That's right, hang up the damn phone! You're hurtling in 2 tons of machine down the street, weaving in and out of your lane, slowing down, speeding up, cutting people off. And you, backing out of your driveway, cutting me off (and fortunately not running over a child): I'm sorry, but I just don't get what is so damned important than you have to be yakking on the phone right after you got into your car. Couldn't you make the call, then drive? Oh, you weren't talking, you were texting? What are you, stupid? You're a hazard. A menace!

Been a long day? Want to veg out on the couch for a couple of hours before bedtime with the TV? You turn on the tube and what happens? You find nothing but moronic programming, repeats of cop/detective/mystery shows, and movies you've seen twice already. You could shut the damn thing off and read the latest Diana Gabaldon novel. That would keep you busy for a while. Or you could go to your computer and be amazed and enlighted watching a video from TED Talks.

Amazon's new PayPhrase technology promises to speed up the buying process on Amazon. But it isn't only for Amazon. It also works for Amazon partner sites DKNY, Jockey, Patagonia, Buy.com, and J&R Electronics. I already had One-Click buying enabled on Amazon, and using PayPhrase on Amazon isn't much different. Instead of buying with the One-Click button, you buy with the PayPhrase button, and then enter a PIN to go with the PayPhrase.

You never go far without access to your Twitter stream. Facebook is like a second religion to you. Your blog is essentially your baby. Whether you're online for business building, furthering your career, or personal endeavors, social media is a core activity in your daily life. For many it's even more entwined with their days than showering or brushing their teeth. So... what happens to your online life when you die?

What's an actress to do when the part of Laurie in Oklahoma! or the chance to disrobe while weightless in space have gone to a younger woman? If you are Florence Henderson or Jane Fonda, the answer is to keep shining with as bright a light as ever.

I hate to start a post with hate. Sometimes it's got to be done because it's the background we work against, but here's some hope beyond the hate. Many women who work on open source software have been the target of hateful threatening emails and comments by a guy calling himself MikeeUSA over the past five years. Last week his software code was thrown off a large open source code archive, Sourceforge. He cried censorship and said his creative work had been destroyed.

E-books, man. They're infiltrating schools. Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Conn., got rid of the 20,000 books in its school library, trading up to flatscreens, Kindles and computers only. And now that Google has paired with On Demand Books (the company that invented a book vending machine), schools could potentially serve up printed e-books in the public domain like cotton candy.

One of the wisdoms in web application development is "Release early and often." Google and Twitter have both released software "tests" to select hundreds of thousands of users, both with the idea that there will be problems, but let people try them out, and then improve the software iteratively, based upon real-life user experience. This is my first blush impression of these previews I've been privileged to explore this week. Get on my Wave!

The Impossible Project - formed to "re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras" - may have accomplished just that.

You've seen the talk shows and heard the playgroup buzz: What the heck are we doing about the influence of social media, cell phones, games and other technology on our little angels?

It's pretty safe to say I spend 12 hours or so a day on my Mac — or a Mac. So I thought I'd document, if not the what of the check I'm doing, then the how. Here they are. I tried to break them down by category, because nobody can really use a laundry list of 20 or 50 or 100 things presented in a blog post, just laid out there as if it were helpful. Excuse me for a side rant:

I have been a collector my entire life. I think I come by it naturally since my mother's side of the family tends to "collect" things in the form of never throwing anything away on the off chance it might be valuable or hold the key to the family's history. From reality television, I now know they are hoarders, not collectors. Me? I tend to deny my problem because what I mostly collect are links. That is, when I read an article online that I think may come in handy some day, I save the link. I have a folder on my computer's desktop called mhl, (short for Mighty Helpful Links). Within that folder are sub-folders for specific categories for things like SEO, vlogging, analytics, etc. Oh, yes. Make no mistake: I hoard links. Today, though, that may work in your favor--especially if you're at all interested in learning the basics of HTML or CSS or have a WordPress blog you'd like to tweak. That's right, folks, I'm sharing some of my links to tutorials.