Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Fix
Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal With A Colander
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Parabolic surfaces are perfect for collecting errant wireless signals and focusing them, and the collander in your kitchen cabinet is a parabola waiting to do something other than hold pasta. Instructables user Dan Folkes describes how to turn a $10 Asian cooking strainer and an equally cheap USB Wi-Fi dongle into a signal-boosting dish. Dan boost his signal enough to detect an additional 20 Wi-Fi hotspots using NetStumbler to sniff them out. Wi-Fi Signal Strainer (WokFi) Long Distance [Instructables] More »
Work
JDVoiceMail Creates Ultra-Compressed Recordings For Email
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Free record-and-compress utility JDVoiceMail might make you think twice about taking the time to send your parents a voice message, or make it easier to explain something in your own voice to a co-worker. Set JDVoiceMail to a high-compression codec like TrueSpeech, GSM, or MP3, and hit the red button to start recording. You’ll see on-screen just how much time and space you’re using. Set up email access, and your files get auto-attached to an email with its subject already set. You can also use JDVoiceMail to simply save a small voice file for your web site or other uses. JDVoiceMail is a free download for Windows systems only. JDVoiceMail [via Online Tech Tips] More »
Work
Create An Encrypted Private Directory In Ubuntu
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Ubuntu 8.10, the release of the popular Linux distribution due out Oct. 30 (and code-named Intrepid Ibex), will give every user an encrypted private directory by default, one that mounts with you at login and protects your data from any command prompt trickery. In the meantime, the Tombuntu blog explains how to set up an encrypted folder in current versions of Ubuntu, using the same eCryptfs tools as 8.10. The tutorial requires a bit of terminal work, but nothing too complicated, and by the end you’ll have simple shortcuts for mounting and unmounting your private drive (with a password, of course). Got a better or easier solution for simple, single-folder encryption in Linux? Tell us in the comments. Create an Encrypted Private Directory with eCryptfs [Tombuntu] More »
Fix
Lightning/Sunbird 0.9 Fixes Hundreds Of Bugs, Improves Calendar Views
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Lightning and Sunbird, Mozilla’s calendar and task-management apps, have upgraded to 0.9 releases that fix hundreds of bugs and improve functionality. Along with general fixes to stability and memory consumption, the calendar views in both the stand-alone Sunbird and Thunderbird add-on Lightning have overhauled, and events that span multiple days now actually look like they do so. This is the last release Lightning will see as an add-on, as it’s being integrated into Thunderbird 3, so Thunderbird 2 users should definitely make the upgrade. Sunbird and Lightning are free downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems; Google Calendar users, the essential Provider extension still works with this release. Lightning | Sunbird [Mozilla via Mozilla Links] More »
Organise
Find Out Where A Username Is Already Registered
9:00PM Gina Trapani | When you think up that perfect new handle for storming social networks and other registration-only sites across the web, run it through UserNameCheck.com first. This webapp’s purpose is simple: to tell you whether or not that name is already in use at a pretty impressive list of sites, from Delicious and Digg to eBay and Xbox Live. The developer explains: This site is a quick and dirty solution to a question that I often lay awake at night worrying about. Do I have my username registered across every site that I should? What if the next internet humiliation meme just happens to share the username I’ve been using for years, and suddenly people are emailing me asking “hey, is this you ???”. The site is simple. I have a stack of web app urls, the application pings the site using the username you want to check, if it returns a “no user name” error we return that. The list of checks can take some time, so grab a cup of coffee or browse the news in another tab while UserNameCheck does its thing. Where is Your Username registered [via Webware] More »
Organise
5:34PM Angus Kidman | One of the main reasons Qantas spruced up its Frequent Flyer scheme earlier this year was to prepare for a possible share market float of that business as a separate concern. Today, the airline confirmed that those float plans have been put off until at least next year. I’m rarely fussed about stock market developments, but as a frequent traveller I reckon that’s a good thing — having separate private ownership was hardly going to increase the likelihood of getting decent flight bargains through the program. Check out our guide to how to make the most of the new scheme to ensure you’re getting maximum value for your points. More »
Qantas Frequent Flyer Float Delay Good News For Travellers
5:34PM Angus Kidman | One of the main reasons Qantas spruced up its Frequent Flyer scheme earlier this year was to prepare for a possible share market float of that business as a separate concern. Today, the airline confirmed that those float plans have been put off until at least next year. I’m rarely fussed about stock market developments, but as a frequent traveller I reckon that’s a good thing — having separate private ownership was hardly going to increase the likelihood of getting decent flight bargains through the program. Check out our guide to how to make the most of the new scheme to ensure you’re getting maximum value for your points. More »
Communicate
4:54PM Angus Kidman | 3 today announced that when it next updates its prepaid capped phone plans, they will include not only the usual fixed amount of voice calls and texts, but also an Internet browsing component. That makes it, in my estimation, the first Australian telco to make browsing on a regular mobile part of its standard set of consumer prepaid cap plans. Several iPhone plans have included a built-in download cap, but not all, and it’s rarely a feature on most other mobile plans, with data access being sold either casually or in blocks. The 3 plans aren’t uber-generous — the entry $29 plan includes 150MB of browsing, the top-level $99 plan includes 2GB — but it at least suggests that mobile browsing may become more common for non-iPhone users, unlike the present reality.
