What Are The Hourly Rates For IT Contractors? 
What Do You Do With Your Gadgets When You Move Overseas? 
The Lifehacker Total Security Guide 
Spotify And Its Rivals: Subscription Music Services In Australia Compared 
The Stupid Things You Do On Facebook (And How To Fix Them) 
How To Kill Time Productively On Your Phone Take a look at all the devices in your life, and which one seems the most resistant to DIY improvements, repairs and useful tweaking? The answer, most likely, is that four-wheeled gadget resting just outside. But while many of us lifehack fans aren’t as comfortable in our driveways as our desktops, there are lots of cheap and (mostly) simple ways to get more from your vehicle and make driving and owning it a bit more enjoyable. Today we’ve rounded up 10 of our favourite car-related tips and tricks that work whether you’re at one with your engine or regard your ride as a mysterious four-wheel transporter. Photo by World Resources Institute Staff.
Ever wonder how some people can get a grounding in a foreign language in the two weeks before they travel, but your own long-term efforts haven’t paid off? Part of it is natural ability, but another aspect is the enforced budgeting of a crash course. Learn it lists, a free language-learning web application, gives you just 10 words each day to learn the translations of. Granted, speaking and writing a language is more than just knowing vocabulary, but making a small but committed effort every day to building your skills will likely be far more helpful than that two-language dictionary gathering dust on your bookshelf. The site requires a free registration to start using, supports 15 languages (at the moment) and can have its widgets embedded in an iGoogle page. Learn it lists [via MakeUseOf.com]
Few things can be as frustrating to non-expert Linux users as seeing the phrase “… or compile from source packages” on the download page of that killer app to try out (and we know that’s often the case for you patient non-Ubuntu users out there). If you’re looking for a nuts-and-bolts guide to installing software from those strange-looking Whatever.tar.gz files, Tuxfiles.org has a pretty good one. While the link takes you through the unpacking, compiling, installing, and cleaning up, there’s a basic command line method for almost any package (replacing “package” with the appropriate downloaded file name):
Want to create an easy-to-navigate home page for the browser on your Wii or any other? Wii Browser, a free page creation tool, lets you create a page full of big, easy-to-click links to set as your homepage. You can also easily edit or rearrange your links from inside your Opera-powered Wii browser, as the site uses a number-based passkey system instead of requiring a login/password, which can get a bit tedious with a Wiimote-controlled keyboard. The main value here is in being able to edit your links from your computer browser rather than through slow screen typing, but it also gives you a Wii-friendly page you can browse to from any system. For another Wii homepage idea, check out Google’s Wii-formatted Reader. Wii Browser [via eHub]
The Tech-Recipes blog posts a relatively simple, two-software-program method for grabbing the video from your DVDs and converting them to a PS3-playable MP4 format. Depending on the size of your PS3 hard drive, this method might only work for a handful of DVDs, but you could tinker with the video quality settings to make your console a jukebox of films, no Blu-ray burning required. The tutorial uses the same DVD Decrypter program Adam highlighted in his guide to copying DVDs to your iPod, as well as a lesser-known tool dubbed PS3 Video 9. Have an easier, quicker solution for transporting your own movies to your console? Offer them up in the comments.Photo by DeclanTM. PS3 – How to convert movie DVDs to MP4 for playback on Playstation3 [Tech-Recipes.com]
With Easter and spring breaks coming up fast, many families are looking ahead to travel plans, whether heading to warmer weather, to the house the Walt built, or just to visit relatives across the country. Whether you’ve already experienced the challenge of getting kids onto and off of a plane or are new to that kind of fun, the Dumb Little Man blog has lots of advice on making everything run a bit smoother. One must-do I had no clue about, for example:
Mac only: The new MacBook Pro models released Tuesday brought new processor power, more hard drive space, and a little-heralded but kinda nifty feature: The addition of a right Alt key (and dropping of the mini Enter key), giving keyboard enthusiasts access to “third-level” characters and a wider array of shortcuts. For those with MacBook models older than 48 hours, free remapping utility KeyRemap4MacBook can help you reassign that tiny Enter or other under-utilised keys for similar shortcut happiness. Definitely worth the effort for programmers and coders, but potentially helpful for anyone who wants to assign Mac environment shortcuts (like Spaces, for example) to non-default keys. KeyRemap4MacBook is a free download for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 only. KeyRemap4MacBook [via random()type]
