There’s a current craze emerging for standing desks, literally desks that you stand at while working. Having spent the last five years as a self-employed freelance writer who spends most of his days sat at a desk, I’ve experienced back problems as well as instances of the seemingly unavoidable repetitive strain injury. Perhaps a standing desk is the solution to my problems.

Have you got Windows 8 installed on your PC or tablet yet? Millions have, by either upgrading their existing computer or buying a new device powered by Microsoft’s latest operating system. Perhaps they’ve even shelled out and bought the Microsoft Surface, though I haven’t seen much evidence as yet. I very much doubt that many mainstream consumers have made the switch to Windows 8 at this early stage.

I’m thankful that not everybody in the world likes the same things. It’s a fortunate fact of life that each of us as individuals has different interests and hobbies, and also gravitates towards certain genres, whether it be in movies, television shows, games, or music. However, there are certain things that possess an indefinable quality that means they transcend the vagaries of personal taste. Gangnam Style by PSY is one example.

If you’re of a certain age you’ll be aware of text adventures. These simple games were both fun and frustrating in equal measure, requiring the player to use stock commands to guide the character through the situations encountered, and telling a story in the process. The fun was derived from these games being a kind of interactive fiction, while the frustration emerged when simple commands were misunderstood or ignored.

Windows 8 is now available to all those who want it: to download, to buy on disc, or to buy pre-installed on a new PC. Microsoft has already certified more than 1,000 devices to run the new operating system. From the results gathered so far in the poll currently running here on MakeUseOf it looks as though plenty of people have already made the switch from XP, Vista, or Windows 7, but then we’re all geeks.

Twitter continues to go from strength to strength, with more people using it to communicate with the world with every passing month. Sure, there are many people who enthusiastically join Twitter after being cajoled into doing so by their friends, only to then disappear not having tweeted, followed anyone, or been followed themselves. But then there are the countless people on Twitter who add something to the conversation.

Email has been with us for decades now, and most of us have at least one, and probably numerous, email accounts with inboxes in varying states. We access them via computers, tablets, and smartphones, and generally couldn’t do without email as one of the many forms of communication open to us in these enlightened times we live in.

We have covered trolls extensively here on MakeUseOf, with a three-part toolkit designed to help you deal with these online ne’er-do-wells the best starting place. However, trolls don’t limit their presence merely to forums, comments sections, and social networks; a particular breed can be found playing video games online. This breed are known as griefers, and they get their kicks from setting out to intentionally wind other players up.

Not everybody is a fan of Apple. Nor was everybody a fan of Steve Jobs, one of the two Steves who founded the company, and the one who turned it from an also-ran into the cash-gobbling behemoth that it is today. However, even those who dislike Apple and who disliked Jobs felt his passing, and also miss his style of delivery whenever he made a speech. The speeches below are arguably the greatest ever made by Steve Jobs.

Where would we be without email? It’s a means of communication that is simple, fast, and free, and it’s one that most people use on a daily basis. From POP3 to Web mail, from home computers to smartphones, the way we use email has changed considerably over the decades, and yet it remains as popular as it ever was. Email is one of those things that we generally take for granted.

Quora is a simple premise beautifully realized. It’s an online knowledge depository where people can ask or answer questions. And it’s populated by a mix of ordinary, everyday folk like you and me, as well as some famous faces eager to share their wisdom with others. Internet entrepreneurs are no exception. It’s safe to say that Internet entrepreneurs are easy to come by.

Microsoft took its time getting into the tablet market, primarily because it had to work on building an operating system that would offer a positive experience on the touchscreen form factor, which Windows 7 most certainly doesn’t. With Windows 8 just around the corner, so is Surface, the new Microsoft-branded tablet.

When I was a young child I loved watching magic being performed on television. It didn’t matter what kind of tricks they were, or who was doing them, just that something mysterious, unexplainable, and, well, magic, was on display. I loved it then for one simple reason: I believed magic was real, and that magicians had special powers. Then I grew up and realized they didn’t. In fact, I discovered that magic was made up of illusions, of sleight of hands, of misdirection.

The word science essentially means knowledge, and it is this quest for learning and understanding that has driven mankind to the height of its power. The Web offers ample opportunity to disperse that knowledge to greater numbers of people, and YouTube has many great science channels. Listed below are 10 of the best that we feel you should not miss.

Assuming you play online then you’re guaranteed to have met certain types of online gamer. It’s unavoidable. There are a wide range of them out there, but they can all be pared down to just five main types (and their opposites). You can try and ignore them, but they’re there regardless, plying their trade as an annoying n00b, an incessant talker, a quiet quitter, a tiresome cheat, or an unwilling team player.