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.

[Note: I've decided to tighten up the YSR posts, cutting the fluff that nobody reads anyway and trimming it back to a more manageble level of five useful hacks, tips, tricks, and tools.]

#680 Firefox Extension -- Google calls its Google Reader the "inbox for the Internet." Now Mihai Parparita, frontend tech lead of Google Reader, has created a GreaseMonkey extension that integrates Google Reader with Gmail, allowing you to read your feeds just like you read an email. (HT: Lifehacker)

#681 Keyboard Shortcut -- Control-Backspace (Windows)| Option-Delete (Mac) will delete the entire word to the left of your cursor in one keystroke. Ctrl-Delete (Windows)| Option-Fn-Delete (Mac) will delete the entire word to the right of the cursor. (HT: Lifehacker)

#682 Google School -- You can use your Google search box is an instant calculator. Simply type your mathematical formula into the search box just as you would in Google for an instant calculation (Use Alt-K/Ctrl-K to jump to that box). (HT: Lifehacker)

#683 HowTo -- Create unique voicemail greetings for each caller on your cell phone.

#684 Download of the Week -- Open source app MediaCoder is an audio and video batch transcoder designed to give you a way to make conversions to and from some of the most popular media codecs. (HT: Lifehacker)

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.