Friday Roundup of Weird Stuff

It's Friday and your mind's not on work. Neither is mine. [It never is. -- Editor.] Either way, I have a backlog of what I think are terrific videos and a handful of some really dopey sites.

• If you follow the directions carefully (they're right below the image), you'll experience a slick optical illusion, one you've probably never see before.
• Guess the Spot is challenging -- unless you know your landmarks. [Thanks Brad.]


Guess again...




• This British commercial from Greenpeace is darned funny, at least IMHO. My editor thought is was crass. After watching it, I wondered how they changed the batteries. Warning: Adult humor. [Thanks, Brad.]
• Remember the car that turned into a boat? It was around in the 50s and no, I can't find a video of it. (Update: Bill W. supplied the video.] But here's a video of an updated car and boat combo. And if that doesn't float your boat, I have a video of the sQuba, a submarine car combo...
• You heard of cluster ballooning, right? There's a sense of anticipation as the balloons are attached to you, and you grow lighter and lighter. And wave goodbye to terra firma.








• I LOLed watching the "Top 10 sports most awkward interviews"
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Four Handy Sites to Compare Shipping Rates

Whenever I ship a package, I struggle with finding the best price. I go through the steps and fill out the forms on FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the Post Office's site. It's cumbersome and a royal pain.

Just recently I've started exploring shipper comparison sites and boy has my shipping life become easier.

RedRoller compares shipping rates of the Post Office, DHL, Overnite Express, and Eastern Connection. Of course it'd be more practical if they included FedEx and UPS, but hey, I don't own the company, so what do I know...

RedRoller compares Post Office, DHL, Overnite Express, and Eastern Connection

The second shipper comparison site I tried is Iship which handles DHL, UPS, and the Post Office. That's better, but like RedRoller, it's missing FedEx. I suspect that's because Iship owns UPS and there's no way, no how they're going to let the RedRoller competitor display their rates.

Iship compares DHL, UPS, and the Post Office rates

The almost hands down winner is Shipping Sidekick because they handle the four services I use the most: The Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and DHL; Shipping Sidekick is also fairly easy to use.

ShippingSidekick is easy to use and handles all four shipping services

Of all the Web service I'm using, though, ShipGooder is the fastest and easiest, and handles the four services I choose from the most -- the Post office, FedEx, UPS, and DHL. Loyal reader Mande Gianfala told me about ShipGooder and said, "As a programmer, I also love the AJAX interface; the courier rate quote results are instantaneous." I agree. And thanks, Mande!

ShipGooder is more comprehensive than the rest -- and way easier to use

Meebo: A Smart Way to use Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is a valuable tool and one I use fairly often. Instead of downloading and installing an IM program, such as Trillian(the one I used to use), you might try Meebo, a Web-based service. You get access to all the majors -- AIM, Jabber, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and MSN, all from one screen.

What, you say, you'd rather check out a collection of downloadable IM apps? Can do -- here are dozens for you to look at.

Use Meebo to use practically any IM service

Great JOTT: Take a Note

You get those brilliant ideas while walking the dog and by the time you get home, poof, the thought's gone. (Okay, maybe not you, but I'm certainly losing gray cells.)

Well, last summer I told you about Jott, a free service that lets you call a toll-free number, dictate a message, and then see it in e-mail, transcribed into text. (See Nifty Web Services to jog your memory.) I use it regularly with my cell phone, but haven't been back to the site in some time. I mean, it's set up, so why bother.

I logged into the Jott site yesterday and was surprised at two things: First, there was a log of all my previous Jotts. Not world-shattering, I suppose, but handy for reviewing what I wanted to remember. The second thing I hadn't paid attention to when I signed up was adding other people to my Jott contact list. I thought how often I had wanted to Jott a quick note to my wife, Judy, but had to send it to myself, and then forward the message.

Try Jott and lemme know what you think.

Free Microsoft Products for Students

I have to start with "prove it!" Not to me, I believe you, really. It's Microsoft that's the stickler.

If you can jump through a bunch of hoops and prove you're a student, Microsoft will let you download Visual Studio 2008, Expression Studio, Windows Server 2003, and Game Studio 2.0.

Microsoft's DreamSpark program also gives you seven other products to download, old versions, actually, such as Visual C# 2005, Visual Basic 2005, and others. [Thanks for the lead, Mike.]

Friday Roundup of Weird Stuff

You've been waiting all week for today, and probably not because of my Friday collection of weird and unusual Web sites. LOL -- too bad, because I'm posting it anyway...

