Get Your Free OBAMA '08 Sticker

Go to this MoveOn.org page and they'll ship you a free Obama '08 sticker.

Website: Picnik

The best online photo editing website I have ever seen. The only flaw I can see with its incredibly simple interface is the way it sometimes overlaps the Firefox toolbar. Not sure if it does in on IE, but it's easy to back out of it by just clicking the logout button.

If you're looking for a simple way to edit digital photos, this is simply one of the very best free tools I've ever seen.

[Picnik]

One of Those Music List Thingys

I'm not a fan of the end-of-year lists that seem to bombard us every Christmas season. I'm still miffed about that "Best 100 Movies of the Century" list put out back in 1999.

But I'm also a fan of free stuff. Hence my conundrum.

Here is a list of The Top 100 Tracks of 2006 (Pitchfork). Even if I don't agree with what's on their list, there is no better way to discover new music and even download a few freebies!

Website: OpenDNS

We have been having some very perplexing problems with our broadband internet connection lately. The pages would load, but images seemed to be stuck or lagging. It wasn't a severe delay, just long enough to make you cringe. I called Comcast (my ISP) twice! Each time they told me all I could do was re-cycle the cable modem by restarting it. That would sometimes work (but usually not). I insisted it was something else, that maybe the modem itself was on the fritz. I asked them to check my settings, but they basically told me I was crazy and that my connection was fine.

I even resorted to buying a new NIC card, thinking maybe my onboard NIC was outdated.

By chance, I happened to come across OpenDNS today and they have saved Comcast from my wrath. OpenDNS is a free DNS service that's lightning fast and much more secure than Comcast's crappy service. They provide additional security by blocking Phishing sites, they correct typos in the URL address (so you don't end up going to the wrong site by accident), and did I mention they have a major presence in Seattle? So they're really fast.

I switched immediately and now my connection is literally flying faster than I've seen in months. No more glitches when looking at YouTube videos. No more image lags.

Oh, thank you, OpenDNS. Now I won't have to take my cable modem in to Comcast and argue with them to give me another one. If only there was another Broadband provider in the area ... we would have switched a long time ago.

[OpenDNS]