Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Work
Flexcrypt Passwords Documents in a Standalone Package
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: Need to send an encrypted file to someone, but know they won’t want to mess around with installing their own cryptography software? Freeware Flexcrypt packages your files in a standalone executable file ready to email to a cohort who’s also using Windows. The recipient only needs to know the password to open it. To decrypt the package, just double-click the .EXE and enter the password at the prompt, as shown: More »
Organise
Bookmarklets Enable Multiple HTML Signatures in Gmail
10:40PM Kevin Purdy | Our own Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension makes auto-adding HTML signatures to Gmail messages a breeze, but what if you’ve got multiple signatures for different types of email? The GeekFG blog has a handy tool that creates bookmarklets out of your HTML signatures and adds them with a single click. Create as many signatures as you need, throw them in a folder on your bookmarks toolbar, and you’re good to go. Found a better solution, JavaScript or otherwise, to use multiple Gmail signatures? Let’s hear about it in the comments. How to insert HTML signature in Gmail [GeekFG via Download Squad] More »
Organise
Create a Custom Control Panel
10:06PM Kevin Purdy | The Simplehelp blog posts a Windows customisation idea that’s easy for anyone to make and potentially really helpful to anyone who does regular system tweaking. By simply dragging the items from your Control Panel that you actually use into a new folder with a familiar icon, you make a no-nonsense Start Menu shortcut that’s easy to access. Hit the link for detailed instructions and screenshots, and note that the instructions should work for Windows XP as well, despite the post title. How to create a custom Control Panel for Windows Vista [Simplehelp] More »
Communicate
9:52PM Angus Kidman | Anecdotal evidence suggests that lots of people are taking advantage of Optus’ advance ordering scheme for the 3G iPhone, jumping at what will probably be the first chance to own a fully legal iPhone that works properly in Australia. (As we write, Vodafone’s similar site still isn’t up and running). More power to the iPhone lovers out there, but remember these tips before slapping down your $100 deposit:
More »
Things to remember when advance ordering an iPhone
9:52PM Angus Kidman | Anecdotal evidence suggests that lots of people are taking advantage of Optus’ advance ordering scheme for the 3G iPhone, jumping at what will probably be the first chance to own a fully legal iPhone that works properly in Australia. (As we write, Vodafone’s similar site still isn’t up and running). More power to the iPhone lovers out there, but remember these tips before slapping down your $100 deposit:
More »
Work
9:39PM Angus Kidman | PayPal Australia is scheduled to have a maintenance outage on June 11 between 4pm and 5pm. There’s nothing very unusual about that, but if the ACCC allows eBay to go ahead with its plan to make PayPal compulsory from June 17, the decision will effectively double the number of outages eBay sellers and buyers will have to put up with. As far as we can tell, a PayPal outage shouldn’t bring eBay to its knees — you can list PayPal as a selling option even if you can’t process a payment, so all it really does is delay sending and receiving payments.But given that eBay outages already tend to occur during normal Australian working hours (since they’re scheduled for the convenience of the US), we’d hope PayPal outages could be similarly adjusted in Australia’s favour. After all, we’re the nation acting as guinea pigs for this scheme. Is that asking too much? (Footnote: eBay PR contacted me after this story went up, keen to emphasise that site-wide maintenance outages for eBay now pretty much never happen. But there’s still regular maintenance on elements of the site, and PayPal does suffer from site-wide maintenance periods, so the overall problem gets bigger however you dice it.) More »
What will eBay outages mean in an all-PayPal universe?
9:39PM Angus Kidman | PayPal Australia is scheduled to have a maintenance outage on June 11 between 4pm and 5pm. There’s nothing very unusual about that, but if the ACCC allows eBay to go ahead with its plan to make PayPal compulsory from June 17, the decision will effectively double the number of outages eBay sellers and buyers will have to put up with. As far as we can tell, a PayPal outage shouldn’t bring eBay to its knees — you can list PayPal as a selling option even if you can’t process a payment, so all it really does is delay sending and receiving payments.But given that eBay outages already tend to occur during normal Australian working hours (since they’re scheduled for the convenience of the US), we’d hope PayPal outages could be similarly adjusted in Australia’s favour. After all, we’re the nation acting as guinea pigs for this scheme. Is that asking too much? (Footnote: eBay PR contacted me after this story went up, keen to emphasise that site-wide maintenance outages for eBay now pretty much never happen. But there’s still regular maintenance on elements of the site, and PayPal does suffer from site-wide maintenance periods, so the overall problem gets bigger however you dice it.) More »
Work
9:23PM Angus Kidman | Our first Upgrade Your Life contest winner comes from Jack M, who submitted a simple but very useful trick: adding Gmail to the search bar in Firefox. Now, if you want to compose an email, you can do it simply by typing the email address into the search bar and hitting return (or clicking the search icon). The plug-in also works in Gnome-do, which is good news for Linux users. Check after the jump for instructions on installing the plug-in.
