Saturday, August 9, 2008
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This Week’s Best Posts
10:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | This week’s most popular posts include: Top 10 computer alternatives to watching the Olympics “if (like me) major sporting events just aren’t that interesting (or your concerns about China’s human rights record are rising to the fore), here’s 10 cool and useful things to do with your PC while everyone else is obsessing over the medal count.” Google Street View now live in Australia“Street View, Google’s useful/controversial feature with drive-by photography of streets in major cities, is now live in Australia after several months of (presumably) tedious filming.” Forget the iPhone—The iPod Touch is Good Enough“Back in June 2007, I couldn’t convince my wife that checking my email in grocery lines was worth $1,320—the cost of an original iPhone and one year of the cheapest plan.” How Dr. Horrible’s Felicia Day Gets Things Done“Whether she’s appearing on a prime time TV show, gracing the silver screen, or writing, producing, and starring in her own hit web series, there’s no shortage of things to keep actress and gamer Felicia Day busy.” Microsoft’s Advice on How to Speed Up Vista“If your Vista PC isn’t as speedy as you’d like, straight from the horse’s mouth comes a 14-page PDF document on Vista Performance and Tuning.” Five Best To-Do List Managers“If all the methodology of the best GTD applications loses you in the productivity shuffle, there’s nothing like a classic, simple to-do list to keep you on track.” Philipp Lenssen’s Top Google Apps Tips“Author of the new O’Reilly book, Google Apps Hacks, Lenssen takes some time out of his busy schedule today to share some of his best tips for using Google Apps from Gmail to web search to Google Docs.” More »
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Set Up Mozilla Weave on Your Own Server
9:00AM Adam Pash | Blogger Marios Tziortzis details how to set up previously mentioned Mozilla Weave—Mozilla’s Firefox-syncing tool—on your personal web server. Setting up Weave with your own server means you don’t have to rely on Mozilla’s servers, and you can keep your private data, which includes passwords, bookmarks, cookies, and browsing history, on your own web space. It’s not a terribly difficult process, so if rolling your own Mozilla Weave server appeals to you, it’s worth a go. Setting up Mozilla Weave on your Server [Marios Tziortzis] More »
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ZSoft Uninstaller Removes Crapware from Your PC
8:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free application ZSoft Uninstaller is a beefed up repalcement for the default Windows Add or Remove Programs dialog. ZSoft isn’t quite as good as previously mentioned Revo Uninstaller (one of our readers’ favourite Windows maintenance tools), but it has its charms. Its filtering feature, which filters installed programs by crapware or dead links, makes ZSoft worth a download—if nothing else for the joy of running the crapware filter against your installed apps. Aside from that, ZSoft Uninstaller provides a more organized look at your installed apps and more comprehensive uninstalls than the Windows default. ZSoft Uninstaller is freeware, Windows only. ZSofr Uninstaller [via Download Squad] More »
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Speed Launch Opens Applications, Documents and More
6:55AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: New kid on the app launcher block Speed Launch brings a dose of novelty and a whole lot of functionality to the scene. Speed Launch, from Microsoft Office Labs, puts a small archery style bull’s-eye in the lower right hand corner of your primary monitor. You can drag documents, programs, and URLs onto the target to create a quick launch keyword. For example, drag the executable for Adobe Photoshop to pull up a dialog where you can assign a keyword such as “ps” or “shop” to the program. Similarly, if you have a document you edit frequently like a todo.txt or a spreadsheet, Speed Launch can assign keywords to them such as “todo” or “accounting.” Hit the Win+C keyboard combination to pull up the launch menu you see in the screenshot above, enter a keyword to launch the application, document, or bookmark. One of Speed Launch’s strong points is the ability to chain together items in a keyword for multiple launches, too. More »
Design
Flump Exports Flickr Photos to Your Desktop
6:00AM Adam Pash | Windows/Mac/Linux (Adobe AIR): Free Adobe AIR application Flump downloads all the photos from a user-specified Flickr account to your hard drive. It’s a simple one-use application: You provide it with a Flickr ID or username, tell it where to save the photos, and click Start Flump. We’ve highlighted similar tools before, namely FlickrDown and Flickr AutoDownloadr, but Flump is the only cross-platform offering, and it’s also the most no-nonsense app of the bunch—perfect for backing up all your Flickr pics on a new computer. Flump is free, works wherever Adobe AIR does. Flump [Google Code via Digital Inspiration] More »
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Increase Your Privacy with $16 DIY Window Frosting
2:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows present a tricky dilemma when it comes to balancing the need for privacy with the desire to have light and fresh air entering your home. Most window treatments are both costly and a compromise between the neighbours peeking in while you’re getting dressed in the morning and natural light. Since I was in no way inclined towards investing lots of time and money into making it possible to leave my bedroom windows open and still have all the privacy I needed, I did things the Lifehacker way by coming up with a solution that was cheap and quick to implement. More »
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Volumizer Puts Your Mac Drives on the Dock
1:59AM Gina Trapani | Mac only: When you want to keep your Desktop clear but still get easy access to disks and network drives, you want Volumizer. This simple utility adds your Mac’s hard drive and other drives—disk images or external drives—to the Dock and/or your menubar. That way if you want to hide the Hard Drive icon from the Desktop, you can still get to your disks in one click. Volumizer is a free download for Mac only. Thanks, AlaskaJack! Volumizer [via Ars Technica] More »
Communicate
Google Translate Now iPhone-Friendly
1:22AM Gina Trapani | The Google service that’s super handy when you’re travelling internationally (or just headed to multi-lingual city), Google Translate, is now available for the iPhone. Just hit up translate.google.com in mobile Safari; check the screenshot to see it in action. More »
Design
Free Windows Vista Themes
12:30AM Gina Trapani | The Life Rocks! blog rounds up seven gorgeous Windows Vista themes which are free to download. (At first glance I’m smitten by Maxclear, pictured. You?)
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