Apple should open the doors of its first Australian store by June, and two more shops are expected to follow later this year, according to the SMH.The fitout of the flagship store in Sydney’s CBD is close to being finished, and the article says Apple has been advertising for staff for another Sydney store (probably at Chatswood) and one in Melbourne at Chadstone shopping centre. More »
If you’re facing career indecision, one way to help clear things up is to focus on yourself, rather than the job market, Penelope Trunk blogged today. She says she learned this after she finished college and went for a job which was a total mismatch for her:
“I realized that the ways I choose to make money reflect who I am and how I see myself, and I needed to start seeing myself as smart and clever.”
In other words, the way you chose to spend your workdays reflects who you are and how you see yourself.
The goal? To work towards a career that honours your identity – bearing in mind that as you change, your career goals may well change as well.
I had a similar “mismatch” moment early in my career too – so Penelope’s post really rang true for me. Early on, I missed out on a journalism job that I wanted (curse you, Vive magazine!) and was so disheartened I turned my back on journalism for several years. But the bug was still there, so finally I enrolled in a postgrad journalism course to improve my skills and qualifications, and I’ve been working as a journo ever since.
If you need a kick up the bum motivation wise, I suggest you read Penelope’s post. :)
In other news, it’s probably a good time to remind everyone that our career tips competition is still open – so head on over to the competition post and submit your best resume or job hunting tip to win a Google notebook.
The best career tool is self-knowledge [Penelope Trunk] More »
Internode has become the latest ISP to offer ‘naked DSL’ – and they’ve promised another new service later this year which will let you have a conventional phone, but without paying a separate line rental charge. PC Authority wrote up the announcement here. Internode boss Simon Hackett is quoted as saying the line-rental free service, called Internode Ultra, won’t have upload fees, unlike the similar package offered by Optus Fusion. More »
One of the ways that Google’s search engine looks for rich, comprehensive results is by looking for pages that match a variation of the search terms you’ve entered. The Google Operating System offers some tips for how to refine your search so Google sticks strictly to a search for your keyword – as well as offering a way to make the search even *more* fuzzy. By adding a + before a keyword, you can ensure it won’t be ignored:
“Instead of searching for [blogger profile images] , you’ll use this query: [+blogger profile images] . Alternatively, you could use quotes even for a single keyword: ["blogger" profile images]or add a plus after your keyword: [blogger+ profile images] .
If rather than narrowing your search you want to cast your net wider, you can use the synonymous operator (~). Using this operator, a search for [~images]will also return results containing “imagery”.
Less Approximate Google Searches [Google Operating System]
Sydney Wi-Fi users will be able to take advantage of free Wi-Fi access at 10 libraries across the city in a council scheme announced today. The libraries, mostly in CBD or inner city areas, are encouraging locals to bring their laptops in to use the new service, which starts this week.
The libraries offering Wi-Fi are:
Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay Glebe, 186 Glebe Point Road, Glebe Haymarket, 744 George Street, Sydney Kings Cross, Level 1, 50-52 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross Newtown, 8-10 Brown Street, Newtown Ultimo, Level 1, Ultimo Community Centre, 40 William Henry Street, Ultimo Waterloo, Waterloo Town Hall, 770 Elizabeth Street, Waterloo Surry Hills Library Link, Northcott Centre, Belvoir Street, Surry Hills Town Hall Library Link, Level 1, Town Hall House, 456 Kent Street, SydneyFirefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Microsoft Activities for Firefox adds IE8′s new Activities feature (which adds popular web services to your right-click menu) to your favorite browser. In truth, the idea behind Activities isn’t new to Firefox at all, since to a large extent it’s just contextual search fancied up a little, but one cool thing about this extension is that it actually supports IE8′s Activity Providers page and installation format, so you can install a new Activity from the same place Microsoft publishes them. Microsoft Activities for Firefox is free, works wherever Firefox does. Microsoft Activities for Firefox [Mike's Musings via Download Squad]
Our national broadcaster the ABC has announced four new digital services today including an IPTV station called “ABC Playback” which will allow viewers to stream shows that were broadcast by the ABC in the previous week. It will also launch paid downloads from the ABC shop on 18 March.
The online service is in beta at the moment, showing three channels – ABC Catch-up, which will show a mix of popular and specialist shows which had been screened during the previous week on ABC1 or ABC2. ABC Real will show natural history programs and general documentaries, while there will also be an ABC Shop channel. An ABC news channel is also on the cards one the service goes live.
If you have an ADSL2+ broadband connection you can apply to join the beta here.
The ABC shop is also introducing a paid download service which will offer DVD, CD and download products for rent or purchase. These are accessed by an ABC Commercial integrated media player and download manager. It wasn’t clear what format the downloads come in, if they’re tied to any particular player or if they use DRM – hopefully we’ll have more information from the ABC on that soon.
Apparently vodka takes away the pain in more ways than one. Cocktail expert Miss Charming lists several uses for vodka (besides drinking it), including this gem: To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves the adhesive.
Haven’t tried this technique myself, but next time I’ve got a Band-Aid on, instead of the fast rip-off approach I might reach into the bar first. Check out Miss Charming’s vodka page for more ways to use vodka around the house to clean and more. Miss Charming’s Vodka Page [via The Life Hackery]
Quick Mac tip: If you’re even a semi-regular Dashboard user, you’ve probably been irritated by the three-step process involved in removing a widget from Dashboard: You click the plus (+) sign in the corner, which brings up an “X” on all the widgets, you click the “X” to close the widget, and then you click the plus sign again to return things to normal. Annoying, yes? Weblog TUAW points out a simple trick to prevent this Dashboard annoyance: Just hold down your Option key when you hover over the widget you want to close. The “X” button appears, you click it, hassle averted. This quick turnaround is especially handy if you use multiple versions of expiring widgets, like the most excellent Delivery Status widget. Mac 101: faster widget management [TUAW]
Windows only: Freeware application WirelessKeyView recovers the wireless network keys saved to your computer by the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration service of XP or the WLAN AutoConfig service in Vista. As with any password-finding tool, this can be put to use both for the powers of good or evil, but we trust you’ll stick to good—say when you’re doing tech support on your parents’ laptop and they can’t remember what their Wi-Fi password is. WirelessKeyView is freeware, Windows only. Got more password cracking needs done? Crack your Windows password with Ophcrack, or roll up your sleeves on your network passwords with Cain and Abel. WirelessKeyView [via Shell Extension City]
