I used to make pocketmods all the time back in the Dos and early Windows days, when there were more tools to do it, but have since tossed out my old DOS tools to do so (from PC Magazine in the 80's as I recall). It is an excellent idea worthy of the life hack award.

Any more and it would begin to impact my productivity, methinks. This is my only consistent blog I read, and if there are two I follow up on and go to the offsite link during the business day, it is still enough. Otherwise, when I find more, it just feeds my artificially induced ADHD.

It IS critical thinking, imajoebob, but it is also Creative Thinking, and was invented by Edward de Bono, the guy that coined the term "Lateral Thinking" back in the 1960's, and who arguably has done more to promote creativity and critical thinking in schools and businesses than most others on the planet. Look him up…

Can I change mine to Ctrl-W—now that I read the comments, it truly is what I use the most that is awkward any other way.

Resisted XP for as long as possible for 2000, the last MS open OS where you did not have declare yourself to Mother Corp, and will do the same with Vista. I have enough Linux colleagues that this old dog might go that way when I'm forced to make the choice.

Mine is similar to Ian320. I use two initials for regular ones, such as 25 (CL) my daughter's fiancé., etc. I put non-personal numbers (e.g. credit card emerg number, auto club, locksmith, which I've added to based on a different Lifehacker post yesterday, in the 200's, because should that emergency happen…

Better than pantyhose: Sew up three sides of a facecloth, and put your soap in there. I have a string on mine, but that is optional.

I cannot see the video, but it sounds like the old string on a 1/4" bolt idea.

I started waiting for laser eye surgery since 1983, when the only place you could get it done was Moscow, and that was with scalpels. Now I am waiting until they get the night vision thing solved. And the need for reading glasses I'll still have afterwards.

Give PStart ([www.pegtop.net])a try as a Program Launcher. I find it simple and intuitive, without a whole bunch of unnecessary extras.

I used these back in the early 80's, during my university years. After the 6th or 7th professor tried to reattach the "staples" by hand without the machine to do it with, I threw mine out.

Here in Canada, we have to make sure that special characters are the same on English and French keyboards (esp for the login screen), so some characters taht are in different positions are out.

I've used Treepad ([www.treepad.com]) since the mid-90's, and made the one-time purchase of Treepad Plus (getting free upgrades for years, now) and have _never_ regretted it. Small footprint and portable (1 exe file of 1300k), fast, and straight power without skins and a lot of wasted energy. This is what you get…

Some of us have never left being command-line lovers. The first thing I do with a new computer (or with a memory key on a borrowed desktop) is to point a path to my utility directory, which still has command line (read: DOS) apps from the 1980's. I use on an almost-daily basis

NO YOU ARE NOT!

I have been using metadata to tag information for years now, but mostly manual methods, and tagging only that which I would forget, or which is indistinct by folder/date/filenames.

I can't live without:

Some persons naturally prefer detail and detailing more than others, and Carl Jung calls this the perceptive function, and it is innate. For such people, a reminder to break down the project to estimate works well, and it is written well here.

I keep a daily alarm on my blackberry and my Cellphone for 15 minutes prior to when I leave the house in the morning, so that if one is on the charger, I remember to get it, and it also reminds me that it is just about time to get going.

10 megs AND .NET 2.0? MS is again living up to its bloat reputation.