Google Hacks

#67 - To search within a certain set of numbers (i.e., a price range) use two dots (..). For example, to search for DVD players between $200 and $300 dollars use the search: DVD player $200..300

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#88 - Need to solve a math problem or convert a unit of measure? Enter the formula (i.e., 44% * 234; 345 mi in km) into the Google search bar and the Google Calculator will deliver the solution along with the results. (If you’re using Firefox this method is faster than opening the calculator function on Windows.)

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#91 - Need to search a blog or website that doesn’t have a search box? Using Google, type site: www.url.com (where the URL is the site you want to explore) and your query into the search box.

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#130 - You can perform basic Google searches from your cell phone by sending text-message queries to 46645 (GOOGL). To search for general services in your vicinity, type a word of description followed by a period and your city/state or ZIP code (sushi.10018). To get the weather, use the same format preceded by the word "weather," or for addresses and phone numbers, by the name of the business. You can even get driving directions by typing from followed by the ZIP code of your starting point and to followed by your destination's ZIP code - for instance, from 10016 to 10018. You'll receive text-message responses free of charge (depending on your carrier's text-messaging plan) within seconds.

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#154 - During a a heated discussion over global warming, your vegan friend from Canda says that the cattle that provide the meat for your cheesburgers emit 2 liters of gas a day. Is two liters a lot? It's difficult to know with that weird metric system they use. In order to find out the answer, though, you can simply turn to Google (or the Google toolbar) for a handy conversion tool. Just type in what you want converted (two liters to gallons) and Google will emit an answer (two liters = 0.528344102 US gallons). (Tgirsch notes that it also works for currency conversion (i.e.,100 USD in EUR).

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#192 - 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.

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#224 - Use synonyms when you want to search for a concept rather than a specific word sequence. By searching for ~nutrition ~information muffins, you tell Google to find related terms for each item tagged with a tilde (~). You’ll find not only exact matches (e.g. Muffin Nutrition Information), but matches on Muffins Food Facts and Muffins Vitamin Information. Searching for ~car turns up information on trucks and vehicles. Searching for ~pen yields pencils, graphite and sketch.

Firefox Hacks

#45 - 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.

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#59 - Using the SpellBound extension, you can add a spellcheck function to any web-based form (including your blog). (HT: Lifehacker)

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#61 - Firefox allows you the ability to drag a URL from your bookmarks into a browser-based text area (i.e., a blog post, BBS forum, email message). You can also make a temporary folder in your bookmark toolbar to save all your links for latter 'dragging.' This can be extremely useful when you have numerous URLs to add to a blog post.

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#82 - Firefox offers an extremely useful extension that validates the links on any webpage. Valid and broken links are color coded, making it possible to find broken links on your blog or webpage in a matter of seconds.

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#141 - If you copy a URL wrapped over multiple lines from somewhere and try to paste it into the address bar, you will end up only with the first line of it. To fix it, go to about:config and change editor.singleLine.pasteNewlines setting to 3 or add:

user_pref(”editor.singleLine.pasteNewlines”, 3);

to your user.js file. Now all the line breaks will be removed upon pasting.

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#254 - Some online forums and boards provide very small text areas for new postings. If you type a longer posting, you have to scroll up and down, to read, what you've written. But the Resizeable Text Area extension allows you to control the size and adjust it to the size you need.

Gmail Hacks

#220 - GmailThis! is an easy way to make a Gmail email without visiting mail.google.com. Once you add the GmailThis! link to your browser's toolbar, clicking GmailThis! creates a mini-interface to Gmail prepopulated with a link to the web page you are visiting, as well as any text you have highlighted on that page. Add additional text if you wish and then email or save as draft from within GmailThis! An indispensible tool.

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#206 - Although Gmail doesn't provide a built-in feature to create group lists, Lifehacker provides a workaround: Click on Contacts (left-side menu) and choose Add Contact (top right corner). Enter a name for the group in the Name field. Then in the Primary Email field start inputting the addresses of group members. Here is the trick: leave out the first and last brackets. This is how you should do it (substituting the appropriate email addresses):

Then Save the address. Once you save it, you can see that GMail puts a bracket around the list of addresses. You can try it out by clicking on Compose. Next time you want to send a note to this group, just start typing in the group name and the address list will come up as an option.

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#220 - GmailThis! is an easy way to make a Gmail email without visiting mail.google.com. Once you add the GmailThis! link to your browser's toolbar, clicking GmailThis! creates a mini-interface to Gmail prepopulated with a link to the web page you are visiting, as well as any text you have highlighted on that page. Add additional text if you wish and then email or save as draft from within GmailThis! An indispensible tool.

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#264 - Who needs a fancy, expensive Blackberry when you can get email on your cell phone using Gmail and its text forwarding feature? Here's how to set it up:

Go to your "Google Settings" page and click on "Forwarding and Pop." Click on "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" and in the box where you input the email address add your ten digit cell phone number and the domain for your carrier.

