Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Work
Look@Lan Monitors Your Network
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: User-friendly network monitoring utility Look@Lan quickly displays information about your local network such as the percentage of machines online and the operating systems installed on them. With automatic network configuration detection and a quick start wizard, you can be up and running seconds after installing the program. Look@Lan has audio notification of changes to the network and you can configure it to send email notifications about changes as well. Look@Lan can limit scan ranges based on IP address, network adaptor, or port types; it comes with ping, traceroute, and a tree-based network viewer built in. Here’s what some of Look@Lan’s graphs look like. More »
Fix
Focus Rectangle Remover Eliminates Windows’ Dotted Rectangles
11:07PM Kevin Purdy | Sometimes, while clicking around Windows, you’ll notice that your system leaves behind a “focus rectangle”—a dotted outline of whatever you had last selected—that is, of course, minor, but still kind of ugly-looking. The Focus Rectangle Remover, a small DLL file you place in the Windows directory and register with a single command, gets rid of that annoying/distracting outline once and for all. You’ll still see selected items highlighted, but their remnants won’t hang around your desktop or menu bars and slowly drive your peripheral senses bonkers. Focus Rectangle Remover is a free download for Windows XP and Vista; it might make a great addition to your next slipstreamed installation CD. Focus Rectangle Remover [NeoWin via The How-To Geek] More »
Organise
Chandler 1.0 is a Serious, but Rough, To-Do Manager
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Chandler, an open-source, cross-platform scheduling app, was conceived back in 2002 as a potential Outlook-killer—a free organiser that would process all your email, calendar appointments and tasks into one smooth workflow, no matter what format or system they were on. Over its long and storied development, intriguingly chronicled in the book Dreaming in Code, Chandler morphed into a meekly-dubbed “Note-to-Self Organiser.” There’s a lot of neat ideas in Chandler, implemented in rough ways, and if you’re a serious to-do hound, it just might find a place somewhere in your work flow. To find out, let’s check out some screenshots of this long-awaited Personal Information Manager. More »
Work
8:24PM Angus Kidman | With an estimated personal fortune of $US17 billion or so, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell probably doesn’t need to do a lot of personal budget balancing. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t recognise the fiscal benefits of getting organised, as he emphasised while speaking at a Dell launch in India this week:
When companies or economies are under cost pressure, one of the things that tends to happen is that people look for ways to become more productive.
Dell’s immediate emphasis in this area was on PCs that can boot faster and run more efficiently, which is certainly something I can relate to (rebooting my soon-to-get-the-toss current notebook is a 10-minute-plus process). But there’s lots of ways you can improve your PC productivity to save money (or earn more of it). What tactics have worked for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
More »
Michael Dell on why tight times help your productivity
8:24PM Angus Kidman | With an estimated personal fortune of $US17 billion or so, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell probably doesn’t need to do a lot of personal budget balancing. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t recognise the fiscal benefits of getting organised, as he emphasised while speaking at a Dell launch in India this week:
When companies or economies are under cost pressure, one of the things that tends to happen is that people look for ways to become more productive.
Dell’s immediate emphasis in this area was on PCs that can boot faster and run more efficiently, which is certainly something I can relate to (rebooting my soon-to-get-the-toss current notebook is a 10-minute-plus process). But there’s lots of ways you can improve your PC productivity to save money (or earn more of it). What tactics have worked for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
More »
Communicate
3:32PM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
More »
BigPond ditches DRM for MP3 format
3:32PM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
More »
Organise
Suna extends traffic coverage to Sydney and Brisbane
3:07PM Angus Kidman | Real-time traffic information service Suna, already operational in Melbourne, has extended its coverage to Brisbane and Sydney. Combining traffic-light information with radio and motorway authority reports, real-time traffic updates can help re-route you when there’s an unexpected traffic jam (and make your GPS useful in your home town rather than something you curse for offering less-than-optimum directions). Suna requires a GPS which supports it (pricing varies depending on which model you buy). [Suna Traffic Channel] More »
Organise
2:51PM Angus Kidman | It’s easy to gain the impression that Google is all-knowing, but in fact there are still significant gaps in its coverage. Netizens looking to find more information on conflict-ridden Georgia soon discovered, for instance, that Google Maps information on the country is pretty much non-existent. As Google Maps product manager Dave Barth explains on the Official Google Blog:
More »
Google expands maps coverage to fill in blanks
2:51PM Angus Kidman | It’s easy to gain the impression that Google is all-knowing, but in fact there are still significant gaps in its coverage. Netizens looking to find more information on conflict-ridden Georgia soon discovered, for instance, that Google Maps information on the country is pretty much non-existent. As Google Maps product manager Dave Barth explains on the Official Google Blog:
More »
Work
EyeDefender Combats Eyestrain, Repetitive Stress Injury
9:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free application EyeDefender regularly reminds you to take breaks and walks you through eye exercises to help you avoid headaches and blurred vision of the dreaded computer vision syndrome. EyeDefender is a simple program, allowing you to set breaks whenever you need them. If RSI is more of a problem for you than eyestrain, you may prefer previously mentioned WorkRave. EyeDefender is free for private, non-commercial use, Windows only. EyeDefender [via Download Squad] More »
Organise
Fire Eagle Shares Your Location Across Applications
8:36AM Gina Trapani | Yahoo officially launches Fire Eagle, a web service that stores your current physical location in the world and syncs it with applications you set up on your own terms. Sign up for Fire Eagle, then add applications that use your location information—like BriteKite, Dopplr, and MovableType. Fire Eagle acts as the go-between, storing your location, and sharing it with apps according to rules you set up. Fire Eagle allows you to share your locations with other sites and services safely through a secure server – you are always in control. You can decide to share your location with any site that can use it, and even choose how much detail to give that application (exact point, neighbourhood, city, state, country). There are many applications that can use your Fire Eagle location! For example, you can use Fire Eagle to update your location on your Facebook profile; or embed a badge on your blog or MySpace that shows roughly where you are. More »
Organise
