10. Get the local time anywhere
What time is it in Bangkok right now? Ask Google. Enter simply what time is it to get the local time in big cities around the world, or add the locale at the end of your query, like what time is it hong kong to get the local time there.
9. Track flight status
Enter the airline and flight number into the Google search box and get back the arrival and departure times right inside Google’s search results. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Go contrarian: Wall Street is biased, trust no one
The vast majority of business, economic and stock-market forecasters are not looking out for your interests. They’re biased, favoring their employers on Wall Street, Corporate America and Washington. The past few years they made huge bucks hyping the credit/subprime bubble. Witness their bonuses. In 2008 their rosy forecasts will continue. They can’t help misleading you, it’s in their DNA: “Greed is good.”
2. Do-it-yourself: You’ll make fewer mistakes
Remember Buddha’s advice: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” You are the only “expert” you can trust: All brokers and money managers, newspapers, magazines, online and newsletter pundits, all television anchors, and every other special-interest guru is “selling” you something. Don’t buy “it.” Read the rest of this entry »

1. Coach travel is the safest form of road transport in the country.
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2. Saddam Hussein’s codename while in US custody in 2004/5 was “Victor”.
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3. Adding milk to tea negates the health-giving effects of a hot brew.
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4. The word “jaywalking” came from the US slang “jay”, a term popular in the early 20th Century meaning a rustic newcomer unfamiliar with city ways.
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5. Cloudy apple juice is healthier than clear, containing almost double the antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer.
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For those of you that don’t know, Mike Arrington is the impresario behind TechCrunch and the godfather of Web 2.0 punditry. The following is an excerpt of his annual listing of Web 2.0 must-visits.

1. 800-Free-411
800-Free-411 was first added to the list last year. Use it to make free directory assistance calls and avoid per call charges of up to $3.50 that cell phone carriers charge. They have taken more than 6% of the market for directory service calls in the U.S. over the last two years. Google, Microsoft, AT&T and others have entered the market, but Jingle Networks, the company offering the product, has a patent on the idea of pairing advertising with free directory service. Here’s a tip: add “FREE411USA” as a Skype contact and do lookups that way, too.
2. Amazon MP3 Store
Amazon’s new music store is just about perfect. With the addition of Warner Music they’ve got 3 million DRM-free songs at prices lower than Apple’s iTunes store (which has only 2 million DRM-free songs). It’s not as cheap as AllOfMP3 was, but at least it’s guilt-free and legal. Plus, it will hopefully drive Apple to improve iTunes (offering no-DRM only search would be a good start). Read the rest of this entry »

1. Don’t set a lot of resolutions.
In fact, I don’t recommend setting more than one. If you set a lot of them, you lose focus on individual resolutions, making them hard to achieve. I would focus on tackling the one thing in your life that bothers you the most and focus on a resolution that helps to fix that problem.
2. A resolution is almost always part of a longer-term pattern you want to establish - figure out what that pattern is.
If you’ve decided to invest this year as part of your resolution, it’s part of a bigger pattern. Maybe you want to reach a greater state of financial stability right now. Maybe you want to bump up your savings for retirement. Maybe you’re just going to save for a new house. Whatever it is, your immediate resolution is just a strong first step towards that bigger goal. The same goes for a health-related resolution, a personality-related resolution, or so on - you’re hoping to cause a bigger change in your life. Understand what that change really is and keep that big picture in mind even as you make little steps. Read the rest of this entry »

The man who first turned me on to blogging, BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis, has a great post out today listing 9 amazing Google facts. Sometimes it behooves one to sit down and marvel at Google. Companies like this only come along once in a lifetime. GE. Coke. Ford. Disney. McDonalds. Xerox. Wal-Mart. Intel. Microsoft. Now Google.

I’ll quote from Jeff:

• Google is the “fastest growing company in the history of the world.” – Times of London, 1/29/06
• Google controls 65.1% of all searches in the U.S. at the end of 2007 and 86% of all searches in the UK, according to measurement company Hitwise.
• Google was searched 4.4 billion times in the U.S. alone in October, 2007 (three times Yahoo), says Nielsen. Average searches per searcher: 40.7.
• Google’s sites had 112 million U.S. visitors in November, 2007, says Nielsen.
• Google’s traffic was up 22.4% in 2007 over 2006, according to Comscore.
• Google earned $15 billion revenue and $6.4 billion profit in 2007, a profit margin of 26.9%. Its revenue was up 57% in the last quarter of 2007 over 2006, says Yahoo Finance. As of late 2007, its stock was up 53% in a year. The company has a market capitalization of $207.6 billion.
• Google controls 79% of the pay-per-click ad market, according to RimmKaufman. It controls 40% of all online advertising, according to web site HipMojo.
• Google employed almost 16,000 people at the end of 2007, a 50% increase over the year before.
• Google became the No. 1 brand in the world in 2007, according to Millward Brown Brandz Top 100.

Original post:
Google is God (BuzzMachine)

10. Transistors Get Way Smaller
In the race to make computers faster, chipmakers rely on exotic new materials. In January, Intel announced that the element hafnium and some new metal alloys will allow them to make the millions of switches on their microprocessors far smaller. Gordon Moore, co-founder of the company and father of the law that bears his name, called it the biggest change in transistor technology since the 1960s. (…)
9. Scientists Clone Rhesus Monkey to Produce Stem Cells
At Oregon Health and Science University, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his team cloned a Rhesus Monkey and used the resulting embryo to create stem cells. Until then, the impressive feat had been performed only with mice. (…) Read the rest of this entry »

Bestselling Products

The following is a list of the bestselling products on Amazon.com in 2007 by total units sold:

– Books: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling

– Music: “Noel” by Josh Groban

– DVD: “Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series”

– Electronics: Canon PowerShot A570IS 7.1MP digital camera

– Home & Garden: Pyrex storage sets

– Health & Personal Care: Omron HJ-112 digital premium pedometer

– Grocery: Senseo Douwe Egberts dark roast coffee pods Read the rest of this entry »