Friday, December 28, 2007

Speed Up the Firefox Download Process

11:00AM Adam Pash | Weblog MakeUseOf highlights five lesser-known Firefox tips, including one simple tip we’ve never covered before: Instead of right-clicking on a download link, choosing “save to target” and pressing enter, just drag the download link to the “downloads icon” in the toolbar. The download will start automatically. You can actually drag download links to either the Downloads icon (which needs to be added to the toolbar manually through the Customize… option) or directly to the Downloads manager. It may not be fancy, but it does save the default multiple-click download process. Aside from the simple download tip, the post suggests other previously mentioned Firefox tips like deleting mistyped or unseemly URLs from your address bar or search box. Got your own favorite obscure Firefox tip? Let’s hear it in the comments. Five Firefox Tips You May Not Know About [MakeUseOf] More »

Clean Car in a Bottle with Waterless Car Wash

10:00AM Adam Pash | Conserve water next time you wash your car with Green Earth Waterless Car Wash. In a nutshell, you mist your car with the spray bottle and then wipe it down, no water required. The wash uses a cleaning method and ingredients that are apparently similar to what they use to clean race cars, but the primary purpose is to save on water consumption (the typical car wash, according to their site, uses between 20 to 45 gallons of water). One 32 ounce bottle is good for about 10 car washes, so at around $US20 for a bottle you’re saving money (if you normally go to a $6+ car wash) and you’re saving tons of water. The real test, though, is how well it works, so if anyone’s ever given it a try, let’s hear your experience in the comments. Green Earth Waterless Car Wash [via Unclutterer] More »

Declutter Your Home One Piece at a Time

8:00AM Adam Pash | If keeping a more organised home is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, Good Housekeeping has put together a very granular room-by-room, section-by-section guide to decluttering and organising your home. Each guide offers tips for organising every area—from your kitchen cabinets to your workspace—in 30 minutes or less. The idea isn’t that you’ll need to tackle these 30-minute organisation tasks on a regular basis, but rather that once you’ve completed one, you’ll be decluttered in that area for good. Each article pimps their book, The Complete Clutter Solution, so if you like the tips you’re finding on their site, the book might be worth a look. 30-Minute Clutter Solution [Good Housekeeping] More »

Bolster and Track Your Productivity with Work Break Timer

6:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Work Break Timer, Task Logger, ScreenCapture (that’s a mouthful that could use some abridging) tracks your work and schedules breaks in user-definable chunks, records task info to keep track of how you’re spending your time, and takes screenshots of your desktop on a regular user-defined interval. The concept grew from previously mentioned Instant Boss and productivity guru Merlin Mann’s (10+2)*5 procrastination hack but adds tons of useful new features and useful functionality—like passing your task info into the author’s favorite time management app and displaying a slideshow of your day’s activities with previously mentioned IrfanView. Work Break Timer, etc. is free, Windows only. Work Break timer, Task Logger, ScreenCapture – v. 1.00 Beta [AutoHotkey Forums] More »

How to Install Third-Party Apps on Your New iPhone or iPod Touch

4:00AM Adam Pash | If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can’t wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality (who can wait until February?), it’s time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device. We’ve covered two methods for doing so already, but that feisty Apple keeps on changing things up, and the latest firmware (which all of you new owners are likely running) requires a bit more finesse before you gain access to the throng of great apps that have already been developed for the iPhone. So today we’re jailbreaking that iPhone or iTouch of yours to open it up to the wonderful world of third-party software. More »

Gussy Up VLC with Winamp Classic Skins

3:15AM Kevin Purdy | Lifehacker reader Bruno writes in with a tip that should give both fans of the old-style Winamp (a.k.a. Winamp Classic) and critics of the cross-platform VLC Media Player’s somewhat plain looks a little thrill—VLC can use Winamp Classic skins as its interface. That means the thousands of styles available at Winamps Classic’s official site and elsewhere can be put to good use on modern systems. To change VLC’s skin, load the program, hit the “Settings” menu, select “Switch interface” and then “Skins 2.” Once the modern-looking skin loads, you can right-click on blank space, choose “Select skin” and see how the player works and acts with a Winamp Classic skin. If you want to keep the skin, head for the Interface->Main interfaces->Skins dialog in VLC’s preferences and make sure “Advanced options” is checked. More »