If you’re using Google’s experimental keyboard shortcuts, auto-complete functions or other interfaces, you might have noticed a little yellow survey primer that sometimes sticks around long after you’ve offered up your answers. The How-To Geek points to a DIY Stylish script for Firefox that always hides the yellow box. Head to your Google search page, click on the Stylish status bar icon, choose “Write style” and “For Google.com,” then enter the following:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@-moz-document domain(“google.com”) { #exp_msgs {display:none !important;} }
For detailed instructions and more Stylish work-arounds, head to the Geek’s site. Hide That Annoying Google Experimental Search Survey Box (in Firefox) [The How-To Geek]
Bill Gates has dropped a hint that we may see Vista’s successor, Windows 7, sooner than expected. His comment that it could be out in “a year or so” was later described as the pre-release version schedule rather than the final version. Still, with official support for XP ending in 2009, perhaps MS wants to offer Windows 7 as an upgrade path instead of Vista?
If you’re used to the default CTRL-K or CMD-K keyboard shortcut to highlight the Google search box in most browsers, Safari’s slightly different command (CMD-Shift-L) might be driving you nuts. Never fear, the 5ThirtyOne blog helpfully walks you through how to get CMD-K to bring up the Google search box:
Open System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard shortcuts Select the add button at the bottom left corner Select Safari from the applications drop down menu For menu title, enter “Google Search…” (… = option + Focus on the Keyboard Shortcut textbox and press CMD+K Select ‘Add’ and restart SafariAmusingly, APC web editor Dan Warne points out on his blog that Firefox 3 has adopted Safari’s CTRL-Shift-L command as an alternative for bringing up the Google search box – something he describes as an attempt to make Firefox more “Mac-like”.
CMD+K search in Safari [5ThirtyOne]via Dan Warne More »
Well, you could join the Do Not Call register, or you could try playing your own evil hold music to those pesky telemarketers who just won’t take “no thanks” for an answer. Tipster Pooksterpup recorded this MP3 to play down the line to unwanted callers. It’s a cute send up of those annoying hold messages punctuated with helpful tips and soothing “your call is important to us” platitudes.I particularly liked the IVR sendup at the end: “You seem to be having some trouble ending this call and leaving with your dignity intact. Would you like some help with that?… I think you said yes, is that right?”This gimmick would be even cooler if you could automate it – I guess you could record it as your voice mail message if you really wanted to.
Don’t call me baby [Melbourne Maniacs] More »
If Apple’s Software Update prompting you to install Safari in Windows is driving you batty, next time hit the Tools menu’s Ignore Selected Updates to disable it forever.
Lifehacker AU is hitting the road for our first roadtrip of the year, and we’d like your tips for making it the easiest, safest and most fun drive it can be. The itinerary is Sydney to Gundagai tomorrow, then Gundagai to Melbourne on Thursday.Got any tips? Whether it’s caring for your trusty car, hacking your Tom Tom, or how to get the most out of your your rest stops on the road, please share in comments.
Trying to cut back on your use of that energy sucking air conditioner (or maybe just don’t have one)? A tipster at the Natural Living blog suggests this simple hack to get the most out of your standing fan instead:
“You need a fan, and a plastic bottle of water.Fill the 3/4 of the bottle with water and put it in the freezer.Once deep frozen, put the plastic bottle in front of the fan, and tadaa! Fresh air!”
Given that it’s been a bit on the chilly side in Sydney for the past couple of days, I haven’t tried this tip myself, but I reckon it’s worth filing away for those upcoming hot summer days!
Climatization replacement [Natural Living] More »
Mac OS X only: If Quicksilver ain’t your cup of tea but you want a quick and easy way to create keyboard shortcuts for certain tasks on your Mac, Spark’s for you. Map common actions (like launching applications, playing iTunes playlists, running AppleScript) to key combinations of your choice in Spark. You can even organise your shortcuts into groups and install plug-ins (like this clipboard cleaner) in Spark. Spark 3.0 is in beta, and it’s a free download for Mac only. Thanks fatherfork and Jeremy!
Mac OS X Hints documents hidden keyboard shortcuts in iTunes’ three new visualisations, Jelly, Stix and Lathe.
Mac guy Rob Griffiths points out a few brand new command line utilities in Leopard, like the handy dot_clean command, which sweeps away Mac system files that start with a dot and annoy the hell out of you when you use that thumb drive on your PC. Griffiths writes: Prior to 10.5, you had to manually delete them on the other system, or use Terminal trickery to remove them on the Mac prior to copying. As of 10.5, though, you can just use the dot_clean command on the directory in question. Type dot_clean /path/folder to join the dot-underscore files with their parent files. Read OS X 10.5′s manual pages (man dot_clean) for more information.
Now you don’t have to disable .DS_Store file creation entirely; though you may still have to deal with Windows’ annoying Thumbs.db system files on your Mac. Leopard’s Unix tricks [Macworld]
