iPad Storage Made Easy

I hit on this idea after watching our iPads fall over on the kitchen counter for the thousandth time, where we (attempt) to store them vertically against the wall, but which I have always had to prop up with a bottle of wine lest the slide across the counter. My brainstorm: A paper napkin holder.…

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Top 10 Movies of 2012

By popular demand, here are my picks for the year. 1. Argo 2. Silver Linings Playbook 3. Promised Land 4. Compliance 5. Safety Not Guaranteed 6. Flight 7. Jiro Dreams of Sushi 8. This Is 40 9. The Queen of Versailles 10. Cloud Atlas

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Better Even Than a Tazer

Best question from Cub Scout visit to Presidio Park Police Station today: “Do you have a morning star?” Also popular were questions about swords, machine guns, bazookas, and flamethrowers.

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Stuff People Give Out at Food Drives

Spent several hours going door to door with my son’s Cub Scout pack this morning collecting canned goods for the San Francisco Food Bank. Among the items received for donation: A jar of “Goober Grape” PB&J combo A bottle of Trader Joe’s Thai curry sauce Multiple 12-packs of Coca-Cola Bag of dried lentils from a…

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Why “New York Times Bestseller” Means Nothing

What does it take to get on the New York Times Best Seller list? A lot of money, that’s all. Here’s how publishers looking to cash in on those golden words do it. The secret: “bulk sales” — where a few bookstores receive massive orders driven by a small number of buyers. The NYT now…

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Quick Tip: Speed Up Firefox Data Entry

I work pretty much all day in Firefox and big text fields in WordPress. Some strange bug between the two causes performance to bog down, especially when (oddly) deleting text. Finally I’ve found what looks like a solution. In Firefox, click Tools > Options. Under the Advanced section, click the General tab. Uncheck the box…

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Should You “Sleep On It”?

Yes, if it’s a tough problem… Previous research has shown that performance on problem solving improves over a period of sleep, as compared with wakefulness. However, these studies have not determined whether sleep is beneficial for problem solving or whether sleep merely mitigates against interference due to an interruption to solution attempts … We conclude…

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Columbine at 13

Everything you remember about Columbine is wrong. A new book out reminds of what really went down. One interesting tidbit from this page: Myth #5. There were no warning signs that could have prevented the Columbine massacre. Truth: Other parents had complained about Eric Harris, multiple times. Both Eric and Dylan had been arrested before. Thirteen…

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Outlook vs. iCloud

This is probably only going to be of interest to a few dozen Googlers who happen by, but here goes: Outlook 2007 and iCloud 2.0 don’t get along. If you have email stuck in your Outlook outbox (particularly scheduled items), uninstall iCloud. Everything will work suddenly work fine after a reboot.

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JOIN MISSION:GALACTIC

Now that’s what I call a contest! Calling all Elevate® members: Get in the running for Galactic Status by flying Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia to earn status points throughout the year. The Elevate member who scores the most status points by August 7, 2013 wins a suborbital space flight on Virgin Galactic.…

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Interview: James Carville, New Spokesman for Maker’s Mark | Drinkhacker.com

Interview: James Carville, New Spokesman for Maker’s Mark | Drinkhacker.com James Carville isn’t just the kingmaker behind Bill Clinton and other Democratic leaders from the last several decades, he’s now the spokesman for Maker’s Mark. Along with wife Mary Matalin, Carville is stumping for the massive Bourbon brand with a cheeky political spin, promoting “The…

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On Chinese Beaches, The Face-Kini Is In Fashion : NPR

On Chinese Beaches, The Face-Kini Is In Fashion : The Two-Way : NPR In China, it’s the height of beach season for Qingdao’s huge Huiquan Beach. But while many visitors want to enjoy the sand and water, they’re not so wild about sunbathing. So they often rely on a local tradition: the face-kini.

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