What do you get when you pair a classically trained violinist with one of the most popular platform games of all time?

This video (you’ll need the sound on)

The video is one of many alternative versions for the classic 90s Italian plumbing game. It’s also been recreated on such odd instruments as an accordion, a selection of wine bottles with a remote controlled car and a beatboxing flute!

What do you think, quirky tributes or ruining a classic?

If you’re a heavy user of Google services like Gmail, the Calender and Google Docs, it makes sense to have everything collected together in one place.

iGoogle does this by acting as a homepage and a base to access all your services whilst also having some useful widgets and gadgets to hand. You can pimp it up with your own backgrounds and styles too.

As a blogger, I find it particularly useful for keeping track of my RSS feed, my Remember The Milk list, checking the thesaurus and keeping up with the latest news. Which reduces my procrastination by 37% (probably).

To get an iGoogle page, simply click on the iGoogle link in the top right hand corner of your Google search page and you can start building it, using your Gmail sign in if you have one.

Once you’ve got your iGoogle page you can start moving things around and adding those all important gadgets!

Here are a few suggestions, which are particularly useful for bloggers.

The Basics
Gmail – Quick access to your emails with an easy overview box.
Google Reader – A simple viewer for all your blog feeds on your front page. It’s also worth knowing that you can add your RSS feeds into their own gadget on the iGoogle page, which is particularly good if you want to keep particular feeds separate.
Google Calender – A mini-version of your Google Calender, with quick event adding function.
Google Documents – Displays your most recent documents and allows you to open them directly from the gadget. You can also add a Google Documents gadget within your Gmail inbox for easy integration.
Google News – Regularly updated with the latest news with relevant tabs. BBC, Sky and CNN all have alternative gadgets.
Hotmail – If you use Hotmail as well as Gmail, this can be a big time-saver. You can also view, reply and delete from this gadget.

Work
Remember the Milk – One of the best To Do lists available. Lets you tick off, postpone or edit any upcoming tasks. If you’re signed up for the alerts you’ll also get a round up of today’s To Do list in your inbox every morning.

Blogger – Publish straight to your blog page from the front page.

Digg – For anyone that uses social bookmarking, this is essential. Also check out Reddit‘s gadget.

ExactFactor search engine position checker – Clever gadget that allows you to check the website rankings for any three keywords across the three big search engines.

SEOBook – Tool that allows you to check everything from the Google Trends and Traffic, to keyword checking and PPC.

Just for Fun
BBC Good Food Recipes – Not sure what to have for dinner tonight? Turn to this little gadget for a bit of inspiration.

Tetris – Horribly addictive retro game. Wave goodbye to your productivity with this one.
YouTube – Pretty self-explanatory, a gadget with all the latest YouTube videos. It’ll even make recommendations once you’ve used it a few times.

So that’s a few of my suggestions. Do you have any interesting or useful iGoogle gadgets to recommend?

One of the downsides of the wonderful world wide web is the amount of personal information flying around for anyone to view. It’s genuinely quite scary how easily someone can find out your home address, contact number and personal email address, but inevitable considering the amount of forms and social networking profiles the average web user completes.

Your address in particular is something you want to keep under wraps, especially given the rise in credit fraud. One way of doing this is by using SendSocial, a service that means you can use social networking sites to arrange a delivery without exchanging a single address.

The only information you need to send someone a package is their email address or twitter ID. You send a message through SendSocial and they’ll contact the recipient for their confirmation. They’ll then collect the address and contact details through their highly secure system, and provide you with an address-free label for your package. Then one of their courier partners, myHermes and ByBox, picks up your package and delivers it!

Costs start from £2.99, which is a decent amount for peace of mind. I can see the benefits in particular with buying and selling on eBay, when you don’t necessarily want to reveal your address to the buyer/seller. The Twitter aspect is appealing too.

What do you think of the service? Would you use it?

As a certified shopaholic, there’s nothing I like more than scouring the online stores for the perfect dress/gadget/craft item. But when it comes to buying for others, I become a stressed-out crazy lady. What if they don’t like it? What if I haven’t spent enough? What if it’s too big/small?

A new online tool looks set to take the stress out of buying for others. Wishpot.com allows you to create wishlists for things you’d like online, using a handy add button on your toolbar. You can use it to create your own lists to hand out to family and friends, or simply to build up a list of potential lists for others.

