In my ongoing campaign to make myself literate in metric (used everywhere in the world except the US), as much as possible I try to measure only in metric. I got a Komelon dual scale measuring tape (both metric and inches on one side) and after a month or so, I can think in metric. I really like Komelon measuring tapes because they are inexpensive but high quality. They have four in different sizes in dual scale from 3.5m/12ft for only $5, to a 9m/30ft for $8.50. The 9-meter one is big in the hand but an incredible bargain; however their 5-meter is probably a good size for general use. — KK

A while back I recommended WeCroak. These are a few of my favorite quotes from the death reminder app.

“The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.” — Marcus Aurelius

“We waste our energy and exhaust ourselves with the insistence that life be otherwise.” — Frank Ostaseski

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” — George Eliot

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.” — Toni Morrison

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” — Vladimir Nabokov

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

This new website became an instant hit, and for good reason. Just upload any photo of a person, animal, or things, and it will erase everything in the background, replacing them with transparent pixels. It even works well when the person in the foreground has wispy or curly hair. — MF

Anytime I go into the attic or near dust of any kind, I put on one of these 3M Cool Flow respirator masks. They are comfortable and they really help me from having a sneezing fit. My daughter uses them for her art projects. Amazon sells a 10 pack for $15, but I use Amazon’s Subscribe and Save and get a 10 pack sent to me every six months for $14. — MF

One way to find new podcasts is a website called Listen Notes — a search engine for almost all podcasts around the world. You can search for topics or a specific person and find related episodes. Or set alerts for keyword mentions. I’m not a daily podcast listener but every once in a while I’ll want to hear what people are saying about a certain news story or random topic on my mind, and in those cases Listen Notes is very useful. — CD

When doing interviews, I like to have a transcript of the conversation. This is useful for fans of podcasts, and for journalism. The best transcripts are done by humans, but I can get very cheap, very fast transcripts that are 90-95% accurate done by AI. (Depends on quality of recording and accents.) Temi will give me a transcript for 10 cents per minute of audio ($6/hr), delivered in about an hour turn-around. The Word doc or PDF output will have time stamps on it, making it easy to go back to find the actual audio for correction if needed. The Temi transcript is accurate enough to find key passages; with one listen-through I can quickly clean it up for public consumption. — KK

Most of my discretionary media time is spent watching YouTube. I derive immense pleasure in finding out how things work and how to make and repair things. Over several years of watching all kinds of video, lousy and great, I’ve collected a bunch of channels for dependable high-quality content. In a long post on our blog Cool Tools, I review the top 30 YouTube informational channels that I subscribe to. (#1 on my list is Cody’s Lab.) — KK

I’ve been slowly weaning myself off Facebook. I still type it into my browser on autopilot, but now instead of getting lost in the bottomless feed, this chrome extension replaces it with a random quote. The quotes are repetitive, but you can add your own. Even so, I’m sure this helps my mental health in some way. — CD

Hands-down my favorite purchase this year was this $19 butter crock. It feels like a luxury to always have soft butter available. It works better in cooler climates. I keep mine on the kitchen island away from the stove area and add an ice cube to the water every few days. — CD

I’m always looking for ways to reduce the hassle of going through airport security. A couple of months ago I bought this $10 belt with a plastic buckle. It won’t trigger the metal detector, which means I can keep it on. — MF

I use Chrome, and when I want to read an article, I click the Reader View extension icon in my tool bar. It makes the text larger and gets rid of ads and clutter. (Safari has this feature built-in.) It also tells you how long it will take to read the article. — MF

Much of our digital technology is built simply to prevent the harm created by a very few bad actors, mostly kids making mischief. The Reply All podcast episode “The Snapchat Thief” is a marvelous, head-scratching, world-opening, deep dive into this invisible alien hacker underworld that rewards every second of your listening. Highly technical and emotionally satisfying. — KK

We’ve previously recommended Fakespot, a website that grades Amazon products for their shill, fake review, or fraud factors. These grades are not foolproof, but are extremely useful. What’s new is their Fakespot extension for the Chrome browser, which overlays your Amazon pages with their grades for all the related and recommended products shown on a page. This means you don’t have to leave the Amazon page to see the grades, and it also means you will see product grades before you click on them. It’s behavior changing. — KK

I always need a refresher course when it comes time to wrapping gifts, and there are a lot of instructional videos on Youtube, but most are too complicated for me. This basic gift wrapping video is helpful and I learned that all this time I was forgetting to fold over the edges before I taped them down. Also helpful is this video on how to tie a bow perfectly. I start at minute 1:11 and watch at 1.5x speed to get through it. — CD

My daughter was nauseated during a long car drive, and fortunately my sister had a couple of Bonine motion sickness tablets in her purse. In a matter of minutes, the nausea dissipated, and my daughter felt fine for the remainder of the 10 hour drive. It’s highly rated on Amazon. — MF

You are sitting on the toilet but there is no place to park your phone safely. This is an everywhere in the world problem, with a first world solution: this hefty, heavy solid metal, toilet roll shelf. The shelf is flat, dry, stable. The roll holder underneath is easy to use. Can also store book, wet wipes, etc. As a courtesy I replaced our guest bathroom roll holder with this, and I like it so much I may do the rest of the bathrooms. — KK

I recently upgraded my Macbook to Mojave and I’m loving the new Dark Mode. Then I discovered Dark Reader, the Chrome extension that makes every website dark and now everything is easy on the eyes. You can toggle the extension on and off so you don’t have to commit to one mode. I find that it’s hard for me to free write on a dark screen, so I keep my Gmail and Evernote in light mode. — CD

Air travel with a head cold leads to excruciating ear pain when the plane descends, followed by three days of plugged ears. Neither the Frenzel maneuver or the Valsalva maneuver work for me. Last week I had to fly to Switzerland with a cold. I found out about this $60 gadget called Eustachi, and I brought it with me on the plane. It worked! It delivers little bursts of pressurized air through your nostril, and when you swallow, your ear will “pop.” This is a life changer. — MF

I spent a weekend assembling some cool kits that would make fun gifts for nerdy people like me. Mostly laser-cut parts with lots of gears or moving parts. My recommendations of the best kits are here. But the neatest cool and unusual kit is this small version of the 24-footed Strandbeest, which walks powered by a blast of air. At only $15, it’s a bargain. — KK

This Personal Values Assessment takes only 5 minutes to complete and it peers right into your soul. I felt naked after reading the report of what matters to me the most and essentially, what drives me. I don’t know much about where it originates from but it seems to be used as a tool for leadership and career training. Personally, I think it’s far too personal to share with just anyone. With that said, I did ask my closest friends to take the test and send me their results. It helped me understand them so much better. — CD