Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Take Better Food Photographs
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | DIY photography site Photojojo offers up 10 helpful tips for photo-obsessed foodies or anyone trying to capture a really great meal for posterity. Along with some general suggestions on framing and colour balancing, they recommend making the most of your table setting to eliminate blurs and grainy shots: Hold still. In low-light situations like restaurants and kitchens, long exposures will register any camera movement as blur. Use a tripod whenever possible. If you don’t have one, try resting your camera on a water glass or the back of a chair. Or make yourself a string tripod. Here’s a how to guide for using that last suggestion. Photo by MR+G. The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips [Photojojo] More »
Tools for finding lost web pages
5:31PM Sarah Stokely | The Wired How-To Wiki tackles a series of ways you can find material that’s disappeared off the web. Whether a site has been slashdotted to death, or the domain just isn’t around anymore, there are some steps you can take to try to find a cached version of what you seek. I used to think I was clever for being able to turn up cached pages of dead or edited websites in Google. Then I fell in love with the Wayback machine for helping me find the Lord of the Rings diet ad spoof site “The Lembas Plan”. Hopefully you’ll be looking for something more useful. :)Find Lost Web Pages [Wired How-to Wiki] More » Lose less money next time you visit the casino
4:54PM Sarah Stokely | If you’re into social gambling, you might be interested in Dumb Little Man’s tips for enjoying a trip to Vegas while still sticking to your budget.He recommends that you resist the temptation to trade your full bankroll for chips at the start of the night, recommending that you start by converting just half of it into chips.
“The reason for this is two-fold: mentally, it’ll be easier for you to walk away with cash versus chips, and secondly, once you have all chips, it’s difficult to get your money back; dealers will not cash you out. To get cash back, you are forced to find the cage which entails walking by eighty other game tables, cheering crowds, waiting in line, etc. That’s a lot of temptation you can avoid simply by retaining some cash.”
If you win, he suggests planning to walk away at the end of the night with some of your winnings in your pocket. To achieve this, put aside half of your winnings rather than betting (and possibly losing) the whole lot.He also recommends that you focus on games which give you more bang for your buck – for example – a single thrower at the Craps table can last up to 15 minutes, while a Blackjack hand can be over in just 2 minutes.
And finally some practical advice – stick to one drink an hour. Or, if you want to drink more, move to the bar for a while and put your gambling on hold. As he says, the drinks are often comped for a reason!
Got any tips for how to enjoy gambling in moderation? Share in comments please.
How to lose less on your Vegas vacation [Dumb Little Man] More » Govt seeks input on broadband
4:24PM Sarah Stokely | Senator Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has throw open the door to hear public submissions on the state of broadband in Australia. The public comments will be fed through to the Panel of Experts who are developing the National Broadband Network Request for Proposals (or in other words, writing the specs and assessing the proposals put forward for building Australia’s next generation of broadband infrastructure).They’re operating with a mandate to supply download speeds of at least 12 megabits per second – which suggests to this tech-head that they’re not being ambitious enough. So if you want to give reasons why we should have unmetered broadband,
not be charged for uploads, or address any of the other bugbears of
broadband in Australia, now’s your chance.Further information on the National Broadband Network process and Panel
of Experts is available on the Departmental website. Submissions need to be made by snail mail or email to nationalbroadbandnetwork@dbcde.gov.au by March 30.
More » 
Qantas introducing in-flight SMS and email
3:10PM Sarah Stokely | Qantas has announced that it will open up the use of SMS and email on some domestic flights on Boeing 767 and Airbus A330 aircraft. The announcement comes after a trial into the use of mobile phones in-flight. Users will have to have flight mode capable mobile phones or PDAs with international roaming set up on their mobile accounts.
According to the Qantas website:
“To send and receive text messages, customers will require a tri-band
or quad band GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone
with an active account with a telecommunications service provider who
has a roaming agreement with AeroMobile and International Roaming
activated with their service provider.
To send and receive emails, customers will require a GPRS equipped phone, PDA, or laptop with an active email account.”
As Dan Warne commented over at APC, global roaming could equate to very expensive.
Qantas also offers in-flight SMS, phone calls and seat-to-seat phone calls on its B747-400 and A330-300 services. They charge $US1.90 per SMS. I’m guessing these craft serve international flights only – if you’re a frequent flyer and confirm this, please leave a comment.
Qantas, Emirates push in-flight cell phone use (CNET)
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Safe Investments in a Recession?
1:00PM Adam Pash | If your dreams are filled with nightmares of recession and impending economic doom, a user from the community weblog Ask MetaFilter asks the simple but pertinent question: What’s the safest possible thing that I can do with my money? The folks at MetaFilter provide heaps of great suggestions while sticking to the low-to-no-risk requirement, suggesting everything from CDs and short term bond mutual funds to investing in yourself. As many folks are quick to point out, virtually any interest-bearing savings plan requires some form of risk—hence the reason for the interest. But some investments are safer than others, so let’s hear your thoughts on safe investments in the comments. What’s the safest possible thing that I can do with my money? [Ask MetaFilter via Get Rich Slowly] More »
Add Custom Options to the Windows AutoPlay Dialog
12:11PM Adam Pash | The Windows AutoPlay feature is the bane of many-a-PC user, particularly because of nasty DRM histories and other intrusive business, but what about when you actually want to use the AutoPlay feature? For example, let’s say you’re a fan of Lifehacker’s very own DVD-ripping tool, DVD Rip, and you want your computer to automatically start ripping DVDs as soon as you put one in (making the simple one-click solution even simpler). Here’s how it works. More »
Include Images in Craigslist Search Results
11:00AM Adam Pash | Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Craigslist Image Preview adds a thumbnail of the image(s) within a listing on Craigslist without requiring you to click through to the actual page. Since most Craigslist ads live or die by the included image of what’s actually being sold, this extension saves a ton of time and is a must-have for any Craigslist shopper. Craigslist Image Preview is free, fast, and works wherever Firefox does. AU – yes, there is a Craigslist for Australia, well Sydney at least: More »
Speed Up Windows’ Shutdown
10:00AM Gina Trapani | Windows guy Dennis O’Reilly points out a few Windows registry tweaks that will make your PC “close shop like it’s late for the bus ride home.” These modifications will shorten the amount of time Windows waits around before killing hanging applications, and will set your PC to automatically stop running tasks. If Windows takes a little too much time to shut itself down, these may be for you; of course keep in mind that registry tweaks shouldn’t be done lightly or without a full backup. Shut down Windows in an instant [Workers' Edge] More »Identify your food craving – and find a healthy alternative
8:55AM Sarah Stokely | The Naturopathy Works website has an interesting table of common food cravings which suggests what food deficiency your craving might point to. For example, chewing ice could indicate that you’re low on iron. The cool thing about the table is that it recommends healthy alternatives to fuel you up on whatever the deficiency is. For example, if you’re low on iron it suggests meat, fish, poultry, seaweed, greens or black cherries. I don’t know how successful I’ll be in convincing myself that my chocolate craving is all about a lack of magnesium, but who knows, maybe raw nuts and seeds, legumes or fruits really can fill that need. :)
Food cravings… [Naturopathy Works]
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