On Computers

“SpeakaZoo” (iPhone/iPad only) lets children talk to cartoon animals, and they talk back. The free app has built-in speech recognition that works pretty well. It understood questions like “What’s your name?” and simple answers like yes or no. When we said “I like you,” the elephant said “I like you too Zookeeper.” Most of the animals are wistful. We hope the next version has happier creatures. Could be the zoo environment.

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“Gmail Inbox” organizes your email to save time. If you already use Gmail filters, you won’t need it. Right now, it’s by invitation only, but you can request an invite at Google.com/inbox.

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“Slovoed” offers one free talking dictionary each month for every kind of smart phone. This month it’s Russian to Arabic. It includes flash cards, common phrases and other learning tools. You can purchase any other dictionary from within the app. There’s a long list of dictionaries for $8 to $28. PC and Mac versions cost more.

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Kickassfacts.com has a huge variety. In “history’s bad asses,” we learned that French Marshall Ferdinand Foch said the Versailles Treaty ending World War I was not a peace accord but an armistice for 20 years. World War II broke out 20 years and 65 days later. On the home page, we read of a Game of Thrones actress who got stuck on a different kind of throne (a toilet seat) because she was covered in so much fake blood.

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Encurious.com collects curiosities: photos, for example, of an 80 year-old man who hasn’t bathed in 60 years.

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In a recent column, we suggested using “msconfig” or Windows 8’s task manager to prevent too many programs from loading at start-up, slowing down your computer. A reader pointed out that a free program called “WinPatrol” from WinPatrol.com does the same job and provides more information.

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One of our best friends passed away recently, and we were reminded of the digital afterlife: Facebook accounts and email that just keeps going.

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At Crowdmed.com, doctors, patients and researchers offer opinions on the correct diagnosis for medical conditions that have hitherto defied analysis and treatment. This is, in its way, the ultimate value of the Internet: the idea that if you can query the whole world, someone, somewhere, may know the answers to very difficult questions.

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Our niece has a baby and was looking for a way to generate some income without leaving the house. So she went to a website we’d never heard of, Flippa.com, and bought a business for $365. She’s already $100 ahead.

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30 Useful Car Hacks that Every Driver Should Know. If you’re driving an unfamiliar car, look for the arrow next to the tiny image of a gas pump in the fuel gauge indicator. It points to the side the gas tank is on. Soak a newspaper in warm water and place it over hard-to-remove window stickers. Use the car’s floor mats for traction to get out of mud or snow.

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