• This little ditty was created entirely from the sounds in XP and 98. The author used ModPlug Tracker music software to create the synthezied music.




• In my hippie days, the radical seventies, I owned a VW bus. At the start of a road trip, I'd wrap a hamburger in aluminum foil and throw it into the engine compartment. By noon, lunch would be ready. (I tossed wet sneakers there, too, but not while the burgers were cooking.)

  Technology has made that technique obsolete; witness the "Exhaustburger Cooks While You Drive" device. (Sure it's probably Photoshopped, but I'll bet it'd work.)


Cook while you drive




• When I was a kid, I harassed my sister by flicking cooked peas across the dinner table and onto her lap. Once again, technology marches forward in the quest for the perfect food launcher. The Zing is a simple affair: A spoon attached to a springy handle. Dispatch the odd piece of broccoli, tablespoon of peas, or for real excitement, a wedge of formerly canned beets. (Thanks for this, Carl. BTW, I ordered a pair; we can aggravate Judy and Jan next time we're over for dinner.]
  


Zing some food across the table




• ? I'm a sucker for creative Web sites and "Fred & Friends" is just blowing me away. Fred has hundreds of weird, useless, and intriguing products for sale (that's where Carl found the Zing food launcher above). Browse through the product line as you would a paper catalog -- turn a page by grabbing the corner. Be sure to fiddle with the page turning; it's great fun. Double-click a picture to enlarge it; drag and drop to move; and double-click again to reduce the size. You might want to just click the right or left arrow--which is quicker than flipping pages, and easier to do if you use a touchpad.

  I'm not finished. In the lower-right corner, click on the cluster of squares to see all the pages; the Exit button is on the upper right. For the left panel, you can add bookmarks, search, and pop up a contents menu. Too bad more stagnant, static Web sites don't try this style...




Flip through Fred's pages




• It's viral marketing at its best -- a commercial for fizzy sports drink that looks like an amateur, YouTube video project. And at first glance, you wonder how they trained the ultra-cute squirrel. [Thanks, Brad.]




• Are your reflexes slowing down? Mine certainly are, at least according to this annoying test of my sluggish reaction time.

  
  I really need some practice...

  
  

• Don't go on vacation. No, really, I'm warning you... [Thanks, Payne S.]



Comments
Regarding the "exhaustburger", this is a real phenomenon. For decades, thoseSuburban drivers pulling Airstreams have been slow cooking dinner over their exhaust manifolds. There actually are cook books devoted to the technique. How do you calculate true mileage when you gas guzzler also makes dinner?
pddcoo
February 23, 2008
8:47 AM PT
I think that the exhaustburger will kill you if you really eat it. Won't the fumes from the exhaust deadly?
hawkskater
February 23, 2008
9:17 PM PT
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Two More Cool Sites (and Services) to Try

Unarchive This
You're on vacation and using a PC in an Internet caf?. Someone sends you an e-mail with an archived file, maybe it's Zipped or RARed, and of course the PC doesn't have an unarchiving tool. Pop over to WobZip, a still-in-the-works site that'll uncompress over 15 archive types, including CAB, LZH, TAR, and even ISO. Once unarchived, you'll need to download the files.

What Is That Word
Do you need a thesaurus that's sure to impress your Luddite friends? Try Visuwords, a weird but accurate and useful online word-finding tool. The word you've filled into the field appears and other, related words spring up from out of nowhere.

Find the right word with Visuwords

Do I Hear $10?
When I was a teenager, I'd go to the police auctions, looking for bicycles that I could use for spare parts. I haven't been to one in years... and wouldn't you know, I can now do it online.

Property Room is an online auction site specializing in items that were stolen and never claimed. Bid on jewelry, electronics, bikes, tools, and a host of other stolen property. The site, run by a former detective, cops its inventory from police property rooms across the country.

Are you going to get a bargain? It's hard to say; just as with eBay, you have to do your due diligence and pay attention to bidding. For example, when I looked, a portable stove, the kind you take on a camping trip, had a current bid of $24. I saw the same stove at Harbor Freight, on sale, for $20.

Legally bid on stolen property

Google CAPTCHA Error Locks Me Out

Google's driving me -- and lots of folks -- nuts with its annoying CAPTCHA error traps. You mean you haven't faced them yet? You will, just give it time. I seem to get one every few days.

