Saturday, September 8, 2007

Set Text Message Alerts with iCal

10:00AM Adam Pash | If you prefer managing your calendar on the desktop with iCal but you really wish you could take advantage of SMS reminders like Google Calendar offers, reader Colby Pash suggests a simple, smart tip for creating SMS reminders with iCal: As you know, text message inboxes have email addresses—for instance, 7125550000@vtext.com (for Verizon users). If you add your phone’s email address as an emailing option in your Address Book vCard, you can choose it as an option to email a reminder. Set the date, time and reminder and, Bam—you have a cell phone reminder. While this idea isn’t a breakthrough (we’ve covered sending SMS messages from email before), it is a smart and clever application of email-to-text capabilities. Just make sure your computer’s on when you need it. Thanks Colby! More »

Make a Quake-Style Command Prompt with AutoHotkey

9:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Inspired by the Linux-only Tilda and Mac-only Visor command line tools, Lifehacker Reader Matt Beamish built his own Quake-style drop-down command prompt using the AutoHotkey scripting language and command-line app Console and posted the results to how-to web site Instructables. When you’ve finished setting up your command line application of choice using Matt’s instructions, you can toggle the command line’s visibility with any hotkey you want. If you’re only interested in the results, grab the files at the end of the tutorial (you’ll need to have installed AutoHotkey); if you’re interested in AutoHotkey, the guide also offers a good introduction (though we can suggest a couple more). “Drop Down”, Quake-style command prompt for Windows [Instructables] More »

Easily Install Bleeding Edge Apps with the Source-O-Matic

8:00AM Kyle Pott | Install bleeding edge applications easily with Source-O-Matic, a web application that dynamically creates the file that manages what repositories you can install packages from sources.list. Besides the typical Ubuntu repositories, you can add additional repositories that make it a snap to install the newest versions of KDE, Koffice, amaroK and Wine. Ubuntu sources.list generator [Ubuntu-NL] More »

Give Constructive Criticism

7:00AM Kyle Pott | Effectively delivering constructive criticism can be simplified by remembering the “hamburger rule,” and Nate’s Productivity Tips weblog introduces this timeless classic. When offering a critique, you begin with a constructive compliment on something the person does well (Otherwise known as the fluffy bun part). You then get to the meat of the matter, which of course is the constructive criticism part. Finally, you end with another constructive compliment (i.e. the other half of the fluffy bun). Though I learned it as the “sandwich rule,” this practice is highly touted in most professional public speaking courses and very easy to remember. The Hamburger Method of Constructive Criticism [Nate's Productivity Tips] More »

How and Why to Power Nap

6:00AM Kyle Pott | Few skills are as useful for a Friday afternoon as the rewarding power nap. The Ririan Project introduces 10 benefits to power napping and details four styles of power nap: nano nap (10 to 20 seconds), micro nap (two to five minutes), mini nap (five to 20 minutes), lazy man’s nap (50 to 90 minutes) and the traditional power nap (exactly 20 minutes). Contrary to popular opinion, napping isn’t for the lazy or depressed. Famous nappers have included Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong, Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison. The moral of the story: to be ultra-productive, just rest your head. You snooze, you gain. For more, check out this guide to power napping. For a double-whammy energy boost, check out the caffeine nap. 10 Benefits of Power Napping, and How to Do It [Ririan Project] More »

Windows and Linux Terminal Performance Comparison

5:00AM Kyle Pott | The Martin Ankerl weblog performance-tested many popular terminal applications on their text through capabilities (the time it takes to load and display the full content of a very large text file) to find out which terminal application is the fastest and which is best for low performance PCs. The terminal apps tested include the Windows Command Prompt, PuTTY, gnome-terminal, konsole, aterm, wterm, xterm and Eterm. Spoiler alert: The fastest terminal benchmarked was gnome-terminal (followed closely by konsole). PuTTY came in at a distant 30th place and the Windows Command Prompt rolled in at disappointing 35th. Comprehensive Linux Terminal Performance Comparison [Martin Ankerl] More »

Automate Repetitive Web Site Actions with CoScripter

4:00AM Adam Pash | Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Script repetitive web applications—like filling out forms and paying your bills—with the CoScripter Firefox extension. CoScripter is very similar to the previously mentioned iMacros extension but offers users a much friendlier interface for creating new macro scripts, meaning you shouldn’t need any programming experience to create your own scripts (be sure to check out the video demo on the site for a good introduction). CoScripter is free to download (though it requires an unfortunately convoluted registration with IBM), works wherever Firefox does. CoScripter More »

Add a Web Interface to Your Homemade DVR

2:00AM Kyle Pott | When it comes to recording your favourite shows, you made the smart move and decided to roll your own DVR with SageTV instead of buying TiVo or paying recurring monthly fees to rent a DVR from your cable provider. Besides automatically pushing your recordings onto your iPod, you can put other DVRs to shame by adding a web interface to SageTV. With SageTV’s Web UI you can schedule and manage recordings, set your favorites, access your recordings and even stream live TV over the web. Let’s get to it! More »