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) Windows only: Wish your mouse pointer was easier to see? Try installing the smart and colourful XsX alpha blended package of mouse cursors. These cursors change colour depending on the possible action (like clicking a link or resizing a window), and blogger Aaron Tiensivu’s put together a convenient installer for both Windows XP and Vista. Especially good for laptop screens, be sure to follow Tiensivu’s installation instructions to get these going (it’s not a regular installation wizard.) Having become a bit of an interface design snob (yes, the Mac’s ruined me), I like the idea of these cursors; just wish they were better-looking. The XsX cursor installation package is a free download for Windows only. Custom alpha blended (semi-transparent) mouse cursors by XsX for Windows XP and Vista – auto-install package v1.0 [Aaron Tiensivu's Blog via Hackszine]
OpenOffice.org has identified a highly critical security vulnerability in its open source word processing package OpenOffice 2.3 and prior versions.
In the security advisory OpenOffice.org warned of a security vulnerability in HSQLDB, the default database engine shipped with OpenOffice.org 2 (all versions) which could allow attackers to execute arbitrary static Java code by manipulating database documents to be opened by a user.
OpenOffice.org has asked users to update to version 2.3.1 which is unaffected by the security vulnerability in the previous versions. You can download OpenOffice 2.3.1 here.
Internet security guru Bruce Schneier answers questions regarding your data, choosing passwords, the internet, the future of technology, and why crime doesn’t pay.
Two years ago, Lifehacker alum Keith shared his best timesavers: TiVo, Basecamp, The Printable CEO, and more.
It’s been a year since the Wii was first released in the U.S. and you’re still trying to secure the elusive game console for your living room? Wired’s got the inside scoop on how to score a Wii for under your tree this Christmas. For example: The best time for Wii hunting is early Sunday mornings, because that’s when retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart release their weekly advertisements. And if they advertise Wii in the paper, they’ll hold some systems for the day the ad hits.
The also suggest one tip that I can vouch for as tried and true, because it’s exactly how I acquired Rock Band a few days after its release and my Wii last Winter and (having not pre-ordered it).
Talk to the guys behind the registers at your local retailers, and find out when they get Wii shipments. Even if they end up holding some for Sunday, chances are they’ll put out at least some of their stock the minute it arrives.
For me it was as simple as calling up my local big box, asking if they had any Wiis/bundles of Rock Band available, and then asking if they knew when they’d get the next shipment. They’ve always been more than happy to supply this information, and when that day comes, just call them up as soon as possible (or just head to the store if you’re feeling more ambitious) and find out if they’ve got any in.
If all goes well, you’ll end up with the coveted gadget and you won’t have to hand over an extra $200 to an eBay or Craigslist carpetbagger to do it. If you’ve had luck getting that coveted gadget in similar situations, let’s hear how you did it in the comments. Photo by isdky.
How to Score a Wii This Christmas [Wired]Facebook’s copped a bit of flack lately over introducing Beacon, a feature which monitored your activities with certain Facebook partner advertiser/retail sites such as Amazon, in order to update Facebook when you do something like buy a book. Annoyingly, they did not provide a way to opt out of Beacon. The other day we told you how to disable Beacon yourself, but Facebook has now added the ability to switch off Beacon.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman has apologised about the mistakes they made in implementing Beacon, and highlighted what the company has done to fix things:
“Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we’re releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don’t want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won’t store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.”
If you want to turn off Beacon, hit the Privacy link on the top right hand corner of the Facebook page, then choose the “External Websites” option. Tick “Don’t allow any sites to send stories to my profile” and hit save.
If you’ve got keyboard shortcuts enabled in Gmail (turn ‘em on in the Settings), you can now hit the question mark (?) to see an in-Gmail quick reference to what keys do what. The new addition to Gmail’s interface looks wildly similar to the Greasemonkey Gmail Macros reference pop-up, transparency and all. What’s great about this is that you can look up a shortcut easily; what sucks is that it overrides the Macros help shortcut which comes in Better Gmail 2. (The rest of the Macros work, just not the help pop-up.) There’s a Gmail development arms race underway, Greasemonkeyers vs Googlers! Who wins? We all do, eventually. Hit the (?) key in Gmail to check out the shortcuts guide. (And give our favourite Gmail keyboard shortcut a try.)
Windows only: Monitor any folder on your PC and automatically add new music to iTunes with freeware application iTunes Folder Watch. Just point it to the folder you’d like to watch for new music and let it work its magic. iTunes Folder Watch monitors the folder (or folders) for new music (i.e., music that doesn’t already exist in iTunes) and can add music either automatically or queue it for you to selectively choose songs you’d like to add to iTunes. I once described a command line method for the same thing, but iTunes Folder Watch is a much simpler and full-featured solution. iTunes Folder Watch is freeware, Windows only, requires .NET; it’s currently in beta, so expect a few bugs. Thanks Galley!
iTunes Folder WatchYou spend a whole lot of time each day moving, copying, trashing, browsing, and otherwise fiddling with all the files stored on your PC, and you should have the most efficient power tools to get those jobs done. Windows Explorer and its weak army of file manipulation functions just doesn’t cut the mustard for people with lots of data and only a little time, but several free utilities can help out. So today we present our top 10 free Windows file manipulation utilities for managing your important data.
Now that Gmail’s got AIM support baked into the web interface, Gmailer Steve Rubel commented how nice it will be to have SmarterChild along with your email. Nearly three years ago we first posted about SmarterChild, an AIM bot that can do all sorts of interesting command line-y things, like look up the weather, store notes, trigger timed IM reminders, calculate and convert, and generally answer any kind of question, like “What’s the population of Indonesia?” or “What movies are playing near me tonight?” This morning I chatted with SmarterChild about all the stuff it can do, inside Gmail and out.