Here is a list of the text messaging addresses for common US wireless providers:

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.att.net
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.mycingular.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

The Republic of Geektronica blog explains how to set up filters so that you can decide which emails to have sent to your phone.

Misc Hacks

#31 - Pouring a little vanilla into a can of latex paint will greatly reduce the smell.

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#55 - With a little practice and some memory work you can learn a simple formula for figuring out the day of the week for recent dates such as this year or any day in the next five calendar years. (The more ambitious can learn how to quickly give the correct weekday for any given date back to 1582 -- the year the current calendar system was adopted.)

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#65 - If you need to light multiple candles but don’t have extra-long matches on hand, try using a piece of spaghetti instead.

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#81 - Opening files in Acrobat requires not only opening the PDF but opening Adobe’s bloated software too. The process can be speeded up, though, by removing the unnecessary plug-ins:

Open C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader" folder. Or if you have Pro, it's probably in the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat" folder.

Find the "plug_ins" folder and rename it "plug_ins_disabled".
Create a new folder named "plug_ins".
Copy the following files from "plug_ins_disabled" to "plug_ins":

EWH32.api, printme.api, and search.api

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#182 - The United States Post Office allows you to request a hold on your postal mail through its web site. Next time you're going out of town, just notify the USPS before 2am on the day you would like to have your service halted and they'll hold your mail from 3 to 30 days.

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#241 - When the sheets and pillowcases come out of the dryer, fold them and tuck them into one of the newly-clean pillowcases before placing the package back in the linen closet. That makes it easy to grab exactly the items you need when a bed needs clean sheets.

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#256 - When using PowerPoint in the slide show setting, you can directly jump to the page by pressing the page number and then the enter key. For example, if you have to go back to page 24, just type “24 + Enter” instead of hitting the arrow keys. Just remember key slides by page numbers and you can go back and forth between them with ease. This is especially effective in the Q&A session when you need to stress your point showing certain key slides.

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#258 - The Email Icon Generator provides a safe way to display your email address (like this: ) for GMail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL and many other common services.

MS Word Hacks

#15 - Just as Microsoft’s founder attempts to control your PC, MS-Word attempts to control your documents. Trying to cut-and-paste from Word, for example, can often lead to the frustration of dealing with garbled text. Regain control by removing all the formatting from a particular piece of text (sentence, paragraph, document) before pasting. Simply select the text and hit Ctrl-Shift-N to break Bill Gates’ stranglehold on your words.

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#106 - When using Microsoft Word I often get frustrated when trying to copy a snippet of text (i.e., the first part of a URL) because the program wants to grab the entire word. To regain control over your cut-and-paste jobs, go to Tools > Options > Edit and uncheck the box that reads “When selecting, automatically select entire word.”

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#238 - If you often use the "word count" feature you can make it more effective by putting it in a shortcut. To add the feature right-click on any toolbar and select "Customize." Under the "Toolbars" tab, select "Shortcut Menus." You'll find the Word Count option in the "Tools" category on the top toolbar. Drag it over the "Shortcut Menus" ---> Text ---> Text and then drop it on to the shortcut menu. Now when you need to count the words in a text you can simply right-click and choose Word Count.

Keyboard Shortcuts

#22 - To create your own keyboard shortcuts to applications: (1) Create a shortcut to an executable application (i.e., Microsoft Word), (2) right-click the shortcut and press “Properties”, and (3) type a letter in the "Shortcut key" box (i.e., W). This will create a CTRL-ALT-x shortcut. You can also make CTRL-SHIFT and CTRL-ALT-SHIFT shortcuts by holding them while pressing the letter.

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#71 - Alt-D jumps automatically into the address bar of the last opened tab.

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#202 - For the Apple groupies: Magical Macintosh Key Sequences - All the magic key sequences to make your Mac do various things.

Math Hacks

#68 - The De Finetti Game is a method to gauge someone’s confidence in the chances of a given event occurring by measuring it against a lottery with a known probability. Say for example a friend claims he is 95% sure he aced a test. Is he really that confident? Offer him a hypothetical choice. He can either get the result of the test, and if he aced it, he wins one million dollars, or he can pick a ball out of bag. There are 90 red balls and 10 blue in the bag, and if he picks a red ball then he wins the million. Now if he doesn’t choose his test score then he is at most 90% confident.