For Firefox users, you can install a one click button to add a chose item to your list. You’re allowed several lists, so you can split it into friends, family and gifts, and there is the option of creating a wedding or christening list.

The site has the social aspect of public lists too, so you can browse other lists for inspiration. Whilst I’m not sure how I feel about sending a list to others when a birthday comes round, I can see the benefits of others sending their lists over. Plus, the popularity of Amazon wishlists suggests the site will do well. At least this way you’d know you would be getting them something they actually like.

Would you use Wishpot.com?

I know, I know! Katie has already encouraged us to stop writing about Twitter.

This doesn’t count though, as I’m purely speaking to those of us who have already fallen under the grip of the Twitter addiction. Those of us who need a desktop application to ensure we’re getting the most out of it without it taking over our lives.

There are dozens of Twitter desktop applications available, but here are a few of my favourites.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is the application I tend to rely on the most when it comes to tweeting. The simple interface, access to both my twitter accounts and Facebook accounts in one system, and the integrated Twitpic, URL shortening client and translation options are all pluses to the application.

It can be a bit of a drain on your system though, so it’s only suitable for heavy users.

Digsby

Digsby is a multi-purpose desktop tool for keeping up with your social networking sites, e-mails and instant messaging.

Sitting pretty in your task bar, Digsby notifies you every time you receive an e-mail and allows you to quickly view your tweets and Facebook activities with one click on the icon. You can even compose an e-mail straight from the app.

Seesmic

I think it was Katie who suggested this to me a while back, and you can access it on a variety of mediums including the web, desktop and your mobile. It’s similar to Tweetdeck in look and functionality, although the tabbed feature for dealing with multiple accounts if much more user-friendly on Seesmic.

Plus you can access the new lists function, which looks to replace the old #followfriday trend.

Betwittered

Strictly speaking, this is a an iGoogle application rather than a desktop one, but it’s worth mentioning for its simplicity and ease of implementation.

Once added to your iGoogle page, you can check your current tweets, replies and direct messages in under a minute.

Useful if a desktop application tends to only increase your Twitter addiction, but not so useful for anything more advanced then checking in and sending the odd tweet.

Echofon

Echofone is an add-on that sits at the bottom of your Firefox browser, quietly counting the number of tweets since you last checked. Double-click on the icon and you can view the tweets,

I like the way I can surf whilst keeping an eye on my tweets with this, rather than switching between my browser and my desktop application.

These are just the applications I’ve tried and loved. What are your favourite desktop applications for Twitter?

Each year, you’re fate-bound to discover something life changing. It could be boys, it could be heather shimmer Rimmel lipstick, it could be JLS. For me, this year, it was Dropbox. I’m pretty sure that right now, if I was asked to choose between Daddy, chips and Dropbox, I would choose Dropbox (I would really miss chips, though).

On the surface, it’s not that interesting – it’s basically a replacement for an FTP site. But that’s like saying that vodka is basically just fermented potatoes. Or Wolverine is basically just a man with some metal rods in his fingers. But if you work across two computers, or work in a business that means you often have to share documents remotely, you’ll want to know about this. Basically.

The idea is that you install the software and then create a Dropbox folder on your desktop. You then create a Dropbox on your second computer, or in my case, my Partner in Crime/Business. Anything you then drop into the folder gets synced across to the second computer. You can have folders on as many computers as you like, all syncing to one account, and you get 2GB of storage free.

But it gets better!

Within the Dropbox folder you can structure sub folder in the same way you would in any other folder – Documents, Holiday photos, DO NOT LOOK. But there’s an additional Public folder there by default which allows you to share files with anyone. Right click on the file name, and within the Dropbox submenu, you can choose to copy the link location. This then generates a URL which you can send to people. If it’s a media file they can view it within their browser, if it’s text or the like, they just choose which application to open it with. Zip the files and they can then download them for keepsies.

There is, of course, also an iPhone app, so you can send links and view documents on the move. And unicorns. It also comes with free unicorns (although only in the premium package).

So there – my find of 2009, shared with you. Share yours back?

As winter draws in, it strikes me that I’m no better set up against the cold dark nights than I was this time last year. And that’s despite the launch of Spotify, the arrival of a new slimline PS3, and marked leaps being made in 3D TV technology in 2009.