Here's the actual error message, minus the CAPTCHA.

Apparently when too many people use Google, the servers panic and think automated software is doing something insidious to their service. (It's not, fellahs, it's just me and a couple of users...) So to separate us from robots, they ask us to fill in a CAPTCHA. And I never seem to type it in right the first time.

The Google folks say that if you keep getting the message, you can delete the Google cookie and reload Google's page. Otherwise, they suggest you trade your PC in for a Mac. No, I'm kidding. They really think you might have a virus, and they advise you to run a scan with you favorite antivirus program. (Try Avast or AVG if you don't have one.)

Either way, the CAPTCHA thing is annoying--if it continues, I might even have to try a different search engine.

A Normal Satellite Re-Entry? Like, Sure...

I trust you've heard that the sky is falling? Well, okay, just something in the sky. It's a U.S. spy satellite that's running out of steam and because of the risk of it landing on a populated area, the government's planning to shoot it down. At the cost of $60 million.

Actual possibility of what the spy satellite
might look like (no one knows, because it's a
spy satellite...)

I was thinking of making light of the situation, but it's too serious. I picked up a bunch of info, all of it from legit sites, and no one's joking around.

Start with Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the nuclear strategy and nonproliferation initiative at the New America Foundation. He says:

"Holding the aside the politics of this? -- which are terrible --? the briefing on debris risk left me cold. I have to say that I am very, very uneasy about this decision ?-- our missile defense tests have been heavily scripted to minimize debris creation and modeling of debris creation isn't an exact science."

Read his Don't Shoot Down USA 193 post and a follow-up where Lewis interviews a geographer.

Next read the press release from the U.S. Department of Defense. In part, it discusses the real threat if the satellite lands near people.

"Contact with hydrazine is hazardous. Direct contact with skin or eyes, ingestion or inhalations from hydrazine released from the tank upon impact could result in immediate danger. If this operation is successful, the hydrazine will then no longer pose a risk to humans."

[Why am I not reassured? "Our officials have high confidence that the engagement will be successful." That should be enough, right? I'll let you know if my daughter's school starts instituting "duck and cover" drills... --Editor]

If you still have the fortitude, watch the chilling (and lengthy) Satellite Reentry Briefing and hear what the White House, Defense Department, and NASA have to say.

Here's my favorite quote: "It's not the impact we're worried about; it's the hydrazine that's going to do the damage." Oy.

Finally, check out the trajectory of the spy satellite USA 193 in Heavens Above -- and see where it is in real-time. Then go outside and look up.

Where is James Bond when we need him? This really is like one of Ian Fleming's plots.

Talkback
Have something to say about spy satellites ? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Sites (and Services) You Need Try

My wife was off on a birding trip over the weekend and I spent some quality time with the Internet. Here are two of the sites I discovered. I'll have more throughout the week.

• You probably already know if you live in a dead cell zone. So I'm betting you've thought about switching carriers. The site to check is DeadCellZones because it'll give you an idea what areas you'll find the most cell phone coverage complaints. You can search by zip, city, or address, and look at complaints about AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. You can submit a complaint to the site; it's not likely to force anyone to stick a new tower in your area, but it sure feels good to do.

  
  Find a dead zone in your home town

• Buying or selling a house? With the market the way it is, I didn't think so. There's a possibility you might do it in the future and I discovered a tool you could use. The TitleWizard will let you compare the cost of title insurance from over 80 title companies. I put in my home zip code, answered a handful of questions, and came up with 24 companies. The fees ranged from a high of $2800 to a low of $1800.

Get a feel for the cost of title insurance

Friday Roundup of Weird Stuff

All right, kids, you know what day it is? Yep, it's Friday and the day I almost didn't get this roundup of weird stuff posted. But here it is...

• How'd you do with the observation quiz from last week? One guy wrote and complained that two many of the test questions were ambiguous. No doubt, but then again, So's life, eh? So this week I have Eagle Eyes, a very difficult, non-ambiguous test to see just how good your powers of observation are. Click the spot when you find the difference. One hint: It's not only the objects, but also the background. I started you off on the first one.


Find the other three differences

• Nose job is a funny video. I mean, the gag is good, but what they're selling with it makes absolutely no sense.
• My cousin Judy sent me this earthquake quiz. It helps determine if you're prepared for an earthquake. I dunno, I also thought heading under the desk with someone you like was the thing to do...
• The Jedi Ginsu Commercial video really captures the essence of all those guys pitching chop-o-matics at the swap meets.
• This 18-hole golf game is addicting. Definitely watch out for #18. [Thanks, Georgia.]



