As the HDTV continues its march into living rooms, the New York Times points out that most new HDTVs need to be calibrated if you want to the best picture. The article points out several options for how you can go about calibrating your HDTV, from paying your electronics store to do it for you (the expensive way) to DIY calibration using the THX Optimizer, a tool built into many DVD menus. Since many of you have probably gone done this road already, let’s hear how you calibrated your HDTV—including what tools you used and how you feel about the results—in the comments. For a more granular approach to fixing specific picture problems, check out how to troubleshoot your HDTV picture. This Is Not a Test: Calibrate Your HDTV [NYT]
Blogger Darren Rowse finally got fed up with multiple inboxes stuffed with thousands of unprocessed email messages and took a day to clear them out. First he consolidated five accounts into a single Gmail inbox. Then he unsubscribed from newsletters he didn’t read, put some heavy-duty filters into place, and topped it all off with a heavy lean on the Archive button. Not bad for a Sunday morning’s work.
If you’ve ever copied a folder’s worth of files in Windows, you’ve come across the Confirm File Replace dialog, which asks you if you want to replace an existing file with a new file. You have the option to answer Yes just for this file, Yes to All—which will just replace all the originals with the new copies—or you can say No; what’s missing is a button to say No to All. Rather than clicking No countless times if No to All is what you really want, tech weblog Online Tech Tips points out that Windows simulates the No to All response if you hold the Shift key and then click No. It’s a strange feature, and actually one that we covered years ago, but it’s worth a second mention. Vista changed this dialog entirely, but if you’re still living la vida XP, it’s a good shortcut to know. How to simulate “No to all” when copying in Windows XP [Online Tech Tips]
Mac OS X Leopard only: Reader Ben points out that there’s a lot more to Mac OS X’s built-in Dictionary than definitions. He writes in: I just noticed that in Dictionary.app (at least in Leopard), under to “Go” menu, there is an option labelled “Front/Back Matter.” Clicking this brings up a whole slew of useful reference material, including a language guide (complete with a list of clichés to avoid), a list of the chemical elements, and the text of the Constitution. Next time I’m on a place, I think I’m going to brush up on the Bill of Rights.
It’s true: the Ready Reference area of Dictionary.app’s Front/Back Matter is a treasure trove of good stuff for writers or anyone who wants to see if they can name the capital of all fifty states in the U.S. Thanks, Ben!
Web site YouTube Fast Search dynamically searches for new YouTube videos and creates playlists while a video is playing. If you’ve got a list of videos you know you want to queue up after the current one finishes, YouTube Fast Search will do the trick. Aside from the dynamic search, it also all happens through a really nice drag-and-drop interface. It could still use some work on playback controls, though, which were buggy for me.
If you’ve done any more than cursory text editing using Windows’ built-in Notepad application, you know that Notepad is at best sorely lacking in the features department and at worst downright buggy. Several free, simple Notepad alternatives are available for download, but which one has your heart? After the jump, vote for your favourite powered-up Notepad replacement.
Managing the daily onslaught of incoming email with filing systems, keyboard shortcuts, and batch processing will only get you so far. When a flurry of new email snows you in within an hour of every inbox sweep, it’s time to dig in and get to the source of your email traffic. You’ve accumulated a sizable email archive over the years, and a new breed of analysis tool can extract meaningful statistics from that data to help you conquer email overload. Who sent you the most email messages last year? What hour of the day do you receive the most new messages? Which of all the mailing lists you’re on are the most active? A new command line tool called Mail Trends works with Gmail over IMAP and can give you all that information and more.
Two years ago, we compared desktop search applications, covered how to take great notes, and made blogging markup easier with AutoHotkey.
Windows only: Add Firefox-style address bar shortcuts with IE Alias, a free add-on for Internet Explorer 7. While address bar alias shortcuts—as in typing “lh” to get to Lifehacker.com—have been available in packages such as IE7Pro (original post), IE Alias’ tool adds the nifty ability to open multiple URLs with the same shortcut, giving Internet Explorer the same kind of “Open All in Tabs” convenience of, well, Firefox. IE Alias is a free download for Windows systems and Internet Explorer 7 only.
