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magic posts

Filed under: Productivity, Web services, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

Google Reader now sorts your feeds "by magic"

Google has made a couple of big improvements to Google Reader, aimed at helping you easily sift through all those RSS feeds to get to the stories you'll find most relevant. One set of new features focuses on finding relevant content that you weren't already aware of, and another feature sorts the stuff you're already subscribed to.

In the sidebar, you'll notice a new "recommended sources" list. These are sites Google Reader thinks you'll like, based on your browsing habits -- if you've opted-in to let Google track those -- and your reading habits in Reader itself. You'll also see a Popular Items section from around the web, showing you some well-read and potentially relevant posts from sites you're not subscribed to.

In addition to these ways of finding new feeds to read, Google Reader can now sort your existing items "by magic," bringing the most relevant articles to the top of your list. To make this happen, go to the settings dropdown for one of your feeds or folders and choose "sort by magic." The magic is actually an algorithm that takes into account what you read and share in Reader, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm not a frequent Google Reader user, and even my relatively untrained recommendations were interesting. If you share and like items on a regular basis, yours will likely be even better.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web

Hey Wizard is low-color, magical platformer fun - Time Waster


Hey Wizard is fun little Flash Time Waster, though getting a decent screencap was a bit tricky. You'll need both hands to work the controls, which led to several untimely deaths as I tried to snag an action shot.

As you already guessed, you control the short bearded fellow with the wand and pointy hat. Though your tiny mage can't jump, he gets by just fine. Aim your wand at the ground, hold the left mouse button down to charge it up, and release it to fire. You'll go rocketing off like a plastic bag in an updraft.

You've got other spells at your disposal, too, including a flame attack (which doubles as a way to hover) and the mysterious - but very useful - necrohand. Each spell has a recharge time, so don't get caught wandering around firing off willy-nilly. Levels are somewhat open-ended, so there's plenty of adventuring to be done and no shortage of monochromatic baddies to dispatch.

Getting used to the controls and the game's somewhat screwy physics can take time, but Hey Wizard is still a big slice of Friday fun.

[ via JayIsGames ]

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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