• The coolest video I've seen all week is "The Dog, the Cat and the Rat." They all seem to get along, at least while they're out in public. Around the house, well, who knows. The story, which I can't confirm, is that the animals belong to a homeless panhandler in Santa Barbara, California. Watch for the spot in the video where the cat licks the dogs head and the rat sniffs the cat's ear. Way cute.
• Canon's new Canon 1200/5.6L USM lens. Only $99,000. I want one. Details here.


And it weighs a mere 38 pounds




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TSA's New Blogs (Plus a Battery Restriction Reminder)

I'm traveling next month and while I know about the battery hassle, I'm not sure you do. The TSA has limited the number of lithium batteries you can carry on-board the plane. [Thanks, Chuck B.]

We posted a story on the issue in December: US Bans Spare Lithium Batteries from Checked Bags. And our Jim Martin alerted Mobile Computing readers about the new rules in early January. (See Selling Your Laptop on eBay.)

You can read the official TSA rules here and here.

BTW, if you're traveling out of the country, you might also want to scroll to Five Things to Know About U.S. Border Laptop Searches, a piece that talks about warrantless searches of laptops and other electronic devices at U.S. borders. Swell.

In other news, the TSA has a blog -- Evolution in Security. It's your chance to let off a little steam (oh, and I have plenty) and see how TSA bloggers respond to typical issues, such as shoes, liquids, and my favorite, the annoying inconsistencies I experience at different airports.

Talkback
Have something to say? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Free Tool: USB Safely Remove (But Act Now!)

Do I have a nifty deal for you!

In the March Hassle-Free PC column, I wrote this:

Safely Remove External Devices

The Hassle: I disconnected an external USB drive, but I can still see it in Windows Explorer. And every few seconds I get a 'Delayed Write Failed' error message. It's a pain in the neck--and confusing.

The Fix: The case of the phantom flash drive, eh? The Safely Remove Hardware tool (the green arrow in the system tray) is meant to complete any reads or writes and then flush disk buffers on the device. Not using it--and just disconnecting the device--is a game of high-tech Russian roulette that can result in corrupted files.

You probably know the safest way to disconnect such hardware: Click the green arrow icon, highlight the device, and click Stop.

If you're constantly swapping flash drives and other USB external add-ons, you might want some extra help. USB Safely Remove--a handy, $20 program--gives you more ways to handle multiple USB devices. For instance, the tool allows you to stop peripherals via keyboard shortcuts and lets advanced users employ command-line batch files to stop multiple gadgets.

I just learned that until February 16th, the author's giving away a one-year license for the $20 program. (Thanks to avniassa on the PC World Forum for this great lead.)

It's a cool tool and one you might want to have in your toolkit. OTOH, if you don't use lots of USB devices -- flash and drives, external hard drives, cameras -- I'd pass on the offer. (Mom -- that's you.)

Talkback
Have something to say? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Two Free Tools for Quick Access to System Tray Calendars

You remember I told you that I gave you using Outlook? (See Hello Google Calendar... Goodbye Outlook). That's true, but I also need quick access to a calendar a couple of times a day. Coincidentally, two of my e-mail buddies found a pair of handy little calendars, both free for the download.

The one I'm using is QuickMonth Calendar because it's non-obtrusive and doesn't have any bells, whistles, or frills. Just roll your cursor over on the "time" by far right of your System Tray and up pops a calendar.

Here's what Zachary A. said:

"I have long been frustrated with the click in the Windows task bar showing only the time (and today's date if you double-size your task bar). With this great little utility just hover your mouse over the time and you get a full month calendar, highlighting the current date, and through which you can scroll forward and backwards."

Hover over the Systray and QuickMonth Calendar pops up

When I mentioned QuickMonth Calendar to another buddy, Bryan V., he immediately fired back "try DateInTray, too!" Aye aye, sir.

DateInTray is also low profile, sits in the System tray, and always shows today's date. Float the cursor over the date and you'll see the day, date and year. But here's where I run into a problem. If I want to see a calendar, I have to double click the date icon. I know I'm kvetching, but for me, the whole purpose of the tool is to quickly get to a calendar; that's why QuickMonth Calendar makes so much sense. One other thing: I have to go though a Startup folder rigmarole to get DateInTray to load when I boot the system; QuickMonth Calendar handles that for me.

