Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Week’s Best Posts
9:15AM Gina Trapani | The week’s best posts include: Rock Your Presentation with the Right Tools and Apps “At some point in your career as a student or professional, you’re going to have to give a presentation–and when you do, you want to be prepared with the right content and applications.” Cover Your Butt At Work with Thorough Notes “There’s an easy way to protect yourself from accusations, blame and disrespect at the office: by keeping great notes.” Save a Life With Your Computer “What if you could use your computer for more than writing up the latest TPS report or surfing the webernets for last night’s Family Guy episodes?” A Seller’s Guide to Craigslist “If you live in a city with a thriving Craigslist community, the free, popular online classified ads site is more than just a great place to find excellent deals in your community.” Top 10 Wi-Fi Boosts, Tweaks and Apps “No doubt you’ve got a home wireless network or you’ve connected to hotspots at the local coffee shop or airport–but are you getting the most out of your Wi-Fi? “ Menu Bar Show and Tell “The Mac Menu Bar–the small strip of applications on the top right of your Mac–houses some of the coolest apps you can run on your system.” MacBook Pro 1GB, 2GB, and 3GB Memory Speed Tests “You already know you can upgrade your Mac’s RAM yourself and save big money, but how much extra memory do you want?” Reboot Your Brain with a Caffeine Nap “Didn’t get enough sleep last night? Grab a quick midday nap just after a cup of coffee.” Build a Wi-Fi Adapter for Your Xbox 360 On the Cheap “Got an Xbox 360 but don’t want to weave 100 feet of Ethernet cable through your living room or drop $100 bucks for the official Xbox Wi-Fi adapter–and you’ve got a nasty DIY streak?” Do You Sign The Back Of Your Credit Cards? “One of the most common ways to guard yourself against credit card misuse is to sign the back of your card, so that merchants can check the signature on your card with that on your ID. Right?” Ask the Readers: Best Online To-do List Manager? ” every week, there’s a new web application that helps you keep your to-do list. But which ones are you using to, you know, actually do things?” More »
Lifehacker code update
8:00AM Gina Trapani | Gmail users, just released an update to the Better Gmail Firefox extension which fixes the broken image when using the Folders4Gmail script. Get it here or use the Find Updates button in the Firefox’s Add-ons dialog. More »
How To Make A Beer Battery
7:51AM Annalee Newitz | Beer batteries create energy from bacteria that feed on waste water. The technical term for them is “microbial fuel cells” (MFCs), and they earned the nickname beer batteries because beer company Fosters has funded the development of MFCs in Australia that run on waste water produced by the beer-making process. The best part about beer batteries, though, is that you can make them at home, based on instructions developed by a high school student named Abbie Groff. She won an international science fair prize for her work. Image by Abbie Groff. Groff’s MFC tutorial More »
We Want to See What’s In Your Pockets
7:30AM Adam Pash | You showed us your go bags, and frankly, they were fantastic. But many of you pointed out that the whole go bag business seemed overwhelming—that you’re minimalists who’ve stripped down your needs to whatever you can fit in your pockets. So for next week’s show and tell, we want to see what you’re packing in your pockets. Photo by janerc. More »
Set Default iCal Alarms with iCalFix
7:00AM Adam Pash | Mac OS X only: You schedule appointments on your calendar so that you can be reminded of your commitments, but for some strange reason iCal doesn’t allow you to set a default alarm for your new appointments—a strange feature oversight that can result in missed events. The freeware iCal add-on iCalFix adds a tab to your iCal preference pane from which you can set default reminders for appointments and all-day events. If you’ve ever been frustrated by iCal’s lack of default alarm, this is a must-have. iCalFix is free to download, Mac OS X only. iCalFix [Groby Unplugged] More »
Organise Your String, Twine, and Ribbon with Funnels
6:00AM Adam Pash | If you’ve got a disorganised drawer full of tangled string, twine, or ribbon—in my house we used to call this the “junk drawer”—DIY web site Curbly suggests using funnels to organise and dispense your stringy things. It’s a very simple and kind of elegant idea if you’ve got a place to hang your funnels-cum-dispensers, and with Christmas just around the corner (that’s right, I said it), this might be the perfect companion project for your makeshift gift-wrapping station. Twine Twicks – Great Storage Idea for Ribbon, etc. [Cubrly] More »
Quick And Dirty Research With Google Book
5:45AM Annalee Newitz | Let’s say you’re looking for an expert opinion to flesh out some research you’re doing, but don’t have time to track down a university professor or go to the library. Or maybe you’re just one of those people who likes to have the answer to everything, and you want to prove you’re right by citing an authoritative source. Sure, you can try to Google up an expert opinion on how the launch of Sputnik led to a culture of censorship in the U.S., but you’re likely to get mired in a pile of search result goo. That’s where Google Book can help. With its extensive catalog of academic books and journals, Google Book is the very best place to find fast, authoritative answers to your question about Sputnik, complete with a short quote and trustworthy citation. More »
Add Items to Gcal with a Phone Call using Jott to Google Calendar
5:15AM Adam Pash | US-centric: Schedule and access your upcoming appointments in Google Calendar with the ease of a phone call with web application Jott to Google Calendar. Once Jott2Gcal is set up, you can dial your Jott number and say something like, “Dinner with Gina tomorrow at 8:30pm” and it should automatically be added to your calendar. Likewise, if you were to call and say, “Get events from 10/5/2007 through 10/10/2007,” you should get an email (and SMS message, depending on your settings) listing your events. We were desperate for a similar Gcal solution when PingMe integrated with Jott, and Jott2Gcal answers that call. AU – Jott is available in US and Canada only, sorry guys! Add to Google Calendar by Talking Into Your Cell [Grinn.net] More »
Reduce Terminal Clutter With GNU Screen
4:45AM Annalee Newitz | If you’re sick of opening a new terminal window for every application, GNU Screen is here to save the day. It’s a simple little program that comes pre-installed in Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X, and it allows you to page through multiple console applications from the same terminal window. Imagine reading your mail, editing text, and running a sorting application—all from the same terminal on your desktop! To get started, just type “screen” at the command line prompt. You’ll get a welcome screen, and then you’ll hit return. It looks like you’ve been taken back to the prompt, but now you’re in GNU Screen. Start an application, like a text editor. Then hit ctrl-a, followed by letter c. This creates a new window (you’ll see a new command prompt). Start your next application, then hit ctrl-a, followed by p. Now you’ve paged back to your previous window, with the text editor. Presto, two terminals in one! But wait, there’s more. More »
