I gave my wife a camera for Christmas. It has an auto-setting, but she wanted to learn how to operate it manually. We were initially puzzled by terms like ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Then I stumbled upon a PDF guide from Humburger Fotospots that demystifies these concepts with simple icons and explanations. I printed it out and stored it in the camera case. — MF

I spend too many hours a day watching YouTubes. Many of the channels I subscribe to produce content as good as or better than anything produced by PBS, cable TV, and your average documentary. For free. For a fantastic example of world class content on YouTube watch this Veritasium episode on Blue Lasers. Turns out blue lasers were “impossible” to create, but after decades of an insane amount of work by one crazy guy in Japan, they are now possible and all the cheap screens we have in our lives now are due to him. Veritasium tells this amazing human story, with heaps of illuminating technical detail on why blue lasers were nearly impossible and how they work, all in a brilliant 33 minutes. — KK

There have been many many attempts to visualize music over the centuries, but the animations of music done by Stephen Malinowski are the ones that sing to me. Despite the name of Music Animation Machine, this is not AI. This is obsessive craftsmanship of the highest order. As a sample start with this piece of music, the original 1924 recording of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. — KK

The purpose of this website is to increase your mental focus by looking at the dot for 1 minute while breathing. It’s inspired by Dr. Andrew Huberman’s claim that “staring at something for a short time has been proven to improve and boost mental focus on subsequent tasks.” I feel like it “pumps” me up to focus, so I guess it works for me. Along with this recommendation, I also want to share a reminder to practice good eye hygiene when working at your desk. I frequently look out the window, widen my gaze, unfocus my eyes, and close them for short periods of time. Here’s more info on digital eye strain. — CD 

The Library Extension has changed how I find and borrow ebooks. While browsing Amazon or Goodreads, this browser add-on indicates whether a book is available at my local library. With a simple click on the "borrow" button, the book is sent directly to my Kindle. It requires only a library account to use. (Screenshot) — MF

Classical antiquity is not as far away from us as it might first appear. I’m in love with a newish book about the first millennia called, “In the Shadow of the Sword,”  Inside this elegantly written, sweeping history about the birth of Islam, is hidden a more profound book about the birth of religions in general. Just as the bishops created Christianity from the slim, scarce, and obscure oral teachings of a holy man, so Islam was created from the slim, obscure oral traditions of another holy man. This is one of the densest books I’ve ever read, with more insights per page than I could count. The two greatest forces shaping our lives today are technology and orthodox, dogmatic religion, and this is the biography of the second. — KK

The Impresa coffee machine descaler solution has transformed my coffee machines — a 15-year-old Rancilio Silvia and a 2-year-old Nespresso Inissia — by eliminating built-up residue and oils. I was shocked by the amount of discolored gunk that was flushed out by using this cleaner. It's a game-changer for maintaining coffee quality. — MF

“How to choose the streaming services that are right for you” is an incredibly helpful breakdown of the major streaming services and their costs. The guide suggests keeping a TV diary for a week to write down what you watch as you watch it to reveal where you direct most of your attention as a viewer. I’ve been slowly getting kicked off of shared streaming services and was surprised to find that I don’t miss Netflix at all. The shows I most enjoy are on Max and Hulu. — CD 

I have been researching the state of space technology, and the current ambitions of various countries and companies for space exploration and settlement. By far the best source for official plans, programs in progress, and technological breakthroughs has been a stellar YouTube channel called The Space Race. It’s fun, visual, clear, insightful, succinct, and highly informative. Its back list of hundreds of videos have answered all my “future of space” questions. — KK

Disk Prices is a bare-bones, text-only website lists the prices of hard drives, solid-state drives, and USB drives available on Amazon. It’s a superior way to search for storage compared to searching directly on Amazon. — MF

Oldavista is a search engine that retrieves results from the “internet of yesterday,” sourcing from archived personal web pages such as GeoCities, AOL Hometown, Angelfire, and others. It’s modeled after the now-defunct AltaVista and scraped from the Internet Archive. I love the nostalgia exploration! — CD

Diversion safes look like everyday items, ranging from clocks to hairbrushes. They come with hidden compartments that are perfect for stashing money, USB drives, and other small valuables. The variety available on Amazon means there's a style to blend into any room seamlessly. Here’s one built into a soap dispenser. — MF

Someone on Reddit asked, “What industry ‘secret’ do you know that most people don’t?” and I wish I had time to read through all the thousands of comments. Many of the revealed secrets are what you might expect, like disinformation, uncleanliness, and high markups, but some are truly frightening! Below is a sample of the top-voted secrets: 

• “Are we still connected?” most times will get an immediate response from online chat agents.

