Tuesday, September 4, 2007
International Productivity
11:15PM Lifehacker US Edition | According to the International Labour Organisation, the United States leads the world in labor productivity, with a total output per employee of $8,000 over the second most productive country, Ireland. I hope you had a restful Labor Day, because it’s back to work! AU – I won’t point out the irony in the fact that those hardworking yanks were off on a public holiday yesterday while we were slaving away. :) More »
Shop Smart for College Gadgets
11:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | College students, take note: your gear doesn’t have to be as expensive as your classes plus room and board. After three years at college, blogger Paul Stamatiou knows what it feels like to live in a cramped space when you’re low on dough. In a detailed weblog post, he lists affordable equipment for school from computers (laptops preferred) to calculators to headphones—decent gear that won’t break the bank. His writeup applies to students who might be spending the year with a roommate as well as those living in tight quarters. If you’re on campus and about to start classes but still need to pick up some essentials, Paul’s guide should give you some pretty good direction. A Realistic Back to School Guide for College Students [Paul Stamatiou] More »
Search Newest Google Results from Firefox
10:30PM Kyle Pott | You can create a Firefox keyword search bookmark to only return the newest search results from Google. Using Google’s advanced search feature to return only the freshest results, the Double Parity weblog explains how to create a bookmark and assign a keyword for faster searching. As shown in the screenshot, when the author performs a keyword search starting with “gw”, he’ll get the latest results from Google. If keyword searches aren’t your cup of tea, you can use the Add to Search Bar extension for Firefox to add a search engine for Google’s freshest results to the Firefox search bar. Googling the Recent Web [Double Parity] More »
How to explain LOLcats to your boss
4:17PM Sarah Stokely | This right here is an article explaining the LOLcats phenomenon written in stuffy Wall Street Journal language – perfect for explaining LOLcats to your boss.
Mr. Nakagawa’s simple Web site has become the center of the “LOLcats” phenomenon, a booming online subculture built around digital images and deliberately bad grammar.
So, primer for your boss, or… unintentional comedy gold!
With ‘LOLcats’ Internet Fad, Anyone Can Get In on the Joke [The Wall Street Journal]
Thanks for the link, Anth. :) More » How to work (almost) completely online
4:11PM Sarah Stokely | Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog has a thought provoking post on being a Cyber Minimalist. He’s a big fan of the Google suite of online apps, and he’s pared down his computing requirements so that he basically works with online apps and that’s it.
From my tech-heavy geek perspective, the guy’s pretty hardcore. No mobile device – he has a mobile phone for calls only (no SMS) and he uses a paper diary as his offline diary (which presumably he enters into his online calendar when he’s back in front of the computer).
He makes it quite clear that his computing needs are fairly simple, so he doesn’t miss a lot of the fancy features you’ll get in various specialist applications.
I do use desktop apps for certain things, like photo editing… But then I upload the file online, delete the copy on my hard drive, and don’t worry about it after that. Again, this might not work for everyone, but it works for me.
After reading this post I have to admit I’m tempted to follow his lead for a number of reasons. He doesn’t need to worry about backing up data, he can work from multiple computers without transferring data between them, etc etc.
So are you a cyber minimalist? How have you simplified your computing life? Post suggestions in comments please!
Cyber Minimalist: How to Work (Almost) Completely Online
More » IceTV adds community recommendations
2:27PM Sarah Stokely | Our mates over at Gizmodo tell us that IceTV have beefed up their online TV program service with a community recommendation feature.
Now that they’ve won their copyright case against Channel 9, I’m really looking forward to IceTV developing into a full, personalised TV recording service.
IceTV launches IWatchThis.com.au community recommendation service [Gizmodo AU] More » Optimise BitTorrent To Outwit Traffic Shaping ISPs
2:06PM Sarah Stokely | Wired’s written up a guide on how to outsmart ISPs which throttle BitTorrent traffic. Tactics include encrypting your traffic, changing the default port number, changing the way the protocol behaves, reducing the amount of one-way traffic, or hiding your traffic within an encrypted tunnel.
I’ve commented before that Australian ISPs have been fairly cagey about admitting whether they shape BitTorrent traffic or not.
There’s so much user generated content being shared online these days (hello YouTube!) that it’s just bogus for ISPs to pretend that throttling P2P traffic is just punishing pirates. Clarity is really needed on the issue – if ISPs wish to shape traffic, they should expressly have to tell their customers that.
Optimize BitTorrent To Outwit Traffic Shaping ISPs
More » 
Download an MP3 memento of a live gig at Liveband
10:40AM Sarah Stokely | Liveband is an online music store with a difference – they sell their own high quality recordings of live gigs – and it’s all done in co-operation with the artists so you know they’re actually getting paid.
You can buy any gig recording from the website, or if you’re at a gig being recorded by Liveband, you’ll have the option to buy a voucher called a Livecard (you also get an empty CD case, which is cute). Once the gig is up on the site (usually 48 hours later, to allow time for mixing and mastering) you can cash in the Livecard to “pay” for the recording and download not only the music but also the album art so you can print it out and have a complete CD. Neat!
All gigs are in Mp3 format, and their usage terms are reasonable – you can copy the track to 3 CDs and 3 PC or audio devices. It wasn’t clear whether it’s working on an honour system or if they’re using DRM. I suspect it may be done on a case by case basis.The company says that “Files that are encoded with DRM will be promptly displayed as such on the performance profile page.” I’ve emailed Liveband and will try to find out more about the DRM situation.
You can use the audio player on the website to listen to snippets of the different concerts they have for sale, and there are free tracks available too. I downloaded two free Hoodoo Gurus tracks recorded at the Apollo Bay Bay Music festival last month. The sound quality is 160kbps, and it’s a really clean live recording. It’s cool to hear the audience cheering and inbetween song banter, without having to put up with a muddy bootleg that sounds like it was recorded in the soundguy’s armpit. Now I’m keen to get a Liveband recording of a gig I’ve actually attended, so I can compare the live experience with what comes across on the CD.
Right now Liveband’s catalogue has a smattering of artists from the likes of Paul Kelly, the Hoodoo Gurus, Bertie Blackman, Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows and Luka Bloom.
They’re apparently going to offer to record visiting international artists – so hopefully bootleg-friendly artists like Tori Amos will get behind it, as she’s touring later this month. Would be awesome to get Nick Cave & Grinderman involved as well. Hint, hint, Liveband guys! :)
Liveband is such a cool idea, I really hope they get the support of the music industry behind them – if they can offer a broad range of artists and genres, this site will become a much loved site for live music lovers.
More » Hacked iPhone working on Optus
10:01AM Sarah Stokely | Danny Gorog tells us this morning that “Yes, my iPhone is hacked and working on Optus“.
He used a hardware-based crack- the TurboSIM – and says he hopes it will last longer than the software cracks – which may be easier for Apple to fix. More » 