The 102-year history of the Times Square New Year's Even Ball is one filled with technology, death and, of course, pretty shiny lights. See it all unfold in our historical timeline. (Click the image for a large popout version.) Of course, for those who don't appreciate the festivity of the

It is the time of year where many people will attempt to develop their New Year’s resolutions. Whether you have one resolution or a thousand, wouldn’t it be a fabulous accomplishment to be able to say to yourself that 2010 was the year you stopped dreaming about accomplishing your resolutions

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. More and more individuals are making the switch from PC to Mac. Even in the business world, more employees are requesting the option to work on

Here, in no particular order, are this DVD blog's favorite discs of 2009. There were few notable box sets in this year of cutbacks, but plenty of impressive Blu-ray debuts. (The Criterion Collection's entry into high definition certainly brought a... Please read the full post at dvdspindoctor.com

Netbooks are currently very popular, and were a hot gift this holiday season. But are the tiny, stripped-down computers really the future of consumer laptops? According to the BBC, some technology experts think that the netbook may have already peaked--and most of what people seek out netbooks for today,

I usually loathe Top lists. As the adage says, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. I have been starting to get highway hypnosis with the sameness of a lot of these Best Of lists for films in 2009, so I was emboldened when asked to come up

<< previous image | next image >> Solid sequels, a surprisingly menacing superhero and remakes done right made 2009 a great year for gamers. While the depressed economy caused some videogame makers to drop or delay major titles, others blew our minds with titles nobody expected to be worth a

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. At the end of every year here at Zen Habits (this is the third year), I write that I’ve had the best year of my life. This year has been no exception. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on

It's obviously an understatement to say that internet is changing both the publishing industry and the way that people consume media.  We've all read the stories about newspapers and print magazines bashing blogs while they quickly rush to start...

Since joining Mashable in 2009, I have written several hundred posts about social media and technology. Many of my favorite posts have been those that manage to bridge social media and other industries together. As we saw in 2009 -...

With the holiday season upon us and New Years resolutions pending, for many people it is a time for reflection. As an Intel Insider, I am thankful for all that Intel has offered this year as I was able to...

In 2009, I spent a lot of time thinking about the easiest way to make a better life for myself. I like the idea of being active in shaping my own life, instead of letting things happen to me. I...

"Getting organized." Pretty general and diffuse as New Year's resolutions go, isn't it? And yet so many of us make that our Number One goal for the next year. I find myself resolving to be more organized next year (as...

The following is a guest post from Kris, a freelancer who writes about money management tips for Credit Card Compare. Security threats to your online shopping experience continue to grow and change as technology, and the predators that thrive on unwitting or unsuspecting consumers, continue to evolve. As e-commerce becomes

It would be hard to imagine two more contrasting worlds. Above me, stretching up into the heavy rain clouds, the opulence of the Trump Tower, sleek and black. Behind me, on a busy Fifth Avenue sidewalk, a charity worker soliciting for cash donations from the passing throng.Lucky enough to have

It's no secret that it's easy to make New Year's resolutions, but hard to keep them. Bloggers offer memory hacks and other tips to stick to your resolutions this year. The Happiness Project offers five tips for planning effective...

Everyone loves Etsy, but the site's overwhelming amount of stuff for sale can make it hard to drill down and find what you want. That's why we love The Storque, which serves as a curator for the site, picking...

Filed under: Office, How-Tos PowerPoint slideshows can be a good way to get ideas across -- when used correctly. Sometimes, they can be boring and confusing, even doing more harm than good. Here are a few tools and techniques you can use to create engaging and effective presentations. 1. Use

Want to check out New Year’s Eve coverage on your mobile phone or computer? You’re in luck; Ustream is ringing in the new year with live video streams of New Year’s Eve celebrations across the globe. This year, you can watch the famous ball drop live in New York’s Times

Filed under: Features, Macintosh After Lee posted his excellent list of 10 favorite free Windows apps, I figured I'd jump in on the Mac side of things. 2009 has brought a lot of great new software to the Mac, especially with the introduction of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. We've

Technology and media professionals today are besieged by an increasingly blurred boundary between life and work.  The downside to the wonderful technology that has allowed us to take our laptop (or blackberry) everywhere we go and work remotely from...

I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. We know that people keep less than 5% of New Year's resolutions, and I think a big reason for this is that anything we are trying to change in our lives is really about self-discipline. I realized this after spending two years

The following is a guest post from Mandi Ehman, the Deal Seeking Mom Project Administrator: Tara has mentioned before that she saved up her Swag Bucks and purchased a Kindle Reading Device earlier this year. As someone who also loves to read but doesn’t seem to do it nearly

‘Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.’ ~ Spanish Proverb Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. Let’s face it: most of us fail when it comes to sticking to resolutions — so much so that many people swear never to make resolutions again. And yet the rest

Many people are using the power of the internet to write and publish their own books. This cuts out the middle man of using an agent and a publisher and allows authors to receive higher royalty payments. However, self publishing can be daunting and knowing the ins and outs of

Over the past six years, I’ve picked up a lot of time management tips. Some of them have been helpful and, frankly, some have been useless. Here, I’ve compiled the ten that have served me best. And yes, I’m sure you’ll have heard some of them before ... but are

crowds at Pearson Airport, Toronto Forget the lines while you wait to get on the plane, the real torture starts when you are in the air. Gizmodo lists the new rules, and flying has just become a far more miserable experience than it ever was before; we now have

As the decade rolls to a close, we can look to 2009 as a pretty amazing year in food. From organic food to organic agriculture, genetically modified organisms to food shortages, and food fights to the future of food, it was a big year in food in 2009; here's

After an attempted explosive attack Friday on a U.S.-bound flight, air travel security tightened and rules were changed. No official procedures have been announced, but here's what fliers and news agencies are reporting as the seemingly new rules of flying. Photo by Joshua Davis. The first thing anyone flying needs

2009 was the “year of the app,” especially for the iPhone, whose App Store is overflowing with more than 100,000 offerings. While it’s easy to make fun of the more ridiculous apps, some truly stellar wares stood out from that massive pile, and we’re taking the time to honor

Web technology and social media change radically from month to month, so it’s difficult to make predictions about what The Next Big Thing is, but you can be confident that the real-time web will get bigger and more essential in 2010. It came to a head in 2009, though, and

A couple weeks ago we ran a listing of the best reviewed films of the decade as compiled by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. We followed that up by the top 20 films of the decade, as voted on by the users of FlickChart. Today I decided to compile the

How much bandwidth does the average consumer need? Well, according to the totally unbiased folks at America's major Internet service providers, more than they're probably using now. According to Time Warner, Grandma needs Roadrunner with PowerBoost in order for you to send her photos. And AT&T thinks you need at

Last month, Amazon’s Kindle broke sales records as it was once again a hot item to give this holiday season. When countless people turned on their new Christmas Kindles for the first time yesterday, what do you think was the first thing that they did? That’s right: they bought ebooks

Want to get a P.H.D. in what to do with your P.H.W.? That’s short for post holiday waste in case you didn’t know. While you may not have heard of the term (we kind of just made it up), we’re pretty sure you know what we’re talking about. The crumpled

That failed terrorist attack yesterday might make international flights a whole lot less enjoyable. Twitter is buzzing about the new security measures in place at airports. Among the comments: no electronics allowed. The New York Times is reporting that no one will be able to move from their seats during

By this time next week, it'll be next year—and too late to turn a great investment in your work life into a lower tax burden in April. Splurge wisely on yourself with these write-off-friendly wishlist items. Photo by jnyemb. We have to point out that none of the Lifehacker editors

Ah, the day after Christmas – if you’ve been greening your holiday thus far, why stop now? One of the simplest ways to keep up the great eco-work is to recycle that colorful mound of ripped-up wrapping paper left in the aftermath of Christmas day. If you need ideas, we’ve

And now for something completely different: These blogs will break you out of whatever you were just thinking of and give you food for thought about science, culture, law, politics--the whole range of human behavior and beyond. Stay alert...

With tens of thousands of apps in the iPhone App Store and many coming from independent developers, the following blogs should help make sense of it all by highlighting which apps are most useful or fun....

