Michael L. - ACME Widgets Rep

I've been using Mozy for several years and consider it one of the best online storage providers out there. There are many alternatives in the crowded online storage space, but Mozy is operated by EMC, a world-class leader in commercial storage and networking solutions, which automatically gives it a lot of reliability and credibility over smaller startups.

What I like most about Mozy is its easy-to-use client. You can use it to specify which files or directories on your computer to back up or restore, as well as when you want an automatic backup to occur. I have mine set at 2am every night, so when I wake up every morning I am welcomed by a reassuring message saying all my data has been backed up and is safe.

The only drawback (and I believe this to be true of all online storage solutions) is that the initial backup or restore takes a long time (several hours or days, depending on your connection). But once you cross that hurdle, all subsequent updates only take a few seconds, since it only updates new or changed files.

I used to use an external hard drive for all my storage, but even that crashed on me and I lost years and year of irreplaceable memories / photos. Now I don't trust any physical device and only rely on the cloud. Since I switched to Mozy, my computer has crashed and been wiped clean several times, and each time I have successfully used Mozy to restore all my files. It's been a lifesaver and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about truly safeguarding their data.

Great site for those interested in the art of presenting visual data in a way that is interesting, memorable, and visually appealing. Maintained by David McCandless, an "information designer", this is a site dedicated to the latest and greatest ways to present data. And while it features a steady stream of masterful infographics from all around the internet, my favorite thing about the site is the fascinating bits of random knowledge you can learn from just a few seconds of browsing around.

Musicovery is a really fun and neat music discovery site which stands out because of its innovative interface. The site separates its music into "Mood" music and "Dance" music. To help figure out what type of music you want to hear, it presents a grid with two axes which represent two musical attributes. For "Dance" music, the axes are Dance and Tempo. For "Mood" music, the axes are (Dark -> Positive) and (Calm -> Energetic). You can click anywhere on the axes to get the perfect blend of both attributes. For a good time, try alternating between Dark and Calm to Positive and Energetic.

I really like the eclectic assortment of music this site plays for you. Most other music discovery sites seem to stick to a particular genre, but with Musicovery, you will get George Gershwin right before James Brown, simply because you wanted happy, energetic music. Brilliant! For the purists, there are also controls to filter the music by genre and decade.

Hilarious site featuring a guy who responds to ads on craigslist with no intention other than to infuriate the other party and later post the conversation for public entertainment. Some of his pranks are slightly offensive, but I personally find them ingenious and very creative. Definitely worth checking out whenever you want a quick laugh.

GlobalPost is a fairly new online news website providing very high quality international news for the internet. Started by Phil Balboni, it's mission is to "redefine international news for the digital age... with a decidedly American voice." As traditional news outlets founder and foreign media bureaus close all over the world, GlobalPost runs a lean operation by hiring individual global correspondents in over 50 different countries.

Having followed the site for some time, I've been impressed with their coverage of international events, but more so by the quality of their reporting and writing. I particularly like their video features and opinion pieces. GlobalPost just seems to be heads and shoulders above most other mainstream news sites out there today.

This is the official site of the Yes Men, the two activists (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno), who play pranks on corporate behemoths to help raise awareness of important social issues and social responsibility. You can read all about their high-profile hijinks on the site and they are absolutely hilarious.

My favorite is where Bichlbaum poses as a representative from the National Petroleum Council at Canada's largest oil conference and proposes in his keynote speech to make oil out of the humans who died as a result of their industry in the first place. http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/vivoleum

The site has recently been redesigned and now, in addition to links to their books and movies, includes a frequently updated blog and the new Yes Lab, which helps others perform similar activism-focused pranks on their own. It's good to see them leveraging new media to spread their ideas and increase their influence.

This is a great site to support the Yes Men, learn about the evils of corporate greed, become more active in social issues, or just have a good laugh.

8tracks is a very cool site where anyone can put together their own mix, usually around 30 minutes of music (or roughly 8 tracks). It's a convenient way to find the best crowdsourced music by genre. It's very similar to the old muxtape, but apparently legal, so hopefully it will be around for a little longer.

