Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.?

PDFCreator is a beautiful piece of open source software that is more than comparable to to Adobe Acrobat, which will set you back more than $300 for the latest version for the ability to create the now ubiquitous PDF file format. Whether you're running a business and shipping out contracts or invoices, or just find using PDFs more advantageous than Word documents, this is a program you'll love-we promise.

• Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
• Security: Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc.
• Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
• Merge multiple files into one PDF
• And the best: PDFCreator is free, even for commercial use! It is Open Source and released under the Terms of the GNU General Public License.

Create PDF files from nearly any Windows application. (pdfforge.org)

Licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations.

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments was published in the late 60s, as a collection of science experiments that children could do at home. While it was an excellent teaching tool, the authors of the book failed to realize that many of the listed experiments were insanely volatile and potentially life threatening. For example, namby-pamby children's science books in print today encourage budding scientists to mix baking soda and vinegar and watch what happens. By comparison, The Golden Book... provided detailed instructions for producing chlorine gas or sulfuric acid. Fun for the whole family!

The book was pulled in the late 60s, and would never see print again. Copies of the book have been selling on Amazon and eBay for between $200 and $700, for outrageously threadbare copies. But there's a loophole; the original copyright was not renewed, and the book was published prior to the rewriting of the copyright laws, so it's now possible to get a copy online.

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments [.pdf]. (Geek It Yourself)

Combat malaria: Nothing But Nets.

Professional soccer player, and all-around good guy, Diego Gutierrez is raising money to combat malaria, which infects over 400 million people a year and kills between 1-3 million; mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hi, my name is Diego Gutierrez from Bogotá Colombia in South America, I am now living the American dream playing for Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire as a the midfielder. My life now is a stark difference from the first 17 years from my life where I saw poverty first hand everyday living in Colombia. When my wife Ginna and I learned about the devastating effects malaria has, especially on children, we were compelled to action and teamed up with Nothing But Nets and Malaria No More to spread the word and do all we can to encourage others to act. The fact that this terrible disease is preventable and treatable is something we found astonishing – that there are children out there dying, every thirty seconds because they don’t have a simple bed net over their heads. As a soccer player, nets play an essential role in my life too, but it does not mean life-or death.

Nothing But Nets. (BigSoccer.com)

You weren't going to read War and Peace anyway.

Not all of us can be hiding a rock hammer we use to tunnel through the walls of our cell, a secret can of microfilm containing the secrets of the US government over the last half century, or a computer disk copy of a much maligned garbage file. However, a hollow book might come in handy to hide a key or important documents we'd like to see a potential intruder never find. Here is a do-it-yourself tutorial to create a hollow book that anyone could find a use for.

How to make a hollow book. (wikihow.com)

Pat Tillman: Remember his name.

Being that this is in the news again this seems worthwhile. There are three times in a man's life when it is acceptable to tear up. 1) The death of a loved one. 2) Watching the final scene of Field of Dreams or "that part" in Old Yeller. 3) Reading this.

This story makes you proud to be an American simply because Pat Tillman was. It should make you angry to see what happened after his death just for the sake of public relations.

Even as a boy Pat Tillman felt a destiny, a need to do the right thing whatever it cost him. When the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11, he thought about what he had to do and then walked away from the NFL and became an Army Ranger...

One day, God willing, Russell Baer was going to tell his son this story. One day, after the boy's heart and brain had healed, he was going to point to that picture on the kid's bedroom shelf of the man doing a handstand on the roof of a house, take a deep breath and say, Mav, that's a man who lived a life as pure and died a death as muddy as any man ever to walk this rock, and I was there for both. That's the man, when your heart stopped for an hour and they slit you open neck to navel, who I prayed to because ... well, because you wouldn't exist if he hadn't died, and I wouldn't be half of who I am if he hadn't taught me how to live. That's Pat Tillman, the man you take your middle name from, and I've been waiting for you to ask since the day you were born.

Remember his name. (Sports Illustrated)

"Seven reasons to always carry a lighter with you."

While not an avid outdoorsman myself, I'd rather be prepared and be able to save my own life than die because I couldn't figure out what a caveman could and instead spent my final moments cursing Geico's advertising department.

Seven ways to light a fire without a match. (Field and Stream)

One of these men may save your life one day.

Actually, quite of a few of these would have been handy to know in years past. I don't know anyone who can't benefit from these tips.

We all know some remedy myths or old wives tales, but some of them have no effect on conditions, ailments, or illnesses of the human body. If you try any of these myths, you may run the risk of having an adverse reaction or the opposite result of what you would like to happen. So here are ten classic emergency fixes that definitely won’t do in a pinch...

Ten useless or even dangerous first aid myths. (ririan project)

Prove your childhood wasn't a waste of time.

Finish this sequence: up, up, down, down, left...

The Ultimate Video Game Challenge NES. (freewebarcade.com)

Why buy the cow...

Companies like Google and Microsoft give away free software as a courtesy to their users to hook more people on their services ("free as in beer.") But open source organizations are often non-profit and made up of volunteer developers who release free software because they believe users have a right to control their data ("free as in speech.")

