Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Work
Outsource Digital Labour at Task Market
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Microsoft’s launched a tech-oriented outsourcing marketplace called Task Market in Tech Preview (that is, beta). If you need a logo for your company letterhead, but lack the Illustrator chops, or you have a knack for writing compelling resumes, Task Market’s worth checking out—outsource the first and advertise the second on the market. Jobs most suitable for Task Market cost between $0 and $US500, and the product must be something that can be delivered in a digital format. Logo creation, web design, photo editing, proof reading, and document translation are just a few potential items. Get paid or pay your freelancer via PayPal, and rate their work after it’s complete. Looks like a good place to test-drive a side business freelancing. Have you ever outsourced work or freelanced using a Task Market-like open forum? Tell us your experience in the comments. More »
Fix
X-Mouse Button Control Makes Better Use of Extra Mouse Buttons
10:10PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: X-Mouse Button Control, a free Windows mouse utility, is a highly-configurable tool that you set your extra mouse buttons, or even your standard set of three, to do all kinds of helpful tasks. Like the less-configurable X-Mouse Gizmo, you can add copy/paste functionality to a button, but you can also have a right rocker button perform a Print Screen capture, or set the two buttons to act as back and forward buttons only when Firefox is open. For those looking for more control over their pointers, X-Mouse Button Control is a powerful tweaking tool. X-Mouse Button Control is a free download for Windows systems only. X-Mouse Button Control [via gHacks] More »
Work
AceBackup Offers Local, Remote, and Secure File Backup
9:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: Robust backup utility AceBackup offers a host of features missing in most freeware backup apps, like file versioning, secure FTP, file-specific encryption, Windows shell integration, and backup compression. To set up a secure backup job in AceBackup, create a new project, select the files, choose the level of security, tell AceBackup where to put the files—local hard disk, network disk, CD/DVD, remote FTP, etc—and how often, and bam! You get automated, secure, local and remote backup nirvana that rivals the current Lifehacker favourite, Syncback SE. Ace Backup is a free download for Windows only. Ace Backup [via gHacks] More »
Communicate
7:46PM Angus Kidman | As you probably already know, Channel
Nine’s drama Underbelly was banned from screening in Victoria because
many of the central characters and incidents are the subject of
ongoing trials in that state. The same prohibition also applied to
selling the DVD version in Victoria, and the hassles involved in
filtering those sales appears to have minimised its availability in
online stores and advertising online. However, online retailer EzyDVD is claiming in its newsletter out today that
“the embargo has been lifted” on selling the disc through
online stores. Of course, the ban on selling it to Victorians
remains; presumably some poor schmuck has to double-check every order
to ensure it doesn’t have a 3000-series postcode. While we can’t help
suspecting that the court ban, however well-meaning and legally
correct, resulted in a boost of torrent activity, the fact remains
that the DVD is the only legal option for getting hold of the series
(plus you should support good Aussie drama, there’s not exactly a
surplus!).
More »
Underbelly legally available online
7:46PM Angus Kidman | As you probably already know, Channel
Nine’s drama Underbelly was banned from screening in Victoria because
many of the central characters and incidents are the subject of
ongoing trials in that state. The same prohibition also applied to
selling the DVD version in Victoria, and the hassles involved in
filtering those sales appears to have minimised its availability in
online stores and advertising online. However, online retailer EzyDVD is claiming in its newsletter out today that
“the embargo has been lifted” on selling the disc through
online stores. Of course, the ban on selling it to Victorians
remains; presumably some poor schmuck has to double-check every order
to ensure it doesn’t have a 3000-series postcode. While we can’t help
suspecting that the court ban, however well-meaning and legally
correct, resulted in a boost of torrent activity, the fact remains
that the DVD is the only legal option for getting hold of the series
(plus you should support good Aussie drama, there’s not exactly a
surplus!).
More »
Work
Goosh.org Unix-like Google Command Line
4:06PM Gina Trapani | Shell-lovers are going to flip for this one: Goosh.org, which bills itself “the unofficial google shell,” puts a Unix-like command line interface to Google on a web page using the magic of Ajax. Head over to goosh.org and type any word to get Google search results back in a an ls-like listing. You can also search various other Google products and engines, like Google Images, News, Blogs, Video, Translate and the Wikipedia. Type help or h to get a full listing of possible goosh.org commands. More »
Organise
3:57PM Angus Kidman | The annual publication of the BRW Rich 200 ranking of Australia’s wealthiest individuals gives us all a chance to bicker, make envious comments and reflect on the state of our own bank balance. However, while you might not have much chance of reaching the $200 million cut-off for entry into the list, that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up some useful tips from the people who have made it. Here’s some hints direct from the mouths of the rich folks themselves to the team at BRW that can help you organise your own money matters better.
