Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Fix
OpenDNS Offers DNS Vulnerability Protection
11:30PM Gina Trapani | Tech site Webmonkey advises users not sure whether or not their DNS servers are patched against a recently discovered vulnerability to switch to the excellent, free DNS service, OpenDNS. Test your DNS server for the vulnerability here and get Webmonkey’s instructions for setting up OpenDNS . (We love OpenDNS so much it was one of our best apps of 2006.) More »
Work
11:19PM Angus Kidman | Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie might be a fan of “white space” time, but for those of us with less money and flexibility, getting regular thinking time on a daily basis may be more realistic. Alan Connor at BBC News Magazine offers five tips on how to make more thinking time in your life. Some are obvious (take a proper lunch break and don’t eat “al desko”, a phrase we hope never to hear again), others focus on getting away from technology:
You may have let a Japanese doctor “train your brain” in a computer game and then filled your brain with the world’s knowledge courtesy of Wikipedia – but proper thinking may require you to put these to one side.
How do you clear thinking time in your life? Let us all know in the comments.No time to think? [BBC News]
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Five ways to get more thinking time
11:19PM Angus Kidman | Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie might be a fan of “white space” time, but for those of us with less money and flexibility, getting regular thinking time on a daily basis may be more realistic. Alan Connor at BBC News Magazine offers five tips on how to make more thinking time in your life. Some are obvious (take a proper lunch break and don’t eat “al desko”, a phrase we hope never to hear again), others focus on getting away from technology:
You may have let a Japanese doctor “train your brain” in a computer game and then filled your brain with the world’s knowledge courtesy of Wikipedia – but proper thinking may require you to put these to one side.
How do you clear thinking time in your life? Let us all know in the comments.No time to think? [BBC News]
More »
Work
A Four-Question Business Plan to Jump-Start Your Inner Entrepreneur
11:08PM Kevin Purdy | The Wise Bread blog suggests that when most of us think “business plan,” we’re thinking of a 50-page, multi-charted, supremely detailed document that has every branch and angle thought out thoroughly. That’s also why some of us never end up launching on worthy business ideas. The basics of any plan, though, can be answered in four questions: What is your product or service? Who are your customers? When will things get done? When are bills due and when do you get paid? More »
Communicate
10:54PM Angus Kidman | A common complaint about Twitter (when it’s actually up) is that follower management and tracking can be tricky. While stopping short of being a full-blown client, Twitter100 makes it easier to get an overview of who’s watching your tweets and what they’re up to, by presenting the 100 most recent tweets from your followers. (Unlike most Twitter apps, you also don’t need to supply a password, though that also means no reply options.) The site is supported by advertising, but this is embedded in a pretty unobtrusive way. For serious Twitterers, it’s a useful option that’s much quicker to read than the standard site. (Thanks Simon!) [Twitter100]
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Twitter100 helps track Twitter followers
10:54PM Angus Kidman | A common complaint about Twitter (when it’s actually up) is that follower management and tracking can be tricky. While stopping short of being a full-blown client, Twitter100 makes it easier to get an overview of who’s watching your tweets and what they’re up to, by presenting the 100 most recent tweets from your followers. (Unlike most Twitter apps, you also don’t need to supply a password, though that also means no reply options.) The site is supported by advertising, but this is embedded in a pretty unobtrusive way. For serious Twitterers, it’s a useful option that’s much quicker to read than the standard site. (Thanks Simon!) [Twitter100]
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Communicate
10:43PM Angus Kidman | We’ll hold off on analysing the prices until the official announcement, but Nick over at Gizmodo has confirmed that Virgin will be selling the iPhone, probably this week, and probably at a price somewhat lower than Optus (which supplied Virgin’s network). At the risk of saying “I told you so”, both this development and Optus’ recent Timeless plans confirm Lifehacker’s long-held view that buying an iPhone as soon as it got released was likely to lead to a less than optimal deal. (And that’s without considering the battery and MobileMe issues.) More »
Virgin getting added to iPhone choice list
