Thursday, October 25, 2007

Save a Slow System with Damn Small Linux

11:30PM Kevin Purdy | All platforms: Pen drive-sized operating system Damn Small Linux—the savior of old PCs, non-booting systems and efficiency-minded users everywhere—released its 4.0 version this week. Notable changes include: New drag-and-drop capabilities in the file manager Improved Wi-Fi support (through ndiswrapper, madwifi, and other modules) New GUI interfaces for changing system preferences, managing printers and other tasks Kernel upgrade to 2.4.31, which means better power management and device support Damn Small Linux is a free download that fits inside less than 50MB, so it’s easily booted from a CD, a USB drive, or an ancient PC with only 8MB of memory. Hit the link below, choose your download mirror and download the dsl-4.0.iso from inside the “current” folder. Damn Small Linux [via Download Squad] More »

Plump Flattened Cushions in the Sun

11:00PM Gina Trapani | Your couch cushions half the height they were the day you bought ‘em? Real Simple magazine offers an easy way to get them cushy again: Put them outside in the sun for a few hours, flipping them halfway through…The sun will help evaporate the moisture that gets into the filling over time, and the cushions should plump up nicely. Make sure you set a timer on this, though, because as the mag notes, leaving them out too long can fade the cushion fabric (especially for darker colors). Plumping Up Deflated Cushions [RealSimple.com] More »

GIMP 2.4 Offers New Features, Improved Interface

9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux: Open source image editing suite GIMP version 2.4 is now available and features a host of new goodies and long-awaited improvements. Chief among the new features are scaling for all kinds of brushes, intuitive selection and crop tools, a new object alignment guide and advanced tools like perspective cloning and lens distortion filters, but there are many more. GIMP is free, available already in some Linux repositories and for download for Windows and Mac users. For help getting started with GIMP, check out these intermediate video tutorials. GIMP – Downloads [via OSNews] More »

Quicksilver Updates, Prepares for Leopard

6:09PM Adam Pash | Mac OS X only: The keyboard shortcut loving Mac owner’s favourite app, Quicksilver, has received a minor update, presumably in preparation for the upcoming release of Leopard. Aside from the version update (it’s B52 from B51, despite what Quicksilver’s homepage says at the time of this writing), the most significant difference I’ve noticed is what appears to be a very slight refresh of the preferences, triggers, catalog, and plug-ins manager (I saw a spinner when I switched tabs that’s new to me). But there actually is a little more. More »

Harnessing games and virtual worlds for productivity’s sake

10:42AM Sarah Stokely | So it seems that games, virtual worlds and social networking sites are becoming entrenched in the way we live and work. No surprise to us geeks, of course. But it seems that some organisations are looking more deeply into how employees interact with these digital worlds, to see how they might harness these behaviours for good. The BBC published a really interesting feature looking at this trend, and quotes Ian Hughes, IBM’s metaverse evangelist, as saying that many organisations were considering ways of harnessing the skills and familiarity their employees have with virtual environments. “This familiarity has driven many organisations to consider virtual worlds as places where employees can meet, mix and get on with the job.” This isn’t pie in the sky stuff, it’s happening right now – Tech Crunch’s Duncan Riley blogged about a recent meeting in Second Life, for example. The BBC article also talks about a company called Seriosity which is working with businesses to harness game mechanics for the office – for example it came up with a virtual currency for use with emails. Given a limited amount of these Serios, users had to ‘budget’ the amount of emails they sent and which ones they ranked as important – a tool for minimising information overload and helping prioritise work. And it’s not just productivity in the workplace that can benefit either – CNET reported on a new ‘world of Chorecraft’ game which I think is an ingenious way of harnessing people’s innate love of ‘levelling up’ in MMOs to get them to excel at housework. Chore Wars gives users experience points for various household chores, which can be used to advance your profile in the online game. This could be a great tool for parents or competitive gamer geek sharehouses. ;) So is your workplace or household using any social networking, virtual world or gaming tools to be more productive? Do you think there are productivity gains to be made, or is it a geeky daydream?  Let us know in comments. When Work Becomes a Game [BBC News] ‘Chore Wars,’ where ‘World of Warcraft’ meets toilet cleaner [CNET] More »