I'm one of those people who think that Google is one the best things ever invented after the Internet or <insert your favorite thingamajig here.>. I just love them. In fact, I already sold my non-existent soul to them for a few adsense dollars..
Living in the Philippines, I often deal with foreign currencies other than our own, mighty (government says so), Philippine Pesos. It's hard not to do any financial calculation without thinking of the US Dollar, the Singapore Dollar, the Euro, sometimes the Chinese Yuan RMB or Thailand's Baht THB
And keeping tabs about the latest exchange rates is a hassle. Since, I'm almost always online (or just a few clicks away from it) and Google is my default search engine. I like to use one of its features: the inline calculator.
The calculator allows you to do simple math like: "245^12 + ((4656 / 0.293) / 873)". Or those a bit harder like "12 * 3". By the way, drop the quotes if you're gonna try them.
It also does currency conversion. Say, I want to know how much is 489 US dollars in our local currency at the current (more or less) exchange rates, then I put in: "489 USD in PHP". If I want that in another currency, say in Thai Baht, then I write "489 USD in THB".
But wait ... I just found out that I could even mix currencies, too: "(431 rmb) + (5 sgd) +(10 thb) in php". (Capitalization doesn't matter. Very useful when travelling or doing travel plans, which is how I discovered it.
Cool, huh?
P.S.
Now try asking the calculator this question: "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"
Simple, eh? So, do you think I'm a Douglas Adams fan?
