Friday Night Links (4/30/2010)…

I had four links for tonight, but apparently someone wasn’t happy about the content of one of them and it was removed. Let’s just say someone had a little fun with Costco’s generic pricing signs. If you Google “Costco prank” you can find a couple of examples of what they were up to.

Also, if you every have links that you would like to see featured here, I am always open to suggestions. Anyway, on to the links!

• Homemade Snickers – As a kid, I used to see Snickers ads on TV all the time, but I don’t think I ever had a Snickers bar until I was 10 years old or so. Enough of my deprived childhood though. You, however, can give your kids the joys of Snickers bars by making them yourself. Sounds like a delicious Saturday afternoon project. As usual, please send any leftovers to me.
• Knife Sharpening – Ever tried to use a razor that had been used about a million times? Remember what it did to your face? Don’t do that to your food! Sharpen your knives. The article gives some great advice in the body, but the comments really shine because it is real people asking real questions and the author is there to answer every single one. Great instructional article.
• Boeing Makes a Plane – Pretty self explanatory, right? The plane they are making is for Southwest Airlines and is called Florida One. It has the Florida state seal on it and it is uglier than sin. Watching the process is really cool though. If you can’t see the embedded video, click for the link to YouTube.http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/zKnsyYbfC60&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Friday Night Links (4/16/2010)…

I’m teetering on the edge of a food coma after filling up on heavy Italian food at Buca di Beppo. Whatever! I’m still bringing you two food links tonight in the FNL. Get ready to be hungry.

• Make Your Own Sriracha – This is the sauce of the gods. Instead of being fiery hot just for the sake of being fiery hot, Sriracha sauce adds some fantastic garlic flavoring. If you want to tweak it even further you can add your own flavors. Personally, I’m thinking some sesame oil might be great.
• Cool Stuff – If that description sounds like it is generic and non-specific, then you obviously haven’t clicked on the link yet. I linked directly to the gadget section, but there are some amazing things in the other sections. How about these hotel rooms?
• Earthquake Notification – Live in a subduction zone? Not sure what subduction means? Well, if you live on the West Coast or along the Mississippi River, there’s a chance you are at risk of encountering an earthquake. The US Geological Survey actually has a text message or email notification service so you will know if an earthquake hits your area. It requires an email address, but you can actually have an email sent to your phone via text message by following the instructions at this link.
• Food Porn – Don’t let the name scare you: this link is safe for work. It is just ridiculously awesome looking (and tasting, I’m sure) food laid out in all its glory for you to lust over. On recommendation of my wife and regular Digitante commenter Jenny, we clicked through for about 15 minutes and our living room was filled with constant ‘Ooo’s and ‘Ahh’s. See? It’s sounding more and more like porn now, isn’t it. Do yourself a favor and click though the pictures. You won’t regret it.

Friday Night Links (4/2/2010)…

Man, it is getting really tough to keep up here with everything I have going on. I’m not slowing down anytime soon though and actually my Tuesdays just opened up immensely. But who cares about Tuesday? What I care about is Good Friday Night Links!

• Crazy Airports – Ever thought about building an island that is 4 square miles in the middle of a harbor so you can have an airport? Why not? Everybody’s doing it. Everybody is also landing on the beach, driving their cars across the runway, and creating massive solar arrays to power their airport. Sounds like you have some catching up to do. Regardless, the pictures are pretty amazing and I highly recommend you check out the island airports on Google Maps satellite view. Here is one to get you started.
• Homemade Things That Should Not Be Homemade – If you know me, would it shock you if I said my brother and I have actually made very similar inventions in our lives? I’m sure it wouldn’t. But don’t let me yammer at you. You need to check out the pictures. My favorite: the scaffolding. Also, be on the look out for the thing. Digitante dollars to the person who finds it first and leaves a comment about it.
• Beet Hummus – My most popular posts in FNL has by far been the food postings. You’ll notice Jenny’s comments strewn about in each food post. Well, here is another one for you. I saw the color of that hummus and knew I had to have it. Gorgeous. Wonderful – now I’m hungry.
• Clothes Folding Robot – This robot is programmed to fold clothes, but he has never folded THESE particular clothes before. He analyzes the shape, size, which direction it hangs, and then folds it properly. Good luck trying that technique out on my dress shirt that sat at the bottom of a pile for a week. Even my iron on full blast can’t help that shirt. Here is a direct link in case you can’t see the video below.

  http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/gy5g33S0Gzo&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Friday Night Links (3/26/2010)…

I would have to say that this week went much better than I was expecting since it was the first week that I was alone with the twin 1 year olds while Mrs. Digitante headed off to Florida for work. Fortunately I have two really good little girls who made my life easy.

