The Lifehacker Total Security Guide 
Spotify And Its Rivals: Subscription Music Services In Australia Compared 
The Stupid Things You Do On Facebook (And How To Fix Them) 
How To Kill Time Productively On Your Phone 
An Entire Overseas Trip On One Prepaid Travel Card 
Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time Our pals over at Gizmodo have turned up a new gadget which could appeal to the anti-clutter mob over here at Lifehacker – the Skype Mouse. Like it sounds, it’s an 800 dpi optical sensor mouse, which flips open into a Skype phone. You can plug the mike and earpiece into the side of the mouse. But as Anna points out in her post – it’s dual purpose, not multi-purpose, so you can’t keep mousing while calling. And, the phone won’t ring while the screen is closed. So I’m leaning towards calling this a novelty.gift idea rather than a must have for the desktop. But I do love the idea of useful multi-purpose items. Got any favourites? Please share in comments.
Journalist and BBC World Service commentator Bill Thompson says Microsoft’s put way too many hurdles in the way of upgrading from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to the 120GB hard drive Xbox 360 Elite. Why? Having to send off for a special use-once-and-discard cable to transfer data from the old Xbox, having to swap hard disks and spending up to an hour to transfer just 20GB of data across. Worst of all, he says, is that the process wipes the old hard drive, so you can’t keep old games or even saved games on the older console. That’s not much chop if you want to keep using both consoles.So a question for the console owners out there (I’m partial to the Wii, never got into Xbox) – is this Xbox tale of woe a typical story, or do other console manufacturers handle upgrades and DRM better? It seems that DRM lockdown is a fact of life if you’re a console gamer.
If you’re a computing history nerd like me, then you probably think of Mountain View’s Computer History Museum as a geek mecca you’d like to visit one day. Well now YouTube can take you there.The museum is using its YouTube channel to publish some of the lectures, interviews and Q&As held at the museum. One recent video which caught my eye was a panel held as part of the museum’s recent celebration of the Commodore 64′s 25th anniversary. I loved Production Engineer David A. Ziembicki’s comment about the reaction when C64 launched: “All we saw at our booth were Atari people with their mouths dropping open, saying, ‘How can you do that for $595?’”If you follow the link to the YouTube channel, watch the volume as it starts the intro movie immediately, which is annoying!Thanks for the tip, Alan. :)
Computer History Museum (YouTube channel)
Tom Ward over at Instructables describes his system for storing components in a ring binder as the ultimate parts storage system and I’m inclined to agree. It basically uses a ring binder with zip-up plastic sleeve inserts along with zip-lock bags for holding loose components.
“I have now organised over 1000 different types of components in eight folders (less than a quarter of the volume all of my boxes took up!), including all my electronic parts, and all of my miscellaneous small hardware such as nuts, bolts and screws.
Here’s how it works. Once you’ve chosen your categories for the folders (a couple he uses are Components and Capacitors), then assign sub-categories to the plastic sleeve inserts. The individual components (let’s say PC case screws for example) go in a zip-lock bag, then into the plastic sleeve. The nice thing about this system is it’s easy to expand by adding more sleeves or binders. And due to the double bagging of sleeves and ziplock bags, you can stand it on a shelf and no bits will fall out. Even if a baggy pops open, it will still be contained by the plastic sleeve.If you have any tips for getting that cardboard box full of spare parts under control, let’s hear them in comments.
Ultimate Parts Storage [Instructables, via MAKE]
Spent hours untangling lights and creating the perfect holiday scene but not sure how to document your masterpiece? The video above offers several tips for how to take the best pics of your holiday lights this season. Some of the tips are a bit obvious, but others, like the white balance tips, seem particularly helpful for the holiday picture-taking novice. For a few more useful ideas, check out last year’s guide, and if you’ve got any tips of your own, let’s hear ‘em in the comments.
Whether you love or hate Microsoft Office 2007′s new ribbon interface, everyone can see that it’s pretty dang big. To maximise your workspace, you can minimise the ribbon—and the How-To Geek has the details. Just right-click on the ribbon and choose “Minimize the Ribbon.” Then to get to a button you need, hover over one of the ribbon tab names.
Maximize Space by “Auto-Hiding” the Ribbon in Office 2007 [The How-To Geek]Mac OS X only: Freeware utility File Actions monitors user-defined locations and automatically moves files around your Mac using a set of user-defined rules to keep your Mac organized. File Actions is reminiscent of previously mentioned Hazel, though it’s lacking the impressively robust set of rules for when and how to move or trash files. The main difference, though, is that File Actions is free (as opposed to $22 for Hazel), so if you have a tough time keeping your desktop clean and your files organized, File Actions might be worth a try.
File Action [via Cool OSX Apps]Accidentally happened upon this Firefox gem today: If you click a bookmarks toolbar folder with your mousewheel, the ‘fox will open all the sites up for you in tabs. (If it’s a long list of bookmarks, Firefox will politely ask if you really want to do that.) Of course, you can also open links in a background tab with the mousewheel, and close background tabs by mousewheel-clicking on them. These shortcuts are worth upgrading to a new mouse alone. Here are more tips on working with groups of tabs in Firefox.
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Save embedded media like audio, video, or even Flash games to your desktop with the UnPlug Firefox extension. Just browse to a page you want to grab media from, click the little smiling fish (or go to Tools -> UnPlug), and find and download the media on that page you want. UnPlug is similar to previously mentioned Video Downloader extension, which means it should work just as well to download videos from YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, and all the rest of your favourite video sites. UnPlug is free, works wherever Firefox does.
UnPlug [Firefox Add-ons via Instructables]Personal finance blog The Dough Roller offers a great introduction to retirement accounts, from IRA’s (Roth and traditional) to 401(k)’s. If getting started with a retirement account’s been on your mind, 2007′s a good year to start, and this is a good place to get a primer. You’ve got till April 15th of 2008 to max out the old retirement for this year, but if you’re just getting started, now’s the time to research your options. (In case you’re wondering, I opened up a Roth at ING last year.)
The Ultimate Guide to Traditional and Roth 401(k) and IRA Retirement Accounts [The Dough Roller via Get Rich Slowly]
