Archive for September, 2009
Question Asked: How Do I Create A Filter in Gmail?
Creating a filter is a quick and easy way to do a number of things, such as; auto-tag messages based on who they came from, auto-archive things you don’t necessarily need to see, or auto delete messages when they come in.
To create a filter, do the following:
- Click Create a filter (next to the Search the Web button at the top of any Gmail page).
- Enter your filter criteria in the appropriate field(s).
- Click Test Search to see which messages currently in Gmail match your filter terms. You can update your criteria and run another test search, or click Next Step.
- Select one or more actions from the list. These actions will be applied to messages matching your filter criteria in the order in which the actions are listed — for example, you could choose to Forward matching messages to a specific email address, then Delete the messages.
- If you’d like to apply this filter to messages already in Gmail, select the Also apply filter to x conversations belowcheckbox.
- Click Create Filter.
Repeat the steps for each additional filter you want to create.
Question Asked: How Many Volts of Electricity Are In A Bolt of Lightning?
The average lightning bolt produces about 900,000,000 volts of electricity. Some bigger strikes are believed to have produced up to twice that amount.
Obviously, this is a scientific guess, based on years of research. It’s near impossible to measure an actual lightning bolt.
900 million volts of electricity is enough to power an entire neighborhood of homes for roughly one week.
Question Asked: How Can I Check My Website From Other Locations To See If It’s Up?
There’s a few options to make sure your site’s available to everyone and not just you.
First, there’s downforeveryoneorjustme.com. The site performs a simple check from a random location in the world, to see if it can reach the site. If it’s okay, it says “It’s just you”, and if it’s not, it says “Nope, it’s down for everyone.” Simple, yet effective.
If you want something more concrete, you can use Just-Ping. Just Ping sends out tests from a number of locations around the world, and reports back on their individual results, so you can see specifically who can (and cannot) view your website.
There are a number of “pay for” monitoring services, as well, that you can subscribe to. They range from a few dollars a month, to hundreds based on the number of features that they offer, and how many levels of notification they can provide. A quick Google search resulted in close to 10 million hits for “website monitoring premium.”
Question Asked: What’s the Fastest Boat Speed?
The world record for fastest speed by a boat was set back in 1978, by Australian Ken Warby.
He pushed his 27-foot jet powered boat called the “Spirit of Australia” to an astonishing 317.60 miles per hour (511.1 kph).
Few have tried to break this record since, but have failed, many have died trying.
Below is Ken Warby’s Spirit of Austrailia:
Spirit of Australia
Question Asked: Can I Run Mac OS X On a PC?
You can, but not very easily. Running Windows on a Mac is relatively easy compared to the other way around, using Bootcamp, Parallels, or VMVare.
However, running OS X on a PC, you’d need to built what’s referred to as a “hackintosh”. A machine specifically built for the purpose of running OS X.
PCs and OS X have different standards as to what will make them “work” for the machine itself. The majority of standard PCs aren’t capable of running OS X, so you need something custom.
Lifehacker has a great walk through to build one of these “hackintosh” computers for less than $800. Check out their tutorial here.