Say what you will about Jason Calacanis, but I believe he’s created a winner in Mahalo, a human powered search engine where guides filter through the results and provide links to only the best results.

Mahalo is like getting a single page of Google results that are all helpful. For example, when I click on BMW 3 Series I get a single page of relevant results. Compare this with Google’s results for the same search term. Google’s results aren’t bad, but navigate past the first page and things get sketchy.

Mahalo doesn’t yet have the reach of Google nor will it ever. Today, you won’t find very obscure topics or products (like Grado headphones) but they have covered a lot of ground in only a short time. And even when Mahalo doesn’t cover a topic, it presents you with results from Google. This is very helpful.

I find myself using Mahalo more and more because it doesn’t flood me with useless information. I am able to drill down to the most relevant details very quickly without a lot of trial and error. And it will only get better as more pages come online.

There are a few items that I use each day that I can’t imagine being without. And none of them have anything to do with electronic or computer equipment. Here are three of my favorite things:

Ghurka Wallet – I originally purchased this wallet at Nordstrom for Kim about 7 years ago, and took it over from her when she wanted a larger wallet. It’s the perfect shape and size, and the leather feels as good today as it did when I bought it. The craftsmanship is impeccable. Not a single stitch has come loose. Ghurka also uses leather throughout rather than cutting corners by using cheap fabric on the inside lower pockets and bill separator.

Maui Jim Sunglasses – I’ve owned a number of different sunglasses before a friend told me about Maui Jim. About four years ago I went looking for a new pair of sunglasses and found a shop that carried a number of brands. The sales clerk let me take 4 or 5 pairs outside the shop to test in the sun. When I tried on the Maui Jim pair I was sold. The lenses really are a substantial improvement over anything else I’ve tried. They are not cheap, but mine have lasted four years now and I like them as much today as the day I bought them.

Tumi Laptop Bag – This bag goes everywhere I go. It’s made of nearly indestructible ballistic nylon which makes it but easy to clean. It has four smaller compartments on the front that make storing and retrieving my wallet, sunglasses, iPod and checkbook a cinch. The main compartment is separated by a padded wall that keeps my laptop safe and snug. Everything on the bag is made of quality materials such as the zippers, leather handles and padded shoulder strap. This is the first product from Tumi I’ve owned and I’ve been very impressed.

All three of these items costs a bit more than their competitors. But each has held up well over time and should last me for years to come.

I added another NEC MultiSync 90GX2 monitor to the mix today. That makes two incredibly delicious screens at 2560×1024. I’m in heaven!

I went to the Microsoft company store this afternoon with a friend. I didn’t find the software I was after but did find a fingerprint reader. I figured it would save me the hassle of remembering the couple dozen or so passwords I have for my computer and various websites.

But so far it only works to log me in to Windows XP and on couple of websites. It won’t work with Amazon, either of my banks or New Egg just to name a few.

Either I’m doing something wrong (likely) or this fingerprint reader is only going to knock a few seconds off the very few times I reboot XP. Now if I were running Vista just imagine how much time it would be saving me. 🙂

This little device is saving me at least 3 to 4 seconds a day

Did someone make this up as a joke? I had no idea there were FOURTEEN word processors still around! And we need a new name for these products. ‘Word processor’ has such an old fashioned ring to it. When someone says word processor I assumed they’ve fired up WordPerfect 6 for DOS.

Kudos to DonationCode for hunting down all fourteen of these bad boys.

For the record, I use Word 2007. But I find myself using it far less than in years past. I spend more time in WordPress than Word.

-from Lifehacker

I’ve been thinking of all the products we’ve bought over the years in preparation for each baby. We loaded up on products when our first child was born because, like most parents, we freaked out a bit and felt like we needed to have everything ready to go the day our baby arrived. We were wrong but we’ve improved with each child. We are expecting our fourth child the first part of December and we’ve been making a mental list of items we need to have on hand such as a new car seat.

We’ve made some dumb purchases over the years but the twin stroller wasn’t one of them. When our third child arrived our second was still crawling around making it hard to go anywhere without a stroller. But what do you do with two kids who can’t yet walk? Call in the twin!

We looked at a number of models from Graco, Cosco, Evenflo, and Peg Perago, but we kept coming back to the twin stroller from Maclaren that Lisa at ParentsNeed recommended. Two features made the Maclaren better than the other models we tested: It was very lightweight and easy to turn with one hand. The ability to turn with one hand may not seem like a big deal but it was to Kim because, with three kids, she’d often be holding the hand of our oldest child while wheeling the stroller with the other hand.

So I bought a blue Maclaren twin wondering how much use we’d actually get out of it. But Kim was right and I was wrong as usual because we’ve certainly got our money’s worth out of that stroller. It’s perfect for trips to the mall, walks in the park or around the neighborhood. It’s light enough for Kim to easily lift in and out of the car.

If you have two young kids, even if they can walk, I highly recommend it. We bought ours at Albee Baby.

Sigg has a line of aluminum water bottles called Baby Sigg. They are well-made, easy to use and our kids love them. They are perfect to take along in the car and they make it fun to drink water instead of high calorie root beer or juice.

You can sometimes find them at REI but Amazon carries the widest selection I’ve come across. Since I bought my bright blue Sigg last month, Kim decided she needed a red one and I bought a black one for home. I’ve drank a lot more water at home and at work since I bought them.

In the few days since I bought a Motorola Q, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. Better than I expected. I like it better than my Palm 650 that Kim’s now using.

Pros:

Bright, clear screen
Very thin, fits well in hand
Good voice quality
Exchange integration is excellent
Portable Messenger is fantastic
Very good device for email and text messaging
Lots of decent programs to choose from
Very good backlighting

Cons:

Tiny keys make for many typing mistakes
Performance is slower than Palm but acceptable
ActiveSync is abysmal compared to Palm Desktop sync
I haven’t figured out a quick way to get to the CALL LOG
Battery life could be better
Can’t charge and connect to USB at same time like Palm

But overall, I really like the Q. I wish I could switch to T-Mobile for for their $20 unlimited data plan (compared to $45 for Verizon) but I get a better signal at my home with Verizon. But being able to receive and reply to my Microsoft email is the killer app here. If I could have done this on the Palm I would not have switched phones. Having Messenger on the Q is also great.

Now I just need to find a good Twitter program for the Q. I know I can use SMS but it’s so ugly. I’d love a portable version of Tweetr.

I’ve enjoyed my Palm 650 quite a bit. But after three weeks of watching my coworkers being able to read email on their Windows Mobile phones I decided to take the plunge and get a Motorola Q. I happened to be looking over Craigslist just as a lady was posting her new, black Q for sale. I called her and bought the phone tonight.

This will be the first phone I’ve owned that run Windows Mobile and I’m not sure what to think so far. It’s not quite as responsive as my old Palm but it’s not bad. The screen is clear and bright. If I’m able to pull my email and use Messenger on it, it will be worth the hassle to switch. It’s incredibly thin and light and I like the black finish. I can’t believe it’s only been three weeks at Microsoft and I’m already drinking the Kool-Aid.