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.

#725 Firefox Tip -- Firefox extension Clippings saves and manages frequently-entered text for pasting later. Text can be pasted from Clippings into forms and input fields without the hassle of retyping or repetitive copying and pasting. Perfect for forms, web mail, blog entries, wiki editing and forum posts.

#726 Home Hack -- Want to sterilize your sponges and scrubbers? Don't throw them in the diswasher; put them in the microwave. A team of engineering researchers at the University of Florida found that two minutes of microwaving on full power killed or inactivated more than 99 percent of bacteria, viruses or parasites, as well as spores, on a kitchen sponge. (HT: CNN)

#727 Google School -- Google's News Search supports two special syntaxes-- intitle: (Finds words in an article headline. Eg: intitle:miners) and site: (Finds articles from a particular source. Eg: miners site:bbc.co.uk)

#728 HowTo -- Share your iTunes music library over your home network

#729 Download of the Week -- Desktop app Send To Notepad does exactly what the name implies - it launches Notepad with whatever text is on your clipboard in a new file with a click. (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.