Let’s face it: Windows can be seriously annoying sometimes, but thankfully there’s also usually a workaround or third-party utility that fixes the issue. We’ve rounded up the ten things that annoy us most, along with how to fix them. Messy Windows Context Menus, and How to Clean Them Up

When our managing editor assigned me to list the Best Family Films of the Decade, I thought, "Woohoo! There's Ratatouille, Coraline, and --" then he added, "No animated films. We've got another list for those." I wilted. Do you know how hard it is to talk about films that

You got a new Mac for Christmas? Awesome. But don't let Justin Long's smarmy face fool you, it doesn't just give you a warm hug and set itself up. Here are 10 things you need to do pronto: 1. Check Out Snow Leopard's Interface Tweaks: They're not life-altering, but Apple's

If you got a new Windows 7 laptop for Christmas, you are truly in luck. But here are 10 things you need to get the most out of it. 1. Take a Spin Around the New Interface: Still glassy, glossy and damn near glittery, the Windows 7 interface is actually

WebOS's App Catalog may be way behind iPhone and Android in total number of apps, but that doesn't mean there aren't some great ones. Here are our picks for 20 of the best. All you gallery-haters, click here. WHERE: WHERE integrates several widgets designed to answer any question that starts

Image from 1000 Awesome Things In the midst of the holiday celebrations it's nice to remind yourself of the pleasures to be had from small things. 1000 Awesome Things to Celebrate is just a pause for a moment , a time to smile when you recognise some of life's

Lots of television networks are starting to get into the mobile app business — the Discovery Channel, MSNBC, CNN and CNBC are just a few of the networks with iPhone-specific applications. Now we can add one more channel to that list: HBO. The HBO iPhone app [iTunes link] offers subscribers

It’s that time of year again. Nope, not time for shopping — hopefully we’re past that. It’s time to marry technology and tradition by showing off those awesome Christmas lights. Elaborate, musical Christmas lights draped over suburban houses and yards have been a YouTube meme since 2005. In honor of

You waited. Then you waited some more. And now it's Christmas Eve. You should be finishing shopping right now, but you're sitting lazily at your computer. Luckily, with our last minute gift guide, such limited exertion is not a problem. Netflix/Gamefly Subscription: Anyone who wouldn't appreciate a year's worth of

This article is presented by Kelly Whalen, Consumerism Commentary staff writer. With only one more day until Christmas you may still be in the market for a few last minute gifts. If you are like me, the idea of driving through traffic and elbowing through crowds to find gifts is

Somebody needs to keep track of Santa Claus as he makes his way around the globe Christmas Eve, and, once again, NORAD has stepped up to the plate. This year they're providing radar coverage and up-to-the-minute info on his every move. Volunteer military personnel work into the wee hours

Ben Rattray is the founder and CEO of Change.org, an online media network for social change. 2009 saw a proliferation of online charity events, competitions, and “friendraisers” that spilled across Twitter and Facebook and filled email inboxes everywhere with more requests for money than any Nigerian prince could ever hope

Happy holidays from Blogs.com! Here's how bloggers are celebrating: Fuel Your Creativity has rounded up a bunch of holiday entertainment on the web, including a site where you can knit your own interactive sweater and a bunch of free Christmas wallpapers. How-To Geek has ideas for brightening up Firefox

[ WebEcoist ] Christmas is upon us once again, and that means lots of food, a few presents, and, usually, a few soul-warming drinks. Whether you’re planning to host a big Christmas party or are looking forward to spending a quiet holiday at home, these holiday drink recipes will

Thirty minutes north of the city, Jason Chen is waiting for us to meet him for ramen. We're late. Brian's at the wheel of his late-model Audi station wagon, turning the control knob from letter to letter, dutifully twisting-and-clicking the name of the noodle shop. In the passenger seat, I've

Want to know Santa’s whereabouts this Christmas Eve? Well, Google has you covered. The company has been helping NORAD track the man in red since 2004 — the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization had been tackling the task all on its lonesome since 1955, when a Sears and Roebuck magazine ad

If you're traveling for the holidays you don't need to forgo internet access or pay high fees for it. Know the lay of the land and score some free wi-fi. Over at the computer magazine PC World they've put together a list of nationwide franchises and stores that offer Wi-Fi

USA Today is out with its list of best business books for 2009 — Too Big Too Fail and Bailout Nation top the list. “After the collapse of Lehman Bros. in September 2008, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, then-Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and then-New York Fed president Timothy Geithner stood

Image used by permission from the OfficialAvatarMovie Flickr page. This movie is making an impact at the box office and all over the internet. The advances in film-making technology are impressive, and the question as to whether Mr. Cameron could follow up Titanic with another truly significant film seems to

This week, when you find yourself scrambling for a last minute gift, dreading the shopping malls, you may be able to take advantage of regifting. During any time of gift-giving, from weddings to baby showers, Christmas and birthdays, you inevitably unwrap at least one present, and are rewarded with pure

About a year and a half ago, did you know how much a barrel of oil cost? I bet you did a year and a half ago… that’s because it was big news. Around June 2008, it was over $125 a barrel. Today, a barrel is in the high seventies.

Many wives will tell you that their husband's snoring annoys the heck out of them, but they do bear with it as that falls under the category of "for better or for worse" in their wedding vows. Well, if hubby happens to own an iPhone, why not fork out

I know, you're on a tight budget this year, and office Secret Santa exchanges are tedious and awkward. But please don't fill a hot dog bun with cat food and then top it off with ketchup, then wrap that up in gift wrap and call it your gift. Because someone

Noa Gafni is a social media consultant with a focus on women and Gen Y. She authors Webutantes, a blog about Internet trends impacting women. 2009 was the year of the social media mom. So-called “mommy bloggers” broke away from their niche audiences and went mainstream, and social marketers took

Filed under: Video, iPhoneApple seems to be loosening up its rules about streaming video over 3G via iPhone apps, allowing streaming players and broadcasters like Ustream and Qik into the App store. EyeTV -- a streaming TV provider -- isn't even taking the chance of rejection, though. Instead, they've launched

Don’t stress out if you missed the opportunity to have one of the fabulous gifts from our green guides shipped in time for the holidays. There are plenty of thoughtful last-minute green gifts for everyone on your list! So whether you haven’t been able find that special something for your

  *photo courtesy of Pbroks13 No matter where you live or what you do with your daily life, cleaning is that one chore that we all have to do at some point or another and it is the one area where most of us hate having to waste our time

Christmas is right around the corner. Time to brave the crowded parking lots, the cheery holiday Muzak, the frazzled salespeople, and the even more frazzled shoppers as you search for the perfect gifts for your loved ones. And if you’re the type of person who likes to put off the

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Corbett Barr of Free Pursuits. There’s an age-old question that everyone seems to struggle with at some point in life. Is it better to be a Renaissance man or woman and be good at a lot of different things or to be

Macala Wright Lee is the CEO of FashionablyMarketing.Me a digital marketing and merchandising firm that specializes in fashion, luxury and beauty brands in Southern California. You can follower her on Twitter at @FashMarketing. It’s safe to say that the fashion industry has adopted social media as a marketing platform to

Last week, Twitter revealed its list of the most-discussed topics of 2009, based on Twitter’s trending topics. Now Facebook has come out with their own list, based on data from the millions of daily status updates of its users. While the world’s largest social network took a different approach than

I’m sure you have met at least one person in your life that is successful, motivated and self-empowered. This is someone that always seems to land on their feet, turns everything into gold and every success seems to come their way faster and thicker.I’m also sure you have stopped to

This series is supported by Times Reader 2.0. Learn more about The New York Times’ latest innovation in newspaper delivery here. We’re big fans of eBooks. You can read them on multiple computers or devices, add annotations, and search for specific words and phrases. Plus, an eBook doesn’t take up

A Year of Consolidation and Challenges Whether we like it or not, cars are not going away anytime soon. In fact, millions are being added to the roads (about 51 million cars were made in 2009 despite the recession), with a lot more to come in the foreseeable future.

Tragedy! Your phone got wet and now it won't turn on! What to do, what to do?! Well, there's actually several things you can do to draw out the moisture and rescue your phone from a watery grave: You can put your phone in: a ziplock bag of uncooked rice

If you're on a decently long flight and want to connect to the net, there are more options than ever this year. If you're not flying Virgin America, however, they're not free. Unless you have these coupon codes, that is. Our connectivity-loving sibling blog Gizmodo found a few codes for

It’s that time of the year again. Top ten lists are popping up everywhere (the /Filmcast’s will hit next week), and the annual movie list aggro war is in full swing (it’s a thing, trust me). Roger Ebert has finally unveiled his selections, and this time he’s going against

Looking back on the year, economic times were tough. But, as always, Apartment Therapy tried to help with smart and frugal advice on making your home more healthy, beautiful, and happy. Let's take a look at a few of our favorites: Read Full Post

Here’s another very rare Pottery Barn printable coupon! Get 20% off any single item at Pottery Barn on Saturday 12/19 and Sunday 12/20. Expires 12/20/09. Don’t forget there’s also a 20% off Pottery Barn Kids printable available! (Thanks, Sara, The Savvy Shopper!) Share this post: Related posts:Pottery Barn Kids:

Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK shows you ten cool, quirky tricks of science you can show off at your next party. [via Boing Boing] Top 10 quirky science tricks for Christmas parties Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in

