Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Work
280 Slides Puts Your Presentation In The Cloud
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Beta webapp 280 Slides edits and shares PowerPoint-like presentations online. 280 Slides’ interface is polished and rich; you can try it out without signing up as a user. Create brand new slide shows inside 280 Slides or import existing PowerPoint presentations from your desktop. Presentations that you upload or create with 280 Slides are accessible anywhere you have internet access and a web browser with Java support. If you know you won’t have internet access where you are presenting, 280 Slides can export your work as a PDF or PowerPoint file to take with you. While 280 Slides is missing some of the more sophisticated tools in PowerPoint, as a heavy PowerPoint user I barely noticed they were gone. If you’d like to make your PowerPoint slides more portable but don’t want to upload them, check out iSpring an application that converts your PowerPoint presentations to flash video. 280 Slides [via Webware] More »
Work
Single Wrench Makes File Sharing Secure, Simple For Business
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux: Single Wrench, a secure file-sharing tool, intends to replace FTP transfers as a more secure, and user-friendly, way to transfer files between co-workers, clients, and anyone else for whom an insecure FTP connection might be a problem. Single Wrench installs as a Java applet from your browser, and opens a toolbar that provides drag-and-drop functionality for uploading files to Single Wrench’s server. After that, the tool’s web site allows you to set permissions and sharing on individual files. You pay to share files through Single Wrench, about $5 per GB, and there are minimum monthly storage fees. For a small business or IT department looking for a way around FTP and more complicated file sharing, however, Single Wrench could be worth a look. Hit the “via” link below for the How-To Geek’s detailed walk-through of the service. Single Wrench [via The How-To Geek] More »
Organise
Form an Attack Plan For A Cluttered, Messy Home
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Last week in our quest for de-junk the spaces around us, we walked through cleaning a workstation and keeping it that way. This week, we’re taking on a more personal, and often intimidating, space: The home. Personal because it is, after all, your home, and intimidating because it’s the place you don’t have to keep clean—until somebody’s coming to visit. For anyone looking to cut back on clutter to create more living space (and space for awesome projects), read on for tips on putting your house in order. Photo by Carey Tilden. More »
Communicate
4:35PM Angus Kidman | When I wrote up an overview of Australian wireless broadband plans earlier in the week, several readers spoke in praise of Virgin Mobile’s offerings in the comments. Virgin uses the Optus network and offers roughly similar prepaid and contract deals, but eliminates Optus’ tricksy policy of charging for 10MB blocks rather than per kilobyte for prepaid users. At $39 a month for a 5GB contract plan, Virgin (like fellow Optus reseller Primus) also offers shaping rather than excess data charges, dropping speeds to 64Kbps if you reach the limit. The only potential fly in the ointment is Virgin’s P2P policy — any file sharing connections are reduced to just 32Kbps, which is painfully slow. The other challenge (as with Virgin’s iPhone deals) is availability: as I write this, the company is out of stock on USB modems, though if you already have one from another provider, you can sign up for a BYO modem deal.
Virgin Mobile Broadband
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Virgin Mobile Broadband Offers Shaping Options
4:35PM Angus Kidman | When I wrote up an overview of Australian wireless broadband plans earlier in the week, several readers spoke in praise of Virgin Mobile’s offerings in the comments. Virgin uses the Optus network and offers roughly similar prepaid and contract deals, but eliminates Optus’ tricksy policy of charging for 10MB blocks rather than per kilobyte for prepaid users. At $39 a month for a 5GB contract plan, Virgin (like fellow Optus reseller Primus) also offers shaping rather than excess data charges, dropping speeds to 64Kbps if you reach the limit. The only potential fly in the ointment is Virgin’s P2P policy — any file sharing connections are reduced to just 32Kbps, which is painfully slow. The other challenge (as with Virgin’s iPhone deals) is availability: as I write this, the company is out of stock on USB modems, though if you already have one from another provider, you can sign up for a BYO modem deal.
