about the Aggie who tried the diswasher thing on his laptop keyboard?
posted on 06.01.2005 6:16 AM2
Don't get grody, Ray - this is a family website! :-D --Corrie, A&M '83
My wife and I discovered the "rice sock" when she was in labor with our first child. It made a terrific heating pad for her lower back. As I was raised in the South, the smell brought back happy memories of childhood holiday dinners, so my wife had me tell her "rice stories" to distract her from the contractions.
3
Re:#44 A Mini-Lesson in Critical Thinking - Part 5: Logical Fallacies
Unless logic has changed since I learned about it, none of the fallacies described in that essay are actually logical (formal) fallacies, they are all informal fallacies. As I recall formal fallacies are errors of validity and there are only two of them, assuming the consequent and denying the antecedent. Informal fallacies are the ones categorized as fallacies of relevance or ambiguity.
4
If it didn’t hurt $50,000 avionics equipment it shouldn’t hurt your $39 Radio Shack keyboard.
When last I checked, military circuit boards were usually of a much heftier grade than commercial units. This is part of the reason that they are $50,000 in the first place.
A great list of stuff though. Thanks.
posted on 06.01.2005 12:15 PM5
True story: just yesterday, I was idly wondering whether or not it was possible to set multiple tabs as my Firefox homepage. "I'll bet if it is, Joe Carter's 'Yak Shaving razor will mention it," I thought. And lo and behold, #45. Spooky
posted on 06.01.2005 12:39 PM6
Excellent site! I love the Yak Shaving Razor Posts!!! Keep up the good work. By the way, thanks for the round-a-bout way to get a gmail account. Awesome!
posted on 06.01.2005 7:46 PM7
From the grilling tips:
1. Flip Early, Flip Often. ... So you flip every four or five minutes.Whoa! If you're leaving a piece of meat on the grill longer than eight or ten minutes (one flip), you're not cooking a steak, you're tanning leather!
Also, while I appreciate his marinade recipes (which used to seduce me as well), if you've got a really good steak like a filet, T-bone, strip, or (my favorite) a rib-eye, then all you really need is kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, and maybe some garlic.
What he neglects to mention is that what you do with the steak before and after you cook it is at least as important as the cooking process. To wit:
1) Let the steaks come completely to room temperature before you give them any heat. Grilling a chilled steak means burned on the outside, cold on the inside. Also, I like to season them with salt and pepper the moment I take them out of the fridge, and let them come to room temp with the seasoning on, but that's optional.
2) Don't be a macho-man hero. Use an instant-read thermometer to gauge meat doneness until you get the hang of eyeballing it. For an inch-plus thick steak, I find an internal temp of about 135 is perfect medium rare.
3) If the steak is "done" when you pull it off the grill, you've overcooked it. "Carryover" will continue the cooking process after you pull the steak, sometimes upping the internal temperature by as much as five degrees. So pull it a little early. (I pull somewhere between 130 and 132.)
4) After removing the steak from the heat, allow it to rest for three full minutes before you cut into it. The juices are really moving around because of all that heat, and they need to calm down before you cut or they'll run out of the steak and all over the plate.
I should really do a blog post on this...
posted on 06.02.2005 3:00 PM8
This is some delightful stuff. Thanks for the grilling tips, guys!
Oh, and sorry corrie--sic 'em Bears!
Cheers,
PGE
9
7672 http://belmont.betting--online.biz belmont stakes 2005
posted on 06.07.2005 4:44 AM