Jake of the Web

http://pumpkinmasters.com/free_patterns_main.asp
A few free patterns. Simple and direct, but good.

http://pumpkinglow.com/
Non-Halloween jack-o-lantern patterns; Famous people, Patriotic, Christian images, Animals, and more. Turns out this site is based in Smithfield Utah, just north of Logan, so there's also a Utah Aggie pattern!

http://www.pumpkinlady.com/pattern.htm
Some fun and simple patterns but very good (you have to scroll past quite a few ads for her admittedly good books that are for sale). Excellent designs overall, there are probably over 100 patterns here.


http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/
Probably the best assortment of patterns and ideas out there: Hundreds of free patterns, with photos of jack-o-lanterns the site owner has made over the years; Simpsons, Family Guy, Dora, Patriotic, Lord of The Rings, Wizard of Oz, and LOTS more. Many of these are likely for more advanced carvers, requiring more time and effort than the traditional jack-o-lantern, but with more impressive results.

Add cowbell to (most) any song. You can decide how much cowbell to add, and whether or not to add quotes from the SNL 'More Cowbell' sketch.

Never be caught off guard by 'that time of month' again! This site will keep track of up to 5 women and will email you to notify of upcoming PMS. Also has helpful tips for dealing with PMS. Women can also notify up to 5 people.
I love their explanation:

"For women, this is a great way to give people in your life a heads-up of when you might be feeling a bit irritable without having an awkward conversation."

You'll just have the awkward conversation of "Why did you email me to tell me you are PMS-ing?"


PMS Buddy

Recommended by our Kerry

Someone out there is going to get fired from playing this game too much. Instead of traveling between pre-created walls, in this version you have to build your own walls as the ghosts are bouncing all around you. If they touch a wall before you have finished building it, it will kill you! The goal is to fill 80% of the screen with walls. Easy to get a hang of, and really fun to play, you must try this game!


Pac Xon

Create virtually any phrase using ascii art. Multiple characters are used as pieces of a single letter:

.__                                            .__  __        
|__|______  ____   ____   ______ ___.__._______|__|/  |_  ____
|  \_  __ \/  _ \ /    \  \____ <   |  |\_  __ \  \   __\/ __ \ |  ||  | \(  <_> )   |  \ |  |_> >___  | |  | \/  ||  | \  ___/
|__||__|   \____/|___|  / |   __// ____| |__|  |__||__|  \___  >
                    \/  |__|   \/                          \/

                                                        __           
__                                                  __/\ \__        
/\_\  _ __   ___     ___       _____   __  __  _ __ /\_\ \ ,_\    __ 
\/\ \/\`'__\/ __`\ /' _ `\    /\ '__`\/\ \/\ \/\`'__\/\ \ \ \/  /'__`\
\ \ \ \ \//\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \   \ \ \L\ \ \ \_\ \ \ \/ \ \ \ \ \_/\  __/
\ \_\ \_\\ \____/\ \_\ \_\   \ \ ,__/\/`____ \ \_\  \ \_\ \__\ \____\
 \/_/\/_/ \/___/  \/_/\/_/    \ \ \/  `/___/> \/_/   \/_/\/__/\/____/
                               \ \_\     /\___/                    
                                \/_/     \/__/                     

White, pink, or brown/red noise to help you sleep. Or you can use it to drown out the sounds of your illicit plans being made - or any other illicit things you may be making/doing. You can vary the noise ratio on all three, or download loopable 30-second segments for playback offline. Also available for free download is a 60-minute recording of a thunderstorm. YES, it's boring - that's the POINT.

To my ear, the 'darker' the sound (ie, red over pink or white) is more soothing - it almost sounds like the ocean or a river.

'Simply Noise' Noise Machine
Downloadable soothing sounds

Set an alarm within your browser to wake you up - a rooster, a traditional alarm clock, an electronic alarm clock or distorted guitars. WARNING: Uses military time (if it's after noon, add 12 to the time you are thinking of...)

Ku Ku Klok

Turn your computer keyboard into an piano/synthesizer. It automatically records whatever you play and saves it for playback.


Keyboard Music

Doodle in 3D. You do need some 3D glasses to get the most out of it, but it's even cool without the glasses - and disorienting. If you do that 'magic eye'-kinda stare, it goes 3D without the glasses.

3D Doodle-o-rini!

A web-only musical dramedy
-Script and Music written by Joss Whedon (Firefly, Serenity, directed a few Office episodes)
-Starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible (Doogie Howser, some other show nowadays)
-Nathan Fillion as his nemesis, the vacuous superhero 'Captain Hammer' (Also known from Whedon's Firefly and Serenity)
-Felicia Day as Penny, Dr. Horrible's love interest (She's cute, been in some movies, but has gained a lot of fame from the very good web series she writes and stars in called 'The Guild'.

What is Dr. Horrible willing to do for acceptance into 'The Evil Order of Evil'? Although not outright evil himself, per se, he sees problems in the world around him and has decided a more hands-on approach is the answer: Fixing the world himself by taking over.

