Recomendo

Extend your Wi-Fi/1-minute tool reviews/Secret Netflix genres

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Recomendo: issue no. 67

Extend your Wi-Fi
I’ve tried many ways to extend Wi-Fi through my house. Powerline networking, which creates networks through electrical wiring, works the best. TP-Link has a $54 kit with 2 units. One unit plugs into your wall outlet and router. The other unit can be plugged into any wall outlet in your house to provide Wi-Fi in that area. — MF

One-minute video reviews of tools
Recomendo is produced by a tiny team of people who are passionate about tools. In addition to this newsletter, we have a website called Cool Tools with thousands of reviews of useful tools, and a new YouTube channel with brief hands-on video reviews every week. If you like Recomendo, it’s worth your time to check them out. — MF

Never run out of things to watch
This database of secret Netflix genres will help you out when you can’t find anything to watch. Otherwise how would I ever realize I was in the mood to watch a Mother-Daughter Relationship Thriller if I never knew it was an option? Some of the category codes currently have no movies that fit the description, but that’s understandable when they’re so specific. — CD

Japanese transit
Japan is one of the most convenient places in the world to travel. Public transit — both local and long distance — is ubiquitous, frequent, fast, insanely prompt, safe and reliable. However its ubiquity means there is a labyrinth of so many routes that your journey can be an impenetrable puzzle — not to mention the real hurdle of the language barrier. To the rescue comes Google maps. If you chose the transit option for directions it will provide you with brilliantly designed color-coded instructions on which subway/bus/trains to take, exactly where to catch each leg, which line, how many stops, how many minutes you need to walk between, the price, and all the alternative routes, in English. Since Japanese transit runs like clockwork, all this precision turns you into a relaxed native traveller. (Google maps provides similar instructions all over the world, but for Japan’s maze of transit, this is game changing.) — KK

Handy hooks
My husband put these plastic hooks up all the around the house (bedroom/pantry/kitchen/shower) and no hook goes unused. You’ll be surprised what you can find to hang when the hook is there. Another plus is that they’re white like most of our walls, so they’re barely noticeable when not being used. — CD

Quotes I’m pondering
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. — Louis L’Amour

What looks like tomorrow’s problem is rarely the real problem when tomorrow rolls around. — James Fallow

Never take a job for which you are qualified. You won’t grow. — Esther Dyson

That we were absent for a great expanse of time in the past causes no fear. Yet, our impending absence in the future is cause for terror. — Brian Greene

Too many people worry about what AI will do to us. Too few worry about what Power will do *with* AI. — Zeynep Tufekci‏

Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control. — Howard H. Stevenson

What you seek is also seeking you. — Rumi

— KK

-- Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson 11/5/17

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