The Best Ways To De-Stink Your Stuff 
In Memoriam: Our Favourite Apps And Services That Have Gone Belly Up 
How To Prepare For A Move Overseas 
From Saucy Pics To Passwords: How To Share Sensitive Information 
How Do IKEA's Prices In Australia Compare? 
New flybuys Earns Discounts Faster (But They're Not Good Discounts) Mac OS X only: Reschedule your Time Machine backup intervals from the default (which backs up once an hour) to a more appropriate schedule to fit your needs—anywhere from every one to twelve hours. Granted, the per-hour backup schedule means you’re that much more likely to have all your data backed up in case you run into a problem, but some people on older systems have reported performance slow-downs when Time Machine is backing up. In those cases, TimeMachineScheduler might be the perfect solution. TimeMachineScheduler is freeware, Mac OS X Leopard only.
TimeMachineScheduler [via Cool OSX Apps]If you’re running out of juice on your iPod touch or iPhone battery, this video demonstrates the arduous replacement process. While you’re under warranty or AppleCare, though, sending it to Apple for a free replacement looks a lot easier.
In part one of this series you kicked your digital SLR camera’s auto mode to the curb with the help of program mode. In doing so, you learned to control the flash, the ISO value, and the white balance. Now in part two we’re going straight to manual mode to learn about aperture sizes and shutter speeds. So let’s do this thing. Put your camera in manual mode by turning the mode dial to the “M” setting as pictured above.
At this point in the Personalised Homepage Wars of 2007, you’ve probably compared the major contenders and either chosen a victor or gone an alternate route. Yet semi-recent newcomer Symbaloo is bravely charging into the fray, and it’s got a bit of ammunition to use. Most noticeably, the layout is designed for maximum customisation, letting you arrange links to searches, RSS feeds and external sites however you’d like. Like iGoogle and others, you can create multiple desktop spaces, and each default box gives you a seemingly non-biased choice among search providers. And while not entirely efficient, the “news” desktop’s photo-based spread of top stories is pretty snazzy. Have you stopped even considering a start page switch at this point, or are you still open to suggestions? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments. Thanks Pieter!
SymbalooIf you spent most of November passed out in a tryptophan coma, have a big helping of the month’s most popular posts:Lifehacker Guide to Election Day We compiled all the information you needed for voting in the federal election, from where to vote to how to get results by SMS. Bookmark this page for three years from now. :) Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800 “If the high price tag for Apple hardware has kept you from buying a Mac but you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and get adventurous, you can build your own ‘Hackintosh’–a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard.” First Look at Firefox 3.0 “With the release of the much anticipated Firefox 3 looming just around the corner, we got our hands on the latest beta build of your favourite browser to get a closer look at exactly what changes and exciting new features you can expect from the upcoming release of the ‘fox.” Make the Most of Your Dual Monitors “Now that you’ve added another monitor to your computer setup, you’ve got double the screen real estate to get things done–but are you putting all that space to good use?” Turn Your Old PC into a Webapp Monster with gOS “As more and more full-featured web applications look to replace traditional desktop apps, the concept of a web-based operating system has gained a lot of momentum.” Better Gmail 2 Firefox Extension for New Gmail “Google updated Gmail, and now we’re following up with Better Gmail 2, a Firefox extension that adds features to the new Gmail interface.” Hackintosh vs. Mac Pro vs. MacBook Pro Benchmarks “How does my Hackintosh stack up to the Apple-built competition? To find out, I put my Hackintosh, a Mac Pro, and a MacBook Pro through the paces.” Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters “To have your favourite clips how you want them–whether that’s on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop–you need the right utility to convert ‘em into the format that works for you.” Ensure a Fast Internet Connection When You Need It “Your internet connection is an indispensable part of your life, but between BitTorrent, Xbox Live, web browsing, and VoIP, sometimes there’s not enough bandwidth to go around.” Hot Image Your PC’s Hard Drive with DriveImage XML “You don’t need a complicated boot CD or expensive software to create a restorable system disk image for your PC: free utility DriveImage XML can save a full, working snapshot of your Windows hard drive while you work on it.”
Over at work blog TheJobBored, editor Brian McCullough answers a reader’s question about whether to avoid job-seeking during December, when hiring seems scarce and work in general slows down. That’s no reason for anyone to give up, McCullough points out, because jobs that do open up often need to be filled desperately. For those who need to start getting paid again, there’s another upside: The holiday season is a key time for temporary workers. If you need a job now because you need money fast, consider temping. In certain industries, temp jobs are plentiful, and you never know, it could always turn into something permanent.
Also worth noting is that January is one of the busiest hiring months of the year, so getting your resume out there can help put you ahead of the pack. Photo by Photo-Mojo.
Ask Brian – Job Search During the Holidays? [TheJobBored]One major travel headache is behind us, but for some, another holiday airport rush is less than a month away. Wired’s How To Wiki collects advice for those still buying tickets and anyone who arrives to find their flights delayed or even canceled. Here’s one tip your local meteorologist never bothered to tell you: Think about the direction of your flight – If you’re flying to the East or Gulf coasts, book departures early in the day. In general, storm systems throughout the country tend to kick up later in the day, so avoid early evening departures.
If your flight does get canceled, the wiki notes that calling the airline from a cell phone can be much more useful than waiting in a long line filled with angry customers. Of course, if you can’t get on another flight, you might want to stake out a good spot to sleep. What lessons did you learn from your Thanksgiving flights? Share your hard-won wisdom in the comments.
Avoid Air Travel Delays [Wired How To Wiki]Windows only: Revo Uninstaller, which Adam declared a must-have Windows app a few months back, has released a new version that can run from a folder on any portable storage device. That gives you the same abilities to quickly, completely wipe programs away and manage auto-started programs on whichever Windows system you’re working on. Other new features in both the installed and portable versions include automatic system restore point creation, an option to start Revo in “Hunter Mode” on startup, and scalable levels (“safe,” “moderate,” and “advanced”) when removing junk files. Revo Uninstaller and its portable version are free downloads for Windows XP, 2000 and Vista systems.
Revo Uninstaller [via Download Squad]Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Flight-tracking website Yapta, previously mentioned here when it was an Internet Explorer-only extension, has released a Firefox version of its tagging tool. The same principle applies—head to an airline or travel aggregation website, start the standard date/passengers form rolling, and then click the “Tag it with Yapta” button on any flights you want to watch. You can then set Yapta to email you any time your tagged flights change in price by a dollar amount you choose. Yapta is a free download, which requires a sign-up at Yapta’s website to function, and it works wherever Firefox does
Yapta 1.1 [Firefox Add-ons]Web-based feed aggregator Google Reader has made two improvements to its interface, one Web 2.0-ish and the other pretty darn useful. The change Reader users will really appreciate is the ability to simply grab newly-added feeds and place them in their folders—no more clicking through menu bars, which really helps when doing multi-feed updates. The other new addition is recommendations, which can be found in the “Discover” link and points you to feeds based on your current list, your search history and your location. As you can see, Reader probably knows you better than you’d think.
Google Reader Improves Feed Management [Google Operating System]