Now it’s about time to cap of that week with gaggle of links. Let’s do it.

• Laws of Negotiation – In the United States, negotiating is something that is looked at with embarrassment and nearly shunned. However, in much of the rest of the world, negotiating is the only way to get what you want. Everything you purchase boils down to two things: 1) You have something the business owner wants (money) and 2) He has something you want (the goods or services). While negotiating is a good thing and you should definitely do it, you need to be sure you are fully prepared and know what to expect and what not to do. Check out this guide for specifics.
• Hidden Cost of Living – Typically, people look at rent or housing prices in the urban core of a city and instantly think it’s too high. However, the Center for Neighborhood Technology added transportation costs to housing costs to get the true amount of your income you are spending. Amazingly enough, most urban core costs are less than living in the suburbs. I can only imagine that will get worse if gas prices begin to rise again. Be sure to check out your location to see what the cost of living looks like where you are.
• Shine Stainless Steel with Flour – Over time, those shiny new stainless steel sinks tend to get cloudy and the finish turns to more of a matte. No need to spend money on expensive stainless steel cleaners and polishers when you have a bag of flour right in your pantry. Just sprinkle it on dry, grab a cloth, and start polishing till you get a nice mirrored finish.
• Magnetic Nail and Screw Holder – In high school, I worked construction. Part of my job was putting up shingles, screwing down deck boards, and hanging drywall. I had a nice tool belt (actually still have it) and it had a little pouch hanging on it that would hold nails and screws. The problem is that those nails and screws were not stacked uniformly in the bottom of the pouch. No, they were pointing every which way and each grab in there for another screw caused 4 or 5 screws to poke into my fingers. No fun. If only I had known about the MagnoGrip Magnetic Wristband. Makes me kick myself that I didn’t come up with it first.

Friday Night Links (3/19/2010)…

I worked with some spectacular clients this week and got some of their big computer issues put to rest. If you have any computer issues, be sure to contact me from the About The Digitante page. Otherwise, you can just move on to the linkiness to follow:

• Solitary Man in Detroit – When most people talk about living off the grid, it most involves government conspiracies and bunkers in Montana. But if you are Glendale Stewart, all you really need is an RV and a tax auction property in Detroit. He built a little fence, has a bicycle-powered battery that lights his RV, and a bucket under the toilet outlet that gets transported to the sewer when it gets full. He got laid off a few years back and his current situation arose out of necessity. It’s a crazy story, but it certainly points out the resourcefulness of some people out there in the world.
• Spinach Vitamin Boost – Ever wonder if the amount of vitamins in spinach and other greens increases as it gets exposed to light? Me neither. Fortunately, some nerdy scientist guy did and he found that green leafy stuff exposed to supermarket-like conditions actually increases its vitamin content. Buy the older stuff!
• Cubicle Fish – Do you get lonely at work in your cubicle? I know I do. ‘Maybe I need a fish!’ you think to yourself. But the big question is what kind of fish do you get to keep your company? My buddies at Lifehacker tackled this and all the logistics that go along with it: tank, supplies, and of course, the fish.
• Parallel Parking Tutorial – It seems like either people know how to parallel park or they just plain don’t. If you fall in the don’t camp, there are a some instructions and some videos that can teach you how to parallel park like an expert. If you are ready to graduate to All-Pro level, check out the video below to learn the advanced techniques. Click here if it doesn’t show up for you.
  http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/P7Eqn_BiQus&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Friday Night Links (3/5/2010)…

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY…

The weekend is here and I’ve got some good plans: sis-in-law’s birthday dinner, moving a friend, fixing a computer, making USB flash drives filled with goodies, and a couple other odds and ends. But for now, I’ve got some links.

