Friday, September 7, 2007
WebMD says you should turn off cell phones …
11:40PM Adam Pash | WebMD says you should turn off cell phones in hospital rooms to prevent interference with hospital equipment—or stay at least one metre away from equipment and hospital beds. More »
Tips to Thrive on Surplus Information
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Information overload doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and author Ross Dawson shares eight principles that will prevent you from drowning in the surplus of available information. For example: Set information objectives. You can’t begin to sort through the ‘infoglut’ unless you know what is most important to you. To set effective information objectives you need to start from your own objectives…. Putting thought into identifying the key areas you need to be informed on, and prioritising these by importance and timeliness will let you know what you should be focusing on. Dawson also suggests keeping an open mind, aggressive filtering, and developing strong note-taking abilities (among others). These skills can help you gain a competitive advantage and enable you to cope in a world where excess data is becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with. If managed properly, Dawson claims, you can achieve great success. The “problem” of information overload doesn’t have to be one at all; it could open doors and present itself as an opportunity. The article is written from the perspective of a business director or other high-level position, but most of the ideas are equally applicable to any of us. Eight Steps to Thriving on Information Overload [Trends in the Living Networks] More »
Eat These Superfoods and Boost Your Health
11:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Men’s Health lists 10 essential fruits and vegetables that you should consume on a regular basis to maintain good health. Rich in nutrients and minerals, each of these superfoods has unique characteristics that reduce the risk of cancer, lower blood pressure and even improve eyesight. And if you’re not enthusiastic about eating these health boosters by themselves, the article explains how to prepare them to be edible treats. After all, I’m not sure how many of you are willing to eat raw cabbage. More »Show Us Your Roundup
11:00AM Adam Pash | Check out all of the saucy stuff our exhibitionist readers have submitted to share with their fellow Lifehacker readers in the last couple of months: Show Us Your iGoogle“iGoogle is one of the more popular personalized homepages among Lifehacker readers, and after a look through our submissions, it’s easy to see why.” Show Us Your Firefox, Part 1“…it’s time to take a peek at the tweaks, customizations, and extensions you’ve made to your browsers.” Show Us Your Firefox, Part 2 Show Us Your Firefox, Part 3 Show Us Your Firefox, Part 4 Show Us Your Non-Firefox Browser“In all things computers, variety is the spice of life.” Show Us Your Non-Firefox Browser, Part 2 Show Us Your Go Bag, Part 1“…today we’re taking a look at the bag full of gadgets and productivity tools you throw over your shoulder as you head out the door, confident that you’ve got everything you need to get things done.” Show Us Your Go Bag, Part 2 Show Us Your Go Bag, Part 3 Desktop Show and Tell, Windows Edition“We’ve got tons of tweaked-out, streamlined and gorgeous Windows desktops to show off, so check out this week’s gallery for a look at some of the best submissions we received…” More »
How to create individual desserts
10:59AM Sarah Stokely | I think all the cooking tips I posted earlier have gone to my head (ok, let’s be honest, tummy) – but I couldn’t resist this CNET article on kitchen gadgets which let you bake individual slices of pie or cake!
There are a couple of reasons why you might be interested in these – you may find (like I do) that if you bake a whole dessert, it doesn’t all get eaten and ends up in the bin. Or you may be watching your weight and you want to know exactly how big a portion you can eat. Or you may just love serving desserts in cute, individual containers like ramekins, cupcakes, and so forth.
The individual pie pan slice comes from The Baker’s Catalogue
Trend watch: Individual desserts[CNET]
Photo credit – The Baker’s Catalogue More » Relationships for the self-employed
10:41AM Sarah Stokely | Smart Company has run a networking advice column for people who are self employed. The main jist of it is “If you work alone, make special efforts to connect with others.”
As a writer who’s worked freelance for a few years, I can certainly relate to the feeling that when working alone you can lack contact with your peers which can help you develop in the job and network successfullly. This article has a few useful tips on how to build or maintain relationships.
It recommends a few American professional organisations to join for networking and professional development. If you’re a member of a professional organisation, let us know in the comments section what group you’re a member of, and what you get out of it.
Relationships for the self-employed [Fast Company] More » Webguide – media streaming for Microsoft Media Center
10:31AM Sarah Stokely | Windows only – Our friends at Gizmodo AU have written up the release of Webguide – a free upgrade which lets Media Center users stream video and other content across the net.
“Webguide was bought by Microsoft and made a free upgrade to all Media Center users. It basically streams all video, music, photos and TV across the net. It even re-encodes HD streams to lesser pixel counts.”
As Shay says, free is free! I have to confess that I haven’t played around much with the Media Center in Vista. If you use it, let us know what it’s like in comments.
Webguide for Media Center streams all your content to any browser [Gizmodo AU] More » Save YouTube videos to your hard drive
10:13AM Sarah Stokely | Wired’s How To Wiki answers the burning issue of our times – how do you save that awesome You Tube video for playback from your PC? What if you don’t want to be online in order to watch Bill Gates take a cream pie in the puss one more time? They have the answer. Check the comments too, as readers have offered their favourite programs as well.
Save YouTube Videos To Your Hard Drive [Wired] More » 
Build Your Virtual Library Online with Google Book Search
10:00AM Adam Pash | Now you can create and share your favourite books online with Google Book Search. …you can create your own personal collection on Book Search, and use it to help find just the right book from your collection for any occasion. Other people can view your library, so you can share your collection as Bethany has done. Or take a look at some other interesting collections. We’ve already seen similar web-based virtual bookshelves before, most notably previously mentioned Shelfari, and Google’s offering is way behind on looks. What it lacks in style, though, it hopes to make up in substance, with the ability to search a user’s library and more tools for quoting and finding connections between digitised text. Collect, share, and discover books [Official Google Blog] More »
Cooking tips from the readers
9:30AM Sarah Stokely | Thanks to everyone who entered our Ratatouille competition, we now have loads of kitchen tips (and one lone optical mouse tip too!) to share with readers.
The winning tip was from DaveMcD, who shared his tip for caramelised grilled bananas:
Want to impress everyone with a great dessert next time you have a BBQ or guests for dinner but are afraid you don’t have the skills, then this is the dish for you: Caramelised Grilled Bananas.
Take 1 banana per person and halve it lengthways leaving the skin on. Place all the bananas skin side down on a tray and sprinkle brown sugar liberally over the top. Be as messy as you like it makes you look like Jamie Oliver and is half the fun. Drizzle light streaks of honey over all the bananas. Whack under the grill or on the BBQ hotplate for 5 mins or until the brown sugar is bubbling and caramelised but not burnt. Take out and leave the skins on, serve on plate or shallow bowl with ice cream or mascarpone. You can also add some strawberries or small berries to make it look awesome. Stand back and bask in the praise.
Follow the link for a load more tips! More » 