Comedy Central's two-pronged comedic attack on news is finally going HD (1080i, actually) on January 4th. Apparently continually filmed daily shows like these two take longer to upgrade the control room, which is why it took so long—but get ready for some HD satire early next year. [Engadget]

If you can't finish a bottle of champagne after you've popped the cork, don't dump it down the drain. Here's a handy trick that might keep it fizzy and drinkable for at least another day. Photo by Velo Steve. Bon Appetit's Heather John says grab a metal spoon and drop

If you're sick and tired of typing in your password every time your PC comes out of sleep mode, there's a simple tweak you can do to prevent it from happening again. Over at the How-To Geek site (my home away from Lifehacker), I've written up a guide to changing

There’s always that one toy every year, and apparently this year is apparently the year of the Zhu Zhu Pets. If you’re still on the hunt for this ever elusive toy, then hurry and click over to Amazon.com. They currently have the Zhu Zhu Pets Funhouse Set with Hamster

Are planes your last refuge from this horrible, awful internet? Or are they terrifying airborne isolation chambers, which pose a dire threat to your carefully regimented Tweeting schedule? Either way, don't buy a ticket without consulting this chart. [Jaunted]

You may have checked off all of the humans from your holiday shopping list, but don’t forget that your furry friends deserve some green gifts too! Check out our Green Gift Guide for Pets for adorable and eco-friendly treats like recycled rubber scrap chew toys and cute hemp collars that

It's Friday. You've got the weekend and, chances are, a short week coming up. Life is good. Let's celebrate by kicking back and enjoying some gadget hilarity. World's Greatest iPhone: The image of the iPhone above is obviously a shop, but YouTube, Weather and Safari still have me laughing months

Maybe there is no such thing as Christmas retreat. Maybe there's just a light shortage. News outlets across the country have reported on a shortage of strings of lights. Somewhere, Clark Griswold weeps. Consumerist readers everywhere, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Pittsburgh, have written in about their own searches

There is a rare breed of individual who enjoys shopping for a new car. Likening it to one of our last remaining instances of socially acceptable bare-knuckle-boxing, Rob Gruhl is one such person. He shares his tips for not getting screwed at the dealership in this fun and lively and

Pringles-can lens extender produces dazzling ultra close-ups for peanuts. Thanks go to Haje Jan Kamps for the original article in MAKE, Volume 06. To download The Macro Photography On a Budget video click here and subscribe in iTunes. Check out the complete Macro Photography On a Budget article in

Friday: The OfficeThese must be the Mecca of the craft and office worlds, but if you have the space then take note of the boxes, files, and systems used here. I especially like Michelle Adams’ hanging fabric samples! Craft room photograph from this Flickr stream. Michelle Adams’ home office by

This week’s Workspace of the Week is _TiTO_’s sweet setup: The cable management in this photograph makes me salivate. I want 13 plug-ins and I want them NOW! The shelves with the collectibles are fantastic. The raised gaming system is nice, too. Honestly, everything about this office is wonderful. The

With Christmas Day a mere seven days away, many of you might be heading out of town soon.  Your weekend plans may be laundry, packing, and closing up the home for the next few days. Or if you’re staying home, there’s a likely chance you’re about to welcome guests

Top Stories for the Week of December 14 - 18, 2009 Despite the craziness--and by "craziness" we mean "number of affairs"--revealed in the past couple weeks, Tiger Woods has been named Athlete of the Decade by Associated Press member newspaper editors: "His 56 PGA Tour victories in one incomparable decade

Some people think aviation and space exploration suck – fossil fuel that is. Not to mention clean air, and quiet habitat. Can these industries, so essential to global scientific and economic progress, go green? The race is definitely on. Offering hope, inspiring blog posts and tweets-a-plenty over the past two

Bit.ly, as the world’s largest URL shortener and default for Twitter messages, has thousands of links passing through its doors every day. Because of that, it has a great deal of data on what’s hot and what’s popular on the web. Now the company is finally beginning to harness that

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. I intended to do a “Zen Habits Gift Guide”, full of frugal and green gifts that I like, typical of the gift guides you see everywhere at this time of year. Then I revised the post to show ways to avoid

Is everyone offering and extended warranty on everything nowadays? In the past couple of weeks I've been offered one on both a space heater ($9.99 warranty for a $70 purchase) and an office chair (not sure what the amount was, but the chair was $50, so I'm sure it was

YouTube this week released the most-viewed videos of 2009, with Susan Boyle topping the charts. Also in the top five: David After Dentist, JK Wedding Entrance Dance, the New Moon Movie Trailer and Evian Roller Babies. Is there a formula for these viral hits? A common thread? What differentiates a

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you

This post is part of Mashable’s Fab Five series with Jalen Rose, which highlights trends in the social media space. Jalen Rose is a former 13-year NBA star and current ESPN basketball analyst but may be best known for being a member of the famous University of Michigan Fab Five.

The 2000s were a great decade for documentaries, both artistically and commercially. Four films (Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and this year's Earth and This Is It) grossed more than $100 million worldwide, with two of them even topping the $200 million mark. Meanwhile, plenty of other films,

The New York Times reports on a study examining how watching less TV affects average (five hours/day) TV-viewers. The results: Cutting television in half resulted in the equivalent of walking roughly eight miles/week in calories burned. Photo by (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R). The results reported in The Archives of Internal Medicine

The latest sign of the health-tech convergence: Walt Mossberg, the WSJ’s personal tech guru who writes about smart phones and operating systems, is reviewing a blood-glucose meter. The device, made by Bayer and sold under the brand name Contour, looks like a fancy USB thumb drive, with an extra appendage.

Electronics have a pretty nasty rep as polluters of the Earth, but they can actually be an environmentalist’s best friend when they’re used for good instead of evil. One of the best examples we can think of? The iPhone! From calculators to maps to rulers to books, the iPhone replaces

With this gift guide, we conclude our gift suggestions for the year. I hope you enjoyed our guides and were inspired by them. I personally would like to thank the other GeekDad contributors who wrote up their favorite present ideas for the guides — they deserve much of the

Whether your child is involved in school sports, music, dance, theater, art or some other activity that goes beyond the scope of ordinary schooling, participation is costly. There are activity fees to pay, lesson providers to compensate, equipment and supplies to purchase and, on occasion, trips to go on. All

Are you starting to feel your age? I’ve hit my forties and really for the first time in my life I’m having to start to think about ways to stay young.  I want to be sure I’m in good physical shape later in my life so I can enjoy

With 2010 almost here and a bit more time for last-minute shopping, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few of my favorite design books published this year. Read Full Post

Outside of games produced by the hardware makers themselves, the era of the big exclusive videogame is all but over. With development budgets at an all-time high, game publishers have found that spreading their biggest, baddest titles across as many platforms as possible is the best way to make

The following is a guest post from Marotta Wealth Management.  Many people spend more during the holiday season than they can afford. Guilt or shame drives them to put too many big-ticket items under the tree. But the satisfaction is both short-lived and shortsighted. Understanding the economics of gift giving

Credit crunch got ya down? This holiday season you can give green without breaking the bank with Inhabitat’s guide to Eco Gifts Under $50 and Under $20! From fresh green gardens in a bag to sparkly snowflake earrings to sun-catching jars of LED light to recycled retro-chic vinyl record bowls,

Back in the old days, the only way to get an audience with Santa was to head to the mall and wait in line for a chance at the fat man’s knee. Today’s kids have a wealth of online options for hooking up with the Claus. We’ve scoured the ‘Net

Let’s face it: It’s holiday shopping crunch time. With less than 10 days until Christmas, every lapsed second is a second lost in online shipping guarantees. If you’re still hoping to find a few last-minute web deals and actually get those gifts before Christmas day, have no fear. Tomorrow, December,

The holidays seem to test the true capacity and cleaning power of your dishwasher. Although some wash by hand, those who have dishwashers rely on them pretty heavily this time of year. Keep them running like new, or as close to it as possible with these simple tips! • Read

If you have kids, you're probably biting your nails down to the quick worrying how you're going to find--much less pay for--this year's super hot fad toy, Zhu Zhu the Robot Hamster. But don't be so stupid! The thing about fad toys like Zhu Zhu is that they're about 30%

McDonald's doesn't want you to just grab your grease bombs and go—they want you to stick around, have a coffee drink, and surf the web from your laptop or smartphone. That's why they're offering up free Wi-Fi, which previously cost $2.95 for two hours, at 11,000 of its 14,000 U.S.

