Saturday, October 20, 2007
How to Be Optimistic
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Tired of always focusing on the downside of everything? Wish you could temper your negative thoughts with occasional reassurance? Web site wikiHow offers a good roundup of ways to counter pessimism, including a little Moleskine-powered mind hacking: Get a notebook and a pen, and write down all the good things that you have. Every time you are feeling negative, read through them and remind yourself that it’s not all bad. How do you battle downward-spiraling thoughts? Feel free to share in the comments. How to Be Optimistic [wikiHow] More »
This Week’s Best Posts
9:00AM Gina Trapani | This week’s best posts include: Get Organised with Remember the Milk “Remember the Milk’s got all the best features modern webapps have to offer: email/SMS/IM integration, tagging, advanced search, keyboard shortcuts and even offline access with Google Gears.” Easy Ways to Live Greener “Last Monday, we put out a call for your best ways to live greener, and as usual, Lifehacker readers did not disappoint.” A Look at Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” RC1 “Gutsy Gibbon’s not a major Long Term Support release, it’s not a radical re-thinking of the system, but it is another step toward a Linux system that just works.” The Power Traveler’s Checklist, Part One: Pre-Flight “If you’re planning to fly the friendly skies this Thanksgiving or Chrismukkah, you’ve either already bought your tickets or you’re about to.” Top 10 Distraction Stoppers “Most desktop software and web sites are built to grab your attention in one way or another, and the constant temptations are tough to resist.” Is Mint Ready for Your Money? “After just four weeks of their public beta, financial management web site Mint is already boasting over 50,000 members and managing over $2 billion of their money.” Windows Tip: Hibernate vs. Standby “Quick: What’s the difference between putting your PC in Hibernate or Standby mode? Yeah, we weren’t sure either.” Google Releases Gmail Mobile 1.5 “Version 1.5 adds the ability to search your mail, easy access to your contacts list, more efficient data usage that reduces bandwidth consumption (and load time), and more configurable settings.” What’s New in the Other ‘Buntus “A new version release for Ubuntu can feel like a Linux version of a dysfunctional family reunion for some users–they watch the oldest, most popular sibling get all the attention, wondering when their own unique qualities will get noticed.” First Look at Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac “Mac users have been waiting since 2004 for an update to Microsoft’s ubiquitous office suite, and especially eagerly since Apple switched to Intel processors.” More »The Roomba robot army
9:00AM Sarah Stokely | Just when I’d written off Mick Keelty, head of the Australian Federal Police, as a nutjob for predicting that Australia’s greatest future crimal threat is robots… it turns out that iRobot (the makers of Roomba, the adorable robot vacuum cleaner) are about to unleash a race of robot warriors on the world. For reals. Spec sheet and photos are here.
[Via Amygdala]
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Money Won’t Buy Happiness, Enjoy Life in the Middle Class
8:00AM Adam Pash | Hearing that money doesn’t buy happiness won’t be the most surprising thing you hear today, but you might be surprised to learn that there is a cutoff for the money-equals-happiness equation lying somewhere near the middle class. From Newsweek: “Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness,” writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert in his best-selling “Stumbling on Happiness,” “and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter.” More »
Give Tech Support and Collaborate Across Platforms with Yuuguu
7:00AM Adam Pash | Windows/Mac: Freeware application Yuuguu provides instant remote screen sharing through a simple IM-like application. Just install Yuuguu on the computers you’d like to share screens, and then register and login to the Yuuguu chat application. If you decide you want to do a little screen sharing—perfect for friends and family tech support or a little project collaboration—just click “Show” and let the screen sharing begin. The user you’re chatting with can either observe your screen or take control of the keyboard and mouse. Of course, there’s no shortage of screen sharing apps like Yuuguu out there (like CrossLoop, ShowMyPC, LogMeIn, and of course VNC), Yuuguu’s simple cross platform support is a bit of a gem. Yuuguu [via Web Worker Daily] More »
Declutter Your Charging Station with a Gadget Basket
6:00AM Adam Pash | The Unclutterer weblog highlights a simple basket hack for creating a clean and attractive gadget charging station. In short: Find a good looking basket, drill a hole in the bottom, and thread your charging cables through the bottom. It’s nothing terribly innovative, but it does look good—so think of it more as a bit of cable-decluttering inspiration for your weekend. For more inspiration, check out these other cord hiding and management solutions. Workspace of the Week: Cable Basket [Unclutterer] More »
Apple Posts Leopard Guided Tour
5:30AM Kevin Purdy | Apple has just released a video walk-through of OS X 10.5 Leopard. The video doesn’t cover anything we haven’t mentioned before, but seeing Time Machine, Stacks and other features in action is something else altogether. The video requires QuickTime to view. Mac OS X Leopard – Guided Tour [via Macworld] More »Do not call
5:30AM Adam Pash | US-centric: If you signed up with the National Do Not Call Registry when the service opened its doors in 2003, it’s time to re-register (registration expires after five years). You can re-register anytime, so go ahead and refresh even if your five years aren’t up. [via] More »
Time-Machine Your SVN Project with SvnTimeLapseView
5:00AM Adam Pash | Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Free, cross platform application SvnTimeLapseView downloads every revision of a file from your Subversion repository and scrolls through revisions with a simple slider, highlighting differences in blue. If you’re not familiar with the benefits of version control (especially for people who live in text), check out our guide to setting up a home subversion server for a better idea of what it does and whether Subversion might be useful for you. If you decide Subversion is up your alley, Windows users should also check out how to use TortoiseSVN with Subversion. SvnTimeLapseView is free, works on Windows, Mac, and Linux (or any platform that runs Java). SvnTimeLapseView [Google Code] More »
