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Quizlet
Flash card creation/testing utility
Developer: Brainflare
OS: Web-based
Price: Free
Site: http://quizlet.com/

The humble index card has long been a valuable weapon in a successful student's arsenal, whether it's a fifth grader memorizing French verb conjugations or an undergrad studying for a psychology midterm. But if you're the type who spends their lives on the computer, or just hates the idea of having to write out tens or hundreds of flash cards every time a test looms, you might be looking for a solution slightly more high tech than 3x5 index cards.

Quizlet isn't just a way to create flash cards quickly, though it performs that task very well. It's also a comprehensive testing and sharing system that can handle pretty much everything to do with studying by way of flash card. Creating a set of cards is a snap, with an elegant interface for manual entry and the ability to import data via spreadsheet as well. Similarly, if you need to get data out of Quizlet, it can export raw data or print out flashcards for times when you aren't by a computer.

But Quizlet is first and foremost an online flash card utility. The battery of interactive tests drill you in ways that would be tedious to do with paper alone, and the site's ability to store and share flash cards with others means students can take advantage of a wide array of sets created by others. Next time you have information you need to memorize, you might want to leave the index cards behind and reach for your web browser instead.

AlertThingy (tested v3.02)
Social network news feed aggregator
Developer: Howard Baines
OS: Windows/Mac/Linux (via Adobe AIR)
Price: Free
Site: http://alertthingy.com

Social networking services have made it easier than ever for people with little time (or a lazy streak) to keep in touch with friends and family. Clearly there are a lot of people who fall into this category, because social networking is now nearly ubiquitous — at least, for the computer-owning segment of society. But there are downsides to this success. There are now so many social networking sites out there that it can be difficult to keep track of everyone you know, especially if you're particularly plugged in and can't resist opening accounts on every new site that comes along.

By bringing in the latest updates from several different services under one roof, AlertThingy makes it easier to catch up on the latest happenings in your social circle. The application can pull updates from your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Digg, among other sites, as well as RSS feeds, product searches on Amazon, and term searches on Twitter. You can stick with a single display that mixes updates from all your accounts into one feed, or split everything out so that your Facebook updates are kept separate from Twitter ones.

The best feature in AlertThingy for social network junkies is its ability to manage multiple accounts from the same service. If you have multiple Twitter accounts — say, a personal feed for friends and one for your work contacts — you can add them to AlertThingy and read feeds from while updating each account separately. But even if you just have one account per service, there's plenty to like in AlertThingy.

BabySmash (tested v1.1.0.96)
Keyboard and mouse child-proofer
Developer: Scott Hanselman
OS: Windows
Price: Free
Site: http://www.hanselman.com/babysmash/

Kids are inquisitive creatures, so it's no surprise that computers, bristling with bright lights and shiny buttons, often make for tempting targets of a child's curiosity. And while school-aged children quickly figure out how to use computers properly, those of the toddler persuasion are more likely to prod, poke and smash at a computer's exposed bits. At best, a baby's attempts at provoking a computer can add lines of gibberish to a document you've been working on. At worst, you could lose that document entirely when your child inadvertently figures out how to shut down your computer.

Locking your keyboard and mouse to unwanted input is one way to neutralize your infant's chaotic powers, but BabySmash takes things a step further by not only locking the input devices, but also showering the screen with bright cartoon letters and playing sounds whenever a key is pressed or a mouse button clicked. Everybody wins—you don't have to worry about losing important data and your child gets a pretty lightshow.

BabySmash is fairly basic, lacking some of the customizability features of other programs like Toddler Keys. For starters, you're stuck with two sound packs that can recite the letters of the alphabet or play the sounds of laughter. You also can't customize the quit command for BabySmash, the relatively easy-to-press Alt-F4. But BabySmash is very easy to set up, and because it comes with sounds and graphics out of the box, you don't have to search for amusing noises or pictures yourself—a time-saver any harried parent can appreciate.