Want to lose weight fast? New York City has some advice.

Experts say, for example, that people who eschew sugary sodas like Coca-Cola or Pepsi in favor of “sports” or “energy” drinks are no better off. The health department urges residents to stay away from those drinks, as well as punch, fruit-flavored drinks and even store-prepared coffees and teas, which often come packed with sugar. (Officials say that if you drink coffee or tea, order it plain and add flavoring.)

Simple changes to Windows applications that can make them *more* usable

Task Manager, Device Manager, any MMC snap-in will be benefited a great deal by a Search bar at the top of the UX. I am almost always looking for a certain device or application; having to sort the list by name and then searching manually through the list is so 90s

With Search becoming so pervasive in the OS, I think this is one frontier of the UX that Microsoft has forgotten to bring up to date with the times. Is someone in the Windows team listening?

The Games Amazon Plays

Like the Google Zeitgeist captures (some would argue accurately) the culturally relevant topics of the year gone by, I believe this information from Amazon would more accurately depict the sentiment of the customer on the street:

"From clothes to shoes to wireless phones to video games and electronics — Amazon sells them all and can accurately track the spending sentiment amongst its buyers. The company does publish some data occasionally, but what would be even cooler was if Amazon published its own “state of the economy” report every month, which would contain data that’s both more current and more accurate than some of what’s collected and published by governmental organizations."

Given how much secrecy Amazon likes to shroud its operations with, I doubt trends in its retail sales will ever be made public information. No harm in hoping though, right...

On the iPhone being a disappointment (Courtesy Scripting News)

Sharp words from an Internet-as-a-platform visionary. There is a world of truth in the iPhone being everything but a good phone, but I couldn't have put it in words like Dave does here: (excerpted from Scripting News)

There's still a ton of Woz in the Mac, I am typing this on a gorgeous unibody MacBook Pro, which is probably the most lovely computer I've ever used. The software I'm using has never been approved by Apple, and can be downloaded from the Internet. Next to it is an iPhone, which I use only as a phone, an IM device and a communicating camera. It sucks as a phone. The IM is okay and the camera is really nice. But as a platform it's a complete total disappointment.