My daughter had a few rolled-up posters that kept springing off the wall — regular poster tack wasn't strong enough to hold the curl flat, and we didn't want to poke pinholes through the posters themselves. These Outus magnetic push pins solved it. You push a pin into the wall, lay the poster over it, then snap the included magnet onto the pin from the front to clamp the poster in place. The magnets are strong, and the only damage is a tiny hole in the wall — not in the poster. — MF

A friend gifted me a fancy five-color ink-jet printer they were not using. It would be great except for a common malady: the manufacturer no longer supported a driver for it for my computer. This calamity is so common there is a community solution: Gutenprint (formerly Gimp-print). Public minded angels post open-source drivers for all kinds of computer-printer combinations, available for free downloads. Their Mac support is spotty, but older versions can still work. My needed driver was there. One caveat; it only supplies the printing functions, but lacks the maintenance and cleaning cycles. Still, I now have a printer that prints. — KK

This livestream of a Dutch canal lock has a virtual doorbell viewers can ring to snap a picture and let the operator know fish are waiting to be let through. It doesn’t really open on demand, but the idea is very charming. If you scroll down you can see all the fish that have been recently spotted. I found it in the Deepculture newsletter, just back from my first trip to Amsterdam where I rented a boat and navigated the canals. It felt synchronistic, like a souvenir from my trip. — CD

This one is for the people with breasts. I’ve been stuck in Victoria’s Secret sizing since adolescence because I could never figure out how to translate my measurements to any other brand. Over the years I tried in-person fittings and indie bra makers, but I’d ultimately go back to the devil I knew. This illustrated NPR guide by a professional bra fitter is what finally got me unstuck. It walks you through how to measure yourself at home and explains the different styles of bras. Once I had my true size, I tried Negative Underwear (worth the influencer hype, in my opinion) and now it’s the only brand I wear. I hope I can finally retire from the search for the perfect bra. — CD

Software engineer Rob Ennals wanted his 11-year-old son to understand how modern AI works, but couldn’t find a tutorial that was rigorous without being either hand-wavey or impenetrable. The result is Learn AI Layer by Layer, a free online book with interactive playgrounds in every chapter. It assumes middle-school math. If you want a clear, hands-on explanation of what happens inside an LLM, this is the best one I’ve come across. — MF

I am a huge fan of Dan Pink’s short pithy advice videos, some of which I have recommended before. His latest one is on an unconventional topic: how to spend money wisely. In a lot of ways, this particular advice is more important to grasp than the usual advice on how to make money, yet few talk about how to spend well. Science-based, no fluff, this distilled wisdom is well worth your 8 minutes. — KK

I find power in aphorisms, proverbs, and witty quotes. So does David Wells, who spent years reading widely and collecting his favorite passages into an enormous self-published book, Echoes of Genius: Enduring Wisdom from Great Minds. What I like about his collection is the refreshing variety of sources, modern and ancient, from all occupations, pop and scholarly. The other cool thing is that the quotes are arranged in a calendar format, and grouped by subject, so you get two pages of quotes about one virtue for each day of the year. It’s kind of like a meditation. Here are a few of my favorites from the book:

Your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver your current results. — James Clear

You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy. — Garth Brooks

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. — Linus Pauling

If you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself. — Paul Graham

Where your fear is, there is your task. — Carl Jung

Focus on things that are small enough to change, but big enough to matter. — Kat Cole

History is a vast early warning system. — Norman Cousins

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. — Albert Schweitzer

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. — Martin Luther King

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved. — Charles F. Kettering

Things that have never happened before happen all the time. — Morgan Housel

There are of course thousands more like this in the book. – KK

A short blog post with stupidly simple advice that actually works: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work. Don’t try to organize the chaos. Start the day with nothing—an empty surface, all browser tabs closed, a blank page—then pull out the one thing you need. It’s surprising how easily focus follows. — CD

To brighten up our dim living room, I bought two of these 69” Sunmory LED floor lamps. The large disc-shaped LED head produces a lot of light without the harsh glare of a bulb-style torchiere. Using the remote, I can adjust both brightness and color temperature — cool and bright during the day, warm and low in the evening. The head tilts and rotates, so I can aim the light wherever I need it. They feel solidly built for the price, with a heavy base that doesn’t tip. Two now light the room beautifully. — MF

Magnifiedsand.com is one human’s labor of love: a collection of sand samples from around the world, magnified and photographed. I can’t explain my instinctual need to collect shells, feathers, and rocks, but that same part of me gets lost in these images. There’s something mesmerizing about zooming in enough to see the diverse assortment of crushed quartz, tiny fossils, and shell fragments. Just a small, free, beautifully nerdy corner of the internet.

