How To Find And Get Involved With A Hackerspace 
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) Between Flickr, Digg, Twitter, your blog, Facebook, Del.icio.us, and every other web service under the sun you’re a member of, keeping track of all of your online activity—as well as the activity of your friends—is becoming increasingly difficult. But a recently launched, much-hyped webapp called FriendFeed aims to simplify your online life by pulling all of the content you create into one centralized service. Not only does FriendFeed make aggregating your online life a breeze, but it also makes it simple to keep track of what all your friends are up to, whether they use the site or not.
Webapp PicBite adds speech bubbles to any digital photo located online or on your computer. PicBite is dead simple to use: Simply upload an image from your desktop or enter a URL of an image online, drag and drop speech bubbles, and set their text. When you’re done, PicBite gives you a direct link to the completed image with or without the annotation (here’s mine) or a thumbnail for use on your blog or in user forums. Thanks, Roman! PicBite.com
BBC News reports that “casual games” like Bejeweled take less time to learn and play so they’re attracting more players who don’t want to spend hours building a character or learning the intricate rules of more complex video games. Along similar lines, Lifehacker alum Keith said that one of his big gaming timesavers is to play on “easy” mode, because it lets him enjoy the game without losing too much time he could be more productive. How do you balance gaming and life and work? Do you avoid time sinks like Warcraft entirely, stick to casual games, or play first person shooters on easy? Let us know in the comments. Casual games make a serious impact [BBC NEWS]
A big part of staying productive at work involves making conscious decisions about when you’re focusing on a task to the exclusion of everything else and when you’re open to interruptions. Author Tim Ferriss interviewed me recently about my bi-modal work style, which can apply to anyone who’s online and at a computer all day long: Basically, I’ve got two modes of work: loose/open, and focused/closed. When I’m in “open” mode, my instant messenger status is set to available, I’m surfing, writing, checking email, coding, listening to music with lyrics—getting things done, but in a multitasking way, open to interruptions and tangents.
Purchasing a fancy laptop stand that elevates your notebook for easier typing and better airflow can be expensive, so DIYer Chris99 built one himself using a metallic document holder, some shelf liner, and a block of rubber. Using a hot glue gun and utility blade, he padded the metal surface and positioned the blocks to hold his MacBook in place. We’ve featured a whole lot of DIY laptop stands here over the years, but this looks like one of the better put together of the bunch. Simple Metallic Laptop Stand [Instructables]
Apparently Microsoft’s releasing Vista’s first service pack today via Windows Update, but I’m not seeing it just yet—are you?
Good news for Mac users who want to go paperless on the road: Fujitsu’s released the portable ScanSnap S300M, the similar model scanner we used to scan paperwork to PDF in one step, but for Mac.
Windows and Mac OS X: Apple releases a new version 3.1 of the Safari web browser which includes several stability and performance improvements, along with a couple new minor but useful features, most notably:Double clicking on the Tab Bar opens new tab Supports trackpad gestures for back, forward, and magnify on MacBook Air and compatible MacBook Pro computers
Get the new version via Apple’s Software Update; it’s a free download for Mac and Windows. Thanks, Anthony! Download Safari 3.1About the Safari 3.1 Update [Apple]
Two years ago on Lifehacker, you learned how to master wget at the command line, save time with text substitution, and set up your home wireless network.