The phrase "cat person" just sounds like something out of James Cameron's Avatar, so for those who have a feline friendly person or two on their holiday shopping list—this post is for you! Check out some of our favorite feline finds after the jump.Read Full Post

The buzz word of choice these past few months when it comes to teens and technology has undoubtedly been “sexting” — and now a new study from The Pew Internet & American Life Project, titled “Teens and Sexting,” indicates that the problem is about as large as many a teen’s

Now that Google Wave has opened up to one million users and there are countless unused invites floating around, just about anyone who wants to take Google’s new collaboration tool for a spin can do so. Sure, some users are disappointed with the platform, but if you’re among them you’ll

If you like the idea of giving something truly unique this holiday season, then why not choose a handcrafted present made or re-made by the hands of an individual? Etsy and other similar sites like Coriandr and Dawanda in the UK offer an incredible variety of beautifully handcrafted gifts that

December is supposed to be a time for joy and merriment, but with the hustle and bustle of daily life, the stress of holiday travel, shopping and planning, the sheer anticipation we used to experience as kids seems a distant memory. But mobile applications can help us stop, take a

Business Pundit listed the The 75 Best Business Blogs of 2009. The list covers a huge variety of blog topics, including Accounting, Advertising, Business Law, Consumer Issues, Entrepreneurship, etc. It is an honor to have made the cut. FINANCE: GENERAL 21. The Big Picture Author, financial commentator, speaker, and businessman

Awards season has officially begun, and today the HFP has announced the nominations for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. While these things are usually pretty easy to predict by the buzz, release dates, and the various critic association awards, there's always a few surprises to keep things interesting. While

I ran across an image yesterday on 43folders that I wanted to share with you: If you check your e-mail every 5 minutes when you’re at work, then you are checking it 12 times an hour. Multiply 12 times an hour by 8 hours a work day, 5 days a

We've always loved books. But now, because we take public transportation to work, we're reading a lot more. And books have become an indispensable part of our lives. We love browsing bookstores, and we love getting books as presents. So here are 10 books we either already own and highly

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” - Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. The holidays are a busy and stressful time for most people — with work and gift shopping and get-togethers and all kinds of other events and worries, it’s a

Peter Jackson’s not getting much love for his adaptation of The Lovely Bones, but at least he can bask in the glory of a humongous DVD set titled The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy. Warner Home Video announced Monday that it plans to release all three movies

We've featured hundreds of free Windows applications over the course for 2009 that we hoped might bolster your productivity, workflow, or your PC usefulness in one form or another. Here's a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of the year. As with 2008's most popular free Windows downloads,

Olivia Mitchell is a presentation trainer and blogger. She blogs at Speaking about Presenting and has written a free eBook “How to Present with Twitter and Other Backchannels.” Follow her on Twitter. Pioneer presenters are using social media to engage their audience and extend the reach of their ideas. Twitter,

Last week we covered gift guides for the green-loving and budget-minded. Now let's tackle cooks! Garden, Grocery, Gadget Girl suggests a motion-detector soap dispenser (perfect if you have greasy hands) and Penzey's spice gift boxes. Four Pounds Flour offers ideas for "the culinary history enthusiast in your life." The

While some speakers are stylish enough to sit out in the open, others blend in with their surroundings a bit more. Some are lightbulbs, some are toys, some are tucked away in books, and even bird houses! Come check out our favorite 18… • Read the full post at UnplggdRead

The holidays are a a time for festivities, fun and family, but the endless presents, lights and eating can lead to a heaping pile of waste! The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. From switching to energy efficient holiday lights to recycling your Christmas tree,

As we gather around our homes and give thanks for the year’s blessing the holidays season is kicked into full gear. This is one of my favorite times of year when we think about peace, of how fortunate we have been during the past year and how we can help

Mashable is proud to present the Zappos.com Sharing Happiness Giveaway Contest! We’ve received so many great responses/entries to our big question, “How do you use the web to improve your life and/or make people happy?” But you can still add more by #SharingHappiness in the comments section of our original

If you’re a student, an Android phone could be one of your most valuable tools. From looking up a word in the dictionary to recording a lecture while browsing the web, Android has it mostly covered. The tools available for students also provide a compelling answer to the question,

The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was

Jillian of Food Network Humor rounds up some of the gifts that you should not buy, unless you want to lose friends. Among them: a Paula Deen Makes Pot Roast doll ("Why is that pot roast growing out her stomach? It looks like a tumor I saw on ER

Maybe you just hate leaving the house to shop, or you find yourself last-minute gift-hunting, or you simply live on the Internets and want to give gifts to other web lovers. The web can help you create and personalize unique physical gifts, but it can also provide instant gratification with

Telecommuting is green Telecommuting and working from home have long been TreeHugger staples, but Howstuffworks does a good job of explaining why it is happening and why it is a good thing. An interesting reason is that it actually can save lives by keeping workers out of their cars:

A few years ago, if you told someone that you put your savings into an online bank, people would look at you funny. They ask whether or not your money was safe and secure, as if your dollars were actually locked away in a vault at the local bank. They’d

At last, the Googlephone has appeared. Forget the Droid, the G1 and all those other Android wannabees. Google will begin to sell its own reference Android 2.1 handset, designed by Google, made by hardware partner HTC, and called the Nexus One. The phone will be sold online by Google

Jason Keath is the founder of Social Fresh, a social media conference for marketers. He organizes social media events across the country, consults with companies on social media, and blogs at JasonKeath.com. Free tools make planning events easier than ever. From the first stages of planning through post event followup,

Love them or hate them, the holidays are here. The good news is that now that Twitter is practically mainstream, chances are you have a friend or family member who would more than appreciate a Twitter-themed gift. So instead of heading to your average mega mall and buying gifts that

Whether making your own lens hood to create custom bokeh, breathing like a sniper to get a blur-free photo, or angling your body to look the best in pictures, we shared some great photography hacks this year. Software and Photoshop tricks are great, but they're a poor substitution for doing

The real thing. Photo by Annia316 via Flickr The must-have Christmas toy, Zhu Zhu Pets are pronounced safe, according to US federal safety regulators. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which tested the furry faux hamster that every toddler in America has on their list for Santa, and gave the

If you want to rock out without the expense or bulk of a full size drum set, you can hook a set of Guitar Hero drums up to your computer for an electronic jam session. Andy Lunn wanted to play around with drumming, but he didn't want to drop a

Making your own versions of great food and clever gadgets is already rewarding, and if you play your cards right, the homemade route also comes with serious bragging rights. These 10 economical homemade creations—epicurean and electrical—should inspire some well-deserved praise. Photo by ginnerobot. 10. Ice cream creations The moment you

As we all (should) know, iPods and water don’t like each other, so if you’re looking for some music to go with your shower, we wouldn’t advise you to bring your iPod into the shower. So what do you do? Well, you could use the Wireless Waterproof Shower Speaker

Handmade gifts make a unique and thoughtful impression, whether you make them yourself or support enterprising artisans who vend their wares at craft fairs and online. All of us at Make: Online have teamed up to bring you this roundup of our favorite handmade geekery from around the web.

Like me, you will probably unwind over the holidays and have a few drinks at a party with friends (or alone while crying in the dark). Just keep these tragic stories about mixing gadgets and booze in mind. Last year Whitehall, NY resident Leslie J. "Bomber" Marr was arrested and

Are you heading over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for Christmas? Or perhaps taking advantage of the school vacation to

Now you don't need a portable DVD player to watch a DVD you've just bought -- all you need is a computer and a high-speed Internet connection. Amazon.com has introduced Disc+ On Demand, a new program that enables purchasers of select DVDs and Blu-ray discs to watch the movie instantly

It’s the beginning of December, which means it’s time to take stock of the web series that captured your attention in November. In case you’re not familiar with our round up of the most popular web shows, each month we look to our partner, Visible Measures, to help us compile

In a year, Android's gone from shaky upstart to mobile juggernaut. And nowhere is that more apparent than the apps—the Marketplace is positively bursting, with over 14,000 apps. Here are the ones you need, the essentials. If you want them all on one page, click here. If we've missed anything

LED menorah photo by Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com, used under CC attribution license. While all of the gentiles (or goyim) are celebrating a holiday where all the gifts are opened at once - after being delivered through the chimney by an overweight icon in a red suit - I’ll be

For some reason it appears that every idea that anyone has for a new iPhone app becomes reality. So much so that when anyone poses a problem requiring a solution, someone inevitably replies - “there is an app for that”. This does make traversing the iPhone App store quite a

This braided headband is made using scraps of cloth you already have on hand and a bit of elastic. Very cute. Make your own snowglobe- you need a jar with a good lid, some clear drying epoxy glue for the figurines, distilled water, a drop or two of glycerine (to

We like to talk a big game when it comes to design and interior decorating, but there's a small large part of us that still geeks out over nerdy plays on traditional decor— especially when it comes to Star Wars. Even if these aren't the droids you're looking for,

