Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Work
Iris Brings Desktop Browsing To Windows Mobile
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows Mobile only: The Iris Browser—built on the WebKit rendering engine, the basis for popular web browsers such as Safari—offers a more robust web browsing experience on mobile devices. Iris has support for advanced HTML and CSS, as well as multiple windows and tabbed browsing. Like previously reviewed Opera Mobile, Iris has support for full screen browsing with movement around the web page via zoom and tap functionality. Iris comes with a built in screen capture tool, a virtual mouse to mimic a desktop mouse for web sites that require it, support for devices with rotating screens, and a built in pop-up blocker. The Iris Browser preview release is a free download for Windows Mobile 5 and 6. Thanks, How-To Geek! The Iris Browser More »
Design
Resize Windows Desktop Icons with the Scroll Wheel
10:37PM Kevin Purdy | The Digital Inspiration blog points out a simple, handy way to change the size of your desktop icons beyond the three default sizes offered by right-clicking or by burrowing into your settings. Hold down the control key, left-click on the desktop, and then move your mouse’s scroll wheel to change the icon size. The trick definitely works in Vista. As Amit notes, you can un-check “Auto Arrange” for even more control. Make Your Desktop Icons Smaller or Larger with the Mouse Wheel [Digital Inspiration] More »
Fix
10:05PM Angus Kidman | USB drives are an essential backup tool for road warriors, but occasionally Windows Vista tricks you by not assigning them their usual customary drive letter. I regularly use SyncBack, a perennial Lifehacker reader favourite for backup and file syncing, and it doesn’t work if drive E: suddenly shows up as drive F:.Fortunately, you can remap drive assignments in Vista, though it’s a well-hidden option. Right-click on the Computer icon on your desktop or start menu, then click Manage (and go through all the User Account Control confirmation malarkey if you have it switched on). Expand Storage at the right, and select Disk Management. Right click and select Change Drive Letter and Paths, then select Change. Choose the letter you want and click OK. You may get an additional warning or two saying the drive letter is unavailable until you reboot, but press on regardless — I’ve found it nearly always works. If you do have multiple drives or devices plugged in, you might also need to reshuffle the existing mappings to make the one you need available. For a more permanent method of assigning a letter to your USB drive, check out this method for creating shortcuts.
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How to remap a drive letter in Vista
10:05PM Angus Kidman | USB drives are an essential backup tool for road warriors, but occasionally Windows Vista tricks you by not assigning them their usual customary drive letter. I regularly use SyncBack, a perennial Lifehacker reader favourite for backup and file syncing, and it doesn’t work if drive E: suddenly shows up as drive F:.Fortunately, you can remap drive assignments in Vista, though it’s a well-hidden option. Right-click on the Computer icon on your desktop or start menu, then click Manage (and go through all the User Account Control confirmation malarkey if you have it switched on). Expand Storage at the right, and select Disk Management. Right click and select Change Drive Letter and Paths, then select Change. Choose the letter you want and click OK. You may get an additional warning or two saying the drive letter is unavailable until you reboot, but press on regardless — I’ve found it nearly always works. If you do have multiple drives or devices plugged in, you might also need to reshuffle the existing mappings to make the one you need available. For a more permanent method of assigning a letter to your USB drive, check out this method for creating shortcuts.
More »
Communicate
akapost Hides Your Email Address with a Dummy Account
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Free email protection service akapost isn’t the only way to hide your email from spam bots and unknown correspondents, but it is one of the most hassle-free ways of doing it, for both mailer and respondent. Once you set up your account with akapost, you can use it as a simple redirection tool by posting it in forums or on your website (and then using the right filter for mail coming through it), or by writing directly to people you don’t quite trust with your address yet. Add .akapost.com to a message sent directly from your protected, registered address, and your recipient just sees your akapost address, while any replies still come to you. akapost protects one email address for free, while charging for additional or group addresses. Akapost [via gHacks] More »
Organise
8:55PM Angus Kidman | Dear Lifehacker, I want to learn more about using and enhancing the auto-complete feature in Outlook. My company doesn’t let me download free software for use on my office computer, but I am computer literate. Any hints? Thanks, Mike
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Dear Lifehacker: How can I manage Outlook’s auto-complete feature?
8:55PM Angus Kidman | Dear Lifehacker, I want to learn more about using and enhancing the auto-complete feature in Outlook. My company doesn’t let me download free software for use on my office computer, but I am computer literate. Any hints? Thanks, Mike
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Communicate
8:34PM Angus Kidman | Once you’ve become a committed Twitter user and are tweeting like a pro, it can be difficult to explain to sceptical people just why it is you use it, or even how. For those hard-to-persuade friends, the ‘How Do You Use Twitter?’ video — cut together by the Twitter team with real-life examples — is a good way of demonstrating how Twitter can be useful, as well as indulgent, and offering some examples of specific applications. I particularly like the description of Twitter as “like blogging for lazy people”. (I’m weighing up the pros and cons of a Lifehacker AU Twitter feed, so let me know your thoughts in the comments; in the meantime you can follow me at gusworldau if you’re curious).