While attempting to steal a part he needs for his time-freezing ray, Dr. Horrible inadvertently introduces his secret crush, Penny, to his nemesis, the arrogant superhero Captain Hammer. Now Dr. Horrible must stop the two of them from growing closer, while trying to impress 'Bad Horse', the head of 'The Evil Order of Evil'. We get to know Dr. Horrible's roommate/sidekick named Moist (he's just really sweaty, as far as I can tell), and we get to explore the consequences of a super-criminal broadcasting his evil intents on a video blog. Also, there's a lot of singing.

This is starting as free, but has recently moved to iTunes, and will probably be exclusive iTunes content for a while before the DVD is released.

Good super-hero lines:
(Speaking to a group of homeless people): "Home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest"
"It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds"


Dr. Horrible's site

Older versions of favorite applications
Particularly useful if you have older hardware/operating system that are unable to handle the newer software. Or simply if you don' tlike 'features' in newer software versions.

Old Version.com

You don't need to have a Shazam! enabled iPhone to be able to find out the name and artist associated with a song:

Do you know how a song goes, but don't know the name of the song or the artist? Go to songtapper.com and tap the rhythm of the song on your space bar. Going off of just the rhythm, Songtapper can usually find any song you are looking for.
Song Tapper

Hum or sing a song into your microphone and midomi will tell you what it is.
Midomi

Tunatic will listen to music through your microphone, much like previously mentioned Shazam! and tell you what the song and artist are.
Tunatic

A downloadable app for your iPhone that will recognize a song being played in the background, and tell you the artist and title of the song. This service is currently free via the iPhone, although it has traditionally cost about $1 per identification or $4/month unlimited. Next week I'll talk about similar options for people who don't want to shell out for an iPhone.

Shazam!
Shazam! for the iPhone

A great site warning about speed traps, mostly with information entered by truckers. The site itself is pretty rudimentary looking, but they have the entire country divided along major highways (I-15, I-85, I-97, etc.) and all of the states those highways travel through. One danger I see in this site is you may succumb to hubris: thinking you know everywhere the cops would possibly be, you speed everywhere not warned about and end up getting caught anyway. Still, with that in mind, knowing the main speed traps along your route is a great resource to have, and is easily accessible and interpreted here.

Bear (Cop) Traps

Recommended by Stephannie Walker

Firefox rules. I have the Release Candidate version of Firefox 3 on all my computers. It really is that good. Unfortunately, in attempting to get the absolutely final version of Firefox 3, I discovered their site is not working right now. Keep trying.

On the one hand, this is likely because so many people are wanting to help with the goal of breaking the World's record for downloads in a day. On the other hand, you would think they would have been a little more prepared for this.

UPDATE:
The site is working! They are currently at 1,809,494 downloads. Impressive.

http://www.diet.com/mobile/

Diet.com has a great service: by texting 'DIET1' (34381) with a restaurant name and menu item, you can get the specific nutrition information for that item. The results are very fast, and accurate.

NBC and News Corporation (Fox) have joined forces to bring the world Hulu.com - an unlikely name to stir such feelings of appreciation.
Strange name or no, the site is getting it right. The main shows I use it for are The Office and 30 Rock - all of the new episodes are available the day after they originally air (which happens to work better for my schedule, anyway).
Quality shows, when I want them, for free. The two main things that has taken me away from regular broadcast TV are the strict timeframe and the commercials. Hulu has regular TV beat on both fronts. I don't mind commercials, per se, but the current overabundance of commercials on TV are squeezing out the entertainment like so many weeds choking out my lawn (that last metaphor is all too close to home, sadly). Granted, there is a little bit of advertisement on Hulu, but it is manageable - it almost makes me want to give the advertisers my business.

AdBlock plus kicks!
I disabled AdBlock plus for a screenshot I needed, and was astounded at web sites that never had ads were suddenly ugly, overwrought sites.
This is only one of many reasons why FireFox is superior to all comers - AdBlock plus makes the web a prettier place.

Skreemr.com can find just about any song you are looking for: quickly, reliably, and for free. You can play the track before downloading it, or just play songs without downloading at all.

There are also additonal links that will automatically search for related lyrics, Wikipedia articles, YouTube videos, concert dates or pictures on Flickr:

At times when I am wanting to hear something in particular, I will do a Skreemr search (as opposed to Pandora, which is a great way to find new music).

We're creatures of habit. Everybody has a certain order they like their application buttons to be in on their taskbar. But what happens if an application crashes or times out? I've known more that one person (yours truly included) who is willing to close out 10 apps only to reopen them again in the preferred order - all so the taskbar buttons are where you want them to be.

Taskbar Shuffle allows you to drag and drop any taskbar button within the taskbar area:


With Taskbar Shuffle, I was finally able to get the monkey off my back. I can re-order individual windows or groups of similar windows as I choose:


You can also rearrange system tray items if you so desire, although that functionality has yet to find its way in to my daily routine.

Taskbar Shuffle is free, small (only 630k), and brilliantly simple. Best of all, it quickly proves itself indispensable.