• I'm an academic researcher and I can speak for a huge number in my field when I say: If you want access to our studies and they're behind a paywall, you can email us and we will send you the study.

• Trained artist here. Most oil paints are made with very toxic substances, as are most paint thinners and mediums. Every single one of my teachers was either very sick (Cancer, Ménière's disease) or a bit crazy (eating chalk, licking pallettes). All incredible artists I was privileged to learn from. One lesson I learned very well: I wear gloves and sometimes a mask when I paint.

• Worked in online community management and social media for years - Admins CAN read all of your PMs. Private only means private from the masses, not from administration, we had to be able to read them to check reports of abuse, grooming, illegal activity etc. 

• I make wildlife films for big streamers and broadcasters. The sound is all either library or foley.

  The last one has ruined nature documentaries for me. — CD

If someone is calling you to alert you to fraud, nine out of ten times they are themselves the fraudster. These days fraud-alert fraudsters are sophisticated, and they may know information about you like your SSN, address, etc., and are playing a long game not asking for money at first. Warning signs: they prohibit you from talking to anyone else, and you can’t hang up, or call back. This very long account, How I Got Scammed Out of $50,000, by a very savvy financial advice columnist who got scammed by so-called fraud investigators has all the elements of the common tricks. It matches exactly with close friends who have been scammed. Yes, it can happen to you. Learn from others’ mistakes. — KK

I’ve recently enjoyed some good streaming movies that were not blockbusters, and maybe not even Great. I thought they were entertaining, maybe just good, yet still recommendable, if below the radar.

Society of the Snow. Everyone’s heard of the sports team whose plane crashed in the Andes and the boys had to survive for 2 months. It was a great book (Alive!), and later an okay movie, but this 2023 movie, filmed in Spanish by a Spanish crew, is stunning, moving, accurate (parts filmed in original crash site) and as close to being there as anyone else will get. This one is memorable.

The Holdovers. A sweet drama about a jaded prep-school teacher and bratty, troubled students who have to spend the Christmas holidays together at school and they all get life lessons. Despite the well-worn premise, there are almost no cliches, and the turns are unexpected, in part because the story is semi-autobiographical. Perfect for a Christmas movie list.

Jules. A comedy about an elderly man living by himself (played by Ben Kingsley) who makes friends with an alien who crashes his space ship in his back yard. The alien is non-verbal and needs dead cats to fuel his rocket. It’s a rom-com with an alien. — KK

It’s hard to take breaks even though I work from home. I appreciated reading these "5 Simple Guidelines For Better Breaks" and the reminder that 1. Something beats nothing. 2. Moving beats stationary. 3. Social beats solo. 4. Outside beats inside. and 5. Fully detached beats semi-detached. I need to remember to stop multitasking during breaks. — CD 

I use the Libby smart phone app to read Kindle versions of books and listen to audio books. You just need a library card from your local library to activate your free account. If you have trouble finding a particular book, use the deep search function listed under “Filters” in the app. Here’s a video that explains it. (Note the not all libraries offer deep search.) — MF

My wife pre-loads these disposable tea bags with her favorite loose leaf tea before we travel. They have a drawstring closure, like a laundry bag, to seal the tea inside. They are robust enough for multiple uses, too. — MF

I find business boring. But I am totally engrossed by the long-form stories on the podcast Acquired. They present a book-deep report on a current world-class company, spending several hours on the story. The histories are never boring, and they are invariably unconventional and improbable. The Acquired guys, two VCs, accompany this rich history with insightful and accessible financial analysis along the way. Each episode is a master class in business. Some of the outfits they have covered include Nintendo, Nike, Nvidia, and the NFL. Their most recent episode (2 hours) on Nova Nordisk, the pharma originators of insulin therapy and now weight-loss drugs like Ozempic was phenomenal and eye-opening. (And that is just the companies beginning with N!) — KK

Untranslatable is an online dictionary of idioms and expressions contributed by native speakers all over the world. All entries are verified and insights are offered into the usage, context or significance. It’s fascinating to explore the entries and different cultural nuances. — CD