Friday, January 18, 2008

Corral CPU Hogs with Process Lasso

2:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware system tray application Process Lasso monitors your running processes for CPU hogs and reins them in before they take over and freeze up your computer. Like previously mentioned Process Tamer, Process Lasso does this by lowering the priority of those processes on a runaway train to freeze-ville. Unlike Tamer, Process Lasso also offers a tonne of user customisation, so you can set default priorities by process or other rules for how Process Lasso deals with CPU hogs, like “Make firefox.exe run only on CPU #1 each time its launched.” More »

Bind Large Booklets with the Long-Reach Stapler

1:00PM Gina Trapani | Bind full-sized booklets with the Long Reach stapler, a heavy duty stapler which takes standard staples but can stretch across 12 inches. A reader at the Cool Tools web site says: My theater group always uses these for stapling our programs together. It’s a serious workhorse, big and heavy, and the longer reach will allow you to make booklets out of much, much bigger material than the Mini Booklet Stapler. The stapler has a 12″ reach on it, so you can staple anything up to 24″ wide pre-fold (so architectural ‘D’-sized paper could be used, if you felt like it). A plastic clip on the stapler sets the width and makes it easy to do batches of booklets without mistakes. The Long Reach stapler will set you back $24 at Amazon. Long-Reach Stapler [Cool Tools] More »

Listen to Wikipedia on Your MP3 Player with Pediaphon

12:00PM Adam Pash | Web site Pediaphon turns any Wikipedia article into an MP3. The site plugs the article into a text-to-speech synthesis app, and while the synthesis isn’t the best you’ve ever heard (what is this lif – eh – hacker, anyway?), it’s very fast, meaning you could plug in an article and sync the MP3 to your MP3 player in about a minute before you head out the door. If you plan on putting Wikipedia to heavy use on your iPod, I’d recommend installing Wikipedia on your iPod or browsing iPodia on your iPod touch or iPhone. Pediaphon [via eHub] More »

Wager Cash on Your Goals at StickK

11:36AM Gina Trapani | Serious enough about your New Year’s resolutions to put money on them? To appoint a referee and cheering section to check in on your progress? You can do just that at StickK, a goal monitoring web site where you commit to achieving something and literally pay if you don’t make progress. Set up a goal at StickK, like losing 20 pounds in the next four months, and then decide to put $20 a week towards that goal. If you don’t make it? Your total cash goes to a charity of your choice. You can also appoint a friend or relative to be a referee, who checks up on your progress. Looks like a neat way to turn peer and financial pressure on yourself to achieve your goals. stickK.com [via Web Worker Daily] More »

Shuffle Wallpaper, Embed RSS Feeds in Your Desktop with Chaos Wallpaper

10:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Chaos Wallpaper embeds RSS feeds in your desktop and shuffles your wallpaper on-the-fly. The application is a standalone executable (meaning it requires no installation), so just download, unzip, and run it to get started. If you only want one feature, Chaos can simple shuffle wallpaper from a folder you point it to or embed clickable links from your feeds on your desktop. If you’re looking for a different approach, check out how to create an RSS-embedded desktop with Netvibes or shuffle Flickr pics with Flickr Wallpaper Rotator. Chaos Wallpaper [via FreewareGenius] More »

Everystockphoto Stock Search Relaunches

9:00AM Gina Trapani | If you’re wondering where we find many of the purty images that accompany Lifehacker posts, it’s over at Everystockphoto, a treasure trove of stock and Creative Commons-licensed images that you can reuse on your blog, presentation or brochure. Yes, we’ve already mentioned Everystockphoto, but yesterday the site got an extreme makeover plus an injection of more photos from Wikimedia and NASA. Everystockphoto aggregates images from several sources, like Flickr, imageafter, and stock.xchng so you don’t have to search each place individually. Plus, membership and photo downloads are free. See also six ways to find reusable media. everystockphoto More »

Remotely Shutdown Your Computer

8:00AM Adam Pash | Weblog Inspect My Gadget covers three different methods for shutting down your computer remotely. Why might you want to do this? Think of this scenario; You are lying in bed and just finished watching a movie that you were streaming from a computer downstairs. You want to sleep, but you need to head downstairs to turn the computer off. All you really need to know is the name of the remote computer on your network and a simple command and you can easily perform the shutdown from the command line, but the post also covers creating remote shutdown shortcuts, other built-in Windows tools, and third-party utilities that can tackle the shutdown process. These methods all require you to be on the same network, so if you’re really ambitious you might want to check out how to shutdown Windows with a text message. How-to: Remotely shut down your computer [Inspect My Gadget] More »