@NinjaMarion: The trouble is (at least here in the US) is that legally tips are considered part of your wage, not simply a "gift" on top for a job well done. In many states your employer can pay you below minimum wage if tips are supposed to make up for the rest. Ideally, when you eat out your bill should be that much…

Soylent Green - made from high-energy plankton!

Borrowing from China - to buy stuff from China.

The Acme™ Push-Button Home!

Wow - even Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash" didn't figure people would be tracking their pizzas online as they're being made (not to mention a pizza ordering API.) Now all we need are smart boxes and Deliverators fearful of being on the wrong end of Uncle Enzo's switchblade.

I don't know about dryer sheets causing cancer, but always remember how fabric softeners work. They coat the fabric with chemicals that separate the loose fibers, giving them that extra poof. Coating fabrics with chemicals unnecessarily is just something I don't approve of, plus they make your towels less absorbent.

The magnets from busted headphones make superior fridge magnets - the kind for holding notes and pictures, not the purely decorative type. You can usually pry the speakers apart, or give 'em a whack with a hammer to loosen things up. They almost work too well - once they're on the fridge you may have trouble prying…

@Deprong Mori: I was about to say. Rubber bands usually don't hold up for long-term (more than a year) use, especially in harsh environments (garage, attic) and stretched to their limit.

@Boter: 2) Then on top of that I use a "water clock" - I drink 4 pints of water in the hour before bed. With great regularity the urge to "GO" has overpowered the urge to go back to bed. There is also the added bonus of "ok I'm in the bathroom anyway I might as well get in the shower".

The good folks at Hack A Day posted this solution a couple of months back. You'll need a soldering iron and at least a 650 on your math SATs. And probably your own room.

Nice. I wonder if a recumbent exercise bike would be less awkward for surfin' & pedelin'. Also a touchscreen instead of a mouse.

The lack of a Maximize button on their windows is my #1 WTF?! beef with Macs. Windows has it, Ubuntu has it, Mac doesn't.

It should at least show the URL (in an unclickable format) on the confirm page, just so the user/victim has some idea what they're getting into. Of course, the logical conclusion most work places will make is to place the entire [nsfw.in] site on their filter list - no sending or receiving NSFW sites on our desktops,…

The one trick I'd like to see for a single-user-only PC is having all the start-up programs open under your account before you physically log in. That is -

Probably a good tool to have if you're big on being "first!" on comment pages :->

Andy needs to fire his barber, that's for sure. Any old-school barber worth his salt would've trimmed back those woolly caterpillars he has for eyebrows without even asking.

I'm still waiting for DirecTV satellite tuner cards to become a reality.

You can also just disable or replace the wav file for the beep through Control Panel > Sounds. I long ago replace the various beeps and stop sounds with the "Empty Recycle Bin" sound (look for [recycle.wav] or similar). That paper crunch sound is way easier on the ears, especially when wearing headphones.

Question for those of you who have tried polyphasic sleeping - how does it effect operating motor vehicles and/or other heavy machinery?

Ages ago I read about Lyndon Johnson in a book on US Presidential leadership (forgot the citref). As the Viet Nam war was escalating, he broke his sleep up into 2- and 4-hour sessions in order to stay in the loop, reviewing war strategies, reading reports, etc. Considering how things turned out you should probably…