Strangely, while the new 3 caps go on sale September 28 (hence no full link yet), no date for when the Internet browsing component will become available has been announced. A spokesperson confirmed they won’t be included initially but will be added “late this year”, so if that sounds like a tempting offer, you might as well hang onto your current phone and wait until it’s a concrete reality.
[Three]
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3 To Add Internet Downloads To Prepaid Caps
4:54PM Angus Kidman | 3 today announced that when it next updates its prepaid capped phone plans, they will include not only the usual fixed amount of voice calls and texts, but also an Internet browsing component. That makes it, in my estimation, the first Australian telco to make browsing on a regular mobile part of its standard set of consumer prepaid cap plans. Several iPhone plans have included a built-in download cap, but not all, and it’s rarely a feature on most other mobile plans, with data access being sold either casually or in blocks. The 3 plans aren’t uber-generous — the entry $29 plan includes 150MB of browsing, the top-level $99 plan includes 2GB — but it at least suggests that mobile browsing may become more common for non-iPhone users, unlike the present reality.
Strangely, while the new 3 caps go on sale September 28 (hence no full link yet), no date for when the Internet browsing component will become available has been announced. A spokesperson confirmed they won’t be included initially but will be added “late this year”, so if that sounds like a tempting offer, you might as well hang onto your current phone and wait until it’s a concrete reality.
[Three]
More »
Work
4:17PM Angus Kidman | It’s one thing to come up with a revolutionary idea that could change the world, but it’s another thing to protect it so that it doesn’t get ripped off by the unscrupulous. The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia is offering free half-hour consultations to inventive types to help them understand the different legal options (such as patenting and trademarking) available to protect an idea. Even if you’ve got a freeware/creative commons mindset, legal protection (or at least half a clue) can be important: do you really want some guy named Steve taking all the credit for your genius?
[IPTA]
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Inventors Offered Free Consultation To Protect Their Ideas
4:17PM Angus Kidman | It’s one thing to come up with a revolutionary idea that could change the world, but it’s another thing to protect it so that it doesn’t get ripped off by the unscrupulous. The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia is offering free half-hour consultations to inventive types to help them understand the different legal options (such as patenting and trademarking) available to protect an idea. Even if you’ve got a freeware/creative commons mindset, legal protection (or at least half a clue) can be important: do you really want some guy named Steve taking all the credit for your genius?
[IPTA]
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Fix
4:01PM Angus Kidman | After Sanity launched its Australian Loadit music subscription service last month, there were muffled complaints about the price, but the biggest complaints of all came from users who didn’t want the Loadit button appearing in their Windows Media Player by default. The Loadit store is automatically added when you check for updates, and by the time you realise it has appeared, it’s a bit late to do anything about it. If you don’t want to have Loadit in your face every time you play a song or video clip, do you have any choice? Lifehacker explores your options.
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Removing The Sanity Loadit Store From Windows Media Player
4:01PM Angus Kidman | After Sanity launched its Australian Loadit music subscription service last month, there were muffled complaints about the price, but the biggest complaints of all came from users who didn’t want the Loadit button appearing in their Windows Media Player by default. The Loadit store is automatically added when you check for updates, and by the time you realise it has appeared, it’s a bit late to do anything about it. If you don’t want to have Loadit in your face every time you play a song or video clip, do you have any choice? Lifehacker explores your options.
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Fix
