Wired rounds up several ways to stop online procrastination, including several Lifehacker favourites like MeeTimer, Kiwi Cloak, The Procrastinator’s Clock, and of course, Gina’s Invisibility Cloak.
Get email notifications whenever other users comment on your photos or when your contacts (or only friends and family) upload new photos with Flickr’s improved email notifications. Way back when Gina wrote her Advanced Flickr User Guide, Flickr didn’t notify users via email when their photos had been commented on—which inspired this hack. Now, not only does Flickr support comment and new photo alerts, but you can choose whether or not you receive the notifications instantly or in a once-daily or once-weekly digest. This feature set isn’t exactly brand new, but I’d completely missed their rollout—and they still get the “NEW” graphic on Flickr.
Receiving notifications [Flickr]ExtremeTech offers up 10 tips on how to get what you want from tech support. The first tip is probably the best one in my book - do your homework and know what you want before you place the support call. Another tip, recording the phone conversation, sounds extreme but I’d advise keeping written notes so you know what they’ve advised and promised to do for you.
Ten Tips: How to Get What You Want from Tech Support [ExtremeTech]
Windows only: Freeware shell extension DeleteOnClick adds a Securely Delete entry to your Windows Explorer right-click menu so you can securely wipe files from your hard drive. How securely, you ask? Apparently it’s U.S. Department of Defense secure (uses the U.S. DOD 5220.22-M secure file deletion standard). DeleteOnClick is similar to the previously mentioned Windows File Shredder but doesn’t require any of the batch file setup. Alternately, if you’re looking to permanently wipe a disk, check out Eraser. If you’ve got some porn sensitive documents you’d like to permanently remove from your computer, DeleteOnClick offers a simple right-click solution. DeleteOnClick is free to download, Windows only.
DeleteOnClick [2BrightSparks]Criticism is a bitch. No one likes hearing it, and unless you like hurting feelings, most of us don’t like giving it. The Zen Habits weblog examines criticism—from why we criticise to why criticism hurts—and then discusses how to deliver criticism that will be well received. Since we’ve all taken on the role of critic at some point or another, I’m curious how you give criticism with a dash of good feelings so that your points get across and the critique does more than just hurt feelings. Let’s hear your methods (hamburger rule, perhaps?) in the comments.
How to Give Kind Criticism, and Avoid Being Critical [Zen Habits]Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Find new recipes and quickly and easily build your grocery list to make the new dishes with Firefox extension Grocery List Generator. We mentioned GLG once before, but it’s since undergone some major updating and now has a dedicated web site for finding and sharing your favourite recipes. The most interesting thing about the web site/extension combo is that you can grab and add new recipes to your shopping list with one click of your mouse, and you can share your own recipes with others on the site just as easily (making the web site an all-in-one community for Firefox foodies). After you pick your meals and add any extra items to your list, GLG will print out a by-aisle breakdown of your shopping list. Handy.
Grocery List GeneratorThe New York Times makes a case for the Ubuntu Dells, pointing out that “with prices starting as low as free, you certainly cannot complain about the price.”
Instantly look up addresses, search businesses, or add information to your contacts from content in your emails with Yahoo Mail Shortcuts. The Shortcuts feature, which can be tweaked within your settings, can read email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, calendar events, addresses, and “interesting picks,” and then offers context-specific options for each shortcut type. For example, if Yahoo Mail recognises an address, you can view a map of that address in a quick, handy frame or add the address to an existing or new contact (the contact management features in Yahoo Mail are really to die for). Gmail already has similar integration with maps and calendars, but this kind of tighter integration—especially with the robust contact management—is the kind of thing that makes Gmail look bad next to the competition.
US centric – Google Transit graduates from Labs and integrates into Google Maps, but it’s still lacking support for several large cities, most notably New York. Where it does work, you still get all these cool features.
