You can’t have too many backups. You need at least one off-site online backup of your work. I previously recommended Crashplan but they have fallen behind in user interface, speed, and price. I am now a happy user of Backblaze, which has an unlimited plan for $60 a year. I back up 5 Terabytes (!!) of photos and videos (from more than one disk), and Backblaze was quick uploading and is super easy to manage. — KK

Sugru is a moldable rubber material you can use to repair things. When you open a pouch, it has the consistency of Silly Putty. You have about 5-10 minutes to work with it, then it begins to cure. After 24 hours it’s like hard rubber. It sticks to almost anything, including plastic and glass. I’ve used Sugru over the years to fix and modify dozens of things, from worn cables to a broken icemaker. An 8-pack is currently on sale for $12. — MF

I bought this gooseneck phone holder (Lamicall, $27) on Amazon not knowing what I would use it for exactly, but in what I can only call a “spark of genius,” I attached it to my stationary rower so I can watch streamable TV while I row. It has a rubber clamp stand that opens up 2.75 inches, so I can secure it to most furniture in my house. I am working out more and craning my neck less. — CD

Electric bikes are improving so fast that they are becoming an option for most people. But the field is young, flooded with startups, and gear changes so fast, keeping up with the best one is hard work. I recommend newbies go to the “Affordable ebike” playlist of the YouTube channel of EBR (Electric Bike Review), and start at the top (most recent) for in-depth, impartial, video reviews of ebikes that cost between $1,000 to $1,500. — KK

For the past decade David Byrne, the legendary rock musician, has operated his own “radio station,” which is really the curated playlist of his own musical explorations. Every month on his website David Byrne Radio, Byrne streams another 100-minute loop of new, old, classic, weird, wonderful, surprising, themed music he’s discovered and loves. He writes a short introduction, and supplies the full playlist. I’ve discovered (and bought) a lot of great music I first heard here. (In Nov 2018 he streamed a notable playlist of eternal protest songs.) — KK

I bought some Last Week Tonight “inside joke” stamps to help support the USPS — and because I am a fan of the show — and while I was on PhotoStamps.com I couldn’t help myself and ordered some custom photo stamps of my dog and cat. I was so happy when I got them, you can check them out here. Unfortunately, USPS is ending the customized postage program and the last chance you’ll have to purchase PhotoStamps is Wednesday, June 10. — CD

Writing instructor David Perell wrote about the 50 ideas that changed his life. Here’s one: “Competition is for Losers: Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved. If you’re at a non-profit, fix unpopular problems. Life is easier when you don’t compete. (Hint: don’t start another bottled water company).” — MF

Believe it or not, Flickr is still around, and I hope it stays because it’s a great place to store and share images. One of my favorite Flickr folks is designer James Vaughan, who has amassed a gallery of over 20,000 images from decades past, including advertising illustrations, paperback book covers, movie posters, LP covers, and more. I frequently get lost here. — MF

To have a research station on another planet, we have to figure out how to recreate a tiny biosphere for humans. That’s what the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona was trying to do in 1991. I was so interested in this experiement that I spent time locked inside their test module. But this $150 million structure was built by a theater group instead of scientists, and therein lies the drama worthy of a film. Skip the comedy (Biodome, 1996) and watch Spaceship Earth (2020), a new sympathetic documentary on this remarkable project. What they learned, of life support and human dynamics, should be better known. (Imagine being really locked down for 2 years.) Streams on Hulu, Amazon. — KK

My bookmarks are getting out of hand, so I knew I had to devote some time to finding a manageable solution. This is a great list of “Every bookmark manager ever made” (last updated November 2019). Thanks to that list, I went with the app that I found most visually-appealing, called Raindrop.io ($28 yearly), which lets me do a full-text search of every webpage I’ve ever saved. — CD

I frequently need to convert a photo or scan into vector art. I typically use Adobe Illustrator’s Trace function, but it’s finicky. Illustrator is also very expensive. Recently I discovered this $19 app called Super Vectorizer 2 that does just one thing – converts raster images into vector images. I’m impressed with the results. Here’s a before and after of a sketch I drew, and here’s a before and after of a photo I found in the JumpStory image library (which I recommended a couple of weeks ago). — MF

The lifehacking guru Tim Ferriss compiled 17 questions he frequently asks himself, which I find useful to review myself every now and then. They are meant to help ensure that I spend my time on the right things. You can download them as a “17 Questions That Changed My Life” PDF. — KK

I’ve developed this small habit of editing my internal monologue when I catch myself saying something negative or absolute. If the thought “This sucks — it’s never any fun,” pops into my head, I immediately correct myself with “This sometimes sucks. It might be fun.” If I don’t autocorrect myself I stay stuck in a negative mood, but when I do, I let go of the negative outcome and just roll with whatever. I first came across this trick here: This Small Change in Your Language Can Help Downplay Negativity. — CD

Since the beginning of time the keyboard shortcut to paste something has been Command/Ctrl + V. Not as well known — but should be, for the raging headaches it can cure — is that if you add a third key — the Shift — what you paste will be plain text wiped clean of any formatting it might carry from its source. I call it a clean paste. — KK

My wife ordered a 24-pack of these cheap Bic mechanical pencils. I tried one out and I actually like it a lot. The lead diameter is 0.9 mm and it has a number 2 lead inside. It also contains one extra lead in the barrel. A 24-pack sells for about $.25 a pencil. They are supposed to be disposable, but why not buy a bunch of 9mm lead for cheap and keep using the pencil? You can even get colored leads! — MF

I love my Mini Magic Wireless Thermal Printer. I don’t have a regular printer in my home office, and don’t really need one, but I’ve been using this tiny, handy machine to print out lists, and pictures of my pets, and poems that I want to save. I am growing a collection of whimsical receipts! Because there is no ink required and because it came with six rolls, I constantly feel inspired to print something. I also ordered this sticky thermal paper (3 rolls, $10) on Amazon, so I can draw and print out my own stickers. — CD

For the past year I have really been enjoying Sci-Fi Daily on Instagram which floats out one beautiful piece of science fiction artwork each day. Some of the images contain an entire movie within them. — KK

This simplistically designed website lets you quickly swipe through cards with kind suggestions meant to uplift your spirits when needed. It works well on both your phone and desktop (on your desktop you press spacebar instead of swiping). — CD

This Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking is a set of questions to ask yourself when you encounter new (or revisit old) ideas and information. It’s useful for that, but I’m using it to help develop characters and scenes for creative writing. — MF

High uncertainty ahead, for sure. There is no consensus on what will happen in the next 9 months. Every scientist, economist, sociologist, and futurist disagree on what might happen, but we still need to make plans as individuals and organizations. A very helpful tool in a reign of high uncertainty is to use scenario planning. The best set of near-term scenarios I’ve seen is this one, Scenarios for the Covid-19 Future, available as 45 slides, which include instructions on how to use scenarios. You can’t predict what will happen, but you can rehearse for four different possibilities. — KK