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Online hearing test
I get my eyes checked every year, but haven’t had my hearing tested since I was in high school. Soundly.com has a free 5-minute hearing test that was designed by audiologists and sound engineers. It’s for educational purposes only, but a good place to start nonetheless. I took the test and it reported back I have mild hearing loss which is not at all surprising or alarming. It just motivates me to mention this at my next physical. — CD

What font is that?
When I need to know the name of a font (say so I can seek it out and use it myself), I snap a screen shot of it and place it in this free website, WhatTheFont, which usually identifies it. — KK

External DVD drive
I recently bought a 3-disc CD set and needed to rip it to iTunes but my laptop doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive. I bought this tiny USB-powered CD/DVD reader-writer for under $20. I plugged it in my laptop and inserted a CD. iTunes opened automatically, I clicked a button and the songs downloaded to my computer without a hitch. I’m sure it will come in handy for watching my old DVDs, too. — MF

Best travel guidebooks
Wherever I am headed to, I always buy the latest edition of a good guidebook. It’s a cheap bargain compared to the cost of the trip. I use all the brands, RoughGuides, Moon, Brandt, Fodors, and many independents, but by far the consistently best guides are Lonely Planet. Crammed with info, maps, prices, all dutifully updated frequently. I think they do the best job or orientation, organizing, and serving angles of interests, If you go to the Lonely Planet website and look up your destination, they’ll tell you when the next edition is due so you can judge whether you want to wait. — KK

Real forest sounds
Tree.fm plays the sounds of forests, recorded by people who’ve visited them. The website also displays a beautiful full screen photo for each forest soundtrack you play. — MF

Twitter thread of self-fulfillment questions
Greg Isenberg says he asked 1 billionaire, 1 PHD math professor and 1 99-year-old man what self-Greg Isenberg says he asked 1 billionaire, 1 PHD math professor and 1 99-year-old man what self-reflection questions they asked themselves and then he shared them in a Twitter thread, as a list of questions to make you feel more fulfilled in life, love & career. The ones I’m pondering are:

• What is it that I can think of, read, watch, listen and talk about for hours on end without tiring of it?
• What would this look like if it was fun?
• How do I want my life to be different in one year?

— CD

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

10/30/22