Monday, November 19, 2007
Flashback
11:30PM Tamar Weinberg | Does the internet tell the truth? Not always. Two year ago on Lifehacker, we showed you how to verify the accuracy of the sources of information you find on the ‘net. More »
Declutter
6:20PM Sarah Stokely | The Zen Habits blog has put together an interesting list of uncluttering resources, which range from URLs, Flickr groups, blogs and books. Check out their 10 resources and inspirations for decluttering your home and see what works for you. More »
Get a personalised how to vote card emailed or SMSed to you
6:01PM Sarah Stokely | Fancy having a personalised how to vote card emailed to you, or SMSed to you on the morning of the election? Online activist group GetUp have set up a 20 question online quiz to help you identify which of your local candidates most closely reflects your values.
The questions were also posed to the candidates, and the site generates your ‘how to vote’ card based on which candidate is the closest to your results. The questions range from the war in Iraq, health and education spending, union power, indigenous issues, and same sex issues.
I’m glad to see that GetUp also encourages people to check out the Australian Electoral Commission’s website and the websites of the individual candidates. Especially since not all candidates have responded to GetUp’s survey – for example in my electorate, neither the Liberal candidate nor the Family First candidate had responded, so my “How to Vote” card puts them last. Still it’s an interesting idea and a quick and easy way to identify your local candidates, at the very least.
How Should I Vote? [GetUp]
More » Ring tones – for your front door
5:42PM Sarah Stokely | The scourge of custom ring tones is inescapable it seems. Hot on the heels of the news that you can now customise your car horn, is this guide on creating a custom tone for your door bell. We are not amused.
Build it: Hack your Doorbell [How 2.0 Blog]
More » Acess Gmail contacts in Thunderbird
3:42PM Sarah Stokely | Gmail’s recently announced IMAP support brought us closer to Thunderbird/Gmail sychronicity nirvana – but as Lifehacker reader Dan pointed out, you need to do some tweaking to get access to your Gmail contacts in Thunderbird.
Dan’s solution uses a combination of previously mentioned GCALDaemon and the Contacts Sidebar Add-On – one of Gina’s favourite Thunderbird extensions. Here’s how he did it:
Install and set up GCALDaemon (just remember to ‘install’ and ’start’ the service – that had me stumped for a while!). This gives you the ability to search for contacts when creating new emails.
Enter ‘*’ (without quotes) into the contacts search box and you’ll get a full list.
Add the Contacts Sidebar Add-On though and its default setup will automatically download your Gmail Contacts for you to view whenever you want (as long as you’re online).
Thanks for the tip, Dan!
More » Tweak Google Scholar to find resources at your Uni
10:54AM Sarah Stokely | Lifehacker AU reader Peggy has posted some study tips for students, including a nice tweak for Google Scholar which helps you find resources at your local Uni.
1. Go to ‘Scholar Preferences‘2. In the Library Links section, search for your uni3. Hopefully your uni will be listed, if so tick the check box (If not, maybe ask a librarian and see if the uni can get listed)4. In the Bibliography Manager section, select EndNote5. Click on ‘Save Preferences‘Now when you search, for the papers you usually need to login to download you’ll see a link similar to “Find it@UNSW” next to it. When you click on the link, it’ll take you to your uni’s login page and once you login you’ll be taken directly to the article. Nice isn’t it? Also, with EndNote, all articles should now have an “Import to EndNote” link, click on it to import into your EndNote library – no need to manually enter the details (though be careful there are times when Google doesn’t reference properly, but it’s rare, and usually an easy fix)
Ten Useful Tips to Help with Research [Psychopyko]
Thanks for the tip, Peggy!
More » iiNet ‘naked DSL’ charges you for uploading
10:42AM Sarah Stokely | When we posted about iiNet’s introduction of a naked DSL service last week, we didn’t notice that iiNet has decided to count uploads towards your bandwidth allowance – something pointed out to us by eagled-eyed commenter Sethaan.
Gizmodo has expressed some concerns about this nasty trend over here, and taken a look at Whirlpool’s take on the issue.
Like a few people, I’m quite interested in getting rid of my landline phone and it’s accompanying monthly fee, but being charged for uploads sours the offer somewhat. Hopefully when more naked DSL services come online in the new year, they’ll nix the upload charge.
So would being charged for uploads be a deal breaker for you? How important is it to get rid of the landline, anyway?
More » 
Prepare Your Home for Winter
6:00AM Gina Trapani | Avoid any unpleasant surprises come this winter’s first freeze with Bob Vila’s bi-annual home maintenance checklist, which outlines several ways to winterize your house. It includes such exciting items as sealing air conditioners, replacing screen doors, cleaning the gutters and caulking holes in the siding. What fall chores have gotten your digs ready for the first cold snap? Let us know in the comments. Home Maintenance Checklist [BobVila.com] More »Control Your Workday with a Game Plan
4:00AM Gina Trapani | A short NY Times piece published today tackles productivity problems in the modern workplace. To summarise, they are: multitasking (bad, work sequentially instead), email (check it less, process it more), and long, paralysing to-do lists. One productivity expert actually recommends that companies should restrict internet access for their employees: A compulsion to surf the Internet and check email stirs up a “desire to be in the know, to not be left out, that ends up taking up a lot of our time”–at the expense of getting things done, Mr. Ellwood said. If he had his way, he would cut off Internet access–but not email–for a vast majority of employees, and set up dedicated workstations for people to use when they really needed the Web for their work. Yikes! Obviously Mr. Ellwood doesn’t read Lifehacker. Every Workday Needs a Game Plan [NYT] More »
