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How To Kill Time Productively On Your Phone One year ago on Lifehacker, you learned the art of steganography: the digital equivalent of invisible ink.
Windows only: Freeware application InfoTag Magic adds useful file information to the Windows mouse hover tooltip to give you a better idea of what’s going on inside the file you’re looking at without requiring you to open it up to find out. As you can see in the screenshot, for example, InfoTag Magic displays an MP3′s metadata so that even if a song doesn’t have an informative filename, you can still get a preview of what’s inside. Likewise, InfoTag Magic will preview the first seven or so lines of a text file when you hover over it. Infotag Magic is freeware, Windows only.
InfoTag Magic [via FreewareGenius]You want access to your home computer wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whether that’s via a remote desktop connection, SSH, FTP, web interface, or any other remote access you’ve set up. The catch is, you don’t like throwing money away to an always-on system. Luckily you can have your digital cake and eat it, too, and today I’ll show you how to boot and shut down your system remotely so that it’s ready for you when you need it and it’s not wasting energy when you don’t.
Firefox with Greasemonkey: If the upgrade to the new version of Gmail made you leave your HTML signatures behind, you’re in luck. The Gmail 2.0 Multiple HTML Signatures Greasemonkey user script (wow, that’s a mouthful) can associate rich text signatures to individual addresses in Gmail, and include them above the quoted text in replies. Unfortunately the user script requires that you edit its source to set up your sigs: once it’s installed, in Greasemonkey’s Manage Scripts dialogue, hit the Edit button. In the area labelled “Setup/Configuration,” enter your email address(es), and your signature markup. Use the pre-filled examples to get started. Because this script requires hand source-editing, it’ll take some work to get it implemented in Better Gmail 2, but it’s on the roadmap. The Multiple HTML Signatures user script is a free download that works with Greasemonkey in Firefox. Gmail 2.0 Multiple HTML Signatures [Userscripts.org]
The Digital Inspiration blog points out a neat URL trick that makes Google Reader into a mobile-sizing tool for any web site with a RSS feed. Even better, you don’t have to be a Google Reader user, or even have a Google account, to use it. To try it out, find and copy a site’s feed address. Then paste it at the end of a Google Reader mobile address, like so:http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[feed_address] You’ll get a standard view of feed items, and the items themselves open up in Google Reader. Sites that only offer blurbs won’t offer much benefit, of course, but it’s a handy way to create easy-to-read bookmarks for a small screen. Bloggers can also create mobile-ready versions of their site, explained in full at the link below.
Make a Mobile Friendly Version of your Blog using Google Reader [Digital Inspiration]Lifehacker alumnus Rick Broida posts a quick fix at the BNET blog for a quirk of Outlook 2003 that (still) hasn’t really been addressed—compressed .ZIP files don’t show up in the standard “Insert File” chooser used for email attachments. Rather than manually drag and drop every .ZIP file, Rick has this quick registry-tweaking fix:In Windows XP, click Start > Run, then type Command and hit Enter. In Vista, click Start, type Command and hit Enter. Type regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll Wait for a confirmation box to appear. Click OK, then type Exit into the Command window to close it.
As always, making a backup of your registry file before changing it is highly recommended.
Outlook Fix: Attach Zip Files to Outgoing E-Mail [BNET]Windows/Mac/Linux: Coccinella, a free Jabber chat client, is robust enough on its own instant messaging terms, with tabbed chat windows, foreign language support, and an easily theme-able interface. But what really sets it apart is its integration of a great whiteboard tool that’s easily shared and forwarded between you and your chat partners. The whiteboard has the basic features of Microsoft Paint, but that’s a step up from many black-and-white board tools we’ve seen. I couldn’t get Coccinella working with my Google Talk/Gmail account during a quick setup test, but the features are likely there for integration. Coccinella is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. For more whiteboard tools, check out the no-registration-required Scriblink or GE’s instant online whiteboard.
Coccinella [via Confessions of a Freeware Junkie (del.icio.us)]Information Week has posted a thorough walkthrough guide for anyone interested in taking their Linux customisation to the next level by creating their own distribution, whether for installation or running from a live CD. Among the topics covered are customising and rebuilding Knoppix or Puppy Linux, as well as building from the ground up with Linux From Scratch (LFS) or Gentoo. Those less inclined to work (and sit) through a lot of compilation and package-choosing can try something like rolling their own Ubuntu CD, but this kind of guide makes for a great, geeky weekend project. Thanks Jeremy!
How To Roll Your Own Linux Distro [Information Week]Week after week of projects, deadlines, and new challenges have gone by at work, and you’re ready to get out and get away. Before you throw some hard-earned cash at airline tickets, consider taking the cheaper and faster route to a vacation—explore your own city. The Wise Bread frugality blog has a few ideas on how to give yourself a new perspective on your town, and get some relaxation while you’re at it: A great way to get a different impression of the place you live is to act like a tourist. Find a guidebook for your area and choose some weekend activities from it. For a different twist on this idea, try to find an older, most likely outdated, guidebook.
For more view-changing ideas, find an iPod guide for your city or follow our readers’ advice on exploring new cities in your own locale. Photo by allygril520.
Walking Into The Spirit of Travel [Wise Bread via LH Au]
