2006 March 29

Finding the help you’re looking for online can be a challenge. Spammers pollute the search results and sometimes the top results don’t provide enough information or not exactly the answer for your particular situation. Enter HelpShare, an Question and Answer service connecting people with questions to qualified individuals capable of providing reliable answers for a small fee. You enter your question and the amount you’re willing to spend and someone will provide an answer fairly quickly. You can see the co-branded version of HelpShare in action on Lockergnome. Here Chris talks with T.A McCann and Adam Loving about HelpShare and how the service works.

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If you’re in Las Vegas for CTIA Wireless April 4-7, be sure to join Jake Ludington of The Chris Pirillo Show in the Waggener Edstrom Blogger Lounge in the swanky Wynn hotel.

Read more on Get the 411 on Marketsync Jobster and CTIA…

Quote – Get stock information
HZQUOTE+symb.symb@hz.com
Stock – Get detailed stock information
HZSTOCK+symb.symb@hz.com
HZJOKE@hz.com – Get a joke
Weather – Get weather
HZWEATHER+zip@hz.com
TAFMETAR – Get TAF and METAR info
HZTAFMETAR+ident@hz.com
Nextflight – Next flight between airports
HZNEXTFLIGHT+airport.airport@hz.com
FlightInfo – Get current flight status info
HZFLIGHTINFO+airline.flightnum@hz.com
Address – Lookup address from phone number
HZADDRESS@hz.com – Phone number in subject
Define – Get a definition
HZDEFINE@hz.com – word in subject
Birthday – Get famous birthdays for today
HZBIRTHDAYS@hz.com
Areacode – Get info about areacode
HZAREACODE@hz.com – Put areacode in subject
KnockKnock – Get a knock knock joke.
HZKNOCKKNOCK@hz.com
Gasprices – Get gas prices for zipcode
HZGASPRICES+zipcode@hz.com
Lottery – Get lottery information
HZLOTTERY+state@hz.com
Exchangerates – Get current exchange rates
HZEXCHANGERATES@hz.com
Walmart – Get Walmart locations near zipcode
HZWALMART@hz.com – put zipcode in subject
Airport – Get airport technical information
HZAIRPORT+ident@hz.com
Tailnumber – Get aircraft information
HZTAILNUMBER@hz.com – put tailnumber in subject
Aviation Weather – Get aviation weather informaton
HZAVIATIONWEATHER+ident@hz.com
Starbucks – Get Starbucks locations near zipcode
HZSTARBUCKS@hz.com – put zipcode in subject
Letterman – Who is on Letterman and his TopTen list
HZLETTERMAN@hz.com
Directions – Get driving directions
HZDIRECTIONS@hz.com – put start and end in subject
Movies – Get local movie theatre information
HZMOVIES+zipcode@hz.com
EBay – Get Ebay auction information
HZEBAY+auctionnumber@hz.com
Earthquakes – Get earthquake information
HZEARTHQUAKES+world@hz.com – world wide earthquakes
Whois – Get Whois info
HZWHOIS@hz.com – domain in subject
Local – Get Google Local results
HZLOCAL+keyword+zip@hz.com
News – Get Google News stories
HZNEWS+Category@hz.com
Horoscope – Get todays horoscope
HZHOROSCOPE+sign@hz.com

Read more on Email 2.0…

According to the Microsoft Password checker, “A strong password should appear to be a random string of characters to an attacker. It should be 14 characters or longer, (eight characters or longer at a minimum). It should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.” p00p is Weak, PassamaquoddY is Medium, H0m3rJSimps0n is Strong, and iForg0tmyPa55w0rd is Best. That's the problem with passwords – the longer they are, the more likely you are to forget 'em when you need 'em.

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We're emotional geeks. When something doesn't work right, we complain. Such was the comment in last night's Gada.be update. Björn Friðgeir discovered that we didn't yet support UTF-8 characters. He got pissed (and rightfully so, but in the American definition of “pissed” – not the European sense). Shayne doesn't like getting told that his baby's ugly. Knowing that we'd need I18N support for user accounts (which are coming soon), he woke up at 5:30am and didn't move until http://gada.be/Björn-Friðgeir worked. He's still trying to figure out how to get the address bar to get in line (suggestions welcome), but we should be able to handle international characters in Gada.be queries now. Parlez-Vous Français?

Read more on Thank Björn Friðgeir for i18n in Gada.be…

I knew I loved Lenovo for a reason. If you can watch this video without saying “holy sh*t,” there's something wrong with you. I think I'll be a ThinkPad fan for life.

Read more on This Can't Be Real…

BoardTracker – awesome service, just added to the default set of results in Gada.be. This is a “must-have” search feed for your brand. Consider that BoardTracker is likely surfacing the information you're not finding through the blogosphere. That is to say, it's tracking forums from across the Internet. And yes, those communities are alive and well.

Read more on Search Engine for Forums…

Have you ever lost a backpack before?

Yeah, it's that big. Go ahead, try a search for your favorite keywords – check out the Social section alone. Insane. Looking for a job? Try importing a job search OPML. Looking to buy? Try importing a shopping search OPML. Insane. Rock over, London. Rock on, Chicago. Shayne Sweeney, the breakfast of champions.

Read more on Gada.be – Over 225 Search Providers!…

Hey, wanna save $5 off your next order of Adagio Teas? I can recommend an unlimited amount of friends through my account. Send me know your name and email address and I’ll be able to send you a $5 gift certificate. I just picked up a green sampler (apricot green, gunpowder, kukicha, li zi nutcracker, sencha overture, spiced green), 10oz of genmai cha, a green tea starter set (with citron green, genmai cha pop, hojicha fugue, kukicha, and the ingenuiTEA teapot), and a free guide to tea book (w/ $19 purchase). So, if you’re also a tea drinker – and judging from the responses I received from my last post on green teas, there are a few of you out there – go ahead and drop me a line. FWIW, I’ve discovered that I like the nutty/ricey flavors most of all.

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