The popular up-and-coming chat application Digsby (original post) has integrated the newly released Facebook Chat. Digsby separated itself from the pack of the five best instant messengers with its extensive integration with email and social web sites, so the Facebook Chat integration should be a welcome addition for Digsby fans.
US-centric: Our gadget-obsessed brothers at Gizmodo report that many AT&T hotspots—including Starbucks and Barnes and Noble—have started offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users. With a little ingenuity, the same free Wi-Fi access can be granted to your laptop. Using it from your iPhone, you just connect to the hotspot and give the site your iPhone number. To get the same access on your laptop, the key is to fool the hotspot into thinking your browser is still an iPhone. Here’s how:
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you’re sick of clicking through to subsequent pages of online articles, Firefox extension Repagination adds an option to your context menu to pull all of the pages onto one. After installing the extension, just right-click a page’s Next link (or the 2 link, for example) and select to view all pages or a limited number. Repagination will load the pages you tell it to inline at the end of the current page so you don’t have to reload at every turn. I tested it on Lifehacker, this barefoot walking article, and Google, and it worked flawlessly with all of them. The only downside is that it loads the entire subsequent page and not just the text, but it’s better than the annoyance of multi-page articles. Repagination is free, works wherever the ‘fox runs. Repaginzation [Firefox Add-ons via Firefox Facts]
Real Simple online rounds up seven common cooking mistakes you can easily avoid if you practice a few simple tricks of the trade. For example: Covering the entire surface of a pan traps heat and creates steam. And steam, says Simpson, is an enemy of browning, which locks in flavor and juices. To guard against overcrowding, use two pans or cook in batches. To prevent the first batch of food from getting cold while you cook the second, keep it on an ovenproof plate in an oven set at a low temperature (about 200° F).
Since getting good in your kitchen is generally a matter of trial and error consisting of just such mistakes, let’s hear your favourite and best cooking tips in the comments. Common Cooking Mistakes [Real Simple]
From managing our to-do lists and writing code to jotting ideas and keeping a grocery list, nothing beats a solid plain text editor. On Wednesday we asked you to nominate your favourite text editor, and over five hundred passionate comments later, we’ve whittled your nominations down to the most popular. Hit the jump for a look at the editors that made the list, and then vote for your favourite to crown the ultimate text editor.
Windows only: Freeware utility Z-Cron replaces the Windows task scheduler with a more robust, cron-like alternative (but with a graphical interface). Z-Cron ships with a long set of useful actions you can automate, like sending an email, copying a folder, deleting files, emptying the trash, and way more, which makes writing batch files to do these things for you effectively obsolete. Z-Cron is a free download for Windows only.
When icons start disappearing from Windows Vista’s system tray—like the networking, volume control, or time display—and you can’t restore them from the standard options menus, the itch to re-install can be strong indeed. The How-To Geek, however, finds the balm for disappearing Vista icons in the registry, where a few key options need to be deleted to restore your system tray to functionality. Hit the link for instructions on how to kill out the options yourself, or download a registry hack that does it for you. Fix for When Clock, Volume, Power or Network Icons are Missing and Grayed Out in Windows Vista [The How-To Geek]
Social bookmarking service del.icio.us has updated their extension to work in Firefox 3, even though Firefox 3 has bookmark tagging baked in. The extension release is beta (as is Firefox 3, obviously) so testers, give it a whirl. [via]
Amit at the Digital Inspiration blog has written up a how-to on launching web sites directly from Windows Vista’s Start Search box (and therefore at the tap of a “Windows” key), using Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” function to quickly bring up the first result of a search using your entry. The hack involves using the Group Policy editor (gpedit.msc), which is unfortunately available only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions—unless, of course, one of our intrepid readers can point us toward enabling or unlocking that feature in the Home and Basic versions. Hit the link below for yet another way to make your Windows key into a full-fledged quick-launcher. Open Your Favourite Website Directly from Windows Vista Start Menu [Digital Inspiration]
