Monday, November 26, 2007
One year ago on Lifehacker, you learned how …
11:30PM Tamar Weinberg | One year ago on Lifehacker, you learned how to create four unique holiday gifts on the cheap. More »
Hotmail creator unveils free “Office killer”
10:36AM Sarah Stokely | The creator of early webmail success Hotmail (which was acquired by Microsoft) has unveiled a free suite of Office apps which he hopes will be a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite. Called Live Documents, you can sign up to request an invitation to the private beta of this web-and-desktop suite here. There are a lot of good, free Office alternatives these days – from Google Docs to Open Office, so it will be interesting to see how Live goes. More »Plan a “clean break” for the new year
10:22AM Sarah Stokely | Writing for Lifehacker seems to have inspired me – I’m already planning my end of the year uncluttering regime for my computer and my workspace. My plan is to start 2008 with a clean slate computer. Part of my holiday time will be spent reformatting my PC so I can
reinstall from scratch (possibly dual booting so I can live my dream of
working in Linux while switching over to Windows for games and to test
Windows apps for Lifehacker). I’ve been reading Gina’s Lifehacker book and its inspired me to get an automated backup regime happening. And I’ve already started reorganising my email (thanks to the 43 Folders series on email management, Inbox Zero).Web Worker Daily is clearly on the same wavelength with today’s post, which suggests some ways to clean up your computer, online and paper files in time for the new year. Do you have a plan or routine to take you through to the New Year? Please share in comments.
Clear our your file clutter as the year closes [Web Worker Daily] More » 
Find Critically-Acclaimed Torrents at PickyPirate
10:00AM Kevin Purdy | BitTorrent search sites like The Pirate Bay can help you find recently-released tunes, flicks and video games, but deciding which are worth the hefty downloads usually involves digging in more mainstream channels. Enter PickyPirate, a mashup website that matches scores from review compilation sites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes to download links from torrent search sites The Pirate Bay and Mininova. For casual torrent browsers like myself, the site could be a nice reminder of what’s floating around and save a few clicks on the way to a download. PickyPirate [via TorrentFreak] More »
Start Meaningful Conversations
9:00AM Tamar Weinberg | Learning how to initiate that first conversation can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Break the ice with meaningful conversations instead. For example, if you’re meeting someone for the first time, don’t make a negative comment about the event that you’re both attending. Ask the right questions to indicate an interest in the person you’re speaking to. Find common ground with your peers. Say something smart or witty. It really doesn’t take much to kick things off, and it’s great for networking in just about any social situation. Photo by wili_hybrid. Start Meaningful Conversations [Potential 2 Success] More »
Stay connected with Gmail
8:54AM Sarah Stokely | What a weekend – an election, an election night party dominated by geeks getting live election updates via their laptops, and I finally got around to following our own advice on how to turn Thunderbird into the ultimate Gmail IMAP client.
I’m enjoying consolidating my email functions – previously I had about 4 different accounts in my Thunderbird client – and the number of different inboxes was driving me crazy. The goal is one inbox, suitable filters. I’m getting there. :)Following the theme of consolidating – the Makeuseof blog writes up an interesting experiment looking at how much you can do through your Gmail. Along with the standard email forwarding and RssFwd, I also liked the suggestions on how to set up Gmail to receive Facebook and Twitter alerts so you don’t need to actually visit those sites. You can also get your Diggs, Stumbles and Del.icio.us links mailed to you as backups. However, one commenter on that post said they could pretty much do all that, but better, in Google Reader. I have to admit I haven’t checked out Google Reader yet as I’ve just got Bloglines working the way I like. So what do you think? Should consolidating your online reading to your inbox be the goal, or do you prefer to keep your email separate to social networking and blog reading?
How To: Stay Connected with Gmail [Makeuseof.com] More » Floss
8:42AM Sarah Stokely | There’s nothing better than a wacky list of things you can do to live longer, and the UK’s Daily Mail came through in spades with this one – become a Jehovah’s Witness or buy a pogo stick to live longer! It also quotes an anti-ageing expert who says flossing could add 6.4 years to your life! Now that sounds worth doing. More » 
The lessons from a pre-Christmas toy cleanup
8:34AM Sarah Stokely | Tis the season of rampant consumerism and Lifehack.org has a suggestion for an exercise which helps teach your kids about the *giving* side of Christmas, as well as how to unclutter their room and toy collection. The exercise is to work with your kids on going through their rooms, tidying and sorting toys.
“Set out two boxes, one for trash and one for charity, and sort their
old toys into them. As you pick up each toy in their room, ask them
whether they think they will still play with it next year. Then ask
whether another child might enjoy it more than they would. If they
aren’t playing with it anymore, or if they can bear to part with it, it goes in one of the two boxes.”
They note that your child should be the one to make these decisions – if you push them to give away things it could come across as a punishment!This also helps solve a problem that several parents have mentioned to me – particularly those with young kids. Often their kids get given so many toys they are literally overloaded!I’ve always been a big fan of the ‘giving tree’ or the ‘wishing tree’ that various charities set up at shopping malls and the like – so you can buy a present for a kid who needs it, and leave it under the tree. But this idea is good too – rather than buying more, you’re sharing from your own possessions.Got any tips for how to have a sane Christmas with kids? Leave them in comments please.
Teaching kids charity and clarity with pre-Christmas cleaning [Lifehack.org]
More » 
Quit A Bad Habit Using Four Power Questions
8:20AM Kevin Purdy | Productivity blog Lifehack.org delves into four goal-oriented questions that can help your mind wrap itself around whatever bad habit you want to drop. Because part of your brain can’t handle thoughts of not doing something (or so the theory goes), the writer suggests asking yourself positive-minded questions to overwhelm your urges. One bit of advanced common sense on rationalising the benefits to yourself: Imagine explaining the advantages of your habit change to an intelligent 8-year-old child. Write down simple worded benefits which could be attractive and understandable to a little boy. Has goal-oriented self-questioning worked for you in the past, or is cold turkey your only cure? Share your opinions in the comments. Photo by dopesmuglar How to Quit a Bad Habit by Answering Four Power Questions [Lifehack.org] More »