On the site, everything is organized clearly by genre and user. You can browse or search for a genre, and then list all the mixes in that genre by date, popularity, or random. You can also follow certain individuals if you really like the mixes they've created. I really like the minimalistic interface, which lists the song information, lets you skip tracks, and incorporates a lot of social features like commenting and sharing.

I wouldn't consider myself a very spiritual person, but I do enjoy spending time on this site. Gratefulness.org promotes the ethics of grateful living and uses it to inspire not only personal growth, but positive changes across the world. I have sent many friends to this website when they are feeling overwhelmed or depressed. They have all been surprised by what just a few minutes of reflection can do.

I find the articles in the practices section particularly well written and deeply impacting. It's amazing how reading about and developing an appreciation for something as simple as water can really change your perspective and affect your mood for the rest of the day -- http://www.gratefulness.org/p/index.htm

Can living a more grateful life really change the world? I'm not sure, but I do believe we will all be happier individuals if we learn to better appreciate the things we so easily take for granted in our lives today.

I usually listen to Digitally Imported, but Mugasha is what I stream at work now. Mugasha has put together a very impressive set collection from most of the top DJs (Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, etc.) The interface is great -- the player breaks up the sets into individual tracks so you can see the title and the artist of each song, and also jump around. For each track, it shows how many people have listened to it and how many people liked it. And if you find one you really like, Mugasha makes it really easy to share it with your friends or purchase it on iTunes.

I do have two small complaints about the site. First, the collection is very trance-heavy. There isn't much progressive house yet, so you'll be disappointed if you're looking for your favorite Sasha or Digweed tracks. Second, the music player is embedded into the website, like Pandora, so you have to keep the browser / webpage open for the music to continue streaming. If you forget and start browing around, your song gets cut off. By contrast, Digitally Imported allows you to stream directly to Windows Media Player or Winamp, so you're free to leave the website to do other things.

Aside from these minor issues, the best and most important thing about Mugasha is the music. Two words: Tiesto ClubLife. Enjoy!

I wish this radio station existed outside of the internet so I could step away from my computer once in a while. I've been listening to Digitally Imported for almost ten years now and the quality of its programming keeps getting better and better. The live tracks from Markus Schulz's Global DJ Broadcasts and Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance are simply the best that trance music has to offer today. Because it's a radio station, the music is broadcast live, consistently fresh, and very difficult to find. Digitally Imported also offers a variety of other stations, including trip hop, drum and bass, progressive, and house, but the trance station has always been the most popular.

Also, if you're interested in learning about electronic music, di.fm recently purchased Ishkur's Guide, which is the best primer on the topic I've seen online: http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

I've been using this site to file my tax returns for six years and it keeps getting easier and easier to use Granted my taxes are pretty simple to begin with, but with TaxAct, I am able to reliably file both my federal and state taxes in under 30 minutes for just $18. There are no hidden charges and the interface is super easy to use.

Among the features I really like:
- automatic importing of information from your previous return, which basically fills out 90% of the return for you
- system of automated checks, flags, and alerts to catch any possible errors
- comparison of this year's returns with previous year's returns
- ability to print or save your forms via PDF
- ability to immediately file forms and pay taxes electronically

One thing to watch out for -- TaxAct partners with third parties to offer certain services, such as paying your taxes via credit card. If you choose to use those services, there are usually steep transaction costs which are not disclosed by either TaxAct or the partner. I find this borderline unethical, but believe it to be more the responsibility of the third party.

Overall, I've been very happy with TaxAct and will continue to use them in the future. I've actually seen the interface and features get better every year, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a convenient affordable online service to file their taxes.