We’ve known for a while that Facebook users are getting a lot older, but now new data released by Nielsen reveals that the number of seniors (65 and older) using the web has increased by 6 million in the last five years. Not only that, but nearly half of online

Based in New York City, Shane Snow is a graduate student in Digital Media at Columbia University and founder of Scordit.com. He’s fascinated with all things geeky, particularly social media and shiny gadgets he’ll never afford. The Interwebs are buzzing, and by now you’ve probably heard about a social network

In a recent study conducted by Insight Media titled the "Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Report," researchers concluded that the install base of 3D-ready televisions will rise to "over 40 million" by 2014. MCV reports that the $5,000 study's results are based on the statistical outperformance of 3D film over 2D

Yesterday, we saw the best laptops at any price. But what about their little brothers, the netbooks? Quite simply, here are the three best models that you should choose from, provided by Mark Spoonauer from Laptop: Toshiba mini NB205 Starting Price: $399.99 ($382.36 now at Amazon) If you're going to

Last week, we showed you our favorite kitchen basics under $25. But let's face it, if you have a lot of people on your holiday shopping list, even that can get a little pricey. So here are 15 more budget-friendly gift ideas – all under $10. • Read the full

Whether you know someone who needs a little help getting on the green bandwagon, needs to turn their black thumb green or you're looking for a great stocking stuffer, there's a little bit on this list for everyone. And best of all, we've done the legwork and all you have

This makes perfect sense: Amazon is launching Disc+ On Demand, allowing customers who purchase selected DVD or Blu-ray movies to immediately stream their purchases through Amazon Video on Demand. Such movies can be streamed from the Web or downloaded to your TiVo, PC or Mac. The site reads: “When you

If you are interested in enrolling in an American college or university for the next Fall semester and require financial assistance, you will need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) sometime in the first six months of the new year. Timing is everything. Although you cannot

I’m getting more requests this year for holiday tipping info than ever before. For example, Nina wrote: “Can you provide some guidelines for Holiday Tipping Etiquette for the holiday season? I’m at a complete loss…” To be honest, I don’t know much about holiday tipping. It’s not something I was

You might prefer to focus on ways social media can add something positive to your life, but YouTube users will nevertheless upload peeks at humanity’s darker side. The clips collected here all belong to one genre of viral video: holiday shopping gone wrong. Below you’ll see Black Friday shoppers stretching

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. A couple of 5th graders named Michelle and Casen recently asked me: What advice would you give us when we know we should exercise, but we just don’t feel up for it? My answer to them is what I’d tell anyone,

Yesterday, I asked you to show us some of the nerdiest holiday decorations you have ever encountered. Needless to say, some of you are really dorking the halls. PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: Gates snowglobe? Gawd:I have this somewhere, unfortunately it's somewhere where I don't know where it is. rigtuitargod:@Gawd: I have one PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:

They say the soul weighs 21 grams, and now we have a measurement of the American mind on any given day: 34 gigabytes. According to a University of California, San Diego, study highlighted by The New York Times, the average American consumes 34 GB worth of content a day, including

If you're not traveling to Paris anytime soon to visit The Louvre, then grab the art museum's free iPhone app. It's packed with enough info about its famous paintings to make you feel like you're there on a private tour. This amazingly slick free app provides a virtual tour of

Patrick Moran is chief strategy officer at Fuze Box, the company behind Fuze Meeting. He was also chief marketing officer at Mzinga, a leading social media and white label community provider, and led online marketing at Cisco WebEx. Fuze Box is one of the leading providers of real-time video collaboration

Brandon Mendelson is the co-author of Dracula And Kittens, a book that has little to do with networking and everything to do with the corporate food chain. For updates, you can follow Brandon on Twitter. Most columns on networking are from a business perspective. These authors want you to collect

Mark Spoonauer is the editor in chief of LAPTOP Magazine and Laptopmag.com, which reviewed over 130 notebooks and netbooks in the last year. Here are his favorite notebooks of 2009. So if you're buying a notebook, buy one of these.) Sub $400 Acer Aspire 1410 Starting Price: $399 This 3.2-pound

Image via Treehoo Treehoo already made it onto one of our lists of top green search engines last year, but this latest move might bump it farther up to the top. The tree-minded search engine has added an email service with the plan to put half of the profit

Twitter has been the butt of scores of jokes on David Letterman’s evening talk show for as long as we can remember. Last night’s Late Show was no different on that front, with Twitter one-liners flying left and right. Still, this episode did include one momentous event: David Letterman’s very

As we approach the start of the Festival of Lights, we thought we would share these 5 modern, eco-friendly Hannukah menorahs. Made of recycled materials, and crafted in clean lines, these Hannukah menorahs would work well in any modern home.Read Full Post

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you

This year's gadget of the year is...the Motorola Droid! (According to Time, anyway. Sorry, Apple.) They call it "a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don't miss it." Electronista notes that "[t]he pick is a rare win for Motorola, which

One time-saving (and a bit of money-saving too -- stamps do cost something, after all) personal finance tip is to have as many bills as possible set up to auto-pay. This is usually pretty easy to do, as simple as giving the company your credit card and letting them bill

Photo via anti joe @ flickr Stuck to white lights, green wreaths, and an 8-foot-spruce? Perhaps this is the year to start changing things up. Don't worry: We're not suggesting you get rid of that ornament your newlywed son made in first grade, but there are plenty of other

Want to get your kids some toys they’ll truly love? Kids like what is fun more than what is expensive.  They might beg for the latest high-tech gadget, but in the end, they’ll drop it like a hot rock for something that engages their imagination and creativity. As parents,

I am always on the lookout for unique gifts that would resonate with people’s secret aspirations. If you know someone who aspires to be a professional speaker—or perhaps someone who is already doing some speaking—then these gifts might provide you with an idea or two. I personally use all these

TIME has published its top 10 of everything 2009, and the winner in the gadgets category is a relative newcomer: the Droid. The Motorola phone on the Verizon network is a great device on the best network, TIME argues, making it the obvious choice despite being new to the market.

This is a post from David over at Adventures of a Barefoot Geek. David writes about life-topics such as peace of mind, simplicity and technology. Be sure to subscribe to his posts in a reader or by email. Giving to charity is often a friction-filled process. We like the

If you lust after Coach purses like I do, save yourself a little guilt with one of these money-saving coupons. 25% off any Coach Full Price Retail Store Purchase 20% off any Coach Factory Outlet Purchase Both coupons expire 12/13/09. (Thanks, Wicked Cool Deals!) Share this post: Related posts:Giant

Pandora has already come a considerable way from its rather modest beginnings, but it looks like the company unsurprisingly has some even grander ambitions for the near future, including a variety of options for in-car music streaming. That word comes straight from Pandora's Chief Technology Officier, Tom Conrad, who told

We love putting together our wish lists for the holidays.. But this list takes the cake for our favorite high design wants...well, if we or our gift-givers had the means, that is!Read Full Post

‘Tis the season for holiday kitsch and Yahoo has embraced the spirit of Twitter and the season to bring you Social Mojo, Holiday Edition. Modeled after the original Social Mojo experience, Holiday Mojo will analyze your Twitter stream using a “not very scientific” process to determine what kind of seasonal

The iPhone’s touchscreen is pleasant to tap, but writing a long message gets tiring. A speech recognition app called Dragon Dictation addresses that by transcribing your speech into text, which can then be copied into an e-mail or text message. The app’s interface is dead simple. Launch the app, hit

You can get them in Torrent and pirated VHS tapes, but Hulu is playing Mystery Science Theater 3000 online now. Only five full episodes—from seasons 4, 5, and 6—are available, however: They got The Starfighters, Secret Agent Super Dragon, Monster A-Go-Go, The Rebel Set, and The Giant Gila Monster (which

Ever wish you could micromanage the heating and cooling of your workplace down to the area around your desk?  Turns out, not only would it make you more comfortable, but it would also save energy. If you've ever worked in a large office building, you know that the AC can

A few weeks ago I took two vacation days off from work and our whole family had some cleaning days. Not the sort of dusting/vacuuming/washing kind of cleaning. Instead we had the "do we really need this?" sort of cleaning out. We all focused on an area of need as

As I sit in my office and look out the window, I can see a number of people and a few pieces of construction equipment busy at work about a quarter of a mile away. It just happens to perfectly line up that I can see the workers if I

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you

If you've been a long-time reader here at Free Money Finance, you'd probably say that I'm "frugal." You might even say that I'm "cheap." (That’s ok, I can live with it.) :-) People who know me better range in their descriptions of my cost-awareness as well. They range from "wise" (from

Here at Mashable, we’re big fans of Internet radio provider Pandora. Lots of us enjoy it on our laptops, on our mobile phones and even in the car — using various adaptors. Plugging your iPod touch or iPhone (or Droid, if you will) into your car stereo isn’t the most

