Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Security Experts Advising You Stay Off Internet Explorer (For Now)

11:00PM Kevin Purdy | A serious scripting hack that can grab passwords (or, potentially, do worse) from any version of Internet Explorer is leading security and malware experts to suggest switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or any other browser, if only for the time being. Microsoft itself is, of course, asking users to just be cautious while it works on a fix. The BBC article thumbnails security tips, including switching IE’s security settings to “High,” if you won’t be migrating (or can’t switch at work). [via Open] More »

Don’t Let A Tiny Kitchen Halt Your Cooking

10:00PM Kevin Purdy | In a New York Times weekend piece, get-it-done foodie Mark Bittman says your tiny kitchen is no excuse for avoiding great home-cooked meals. It’s an inspiring read for anyone who’s ever felt defeated when seeing all the counter space and shiny metal doo-dads in someone else’s kitchen, or wondered if they really have the space to make that three-course meal for friends coming over. In short, Bittman says, you do: To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance. Inspiring stuff. For tips on actually getting by with your tiny little space, check our tips on kitchen time-savers that speed up dinner. Bonus quote from Mario Batali: “I can make almost every dish in my restaurants on four crummy electric burners with a regular oven — as can just about anyone else who cares to.” Photo by evelynishere. So Your Kitchen Is Tiny. So What? [New York Times via Serious Eats] More »

Lessons Learned From A Hacked Gmail Account

9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Around my house, hacked email accounts were something that happened to other people—relatives with weak passwords, generally, or TV current affairs story subjects. Until yesterday, when my wife emailed everybody about “gps ,TV LCD,cell phones …” More »

Booko Finds The Best Australian Price For Books

4:30PM Angus Kidman | Booko is a price comparison engine for books with an emphasis on Australian buyers. It covers dozens of local and overseas sellers, and combines the information from them in a really helpful way, converting prices automatically into Australian dollars and calculating the different postage costs if you’ve ordered multiple books. (Disturbingly, overseas ordering often still works out cheaper even with postage included.) I found pulling in the price information took a painfully long time with some titles, but if you’re a serious bibliophile, this is potentially hugely useful. Booko [via Bargain Blog] More »

Lifetick Adds Custom Journal Entries

3:00PM Angus Kidman | Previously mentioned Australian-developed goal tracker Lifetick has added a new feature called “journal categories”, which lets you add custom categories to your journal (such as “save $60 a month”) and then graph your progress over time. Journal categories can also be entered on the iPhone version of the app. Lifetick is available in a free version which limits the number of goals you can set, costs $22 annually for the unlimited version. Lifetick More »

Google Expands Australian Street View Coverage

1:30PM Angus Kidman | When Google launched Street View for Australia back in August, the coverage was already pretty comprehensive, but the range continues to expand. Google has just added a bunch of extra photography for Geelong, Darwin and some remote areas of the Northern Territory, and celebrated with a cheesy look at some of the locations for Baz Luhrmann’s oops-it’s-a-flop movie Australia. Google Maps [via Official Google Australia Blog] More »

Telstra Experiments With 3D News Site

12:00PM Angus Kidman | The resolute failure of 3D experiments like Google Lively doesn’t seem to dissuade people from trying to force a 3D interface onto a 2D screen. Telstra has just joined the ranks by offering a “3D video wall” option for its BigPond News service. To access the 3D service, you need the Cooliris plug-in (which works with Firefox, IE and Safari, but no Linux options), after which you can scroll round a wall of news stories and choose what you want to read. Beyond the headline, however, you still get returned to the existing page, which makes for a jarring navigational experience. Existing Telstra customers (who won’t have it counted against their cap) might find it an interesting diversion, but beyond that, a standard news site still seems more useful (and less bandwidth-greedy) to me. BigPond News More »

Most Popular Free Windows Downloads Of 2008

11:40AM Adam Pash | In the past year we’ve highlighted hundreds of Windows apps aimed at making your life easier, boosting your computer productivity, and powering up your PC. For those of you who weren’t able to keep up, here’s a look back at the most popular Windows downloads of 2008. Keep in mind that this list is based on the popularity of posts we’ve published in 2008 only, regardless of the original release date of the app. Many were brand new this year, while others were solid updates to popular software. Here’s the full run-down of the 12 most popular Windows downloads of 2008: More »

AllOff Shuts Down Your Computer When It’s Inactive

11:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Ever wish you could save energy by not just sleeping, but automatically shutting down your PC when you’re not using it and it’s not doing anything? With free utility AllOff, you can. AllOff monitors your mouse and keyboard usage in addition to CPU load. If you haven’t used your mouse or keyboard and the CPU load is below a user-specified threshold for a certain amount of time, AllOff automatically initiates a system shutdown. The CPU monitoring functionality is perfect for those times you want to keep your computer on to finishing ripping or burning a DVD, for example, but don’t want to keep your PC running all night once the process completes. Granted, this app does mirror some features already built into Windows, but if you’d like more control over automated shut down, it does the job nicely. AllOff is a free download for non-commercial use, Windows only, requires a free registration. If you like the idea but you’d like a few more options for how the shut down handled or scheduled, check out previously mentioned WinOFF. AllOff [via gHacks] More »