Sunday, June 15, 2008
Fix
Change your Cooking Style to Cut Back on Meat
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | There’s nothing wrong with a meat-focused meal now and again, but food author Mark Bittman notes that Americans eat almost double their USDA guideline amounts every day. If you need to scale back on the tender stuff for any reason, he’s got some worthwhile advice on how to make it less a central focus of your diet: Remember that most traditional styles of cooking use meat as a condiment or a treat. This is true in American frontier cooking, where salt pork and bacon were used to season beans; in Italy, where a small piece of meat is served as a secondo (rarely more than a few ounces, even in restaurants); and around the world, where bits of meat are added to stir-fries and salads, as well as bean, rice and noodle dishes. In all of these cases, meat is seen as a treasure, not as something to be gobbled up as if it were air. More »
Organise
Remove Empty Directories Does What It Says
10:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free, open-source application Remove Empty Directories, aka RED, scans any folder you point it to for empty or partially empty folders and helps you remove them. With advanced options for protecting specific folders or detecting folders with just one file type—like an empty music folder that still has album artwork in it—RED is perfect for cleaning out your music library or a cluttered document tree. Just don’t go delete-crazy and lose something you need—though if you do, our guide to recovering deleted files with free software can help. Thanks Jan! More »
Fix
Add More Sites to Opera’s Speed Dial
8:00AM Kevin Purdy | If checking out Opera 9.5’s unique features and serious speed has made you a recent convert, the CyberNet blog has a tip on how to expand beyond the nine standard quick links in the browser’s Speed Dial feature. The trick requires just a few lines modified in a configuration file, and you’ll get a custom layout and number of Speed Dial items. Got any other Speed Dial hacks to share? Let’s hear about them in the comments. Helpful Tip: Add More Speed Dials in Opera 9.5 [CyberNet] More »
Work
Is the Solution to Tech Overload More Tech?
7:24AM Gina Trapani | Running a web site that pumps out almost 20 posts a day about how to be more productive, we’re already aware of the irony of technology that tries to fix the problems that technology presents. The New York Times gets hip to the Catch-22 in an article today on the firms and software applications out to stem the tide of information overload that this field has created: “There’s a competitive advantage of figuring out how to address this problem,” [IBM researcher John] Tang said. He said that there was “a certain amount of irony” in the fact that the solutions are coming from the very companies that built the digital systems in the first place. More »
Design
Pimp Your Digbsy Client
7:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | While we’ve covered how instant messaging can make you more productive, but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Freshly-launched beta Digbsy Themes lets users of the multi-platform instant messaging client Digsby customise their client to their hearts’ content. The MakeUseOf blog offers a handy tutorial on replacing both the themes and the emoticon packs for a fresh new interface. Digbsy Themes [via MakeUseOf] More »
Work
DIY Cardboard Box Solar Oven
6:00AM Adam Pash | Eco-friendly weblog The Daily Green details how to turn a cardboard box into a DIY solar oven for a little weekend fun in the sun. All you’ll need is the box, some construction paper, tin foil, plastic, and a few other items you’re likely to have around the house, and when you’re done you’ll have a full-fledged cardboard cooker. Unfortunately the post is a little light on photos, but the text is detailed enough to figure it out. If you like the idea of impressing friends and family by cooking with the sun but don’t love the cardboard box idea, a parabolic cooker might be more your speed. Hack a Cardboard Box into a DIY Solar Oven [The Daily Green] More »
Design
Bomomo Makes Abstract-ish Art Simple
5:00AM Kevin Purdy | Webapp Bomomo is a drawing application that’s slick enough to make random squiggles seem elegant, but also lets you fine-tune your design. Whether you’re looking for a change of desktop wallpaper, wrapping paper that’s really unique, or just an intriguing background, Bomomo’s results almost always look pretty decent. And while the colours are randomly generated, they tend to come in complementary waves. Bomomo is a free to sign up for and use. Bomomo [via MakeUseOf.com] More »
Fix
