Saturday, May 31, 2008
Design
Assign Folder-Specific Background Images in Finder
11:00PM Gina Trapani | Add a little eye candy to your most frequently used folders on your Mac by assigning a background image to the window. To do so, from the View menu, choose “As Icons.” Then again from the View menu, choose “Show View Options.” Under Background, choose Picture, and select the image you want to set as the background. This setting is folder-specific, so you can theme multiple folders separately. Leopard: Use a Background Image in Finder [Tech-Recipes.com via Technology Links Daily] More »
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Access US-Only Web Content with Hotspot Shield
10:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Hotspot Shield secures your public web browsing by connecting you to the internet through the Hotspot Shield virtual private network. What more people seem to use Hotspot Shield for is to access US-only websites from outside the US. We post a lot of content on Lifehacker, and sometimes we get guff for not identifying US-only services. Hotspot Shield has been the go-to service for tons of Lifehacker readers dying to try a site who’ve hit the US-only wall. Hotspot Shield is ad-supported and installs a toolbar (lame, I know), Windows only. Got another tried and true method for accessing region-specific sites? Let’s hear about it in the comments. Hotspot Shield [via foXnoMad] More »
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This Week’s Best Posts
10:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | TGIF, people! Before you head out to happy hour, get a load of this week’s most popular posts: Making wireless broadband work on the Eee PC“Optus, 3 and Vodafone might claim to only support Windows and Macs with their wireless broadband systems, but in fact you can use any of them on a Linux Eee PC without special driver software. Here’s the step-by-step guide to getting it set up for Australian 3G networks.” 3 key: no cables, me like“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.” Do More with Your Webcam with Free Tools“The webcam that came packaged with your computer system can do a whole lot more than just let you video chat. With the right tools, you can turn your webcam into a watchful surveillance tool, a face recognition-enabled computer login utility, a time-lapse movie-maker, and more.” Five Best Start Pages“Whether you use it to keep up to date on the latest news or as a launching point for the rest of your browsing, you want to find a solid start page to fit your surfing habits.” Protect Your Stolen Mobile Phone“You’ve synced your email, address book, and calendar to your fancy smartphone, which has internet access, photos, and videos on it, too—but how do you keep a thief from ringing up your bill, or worse, stealing your identity using your phone?” Dual Boot or Run Windows in a Virtual Machine?“I know I can either dual boot Windows with Boot Camp, or run Windows on my Mac with virtualisation software like VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. Which is better?” Enable Google Contact Sync Without an iPhone or iPod Touch“If you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, unlocking Google contact sync isn’t worth paying hundreds of dollars for the device. A simple system tweak can turn it on for you.” More »
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Grab MP3s From an iPhone in Windows with iPhoneBrowser
9:30AM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Copy MP3s and other files to and from a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch with iPhoneBrowser, a free Windows file-browsing utility. iPhoneBrowser is a pretty no-frills file browser, as you can see in the screen above, but it’s less hassle then the FTP method included in our iPhone/iPod copying guide earlier today. The apps’ “Goto Location” menu can direct you to the folders containing photos, program icons, third-party apps, and more, if it works, but you can add your own favourite spots as well. iPhoneBrowser hemmed and hawed about my ZiPhone-broken> iPod touch, but transferinng my MP3s to the desktop was still pretty easy. iPhoneBrowser is a free download for Windows systems only. Thanks, Miguel and halfshafter! More »
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How To Maintain Less-than-Daily Habits
9:00AM Adam Pash | Incorporating a new habit into your routine can be difficult, especially if it’s not an everyday activity, so personal development blogger Steve Pavlina offers several tips for maintaining that new habit. For example: Suppose you want to exercise 5 days a week, and you really want to keep those off days. Instead of doing your regular exercise, you could schedule an an alternative activity for the same time. Instead of doing your usual workout, you could use your off days to go for a walk, read, meditate, write in your journal, etc. Pavlina also suggests making appointments out of your habits to ensure that it’s got a serious placeholder in your daily schedule. Got your own method of making a new habit work? Let’s hear it in the comments. How to Maintain Not-Quite-Daily Habits [Steve Pavlina] More »
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Start Killer Hides the Start Button, Adds Space to Task Bar
8:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Start Killer hides the Start menu button, freeing up extra space on your Windows taskbar. You can still access the Start menu by hitting the Windows key, but Start Killer frees up a good chunk of taskbar real estate. You can optionally disable the Start menu altogether if you wanted to deny users access to it. Start Killer only does one thing, but there’s nothing we like better than a simple tool that does exactly what it says. No Vista option as yet. More »
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How to Automate Your Home
7:00AM Adam Pash | Wired’s How-To Wiki dives into home automation, offering advice for beginning “smart house” hackers looking to take their homes to the future. The article focuses on the X10 standard for automation, covering the devices and software you can use to save energy and look cool by automating devices in your home. We’ve highlighted a few fun ways you can put a little X10 automation to good use, like the
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Make Your Own Illuminated Keyboard
6:57AM Gina Trapani | Do-it-yourselfer Kipkay doesn’t have a backlit keyboard, so he repurposed the pointless Scroll Lock LED on an old school keyboard to light up all the keys instead. The end result does indeed make typing in the dark possible, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as a commercial backlit keyboard. In fact, in the stark light of day you will probably be embarrassed about the keyboard’s light antennae, which you turn on by hitting the Scroll Lock key. Still, this is a nifty mod if only for the innovative concept. Hit the jump to watch how he did it. More »
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Zindus Syncs Thunderbird with Google Contacts
6:00AM Adam Pash | All platforms running Thunderbird: Thunderbird extension Zindus syncs your Google contacts with Thunderbird’s address book. Just install the extension, give it your Gmail username and password (it supports both @gmail and Google Apps domains), and hit the Sync Now button to synchronise names, email addresses, phone numbers, IM handles, and more. Zindus does its best to handle any conflicts and walk you through resolutions, but you can also sync the contacts to a separate list if you just want to give it a try. The free, cross-platform Zindus is a fantastic solution for Thunderbird users jealous of Address Book’s recent Google Contact Sync update. Thunderbird contact sync with Google [Zindus via Download Squad] More »
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