Saturday, January 5, 2008
Motivate Yourself with Point Motivator
11:00PM Tamar Weinberg | Windows only: Donationware application Point Motivator helps you reach and visualise your goals by utilizing a point system. Assign points to actions, such as giving yourself 10 points for reading one page of a book. After you’ve reached a threshold of desired points, you can then reward yourself by purchasing items with your accumulated points. However, be aware: over-rewarding yourself can put you in point debt. The application allows you to configure different actions and rewards beyond the pre-defined items, and the XML file it creates can later be edited in any text editor if you’re not excited about the program’s interface. Point Motivator also features a history timeline of all your actions and rewards, statistics for all actions, and a chart that shows all progress over time. Point Motivator is donationware, Windows only. Point Motivator More »
Return the Menu Bar to Vista Explorer
11:00AM Adam Pash | Windows Vista only: I’ve recently engaged on a more serious foray back into the world of Windows Vista (turns out it’s not that bad), and one of the first sources of major confusion for me came the first time I tried to access the menu bar in the new Windows Explorer. Why? Because it’s not there. Luckily, if you’re big on the functionality therein, it’s not all that difficult to get it back. First, if you prefer the clean look without the menu bar, you can just tap the Alt key whenever you want to access the menu bar and it’ll pop up until you click elsewhere. On the other hand, if you want it back permanently, just click the new Organize button, then go to Layout, select Menu Bar, and voilà! Similarly, in Internet Explorer you can bring it back by going to Tools -> Menu Bar. Simple, but it was a major source of confusion to begin with. Thanks Adam! More »Wire Your Home On-the-Cheap with DIY Network Cables
10:00AM Adam Pash | The video demonstration above from electronics retailer TigerDirect details the relatively simple process of cutting your own Ethernet cables so you don’t end up spending more than you need wiring your home or office (you also won’t end up with 10 feet too much or a foot too little like you often will when you buy pre-cut). Wireless home networks are convenient, but if you regularly transfer large files or stream HD-quality video, nothing beats a solid wired network (which is why instead of using my laptop as a free Wi-Fi adapter for my Xbox 360 I ran wire under my floors so that my computer and Xbox at opposite ends of my home could communicate with lightning speed). Are you wired, wireless, or both? Let’s hear your reasons in the comments. More »One year ago, you toured the then-new Microsoft …
9:00AM Tamar Weinberg | One year ago, you toured the then-new Microsoft Office 2007 interface. Windows users: have you made the switch yet? More »
Keep Your To-do List in the Sidebar
9:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Remember the Milk users, to keep your task list in the sidebar while you surf, bookmark the skinny, sidebar friendly RTM iGoogle module. Bookmark it (link below), and then from Firefox’s Organize Bookmarks dialog, select the new bookmark, open its Properties, and check off “Load bookmark in sidebar.” When it’s loaded in your sidebar, you can edit, complete, and schedule tasks on a reverse chronological list. Remember the Milk newbies, here’s how to get organised with RTM. Thanks, Cork! Remember the Milk iGoogle module More »
The Ethics of Wi-Fi “Stealing”
8:00AM Adam Pash | Web site Ars Technical discusses the ethics of “stealing” a Wi-Fi connection, discussing whether or not piggybacking Wi-Fi is actually something that should be considered stealing based on several practical illustrations, arguing, for example, that: If the WiFi waves come to you and can be accessed without hacking, there should be no question that such access is legal and morally OK. If your neighbor runs his sprinkler and accidentally waters your yard, do you owe him money? The above example is just the tip of the author’s argument, and you should really read the article for a fuller examination, but I’m curious about a couple of things: More »iTunes
7:30AM Adam Pash | If you buy a lot of your music on iTunes, make sure a careless click doesn’t purchase an imposter playing nearly identical covers. Reminds me of a compilation someone once gave me full of songs by a band called “The Original Artists”. More »
Build a PVC Pipe Laptop Stand
7:04AM Gina Trapani | If you don’t want to drop cash on a pricey laptop stand like the Elevator, snap together your very own with some PVC pipe and joints. Instructables user alceste shows you how. The result isn’t adjustable like commercial ones (boo), but it does let you hide cables inside the pipe (neat!). PVC Laptop Stand [Instructables via MAKE] More »
Integrate Gmail and Google Calendar with Enhance Gmail
6:00AM Adam Pash | Firefox with Greasemonkey: The EnhanceGmail Greasemonkey script incorporates Google Calendar and the Google Chat gadget directly into your Gmail account. Install it, then click the Calendar or Chat links at the top of the page to open your inline calendar or chat gadget. If you don’t like the default setup of the inline layouts, you can edit the script and change a few simple values to get it looking nice (like the screenshot above, which also features Remember the Milk integration). More »
