Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Do You Thumb Drive On-the-Go?
2:00PM Adam Pash | Productivity weblog Digital Inspiration rounds up several ways to travel without your computer, suggesting instead that you carry all the programs and documents you need on your USB thumb drive. We’ve covered most of the post’s suggestions before, whether we were showing you how to carry your life on a thumb drive or rounding up the top 10 thumb drive tricks, so with the wealth of options out there for taking that thumb drive to its limits, I’m wondering: Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser. More »
Stick to your budget by reining in social spending
12:06PM Sarah Stokely | Last week we talked about coping when you’re the rich one in your social group who gets leaned on to pay – now the Simple Dollar blog has tackled the problem at the other end of the spectrum – how do you keep control of your ’social spending’ when your friends have more cash than you? Here’s a few of their tips:
1. Explain your goals to your friends2. Suggest low cost or no-cost social alternatives3. Budget for social spending such as the weekly trip to the pub4. Be prepared to opt out of some of the regular activities if they’re beyond your budget.
And if the shoe is on the other foot?
“If, on the other hand, you’re financially well-off, be aware that your
friends may not be in a similar position. Don’t suggest expensive
activities. Don’t brag about money. Don’t flaunt it. Respect other
people’s limits.”
It’s important to strike a balance between continuing to spend time with your friends, and being able to stick to your budget. How do you strike this balance? Tips in comments please.
Six Ways to Break Free of the Purge and Splurge Cycle [The Simple Dollar] More » 
Browse Your Digital Photos in 3D Stacks with PicMe
12:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application PicMe scans your digital photo library and displays your pics in a flashy 3D-ish stacked interface. PicMe is primarily an image browser, and that’s what it’s best at, but you can also use it to share photos, either with photo sharing webapps like Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, or Facebook, or with PicMe contacts. The free version allows you to share 200 print-quality photos, so that’s probably not your best choice for uploading your pics to the internet unless you really don’t post that many photos. Either way, the interface itself brings a fresh way to browse your photos that may help liven up the way you interact with your photo library. PicMe More »
Live Station
12:00PM Sarah Stokely | Livestation is a free TV player application which lets you watch live news (or sport) from anywhere in the world. It’s based on Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. You can sign up for the technical trial on their website – I just got accepted into the beta myself.Available channels include French and English language news channels including Al Jazeera, BBC News 24 and BBC World, as well as a couple of BBC radio stations.It requires XP SP2 or Vista and IE 6 or later to play – although they say there’s a Mac version on the way. It also requires a broadband network of at least 640 kbps – and, as with any streaming video, you’ll want to keep an eye on your download limits. More » 
Lights Out Sleep Mask
11:00AM Adam Pash | Get to sleep in the brightest conditions with the Lights Out Sleep Mask, which, according to weblog Cool Tools, helps you go dark almost anywhere. I was stationed for a couple months in Qatar and am currently stationed in Kuwait. The mask is more effective and comfortable than the other ones I’ve worn. You can open your eyes no matter the time of day and think it’s the darkest time of night. It blocks the light most effectively due to the contour over the nose. The author also says that the mask’s room for your eyes allows you to completely open your eyes, see nothing but black, and keeps your eyes from drying out. Add this one to our list of the best ways to sleep smarter and better. The mask will set you back $10 on Amazon. Lights Out Sleep Mask [Cool Tools] More »Prevent online arguments by taking conversations offline
10:40AM Sarah Stokely | Observing a heated argument taking place on Twitter prompted Coding Horror blogger Jeff Atwood to write an article urging people to consider the public nature of internet comms tools like Twitter, as well as the fact that it’s often quicker and easier to nip an argument in the bud by taking it offline.
Know when to escalate from IM to email, from email to phone, and
when to drop the ultimate communication A-bomb: a face-to-face meeting.
Sometimes people are hesitant to escalate communications even when it’s
painfully obvious that they should. Resist the urge to reply in kind,
however tempting it may be. You’ll both have a more productive
conversation when one of you finds the wherewithal to escalate to
“let’s take this to email”, “let me call you”, or even “let’s meet for
coffee”.
If your online professional conversations turn to flame wars then you
are making yourself look bad and making it harder to work well with
people. Knowing when and how to call a ceasefire can save you time and keep conversations constructive.
On Escalating Communication [Coding Horror] More » 
Prevent Web Sites from Opening “Naked” Windows in Firefox
10:00AM Adam Pash | When web sites open new windows with JavaScript, they have the ability to disable certain features of the new windows—like your address bar, toolbar, or even resizability. All-things-Mozilla web site MozillaZine details how to tweak your about:config settings to prevent JavaScript from launching these stripped windows. Just type about:config in your address bar, then paste dom.disable_window_open_feature into the filter textbox to start tweaking your settings. We’ve mentioned this feature once before, but the MozillaZine article goes into great detail on how each change will affect your browser. Prevent websites from disabling new window features [MozillaZine via Lifehacker AU] More »iPhone
10:00AM Sarah Stokely | So according to The Age, some legal academics in Queensland have studied Apple’s business model for the iPhone and believe that its policy of locking the phone to just one network (as it has done in the US with AT&T) would be illegal in Australia. Of course, until its tested in court it remains just an opinion, but we can hope for the sake of consumer choice that Apple will consider this carefully before trying to lock the iPhone to one Australian network.
More » 
Better Organise Your Tabs with Tree Style Tab
9:00AM Adam Pash | Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Tree Style Tab adds folder-tree-like navigation to your tab management, organising tabs based on the order in which they were opened and the pages they originated from. The main idea behind Tree Style Tab is that you can keep track of the relations of your open tabs to each other so you can always follow the breadcrumb trail back to where you started—especially handy when you’re researching something and end up with an endless pile of unorganised tabs. The extension’s options are highly configurable, allowing you to customise the tab bar location, behaviour of new tabs, and more. Tree Style Tab is free, works wherever Firefox does (including Firefox 3 betas). Tree Style Tab [Firefox Add-ons via Thinktechno] More »
