Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Set Firefox 3 to Launch Gmail for mailto Links
1:55PM Gina Trapani | In today’s earlier list of five extensions you won’t need in Firefox 3, we said you won’t need any special toolbars, third-party apps, Greasemonkey scripts, or extensions to get Firefox to use webapps like Gmail to open certain types of links—like email mailto links. This means that when you click on an email address that uses the standard mailto: link, Firefox 3 itself can launch Gmail instead of a desktop app. By default, the Firefox RC 1 only comes with Yahoo! Mail as a possible mailto: link handler, which leaves Gmail users out in the cold—unless you know how to set it up by hand, that is. Here’s how to set up Gmail as your default mailto: webapp. More »
Best Application Launchers?
1:00PM Adam Pash | There was a time in the not-so-distant past that launching a new application was a tedious, unpleasant task. Luckily, thanks to a handful of fast and powerful application launchers, our days of digging through the Windows Start menu or hunting for a needle among an enormous haystack of applications are over. If you aren’t already using an application launcher to speed up your daily computing, it’s about time you start. If you are dedicated to your app launcher, then we want to know about it. For this week’s Hive Five, we’re tackling the ever-popular and divisive topic of application launchers. Hit the jump for more details and to cast a vote for your favourite application launcher. More »
Control Your PC with Your Voice
8:30AM Adam Pash | You’ve been talking to (or screaming at) your Windows PC for years, but unless you were willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on pricey software, chances are it wasn’t listening to a word you were saying. With Microsoft’s new freeware tool, Windows Speech Recognition Macros, the days of you talking into your computer’s unsympathetic ear are over. Not only is it listening, but it’s up to the task of doing whatever you want it to. More »
The Best Way to Cook Your Vegetables
8:20AM Adam Pash | If you’ve been following author Michael Pollan’s simple eating philosophy—“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”—you’re trying more than ever to incorporate vegetables in your diet. What you may not know, however, is how to best prepare those vegetables so you’re getting the most nutritional value. From the New York Times: “There is a misperception that raw foods are always going to be better,” says Steven K. Clinton, a nutrition researcher and professor of internal medicine in the medical oncology division at Ohio State University. “For fruits and vegetables, a lot of times a little bit of cooking and a little bit of processing actually can be helpful.” Though the article emphasises that no cooking method is best, it does explain the trade-offs you make when you make the decision to cook or not to cook. More »
Kick a Fast Food Addiction with a Ziplock Bag
7:50AM Kevin Purdy | The Dumb Little Man blog has a suggestion for all of us who can’t help but feel the shameful pull of the drive-thru lane when we’re hungry or just pressed for meal-planning time. Every night, empty your fast food (or candy, soda, or other junk food) receipts into a jar by your bed. Then … Round that up to the nearest $10 and cut it in half. That’s how much you’ll spend a week from now on … Take that money and put it in a ziplock bag that you keep in your car. All your fast food will be paid for out of this fund, and when it dries up, that’s it until next week. This will force you to ration and make choices. More »
Five Extensions You Won’t Need with Firefox 3
7:40AM Gina Trapani | Now that Mozilla’s locked down Firefox 3’s feature set, it’s clear the new browser iteration will render some extensions obsolete. Firefox 3 will include functionality out-of-the-box that you could only get with add-ons before. Let’s take a look at five extensions you might not need when you switch to Firefox 3. More »Calculate Your “Fudge Ratio” To Make Accurate Time Estimates
7:35AM Gina Trapani | Estimating how much time it takes to get a task done is never easy; in fact, most of us are optimists and underestimate how long that to-do will take us. Personal development writer Steve Pavlina says the key is to know just how optimistic you are—he calls this your “fudge ratio”— and build it into your estimates. Pavlina writes: I tend to be consistently optimistic when estimating the time required for certain tasks. Knowing my fudge ratio has NOT made my initial estimates more accurate. My off-the-cuff estimates are just as inaccurate as they’ve always been. However, when I multiple my estimates by the fudge ratio, the estimates come pretty close to the time required. This helps me budget my time better. Figuring out your fudge ratio means you’ve got to jot down estimates for a few tasks, do them, and then compare actual time to estimated time. Pavlina’s fudge ratio is about 1.5, which sounds just about right for overachieving optimists. How to Make Accurate Time Estimates [Steve Pavlina] More »
HP Smart Web Printing Saves Tons of Paper
7:30AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application HP Smart Web Printing combines clips from any number of web pages into one page, so you don’t have to print five different pages of filler to get one page worth of information. The tool—which despite its HP origins works with any printer—integrates directly with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, so clipping text, images, or any part of a page is as simple as clicking a button. Before you print, you can edit, resize, and adjust all of your clippings to your liking. The result is more useful printouts and less wasted paper. If this freeware, Windows only download tickles the environmentalist in you, check out other easy ways to go green and save money with your computer. HP Smart Web Printing [HP via Shell Extension City] More »
Compare and Delete Duplicate Images with DupliFinder
7:20AM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: DupliFinder, a free Windows utility, compares digital photos by their name, size, and actual image information to find duplicates you can delete without worrying about. Brought to you by the coder of Vista Battery Saver, DupliFinder has a slightly rough interface at this point—you have to drag and drop in a folder to search if it’s not “My Pictures,” for instance—but its comparison engine works just fine, giving percentage ratings and quick delete buttons for duplicates. Looks like a great tool for finally tackling that picture clean-up project you keep putting off. DupliFinder is a free download for Windows systems only. DupliFinder More »
