What's the first program just about anybody writes in a new language?

Why, Hello World, of course.  And now, you can be Hello World fluent in 300 languages.  Including Shakespeare:

Juliet:
 Speak YOUR mind! You are as bad as Hamlet! You are as small as the
 difference between the square of the difference between my little pony
 and your big hairy hound and the cube of your sorry little
 codpiece. Speak your mind!

Just a snippet, mind you.  There's more to the "program" but you know how the Bard's code always needed optimization.   RedCode also looks a bit bloated, but what do I know?  I'm a VB guy:

Private Sub Form_Load()
Print "Hello World"
End Sub

http://i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=26610



Next up: Robotic cat field hockey.

Sometimes you just want to send somebody a file, period.  If you're lucky enough to have an FTP server handy, or your ISP permits emailing big files it's not too hard.  But occasionally you might find yourself using an alien computer on the wrong side of the firewall.  What then?

Enter PipeBytes.

http://www.pipebytes.com/index.php



It's an internet service accessed by going to the PipeBytes web page.  Nothing to install, and (they say) it works in most browsers on most operating systems.  It's absurdly simple and requires no registration to use -- and free to you, since it's ad supported.

To send a file, click the "Send" button and browse for it.  Attach an optional message describing what you're sending.  Hit the "Upload" button and instead of spooling your file immediately, you get a nice hypertext link and a pickup key.  Send your recipient the link + key, they login to PipeBytes and enter the key.  THAT's when your file streams to their computer.

At no time is your file stored on anyone's server, so it offers a bit more privacy than other solutions.  However, the model only supports one-time A-to-B transfers, which means it's not a broadcast mechanism or file sharing platform.  And that may be exactly what you need sometimes.