This is simply one of the most amazing services I've encountered in the past few months. GeeksToGo offers a free virus removal service through its community of expert tech support volunteers. In the unforunate event that your computer gets hit with a virus, malware, or spyware, you no longer need to mail out your machine, call an outsourced tech support center, or pay someone to fix it. With GeeksToGo, you can post your problem and within a matter of minutes someone from the community will commit to solving your problem. All interactions are online -- the removal specialist will give you access to free utilities and provide very clear step-by-step instructions to remove the virus. You get emailed whenever the tech is ready to tell you the next step and everything is recorded in the forums, where it is viewable and searchable by the general public. How is this free? Apparently, GeeksToGo is a place where aspiring "geeks" go to learn from the best and train to become experts in their field. In return, they are expected to contribute back to the community by providing free tech support to those that seek it. From personal experience, I can unequivocally say that the service is extremely effective and I am inspired by the community that runs it.

One day, I noticed that I had contracted the very nasty Google Redirect virus. Basically what happens is when you do a Google Search and click on a search result, the virus redirects you to a randomly generated page instead of the webpage you were trying to go to. If you click back and try again, it will give you another random page. Eventually, maybe after five or six times, you will get through to the proper page, but the problem persists with any future searches. I researched the problem for about thirty minutes and found a few relevant threads on the GeeksToGo forums. While there were published instructions on how to fix the problem, the forums state that each computer is different and that you should start a new case if you want to utilize their help. I registered in about thirty seconds, posted my problem, and was very surprised to get a response within 15 minutes. The person assigned to help me went by the handle "handhfan" and was extremely helpful, friendly, and responsive. He never took more than five minutes to get back to me whenever I messaged him.

What was most surprising was how competent and patient he was. The virus I had was a fairly new and stubbornly resilient strain. We tried over ten programs to get rid of it and after six hours, were still unable to stomp it out. "handhfan" was surprisingly honest and said he needed some more time to research and consult some other techs in the community. I was worried that I would never hear from him again, but at 7:30am the next morning, I get a message and we're at it again. After two hours of downloading utilities, generating logs, running custom scripts, and cleaning the registry, the virus was finally gone! As a final step, he sends me a bunch of free programs to protect my computer in the future and asks me to send him the quarantined files so they can "analyze" the new strain. The place is run like the freaking online CDC. Having successfully used the service over the course of two days, I can't rave enough about them to anybody who needs friendly free tech support.

Where dreams become heart attacks. It takes no more than a few minutes on this site to make you wish you didn't eat that cheeseburger earlier today. This is a great community-driven photo blog that chronicles the most disgusting foods that people love to eat. It serves as a critique against the reckless over-consumption that has fueled the current obesity epidemic. The fat gluttony guy in the movie Seven comes to mind. As does Guy Fieri and his diners, drive-ins, and dives... yuck!

Seth MacFarlane's twisted comedy hits the internet! - Nobody can deny the recent success of Seth MacFarlane and the mainstream appeal of his edgy and offbeat humor. Despite two separate cancellations, The Family Guy developed a strong following on its way to becoming a $1B franchise, solidifying Seth's place among television's creative elite. Recently, Seth signed a $100M deal with Fox for The Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, making him the highest paid writer / producer in the history of television.

Seth's new website, which showcases his latest project -- The Cavalcade of Comedy -- is a great introduction to his comedic genius. It consists of minute-long internet shorts made in partnership with Burger King (the official sponsor) and YouTube (for distribution). The videos are crass and brilliant and, after being disappointed by www.FunnyOrDie.com, I can appreciate how challenging it is to create something consistently entertaining for an online audience. I can't wait until all the videos are released, but my current favorite is the $25K Pyramid episode. Take a look and tell me what you think!

Currently the best iPhone application available - Shazam is the application I've always dreamed of building, but never thought possible. Just hold your iPhone up to any streaming music and it will instantly tell you the title and the artist of the song that is playing. It works whether you're in your car or in a club, and the results are amazingly accurate. I'm not sure how they do it, but I think it has something to do with the beat/bass patterns, because it seems to work even when the music is not very clear or when there's a lot of ambient noise.