A lot of people spend a lot of time reviewing and comparing apps, so there's no shortage of critical information to guide your purchases. But what do iPhone and iPod Touch users actually buy? Here's the leaderboard for 2009. Games The bestseller list is populated by high-profile—either in name or

Christmas is traditionally a time of year when we enjoy ourselves, we let our hair down and are a little more relaxed. At least that's the way it's meant to be. For a lot of people however, it's a stressful time of year. There's the shopping to do, there's the

The LA Auto Show is off and running, and Inhabitat was on the scene earlier this week to witness the unveiling of all the lean, green rides on display. Throughout the show we were struck by the array of alternative fuel vehicles that each and every manufacturer is putting research

One of the most common coping mechanisms for a serious life/money/career/personal problem is to dive into escapism. We look for something to distract ourselves from the difficulty, whether it be through playing games, working in the garden, alcohol, or any number of other things. I’m no stranger to this. When

Image copyright © Toy Vault We’ve all seen the ornaments Hallmark comes out with every year, and to be fair, some of them are excellent. There are a few Star Trek ones each year, and Star Wars ones, and other somewhat geeky ones, but they’re mainstream — and while there’s

Wisebread's Elizabeth Sanberg posts about an Amazon deal that offers a free subscription to Wired magazine if you spend $75 on certain electronics. Sanberg wasn't interested in the subscription, which is why she was happy to find out that she could opt out in exchange for a $10 refund. An

My husband and I need a new alarm clock and, after many deliberations, we have decided to go with a unit that works in conjunction with our iPhones. Since the units are all multi-functional (they’re all iPhone chargers, and all but the first include speakers to play music from iTunes

Guests are coming over. Soon. It's a common state of things during the holiday season, but maybe you're just home from a long day at the office, gift shopping, or party preparation. So you're rushing to get your home and yourself ready for company. One cleaning tip to be

In May, I wrote about how to negotiate your salary. I argued that following the advice in Jack Chapman’s Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute is one of the best ways to improve your financial well-being. I still believe it. If you’re looking for work or looking

Here's a note I recently received from a reader: Just had a relative come across a $50k windfall after taxes. It had me thinking of what the best thing to do with the money.  This is especially interesting if you are debt free.  How can you make the most out

The following is a guest post from Marotta Wealth Management. No one approaches financial planning with the goal of paying more taxes. Tax management, like all financial planning, is based on the premise that small changes made over time can achieve big goals. Good investment returns are important. But over

I’m going to start out by saying something that might get some feathers in a ruffle: everyone in the first world has brand preferences. Simply by seeing a particular label on something, we draw some basic conclusions about the product itself. It might be driven by our own experiences, it

Being an environmentalist and enjoying the outdoors go hand-in-hand. Whether the person on your gift list enjoys walking their dog in the park, gardening or mountain biking, new materials including plastics and fabrics, have made finding outdoorsy green gifts easier than ever. See our picks! • Read the full post

The dating arena can be a dangerous place. It’s a battleground out there, and you need every tool at your disposal. It’s not cheating — it’s just using the resources available to you. Here we’ve hand-picked 10 iPhone apps that will help you navigate the dating minefield and avoid potential

This holiday season why not introduce the little ones in your life to green using their favorite things in the world – presents! Whether you’re shopping for a little boy or girl, our eco-kid experts over at Inhabitots have put together a selection of green gifts that will dazzle and

Our readers are a savvy bunch who aren't likely to be taken in by an online scam—but we've all got those friends and relatives we worry about. Here's our definitive guide to helping them stay safe online. Photo from Futurama. When training your loved ones how to keep themselves safe

MSN Money shares the 11 golden rules of gift card giving as follows: 1. Reduce the cost of gifting. Consumers who previously might have spent $100 on a gift card for a single recipient this year may consider buying a pair of $50 gift cards to take care of two

What maker doesn't like to unwind with a good movie, TV show, game, or book? We tend to focus a lot of attention around here on being productive, and consuming lots of non-fiction guides to specific tools and techniques. To change things up a bit, we decided to compile

It looks like a lot of people are coming here from the article in the San Francisco Chronicle: Big City Blues, Could a more affordable life, away from the Bay Area, actually be better, by Rob Baedeker. Here are some of my most popular posts about figuring out where to live:

“Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.” - Spanish Proverb Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. It’s that time of year — the end part — when people start thinking about their lives, their goals, their habits, and how to change everything for the better. As always,

Just my weekly note to let you know that this week's Best of Money Carnival is up. Congrats to all participants and especially the winning post, What is the Current Unemployment Rate?  If you're a blogger and are interested in hosting the carnival, please drop me a note.

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags. Question re:

This article is the 11th of a 13-part 14-part series that explores the core tenets of Get Rich Slowly. It originally appeared at Soul Shelter in a slightly different form. For more than a decade, I was buried in debt. My relationship with money was poor. I earned a decent

Take one look around my home and it’s easy to see that I love to read. My bookcase is overflowing with dog-eared paperbacks and hardcovers. There are even more books stuffed into drawers, sitting on my coffee table, and jammed into the shelves of my computer desk. About a half

Every year about this time, when the chaos of holiday planning, partying and the pressure of trying to get everything done for the holidays overwhelms us, we find ourselves vowing that next year will be different and then a few months later, our resolutions have fallen by the wayside. Rather

Here's a story that transpired a few weekends ago. I still find it unbelievable. A friend of ours called my wife one Saturday and said she had locked her keys in her car. The friend was at work (still had several hours to go) and wanted to know if my wife would run

Whew! I just crossed the last item from my Christmas list. It did require a last-minute run into Fresh Market, but overall, I came in under budget. Here are 10 frugal gifts you might find on my kitchen counter this season: 4 Tickets to the Country Music Hall of Fame

The following is a guest post from Angie of The Creative Mama and of Angie Warren Photography. Pictures are souvenirs. They are gifts to which we hold tight for years. Oftentimes, images of our childhood are the only tangible treasures we have to remind us of that fleeting time.

When we first caught wind of Barnes & Noble's Nook -- a device clearly positioned to give the Amazon Kindle and Sony's options a run for their money -- we were understandably interested. As voracious readers and lovers of fresh gadgetry, a new contender on the e-reader scene is

You probably know that many items on Amazon qualify for free shipping - if your order is over $25. But what if your order is just a little under $25?  What if you're only short by 1 measly cent?  Or 10?  Or $1.51? Try this. Brilliant! Related posts:Shopping Once A

Have you ever wanted to send out tweets on Twitter in another language? TwitLan lets you translate your tweets in 81 different languages. But that’s… boring. How about a website that allows you to tweet using a fictional foreign or intergalactic language? TweetInKlingon.com allows you to send messages on

This holiday season's inexplicably hot toy, Zhu Zhu Pets, may be hazardous to your health. And not just because many parents stood outside in the cold for hours to get one. No, according to green ratings guide GoodGuide.com, the cuddly robot toys contain high levels of the substance antimony, which

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book. A couple years ago, I reviewed Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine’s earlier book Die Broke. I found it really interesting for the first half – which focuses on investing in yourself – and completely faulty in the second half,

Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclix handle. Sometimes going home for the holidays can

One of the biggest things I encourage people to look for when they open a bank account is that the bank is FDIC insured. Most banks operating in the United States offer this insurance. In an era where people are more than a little worried about bank failures and the

For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why. We've talked a lot about what the Bible has to say about giving (tithing, giving generously, being a cheerful giver, etc.). Today I'd like to look at the issue a

Hey, you, your gadgets are disgusting. And wiping them with your greasy shirt sleeve isn't making things any better. Here's how to clean your gadgets, the right way. HDTVs and Monitors This is the number one cleaning question I get from friends and family, and it's one of the simplest

With the hundreds of tweets that sail through our Twitter feed everyday, it can be difficult to remember who said what, when, or linked to something worthwhile. Search site Snap Bird makes finding particular tweets a breeze. Although you're likely able to bookmark interesting things your friends, acquaintances, and

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, two years ago this week, and three years ago this

Now that the holiday shopping season is officially in full swing, you still have a few weeks to get out and get gifts for everyone on your list. If you’re reading this site, chances are you know at least one person who is obsessed with everything Apple (or you are

While Lawnmower Man may have led us to believe the future was a virtual one, it seems that in fact augmented reality (the overlaying of digital data on the real world) is where we’re headed. A buzz technology right now, augmented reality apps are quickly gaining momentum on the iPhone.

