Monday, February 11, 2008
Hack your wallet to tame your spending
5:02PM Sarah Stokely | The Simple Dollar blog today offers up six tips for optimising your wallet to help form good financial habits. There are a couple of suggestions for minimising your spending (cut down to two credit cards, put a picture of the goal you’re saving for by your credit card to help you cut down impulse spending). I really liked the suggestion that you treat your wallet as an ‘inbox’ which you should process and empty on a regular basis – say once a week or once a month. Given that most people keep their receipts in their wallet, this will help stay on top of finances and reduce wallet clutter. Wallet Hacking [The Simple Dollar] More »
ABC TV changes its digital TV station numbers
1:56PM Sarah Stokely | The ABC has reset the numbering of its digital TV stations today – so if you have a digital TV, set top box, PVR or DVB tuner card, you’ll need to set your device to rescan for channels. The ABC says the tweak was done to make the channel numbering more logical for viewers.
The channel changes are as follows:
If you watch digital TV through a pay TV service, you shouldn’t be affected by the change. More information is available from the ABC’s website.
Thanks for the tip, John!
More » Polaroid
12:12PM Sarah Stokely | The end of the Polaroid happy snap is nigh. The company behind the photos which develop as you watch has begun closing down its film making factories. The company already stopped making its instant-print cameras, so if you liked the retro feel of polaroids, you might want to start stocking up on film – current stocks are expected to run out in 2009. More » 
Offer Constructive Criticism
9:00AM Tamar Weinberg | Do you have difficulty offering constructive criticism because you fear that your words may be too offensive or nearly not as impacting as they should be? AskMen.com says that the best blend of constructive criticism combines both the negatives and still emphasises the positives. Avoid pointing out personal character traits; don’t turn it into something personal. If there’s a problem with a specific action, focus on that instead. You’re probably not a fan of being on the receiving end of criticism yourself, so put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. Empathise with them. Chances are, they’re feeling vulnerable and may even become defensive. This leads to another excellent tip: keep your emotions in check. Don’t humiliate the recipient. More »Lifehacker AU back on the air
8:59AM Sarah Stokely | Our apologies if you had trouble getting to Lifehacker AU over the weekend – we had a hardware problem on Friday afternoon and it took a major reinstall to get things right again. As a result the site was a bit flaky over the weekend. We’re back now and working to restore the content from the weekend – so look out for more Lifehacker AU coming your way very soon. Thanks for your patience! More » 
Universal Spell Check and Dictionary with Enso Words
8:30AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Enso Words adds an always-accessible universal spell checker and dictionary to Windows. Enso Words is very similar to the much-maligned (by me, mainly) Enso Launcher, but focuses on, obviously enough, words. Highlight any text on your computer, invoke Enso Words, and type the spellcheck command for a quick spell check and autosuggest corrections. Enso Words also integrates with web searches at Answers.com to provide definitions or synonyms of either selected words or words you type into the define command. For other universal spellcheck alternatives, check out previously mentioned tinySpell and CleverKeys. Enso Words [Enso via FreewareGenius] More »
Remember Anything with Ubernote
8:00AM Tamar Weinberg | Store notes about anything with productivity webapp UberNote. Keep a journal, manage to-do lists, store recipes, or sort your contacts within a handy rich-text editor that can be accessed from within any web browser. Easily add tags to your notes to easily find an item when you need it, and the search feature also works quite well. Notes are private, though the service aims to offer collaboration tools in the future. UberNote is free to use, requires an email address to set up an account. Ubernote More »
Measure Your Wealth with Techniques Employed by Fortune 500 Companies
7:00AM Tamar Weinberg | Track your spending habits and eliminate unnecessary expenditures with the think, want, and do technique. Weblog I Will Teach You to Be Rich explains how this works. Write down what you think you will spend. Then, write down what you actually want to spend. Finally, write down what you actually spend. The blog post includes downloadable spreadsheets to keep track of your progress. Once you commit to tracking the right items, you’ll recognise where you may be overspending and you’ll reallocate your money for more significant causes. You’ll likely realize that you are allotting money for not-so-useful activities (such as excessive eating out) and will be able to change your ways. Note that you won’t be able to keep track of this in your mind, so as long as you have a system in place, you’ll be able to save money and curb the unnecessary spending. Measure Yourself Using the Same Techniques the Fortune 500 Uses [I Will Teach You to Be Rich] More »
How Do You Divide Your Restaurant Bills?
6:00AM Tamar Weinberg | When you go to a restaurant with a bunch of friends, you have many options to pay for the that large check. You can simply split the bill evenly, pay only for what you ordered (plus tax and tip), or ask the server to write up separate bills. The Mind Your Decisions weblog suggests alternate ways to divvy up the bill. Limit options before you order (to prevent customised orders with extra costs) and share with the group. Send out an email organizing costs beforehand. Estimate the costs before you place the order and choose a designated person to collect the final cost in advance. How do you go Dutch when wining and dining with your friends? More »