Double click DatInTray to see a calendar

Try them both and see if either fits your needs. And if neither of them do, you've got another choice -- Calendar Magic, available in our Downloads area.

Talkback
Have something to say about calendar programs -- or maybe have a favorite? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Three More CCleaner Tips

Last week I blogged about CCleaner, my favorite dusting and cleaning utility.

I received a couple of messages about the tool that I thought you'd like to read.

The first is from blogger Bill Webb. Bill advised "not to set the default deletion method (under "Options, Settings") to "Secure file deletion" -- unless you've carefully thought it through. Sooner or later you'll run CCleaner and then have one of those 'Ah S**t' moments, whereupon you'll try to use all that cool data recovery software to no avail. It will happen eventually. That setting should only be used to delete specific cleaning jobs on specific classes of files, then returned to its normal setting. Trust me on this."

I will, Bill, definitely.

Dale, May OEMTech friend, told me about something I would've (no, make that should've) known about had I read CCleaner's help file. It's the winapp2.ini file that lets you further customize the program. Details are here.

Dale also urges you to use CCleaner's built-in CYA back up feature to "make a backup of all the registry entries that it deletes just in case."

Finally, more than one of you encouraged me to tell everyone to uncheck the Cookies box (see screen below). That's good advice because CCleaner deletes all of them unless you mark specific cookies not to be deleted (from Options**Cookies).

Turn off cookie deletion in CCleaner

Talkback
Have something to say abut CCleaner? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Friday Roundup of Weird Stuff

It's Friday and time for my weekly tour of the Internet's strangest, weirdest, and most interesting offerings.

• I spent way too long playing around with the Uniqlo_Grid. Once you're on the playing field, draw a circle, slice a box, move a square. If you're lucky, someone in another country will be doing the same thing -- with other color boxes. It's kinda hard to describe, but give it go anyway. (Make sure to click on the "information" box in the right corner and then click on of the images near the bottom of the page. When you figure it all out, drop a note in Comments and explain it to use all. [Thanks, Ken S.]






• Is this proof that there's life on Mars? You decide. [Thanks, Stuart.]




• I used to fold a dollar bill so it looked like a rabbit in a top hat. That was nothing compared to the hundreds of stunning origami samples on the Robert J. Lang site. [Thanks, Bill W.]







• Brad from Atlanta says the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon Challenge is one of the best he's tried. I agree -- great fun, especially if you turn the speakers way up...







• You think you don't like ventriloquists? Watch this guy.
  




• Here's a giant robot controlled by Microsoft software. I just hope it isn't using Vista... [Thanks, Kim.]




• Quick, where's the green light on a standard traffic light -- the top or the bottom? And the Statue of Liberty holds the torch in which hand? I thought so... Try the other 25 questions in at the Power of Observation page. [Thanks, Tom L.]




• Note to Playboy: Too much Photoshop.




• Frozen New York -- and I don't mean it's cold out.
  

Two More Free Tool for File Copying (and Moving)

Two weeks ago I started playing with TeraCopy and for those of you who copy and move lots of files, this puppy is the one you want to use.

TeraCopy does what you'd expect -- it lets you pause and resume copying. It also verifies the copy and retries if there's an error. If you're curious, TeraCopy will retest each file copy. According to my unscientific tests, copying files seems faster with TeraCopy than using Windows Explorer. Get a copy here.

TeraCopy is free for home users; right now the Pro version doesn't have enough features to justify the $20 cost. For instance, the Pro has a context menu in the file list allowing more control over the copy queue list. The author promised lots more features to come for the Pro version. You can also try the TeraCopy Pro Beta, the one I'm using. It works fine.

TeraCopy does a terrific job copying and moving files

Another Option: Free Supercopier
While you're evaluating file utilities, you might as well take a look at Supercopier. In addition to a right click menu addition, you can drag and drop files you want to copy (or move) right onto the program. Supercopier has two features the other copy utilities are missing: The ability to save the file list in order to copy the same files again, and a setting to set a specific folder as the location to use every time you copy or move files.

Supercopier lets you save the destination
folder for future copies or moves

Use Free TotalCopy for Quickly Moving and Copying Files

It's been years since I used the file Copy or Move tools built into Windows. You know what I'm talking about: It's when you're in Windows Explorer and use drag and drop to copy files from one folder to another. You may even use a right mouse drag and drop to move the file. (All that's happening, BTW, is that Windows first copies the file to the new location and deletes it from the old spot.)

