Friday smorgasbord 4 how-tos

Friday smorgasbord 4 how-tos I just want to tell you about these links. Each of them made me really happy to find. Maybe one, or all four, will make you happy: 1. How to ruin your image with your signature file. This is a great post about the stupid fonts people use in their signature file and what those fonts mean about the person. The bottom line: Dont use a special font. Express yourself through your ideas, not your font choice. http://lmnop.blogs.com/lauren/2006/10/americas_most_f.html 2. How to survive high school This would not be notable except that its part of Wikipedias how to section. First, I didnt know there was a how to section. (Okay. Update. Daniel, at Om Strategy, sets me straight on the wiki world. Wikihow is not Wikipedia.) But then I was charmed to see that this topic is listed. Although I am pretty sure that all the how-tos in the world would not have gotten me through high school unscarred http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-High-School 3. How to find a synonym, or just do something cool on your computer When I taught creative writing, I told my upstart students at Boston University that they should never use a thesaurus because you should write like you talk and if you cant come up with the word on your own, you can be pretty sure you dont use it when you talk. So, putting that advice aside, I went hunting for a synonym for spark. And I found this amazing site that doesnt just find synonyms. It literally makes language come alive. Words slide and gyrate and bump into place. I found myself looking for synonyms I didnt need just to watch what happens. http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ 4. How to force companies to be socially responsible with just one click via TechCrunch: DoTheRightThing is a Digg-like site where people submit stories about companies acting in ways that can be considered good or bad. Other users then vote on the goodness or badness of those actions and add comments. The site calculates an overall goodness score, ranging from severe on the negative end to pioneer on the positive end. Its interesting to read what companies are doing and see how they score. Also, its fun to harbor a fantasy that this site will get influential enough that companies will have to respond to accusations that get voted to the top.