Here's an awesome online safety resource for parents, educators and, of course, kids. It's a Flash-driven site developed by AOL and the National School Boards Foundation. It will help you teach your young ones about safe e-mail, Web browsing, and chat. There are sections such as an interactive quiz that everybody will eventually win. My favorite part was being able to add the Safety Bot to my instant messaging Buddy List. The interface to talk to the Bot wasn't instantly usable, but my old eyes and fingers soon understood it's menu driven, just like voice mail or an interactive phone switchboard. Younger eyes and brains will no doubt get this in a second.

Mews of the world

Wired.com/wired/archive/10.11/power_houses.html

She Who Must Be Obeyed has stood in the way of home automation progress for some time. Sometimes she threatens withholding household services, such as laundry, should some gadget enter the abode. It's particularly effective before breakfast. I guess I'll just have to wait to get rich riding the wave of the Next Big Thing and have some professionals install my gadgets for me. Take this article, for instance, and see how all that money you invested in the market a few years ago hasn't gone to waste. Fabulously flush executives have taken your retirement funds and invested them in personal DVD systems, home servers and audio equipment that would make Pavarotti weep with joy.

Time to get it right

www.TimeAndDate.com/worldclock/

What does every English speaking nation have in common? Apart from a common language that separates them all, they've got some of my relatives squirreled away in some corner. We're such a lazy bunch we generally emigrate to countries where the minimum amount of language retraining is necessary. I constantly misjudge the time differences and call during dinner or, worse, in the middle of the night. I've cut myself out of several wills because of this deplorable behavior, so a site like this one is a gift from the Gods of Mental Arithmetic and Finances. The default view will show you the times in all of the planet's major cities. But you can customize it and build your own list of favorite cities.

Mr. Two Percent

www.StainedApron.com/

When did 20 percent become the norm for restaurant tipping? And if you don't leave that amount, should you return to that restaurant for fear of staff remembering your frugally offensive ways? This, and other answers, are contained within this site. It's built by hospitality industry service staff mostly for themselves. But you, dear civilian, are quite welcome. I really enjoy the rants and raves but find them hard to read because of the background images behind the text. Funny, informative and you may never dine out again.

But you can't take it apart

www.EvilTron.com/modules/esp/esp.html

Back in my prime I could do the Rubic's Cube in about 60 seconds. I'd take a screw driver, pry the thing apart, find the corners and reassemble from there. Worked every time. But I later discovered that you were supposed to leave it intact and twist it around until getting all the tiles in the right order. My crafty monkey method left more time for less mentally taxing recreation. You're certainly smarter than I am, so you probably can do the thing without surgery. So enjoy this surrealistic trip down memory lane. If you've never seen a Rubic's Cube, this will give you a good idea of what the craze was all about. Just ignore the spacemen. They weren't there in the real version.

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