Saturday, September 1, 2007
Reminder – win Pixar Ratatouille prizes
1:08PM Sarah Stokely | We’re running a Ratatouille competition until next Friday, 7 September. See this post for details on how to enter. :)
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We Want to See Your Desktop
7:00AM Adam Pash | If there’s one thing we’ve learned at Lifehacker HQ over the years, it’s that our readers have just as many useful tips and tricks to share as we do. When it comes to your computer desktop, you’ve got everything tricked out and streamlined to get things done fast. That’s why starting next week, Lifehacker readers, we want to see your desktops. In short, we’re looking for screenshots of your Windows, Mac or Linux desktop in tip-top shape—prime and pretty for posting. Follow the link for more details and the submission guidelines. More »
Browse the Web Without Installing Anything with ioSwiftFox
6:40AM Kyle Pott | Linux only: Run a browser directly from RAM with open source “app” ioSwiftFox. ioSwiftFox requires absolutely no installation and doesn’t even require root privileges to run for the first time. ioSwiftFox is a simple script that after some chmod foo you can use to browse the web. It runs faster than Firefox and even works with your existing Firefox extensions! If you want to get technical, ioSwiftFox is a recompilation of Firefox 2 for Infodomestic Objects. To get ioSwiftFox up and running, download the file and enter the following three commands into the terminal: chmod +x ioSwiftFox2.0.0.6-pentium4_Infodomestic0.8.5 mv ioSwiftFox2.0.0.6-pentium4_Infodomestic0.8.5 ioswiftfox ./ioswiftfox Make sure you do not have Firefox open when you run ioSwiftFox for the first time. ioSwiftFox is a great portable app for your thumb drive—talk about badass! ioSwiftFox is a free download for Linux only. ioSwiftFox [via Ubuntu Unleashed] More »
Win at Carnival Games
6:00AM Kyle Pott | Unlock the many secrets of carnival games with the guide from Blifaloo.com and stop emptying your wallet to win a $.30 stuffed animal for your girlfriend. Blifaloo.com covers all the carny games you know and love like the rope ladder, ring toss, balloon dart throw, basket toss, coin toss, milk bottle throw and more. Rope Ladder The trick to climbing carnival rope ladders is to completely ignore the “rungs” and only use the outside ropes to climb on. While applying equal pressure with your right foot and left arm, move your left foot and right arm at the same time. Then do the same thing with the opposite limbs—shimmying yourself up the ladder. This guide would have been incredibly useful in my youth. Any carnival game hustlers out there? What’s your game and what trick do you use to win every time? Share in the comments. How To Beat Carnival Games [Blifaloo.com] More »
Address an Embarrassing Problem
5:00AM Kyle Pott | Approaching your coworkers about “tidy ups” can create an uncomfortable situation. Whether they’ve got toilet paper stuck to their shoe, crumbs on their face, a bat in the cave or a whale-tail showing, knowing how to tell them is one hell of a hard skill to master. If the problem is above the neck or below the knees, The Vat19.com weblog recommends politely telling them. However, if the problem is anywhere else, you need to approach the situation with some subtlety. More »
Scan Files for Viruses Before Your Download with Dr.Web
4:40AM Adam Pash | Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox/Opera/IE): Scan any file for viruses before you download it to your computer with web site Dr.Web. After installing the Firefox extension, performing the Internet Explorer registry hack or adding the Opera tweak, you can scan any directly linked file for viruses through your browser’s right-click context menu (re-directed downloads—like those in Gmail, for example—won’t work). Dr.Web will download the file to their servers, scan it for viruses and report back whether or not it’s clean. Dr.Web is free to use, works with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. Dr.Web [Firefox Add-ons via the How-To Geek] Dr.Web® Anti-virus Link Checker for MS Internet Explorer [Dr. Web] Dr.Web® Anti-virus Link Checker for Opera [Dr.Web] More »August ’07’s Most Popular Posts
3:30AM Gina Trapani | September is here! If you spent August working on your tan instead of reading Lifehacker, have a quick list of this month’s best posts: Turn a flashlight into a handheld burning laser“DIYer Kipkay extracts the laser from a DVD burner and mounts it in a small flashlight to create a handheld laser burner that can light matches and burst balloons.” Power replacements for built-in Windows utilities“How many times have you wished Notepad had tabs, Paint supported layers or Windows Explorer let you bookmark frequently-used folders? Power users need power utilities, and Windows’ default system programs barely get the job done.” Top 10 Free Wallpaper, Fonts and Icon Sources“Spicing up your computer desktop or documents is a cinch with the right fonts, wallpaper or icon set – but finding the best ones isn’t an easy task.” A beginner’s guide to BitTorrent“Despite the fact that BitTorrent has been around for a good 6 years now, the lightning fast file sharing protocol hasn’t completely taken off in the mainstream.” Top 10 PDF Tricks“Whether it’s your résumé, a tax form, e-book, user guide or a web page, you can’t go wrong using a PDF.” Top 10 Firefox features that don’t require extensions“The more extensions you install in Firefox, the slower and more bloated it becomes.” Show Us Your Go Bag“On Monday we asked you to send us pictures of your ‘go bag,’ and submit you did. There was a good amount of debate over proper terminology (is it a purse, satchel, man bag, murse, urban assault bag?), but in the end we received a whole lot of great submissions.” Top 10 Ways to Clean Up Your PC“Whether it’s remnants of that bag of Fritos you ate three years ago lodged in your keyboard or a registry full of broken entries, that old PC of yours could use a little cleaning up.” Show Us Your Non-Firefox Browser“In all things computers, variety is the spice of life…” More »
Find MP3s with SkreemR
3:00AM Gina Trapani | Music search engine SkreemR turns up a nice selection of MP3 files from all over the web whether you’re looking for Mozart or Justin Timberlake. Pop in your favorite artist, song or album and get back links to MP3s (no other audio file format.) A few search operators to know: Use double quotes to pinpoint a set of words, ex. “my favorite song” Use + operator to pinpoint particular words, ex. my favorite song +extended +remix Use – operator to eliminate unwanted results, ex. my favorite song -live Grab the Firefox SkreemR search plugin and see some of the top searches. As always, download copyrighted material at your own risk, yadda-yadda, blah-blah. SkreemR More »
Turn Your Digital Camera into a Scanner with Qipit
2:10AM Gina Trapani | Webapp Qipit turns a digital photo of a whiteboard, handwritten notes or a typed document into a PDF. Much like previously mentioned Scanr, you can email cameraphone snaps to Qipit, or upload images via email or the web site. Qipit stores up to 100 scanned documents in your account for free, where you can make them public and tag them, too. When you sign up for Qipit, optionally register your cameraphone’s make and model, and the app will tell you what it can do with images from it (whiteboards, hand-written notes and/or printed documents.) My 1.3MP Nokia can do everything but finely-printed documents, as shown. More »