In short, technology doesn’t seem to have helped at all. But it should! I rely on it for every other human need (I originally wrote ‘except love, obv’ there, but had to scribble it out. Tragic). There seems to be no good reason why I shouldn’t be able to turn to it in Q4 (or ‘winter’, for those that don’t get daily press releases on the launch date of mobile phones).

Here’s what I propose:

Transport countdown
Leaving work, you know it takes you four minutes to walk to the bus stop. You also know you’re likely to have the pleasure of watching a bus go sailing into the distance as you get to minute three. This provides an exact countdown as to when your bus/train/obliging person with a car will be there for you, minimising any pavement-waiting time.

Robot sleeping doll
I’ve seen the Channel Five documentaries. I know the normal reason people want robots in bed. But I swear, I’ve got an altogether less sexual reason for taking a robot lover (“I’m taking a robot lover” = probably my new most favourite sentence of 2009).  I want one with real human-like skin, like the ones in that documentary, but I’d like mine to have a temperature of 103. It’ll then be the perfect temperature to stick your freezing toes on, like a great big roboty hot water bottle.

SAD app
You can get SAD desk lamps that claim to perk you up if you expose yourself to them a few hours a day. I don’t have a desk, but I do spend an inordinate amount of time looking at my phone. For those lucky sods who can run apps in the background, how about putting a terrifying glow behind your email screen, your Twitter app and your RSS reader? Multi-SAD-based-functional!

Central heating control
You’re on your way home, and you’ve realised the house will be colder than a polar bear’s chuff when you get there. And there’s no actual human to sort this out for you. The answer is clearly to email your central heating system with the exact temperature required, and then sit back and wonder how you came to live in such wonderfully future-y times.

Weather report
Not much to ask, is it? Been trying for an accurate one since the seventh century, haven’t we? Could someone PLEASE get good at predicting the weather already?

Excuse-aron 3000
It is a little known fact that I have just made up that 30% more plans get cancelled during winter, thanks to the desire to be constantly tucked up on the sofa watching John Hughes films with a bottle of wine and a pizza. All well and good, but how do you get out of seeing your summer-month friends?

The Excuse-aron 3000 is a bit like that Urban Spoon app, which you shake to get the slot machine like options roll round to suggest a restaurant i.e. Italian, £££, Soho = La Porchetta. With this app, it shakes to provide the blame source, the reason you can’t make it, and the seriousness of the reason. Susi can’t make it because: Transport for London | dropped a piano on her | and she may never recover. Susi can’t make it because her mother | just told her she was cut out of the will | she’ll probably be ok tomorrow. See? Foolproof.

• Read more of Susi’s columns

For anyone who buys items from the USA regularly, you’ll know there can be a bit of a sting when you get to the checkout and discover you’ve been saddled with a big shipping bill.

We’ve already covered the costs of buying from the USA, but it would seem there’s a new solution to those shipping costs. Bundle Box is a new way of cutting costs by allowing you to send more goods in one go, and therefore save money by bulk posting.

The basic concept is:

• You are assigned a personal address in the USA. You can then get your items sent to this address
• Bundle Box then consolidates all your items into one package, where you can take advantage of their competitive shipping rates
• You’ll then get your items in 5 working days.

With the postal strike and the ridiculous number of items I’ve added to my favourites on Etsy, I’ll definitely be looking into this as a cost saving option. They’ve even kindly highlighted some of the best deals from the USA.

Additional services include a ‘Buy for me’ option if your credit card isn’t accepted with some international stores, and a carbon offset option for the eco-friendly minded.

All this comes just in time for Christmas!

(Thanks to Alex Sheppard for tip)

If you spend a lot of time blogging you’ll probably have developed all kinds of shortcuts and labour-saving techniques to get those posts out in a timely fashion. Fiddling around with outbound links and photo editing can take up time that could be better spent reading Top 5 lists on the internet.

Which is why I’ve combined blogging, shortcuts and Top 5s to come up with my ultimate list of must-have Firefox Addons for bloggers. Hopefully, it won’t cause the internet to topple over in sheer wonderment.

If I’ve missed any out, please do share them with me so that I can write even more of the internet.

