Tuesday, February 19, 2008
ISP winners
2:50PM Sarah Stokely | Westnet and Internode were the star performers in PC Authority’s ISP Reliability & Service Awards for 2007, while unsurprisingly Dodo was the worst performer. The survey of 14,000 Australian internet users found that only 72% of them would recommend their current ISP. More »
Exchange mix CDs to broaden your musical horizons
2:20PM Sarah Stokely | I think Kevin Kelly of the Cool Tools blog just solved my problem of what to ask for at my next birthday – he recommends staying in touch with what’s happening in music by asking people you meet to make you a mixed CD of their favourite songs of the moment. He advises *not* asking your friends – but deliberately trying to broaden your horizons by reaching across the generation gap in music. For instance, he asks kids, grandkids, and students to make him CDs.There are heaps of music sharing sites out there, but I like this suggestion because it’s more personal and doesn’t require you or your friends to sign up to a website. Yes, this is a romantic notion of mine. Yes, I still think of mixed CDs as mixed tapes. Yes, I know it dates me. I’m fine iwth that. Now burn me a CD, please. :)
Radio David Byrne [Cool Tools] More » 
Protect your email address with Recaptcha
2:00PM Sarah Stokely | reCAPTCHA an anti-spam tool for obscuring your email address on the web. And by using it, you’re helping to ‘proofread’ for a project which is digitising books for the Internet Archive (I’m a big fan of IA because it hosts the Wayback Machine).
reCAPTCHA Mailhide helps protect your inbox from spambots by asking people to solve a reCAPTCHA before viewing your email address. It displays two words, and the user needs to type both words in to display your email address.
To put the reCAPTCHA tool on your website you can use an application plugin, a library for your programming language or an API – browse their list of resources for further info. It has plugins for Movable Type, WordPress and many other popular publishing apps.
[via Problogger] More » Pursue a new career outside IT
1:15PM Sarah Stokely | If you work in IT but dream about getting out, you’re not alone. The good news is that with planning and some lateral thinking, you can move towards a new career. I know of one ex-IT geek who literally ran away with the circus and is now a rigger for Cirque du Soleil – so don’t ever think that your dream job is too outlandish to really happen. :)CIO magazine has published a feature which offers tips on how to move out of IT. It recommends some soulsearching to identify your interests, and think about how you might apply or develop those in a professional situation. Try different strategies for trying your new job on for size and be open to new possibilities.One very important point which wasn’t covered off in that article, was that you should do everything you can to start interacting with the community you wish to work with. Join social or professional organisations, attend networking events and let people know of your interest in changing careers. This will help you find mentors and champions to help make your next career move.Are you working on a career change, or have you switched successfully? Tips in comments please.
Seven tips for pursuing a new career outside IT [CIO] More » 
Improve your gambling by learning to count cards
12:15PM Sarah Stokely | If you watched too many James Bond movies when you were a kid and you’re still dreaming of being a card shark, then the Wired How-To Wiki might be able to help turn you into a high roller.
It brings home the reality of how much you need to be prepared to gamble in order to make money out of it though – it recommends a bankroll of 400 times your average bet. Ouch.
I especially liked that it contains even basic information for gambling newbies, like don’t move your lips as you count the cards. :) More » 
What’s in Your Dream Office?
8:00AM Adam Pash | Design weblog You the Designer is convinced that if you spend any significant amount of time in an office environment, then “[h]aving a clean and inspiring environment is essential to being healthy and working to your fullest potential.” The post steps through how you might go about putting together a dream office, from the planning stage to keeping your finished office in the perfect dream-state. But since everyone’s dream office is a little different, we’d love to hear about what’s in your dream office in the comments. If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out last year’s Coolest Workspace Contest. It’s Time for Your Dream Office! [You the Designer] More »
Retrieve Any File on Your Home Computer by Email
7:00AM Adam Pash | The Murphy Mac weblog steps through how to retrieve any file on your Mac using a simple AppleScript in conjunction with Mail.app. When you’ve finished configuring the script, you can send an email to your home computer with a keyword subject and the full path to the file you forgot—say your homework or that big Keynote presentation—and the script will automatically email the file to you. Of course there are tonnes of other ways you could go about accessing your home files remotely, but Murphy Mac’s slick solution is a good option to add to the list. Retrieve a Remote File – by Email [Murphy Mac] More »
Cool Your Food and Save Money with the Ambient Air Fridge
6:00AM Adam Pash | If you live in a cold climate and you’re sick of paying to keep your food cool when it’s already plenty cold outside, web site The Daily Green describes how to build your own Ambient Air Fridge to put that cold air to good use. The author uses everything from two-by-fours to computer fans to complete the project, which requires a bit of dedication to the cause, but if you’re willing to put in the effort you’ll be rewarded with an environmentally friendly, money-saving winter fridge. DIY Super Energy Efficient Refrigerator [The Daily Green] More »
How to Stop Checking Email on the Evenings and Weekends
4:07AM Lifehacker US Edition | Best-selling author Tim Ferriss offers digital minimalism tips to reduce the amount of time you spend in your email inbox. Investment bankers aren’t known for their impulse control. Several global firms in Zurich don’t allow their bankers to check email more than twice per day. The reason is simple: the more they check email, the more compelled they feel to send email. Technologist Robert Scoble has said that for each email he sends, he gets 1.75 to 2 messages in return. This phenomenon highlights the unscalable nature of most time-management approaches: striving to do more just produces increasingly more to do. More »