I highly recommend 1-4, 6 and 9. Not that the others aren't good, but these some of the first applications I recommend installing whenever I (or a family member/friend) get a new system.

Top 10 open source Windows applications. (Lifehacker)

Warning. You're going to need your towel.

Thirty years on from its creation, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is still among the best known science fiction writing in the English language. Look at the ratings – still there, way up among the Amazon bestsellers in both SF and comedy lists, and right there alongside upstart Booker Prizewinners and other ephemeral froth in the literary rankings. Yet if Douglas Adams was destined to become the 20th century's greatest popular SF writer, it wasn't clear to him in the early days. He wasn't even sure if he was keen on the genre. When asked if he liked science fiction, he'd give one of his typically thoughtful answers:

"Well, yes and no. I like the aspects of it which turn the telescope round, by letting you stand so far outside things and see them from a totally different perspective. That's what I try to do in Hitchhiker's, and that's what I think the best science fiction does. Science fiction that's just about people wandering around in space ships shooting each other with ray guns is very dull. I like it when it enables you to do fairly radical reinterpretations of human experience, just to show all the different interpretations that can be put on apparently fairly simple and commonplace events. That I find fun."

Douglas Adams: The First and Last Tapes. (darkmatter.com)

This isn't what you think it is. It's just cool.

Soda Constructor (sodaplay.com

They want to make the Costanza wallet bigger?

The Real ID Act will come into force next year unless Congress takes action to alter the law, but it won't happen without opposition from the very states charged with implementing it. That's bad news for the bill's supporters, who argue that Real ID will make it easier to fight crime and catch terrorists, but the growing surge of momentum against the law is sweet music to the ears of libertarians, civil-liberties organizations, and budget-conscious state officials.

A Real ID revolt? (ars technica)

He actually had a bigger career than Mark Hamil.

I'm not even that big a Star Wars fan and even I found this to be frighteningly funny and mildly insightful. I promise you though, if you watch any of the films after reading this you'll see them in an entirely new light.

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

R2-D2, the real leader of the rebellion? (Keith Martin)

Not that anyone wants to be you, but if they did...

Identity theft is a growing problem that most of us have heard of, but do you know what to do if you find yourself a victim? Here are some steps you can take to make the recovery as easy...well, easier than it might be otherwise. Here's hoping that you don't ever have to deal with it, though statistics show that almost half of the US population will (in some form) at some point in their lives.

Eight things to do if your identity is stolen. (Credit Pro@worldpress)

If only you knew this back in college.

How to escape professional handcuffs. (Fun Distraction)

Because you don't have the guts in real life.

This game combines the two greatest things in life - base jumping and immortality (or the 'reset' button) and packages them into a simple yet addictive little time waster. Start out as an amateur and you'll get the hang of things, then move on to the professional version and prepare to find out what terminal velocity does to a little trash talking orange dot.

Elite Base Jumping. (Awful Games)

That little paper clip just sits there, mocking me.

Make Microsoft Word less annoying. (Lifehacker)

Go to MIT for the low low price of...free.

By the end of this year, the contents of all 1,800 courses taught at one of the world's most prestigious universities will be available online to anyone in the world, anywhere in the world. Learners won't have to register for the classes, and everyone is accepted.

The cost? It's all free of charge.

The OpenCourseWare movement, begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002 and now spread to some 120 other universities worldwide, aims to disperse knowledge far beyond the ivy-clad walls of elite campuses to anyone who has an Internet connection and a desire to learn.

How to go to MIT for Free. (CS Monitor)

Chopping broccoli...I mean onions

There's a lady I know
If I didn't know her
She'd be the lady I didn't know.

And my lady, she went downtown
She bought some broccoli
She brought it home.

She's chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli
Chopping broccoli

She's chopping broccoli
She's chopping broccoli
She's chop.. ooh!
She's chopping broccola-ah-ie!

How to avoid crying when chopping onions. (Lifehacker)

There is more than porn in Indiana

So here is the deal. Maybe you hadn't heard, but there is this fantastic thing called the Internet that exists to provide all of its users with information about anything; and with porn. Lots and lots of porn. However, the Internet is huge. I'm not talking like a 'yo momma' joke huge, but more like 'a mini universe in the fingernail of another giant being' huge; and it has more information floating around in it than anyone could ever hope to absorb, but here is the kicker: most of it isn't porn. There is actually some interesting, and occasionally useful stuff out there. Yea, I know! Who knew?

"But how is this possible?" you're likely asking yourself right now. Well let me tell you how the Internet works. You see, there is this series of tubes...

Want to know how to cut an onion up and not cry? Want to know how to make Microsoft Word just a wee bit less annoying? Want to know how to go to MIT for free? All of these answers can be found on the Internet (and incidentally are coming soon to this site).

To make things a little easier, we're going to do the work for you by filtering out the porn (and maybe keeping some for ourselves on occasion). Every so often we'll bring you a link to a news story, scientific paper, op/ed, time wasting game, tech tip, or do-it-yourself project that anyone with even a little innate curiosity will find interesting and maybe even benefit from. All you have to do is be at your desk on time and not tell us whose best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night.