1. Text Formatting Toolbar
I hate having loads of applications open, and Word is a rubbish text editor for bloggers thanks to all the Span tags it inserts willy nilly. Write Monkey is a personal favourite when it comes to getting column written to deadline, and good old Notepad does the job if you just want to get some words down. But the Toolbar Composer that comes with the Text Formatting add on is brilliant. it’s basically the same as Notepad in that it looks plain and simple and doesn’t eat up loads of processing power, but it has the added benefit of HTML buttons that let you insert code so you can just paste the whole thing into your blog.

Obviously, some people are happy just to write straight into a blog post, but I find it cramped. Plus, I prefer to have a separate page to write on that’s away from the distraction of the browser itself. The fact that this pops up a small text editing box makes it a brilliant blogging tool.

2. Web Developer Toolbar
This is great if you’re not a coder and you need help when it comes to the inner-workings of your website. Press a button and it will tell you what bits of CSS refer to which particular points of your website. It can measure out the size of your masthead or sidebars for you so you know what size you’re working to, and it can give you information about all your image URLs and their pixel sizes. In fact, it does too many clever things to list here and I’m still discovering them all myself.

I really recommend it if your coder credentials aren’t up to scratch.

3. British Dictionary
There should probably be some kind of law against not having this installed on your browser if you write online. I’ve spent many fruitless hours of my life insisting anyone who works for me installs it, only to edit posts littered with stupid errors. It highlights your spelling mistakes as you type so you can right click on the word and select the correct spelling. I am not a gifted speller, and there’s no way I’d want to type solo without a dictionary backup acting as wing man.

That analogy didn’t really work, but you know what I mean. If you write, you should be using it.

4. Pixlr Editor
Pixlr is a free alternative to Photoshop, which works in your browser and makes photo editing a pretty painless affair. What’s good about this tool is that you can right click on any image and it will upload it to Pixlr so you can edit it straight away. And if you need to take a screen grab, you can select the entire window or simply highlight the bit you want. Click capture and the image opens in a new tab via Pixlr Editor.

I’ve only recently started to use Pixlr and it’s saving me a lot of time. Not only does it mean I don’t have to upset my laptop with another application, I also don’t have to download images to my computer and then open them in editing software.

5. Live Page Rank
Google Page Ranks are – as we all know – divined by a group of robed people chanting and reading fresh entrails in the Google storeroom. There’s no point getting all hung up on Google rankings, but just having one (however low it is) is a sign that Google has deemed your site worthy of notice. This little add on provides live PR updates and sits quietly at the bottom of your browser.

Flickr Image: Mike Licht

Fancy a holiday? Even with the recession, companies like Ryanair and EasyJet are making it much easier to book ridiculously cheap flights for a weekend break or an escape from the winter chill for a week.

Or so they’d have you think.

Those £10, £1 or even ‘free’ flights very rarely end up like that. The cheaper airlines often charge extra for services that most of us previously assume are included in the price of tickets. Ryanair are even considering charging customers for using the on board toilets. Nice.

So, what are these extra charges, and how can you get round them?

1) Checking in luggage

Try to avoid doing this if possible, and instead grab the biggest bag you can that passes the requirements for carry on luggage. Fill it. Also try to wear your heaviest clothes.

2) Debit or Credit card charges

I got caught out on this one recently, as the companies charge between £2.95-10 if you use anything other than an Electron card. A few people made suggestions regarding this on twitter, and the key is to find out exactly what the ticket should cost. Once you’ve worked this out you can buy a gift voucher and pay for the flight with it, which they cannot charge you extra for.

3)  Check in

Try to check in online if possible. Not only will this save you time, but it’ll save you the charge of doing it at the airport. Even so, some airlines will still charge you a fee whether you check in online or when you get there.

4) Advance entry

A lot of the airlines offer you the opportunity to get on the plane earlier in order to choose your seat, for an advanced cost. I wouldn’t waste your money on this unless you’re a family. You can always get there earlier anyway to get to the front of the line.

5) Food and Drink

Take your own. A tub of pringles in the shop round the corner is always going to be cheaper than buying on the plane. Most of the flights are only a couple of hours long so you shouldn’t need to eat anyway.

6) Toilet

Cross your legs. Is it really worth spending a couple of quid when you can just wait until you land in an hour’s time?

Image courtesy of Kossy@FINEDAYS