The free Democracy Player from the Participatory Culture Foundation is a slick tool for finding and downloading Internet videos. Unlike, say, YouTube, you don’t have to sit around and wait for a semi-crappy video to buffer before you watch it. Instead, you browse through single videos or channels th

Hey, kids, it’s Digg for girls! BlinkList | Your personal start page and social bookmarking engine

Like BASIC, PHP will destroy your future as a programmer (and I should know; I programmed in BASIC as a kid and all I can deal with is PHP now): Why the light has gone out on LAMP

I’m at risk of getting a reputation for pissing on Web 2.0, but here goes. The problem with “microformats,” which Technorati is pushing pretty hard, is that they seem to be no more than poorly implemented metadata standards. Take the rel=tag specification, for instance. This is a snippet of code you

Despite being a far inferior piece of hardware, the Nintendo DS continues to outsell the Sony PSP by a factor of 6. The PSP has a bigger, more beautiful screen. It’s got more sophisticated controls. It supports removable memory cards and works pretty decently as a video and audio player. And its gra

Princeton Tec’s Scout headlamp ($22) has 2 white LEDs and three brightness settings: bright, very bright, and blinding. It’s easily the most powerful LED headlamp I’ve tested. The plastic clip on the back holds the light to a hat brim nicely, but it broke off when I tried to wedge it around a partic

200 liters of Diet Coke, 500 Mentos, and 1 great soundtrack: EepyBird.com

The Bake Shop Ghost, by Jacqueline K. Ogburn and Marjorie A. Priceman (Illustrator). Best new kid’s book I’ve seen this year–and I can say that despite having read it aloud at least 40 times over the past two months. The pictures are excellent, the story is original, and the hero triumphs by being c

Brain Age for the Nintendo DS ($20) is a videogame masquerading as a brain-training tool. The exercises include rapid-fire math, counting syllables, reading aloud, and even drawing pictures from memory. The friendly bobbing head of Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima explains what each exerc

Almost unbelievable growth: Broadband usage in the U.S. up 40% in the past year (and up 121% among African Americans): Home Broadband Adoption 2006 (pdf)

Adding a computer to your home theater no longer means crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. In the latest issue of WIRED, I review 4 PCs that handle video and audio with aplomb, and even play saved movies while burning DVDs, thanks to the powerful Intel chips inside. But guess what: The to

Tired: objective journalism. Wired: shorting a company’s stock the day before you publish a hit piece alleging they’ve committed accounting fraud. Mark Cuban: Why Journalism Matters