Friday, April 25, 2008
Build a Dead-Simple Budget with a Shoebox
11:50PM Kevin Purdy | The Simple Dollar personal finance blog delves into household budgeting—something more of us should do, but are kept away from by fear of spreadsheets, math, and undue time commitments. Blogger Trent’s solution is simple and reliable, however, and takes only a willingness to collect paper and toss it in a shoe box. Collect one to three months’ worth of receipts, checks, pay stubs, and other paper records of money in and out, drop them on a floor when you’re done, and then arrange them however you’d like: You’ll probably find yourself shifting piles around and making new piles throughout this process, as you should. The goal is to find ways to group your spending that’s natural to you. Don’t try to force it to match someone else’s groupings – if a group of receipts or statements feel like a natural group to you, that’s how they should be sorted. More »
Use Keywurl to Jump to “I’m Feeling Lucky” Sites Instantly
11:15PM Kevin Purdy | Reader Brett writes in with his favourite Safari tip, harnessing the power of Google and keyword search tool Keywurl into one nifty time-saver. He sets his default Keywurl search to a URL that pulls up Google’s first “I’m feeling lucky” result, using this string: More »
Daphne Offers Drag-and-Drop Process Control
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Killing runaway, memory-gobbling processes from Windows’ task manager is easy—if you know the name of every process and thread on your system and which apps they match up with. Daphne, a free Windows process management utility, gives you a unique set of crosshairs to drag onto the window of any app giving you trouble. There’s also a magnifying glass that reveals properties and even passwords of any window it stops on, and Daphne can call back to its DRK database to identify any apps you might want exlained. Daphne is a free download for Windows systems only. For more tools and tips on knocking down memory-grabbers, see our guide to mastering Windows’ Task Manager. Daphne [via FreewareGenius.com] More »
ReviewGist Rounds Up Product Recommendations from Around the Web
12:00PM Adam Pash | Web site ReviewGist gathers the results of expert reviews from around the web to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of a potential purchase. Aside from its deep analysis, which dives into the nuts and bolts of what a reviewer liked and disliked about a product, ReviewGist also provides a great comparison tool to check the ratings of similar products side-by-side. While a lot of people tend to stick to the consumer reviews on the site they’re purchasing from, like Amazon, ReviewGist looks like a great place to check out the broader merits of a product before making a big purchase. More »
Contacts Sidebar Beefs Up Thunderbird’s Contact Manager
10:01AM Adam Pash | Thunderbird only (all platforms): Thunderbird extension Contacts Sidebar pulls Thunderbird’s built-in contact management out of obscurity, making it more usable and accessible. After installing, just hit F4 at any time to toggle Contacts Sidebar’s visibility in the Thunderbird sidebar. Once visible, you can easily search, edit, or email contacts from the main Thunderbird interface. We’d mentioned Contacts Sidebar once before among our eight killer Thunderbird extensions, but in light of today’s Hive Five contact managers and the ‘bird’s relatively poor showing, it deserves a mention of its own. Contacts Sidebar [via OStatic] More »
DIY Leatherman Compact Keychain
8:00AM Adam Pash | A group of users at web site EDCForums have tweaked their Leatherman (and Leatherman-like) multi-tools into the ultimate multi-key tools. The process appears to involve grinding the edges off your regular keys then bolting them in place of a few or all of the regular tools (you can mix and match keys and screwdrivers if you like, for example). If you liked our previously posted DIY compact keychain but wanted a little more robust key holder, the variety of user-contributed multi-key ideas at EDCForums are worth a look. It’s like a Keyport, only way less expensive and arguably more useful. Thanks Edney! The REAL Leatherman KEYman! My custom LM Multi-Key!! [EDCForums] More »
Better Gmail 2 Fixes Posted
7:22AM Gina Trapani | Just uploaded a new version of the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension, which resolves recently introduced problems with label folders and spam count hiding and brings browser compatibility up to Firefox 3 Beta 5. Download version 0.3.5 of the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension. More »
Nutritional Values Are an SMS Away at Diet.com
6:00AM Adam Pash | US-centric: Health web site Diet.com’s Nutrition on the Go service provides nutritional values for food items on popular restaurant menus via a simple text message. To use it, just text the name of the restaurant and the menu item you’re looking for to DIET1 (34381)—for example, “mcdonalds southwest chicken salad.” Diet.com will text you back with the nutritional values of your item, namely calories, fat, carbs, and protein. Granted, most restaurants (fast food, at least) should have that information available, but if you want a quick look-up in the drive-through or you don’t want to be the one who makes employees blow the dust off the nutritional info, Nutrition on the Go seems like a service worth adding to your contacts. Nutrition on the Go – diet1 (34381) [via Computer World] More »What Apps Should You Never Install?
5:30AM Gina Trapani | In a dated but still relevant post, technologist Anil Dash calls out a couple of software apps that no one needs to install these days, like WinZip and “sketchy codec packs.” I’d add any software manufactured by AOL, Adobe Reader, and digital camera-specific photo software to that list. (You’re better off with 7-Zip, Pidgin, Foxit Reader, and Picasa.) How about you? What dated apps do you uncover on your co-workers’ and relatives’ computers that should have never been there to begin with? Tell us in the comments. The Windows Apps You Never Need To Install [Anil Dash] More »
