Unit Conversions

Growing up with the metric system, I'm still not used to think in Feet, Fahrenheit, and Ounces. While googling for yet another conversion tool, I've found out about Google Calculator which supports all kinds of conversions. Do a Google search for

5250 meters in feet

and you will get the answer right from the Google Calculator: 5250 meters = 17224.4094 feet. This also works for other types of conversion like 46 celsius in fahrenheit or 2 ounces in grams.

The Google Currency Converter works very similarly. Search for

1 USD in CHF

and Google will tell you how many Swiss Francs a US Dollar is currently worth.

Time Zones Anomalies

Working with time zones is tricky per se, and even more when using the Calendar classes that ship with the JDK. But when the Aussies Down Under decide to extend the Daylight Savings Time (DST) in 2006, due to the Commonwealth Games, things get simply confusing. Luckily, Sun incorporated this anomaly in their JDK Updates for 1.3.x, 1.4.x, and 5.x.

It might be worth to take a look at alternatives to deal with times and dates in Java applications, for example, the Joda-Time library is a real jewel.

Firefox Hidden Preferences

Recently, I came across the about:config URL which reveals many hidden Firefox preferences. Details about their meaning can be found in MozillaZine.

Resolving Acronyms

I often receive emails loaded with acronyms that I don't understand. For example, IMHO, HTH, AFAIK, OOTO, etc. In order to resolve such acronyms, the Canonical Abbreviation/Acronym List compiled by James Marshall is very helpful.