Author: Brandon Watts

I think we all hope that, when our time comes, we”ll leave behind a legacy of some sort that transcends our limited human lifespan and allows us to last beyond our days — living on in the memories of others is probably the closest anyone will come to cheating death. Aside from having a creative epitaph etched in one’s tombstone that future generations can visit and ponder long after one’s passing, the most meaningful memories and interactions will only live on as long as those who shared these experiences document them in some way, or they will, too, be lost to the ever-marching cadence of time.

Even when a death is foreseen (as in the case of a long illness), a life cut short is a tragedy. When someone dies. It’s tough for the family, but it’s also tough for all of the people who knew the individual and enjoyed their company. Funerals are held to honor and remember someone who has died, but once they’re over, the memories certainly don’t go away. Everyone who was close to someone that died has memories and stories about the individual that can live on, and 1000Memories gives people a dedicated place on the Internet to remember the life of a loved one.

Not only can family members write about the person and share pictures, stories, videos, and even audio, but the friends who knew them can comment and add what they have to share to make it a truly social and collaborative remembrance. The information is presented in a simple and respectful way, and having all of this content in one place is truly something that everyone will appreciate. Each person’s life is made up of a collection of moments, and while you may not be able to collect all of them, you’ll certainly be able to collect some of the most memorable ones.

Getting from place to place isn’t always as easy as it could be. While most people seem to drive these days, we’ve all found ourselves, at some point in our lives and for some reason or another, standing on a cold curb in an urban area shouting this magic word into the night that will rescue us and bring us home to warmth and safety:

“Taxi!”

Despite all of the advancements that have been made with technology, one thing that has pretty much stayed the same until recently is the process of requesting a cab. Hailing a cab that you see is one thing, but requesting a cab when there isn’t one in the immediate area usually requires calling a phone number so that the dispatcher can send one your way, however, that’s pretty lame. These days the Internet and mobile technology have improved how we hail cabs in various ways, and the approach that Cabulous takes gives you the kind of information that an actual cab company would have.

As soon as you arrive at the site, you’ll see a real time map of San Francisco (and soon, possibly another city near you) that has a number of cab avatars moving around. What you’re seeing are actual cabs and where they are in the city. To hail a cab, you just click on the one you want and tell the driver where you are. The iPhone app makes the process especially straightforward because, with its GPS capabilities, it already knows where you are in relation to the driver. If you like a certain driver, then you’ll be able to see when he or she is nearby whenever you’re looking for a cab. As I mentioned before, the service is mainly focused on San Francisco, but it’s expanding and could be in your town before you know it.

With a constant bombardment of information from all fronts, 21st century life can seem pretty overwhelming. One example: we’re communicating all over the place on the Internet these days. Where generations in the not-too-distant past had the option of telephone or snail mail if they wanted to keep in touch with people remotely, many of your friends today may use a variety of online communication tools, and if you want to talk to them on the networks where they can be found, then you need to have accounts on those networks, too. As an implement designed to keep humanity communicating quickly and efficiently, the Internet can sometimes be a lot more complicated than it needs to be. I feel for the people who still use each service individually because the time wasted and the confusion that’s involved can be rather extreme.

A vast assortment of companies are working on solutions to help bring together a patchwork of all of these accounts, and they’ve had different levels of success. A service called threadsy is another attempt to keep your online communication organized and consolidated, and it offers quite a few options to the overloaded modern human who is just trying to regain some semblance of control over his or her correspondence options.

threadsy, as a free service, not only supports your social accounts like Facebook and Twitter, but it also integrates your email and instant messaging accounts, which is pretty unique. There’s definitely an advantage to seeing everything in one place, and this approach can’t help but make you more productive. If you’ve noticed that you’re complaining about information overload lately, then maybe an account on threadsy is just what the doctor ordered. And if you’ve got several doctors offering second and third opinions, now you can see all of their recommendations, prescriptions, rebuttals, and counter rebuttals all in one place. That’s progress!

