Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Truck Step Soap Dish

11:30PM Gina Trapani | Industrial look-lover Todd Lappin turned the most unlikely object—a trucker’s aluminium step—into a soap dish for his new home. While flipping through a tow truck parts catalog, Lappin spotted the step. He writes: We bought one and installed it in the shower I now use daily. This is by far the best-designed soap dish I’ve ever used. The open front allows water to drain away easily, while the diamond-plate surface secures and elevates the soap so that it dries without creating a lot of yucky soap-gunk. And of course, the aluminium doesn’t rust or corrode. Definitely one of the niftiest and unexpected repurposing we’ve seen in awhile. If you want your own truck step soap dish, the part will set you back $US35. (Oz editor adds: does anyone use cakes of soap anymore? Really?) The World’s Best Soap Dish (Isn’t a Soap Dish at All) [Dinosaurs and Robots via Cool Tools] More »

Wizmo is One Program that Runs Many Windows Tweaks

11:06PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Wizmo, a free tweak and hack utility for Windows systems, is a tiny but powerful little stand-alone app that lets you create shortcuts for all kinds of things you might want to do in Windows. If you’re looking for a way to quickly turn off a laptop monitor to save juice, for instance, create a shortcut to Wizmo and add the -monoff option for instant screen darkening. You can restart your wireless reception, blank out your background image, pop out a CD, and do much more—just run the program by itself to get a list of command switches. If you’ve already got a lot of little apps that accomplish these tasks, you might think about consolidating for easier reformats and portability. Wizmo is a free download for Windows systems only. Thanks, billspaced! Wizmo More »

Is the One-Page Resume a Myth or Mandatory?

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | The ideal of the one-page resume is a bit of age-old wisdom most of us hear during our very first job search. But does it still hold true, with more workers changing careers more quickly and taking on titles that are harder to explain? Brian McCullough of The Job Bored blog calls shenanigans: So, let me say it once and for all: a resume does not have to be one page. There’s nothing wrong with a one page resume, of course. If that’s what you’ve got, then that’s what you’ve got. But don’t even worry if it’s mostly one page, with only a paragraph or two spilling out into the second page. Go ahead and keep that second page. It’s better than leaving something off your resume that might be helpful. I know how our lead editor feels, but what say you, job-seekers and applicant-screeners? Is a single-page summation always going to impress the eye and appeal to efficiency, or does a longer reader on credentials serve one better in the long run? Let’s hear your take, or your experiences, in the comments. Photo by phil schatz. Busting The One Page Resume Myth [The Job Bored] More »

NemusSync Syncs Google and iPhone Calendars Wirelessly

10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Sync your iPhone calendar to multiple Google Calendar listings with NemusSync, a free application for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches. While other sync utilities have been floating around for a bit, NemusSync doesn’t require GooSync or another go-between app to function, and you choose whether the sync is one- or two-way, and which calendar serves as your default. A six-calendar sync took a noticeable amount of time, but I haven’t seen any duplicates or other annoying sync problems so far (Edit: But you might want to stick with download-only at first, especially if you’re already syncing through iTunes). The developer plans to implement alerts and reminders in future versions; for now, you can use GCal’s email reminders or something like IntelliScreen. NemusSync is a free download for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches, and is available in Installer.app’s pre-configured repositories. NemusSync [via Just Another iPhone Blog] More »

Beware of Using Web Host Disk Space for File Backup

9:00PM Gina Trapani | Over two years ago in an article on how to automate your hard drive backups, we recommended FTP’ing your files to a cheap, roomy web hosting plan’s server for off-site backup. But weblog Digital Inspiration reports that many web hosts don’t include file backup in their terms of service, and could delete your data if you use the space (you paid for to host a web site) for backup purposes. You’d think that if you pay for 500GB you should get to use 500GB the way you want—but be sure to read your host’s terms before you assume. Since those salad days of hacking together off-site backup, I’ve since signed up for Mozy—which isn’t perfect, but its whole purpose is personal file backup, and it does a pretty good job at a low price. How do you get your off-site backup going on? Let us know in the comments. Never Use a Web Hosting Server to Backup Data from the Hard Drive [Digital Inspiration via Technology Links Daily] More »

Trading Post’s auction plans: a wish list

7:24PM Angus Kidman | The news that Telstra’s Trading Post site is adding online auctions with no listing fees and a choice of payment methods has been widely welcomed, not least because it provides the possibility of an alternative to eBay, which has been shedding users ever since it decided to make PayPal compulsory , thereby increasing its profits while allegedly improving security. The Trading Post has been working on its site for 18 months, and while that’s a decent development period, it still means a few useful features are missing. Here’s the main changes we’d like to see added to the site to make it really useful in the short term: More »

3 key: no cables, me like

7:17PM Angus Kidman | 3’s latest mobile broadband offering, the prosaically named Broadband Internet Key, is pretty much a standard 3G modem but adds one really useful feature: no cable. Plugging directly into a USB port means you can effectively use the Internet on the go (think trains) without stuff dangling in the wrong place. The pricing is nice ($15 for 1GB a month on a 24-month plan) and the device works on both Windows and Macs (and Linux, though it isn’t officially supported). There’s only one major catch . . . More »

Making Twitter actually useful

7:14PM Angus Kidman | It may have been less stable over the last week or so than a Pamela Anderson marriage, but when it’s working, posting on Twitter is an addictive habit. Is it actually a useful one? US fundraiser and Web 2.0 trainer Beth Kanter has a simple but remarkably sensible strategy for making Twitter productive. More »

Meet Lifehacker AU’s new editor

7:08PM Angus Kidman | Yes, it’s all change here at Lifehacker Towers. Sarah Stokely has headed off to do strange things on web sites with Stephen Mayne, so it’s time for a new editor. Who am I and what the heck do I think I’m doing here? More »

Firefox 3 Add-on Compatibility Report

11:14AM Gina Trapani | The hard-working developers over at Mozilla issue a status update on which popular Firefox extensions still need to get updated for Firefox 3. Here’s 20 add-ons that are Firefox 3-compatible, and seven that aren’t yet. If you’re testing the Firefox 3 Release Candidate, you can force Firefox to use incompatible extensions with a configuration tweak, but to avoid possible wonkiness, it’s better to wait for officially-compatible releases. In other Firefox 3 news, a second release candidate is slated for early June. More »