A recent survey shows that being friends with your coworkers can help you get more done at the office: “Employees who have buddies at work are more eager to come to the office and enjoy their workday, which translates to higher productivity.” More »
US-centric: Don’t want to miss the season premiere of your favourite TV series this week? Check out web site CAT (Calendar for TV), which lists primetime shows on a monthly calendar, with premieres marked in orange and handy rollover episode synopses. Adjust your timezone, and choose a printer-friendly style to print it out, too. Seeing as how the previously mentioned EvokeTV is now MIA, this looks like a handy lookup to plan your primetime evening while you’re still stuck at the office. (Grey’s Anatomy premieres tonight. Squee!) How are you keeping on top of your TV this season? Let us know in the comments. Thanks, Sam! AU – The CAT calender is for US TV, but it might be useful for those awful, awful Bit Torrent-using pirates out there who like to know when their favourite US shows are going to be hitting the internets.
CAT – Calendar for TVSearch page Smplr is a web search command line tool. Using one input box, enter your query, prefaced by a snippet that directs the search to a particular site—very similar to the much-celebrated (and much more configurable) YubNub. For example, film:Dragon Wars will search IMDB, bt:Ubuntu will search the Pirate Bay, and terms without a prefix will search Google by default. More »
In an attempt to catch up to Google, Microsoft will be rolling out improvements to their Live.com web search engine over the coming weeks. More »
Personal growth blogger Peter says that before we get overly ambitious, we should apply some basic rules to our daily living. We can improve our outlook on life by defining our successes, having a positive attitude, and by getting a grasp on our health, wealth, and relationships. Here are a few of my favourite tidbits: An open mind: some of our beliefs and actions are so ingrained that we automatically disregard any evidence that we should think or act otherwise. Keep an open mind, and you may just come across a better way of seeing or doing things.
DIYer Bruce Maki describes how to create a simple but sturdy workbench for less than $20. For this project, you’ll need a few 2x4s, Oriented Strand Board, and deck screws. Size can vary depending on your personal preference. The end result: a workbench that can handle your weight and then some.
Build a Basic Work Bench [HammerZone]The Freelance Switch had a really interesting piece on freelance networking and “co-working” today. Matt Soniak interviewed Jason Hillman on the development of a freelance network which now operates from a central office in Philadelphia called “Independents Hall”:
“On September 1, Philadelphia’s first dedicated co-working opened its doors for business. Picture the hippest coffee shop you know. Now add broadband internet, a kitchenette, a shower, an air hockey table, a conference room, a mini-fridge for your beer, your own workspace and a handful of other like-minded creative folks. That’s Independents Hall. On one level, it’s a community of freelancers interested in getting out of the house while still independently doing what they love to do, as well as meeting, supporting and encouraging others like them. On another level, it’s a physical place for this community to do all that and more.”
I read about it this morning, felt really inspired and mailed off a link to a freelance writers mailing list I read. Then I noticed on the Whirlpool forums that a few readers over there had been similarly enthused. Thought it was worth sharing with Lifehacker, since it tackles a few of the thorny issues of freelance working – namely, how do you network with others in your profession, how do you promote your own business and stay abreast with potential business partners, and how can you afford office space while freelancing if you don’t wish to work from home.
The first national research project to study participants in Open Source in Australia has been launched. The survey, called the Australian Open Source Industry and Community Census, is being conducted by Open Source consultancy Waugh Partners. Pia Waugh blogged about the survey, and why they’re keen to hear from as many companies – and individuals – as possible:
“It has an Australian focus specifically so that the final report (which will be freely available to download) will help educate and inform Australian Government, corporates and education about the realities rather than the perceptions of our industry and community locally. Hopefully it will reflect the strength, diversity and opportunities presented by the Australian Open Source industry and community, so everyone needs to stand up and be counted.”
A couple of weeks ago we told you about a cool feature on using geotagging to link photos to locales. Well the author behind that story, Stephen Shankland, has written a follow up in which he goes through some of the traps he encountered while using geotagging, and how he got around them. He also talks about the newer, high end cameras with GPS interfaces, and riffs about how he’d like to see this technology develop.
CNET’s published a nice walkthrough on cleaning a digital SLR camera. I liked the fact that it starts with how to test whether your camera actually needs cleaning:
“To test for dust and blemishes, set the camera to a small aperture, say around f/16-22, and take a picture of a plain white surface, such as a piece of plain white paper. Have a look at the resulting image on a computer and zoom in to hunt for tell-tale blemishes.”
