Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Free Microsoft Unified Communications ’starter kit’
4:30PM Sarah Stokely | If you work in a Windows environment and your company is interested in Microsoft’s Unified Communications suite, they’re giving away starter kits which contain a full version of Office
Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, Exchange server 2007 SP1 Evaluation and a 60 day trial version of Office Live meeting
2007.I noticed you need to sign up for a Windows Live ID, and you’ll need to provide your company name when ordering. [via The Freebies Blog]
More » 
Grow a square watermelon for a science project
4:20PM Sarah Stokely | If you have kids, or if you ever dreamed of winning your school science project competition you will love this tutorial on how to grow a square watermelon. Cooler than the cardboard box maze I built to test a plant’s ability to grow towards the sun (which didn’t work) or even the baking soda and vinegar erupting volcano (which did) – I reckon this would also be fun for a kid’s birthday party.Grow a square watermelon [Instructables via Wired's Geekdad]
More » Recall
3:30PM Sarah Stokely | Next time one of your appliances or pieces of electronic equipment breaks or dies on you, don’t just check your warranty details – a quick Google search should be able to tell you if there’s been a product recall on the item. You may just get a full replacement or refund out of it! Nice advice from Wise Bread. More »
Find the Perfect Meet-Up Point with Mezzoman
3:00PM Adam Pash | US-centric: Google Maps mashup Mezzoman finds the perfect meet-up point for two addresses by establishing the midpoint and suggesting restaurants by cuisine nearby. Finding a good meet-up spot can be a bit difficult, and at one point or another you’ve probably felt you’re getting the short end of the stick by driving the lion’s share of the distance to the meet-up point. Mezzoman aims to rid you of that headache, and suggests places you could meet and eat (or bowl) near that midpoint. The only feature missing is pins marking the two addresses you’re starting from, but in all it’s a simple webapp that does just what it says. Mezzoman [via Gmapsmania] More »
Get ReadyBoost Speed on XP with eBoostr
2:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Speed up your computer with a spare USB thumb drive with eBoostr, an XP-only application that brings the benefits of Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost feature to XP. The app can work with up to four devices, up to 4GB on each, and its smart-cache feature gives speed boosts to your more frequently used apps and data. eBoostr could be perfect for XP users who want a little extra memory but don’t want to install RAM themselves, or even for laptop users who’ve filled every free slot. eBoostr comes as a free trial version, which gives you four hours of functionality each time you boot up, or costs $29 for the full version. eBoostr [via Download Squad] More »
Mousewheel Click to Paste in Firefox
1:00PM Gina Trapani | You already know you can open a link in a background tab by clicking it with your mousewheel, but the TechMalaya.com site points out five other mousewheel Firefox tricks that you may not have known. Like this gem, which requires a change to about:config: Change the value of middlemouse.paste to true. This will let you paste a clipboard content to any text field with the middle mouse button. Using this tweak coupled with the beloved AutoCopy extension, you could select text on-page and paste it into a textarea (like in a comments response) with a simple click, drag, and mousewheel hit. See more of our favorite Firefox 2 about:config tweaks. 6 Tips to Supercharge Mozilla Firefox with Middle Mouse Button [TechMalaya.com] More »
Keep your pets flea-free this summer
12:30PM Sarah Stokely | If you have pets, you know that summertime is the prime season for fleas. As I discovered yesterday, it’s much cheaper and easier to prevent a flea problem in your house than to treat it. For example, a $40 monthly treatment of something like Advantage or Frontline may sound expensive, but once you have fleas in the house you’ll need to spend money on flea bombs or carpet spray to get rid of the fleas and eggs in the house, as well as treating your pets to get rid of any fleas they are carryingI’ve done some research to find out some tips for preventing fleas from moving into your home.
Prevention is better than cure!
* pre-treat all your pets with a treatment like Frontline or Advantage. You may want to start doing this as early as November to make sure they’re protected when flea season starts. These products work by cutting off the breeding cycle of the fleas. If you do this vigilantly you greatly minimise the chance of getting fleas. Set a reminder in your calendar of choice to reapply every month.
* sweep wooden floors, vacuum carpets and rugs and your pet’s bed regularly. As a rule of thumb – if pet hair collects there, it’s a pet bed, whether it’s an old towel they like to sleep on, their designated bed, or your couch. clean the outdoor areas where your pet hangs out too – eg doghouse
* if you have a garden, plant lots of pyrethrum, pennyroyal or mint, which are deterrants to fleas. A planter near your front and back door, or near the doghouse, sounds like a good plan.
Too late?If your pet has already picked up fleas (contact with another animal or from visiting an area with fleas), you’ll need to do the following: More » 
Improve Your HDTV Experience
12:00PM Adam Pash | Setting up a new HDTV requires a bit more nuance than your old TV probably did, so Forbes.com has rounded up 10 tips for improving your HDTV picture to help you get the most from your new box. For example: It’s important to change the TV’s picture settings, which include brightness, sharpness and contrast, in order to find the balance that looks right to your eyes. Out of the box, an HDTV’s picture settings aren’t tuned to look good in your living room. They’re configured to look appealing and eye-catching in a store. If you recently snagged a sweet new flat panel, let’s hear how you achieved optimal picture and performance in the comments. Photo by William Hook. Sharpening Up Your New HDTV [Forbes via Curbly] More »
