Since caffeine and coding go together like peanut-butter and jelly I thought I would talk about this drug of choice.

We truly are a nation of drug addicts. With alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, most people are more amped than Steve Balmer talking to a bunch of developers.

Bennet Weinberg has written two books on coffee. His latest is called “The Caffeine Advantage.” Weinberg says caffeine is the world’s most popular drug. More than 50 percent of Americans drink coffee everyday — three to four cups each, more than 330 million cups a day and counting… When you add tea and soft-drinks, more than 80 percent of Americans are getting their fix.

It’s no coincidence that all the most popular drinks on earth, which taste quite different from each other, all contain caffeine.

A report by CBS says that caffeine is one of the fastest acting drugs known to man. When we drink it, almost every cell in the body, including the brain, absorbs it within minutes. There, caffeine works it’s magic by blocking something called adenosine, a chemical the body releases to tell the brain it’s tired. Caffeine intercepts the adenosine, turning the “I’m tired,” message into “I’m wide awake.” The result is an invigorating buzz coffee drinkers crave.

Some studies indicate that caffeine can help alleviate headaches. Caffeine is present in both over-the-counter medications (Excedrin) and prescription medications. Caffeine acts to constrict blood vessels and therefore helps some headaches.

Weinberg says, “We really want something that’ll help us work harder, sharpen our minds, increase our sense of well-being, improve our performance; caffeine is just that substance.” Is that guy pimpin’ caffeine or what?

What’s your thoughts — do you drink caffeine?

Do you think it helps with coding?

What’s your beverage of choice while coding?

You know what they say about all work and no play…

So let’s hear it - what’s your all time favorite vids to play?

Here’s mine:

1. Ultima IV - The quintessential RPG.
2. Half Life 2 - Upped the ante on the excellent HL1.
3. Unreal Tournament - The best multiplayer game ever.
4. Monkey Island - So funny and so well written.
5. Duke Nukem 3D - The first online FPS that started me down a long dark road.
6. Mortal Combat II - On the Sega, in the dorms, FATALITY!
7. Call of Duty - Totally absorbing.
8. Lode Runner - A classic from 1983. Commodore 64’s best.
9. Dragons Lair - 1983 was a good year. Laser disk first. Most my allowance ate by that machine at the Mall.
10. Mario Kart (DS) - Great multiplayer fun.

There’s a lot of cool things happening on Search-This in the months ahead! I wanted to take a moment and share them with you:

• Paul has a new CSS article coming this Wednesday! I read it - it’s great!
• I have an article coming out next week that will look at some of the biggest blogging mistakes. So you’ll want to make sure you’re not guilty of any of them.
• Sara has several Random Bits podcast lined up with some huge names in the industry. I can’t wait! You should see who she’s talking with!
• Question and answer sessions with Roger Johansson and Seth Godin! Is that not enough to get you excited! (What questions would you like us to ask these two gurus?)
• More guest authors will be dropping in!
• And hopefully June will see my first eBook! If you build websites for a living then I think you will like this eBook…

I’m excited - there’s a lot cool things on the horizon! If you haven’t already subscribed to Search-This, now would be a good time to do so!

Also, take a moment and tell us what you would like to see in the future from Search-This. What articles would you like to read? Who would you like to have interviewed in a Random Bits podcast? Tell us how you really feel!

It seems our friend Chris Garrett has meme-tagged Search-This.

First, a little background on memes. The term meme originated by well known and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’. A meme, as defined by Google is, “a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.”

Well… that was nice, what does it mean in blogging?

For bloggers memes have become synonymous with internet quizzes, surveys, and novelties that people link to and pass around on their blogs.

Many of these memes are trivial and not worth participating in, let alone asking your precious blog viewers to participate in. But, not this one! This one has a cause — this one is — the Charity Link Meme!

Simply put, you are giving link love to charities. Take the original list and add your 5 charities of choice to the list!

Here is the original list …

• Service International - Disaster Relief
• Pujols Family Foundation - Children with Down Syndrome
• National Alliance to End Homelessness - Homelessness
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research - Parkinson’s Research
• Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program - Child Healthcare
• Aids Research Alliance - Aids Research
• Wildlife Conservation Society - Wildlife Protection
• Cancer Research Institute - Cancer Research
• Second Harvest - End Hunger
• AARP Foundation - Helping Senior Citizens

… My five charities of choice…

• The National Arbor Day Foundation
• Compassion International
• World Wildlife Fund
• The Humane Society
• Global Refuge International

… And the people I am going to tag…

• Tomas
• Sara
• John
• Brendon
• Jelena

Go to it people! Give some love today

Kevin Rose’s (Founder Digg)
favorite free programs

• AVG Anti-Virus (Antivirus app)
• Eraser (Data removal tool)
• Firefox (Web browser)
• GIMPShop (Image editor)
• Picasa (Photo management)
• SmartFTP (FTP app)
• Thunderbird (E-mail client)

Since it appears that I was the last man on Earth to learn about Firebug, I thought I would ask - what are your favorite free programs?

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that human beings are connected through relationships with at most six other people. Several studies, have been conducted to measure this connectedness and while the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small.

The concept really gained popularity with the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game: the goal is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six connections, where two actors are connected if they have appeared in a movie together. It’s almost scary how difficult it is to find an actor who is not connected to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps or less. In fact, I just tried Audry Hepburn and she scored a 2!

Audrey Hepburn was in How to Steal a Million (1966) with Eli Wallach

Eli Wallach was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon

I surf the web a lot. And many of the websites I come across link to Jeffrey Zeldman; it’s an astonishing number. It got me thinking, I wonder if we couldn’t create a “Six Degrees of Jeffrey Zeldman” game?

So I had to give it a shot. I figured why not start here at Search-This and see if I could get to Zeldman in 6 steps or less. It took me slightly over an hour (with American Idol playing in the background) to find a path.

From Search-This I went to BrainFuel, a blog I visit daily. That’s one. Next we find a link to our friend Tomas’s site The Closet Entrepreneur. That’s two. Now it gets tricky because I have to go to sites I have never been before. At the bottom of Tomas’s site is a link to Design Verb blog. That’s three. On the right you will find a link to Design Observer. That’s four. Next you find a link to Kottke.org and from there we find Zeldman!

Since its conception the goal of Search-This was to help web developers make their web sites more successful. Search-This focused primarily on teaching about search engine optimization and website promotion. While this still remains a top priority of Search-This it has become clear that in order to have a successful web site there are more areas that need attention.

So I have traveled far and wide to assemble an elite team of super geeks humans to help. Over the next month I will be introducing new members of the Search-This team. Each member is highly skilled in an area of web development. These areas will include SEO, CSS, PHP, Ajax, .NET, XML, Flash and many other three letter abbreviations!

Together, I believe this team will be able to provide you with the expertise and knowledge you need to make your web site the most successful that it can be!

Thanks and stay tuned,
Mark Angeletti (Golgotha)