CareerBuilder recently surveyed 3,100 hiring managers and found that nearly half of them had caught prospective employees in a definitive lie during the review process. More helpful to the honest job-seekers out there, though, are the terms those managers are scanning for in resumes. Here’s four of the top nine from CareerBuilder: problem-solving and decision-making skills (50 percent) oral and written communications (44 percent) customer service or retention (34 percent) performance and productivity improvement (32 percent)
Just because your email account doesn’t offer IMAP access doesn’t mean you have to put up with reading and deleting the same messages ad nauseum. Web how-to site Webmonkey offers a detailed rundown on setting up the free Dovecot server on your system to pull in any kind of mail and dish it out in that synced, folder-sorted, always-accessible IMAP way. This guide is specific to Ubuntu and Debian-based systems, but Dovecot is available for lots of open-source platforms. If running your own box seems like a bit of overkill, you can always set up Gmail with IMAP as a go-between.
Set Up a Debian or Ubuntu Machine as a Maildrop [Webmonkey]When I recently posted a note about how to switch off Facebook’s new design if you didn’t like it, one reader commented that it would probably only be a matter of time before the option to switch was taken away. That hasn’t quite happened yet, but Facebook has gotten more aggressive in pushing the new look. When I logged into Facebook after a reboot this afternoon, I was presented yet again with the (to my mind inferior) redesigned site. Clicking on the ‘Back to the old Facebook’ button produced the above warning. Having altered neither profile tabs or bookmarks, I clicked ‘Okay’, but I can’t help wondering if choosing the old design will soon become a requirement every time you log in. Let’s hope not! More »
Although modern webmail clients such as Gmail offer generous file allocations, there are still limits to the size of attachments you should send when using email. A posting at the Outlook Team Blog provides a useful overview of the reasons why sending big files is a bad idea (in a nutshell: you’ll probably ruin your own inbox or someone else’s, and it’s quite likely the file will never get through). It also offers a bunch of suggestions on how to get around the problem which, while mildly MS-centric, do essentially boil down to a single proposition: “Put your files in a shared location and then send a link.” My own approach to this problem has generally been to just FTP files to my own site, but there are plenty of other ways to crack this particular egg (many of which are probably cheaper and more secure). What’s your favourite way of pushing a multi-megabyte file to your friends or co-workers? Let us know in the comments. How To Share Large Files Without Attaching Them[Microsoft Outlook Team Blog]
Just weeks after changing the way it charges for Next G data access on mobile phones, Telstra has updated its pricing for wireless broadband services for PCs. The somewhat confusing set of previous plans (which included variants based on access speed, download limits and time spent online) have been replaced with four options: 400MB a month for $39.95, 1GB a month for $59.95, 3GB a month for $89.95, and 10GB a month for $129.95. Excess data is charged at $0.25 a megabyte. While the prices (which take effect from August 24) are an improvement, they’re still rather more expensive than any other rival plans — the 1GB offering is more than twice the cost of some similar offerings. But as ever, with wireless broadband, service availability is vital, so if Next G’s the only game in your town, this should provide a little relief to the hip pocket nerve. (And we still wish there was a way to get Next G working on Linux machines, particularly the Eee PC.) More »
The Internet may be a global phenomenon, but there’s still plenty of online stores that flat-out refuse to sell anything to people outside their own country. If you’ve been lusting after some apparently-impossible-to-acquire goods Stateside, Price USA might offer a solution. Send in your order and Price USA will have it shipped via a US agent to any address in Australia. Fees for the service are 5% of the order value (with a minimum of $10) plus shipping costs. Previously-mentioned WorldPurchases offer a similar service. [Price USA]
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a warning this week to providers of ringtones, games, wallpapers and other “premium” mobile content, noting that “attempts to distract and confuse so that consumers cannot make informed choices are not acceptable”. At the same time, it reminded consumers not to dive into these deals without careful consideration:
Television advertisements with small print disclosure and busy or distracting images and magazine advertisements featuring tiny print and confusing clutter mean that many consumers would not appreciate the significant ongoing costs they could incur by simply texting in to the number on the screen or in print.
While this may seem obvious advice, it’s worth reinforcing in an era when people will rush out to buy the latest fashionable phone and its accessories (though arguably one advantage of the iPhone is that it doesn’t work with most of these providers). If you want to make your own ringtones instead, here’s how to get it done for Windows and Mac users. More »
Social networking and recommendation site Docoloco takes one-sentence user comments on shops, cafes and other points of interest, and melds them together to provide information on what’s worth checking out in your local community. You can browse for all the recommended locations in a given area, search via tags for a particular category (like “pizza” or “haircuts”), and find where they are via integrated Google Maps. The site is currently focused on Australian recommendations (with a bias towards Melbourne, where it was created), but the developers plan to add other countries in the future. Docoloco has also recently rolled out an iPhone-specific version of the site. [Docoloco]
Windows only: Free application Quick Media Converter converts virtually any audio or video file from one format to another. Like previously mentioned WinFF (and several other media conversion tools), Quick Media Converter is really just a graphical front end for the powerful command line tool, FFmpeg. But where FFmpeg takes some command line chops to use, Quick Media Converter couldn’t be more simple. Just drag and drop a file you want to convert into the app, pick an output format, and let QMC and FFmpeg take care of the rest. It supports everything from DivX and Xvid to Xbox and iPhone output, with icons that make it dead simple to pick the right type. Quick Media Converter is freeware, Windows only.
Quick Media Converter [via Download Squad]One consequence of Vodafone’s recent launch of a USB 3G broadband stick modem that I didn’t immediately realise was that it means that its older cabled USB modem is being taken off the market. Indeed, Vodafone’s own site says that the device was no longer available as of August 11, but you might still be able to track down an older model if you visit a Vodafone store. Why does this matter? For Windows or Mac users, not having the cable is a definite advantage. However, if you want to add mobile broadband to the Eee PC, the older E220 model is a better choice, because you can make it work out of the box, as I’ve detailed before on Lifehacker. Getting the E169 to work is trickier, because its dual-mode function confuses the standard Xandros install. Blogger Liam Green-Hughes has detailed one approach to solving this problem, but it’s a tad fiddly. Of course, Vodafone isn’t the only choice in town — Optus and 3 both offer 3G packages using the U220, although they’re also increasingly promoting the stick-only option. Each has price complications you need to be aware of too: Optus’ new prepaid option has a hefty 10MB minimum download, and 3 users need to be careful about roaming charges, though that may change in the near future. What’s your preferred approach to keeping your Eee PC connected? Let’s hear about it in the comments. [Thanks Alex and Kaydo!] More »
