Here's an interesting twist on browser history: a Web-based calculator which looks at the sites you've visited, weights that against whether those sites have a larger male or female readership, and then makes an educated guess on whether you're male or female. I came up as 92% male, which sounds about right. How do you score?
Using your browser URL history to estimate gender  [Mike On Ads]

Windows/Mac: Freeware application MarioPaint Composer is a remake of the old-school Mario Paint game for the Super NES, but this one runs on your desktop. More specifically, it mimics the music generator feature of Mario Paint, which creates loops on a musical bar with different sounds tied to classic Nintendo icons. The download page claims that it's available for Windows and Mac, though when I followed the Mac link it just downloaded the Windows version, so your mileage may vary. MarioPaint Composer is freeware, Windows and (maybe) Mac only. If you don't have any composition chops, it's still worth a download just to listen to the familiar classic that's loaded by default.

Breathing new life into the 90's game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, researcher Stephen Dolan at Trinity College Dublin created the Six Degree of Wikipedia. Users can key in any combination of items into the script on his site and find how closely or distantly related the two things are. Lifehacker.com, coming in well under six degrees, is a mere 4 clicks away from Kevin Bacon. (Kevin Bacon - Game - Final Fantasy - Screenshot - Lifehacker.com)

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Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Phun, a free open-source, cross-platform 2D physics simulator, makes you want to pick up blocks, or maybe crayons, and learn more about the way things fall and move under pressure. Written by a Swedish graduate student, the program teaches concepts of restitution and friction, so it's great to load up with the kids, but you'll probably find yourself sneaking a few turns by yourself at creating, and knocking over, shapes and lines. Phun is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems; hit the link for instructions on using and having, well, fun in Phun.

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Mac OS X only: Make your own stop-motion animation videos using your iSight webcam or connected video camera with freeware application FrameByFrame. I showed you how to document your parties with a freeware time-lapse application, and now FrameByFrame is taking care of the stop-motion video angle. It's easy to use, and the results—Lego samples of which you can see on the download page—are very impressive. FrameByFrame is freeware, Mac OS X only.

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The Wired How-To Wiki takes on the age-old art of bar tricks, detailing several impressive and death-defying techniques for impressing and making good when you're out on the town this weekend. Some tricks are more jaw-dropping than others, but the obvious standout is the "Beer Money" trick, which details how to open a bottle of beer with nothing but a one-dollar bill—handy for those times you find yourself without a bottle opener. Of course if you're short on cash, you can do the same thing with a piece of paper. Got a similar bar hack of your own? Let's hear about it in the comments.

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Everybody loves looking back at pictures from a party, but unless you're lucky enough to have one of those friends who brings a camera to every party and does the work for you, documenting the event can be a pain in the ass. Most of us would rather be, you know, partying. Today I'll show you a few ways you can effortlessly—but extensively—document your next party, using everything from freeware software to some cheap hardware for your camera. When you're done, you'll be able to automate your party photos or make taking pictures fun, giving everyone incentive to contribute to the documentation process.

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If you watched too many James Bond movies when you were a kid and you're still dreaming of being a card shark, then the Wired How-To Wiki might be able to help turn you into a high roller.

It brings home the reality of how much you need to be prepared to gamble in order to make money out of it though - it recommends a bankroll of 400 times your average bet. Ouch.

I especially liked that it contains even basic information for gambling newbies, like don't move your lips as you count the cards. :)

Entice and excite your friends with a strangely addictive trick that utilizes some interesting CSS techniques to allow you to see a highlighted image within text. Choose your desired phrase (a paragraph works too) and input the URL of any image in the text boxes. Then press generate. Voila! You'll see a huge chunk of text. Now, highlight the text and watch it turn into the image of your choosing. The code can be downloaded to put on any web page so that you can share the love on your own site too. For other cool toys, check out developer Erik Kastner's Spell with Flickr.

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