Friday, December 19, 2008

USBDeview Examines And Ejects Your USB Flash Drives

11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows Only: USBDeview is a handy multi-tool for handling USB flash drives. It is a lightweight and portable application that at its most basic allows you to see which USB devices present and past have been plugged into the machine you are working on. Available information includes serial numbers, hardware names, vendor names, whether or not the device is safe for a hot unplug or not, what drive letter is/was assigned to the device, and so on. Useful for diagnostic and informational purposes in that regard, it has an additional set of features. USBDeview allows you to assign a set an executable, command, or .bat file to be run when a device is plugged in. You can specify devices by a broad range variables including specific serial numbers or the general category like mass storage. You could for instance assign a backup program to run and sync files every time it detected you had mounted the external hard drive you use as a primary backup. USBDeview is freeware, Windows only. Thanks Taziar! USBDeview More »

Checklist and Software For Reinstalling Windows

11:00PM Kevin Purdy | The Digital Inspiration blog has a really thorough checklist, with links to relevant, free software to help you back up and get your system back up to a fully-patched, optimised state. Note the tip at the very end, involving a can of compressed air, because it’s a worthy one, in my experience. While you’ve already got your system on the lifts, so to speak, it pays to blast away the CPU-heating, fan-clogging bunnies in there. More »

OpenOffice.org Portable 3.0 Ready For Your Thumb Drive

10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: OpenOffice.org 3, the latest version of the free, open-source office suite, has gotten a full thumb drive packaging by the PortableApps.com team. That’s great news for anyone working while travelling, or who wants to test out the features and improvements of the 3.0 release without a full installation on their system. This OpenOffice version has also been rolled into the full PortableApp suite, a customizable, menu-launched package of nifty tools for your USB drive. OpenOffice.org Portable 3.0 is a free downoad for any thumb drive, but requires a Windows system (or Linux system with WINE) to run. It doesn’t appear to require Java on the host machine. OpenOffice.org Portable 3.0 [PortableApps.com] More »

David Pogue’s Best Photography Tricks (And Ours)

9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Tech columnist David Pogue pulls out “The Best Photography Tricks of All Time” for anyone shooting digital, including the crafty use of a lampshade: It turns out that the threads at the top of just about any lamp—the place where the lampshade screws on—are precisely the same diameter as a tripod mount! In a pinch, you can whip off the lampshade, screw on the camera, and presto: You’ve got a rock-steady indoor tripod. More »

Five Things To Do This (Pre-Christmas) Weekend

4:30PM Angus Kidman | If you haven’t already done your shopping, let’s face it — you’re going to suffer (though our Christmas Gift Guide will help). But here’s some tips from the last week you can follow up when you struggle home exhausted: Mess up your Flickr account by adding Santa imagery to selected pictures Design a calendar to include on your out-of-office message Find some cheap books for holiday reading with Booko Find out how little your local member cares about Internet censorship, then write to them explaining why they should be more concerned Whatever your preferred browser, make sure it’s fully patched More »

Building Blocks Make Word Documents Easier To Construct

3:00PM Angus Kidman | One of the aims of the Ribbon interface in Office 2007 was to make features easier to find, but there’s still plenty of obscure options in Word and its siblings which most people will never discover. The official Word blog runs through one such feature, Building Blocks, a catch-all category that includes pre-defined headers, footers, title pages and other components, and explains some of the ways they can be used. It’s a useful option to know about if you frequently produce similar documents but don’t want to make use of full-blown templates (though the preview function in the Building Blocks Organizer is pretty awful and definitely needs a revamp in the next version). Building Blocks [Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog] More »

Absolut Drinks Lists More Cocktails Than You Can Safely Consume

1:33PM Angus Kidman | If last week’s post about cocktail making has you in the mood to run up some Christmas beverages, then check out the recently redesigned Absolut Drinks. Despite the vodka-company branding, it’s a pretty comprehensive archive of drinks with comprehensive instructions including equipment needed, and you can search on names, ingredients, and drink types. Absolut Drinks More »

Google Sponsoring Female Delegates For Linux.conf.au

12:00PM Angus Kidman | The “Google-linux.conf.au Diversity Delegates Programme” might have an awkward name, but it has a simple aim: to improve the participation of women at Linux.conf.au, which takes place in Hobart in January 2009. (I’m a big fan Linux.conf.au, but like most tech events, there’s no denying it’s a bit of a blokefest.) Google is offering up to $500 for travel expenses and half-price registration to sponsor selected women delegates interested in attending the conference. The big G recently extended the deadline for the scheme until Sunday December 21 at midnight, which suggests there’s funds going-a-begging, so hit the link for application details. Google-linux.conf.au Diversity Delegates More »

Most Popular DIY Projects Of 2008

11:15AM Gina Trapani | When it comes to saving time and money, sometimes the best approach means rolling up your sleeves and doing it yourself. Check out the best DIY projects featured here in 2008. More »

Firefox 2 Hits Its Last Release

11:10AM Kevin Purdy | Firefox users who stuck with version 2 are seeing their last update today, so Mozilla is putting on the push to upgrade to Firefox 3. And that’s probably a good thing. More »