Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Lists
11:30PM Tamar Weinberg | One year ago on Lifehacker, you reviewed the list of things you must do before year’s end. More »
HD-DVD ‘not taking Australian market seriously’
3:54PM Sarah Stokely | A report in the SMH today has Blu-ray aligned movie rental outfits Video Ezy and Blockbuster quoted as saying the HD DVD lobby is “missing the boat” and not taking the
Australian market seriously enough. Our pals at Gizmodo reported back in October that JB Hi-Fi, (which was snuggled up to Sony at the launch of Blu-ray in Australia saying it would never carry HD-DVD in its stores), had backflipped after eight months and will actually stock both formats. Is it really a ‘two discs enter, one disc leave’ situation? I know there’s already at least one player on the market that can handle Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
More » 
Build the perfect baby video
2:29PM Sarah Stokely | Whether you’ve got a baby on the way, or want to turn your handycam skills into a really thoughtful.gift for friends or family who are expecting, CNET’s written up a guide for how to put together the perfect baby video. It includes a basic shopping list of gear you might need, as well as some pointers for shooting and editing the footage. The bit of advice which looked really helpful to me was simply that you should plan ahead for the kind of video you want to make:
“After the baby arrives, life might get just a wee bit hectic — so try
to do some planning before the big day. That means building a shot
list, which can be anything from a basic checklist of important people
to film with the baby to something as in-depth as a storyboard.”
The article lists a number of suggestions for shots you may want, including baby’s arrival home from hospital, meeting the relatives for the first time and that kind of thing. You may want some “before” shots too – such as pictures of the parents-to-be decorating the nursery, opening presents at the baby shower and that kind of thing.
I’d add another important thing to the checklist which that story omits – if you’re not the mum or dad yourself, make sure you talk over your plans with them and get their ok. Getting thrown out of the delivery room due to a misunderstanding would not be a great way to kick off your career as a baby movie maker. :)
Build the perfect baby video [CNET]
More » Will your 2008 diary be virtual or paper?
1:49PM Sarah Stokely | In the course of planning how I’ll run my personal organisation system next year, I’ve had to do some thinking about whether to use an online calendar, or continue to use a paper one. In my job, which involves a lot of travel and external meetings, I need a portable calendar which contains not only my appointments but also the information I need about them (ie who is attending, their contact details, maps or directions for getting there, etc). I also need to be able to make new appointments on the spot – I hate having to say “I’ll need to check my diary when I get back to my desk” – so my diary goes with me everywhere.There’s no reason why I couldn’t use a PDA for this, in fact I’ve done so before. This gives the benefit of being able to synch information from your desktop computer to your portable one. But to be honest, I return to the paper diary because I prefer to write
notes in my diary to having to synch the PC and PDA, or update a PDA with it’s fiddly little keyboard.More recently the ability to share invitations and events via Google Calendar has gotten me using that for planning joint events, so for 2008 I plan to use Google Calendar for joint events, and my Moleskine for planning my personal day to day schedule.So will you be an electronic or paper diary person in 2008? Do you use a blend of both? Share your system in comments please.
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Improve Windows Fonts with ClearType
1:30PM Gina Trapani | Weblog Of Zen and Computing describes one of the absolute must-do-right-away Windows tweaks out there: turning on ClearType. By default in Windows (XP at least, not sure about Vista), text looks pixelly and thin. When you turn on ClearType, everything gets pretty and smooth as silk. Yes, we mentioned ClearType in our Top Windows tweaks, but it’s such a big improvement it’s worth its very own post. Those of you with LCD monitors can also adjust your settings with the ClearType Tuner. Improve the Readability of On-Screen Text with ClearType [Of Zen and Computing] More »
FileBox eXtender gives one click access to Windows folders
1:17PM Sarah Stokely | As you know if you’ve been reading Lifehacker for any length of time, we review a *lot* of software apps, addons and the like. Some of them you check out and then move on. Others, like FileBox eXtender, get downloaded for keeps. The reason why I leapt on this app is that it solves the annoying problem of having to click through folder tree after folder tree in Windows to get to the one you want.Basically, it adds “favourites” and “recently accessed” buttons to the standard Windows “File Open” and “File Save” dialog boxes and Explorer folders. This means you can access the folders and documents you use most often with just one click. In my case, it means I can save myself time and annoying mouseclicks when uploading photos to my Moveable Type blog. Very pleasing.The screenshot shows the drop down FileBox eXtender menu, with your favourite destinations. Note the option to add the current file or folder to the drop menu. Nice. Note that you’ll need to register the app to be able to add more than two favourites.
The little push pin icon is for another FileBox eXtender feature, which allows you to pin that page to the top of your display.FileBox eXtender is freeware, works on Windows. Kudus to its publisher, Hyperionics, for having a control panel and decent configuration instructions online, too.
FileBox eXtender [via Makeuseof.com]
More » Skype
1:00PM Gina Trapani | Skype’s newly-released 2.7 Beta for Mac OS X offers Leopard support with better video resolution. More »
