SHOPINT: Repair Or Replace? (Consumer Reports Via Lifehacker)

This time of year, many people's thoughts turn to shopping (well, first to giving thanks...but, then, to shopping). Lifehacker recently republished this very handy Consumer Reports repair or replace chart for a number of electronic items (Click on it to get a better view). Now you have the excuse you need to go out and get that 50 inch plasma...

How To Pick A Lock With A "Bump Key" And 9 Other Interesting Or Useful How-to Videos (Lifehacker)

Close down The Farm! You can get all the black bag training you need on YouTube! Lifehacker published a list of 10 useful how-to videos recently. Some of them I have tried (like opening a bottle with a piece of paper) and could not get to work. Others I have tried and learned (like folding a t-shirt in 2 moves -- very cool!) but I didn't expect that learning how to make a bump key would make the top ten. Considered a "burglary tool" in many states, it is probably best to just watch the video...

You can see all of Lifehacker's top ten here but I have included one of my own favorite how-to videos below, "How to tie your shoes really fast":

COOLINT: Heat Map Of Search Terms By Country (Google Blogoscoped Via Lifehacker)

Lifehacker picked up on a really cool application by Phillip Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped this morning that uses Google Spreadsheets to calculate the ratio of Google hits concerning a country and any other particular search term you wish to include. The spreadsheet then automatically plots the results on a "heat map" showing where there are "hot" countries for the search term (see the example below using the search term "Mercyhurst").



You can save a copy of the original spreadsheet yourself and add whatever term you want (try it out with "jihad" -- interesting results!). As with all great COOLINT, I am not sure how you might be able to use it, but it sure is cool!

Precision Searching And Source Reliability (Lifehacker and Hybridsem)

Finding info and determining if it is reliable are two essential skills for all of us really, but particularly for intelligence analysts. I came across these two very good articles recently on how to craft advanced search engine queries on Google, Yahoo and MSN (on Hybridsem) and on how to evaluate web based sources (on Lifehacker). Worth the read...

Death By Powerpoint (Slideshare)

Thanks to Lifehacker for highlighting this great slideshow over on Slideshare. While the advice in the slideshow seems to be mainly about motivating people, there are some good tips and points here for intelligence briefers.

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