#190 Hard Drive Hack -- Letters, resumes, spreadsheets, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses were all found on storage hardware bought and analysed by forensics firm Disklabs. So before you sell that old laptop on eBay you'll need to erase the hard drive. To clean your computer, download and use the free program Eraser. Eraser will securely remove all data from a selected drive, allowing you to sell it with a clear conscience.
#191 Food Hack -- You go to raid the fridge only to find some turkey, yogurt, strawberries, lettuce, and other seemingly useless foodstuffs. What can you make with ingredients like that? FoodieView, a recipe search engine, has the answer (hint: Strawberry Turkey Salad). Useful link for when the cook of the house leaves you to fend for yourself.
#192 Google Map Hack -- Are you a single guy moving to a new neighborhood and want to know how many women are in a three mile radius of your apartment? Ever wonder if you're income is lower than the median for your cul-de-sac? Or do you need to know the average rent for an area? Then check out this Google Map that uses 2000 Census data to answer all these questions and more.
#193 Know Your Fallacies -- Fallacy of Exclusion -- Important evidence which would undermine an inductive argument is excluded from consideration. The requirement that all relevant information be included is called the "principle of total evidence." (Ex: The Leafs will probably win this game because they've won nine out of their last ten. (Eight of the Leafs' wins came over last place teams, and today they are playing the first place team.))
#194 Windows Shortcut -- Use Alt-ESC to cycle through all your open windows.
#195 HowTo -- Re-use a "one-time-use" disposable camera
#196 Kid's Hack -- With shovel in hand, your daughter heads into the the backyard to, as she says, "dig her way to China." You think its a terrible idea. After all, what if she ends up coming out somewhere else, like the Indian Ocean. The water would leak back through the hole and make a complete mess of your lawn. Here's a way to avoid that problem: a Google Map that shows you were you would end up if you dug a hole from any spot in the world. (Note: Do not start digging around Dallas.) (HT: Lifehacker)
#197 SoYouWanna -- Make your own beer
#198 Math Hack -- The Birthday Paradox: What is the probability that at least two randomly selected people have the same birthday? (Same month and day, but not necessarily the same year.)
To solve the birthday problem, we need to use one of the basic rules of probability: the sum of the probability that an event will happen and the probability that the event won't happen is always 1. (In other words, the chance that anything might or might not happen is always 100%.) If we can work out the probability that no two people will have the same birthday, we can use this rule to find the probability that two people will share a birthday:
P(event happens) + P(event doesn't happen) = 1
P(two people share birthday) + P(no two people share birthday) = 1
P(two people share birthday) = 1 - P(no two people share birthday)
So, what is the probability that no two people will share a birthday? The first person can have any birthday. The second person's birthday, though, has to be different. Since there are 364 different days to choose from, he chance that two people have different birthdays is 364/365. That leaves 363 birthdays out of 365 open for the third person.
To find the probability that both the second person and the third person will have different birthdays, we have to multiply:
(365/365) * (364/365) * (363/365) = 132 132/133 225, which is about 99.18%.
If we want to know the probability that four people will all have different birthdays, we multiply again:
(364/365) * (363/365) * (362/365) = 47 831 784/ 48 627 125, or about 98.36%.
We can keep on going the same way as long as we want. A formula for the probability that n people have different birthdays is:
((365-1)/365) * ((365-2)/365) * ((365-3)/365) * . . . * ((365-n+1)/365) or 365! / ((365-n)! * 365^n).
How large must N be so that the probability is greater than 50 percent? Answer: 23 people (HT: The Math Forum)
#199 Writer's Toolkit -- #12: Control the Pace
See also: The Yak Shaving Razor Archives
Have a useful recommendation for making life more pleasant? Send them to me at jpcarter[at]evangelicaloutpost.com.
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RE #194 - Using Alt-Tab will not only cycle through open windows, but also show you which windows are open so you can quickly choose which one to focus.
posted on 09.14.2005 2:08 AM2
You are an information junkie, do you know that? It's another reason to love this blog. Thanks for the camera dealie. I gotta try that.
posted on 09.14.2005 10:39 PM