Friday, November 16, 2007
Right-Click from the Trackpad
12:00PM Gina Trapani | Your Mac’s lack of a second mouse button means you have to Ctrl+click to get context menus and other “secondary click” options. Mac laptop users can stop reaching for the Ctrl key and secondary click by touching the trackpad with two fingers instead (then hitting the single mouse button.) In OS X’s Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences pane, under Trackpad, check off “For secondary clicks, place two fingers on the trackpad then click the button.” For more Mac tips, see weblog Hack the Day’s roundup. 7 geek tricks for a fresh OSX Tiger install [Hack the Day] More »
Switch Up Activities to Get Happy
11:00AM Gina Trapani | Research that shows doing something out of your comfort zone—a new project, a more challenging job—triggers happy-making chemicals in your brain. Career adviser Penelope Trunk says you can apply this helpful info at the office, but: What about at home? You watch TV, surf from your sofa, cook dinner but don’t venture past pasta. Instead, use the same standards at home that you have at work: If you are not challenging yourself and learning to do new things at home, Burns’ research suggests that satisfaction with your life will be elusive. No doubt a whole lot of us plop down on the couch after work to watch primetime TV or maybe play a little Halo, and that can get to be a drag after awhile. Variety is the spice of life. How do you spice up your life outside work? Let us know in the comments. Don’t get too comfortable at home after work [Brazen Careerist] More »Leopard
10:35AM Gina Trapani | Today Apple pushed out Leopard’s first update (hit Software Update to get it), and Macworld runs down the improvements. More »Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader expected next week
10:15AM Sarah Stokely | Seems it’s the week for e-reader news. First we told you that Dymocks has started selling ebooks and audio books, and now CNET has reported that Amazon will unveil it’s Kindle e-book reader product next week. If it lives up to its promise, Kindle will be cool – it’s been designed with ‘road warriors’ in mind and is tipped to have a Wi-Fi connection that taps into an Amazon e-book store. Amazon is expected to announce deals with newspaper publishers as well as book publishers, so my dream of a crisp white sheet of “e-newspaper” which refreshes to deliver my news every morning may not be so far away after all. Here’s hoping. :)
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Organise Cable with Paper Towel Tubes
10:00AM Gina Trapani | If you’ve got a pile of tangled extension cords (or any kind of long cable) stuffed in your closet, save your toilet and paper towel cardboard tubes. The Unclutterer blog recommends wrapping the long cords and slipping the tube over them for easy, no-tangle storage. You can also use twisty ties, but the cardboard tube seems better suited to thicker cable, and from the looks of it, strings of holiday lights, too. Storing extension cords [Unclutterer] More »
Vinegar – a handy multi-purpose cleaning agent
9:47AM Sarah Stokely | Vinegar is more than just the soulmate of salty chips, or so the Cool Tools blog would have you believe.
In fact, I started using a spray bottle containing 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water for cleaning for several good reasons – it’s environmentally friendly, good for getting out smells like cat pee (don’t ask) and it’s also gentle on delicate fabrics.
The Cool Tools blog has reviewed a book called Vinegar: Over 400 Various, Versatile, and Very Good Uses You’ve Probably Never Thought Of, and the reviewer included a handy list of his own favourite users of vinegar:
Clean the microwave by boiling a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar until it steams up. Wipe clean.
Add vinegar to a hand-pump compressed-air sprayer to kill weeds and grass growing in crevices in a patio and walkways.
Make tomato sauceand other condiments last longer when the bottle is almost empty by adding a little vinegar and shaking.
Spread a cloth soaked in vinegar over a price tag you want to remove and leave overnight.
Got any other tips for using vinegar (or other environmentally friendly substances?) – leave ‘em in comments please.
Vinegar – how to cook, clean and live via Vinegar [Cool Tools]
More » Hackintosh II
9:30AM Sarah Stokely | Adam’s Hack Attack feature which explained how to Build a Hackintosh Mac for under $800 inspired the Uneasy Silence blog to Load OSX 10.5 Leopard onto ASUS’ mini-laptop, the eeePC. [via Gizmodo AU] More »Virtual Visa cards for secure online shopping
9:19AM Sarah Stokely | For those wary of using their credit card online, our mates at Gizmodo AU have written up the new Visa Virtual Prepaid (VCARD) – which works as a virtual debit card. You buy a card of the value you want (with a $5.50 set up fee) – and if you want, you only have to use it once and then ditch it.
“You can buy these online, but of course that defeats the point for many this is targeted toward. So you can buy at your nearest Mobil/Quix and then activate the details online. You get a card number, expiry date, and three-digit security code. All smartly delivered part online, part via SMS or email, for extra security.”
A similar concept is Bopo – a prepaid Visa card which you purchase and load with credit at any Bill Express newsagency. Tipster Kirk pointed this service out to us – and said it also lets you SMS money to other Bopo cards.
Thanks for the tip, Kirk!
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Grab Elusive Signals with the Wi-Fire Range Extender
9:00AM Gina Trapani | When you’re just out of range of your mum’s neighbour’s Wi-Fi signal this over the holiday season, you might want to have the Wi-Fire Range Extender USB signal booster on hand. We haven’t tried it ourselves, but a poster at the Cool Tools web site says: I was in a remote Alabama campground and their little access point was perhaps a few hundred feet away. With the internal Wi-Fi adaptor in my Thinkpad (it’s Mac/PC compatible), no go. With the Wi-Fire aimed carefully I got a solid, workable signal. I just rotate it around until I get the best signal. The Wi-Fire Range Extender will set you back 80 bucks, and looks like a stocking stuffer that could make the geek in your life very happy. Wi-Fire Range Extender [Cool Tools] More »
Remind colleagues to lock their computer – or get pranked
8:58AM Sarah Stokely | The Coding Horror blog has written up the art of ‘goating’ – or pulling pranks on your co-workers when they forget to lock their computers. To hear him tell it, it’s a “for their own good” prank-cum-security-reminder. He lists a few of the more gentle “reminders” you can use such as installing the ‘bluescreen of death screensaver’, replacing the desktop with a screenshot of the desktop (and hiding all the visible items on it), switching the mouse from right to left handed, using the video driver settings to rotate the display left, right or upside down, or switching the keyboard layout from QWERTY to Dvorak.
I particularly liked the Clippy parody applet (see picture) and the embarrassing group emails sent out promising to buy the whole office doughnuts, or telling them “I like oranges!”
Some of the ”goating” pranks mentioned were downright nasty and unproductive. But I bet if the CEO of your company drops by your desk to ask you why you like oranges so much, you’ll remember to lock your computer next time.
So have you pranked in the name of security, or been pranked? Details in comments please. :)
Don’t forget to lock your computer [Coding Horror]
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