10:43PM Angus Kidman | We’ll hold off on analysing the prices until the official announcement, but Nick over at Gizmodo has confirmed that Virgin will be selling the iPhone, probably this week, and probably at a price somewhat lower than Optus (which supplied Virgin’s network). At the risk of saying “I told you so”, both this development and Optus’ recent Timeless plans confirm Lifehacker’s long-held view that buying an iPhone as soon as it got released was likely to lead to a less than optimal deal. (And that’s without considering the battery and MobileMe issues.) More »
Organise
Roll Your Own System Administration Panel
10:34PM Kevin Purdy | If you’re regularly digging into Windows’ Control Panel and Administrative Tools to tinker with your system, or a friends’, the How-To Geek has quite the time-saving tip for you. Both Windows XP and Vista have a built-in tool that lets you cherry-pick the tools you regularly use—disk management, user/group control, services, and the like—and pack them all into a custom panel. You can place a shortcut to this panel anywhere you’d like, and you can even add in links to helpful web pages or folder locations. Pretty handy stuff for professional sysadmins, or those folks regularly putting on their fix-it cap. Create a Custom System Administration Panel in Windows XP or Vista [The How-To Geek] More »
Fix
Turn Off Crash Reports to Speed Up iPhone Sync
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Any iPhone or iPod touch running the 2.0 firmware can use a little speed boost when it comes to syncing, and some intrepid tweakers have found at least one no-pain way to boost syncing time, at least a little bit. To disable iTunes taking the time to send error or crash reports to Apple every sync, turn off automatic syncing (if enabled) on your phone/iPod, right-click on the unit in iTunes, and click “Reset Warnings.” The next time you sync, your system will ask if you want to send the reports. Un-check the “Do not ask me again” option, hit “Don’t Send,” and you’re good to go. It’s not going to eliminate the longer lags for application syncing, but it might help move things along. (Screenshot via Gear Diary) Speed up iTunes sync of your iPhone or Touch by only selectively sending diagnostic data to Apple [Gear Diary via Boy Genius Report] More »
Communicate
11:47AM Angus Kidman | 3 has upped the capacity on its wireless broadband plans, adding two new options and increasing download limits on its X Series plans. New to the 3 arsenal are plans offering 6GB of data for $39 a month or 7GB of data for $49 a month, with a free USB modem in return for a 24-month signup. Capacity on X Series plans (designed for on-phone use with the option of using your 3G handset as a modem for your PC) have also increased, with the $20 plan now offering 1GB, the $30 2GB and the $40 3GB.While that makes all the plans comparatively better value than their rivals (Vodafone’s equivalent $39 plan offers 5GB), the usual 3 caveat remains: if you’re going to make use of the service outside 3’s capital city coverage areas, you’ll get slugged with an obscene $1.65 per megabyte roaming charge. The 24-month lock-in might also be a concern, though this applies to most equivalent offers. If you are in a good 3 reception area, this is a potentially tempting offer, and don’t forget you can use it on an Eee PC for a highly portable solution. [3]
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3 increases allowances on wireless broadband plans
11:47AM Angus Kidman | 3 has upped the capacity on its wireless broadband plans, adding two new options and increasing download limits on its X Series plans. New to the 3 arsenal are plans offering 6GB of data for $39 a month or 7GB of data for $49 a month, with a free USB modem in return for a 24-month signup. Capacity on X Series plans (designed for on-phone use with the option of using your 3G handset as a modem for your PC) have also increased, with the $20 plan now offering 1GB, the $30 2GB and the $40 3GB.While that makes all the plans comparatively better value than their rivals (Vodafone’s equivalent $39 plan offers 5GB), the usual 3 caveat remains: if you’re going to make use of the service outside 3’s capital city coverage areas, you’ll get slugged with an obscene $1.65 per megabyte roaming charge. The 24-month lock-in might also be a concern, though this applies to most equivalent offers. If you are in a good 3 reception area, this is a potentially tempting offer, and don’t forget you can use it on an Eee PC for a highly portable solution. [3]
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Organise
Snarl Displays Growl-Like Universal Notifications
9:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free application Snarl is a universal notification system for Windows inspired by the popular Mac OS X notifier Growl. We mentioned Snarl once before, but the young project has improved a lot since then, with extensions supporting Firefox, Pidgin, Outlook, Sunbird, and more. Out of the box Snarl has built-in support for battery warnings, system events, and timer and clock support (like hourly reminders)—along with several attractive themes. It needs support for a wider range of apps if it’s ever going to do everything Growl does, but it’s got a good start. Snarl is free and open source, Windows only. Thanks Eric! Snarl More »
Design
