Yak Shaving -- [MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on.#580 Voicemail/Email Hack -- K7 offers a free universal messaging service that lets you receive faxes and voice messages through your email. Your voice messages and fax messages will be sent as email attachments and can be viewed with the click of a mouse. If you can't access your email remotely, you can receive both faxes and voice messages via the K7 Web site. While it might not replace the voicemail on your office or home phone, it offers a creative way to receive feedback and comments (my number is 206-666-3409 for anyone who has a complaint or compliment for YSR Labs). (HT: LifeHacker)
#581 Windows Hack -- To quickly close folder windows that you have open, hold down CTRL, click on multiple items on the taskbar, then right-click the last one to close them all. You can also group items by right-clicking on the taskbar. This will allows you to tile, cascade, and minimize the group. (HT: LifeHacker)
#582 Word Keyboard Shortcut -- Ctrl+O opens a previously saved document.
#583 Know Your Fallacies -- Red Herring -- The name of this fallacy comes from the sport of fox hunting in which a dried, smoked herring, which is red in color, is dragged across the trail of the fox to throw the hounds off the scent. Thus, a "red herring" argument is one which distracts the audience from the issue in question through the introduction of some irrelevancy. This frequently occurs during debates when there is an at least implicit topic, yet it is easy to lose track of it. By extension, it applies to any argument in which the premisses are logically irrelevant to the conclusion.
#584 Google School -- Google's calculator function not only lets you make standard conversions (kilometers to miles) but more geek savvy conversions such as bits in kilobytes (155473 bytes in kilobytes) and numbers in hex or binary (19 in binary).
#585 HowTo -- Win Something In A Claw Machine
#586 Memory Hack -- Editthis.info explains how to "Never lose a lock combination again":
Write an encrypted version of the combo directly on the lock itself using a Sharpie, and then all you have to do is work back from the encrypted version if you forget the lock combination. This can be as simple as adding your birthday to the number, and when you need to recover the number, you just subtract your birthday from it.
So if your birthday is:
10 / 13 / 77
and your lock is:
19 / 22 / 41
You write on the back of the lock
29/ 35 / 118 (which is from 10+19 / 13+22 / 77+41).
When you need to recover your lock combination, you would just subtract your birthday from the encrypted code on the back of the lock to recover the original number
(29-10=19 / 35-13=22 / 118-77=41)
#587 SoYouWanna -- Improve your table manners.
#588 Download of the Week -- Free, open source program iColorFolder lets you color any folder on your computer with the right-click context menu. iColorFolder is a quick and creative way to organize your folders for easier identification (e.g., red for archives, green for working documents).
2
Write an encrypted version of the combo directly on the lock
I used to do this, but could never remember what encryption method I had used. I now have a handful of $3 Master high-school-locker-type dial locks, all marked with combinations obscured by reversal, adding 1, reversing the digits, adding a key number, and so forth. I have no idea how to open them.
posted on 08.02.2006 10:19 AM