Fluid & Particles

Chrome Experiments show off what a modern web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox can do.  This Experiment allows you to drag-and-hold the mouse pointer to create a depiction of particles moving through a fluid.  There are hundreds more experiments available and should keep you amused for several hours.

https://www.chromeexperiments.com/experiment/fluid-and-particles-in-webgl

Google Doc Image to Text

If you've ever received a scanned document that you needed to re-type, Google Docs may save you some time.  With your image uploaded to Google Drive, right click on the file and select "Open with" then "Google Docs".  Google Docs will do its best to convert the image to the written word. Depending on the quality of the image, the results can be quite good, although rarely 100% accurate, as shown below, where an apostrophe was missed. But it's usually better than starting from scratch.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NZ40YuMvboIm95BZKoJD_IojWZCLT79-BaEKVHkcTaQ/edit?usp=sharing

Mac Text to Speech

Highlight a bunch of text, right-click on it and select the last option, "Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track".  Your Mac will transform the text to speech using one of dozens of voice options.  I'm thinking this might be a good way to proofread blog posts.  Or maybe that should be "prooflistened"?

Magic Mouse Swipe

I've had my Macbook Air for about three years and one of my few complaints was that it didn't have a quick way to get to the desktop (Windows key+D).  Then, by accident, I found that I can swipe left with two fingers on the Magic Mouse and bam!, desktop.  Even easier.

https://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

Magic Mouse on Windows

I love my Apple Magic Mouse, so when I started looking for a wireless mouse for my new Windows (work) laptop, I started looking for something that might be just as good.  Then I found the Magic Mouse Utilities and poof, my Magic Mouse works on Windows.  And it's free (I love free).  Joygasm!

http://www.trackpadmagic.com/magic-mouse/home

Amazon Echo and IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a web service that listens for an event then triggers a task.  In the case of the Amazon Echo (this year's coolest tech) I've added two "recipes", one to send an email when I ask the Echo (aka Alexa) what's on my to-do list and another for my shopping list.

http://blog.ifttt.com/post/117895146583/introducing-the-amazon-alexa-channel

Sparklines

Sparklines, essentially little one-cell charts, is a cute new feature in Microsoft Excel 2010 and above. They are useful for visualizing a few cells of data and quickly spotting trends.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-sparklines-to-show-data-trends-1474e169-008c-4783-926b-5c60e620f5ca

URL Shortener

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are sometimes so long they look scary.  Google, and others, have services that take to that unwieldy mess and generate a tiny URL in its place, much nicer to share in text messages or Twitter tweets.

http://goo.gl/

Gmail Password Alert

My Gmail password is so critical to me that I use two-factor authentication and a unique password to prevent my account from being compromised.  In addition, I just installed this Google Chrome extension that will alert me if I'm being tricked, or have been tricked, into entering my password on any non-Google web site.  Sort of like a password guardian angel.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/password-alert/noondiphcddnnabmjcihcjfbhfklnnep

Find That Exact Color

One of the handy Google Chrome web browser extensions I use is ColorPick Eyedropper.  Find the exact RGB (Red-Green-Blue) numbers for a color by simply hovering the mouse pointer over the right spot.  It's useful if you're looking to make a presentation a little more compelling by using a customer's exact color scheme.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/colorpick-eyedropper/ohcpnigalekghcmgcdcenkpelffpdolg