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Video explains basic uses of Twitter to sceptics
8:34PM Angus Kidman | Once you’ve become a committed Twitter user and are tweeting like a pro, it can be difficult to explain to sceptical people just why it is you use it, or even how. For those hard-to-persuade friends, the ‘How Do You Use Twitter?’ video — cut together by the Twitter team with real-life examples — is a good way of demonstrating how Twitter can be useful, as well as indulgent, and offering some examples of specific applications. I particularly like the description of Twitter as “like blogging for lazy people”. (I’m weighing up the pros and cons of a Lifehacker AU Twitter feed, so let me know your thoughts in the comments; in the meantime you can follow me at gusworldau if you’re curious).
More »
Organise
Use Excel to build a perpetual calendar
8:08PM Angus Kidman | Writer Mark Gillis steps through how to use Excel to build a perpetual calendar to give the dates for any year in a compact, easy-to-read format . Although Excel includes lots of calendar templates, having a complete perpetual calendar can be useful for long-term planning or historical research (as well as giving you some useful practice with Excel’s sometimes fiddly method of handling date calculations and how to logically work out and format the first day of each month).How to Create a Perpetual Yearly Calendar in Excel [Microsoft Excel Team Blog] More »
Organise
5:52PM Angus Kidman | Movie editor Walter Murch (Cold Mountain, Jarhead, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being) discusses how he makes use of technology to organise the editing process in a new interview on the Filemaker site (requires Quicktime). Editing on Avid is pretty much par for the course these days, but Murch makes the point that keeping track of what shots you have to work with was a useful task for computers even in the non-digital-editing era. Despite the frequent plugs for Filemaker, it’s a good general reminder that creativity doesn’t happen in a productivity vacuum: being organised (and using the appropriate tools) is key to getting the best results.
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Oscar winner Walter Murch on why you need to get organised
5:52PM Angus Kidman | Movie editor Walter Murch (Cold Mountain, Jarhead, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being) discusses how he makes use of technology to organise the editing process in a new interview on the Filemaker site (requires Quicktime). Editing on Avid is pretty much par for the course these days, but Murch makes the point that keeping track of what shots you have to work with was a useful task for computers even in the non-digital-editing era. Despite the frequent plugs for Filemaker, it’s a good general reminder that creativity doesn’t happen in a productivity vacuum: being organised (and using the appropriate tools) is key to getting the best results.
More »
Communicate
4:39PM Angus Kidman | Want to know whenever Australia’s won a medal at the Beijing Olympics, but don’t have access to a TV — or know that it’ll mean 50 minutes of viewing for every 10 minutes of productivity? Follow user @AussieOlympics for brief updates whenever something notable happens at the Games.
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Get up-to-date Aussie Olympic news on Twitter
4:39PM Angus Kidman | Want to know whenever Australia’s won a medal at the Beijing Olympics, but don’t have access to a TV — or know that it’ll mean 50 minutes of viewing for every 10 minutes of productivity? Follow user @AussieOlympics for brief updates whenever something notable happens at the Games.
More »
Communicate
3:56PM Angus Kidman | I’ve always been pretty suspicious of the networks labelled ‘Free Public Wifi’ that seem to spring up whenever I open my notebook in airports, and mildly curious as to why they’re so prolific. Sure, I’ve occasionally tried one when there’s no other visible network and I’m keen for connectivity, and it turns out that’s the whole problem, as Lisa Phifer at TechTarget explains:
After you deplane at the next city and open your laptop, your Wi-Fi card tries to automatically reconnect to “Free Public Wi-Fi.” Others sitting around you see this SSID being advertised by your laptop, and try to connect to you. This cycle repeats itself, spreading “Free Public WiFi” SSID from traveler to traveler, city to city.
While it’s hard to break the habit of wi-fi slurping, it’s probably sensible to give it up, or at least follow Phifer’s suggestions for not automatically connecting to unknown or public networks.Beware ‘Free Public WiFi’ when searching for a net connection [Tech Target]
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Why Free Public WiFi is everywhere, but shouldn’t be trusted
3:56PM Angus Kidman | I’ve always been pretty suspicious of the networks labelled ‘Free Public Wifi’ that seem to spring up whenever I open my notebook in airports, and mildly curious as to why they’re so prolific. Sure, I’ve occasionally tried one when there’s no other visible network and I’m keen for connectivity, and it turns out that’s the whole problem, as Lisa Phifer at TechTarget explains:
After you deplane at the next city and open your laptop, your Wi-Fi card tries to automatically reconnect to “Free Public Wi-Fi.” Others sitting around you see this SSID being advertised by your laptop, and try to connect to you. This cycle repeats itself, spreading “Free Public WiFi” SSID from traveler to traveler, city to city.
While it’s hard to break the habit of wi-fi slurping, it’s probably sensible to give it up, or at least follow Phifer’s suggestions for not automatically connecting to unknown or public networks.Beware ‘Free Public WiFi’ when searching for a net connection [Tech Target]
More » 