Author of The 4 Hour Workweek Tim Ferriss covers three of the key points in his controversial “lifestyle design” book in a five-minute talk above. Hit the play button to get Tim’s take on batching your email and other information consumption, cutting out time-consuming activities that don’t return the investment with the 80/20 rule and outsourcing your life.
[via Better Blogging with Michael Martine]About to email a tirade flaming your co-worker for the rude, abrupt message he just sent you? Wait. The New York Times reports on the psychological reasons why email is so easily misread and misunderstood: Face-to-face interaction, by contrast [to on-screen interaction] , is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronisation with what we do and say.
You already know how to create Smart Folders in OS X the regular way, but today Mac OS X Hints shows you how to dig into the code that makes Smart Folders to customise them even further.
Microblogging service Twitter can now track mentions of any specific keyword for you, as long as you’ve activated Twitter on your cellphone or IM program. For example, using the command track San Francisco, Twitter will alert you about any user tweets regarding San Fran as they happen. Use it to find out when people mention your name or your company’s name. If you’re inundated by all the new tweets, use the untrack command to disable future notifications about the particular phrase. Track your friends with Twitter and see how Twitter is used to set reminders, manage tasks, and organise notes.
Tracking Twitter [Twitter Blog]Looks like a little freezer time can save more than just a dead hard drive: according to this video over at Metacafe, you can also revive a dead laptop battery by freezing it for 14 to 15 hours. We haven’t tried this trick ourselves, but a little cursory research using The Google shows that it’s been discussed and recommended online before. Anyone else have luck (or know the science behind) freezing a battery back to life? Let us know in the comments.
Revive A Dead Laptop Battery [Metacafe]Google now allows you to “join” one of their Experimental Web Search projects to give ‘em a test drive. Our favourite is still the Gmail-like j/k keyboard shortcuts experiment. [via]
We know that environmentally minded readers have come up with clever ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and otherwise lessen their footprint on our planet. We’re putting together a special Blog Action Day feature for this coming Monday on the environment and we want to hear about them from you. Send us your best green hacks to tips@lifehacker.com, subject “Green hack” and enter to win a gorgeous set of handmade paper stationery courtesy of P2P Rescue.
Windows only: Previously-mentioned auto software updater AppSnap can now detect what applications already exist on your system and check for new versions online in one click. AppSnap comes with a fabulous list of free software built in. You check off the ones you want and AppSnap downloads and installs them for you. That’s great for building new systems, but now AppSnap can find apps already installed on your machine, let you know which ones have a new version available for download online, and upgrade them in one shot. Two thumbs up. AppSnap is a free download for Windows only. Thanks, DarthTealc!
AppSnapLittle appreciated outside the world of academia, there are literally thousands of .edu (AU – or edu.au, of course) sites bursting with incredibly useful and interesting information and resources. Most of these sites won’t pop up to the surface of the average search engine quest, and so they wait, neglected and underused…until now. Keep reading for a quick tour through the mysterious underground world of .edu.
Windows only: Google Desktop users can now add some of their favourite gadgets and sidebar applets to their personalised iGoogle home pages as well. That means being able to play music, monitor system performance or even check wireless signal strength from your browser. The latest (still beta) release of Google Desktop also includes better Outlook search compatibility, multiple gadget instances and a polished look for the search box. Google Desktop is also available for Mac and Linux, but the desktop-to-iGoogle gadgets appear to be only working for XP/Vista/2000 users at the moment.
Google Desktop [via Inside Google Desktop]