Comic books — in their art and storytelling — have inspired countless people across every demographic for decades. Whether the inspired are action fans who follow every exploit of their favorite costumed supervillain and the numerous ways they’re foiled by their even more favorite superhero, or bookworm types who loved every issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and its intellectual delvings when it was printed in the ’90s, comic books fans can be famously rabid with their obsession. Over 100,000 people make their way to San Diego annually to attend the Comic-Con there, which has expanded to include not only comic books, but virtually every aspect of sci-fi and fantasy geek culture including movies and television shows.

Do you enjoy reading comic books? I’ve never been into them, but there’s a passionate comic book community out there that still goes to local comic stores to get the latest releases and talk comics with fellow readers. It’s pretty geeky, but you have to admire their dedication. In fact, to be perfectly honest, comic books have become somewhat cool in a geeky pop culture way, and part of the reason for this is because of online availability and distribution. You don’t even have to go to your local comic book store because Graphicly connects you with the comics that you want to read.

Whether you’re looking for a desktop, mobile, or Web browser experience, Graphicly has you covered. There are over 1,000 comics to check out, and after you’ve previewed the first few pages of an issue, you can decide if you want to buy the full version. The viewer that’s used fits the comic book reading experience very well, and I like the flow mode that takes you through each panel in order. There are even social features that help to keep parts of the comic book store social experience alive online.

Do you love food? No, I mean, do you really love food? Put down that Bacon Double Whopper with chicken skin and extra mayo and consider your options for a second! There are those of us who eat to live and those of us who live to eat. In my opinion, the second option is the way to go. Good food and good drinks (including wine) make life more enjoyable, and you really notice the difference when you’ve been subjected to inferior items — and life’s too short to settle for the worst when you can have the best (and the best isn’t always as expensive as you might think). There’s so much to learn about food, drinks, dining, and cooking that it can feel overwhelming to try to take it all in. Tasting Table has simplified the process by giving you a daily taste of what’s new and hot in the world of food culture.

With everything from fine dining to cooking to gastrocentric culture to weekend food travel getaways, Tasting Table serves up an appetizing assortment of tips, reviews, recipes, and more to the culinarily curious. Subscribers receive these daily tidbits via email on each weekday, though Tasting Table can also be followed on Twitter @TastingTable or liked on Facebook. People who live in select cities including New York and San Francisco can subscribe to a local edition of the email that points them to local destinations and items, but a national version exists for people who live in other cities in the United States. This is just enough information to guide you down the path to becoming an educated foodie.

So enough with the fast food, already! There’s a whole wide world of tastebud-inspiring fare out there just waiting to be savored. And if you’re the counting calories kind, shouldn’t you make every calorie count?

When you look at places on Google Maps and get a feel for the surroundings using Street View, you’re getting a sense of what the area is like now, but what was it like many years ago? What stories are attached to those locations that can live on forever? Taking a look at the past helps us to get a good understanding of the future, and not only that, but it can also be interesting and entertaining. Historypin enables you to pin your history to the world and see what others have posted about events and stories throughout the passage of time.

Maybe the town where you grew up has a colorful history that the old timers around you are always talking about. They’ll tell you how “this old building [the one that’s now a flower shop] used to be a speakeasy during Prohibition” or “this whole bustling town square was once orange groves as far as the eye could see.”

Historypin is offered in partnership with Google, so Google’s mapping tools are used to make all of this possible. You can explore the map by searching for pictures that are pinned to specific locations and use the slider to select the period of time that you want to explore. You can also add pictures to the map and write stories about them for the benefit of the viewers. This can be a great educational experience, and schools are encouraged to give it a try.

Since there are so many photos of past and present being shared by hundreds of fellow time travelers across the whole globe, you may find that Historypin’s system loads a little slowly at first. But if you’re willing to wait a hundred years to see how your hometown’s changed through the magic of photography, you can probably afford to be a little patient, no?