More »
Money management tips from the BRW Rich 200
3:57PM Angus Kidman | The annual publication of the BRW Rich 200 ranking of Australia’s wealthiest individuals gives us all a chance to bicker, make envious comments and reflect on the state of our own bank balance. However, while you might not have much chance of reaching the $200 million cut-off for entry into the list, that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up some useful tips from the people who have made it. Here’s some hints direct from the mouths of the rich folks themselves to the team at BRW that can help you organise your own money matters better.
More »
Organise
Sage-Too Feedreader Add-on Firefox-3 Ready
2:00PM Gina Trapani | All platforms running Firefox (including version 3): Feedreader Firefox extension Sage is a popular favourite, but the original developers appeared to abandon the project leaving Firefox 3 users in the lurch. Luckily another group took it up, readied it for Firefox 3, and renamed it Sage-Too. Sage-Too does exactly what Sage did: integrates your feed subscriptions right into Firefox, and displays the subscription list in your browser sidebar, and the feed content in a browser window. A nice combination of offline reader that lives right in your browser, Sage (and now Sage-Too) can help you keep on top of feeds without leaving Firefox or depending on Google Reader or Bloglines. Sage Too is a free download for Firefox, and works with Firefox 3. More »
Organise
1:31PM Angus Kidman | ISP
Internode has added a local mirror of SourceForge, the repository for much of the open
source goodness the world has to offer. This is good news for pretty
much anyone downloading open source software locally, as it’s bound
to make things faster. It’s doubly good news for Internode’s own
customers, as downloads from the mirror site are unmetered — handy
if you’re constantly downloading new widgets and patches.
While most major ISPs offer various
unmetered options (gaming and entertainment are the most common)
software-centric choices like this are a bit rarer, especially on the
open source side. If there’s any other Aussie peering or mirroring
arrangements you find especially handy, let us know in the comments.
More »
Internode adds SourceForge mirror
1:31PM Angus Kidman | ISP
Internode has added a local mirror of SourceForge, the repository for much of the open
source goodness the world has to offer. This is good news for pretty
much anyone downloading open source software locally, as it’s bound
to make things faster. It’s doubly good news for Internode’s own
customers, as downloads from the mirror site are unmetered — handy
if you’re constantly downloading new widgets and patches.
While most major ISPs offer various
unmetered options (gaming and entertainment are the most common)
software-centric choices like this are a bit rarer, especially on the
open source side. If there’s any other Aussie peering or mirroring
arrangements you find especially handy, let us know in the comments.
More »
Fix
11:42AM Angus Kidman | With the version count sitting at 3.8
for Windows, Internet telephony giant Skype isn’t shy about rolling
out the updates. That’s great when they work, but my recent
experiences trying to upgrade to 3.8 have been painful: no sound at
all for a week, then — just as technical support were starting to
take me seriously — basic sound returned, but with 10 seconds
silence every minute or so. Not good enough.
The best solution in this case would
seem to be rolling back to an earlier working package, but Skype
doesn’t make that easy: its installation routine comprehensively
ditches the previous version, and only the latest release is ever
available at its site. Thank goodness for Filehippo, which maintains
a comprehensive archive of Skype releases. I wouldn’t want to
guarantee they’ll all work with the current infrastructure, but if an
upgrade starts playing nasty and stuff was working fine before, this
is the first place to check in (after taking a deep breath, of
course).
More »
Rolling back the Skype versions
11:42AM Angus Kidman | With the version count sitting at 3.8
for Windows, Internet telephony giant Skype isn’t shy about rolling
out the updates. That’s great when they work, but my recent
experiences trying to upgrade to 3.8 have been painful: no sound at
all for a week, then — just as technical support were starting to
take me seriously — basic sound returned, but with 10 seconds
silence every minute or so. Not good enough.
The best solution in this case would
seem to be rolling back to an earlier working package, but Skype
doesn’t make that easy: its installation routine comprehensively
ditches the previous version, and only the latest release is ever
available at its site. Thank goodness for Filehippo, which maintains
a comprehensive archive of Skype releases. I wouldn’t want to
guarantee they’ll all work with the current infrastructure, but if an
upgrade starts playing nasty and stuff was working fine before, this
is the first place to check in (after taking a deep breath, of
course).
More »
Organise