• Homemade Granola Bars (http://thedig.in/c3) – Man I love granola bars. I will point out that I love crunchy ones, but if someone happened to make these and drop them off at my house, I would definitely eat them and sing your praises. If you didn’t quite get what I said there, “Bring me granola bars.” Clear?
• iPod Auction (http://thedig.in/c4) – Pictures speak volumes. I’m heading over there to put up my ‘$52 reward’ sign tomorrow. Hopefully nobody is smart enough to put up a $53 sign. That would just be CRAZY.
• Survive a Tsunami (http://thedig.in/c5) – After concerns about tsunamis from the recent Chilean earthquake, I saw this guide from the US Geological Survey that has a ton of pictures, charts, stories, and tips on how to survive a tsunami. I think the amazing thing is how low and how high the water actually goes. Additionally, the pictures of the before and after are pretty scary as well. Below is my favorite chart.
  

  Image from USGS website: http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1187/images/fig17.jpg

Friday Night Links (2/19/2010)…

You may have noticed a lack of posting last night. You may have also noticed that I brought back a long-absent ‘Meet The Digitante’ box at the top with a picture and a little about me and this site.

But back to the lack of posting last night: I am working on some other projects and I want to be able to focus one night a week to doing so. Therefore, I’m going to be taking Thursday night off. I am hoping to re-post some of my old articles because my readership has grown significantly since I wrote some of those articles. Also, there may be a bit of information that needs to be updated.

Additionally, I plan on filling you in on my new projects, but not yet. Keep an eye out.

And now… THE LINKS.

• No Senior Year (http://thedig.in/bf) – Everyone is feeling the financial crunch in the US. One of the hardest hit entities has been the state government. The federal government can adjust monetary policy or fix demand if they are having a budget crisis. However, if you live in Utah, you our your kid may end-up ending things after only 3 years of high school. Then again, if you live in Utah, it’s questionable whether you could even complete 4 years of high school. Kidding aside, maybe it’s a good thing that someone is questioning the need of everyone to complete 12 years of schooling. Perhaps a little less would be good for those not needing college and choosing trade skills instead. Another Slashdot story talked about that.
• Mosquito Killer (http://thedig.in/bg) – PEW! PEW! PEW! Using lasers to shoot down mosquitoes? Yes please! The contraption was built by a dude with parts off of eBay and can identify the gender of the mosquito and only shoot down the female, the ones that bite. Also, it can shoot down 50-100 per second. I’m personally hoping it would put on a rockin’ laser light show too.
• Amazing Steak (http://thedig.in/bh) – I had never heard of Sous Vide style of cooking steaks, but one look at the pictures on this site and I sure wanted to learn how to cook steak like that. Essentially, you seal the steak, salt, and pepper in a vacuum pouch, then you place it in 135 degree water for an hour. Finally, you sear each side in a skillet. Supposedly this allows you to cook the steak to the perfect temperature and no lose or change any of the flavors. I can’t wait to try this one out.
• Newbie Fashion Tips (http://thedig.in/bi) – These fashion tips should be required reading for any guy who is freshly graduating from college. I knew most of these tips, but a few of them, such as requiring your shoes to be darker than your pants, were new to me. If this guy put out a book, I would absolutely buy it as graduation presents for guys I know getting out of college.

Friday Night Links (2/12/2010)…

Just a reminder, if you want to be in the running for one of three $10 Amazon giftcards, fill out my quick little reader survey.

A secondary announcement, if your computer has Windows XP and is having a blue screen pop-up and other problems since installing the most recent updates, Please fill out the form at the bottom of this post to contact me and set up an appointment to fix your computer. This is a known issue and there is a fix.

But for now, let’s get to the links!

• Perfect Grilled Cheese (http://thedig.in/b6) – Do you realize how hard it is to spread butter on a sandwich as it sits on a hot skillet? Bread burnt before the cheese melts? All you need is melted butter and a skillet with lid to fix the two biggest complaints about grilled cheese (or my personal favorite – grilled peanut butter and jelly). Toss in some tomato soup and you may have the perfect meal.
• Amazing Bug and Water Photos (http://thedig.in/b5) – The link shows how to make a laser triggered camera for taking macro stills of bugs and water, however, the real amazement starts when you look at the galleries in the links. The bug ones are cool, but the water ones are downright unbelievable.
• Chat Roulette (http://thedig.in/b3) – The little blurb on this site is pretty funny. Essentially, the author went to a chatroom where you are randomly thrown in a chat with an unknown person. He says the first 18 people who he connected with disconnected immediately. Weird.
• “Music” Video (http://thedig.in/b4) – Warning: the title of the linked blog’s feature is “Stuff we’re diggin'” except worded slightly more crass. However, the video is completely safe for work. It a sound composite that makes up a song. If you don’t know what that means, watch the video and you’ll understand. You can also see the video below:

  http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/57UvVYW4rFY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

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Friday Night Links (1/29/2010)…

When I’m working during the week, I must not eat enough because it seems like every link I come up with for Friday Night Links is a food link. It’s alright because I’ve created a bit of a storyline out of this weeks links.

