Here is a list of my favorite Google advanced search operators, operator combinations, and related uses:

• link:URL = lists other pages that link to the URL.
• related:URL = lists other pages that are related to the URL.
• site:domain.com “search term = restricts search results to the given domain.
• allinurl:WORDS = shows only pages with all search terms in the url.
• inurl:WORD = like allinurl: but filters the URL based on the first term only.
• allintitle:WORD = shows only results with terms in title.
• intitle:WORD = similar to allintitle, but only for the next word.
• cache:URL = will show the Google cached version of the URL.
• info:URL = will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.
• filetype:SOMEFILETYPE = will restrict searches to that filetype
• -filetype:SOMEFILETYPE = will remove that file type from the search.
• site:www.somesite.net “+www.somesite.net” = shows you how many pages of your site are indexed by google
• allintext: = searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title
• allinlinks: = searches only within links, not text or title
• WordA OR WordB = search for either the word A or B
• “Word” OR “Phrase” = search exact word or phrase
• WordA -WordB = find word A but filter results that include word B
• WordA +WordB = results much contain both Word A and Word B
• ~WORD = looks up the word and its synonyms
• ~WORD -WORD = looks up only the synonyms to the word

So here’s a list of some things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’

1. Check delicious popular tags like ‘useful,’ ‘tutorials,’ ‘tips,’ ‘howto,’ ‘advice,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ etc. for interesting, educational articles to read.
2. Watch one of the thousands of educational videos streaming at TED.com,Academic Earth and Teacher Tube.
3. Read an online book list and find a new book to grab next time I’m at the library. Here’s another list. And another. And another.
4. Read a classic book online for free at Project Gutenberg, Planet eBook, or the E-books Directory.
5. Research a new Do It Yourself project at DIY Network, Instructables,eHow, or WikiHow.
6. Add to, delete from, or just generally sort my ongoing to-do list atRemember The Milk.
7. Create a cool graphical mind map of some of my recent ideas at bubbl.us.
8. Email a close friend or family member I haven’t spoken to in awhile.
9. Backup my recent photos, documents, and other important files online using Microsoft’s free 25 gig SkyDrive.
10. Use Wikipedia’s random article function to pick a random article to read.
11. Touch up on my math and science skills over a the Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, or LearningScience.org.
12. Send a paper greeting card directly to a friend or relative at enGreet.
13. Start learning a new language online for free at BBC Languages orLivemocha.
14. Watch one of the insightful 6 minute and 40 second presentations atIgnite Show.
15. Use Memorize Now to memorize a cool joke, or poem, or whatever.
16. Use Media Convert to convert video files I have on my computer into a format I can view on my iPhone or iPod later on.
17. Listen to an educational podcast over at Odeo or via iTunes on iTunes U.
18. Read one of the academic journals at the Directory of Open Access Journals.
19. Share my favorite mp3s, photos, videos, etc. with friends and family usingdrop.io.
20. Get a free college education online using this guide from Lifehacker (or read one of the other useful articles on Lifehacker).
21. Inspire and spark my creative mind by looking at a rolling slideshow of the highest rated photos on Flickr for the last 7 days.
22. Catch up on a short history lesson at HyperHistory or The Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Or find out what happened today in history.
23. Take a fun, educational online quiz at Quizlet.
24. Play an educational online game at Lumosity, Sporcle, Games for the Brain, or Math Run.
25. Add a little gentle rain to my environment using RainyMood.com and then simply meditate and relax in my computer chair for 10 minutes.
26. Sell old stuff I no longer need on eBay and make a little extra cash.
27. Find a new musical artist to listen to based on music I like at Grooveshark,Pandora, last.fm, or Deezer.
28. Find out what’s happening in our world from quality international news sources like BBC News and Reuters.
29. Write a blog post like this one.

What kind of semi-productive things do you do online in your off-time? Please share them with me in the comments section below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks, whose central theme is that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later". This idea is known as Brooks's law, and is presented along with the second-system effectand advocacy of prototyping.

Brooks's observations are based on his experiences at IBM while managing the development of OS/360. He had mistakenly added more workers to a project falling behind schedule. He also made the mistake of asserting that one project — writing an Algol compiler — would require six months, regardless of the number of workers involved (It required longer). The tendency for managers to repeat such errors in project development led Brooks to quip that his book is called "The Bible of Software Engineering", because, "everybody quotes it, some people read it, and a few people go by it."^[1] The book is widely regarded as a classic on the human elements of software engineering.^[2]

The work was first published in 1975 (0-201-00650-2), reprinted with corrections in 1982, and republished as an anniversary edition with four extra chapters in 1995 (ISBN 0-201-83595-9) with the essay No Silver Bullet and commentary by the author.