But the real question, of course, is “why bother?” Well, what would any good competitive site be without prizes? All of those points you accumulate propel you up the ranks of the community. Those who are ranked highest are eligible to win a variety of prizes (they change each month, apparently) as reward for their participation and trendsetting opinions. Looks like you’d better get an early start each month, though, if you want to participate. The top ranked participant has upwards of 8900 points right now!

Learn more about the prizes and rules here, or just jump in head-first and sign up for an account.

It allows you to use twitter as a food diary.
By sending direct messages to TweatWhatYoueat you can keep track of what you eat, instantly. It even allows you to log calories and your weight (which I will not be doing). Then you can view your diary personally via direct messages to Tweet What You Eat.

Tweetwhatyoueat also will link your food entries to  CrowdCal, a database of foods, allowing it to automatically figure out your caloric intake.  So far all you cheaters out there, beware. TweetWhatYouEat knows.

What do you get when you take a mechanism similar to Twitter and add the suffix “gasm” to the title? Well, you get Textgasm. Textgasm is an anonymous, Twitter-like site dedicated to sharing secrets. You submit that little tidbit that you’re just itching to share with the world - anonymously - and it populates a stream of secrets that anyone can stopy by and read. Unlike Twitter, Textgasm also offers users the ability to comment on other’s secrets.

And, not one to miss out on the phenomenon of the Twitterverse, the secrets at Textgasm can also be viewed by following @Textgasm on Twitter.

Of course, be forewarned, anonymity online breeds some raunchiness. It seems that, until Textgasm takes off a bit more, you might encounter some more…PG-13 secrets being share.

But since I’ll clearly have little effect on the situation, I might as well embrace it right? And what better way to embrace the holidays than by planning to do all of my shopping online?

To make that a little easier, the crew over at NotCot has kicked things off with a holiday coupon book. The range of coupons covers a variety of brands from Hard Graft (I still prefer “Working Class Heroes”) to Hulger to WeJetSet. There’s definitely enough there to ensure you’ll be able to find something for everyone on your list. Yeah, some of the discounts are better than others, but that’s to be expected. Shop smart and you could score as much as 25% off!

Let us know what some of your best finds are!

(limited editions × low prices) + the internet
= art for everyone

Each week the site posts two new pieces, a photograph and a work on paper:

Each image is available in three sizes.

* A small size – an edition of 200 for $20.
* A medium - sized edition of 20 for $200.
* A large - sized edition of 2 generally for $2000

Every piece of art is delivered with certificate of authenticity and numbered by the artist.   There is even the opportunity to purchase the original from the artist.

So how did this all get started?
Jen Bekman opened an apparently tiny gallery 5 years ago on the Lower East Side. Her mission was to support emerging artists and collectors.  20×200 takes her mission further and redefines what it means to be an art collector.  And of course, like any good art lover, all profits are donated — in this case to the Public Design Center.

What I like most about this site is the art. Its’ gorgeous — thought was obviously put in selecting the pieces. I will admit I get super frustrated when I see something I need-want-and-can’t-live-without and then click to find out the only print left is at the $2000 level — but hey, all the reason to visit 20×200 more often.

So I’m going to try something a little new here. For the last few months, I’ve been populating a bookmark folder simply titled “Wants”. It’s the dumping ground of bookmarks for things that I stumble across that I…well, want. Those things - little and big - that I stumble upon in my journies across the webiverse and for one reason or another would love to add to my consumption collection. Since most of it will never actually find its way into my home, I figure it should at least find its way onto the blog.

The first in this ongoing collection is this Enamel First Aid Storage Box from Urchin. I originally saw it over on SwissMiss, and I believe it was the first item to encourage the creation of the “Wants” folder.

For the last four years, I’ve been using a standard travel kit for my bathroom accountrements. Figuring it was about time to find a more permanent storage container, I was all set to order this box to toss my toothbrush, etc. in while it was on the shelf. Unfortunately, a quick email to Urchin revealed that the shipping costs from the UK to NYC would run at least as much as the box itself. Somehow I wasn’t quite willing to shell out $60+ for a toothbrush/soap box.

Of course, if anyone happens across a similar storage container - even without the emblazoned cross - please give me a shout. Adding the decoration after-the-fact would be easy enough! And please, drop us a comment with some of your personal “Wants”. If this takes off, it would be a great way to continue sharing those little design bits that have caught your eye (and ours).

Their explanation is definitely thorough, though a little on the technical side. I had to take a break from it about halfway through - the build is not for the faint of heart. But the result is definitely impressive. They also have a live feed of everyone’s uploads if you want to keep an eye on what people are doing with it. Someone even went as far as creating a Pong re-enactment for it. Here’s the vid of it:

And, of course, the site has complete instructions down to each soldering point if you’ve got the gumption to build your own. If you do, let us (and the crew at Hack A Day) know how it turns out!

Ever wanted to keep track of…anything? Want to know when someone tweets your name? Or when your site comes up in a Google search? There are tools out there to do just that. And who doesn’t want to know who’s talking about them?

Google Alerts lets you set up a daily, weekly, or at-once email notice of when your chosen terms come up in new search results. TweetBeep offers similar functionality specific to Twitter with plenty of specifications around defining your search terms. In fact, we were talking about this service for Twitter around the POKE office yesterday. While TweetBeep is cool, we’d really like to see a similar service offered that would put the alert directly in your Twitter stream rather than sending it via email (this may not exist due to limitations with Twitter’s API).

What are some of your other favorite services for keeping track of your digital life?

It’s always impressive when design is used to solve an everyday problem. I tweeted one instance here, when I noticed new, more ergonomic shopping baskets at my local grocery store. (Speaking of which, if you’re not already following *AmongMany on Twitter, jump on the bandwagon! We’ve already had a ton of new followers this week!)

I found another excellent example of a design solution to a common problem today: how often do you find yourself cramped under a desk or jiggling a plug back and forth to try and release it from a powerstrip with just one hand? I know for me, it’s more often than I’d like. Industrial designer Evan Ryan came up with a simple solution to alleviate the problem. His Eject Powerstrip allows the user to pop a plug from the strip one-handed by simply squeezing on either side of the plug:

One of, if not the most difficult aspect of a power strip is unplugging the power cords, especially if the power strip is under a desk or behind an object. When you squeeze the eject power strip, the plug “pops” right out eliminating the need to use two hands.

Simple. Useful. Elegant. Just what good design should be!