Shazam is truly a technological breakthrough. I've never seen anything this accurate before. Eventually, I'd like an application that can identify any song you for which you can recite the lyrics or hum the tune, but this is definitely good enough for the times I hear a song I like at a bar. And as an added bonus, after Shazam identifies your song, you can turn your phone on its side and it will start playing the music video on youtube!

So good, it's banned from all major online poker sites - When Poker Edge first came out, everybody thought it was too good to be true. Was it really possible to know exactly what type of poker player your opponent was, despite the fact that you had never played against him before? Well, it turned out to be real enough to prompt most of the online card rooms to enact countermeasures against it.

Poker Edge is a software program that runs in the background while you are playing online poker, providing you real stats on basically every player at every table. Not only can you scope out the strength of a table before you choose to sit down, you can use a player's stats in real-time to outplay him. Poker Edge designates players as "fish" or "sharks", complete with accompanying icons. Once you find a group of fish that you like, you can essentially "stalk" them and chase them down.

The secret behind Poker Edge is a massive database of over 600,000 players and all the hands they have ever played online. Unlike other poker tracking software, Poker Edge collects data on your opponents even while you're not using it. It is constantly aggregating stats in all the card rooms, so you get a true player profile based on the player's entire lifetime, not just the time he's spent at your table.

Having this data has proven to be such an advantage, that Poker Edge is now listed as "black hat" software and is consequently banned from all the major poker sites. Websites like Poker Stars will literally scan your computer and hard drive to determine whether you are using Poker Edge. In fact, within minutes, you will receive a notification telling you to stop using the software or risk losing your account. This is a true testament to the genius of Poker Edge!

Watch people win and lose hundreds of thousands of dollars every day - This is a fascinating blog that follows all the high stakes online poker action at every hour of the day. Just scan a few of the stories and your eyes will be opened to what goes on at the online card rooms and how truly volatile the life of a professional gambler is. Literally millions of dollars are won and lost online in the middle of the night while the rest of the world sleeps.

If you follow poker, you will recognize a lot of the names in the headlines: Phil Ivey, Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, John Juanda, and Dave Benyamine to name a few. But the really interesting stories are those involving the "anonymous" players, who are known only by their online usernames. Nobody knows who they are, but they routinely play against the pros. And once in a while you'll read some incredible story of some no-name player getting DESTROYED, basically losing upwards of $800K in three hours against a pro before calling it quits and going to bed.

I wonder who these people are that have the time and the actual bankroll to play at these levels. Are they aspiring professional gamblers or just some rich hedge fund managers looking for some late night fun to cure their insomnia?

Calling all Flight of the Conchords fans... - This is the very first and arguably most comprehensive website dedicated to the Flight of the Conchords. If you don't know who they are yet, it's not too late!

Just watch some of the videos here: http://whatthefolk.net/vision.htm and you'll be hooked.

Whatthefolk keeps an up to date journal of all the latest FoTC news and has links to anything and everything FoTC-related: profiles, videos, episode guides, tour dates, lyrics, etc. The forum community is also quite strong and they're fun to chat with.

Spend just a few minutes on this site and you'll be *down* with the Rhymenoscerus and the Hiphopapotamus before you can even say the words "I put a wig on you!"

Mesmerizing artwork based on visualization of human systems - Aaron Koblin, most well known for his "Flight Patterns" piece, has built up a very impressive body of work on his website. This site showcases many of his data visualization masterpieces, constructed from complex software programs and very large data sets.

Among my favorites are Ten Thousand Cents, in which ten thousand people were asked to draw a sliver of a one hundred dollar bill. The finished product shows the power of independent collaboration and also includes graffiti from frustrated contributors!

http://www.tenthousandcents.com

I also like The Sheep Market, which Aaron created by paying 10,000 people 2 cents through Mechanical Turk to draw a sheep facing to the left. Each sheep drawing was recorded and you can watch how they were all individually constructed:

http://www.thesheepmarket.com

Why are there no other great sports sites? - why is espn so dominant in the sports space? Every guy i know watches sportscenter and refreshes this website every five minutes at work. But is there not another website for sports info? And don't say cbs...