More »
Upgrade Your Life Winner #1: Add mail to the Firefox search bar
9:23PM Angus Kidman | Our first Upgrade Your Life contest winner comes from Jack M, who submitted a simple but very useful trick: adding Gmail to the search bar in Firefox. Now, if you want to compose an email, you can do it simply by typing the email address into the search bar and hitting return (or clicking the search icon). The plug-in also works in Gnome-do, which is good news for Linux users. Check after the jump for instructions on installing the plug-in.
More »
Fix
9:12PM Angus Kidman | A new local survey from longstanding free antivirus favourite AVG gives some interesting insights into where Australians get caught out online. Now, this should be put into context: the survey found that 39% of Australians had been a victim of some kind of ‘cyber theft’, which is less than half of us. But which were the most common problems?
More »
Where Australians go wrong online
9:12PM Angus Kidman | A new local survey from longstanding free antivirus favourite AVG gives some interesting insights into where Australians get caught out online. Now, this should be put into context: the survey found that 39% of Australians had been a victim of some kind of ‘cyber theft’, which is less than half of us. But which were the most common problems?
More »
Work
4:23PM Angus Kidman | I’ll be honest — when I hear the phrase ‘business networking’, I
visualise being cornered by an insurance salesperson in a US airport. But
cynicism aside, Brisbane business consultant Geoff Kirkwood offers a suggestion
in a recent interview
for networking more effectively: concentrate on a handful of people who can
actually help you find new clients, which he refers to as “referral
partners”. Kirkwood gives the example of a marriage celebrant partnering
with limo drivers and florists; each has customers the others could use. I’m
not sure I’d want to cough up money for those kinds of introductions (which is
the basis of Kirkwood’s business), but the concept seems sound. Would it work
for you?
More »
Simplify networking with a referral partner
4:23PM Angus Kidman | I’ll be honest — when I hear the phrase ‘business networking’, I
visualise being cornered by an insurance salesperson in a US airport. But
cynicism aside, Brisbane business consultant Geoff Kirkwood offers a suggestion
in a recent interview
for networking more effectively: concentrate on a handful of people who can
actually help you find new clients, which he refers to as “referral
partners”. Kirkwood gives the example of a marriage celebrant partnering
with limo drivers and florists; each has customers the others could use. I’m
not sure I’d want to cough up money for those kinds of introductions (which is
the basis of Kirkwood’s business), but the concept seems sound. Would it work
for you?
More »
Communicate
6:18AM Angus Kidman | I guess we shouldn’t complain — Australians will get the new 3G iPhone
on July 11, the earliest date that anyone will, and we get a choice of networks
(Vodafone and Optus) which is more than the original iPhone ever boasted. But
while US customers are promised a US$199 phone, both Optus and Vodafone are
only saying that pricing details will be announced at a later date.
Vodafone says both prepay and contract plans will be available; Optus
hasn’t even got that level of detail, but does offer a site
where you can pre-register your interest, and the option to pay $100 against
the price to jump to the head of the queue. Do you honestly need a new phone
that badly? (Vodafone is also planning a similar site at iphone.vodafone.com.au, though this isn’t yet live.) Anyway, what’s the bet that US$199 translates as something more than
the $210-odd that current exchange rates would imply?
More »
What price an Aussie iPhone?
6:18AM Angus Kidman | I guess we shouldn’t complain — Australians will get the new 3G iPhone
on July 11, the earliest date that anyone will, and we get a choice of networks
(Vodafone and Optus) which is more than the original iPhone ever boasted. But
while US customers are promised a US$199 phone, both Optus and Vodafone are
only saying that pricing details will be announced at a later date.
Vodafone says both prepay and contract plans will be available; Optus
hasn’t even got that level of detail, but does offer a site
where you can pre-register your interest, and the option to pay $100 against
the price to jump to the head of the queue. Do you honestly need a new phone
that badly? (Vodafone is also planning a similar site at iphone.vodafone.com.au, though this isn’t yet live.) Anyway, what’s the bet that US$199 translates as something more than
the $210-odd that current exchange rates would imply?
More »
Design