The problem, among other things, is once you get started, you can't pause the copying or moving.

The program I used to use is Total Copy. The tool lets you copy or move numerous files faster than Windows can and lets you pause -- and later resume -- the action. And unlike Windows, Total Copy doesn't stop cold if it can't copy a locked file. Total Copy automatically appears when you click your right mouse button while highlighting a bunch of files in Windows Explorer.

Total Copy was written eons ago and hasn't been updated since 2005. It still works, but if I try run more than one copy of the program, it occasionally crashes; I haven't been able to track down the exact problem -- and probably won't because it's too time consuming. If you're just copying a handful of files, Total Copy's fine.

Tomorrow: Two tools I just discovered that make copying and moving even easier.

You Oughta Be Using ClearType

I was backing up my neighbor's PC yesterday (it's something I do for only the brightest and nicest of them, and I noticed that fonts on Harry's notebook were blurry.

It was clear he hadn't tweaked his spanking brand new copy of Vista and turned on Cleartype.

See Better with ClearType
If you have a LCD monitor or a notebook, you can see a dramatic difference when looking at your on-screen fonts. They'll be razor-sharp and clearer than ever before. The only thing you need to do is change the ClearType setting.

ClearType is built into XP and Vista and the best way to play with it is using Microsoft's online wizard. It'll take you a few minutes to change the settings so the fonts look just right.

If you're using XP, a better way is to use the ClearType Tuner PowerToy.

My choice, though, is Iolsland's ClearTweak, a cool, free utility
that lets you fine-tune ClearType, or turn it on or off in a jiffy:

Two Tips for Cleaning Your PC with CCleaner

I use CCleaner and I strongly recommend you do, too. That's because the free utility scrubs your system and removes computer-clogging junk, including files in the temp folder and Internet cache. Download a copy here.

What makes CCleaner so cool is that you can customize it so the tool deletes specific files and folders every time it runs. For instance, I have a junk folder that I use for files I need for the day, but definitely want cleared out when I run CCleaner.

Customizing is easy. Choose the Options icon on the left, click Include, and add a file or folder using the buttons on the right.

It takes seconds to customize CCleaner

Another handy trick is in Settings: Add a "run CCleaner" context menu to your Recycle Bin icon. That way you don't even have to open CCleaner -- just click "run CCleaner from the Recycle Bin Icon.

Update: My friend Michael M., From Texas, just wrote:

"After CCleaner appeared in a print column recently, I gave it a try. In the process, I lost some valuable toolbar buttons in Word that I've never been able to recover. I've tried everything I can think of to recover the lost customizations without success.

"Though I can't positively say that the loss is the direct result of using CCleaner, I can tell you that my Word customizations worked perfectly the day before I ran CCleaner, and no longer worked an hour after running it. I admit that this may have been a unique problem..."

You can stop CCleaner from touching any of the Office app by unchecking the Office box (see the screen capture below).

Talkback
Have something cool you do with CCleaner? Tell me about it in Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.

Friday Roundup of Weird Stuff

I know you don't work on Friday (neither do I), so here's your collection of start-the-weekend time wasters.

• Can and bottle throwing -- it's the hottest new recycling sport. Lower the volume and start with Can's Professional and then watch Bottle Throwing Professional (about 30 seconds each will give you the idea). Then you might ask yourself: How many hundreds of takes did each take, well, take? [Thanks for this, Jorge L.]
• Did you lose you eyeglasses? Here's a smart way to create a quick pair of emergency specs.
• Some people think Google maps is entirely too evil. [Thanks, Pete.]




• Take a look at Dutch department store HEMA's product page. Everything's in Dutch, but just wait a couple of seconds -- and watch what happens. [Thanks, Brian, Joyce, Lincoln and others.]
[Why can't our shopping sites be this cool? -Editor]
• More Mountain Wingsuit videos of brave, and somewhat looney, people jumping from cliffs. [Thanks, Chris.]
• You think your little Honda Element has nifty doors? (They're sometimes known as "suicide doors" because they open from the middle of the vehicle.) You ain't seen anything until you watch this video of disappearing doors. [Thanks, Karl.]
• White Dwarf -- a pretty good time waster. Collect the magnetic green dots and avoid the red ones. [Thanks, Mike D.]
• If you can't seem to get enough games, here's a roundup of 101 free games. [Thanks, Rod.]