Don't freak out or anything. But all that time you spent building a DIY in-wall USB charger may have been for naught. Of course, you've gained a useful learning experience and potentially gotten a lesson in the dangers of electricity, but you could have simply ordered this TruPower UCS

A while back (has it been almost eighteen months already?), I wrote a very detailed article about coming up with a debt repayment plan. This plan works – it’s what I did when I realized that I was in serious financial trouble and needed to overcome it. Yet it’s not

Filed under: Internet, Google This is why we love Google. We get it: they want to take over the world, bit by bit, slowly but surely -- but, at the end of the day, they offer high-quality services at unbeatable prices (i.e. free). Occasionally it can certainly get a little

The following is a guest post from M Davis at Back Taxes Help. With the troubled economy it is becoming very common for individuals and business to not be able to pay their taxes. It is an understandable situation when a taxpayer must use funds to pay for necessities after losing

Written by you. Here's how. In the comments of this entry describe a cool tool you are giving as a gift this year. To a family-member, co-worker, or friend. It can be a previously reviewed Cool Tool, or even better, a new one we don't know about. We'll comb

Ever wonder what to get for the meat lover who has it all? Being an avid carnivore myself for thirty-or-so years now, I've received my fair share of meat-themed gifts, and these are some of my all-time favorites. They should warm the heart of just about anybody with a

I am a very lucky person. I was lucky enough to be born in the United States with (reasonably) good health. I was also lucky enough to be born to parents who wanted me to be successful in life and constantly did things to push me to learn and to

When I was in the mental ward, it was mostly girls in their teens with messed up track records and eating disorders. But my roommate was from Kellogg, a top-ten business school. I thought it was insane that she was there. She was so smart. She was going to be

Here are some interesting thoughts from Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire regarding your kids' "rich" friends: What happens when your children attend school and/or interact otherwise with kids who display an abundance of expensive consumer products? Your children are likely to ask you why you

This post is part of Mashable’s Fab Five series with Jalen Rose, which highlights trends in the social media space. Jalen Rose is a former 13-year NBA star and current ESPN basketball analyst but may be best known for being a member of the famous University of Michigan Fab Five.

As the holidays draw closer, we’ve been bringing you all the best green holiday gift ideas – yesterday, we showcased eco-gifts for her, but we can’t forget the guys! Our fabulous Green Gift Guide for Him has a prime selection of green gadgets, sustainable haberdashery and man-approved powertoys that are

Via the Vodkaster comes this subway map of films: > click for ginormous map

Some cool stuff around the web we've liked reading this week, and maybe you will too.

We certainly love and have a huge amount of respect for people who create with their hands: whether it's a painting, a hand-knitted scarf, or a bookshelf built from scratch, we've got a few items we think our favorite artist, crafter, or DIY'er would appreciate. • Read the full post

Marco writes in: Most of your “money tips” are stupid. Why would I waste my time doing this stuff to save fifty cents? I want to learn how to make money not how to save a nickel. Whether or not you take advantage of the huge benefits of frugality is

In the comments on a recent post about peer pressure, I mentioned a quote that I’d edited from the original draft. (I write a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it into final articles. It’s as if there should be “bonus features” for GRS, like on DVDs.) Anyhow, I re-read

For children- the best way to reduce your children's expectations and cases of the 'gimmes' is to turn off the television, or at least the commercials, and take them to the library or the park instead of the mall or toy shop.  If they don't know what's out there, they

Here's a simple money saving tip that I hit on recently. Some of you probably figured this out a long time ago, but for me it was a very nice discovery. I've been a subscriber to Consumer Reports magazine for years, and even subscribed to their website for some time.

For weekday updates of what I find to be some of the most interesting personal finance articles on the web, follow me on Twitter. For now, here are some pieces I found especially worthwhile and some of the carnivals Free Money Finance was in this week and my posts that

The end of the year is steadily approaching and we shall soon be embarking on a new year. But before this one winds down and comes to an end, there are a few things you should add to your to do list before the ball drops. Here is your checklist of ten things that you need

Just how long can you procrastinate in your online holiday shopping? Dealnews assembled a verified list including retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Macy's. Not everyone is here, but your "Lids" will most certainly arrive on time. [dealnews and image]

Top Stories for the Week of Nov. 30 - Dec. 4, 2009 It's time for the "Top [Blank] of 2009" lists and "Top [Blank] of the Decade" lists and there's literally a [blank]-load of stuff getting cut-and-pasted and linked to all over blogotopia. Yahoo, Google and Bing have revealed the

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that between writing chapters for Your Money: The Missing Manual I’ve been wrestling with eBay “customer service”. Note the quotes. It’s difficult to tell the full story in 140-character chunks, though. Since Robert started the day with a post about his adventures

So, I’ve finally finished getting the updated Top Life Hack Blogs list together for you all. This new version takes into account Technorati authority, Compete scores, as well as Google PageRank and Alexa rankings. Combined, I think these give a good picture of the order of the blogs in this

Ah, weird relatives. The ones whose existence we ignore until there's the realization that we're obligated to get them some kind of gift. Here are a few safe ideas that are reasonable on cost and extra low on effort. BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the

Here are some interesting thoughts from Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire on one thing that sets wealthy people apart from the pack: One of the things that set wealthy people apart from others is that they have a wide variety of interests and activities. In

The hottest toy this holiday season is, of course, Zhu Zhu Pets, small, furry robotic hamsters. They retail for $8 but are out of stock in many stores, prompting some artificially high prices on sites like Amazon and eBay. Rebuilding the Economy offers strategies for finding a cheap Zhu Zhu

As the year draws to a close, what does 2010 hold for social media and the web? While web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are emerging. Among the good bets for 2010 online: Real-time, Content Curation, Cloud Computing, Convergence Continues (eBooks are the exception), Social Gaming and more. In

Almost immediately after my article yesterday about the costs of preparing for additional children, Eileen wrote to me with a very worthwhile comment: In that article you barely mentioned the value of family and friends who will give you lots of hand-me-downs and other items. Since you talk about the

I've always had a big collection of cookbooks, many of which have been given to me around this time of year. But before starting at Cook the Book I was much more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style cook. My heavy shelves of cookbooks acted more like coffee table books. I'd

[ See more under Home & Garden or in the Art & Design category ] Forward thinkers were some of the first environmentalists. Nowadays, most of us recycle. As always, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Some people are just more creative than others, while some folks are

The guys at HDGuru have scoured the offerings of online retailers once again to find the best post-Cyber Monday HDTV deals. There are some decent offerings in there, including a 40-inch Samsung 1080p LCD for $609 and a Panasonic 50-inch 1080p plasma for $1095 (Buy.com). Check out HDGuru for

Finding the perfect gift is never easy, and heading to the mall is even worse. Find just the right gift for the difficult-to-buy-for Lifehacker-type in your life with a look at the coolest gear we've highlighted over the course of 2009. Photo by Charlie Brewer. Before we get started, we

In a piece about the secrets of telemarketing from an industry insider, they say the following about buying from an infomercial: We used simple circle talking techniques to trick people into buying our product. In the infomercial it was $120. We had a list of people that called the number

Do you have a new cook or someone just setting up their kitchen on your holiday gift list? Perhaps a seasoned cook whose kitchen arsenal could use an update? Check out these 10 budget-friendly kitchen basics. No gadgets here! Just tried and true essentials, and they're all under $25. •

When I was a kid, each year my Christmas stocking had a large orange in the toe. I always thought of this as a bit strange, so when I was a bit older, I asked my parents about the orange. It turns out that oranges were pretty hard to get

The FlipShare TV is a new set-top box from the Flip video folks, and it looks like nothing as much as a smoke alarm. The little box hooks up to your TV (HDMI or composite) and receives video wirelessly from a nearby computer via a proprietary USB dongle (using

This is a guest post from Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the advisor for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. He contributes one new article to Get Rich Slowly every two weeks. I’ve already told you how the wife and I

This piece from my local TV station discusses how people can get "holiday financial help." As you watch the piece they clearly note that they're talking about two different types of assistance: help for buying presents and help for buying food.   In past years, we've participated in various programs

If you’re the lucky owner of an iPhone or an iPod touch, then you already know there are a lot of great apps for entertaining kids. But have you used it for travel? There are a handful of apps that make family travel easier. Much, much easier.

We all know the web is a great place to do your holiday shopping — this year’s Cyber Monday and Black Friday traffic was way up over the previous year, after all — but what about gifts that are a bit more meaningful? Can the web give you a hand

The holiday season is here and Christmas is rapidly approaching. For many people, the holidays mean a great deal of gift buying and giving, travel to and from family, and social occasions with co-workers and friends. All of those activities cost money and many people find themselves in serious debt

Here are some interesting thoughts from Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire on why your home has so much of an impact on your wealth: What we don't realize is that the true cost of living in certain homes and neighborhoods is unseen but truly devastating.

As a major player in global entertainment, videogames were sure to pop up in Google’s annual Zeitgeist, an analysis of the billions of queries that web users made this year. But you may be surprised at which games were the top queries and which games saw their fortunes fall.