Solar-powered outdoor lights were a great idea, but sadly most were kind of crappy. They would stop working after a few years. But in recent times they’ve gotten much better. Some of my new ones at our gate have been performing fabulously for years. No wires means you can put them anywhere. The kind I’ve settled on are ones like these Aootek Motion Sensing LED fence-mounted units that stay dim until they detect motion and then brighten up, preserving power. They come in a set of 6 ($22). They are quite bright; even one can make a big difference in the dark. – KK

Stillgram is an iPhone camera app that uses on-device AI to automatically remove other people from your shots. Point it at the Trevi Fountain or Shibuya Crossing, snap, and the app cleans out the crowd — leaving just the landmark. The fun part is Pro mode ($14.99), which lets you tap to choose who stays in the frame, so you can erase everyone except your kid in front of the Eiffel Tower. For an Android equivalent, try ClearCrowds. — MF

The world seems to be converging on USB-C as the universal standard, and I hope nobody invents a replacement once we get there. For now, I live in a mixed world of USB-C and USB-A gear. These tiny, inexpensive Syntech adapters are how I connect the two: a male USB-C plug on one end, a female USB-A port on the other. I keep them on my desk and in my travel bag for flash drives, charging cables, wired mice, and other older peripherals. I've tried a few brands; this one is the most reliable, with nearly 189,000 reviews and a 4.7-star average. — MF

Kevin previously recommended Jury Duty on Prime, and if you haven’t watched it you should, then immediately watch the new season called Company Retreat. It follows a temp worker hired to help run a company retreat for a fake company, called Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce, surrounded entirely by actors playing coworkers. He has no idea he’s the only real person navigating these increasingly ridiculous situations. Right after binging I rewatched each episode with the behind-the-scenes audio commentary tracks. It’s fascinating how the actors navigate multiple layers of story and reality, and how the “hero’s” genuine goodness keeps him ahead of a script he doesn’t even know exists. It makes me think about the power of suggestion, authenticity versus programming, and how heartening it is to witness someone naturally driven by values that prioritize community over self. It is equally uplifting as it is hilarious. — CD

Shadow libraries disregard copyright law, and contain digital copies of just about every book ever published. A number of these open source libraries (such as Sci-Hub) have been shut down; the current best one up and running is Anna’s Archive, hosted offshore somewhere. I am slowly turning my physical library into a digital library. From Anna’s Archive I have been downloading digital copies of any book I have purchased to create a working digital library I can use, search, apply to AI, and build upon. You can’t do that with Kindle books. Anna’s Archive also has 95 million scientific and scholarly journal articles, which is especially handy when publishers make getting a copy difficult. (Be wary: if you google Anna’s Archive you get malware sites; best to go to the links listed in the Anna’s Archive Wikipedia entry.) If a digital copy of something exists, Anna’s Archive will have it. — KK

I use a small JBL Go 4 Bluetooth speaker for podcasts and music around the house. But when I’m in the living room, I’ve started streaming phone audio to my smart TV instead. Most TVs have bigger, better speakers than any portable Bluetooth speaker — the sound is fuller, with more low end and a wider stereo image. Whether it’s AirPlay, Chromecast, or Bluetooth, almost every smart TV supports it. — MF

Recomendo is biased toward iPhones because the three of us use one. So here is a tip for Android users: Enable Google’s Circle to Search on your phone. You can then use your finger to circle any image, part of an image, product in an image, word, phrase, text – anything on the screen and it will search what you circle. You don’t have to take a screenshot. It works inside of any app. Hit the bottom navigation bar or home button and then use your finger to circle the part you want more information about. It instantly can identify products in a picture, or check to see if a message is spam, or translate text, or supply more information about a comment. Be sure the function is enabled in the Settings > Display or Navigation Mode. (I am hoping this function comes to native iPhone soon.) — KK

Recently when I was in Amsterdam, I went on a private rare book tour at the Embassy of the Free Mind. The embassy houses one of the world’s largest collections of Hermetic and occult books, and they’ve digitized thousands of manuscripts that you can read online for free. But if you’re in Amsterdam, I definitely recommend booking a guided tour. I chose the tour that focuses on alchemical texts, but they have others on magic, witchcraft, and Rosicrucianism. I didn’t get to touch any of the books, which is understandable, but I did get to smell one that was hundreds of years old and it was glorious. — CD

Most modern cars have electronic fob keys, which are great, except if you need to replace them. They can cost between $200 to $500 to replace. Our 2008 Toyota Prius had one single grungy fob that was starting to fall apart and I wanted to have a spare key cheaper than the $400 Toyota wanted to charge us. So I found Tom’s Keys, which sells a third-party fob ($98) that you can program with an existing working fob (required). The programming steps are ridiculously complex; I thought it was a joke (open, close the driver door 6 times, insert fob twice quickly, open and close door again, push both buttons on fob, repeat, etc. This complexity is from the car manufacturers, not from the key people.) But after many many tries I successfully programmed the new fob to work, so now I have a spare. Tom’s Keys customer service is flaky, and there are some complaints about not being able to program the key, but for me it was worth the try for $100. — KK

The US National Park Finder filters all 63 U.S. national parks by their best months to visit, as well as listing their top activities and best spots for stargazing. After filtering, each park card gives you sample itineraries, fun facts, travel hacks, and resources and advice pulled from Reddit. The next park on my travel wishlist is Saguaro National Park, and it’s helpful to get all this information on one page. — CD