Saturday, December 1, 2007
Welcome Back, Kyle!
11:00PM Gina Trapani | Great news this weekend, folks: former Lifehacker editor Kyle Pott has become current again! That’s right, even with his busy class schedule, Kyle couldn’t bear to be without us for too long. The man who brought you the top 10 Gnome desktop tweaks and an exclusive interview with Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth will be pitching in posts alongside Tamar each weekend to feed your head with Saturday and Sunday projects, downloads and tips. Welcome back, Kyle! More »
Zune on sale in Oz
1:33PM Sarah Stokely | If you’ve been hanging out for Microsoft to release their Zune music player locally, then you’ll be interested to know today’s special on the Catch of the Day is a 30g Zune for $238.70 plus shipping. I’m unsure as to the warranty situation, since Microsoft hasn’t released Zune locally and presumably won’t support it locally either. More » This Week’s Best Posts
12:00PM Gina Trapani | So many Lifehacker posts, so little time. This week’s best posts include: Ensure a Fast Internet Connection When You Need It “Your internet connection is an indispensable part of your life, but between BitTorrent, Xbox Live, web browsing, and VoIP, sometimes there’s not enough bandwidth to go around.” Hot Image Your PC’s Hard Drive with DriveImage XML “You don’t need a complicated boot CD or expensive software to create a restorable system disk image for your PC: free utility DriveImage XML can save a full, working snapshot of your Windows hard drive while you work on it.” Top 10 Food and Drink Hacks “You may not be able to power an iPod with an onion, but there are plenty of neat tricks and techniques that actually do work with everyday foods.” Use Your iPhone’s Internet Connection On Your Laptop “It’s great that your iPhone has a data plan and a killer mobile browser, but when you’re sitting at the airport waiting to catch a plane with your laptop right next to you, wouldn’t it be nice to use your full-on desktop browser?” Get to Sleep Faster by Tensing Up and Repeating “The” “It’s not news that many of us aren’t getting enough sleep, but BBC News offers several tips from a director of Clinical Sleep Research for getting to sleep when your head hits the pillow that you may not have heard before.” Start Meaningful Conversations “Learning how to initiate that first conversation can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be.” Find Critically-Acclaimed Torrents at PickyPirate “BitTorrent search sites like The Pirate Bay can help you find recently-released tunes, flicks and video games, but deciding which are worth the hefty downloads usually involves digging in more mainstream channels.” More »Run (Lap)”Topless” Meetings
11:00AM Gina Trapani | Blogger Todd Wilkens is waging a personal war against laptops and BlackBerries in office meetings, and says you shouldn’t be afraid to lay down the law. Someone has to be the one to stand up to the social pressure. It can be an uncomfortable prospect but it is necessary. Luckily, you’ll find that many people secretly want to have the excuse to disconnect and focus. They just don’t want to take the risk of making people upset. Don’t be afraid to make people a little uncomfortable in the name of productivity. He has some great suggestions for how to overcome protests, like building breaks in long meetings so folks don’t feel uncomfortable being offline for hours, and reminding clients that they’re paying you to watch them check their email. Heh. My personal war against Crackberry [Adaptive Path via 43F] More »
Paint Your Car for $75
10:00AM Adam Pash | DIY web site Instructables details the poor man’s method for painting a car for around $75 with a combination of Rustoleum, mineral spirits (paint thinner), foam brushes, sandpaper, and some painter’s tape. You may not result in a fully professional finish, but if you’re looking for a cheap method to improve the looks of your not-so-hot paint job without spending much to do it, this method might be for you. If you’re thinking about giving it a try, be sure to check out this video for application instructions. The Poor Mans Paint Job; How to paint your car for $75.00 [Instructables] More »
Spice Up Your Desktop with Time-Lapsing Wallpaper
9:00AM Adam Pash | Mac OS X only: Freeware applications Wallpaper Clocks and Desktopia set time-specific wallpapers to your desktop, providing you with a fun and effective way to keep an eye on the time with attractive wallpapers. First, Wallpaper Clocks refreshes your wallpaper every minute to display the current time and (when applicable to the wallpaper) date. Alternatively, Desktopia changes your desktop wallpaper at user-defined periods for an effect similar to iGoogle’s sunlight-to-moonlight themes (though you could set completely different wallpapers to remind you to change work modes or tasks). Wallpaper Clocks and Desktopia are freeware, Mac OS X only. Wallpaper Clocks [via Cool OSX Apps] Desktopia [via MacApper] More »The Times Online lists 14 spurious productivity …
8:30AM Gina Trapani | The Times Online lists 14 spurious productivity surveys, like how coughing costs the UK economy £875m a year in lost productivity. Awesome. More »Make Your Own Holiday Eggnog
8:00AM Adam Pash | Nothing ushers in the holiday season like a tall, thick glass of eggnog, and web site HolidayKitchen offers a nice video step-by-step for cooking up your very own batch of eggnog. Whether you prefer a virgin eggnog or with a touch of grandpa’s cough medicine, it looks relatively simple (though I’d throw in some nutmeg). For a slightly more refined alternative, you might want to check out Food Network star Alton Brown’s eggnog recipe. Got your own holiday favourites? Let’s hear what you go homemade with over the holidays in the comments. Egg Nog Grog [HolidayKitchen.tv via Curbly] More »Wired offers a few tips to avoid air travel …
7:30AM Adam Pash | Wired offers a few tips to avoid air travel delays, but if you’re really serious about finding cheap tickets, packing all you need, and getting there on time, check out our pre-flight and travel day checklists for the power traveler. More »
