measure

Daily Tidbits: 'Obama Girl' partners with Stickam for inauguration

Amber Ettinger, better known as "Obama Girl," has teamed up with Stickam for coverage of the presidential inauguration. Live coverage will be streamed live Monday at 8 p.m. EST from InauguralFest, and viewers will be able to see what she is doing all day at the inauguration starting at 10 a.m. EST Tuesday.

Integrated Media Measurement, an online research firm, found (PDF) that women between the ages of 15 and 48 tend to watch a television show and surf the Web an average of 17.5 minutes per day, while men do the same for just … Read more

A more accurate way to serve up a spoonful of sugar

If you're a baker, you know that precise measurements mean everything. So much so, that expert bakers tell us ways to spoon flour into measuring cups in order to avoid compacting the flour and using too much. For smaller measurements, using methods like this are much more difficult, if not impossible.

Using standard measuring spoons can result in too much or too little ingredients (like too much yeast or too little baking soda), completely changing the consistency of the finished product. This precision spoon scale by Admetior alleviates this problem by having a digital weight measurement built right into … Read more

Double duty measuring cups

I have a small kitchen. I'm pretty ruthless about what I let into my kitchen drawers because there's just not enough room. But I haven't been able to get away from having separate sets of measuring cups and measuring spoons until I found Tovolo's Hemisphere Measuring Cups. These stainless steel measuring cups have handles that double as measuring spoons: the cups range in size from 1/4 cup to 1 cup, while the spoons range from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon. The set includes four cups, that all have graduated measurements to make your baking … Read more

Flexible measuring cups aim for precise pouring

I am a big fan of time-saving steps in the kitchen. I look for ways to avoid messing up yet another utensil, bowl, or what have you. Other times I simply combine steps into one: If a recipe calls for one cup of that, and half cup of another thing, I measure them at the same time. If I need a beaten egg, that gets thrown in on top. One measuring cup, one fork, and that's that.

I appreciate utensils and kitchen tools that can help me out. The Flex-It Measuring Cups certainly can. Created from silicon, the sturdy, … Read more

Get precisely measured salad dressing every time

I like salads. I can't think of any meal that is more customizable. Basically, you cut a bunch of stuff up and throw it in a bowl. Which as a definition for salad suits me just fine. Whether I decide chunks of meat constitute a salad or opt for a vegetable-based ensemble, as long as it's in a bowl, I call it a salad. (As long as it's not soup, that is). More often than not, as a final touch, I reach for oil and vinegar.

Oil and vinegar are a classic combination and offer even more … Read more

Throw away your measuring spoons

For the chef who likes to keep their kitchen clean as they're cooking, traditional measuring spoons are a pain in the neck. Especially if you use them when you're baking, having to repeatedly wash your set of measuring spoons in between half teaspoons of baking soda, cinnamon, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper gets really annoying. I have the kind of measuring spoon with a slider that can be set to different increments, so I have to wash mine every time it's used while I'm cooking.

What's an elegant solution to this kind of water-wasting … Read more

Google plans new Internet measurement tool

Google is expected to unveil on Tuesday a tool that measures Internet use to help advertisers identify the best places to buy ads that will reach their target audiences, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The measurement tool, which will be offered free to advertisers and their agencies, will compete with services offered by established leaders Nielsen and ComScore. While those services base their estimations on selective surveys or customer panels, the newspaper said, Google's results will be based on data collected from Web servers, providing a deeper and broader picture of Internet behavior. By giving away the … Read more

Make numbers less boring with SensibleUnits

One of my buddies who is a finance nerd spends weeks at a time working on giant, awe inducing Excel spreadsheets. He seems like the perfect type to enjoy SensibleUnits, a silly service that takes standards measurements and converts them to real-world items like Alaskan moose-antlers, football fields, and London buses. The hope is that you can take any number of units (large or small) and make it a little more interesting. Any writer or storyteller would be wise to bookmark this.

For the more visually inclined, check out Nikon's Universcale site which maps out objects in the world … Read more

Web analytics and Twitter: An incomplete story

Hitwise released research this week reporting that Twitter had a nice relative growth spurt this year. The key word is relative. The site grew from a market share of a whopping 0.0005 percent (U.S. Internet visits to Twitter.com) to 0.0016 percent in April. That places the Twitter.com site at number 439 on the list of social networks. I'll bet if you try to name the 438 social nets above Twitter you'll run out of gas well before you hit 50.

You've got to start somewhere, though, so I don't quite understand … Read more