• Single Serve Pie (http://thedig.in/af) – Who doesn’t like a good pie all to themselves? Unfortunately, I a pie by yourself every night is probably going to be a bad idea. But what if you could have a single serving pie? Then it wouldn’t be so bad. However, it would still be pie, so watch yourself.
• Do You Eat It? (http://thedig.in/ag) – Alright, what if, say, hypothetically speaking, “my friend” drops the above pie on the ground. How am I supposed to know if the pie is still go to eat? We’ll how about I just use the chart below and determine. By the way, if I end up at “Your call”, I’m eating it.



• Pressure Cooker (http://thedig.in/ah) – So at this point, you are so into your pie that you are even willing to eat it when the chart SPECIFICALLY says DON’T EAT IT. You have fallen that far. To take a step in the right direction, you buy a pressure cooker because it will preserve the nutrition in your food. You cook everything in there: stew, veggies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta, ice cream, you name it.
• Weight-loss Graphing (http://thedig.in/ai) – Now that you are on the right path, you need to track your progress and stay motivated. Traineo is there for you. You can input your daily weigh-ins and have either family or the Traineo community keep tabs on you and you weight-loss goals. Pretty cool. And it’s scientific:
  http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6523045&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1traineo in under 2 mins from traineo on Vimeo.

Friday Night Links (1/15/2010)…

This was quite the hectic week for me, but I managed to scrounge up not 4, not 5, not 6, but SEVEN links for tonight! Get your reading glasses and your mouse clicking finger because you are going to need it.

• TSA-Free Checked Bags (http://thedig.in/9o) – Concerned about your expensive stuff in your checked bag getting snooped by TSA? If you are there is an easy fix: Buy a starter pistol. You know, those little guns that fire blanks at swimming meets? They don’t require a license, but do require a locked back after you have declared it before your flight. Bonus: The TSA tracks the bag so you pretty much can’t lose it. And remember, guns don’t kill people; stress at the airport kills people.
• How Long Do Your Things Own You? (http://thedig.in/9p) – Essentially, you want to look at how much of your take-home pay is spend on your monthly expenses. Then you can see how much of the month belongs to you. Do you save 10% of your take-home? Congrats, you get 3 days out of the month. This is really the personal expense equivalent of the ol’ “how long do you have to work to pay your taxes?” thing. Something like the first 3 1/2 months of working each year goes toward taxes. And while all this is depressing, it can also be eye-opening to see how much you spend on these things.
• Cooking By Numbers (http://thedig.in/9q) – Got a bunch of odds and ends in your fridge because you aren’t going to the grocery store till tomorrow? No problem! Just check the boxes of stuff you have on hand and Cooking By Numbers will show you recipes you can make.
• Flu Trends (http://thedig.in/9r) – See what the flu trends looked like in your city from 2003 to present. Gives you some insight as to when the flu tends to strike and what is happening in your neck of the woods.
• Sushi Etiquette (http://thedig.in/9s) – The dos and don’ts of eating sushi are important. Note to self: stop rubbing my chopsticks together.
• Free Food Challenges (http://thedig.in/9t) – I mostly included this because I was hungry plus there are some Indiana shout-outs. Anyone ever participated in any of the listed events?
• Netflix Rental Patterns (http://thedig.in/9u) – This is one of those “flip though for an hour” type links. Tons of interesting correlations and weird patterns. If you were unfamiliar with one of the cities on the list, it would be easy to find the party area of town, just find where Role Models is popular. Want to know where all the gay bars are? Milk will point you in the right direction. What part of town should you avoid at all costs? Wherever Nights in Rodanthe is popular would be best to avoid since senior citizens can be downright mean at times. All in all, I love color coded maps in figuring out why they are the colors they are.