By Jason Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker – September 23, 2010 at 09:30AM
If you’re staring down a cryptic error code, web site ErrorGoblin can help you decipher what it means, give you additional information to further your search, and even provide a solution for the particular error you’re encountering.
ErrorGoblin supports Windows, Mac. and HTTP errors. (You don’t have an option to select HTTP error codes, but it will return information if you plug one in.) The search results show information for the error code you searched for, plus similar codes in case there wasn’t a perfect match. Error codes with available solutions will display the solution under the additional information section of the error code readout.
ErrorGoblin is a free tool and requires no registration. Have a favorite tool for divining error codes? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
After installing LastPass and setting it up with a few passwords, you might notice that it’s a bit, well, overzealous in its reminders, notices, and questions. Asking to save new passwords or change them? Sure, that makes sense. Reminding you every time LastPass fills in a form, or offering to generate a new password on every site? Not so helpful.
Just because your passwords are locked away in LastPass doesn’t mean they’re actually good passwords. If you give LastPass permission to run through your passwords, the app can show you which are decent, which are pretty much asking to be hacked, and provide direct links to where you can fix them.
For various reasons—weird design and intentional lock-downs among them—LastPass can’t or won’t take note of the username/password combo on some sites and offer to save it. This also applies to sites that have sub-sections you can log into.
Like all the apps that you plan to use every day, you should get familiar with LastPass’ keyboard shortcut powers. In this case, though, you’ll mostly create your own scheme that’s familiar to your fingers.
If you’ve got some really sensitive stuff stashed in LastPass, or you’re heading somewhere without real guarantees of security (like, say, 
You’ll notice, peeking around LastPass’ settings, that there are certain features that are only available if you “Install the binary version.” These are usually system-wide features that browser extensions wouldn’t grant access to, but they’re pretty convenient, especially if you use more than one browser regularly. With the 
You’ll find them in everything from food containers to electronics packaging, but silica packets are a cheap and abundant desiccant you can use all around your home to keep things dry. Toss a few in your toolbox for rust-free tools.
If taking notes isn’t quite your style, you can import conversations, interviews, lectures, or any other voice recording into free service VoiceBase, which will transcribe them and make them searchable.
While lots of newsletters and mailing lists fall into the “spam” category, sometimes you want to read them but don’t want them cluttering up your inbox. Filter them out in Gmail by including these oft-used phrases.
As the editor of 