If email is too informal but you're too busy to make and send a holiday card on your own, Gmail is running a fun promotion allowing you to send one snazzy holiday postcard on their dime. Just head to the Happy holidays from Gmail page, enter your message, recipient's information,

Here they are, 10 toys and games painstakingly selected for coolness and/or inoffensiveness (plus two of the worst ideas), running the gamut in age range and price. Pick through, and you'll find something nice for the brainy little snot. If you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch

Megan writes in: Congratulations on your third child! My husband and I are expecting our second child in February. I hope you’ll write an article about how to save money when another child comes along. Your wish is my command, Megan. Here are some of the ways we’re preparing for

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit group dedicated to defending the freedoms of individuals in the digital age, thinks the U.S. government may be violating the privacy of individuals who post content to Facebook and Twitter. The organization has filed suit in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court, Northern District, against

Every Friday my children light the Shabbat candles. My 10 year old handles the matches skillfully, while my 3 year old daughter gets help from my husband (much to her disliking).And because she wants to be just like her older brother, doing everything he does without help from mommy and

If you love the smell of a real Christmas tree but hate the thoughts of simply discarding it after the holiday season is over, the newest trend in holiday decorations- Christmas tree rental- may just be the perfect compromise. We were delighted to discover several different firms offering this

today the budget-friendly gift guides continue with a roundup of 40 great gift ideas under $50! yesterday we focused on gifts under $25, and today we’ll up the budget, but just a tiny bit. each of these ideas will set you back $50 or less and will still provide

On the hunt for a green gift for the gadget geek on your list? Then check out our array of all of the hottest, must-have green appliances, gizmos and tools all in one handy guide for your gift-giving pleasure. From futuristic water-powered clocks to eco-cell phones to sleek e-readers, we’ve

We recently talked about the importance of staying fully invested in the stock market (assuming you have a long term investment horizon) so you don't miss the ride up once the market recovers from a drop. Kiplinger recently highlighted a similar issue -- getting in the market and staying in

We're sure we're not alone in recalling the cleanup from last year's holiday gift exchange: an embarrassingly large amount of bags full of crumpled gift wrap. This year, we're trying something different, and thankfully there are plenty of eco-friendly ways to wrap gifts! • Read the full post at Re-NestRead

Right now, I’m deeply involved with the editing process for my upcoming second book. My first book was fairly easy to edit. Since it was mostly a list of ways to live cheap, the edits were either “does this way to live cheap fit in the book?” or grammatical choices.

Anti-Theft Lunch Bags: Do not let your friends suffer from the injustices of sandwich larceny! We've been fans of these green-splotched bags ever since we first found out about them. Available at perpetualkid.com, $9.99 Gnocchi Board: This gift has a few purposes. One, it proves that gnocchi boards do

In our seventh installment of Unclutterer’s 2009 Holiday Gift Giving Guide we’re discussing gifts for children. I’m coming to find that creating a Guide for kids is more difficult than expected. The things we want for our son now are very different than the things he’ll want when he can

Have you found your passion in life; something that wakes you up in the morning and makes you jump out of bed, something that makes you sing with emotion, something that when you try and describe it you get lost for words? If you haven’t then this article is for

This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman. I haven’t tracked our expenses since June. Not to appear completely incompetent, I do check our accounts on a regular basis to verify the charges and withdrawals. But I can’t tell you how much we spent on groceries in August or

What is glitter made of exactly? And spray-on snow or tinsel? How about some holiday decorations directly from the outdoors? You know exactly what they're made of and they create a nice, natural setting inside.Read Full Post

Here are a couple related situations -- people making a ton of money, spending like crazy, and going broke. The first one is former Boston Celtics star Antoine Walker. The details: In 12 years, Antoine Walker made more than $110 million playing professional basketball moderately well. Take away taxes, throw

Somehow in our house, December is a mess of wires, plugs, cords and blown fuses. From the fairly lights to the Wii, most of what we want, buy, use and receive for the holidays seems to be electrical in nature. But, with only three sockets in our living room and

It's begun! Our first Christmas card arrived in the mail yesterday and hence commenced the welcomed onslaught of mail-carried holiday cheer. We vowed last year— after seeing our entry table fall prey to an unruly array of cards— to preempt the happy attack by having an easy and orderly

The change in seasons is well upon us and it’s a perfect time to take a look at ways we can keep ourselves healthy and balanced. As the cold moves in, we need to shift our wellness routine to respond to the changes it brings. Here are 20 ways

People are still talking about plasma burn-in, even though it's a non-issue. Actually, two very rare separate non-issues, permanent burn-in and temporary image retention. Gary at HD Guru decided to put the matter to rest: Gary decided the best way to illustrate this issue is to figure out what it

Seven words you never want to hear at Christmas: “WHAT!!! YOU GOT ME A GIFT CARD?!?!?!?” On the other hand, if someone really wants a gift card, why fight the crowds and spend hours looking for the perfect gift? It’s easy and it will be easier to have a debt

The great personal finance book Grow Your Money!: 101 Easy Tips to Plan, Save, and Invest ends with a list of what financial steps we should take each month. They list the December steps as follows: Set up self-employed retirement plans. Sell losing investments in taxable brokerage accounts. Consider a

The holidays are on their way, and Inhabitat founder Jill Fehrenbacher has some great tips for going green without going into the red. From shopping for eco-friendly gifts to picking out a living Christmas tree to creating your own gifts, there are plenty of ways to green your holiday season

Hey baby, look, we all have priorities. For me, my gadgety toys just so happen to fall a teensy bit above you on the list. Don't be offended! Here, look, I got you a present! Now, back to my iPhone. BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as

Lately, my wife and I have been studying ways to reduce our weekly grocery bill. We’ve been using several tactics to do this, which I will discuss one at a time over a series of articles. Salads before dinner are a common staple at our house. For a long time,

Some pretty interesting graphs here: • Google Zeitgeist Global Overview • US Overview

This holiday season we've noticed that we have been using our iPhone's camera to snap photos of gift ideas and of purchases we've already made in an attempt to get organized. While perusing GeekSugar this morning, we were inspired to use Evernote to take this one step further, alongside consider

Welcome to December! Did you brave Black Friday madness or try for an alternative? As wonderful as the holiday season can be, it often brings with it undue amounts of stress: crowded stores, visiting family and friends, holiday parties, and lots of cooking, eating, and socializing can leave you feeling

Here are some interesting thoughts from Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire: Most people will never earn $10 million in their lifetime, let alone in any single year. In fact, most households are unlikely to ever earn even $200,000 or more annually. Currently only about 3

At this time of year, it's a common site in any office: people scurrying around madly, frantically plastering post-it notes around the place, scribbling notes, calling out last-minute instructions, asking "where the **** did I put my plane ticket"...Yes, it's holiday time, and, unfortunately, that much-needed break from work can

By midday yesterday it looked like we might be in for a big Cyber Monday, and today, final stats show that it was definitely a strong showing for online retailers. According to numbers provided by Coremetrics, sales for this year’s Cyber Monday beat last year by 13.7 percent. Moreover, it

Phantom energy sucks. Even when turned off, plugged-in electric devices are draining the juice in your house, a phenomenon that can add up to more than 65 billion kilowatt-hours of power each year. Save energy, and you save major cash. The Union of Concerned Scientists calls the culprits of this

Bing and Yahoo have already released their lists of the most popular search terms of 2009, and now it’s time for the undisputed, heavyweight champion of search — Google, in the red trunks — to announce its rundown. In their annual Zeitgeist report, Google crowns “Michael Jackson” as the fastest

The guy who sold me my car cancelled the plates the very next week. Luckily, I didn’t know that because there was a November expiration sticker on the plate. So the fact that I was driving the car illegally for three months did not bother me. Until now. But now

Over the past week, I’ve been conducting a quiet poll among friends and family concerning whether or not they shop at thrift stores. I received a few “yes” answers, but a surprisingly large number of “no” answers. Without arguing about the reasons, I also asked them why they didn’t shop

This article is by staff writer Adam Baker. Baker recently reflected on just how much money affects our internal values. When booking airfare online, most people think of the popular online aggregation sites. You know the ones: They have the fancy commercials, catchy jingles, and washed-up celebrity pitchmen. While those sites

In my post titled From the Ugh Files, I asked the following questions: How does living paycheck to paycheck happen? (I've never done it, so I honestly don't know.) Is it an ever-increasing lifestyle as salaries increase? Or maybe it's an income hit that takes away all the slack in

We had a lovely gathering for Thanksgiving, complete with awesome food and wonderful company. However, what we didn't have was the spotlessly clean home we had hoped to prepare before the wonderful company came trickling in. Throughout the night we kept noticing all the unexpected places we had overlooked