40Tech

Sadly, we live during a time when the U.S. Congress has earned a much-deserved reputation for whoring itself out to the highest bidder. The latest committee hearings on SOPA heightened the average tech geek’s frustration with Congress, where a Congressional committee lined up several supporters of SOPA (the entertainment industry and the Chamber of Commerce, to name two of five), while only allowing the testimony of  a Google representative on the other side. Does money play a role in this? While it is impossible to get inside the head of a congressperson, the money trail can be pretty damning in some instances. How do you easily check the money trail? MapLight can help.

Just about everybody I know has gotten a laugh out of Damn You Auto Correct, the website that collects embarrassing iPhone messages, thanks to goofy and unintended automatic corrections by the iOS engine. If that is your cup of tea, then you might enjoy Literally Unbelievable, a site that collects Facebook updates from users who think articles from the Onion are true.

Every now and then, a web site comes along that defies categorization, but is amazingly cool nonetheless. One such site made the rounds lately, spreading virally. The site is by Intel, and takes the content of your Facebook account, and puts it together in one mind-blowing online “museum.” I was late to the game, only recently visiting the site. If you haven’t paid the site a visit yet, check it out.

There’s really not enough money to go around these days, what with the economic crashes and the rise in prices of, well… everything. Yes, this would be the perfect opportunity to complain about the price of gas, but this is a technology blog, so I’m going to complain about the price of food instead — wait… what? Yep, you read me right: Food. The prices are climbing toward the ridiculous for the essentials, and frankly, I’m more than a little put out about it!

Thankfully, the always vigilant folk over at Wise Bread have taken the time to scour the technology world (see, I brought it back…) for online tools that are made to help you save a bit of your hard earned cash without having to tighten up your belt.

Hit the jump for the highlights.

Way back in the wilds of 2009, Evan wrote a post naming his top five tech sites for every geek. But 2009 is ancient history in the world of the web — that was way back before I even started writing for 40Tech! My kid was only barely a one year old, and Twitter was still a novelty that allowed people to talk about their lunch. Ancient times, I tell you!

This vast expanse of time and change got me to wondering: what are your top tech sites in this new — and obviously technologically superior — decade? Where do you go these days for all of your tech-related news, reviews, and tips? I’m looking for a top 10 here, ordered or not, so hit the comments, Twitter, Facebook or email, and get the word out!

Here’s my list to get us started:

Two months ago, we wrote about the U.S. Department of Justice’s largely unilateral seizure of domain names of commercial websites that were engaged in counterfeiting. We’ve now seen the danger of that process, with the government pulling a major “whoopsie” and mistakenly shutting down a large number of perfectly innocent sites, as the government went after child pornography sites.

Lifehacker, one of our favorite sites here at 40Tech, just got a redesign, along with the rest of the sites under the Gawker umbrella. The redesign has been a bit controversial, to say the least. Users have complained that the site is slow, hard to navigate, and clunky. Here are three ways to avoid the new redesign, while still getting Lifehacker’s awesome content.

From the Star Wars Kid to the Red Shirt Guy, certain items or ideas gain traction on the Internet, and reach the hallowed status of Internet meme.  If you’re like me, you’re not exactly hip to the latest memes.  Fear not!  Know Your Meme has you covered, helping you stay abreast of the latest memes on the Internet.

File extensions have become a mainstay in the current computing landscape. Those two or three letter codes that follow a file name allow you as well as your operating system to determine what type of file is being dealt with as well as which programs should be used to deal with it.  The problem is: every once in a while you will run across a file whose origins you are unsure of. When you do happen to run across a stubborn file type, one of the best ways to solve the conundrum is by visiting FILExt – a free online file-type search engine.

Finding the perfect domain name for your site can be challenge.  With a gazillion sites out there, the obvious choices are all taken.  Bust a Name can help you come up with something clever, when your brain fails you.