The dishwasher! The perennial optimization problem. Even the chronically untidy have been known to harbor strong opinions on efficient loading technique. But did you know dishwasher manuals actually include photos and illustrations of ideal rack layouts? (Be honest – did you even realize your dishwasher had a manual?)

Turns out left turns are not only riskier, they also waste gas. So UPS – optimization-obsessed logistics company that it is – got rid of them.

If you think you're your own person, think again. While you have the ability to make what you think seem like independent decisions, the truth is that most of the things you do—from the trains you catch to the food you eat—have been optimized by the world's most pervasive algorithm.

If your PC's been humming along under your desk for more than a year or two, I've got news for you: Chances are inside that case, half a dozen dust bunnies are dancing around your hard drive, leeching onto your CPU fan and fluttering about your motherboard having a grand old time. This is not good. Today we'll go over…

The NY Times has a great investigative report on how J.C. Penney became the number one search result for countless search terms on Google. Dresses, bedding, area rugs, skinny jeans, tablecloths and even grommet top curtains and more words popped J.C. Penney up as number one. Not Amazon, not Macy's, not any of the…

An email sent to Consumerist by a Best Buy employee lays out the changes Best Buy has made in pushing their optimization service. Basically, you can't be forced to pay for optimization—but the salesman won't tell you that.

Folks who actually paid close to half a grand for the Sony Reader probably won't mind too much about having to buy eBooks to read on it. But it's not like they enjoy spending more money. For those people, Make's got a guide to optimizing PDFs for Sony Reader's format.