Links

I almost fell for this piece of spam.

If you’ve forgotten your Windows password, but you’re still logged in as an administrator, you can change your Windows password without confirmation of the old password.

If you’re forgotten your Windows password, and not logged in, you can still access your system using a little known hole in Windows XP. Check Vic Ferri’s article on I Forgot My Administrator Password.

Using the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox, you can access your bookmarks, tabs, history, saved passwords and cookies from any machine. You can browse from office, go back home, and continue browsing where you left off. Gina Trapani of Lifehacker says Google Browser Sync is not a privacy risk after all.

I got an invite for Google Spreadsheets. Very impressive AJAX interface.

How to feed a family of 4 for $45. These recipes are nutritious and healthy. They are low in fat and cholesterol, high in protein and rich in fibre.

Gap Minder — an excellent dynamic interface to world economic indicators.

Why your boss is overpaid.

The ugly truth is that your boss is probably overpaid–and it’s for your benefit, not his. We work our socks off in underpaying jobs in the hope that one day we’ll win the rat race and become overpaid fat cats ourselves. Economists call this “tournament theory.”

The second, and more counterintuitive, prediction of tournament theory is that the more luck is involved in work, the larger the pay gaps should be between the winners and the losers. If Jack’s promotion is 90% luck and 10% effort, Jack may be inclined to goof off–unless, of course, the rewards for promotion are absolutely astronomical. And they sometimes are.

Finally, tournament theory also helps to explain why insiders, not outsiders, get cushy jobs. You thought it was all about the old-boy network, but in fact, the logical reason for promoting insiders is clear: These jobs are designed to keep your workforce motivated.

Timeline of trends and events from 1750 to 2100 (yes, that’s next century).

Why we all sell code with bugs.

All the reasons are tied up in one truth: every time you fix a bug, you risk introducing another. Don’t we all start out with the belief that software only gets better as we work on it? Nobody on our team intentionally creates new bugs. Yet we have done accidentally.

Where does dust come from? Inside the house, it’s mostly from our skin. Short of vacuuming the carpet regularly, there’s little you can do about it.