Now tell him that there are now 70 red balls in the bag and 30 black ones. If he answers that he would rather wait on the results of the test rather than draw, then he is between 70-90% sure of the outcome. You can keep adjusting the ratio of red to blue balls until he chooses the test score to find out how confident he really is. (Source: Amir D. Aczel’s Chance)

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#108 - "Measuring probabilities," says Amir Aczel, "is a simple as counting." Simply count the possibilities of an event and divide this number by the total number of possibilities (assuming the possibilities are equally likely). For example, what is the probability of rolling an even number on a six-sided die? Since there are three even numbers (two, four, six) out of six equally likely numbers, the answer is 3/6 = 1/2, or fifty percent. What if you have a deck of fifty-two playing cards, what is the probability of drawing an ace? Since there are four aces out of fifty-two cards equally likely to be chosen, the probability of an ace is 4/52 = 1/13 = 0.0769, or about eight percent.

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#86 - How do you know when you’ve met Mr./Ms. Right? How do you determine who, among the available range of candidates in your life, is the person you should marry? The best way to increase the chances that you’ve made the right decision is to follow this simple sampling strategy:

You will maximize your probability of finding the best spouse if you date about 37 percent of the available candidates in your life and then choose to stay with the next candidate who is better than all the previous ones.

Suppose that during your single years you will date 100 candidates for marriage. If you marry the first one that comes along then your chance of finding the best of the lot is only 1/100. The same probability is applicable if you date 99 of them and marry the last one. The chance that the last candidate is the best choice is only 1 in 100. Following the formula allows you to sample the options and increases the likelihood that you will choose the best of the available choices. (Note: This strategy also works for similar choices, such as buying a house.)

(HT: Amir D. Aczel, Chance)

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#96 - Need to multiply a double digit number by 11? Add the two digits and place their sum in the middle. (Example: 11 x 36 = (3+6) = 396 = 396) If the sum produces a double digit add it to the first digit. (Example: 65 x 11 = (6+5) 6115 = 715)

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#148 - Determining the Probability of Independent Events -- Everyone knows that the chances of rolling a three on a six sided dice is 1/6th or .16. But what is the probability of rolling threes twice in two rolls? To determine the probability of independent events (events where the probability of one does not affect the other) simply multiply their two probabilities together. So for our example, the probability of rolling two threes in two rolls of the die would be 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36. Out of 36 rolls, on average you will roll two "threes" once. (Source: Chance, Amir Aczel)

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#188 - How to value an investment -- The more likely or unlikely an outcome, the more or less you (should) value it. Suppose, for instance, someone offers you an investment that has a 30% chance of earning $1000, a 20% chance of earning you $2000, and a 50% chance of losing you $400 dollars. How much is the investment worth (i.e., how much can you expect to make on this investment)?

The answer is found by adding the sum of the products of the values and their probabilities. For example:

0.3 x 1,000 x 0.2 x 2,000 + 0.5 x (-400) = $500

Over the long term you can expect to make, on average, $500 every time you invest. (HT: Amir D. Aczel, Chance)

HowTo's

#17 - How to fold a fitted sheet

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#26 - Record cassette tapes to MP3

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#58 - How to Make a Mind Map

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#85 - Turn your old PC into a Linux-powered jukebox.

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#185 - How to make your own ringtones

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#225 - Get a Free Credit Report

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#235 - How to improve your handwriting

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#245 - How to read a difficult book

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Amazon Hacks

#11 - When linking to a book I often use Amazon as the reference link. Unfortunately, that often means having to use a 114 character monstrosity like this:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596004478/qid%3D1049157816/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-2773718-4336742

Fortunately, such a link can be simplified. Begin by cutting all but the first string of numbers after the “ASIN”:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596004478/

You can also cut it further by replacing “exec/obidos” with “o”, as in:

http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0596004478

That brings it down from 114 characters to a more manageble 35.

Downloads and Online Apps

#69 - Want to create PDF documents but can’t afford Adobe Acrobat? Try CutePDF Writer, a free version of commercial PDF creation software.

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#150 - Trying to send an email with an attachment that is too large for your ISP? YouSendIt offers a free service that lets you send files up to 1GB. Your recepient gets an easy download link by email. It will even scan files for viruses.

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#210 - The "copy and paste" function is undoubtably one of the greatest innovations in the modern age. But few things are more frustrating than have having to go through the four click routine of “Edit” --> “Paste Special” --> “Unformatted Text” --> “OK” needed to past unformatted text. Fortunately, using PureText, a Windows utility that lets you paste unformatted text into any open window in any program, I can perform the same function using Windows+V. PureText is one of the simplest and yet most satisfying programs to come along in ages.

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#248 - Instructables has a PDF template Scrabble board that conveniently prints on an A4 or lettter sized sheet of paper. With just a single sheet of paper and a pair of scissors you can have a travel version of the popular word game to take anywhere you go.

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#244 - The PocketMod (YSR #180), a small book with guides on each page that enables use you to transform a single sheet of paper into the ultimate note card, has some interesting new updates. The template now has Music staff and tab sheets, a deadline plotter, a food diary, SuDoku, and (my favorite) Franklin's virtues.