Virgin Mobile Broadband
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Fix
3:00PM Angus Kidman | One of the challenges with Facebook’s recent redesign is that some applications (such as Wordscraper) don’t appear on the new applications menu or main apps list. Fortunately, this can be fixed through some mildly obscure settings. Visit the edit apps page, find your application and click on Edit. Go to the Bookmark tab and make sure ‘Bookmark [appname]‘ is selected. Click Okay, and the application will now appear in the pop-up applications menu, where you can drag it to your preferred location, as well as the front page in the applications are. More »
Set Bookmarks To Stop Facebook Losing Applications
3:00PM Angus Kidman | One of the challenges with Facebook’s recent redesign is that some applications (such as Wordscraper) don’t appear on the new applications menu or main apps list. Fortunately, this can be fixed through some mildly obscure settings. Visit the edit apps page, find your application and click on Edit. Go to the Bookmark tab and make sure ‘Bookmark [appname]‘ is selected. Click Okay, and the application will now appear in the pop-up applications menu, where you can drag it to your preferred location, as well as the front page in the applications are. More »
Organise
1:30PM Angus Kidman | New communications technology frequently gets a pasting in the mainstream media (when was the last time you saw a story about kids accessing the Internet that wasn’t negative?), but a new survey by Relationships Australia suggests that Aussies are focusing on the positive effects. A whopping 96% of Australians aged 18-24 said that the Internet, SMS and email had a positive impact on relationships, while amonst the over-60s, 60% also agreed. (Similar results have been seen in other recent surveys.) What seems to be messing up relationships are concerns over money. When Relationships Australia last conducted this survey in 2006, 18% of people said that finance problems were a major source of relationship pressure. In 2008, that figure has gone up to 40%. The survey was conducted in August, before some of the more seismic shifts in the global economy, so I’d expect those numbers to get even higher in the future. More »
Financial Pressure Is Bad For Relationships, But Technology Is Good
1:30PM Angus Kidman | New communications technology frequently gets a pasting in the mainstream media (when was the last time you saw a story about kids accessing the Internet that wasn’t negative?), but a new survey by Relationships Australia suggests that Aussies are focusing on the positive effects. A whopping 96% of Australians aged 18-24 said that the Internet, SMS and email had a positive impact on relationships, while amonst the over-60s, 60% also agreed. (Similar results have been seen in other recent surveys.) What seems to be messing up relationships are concerns over money. When Relationships Australia last conducted this survey in 2006, 18% of people said that finance problems were a major source of relationship pressure. In 2008, that figure has gone up to 40%. The survey was conducted in August, before some of the more seismic shifts in the global economy, so I’d expect those numbers to get even higher in the future. More »
Organise
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Postage costs on eBay sometimes beggar belief (and lead to the suspicion that vendors are trying to use postage to bolster their own profits). In that context, a new move by eBay to restrict the amount of flat-rate postage that can be charged in some categories is welcome news for buyers, though it might not do much to please sellers who’ve already had a messy 2008 when it comes to eBay policy. The limits, which will come into effect from , apply to CDs ($5), DVDs ($8) and books ($6). Those are still somewhat higher than the likely standard postage costs in many cases, but at least the new policy sets a ceiling. Does that seem like a sensible move to you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
eBay Australia Announcement Board
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eBay To Limit Postage Costs In Some Categories
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Postage costs on eBay sometimes beggar belief (and lead to the suspicion that vendors are trying to use postage to bolster their own profits). In that context, a new move by eBay to restrict the amount of flat-rate postage that can be charged in some categories is welcome news for buyers, though it might not do much to please sellers who’ve already had a messy 2008 when it comes to eBay policy. The limits, which will come into effect from , apply to CDs ($5), DVDs ($8) and books ($6). Those are still somewhat higher than the likely standard postage costs in many cases, but at least the new policy sets a ceiling. Does that seem like a sensible move to you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
eBay Australia Announcement Board
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Entertainment. Now Made By Hand
Don’t wait up for Little Britain to hit our late-night screens. Download it and watch it all on your mobile. The new Nokia 96 offers users the choice of downloading a whole series of one of four BBC TV classics, including Walking with Dinosaurs, Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and Yes, Minister. More »
Work
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Blog Action Day takes place on October 15, with the aim of getting bloggers across the globe to write about issues and solutions relating to a single issue. In 2008, that issue is poverty. If you need a little more incentive to write on the topic, World Vision Australia is running a competition for the best Australian blog post on how to combat poverty, with prizes including a tour of Google’s Sydney HQ, a chance to play with Microsoft’s Surface computer, iPhones and other goodies. Just add a link to your post on the competition page to be in the running. (Yes, there’s an obvious irony in seeking out a prize when writing about poverty.)
Blog Action Day Competition
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World Vision Giving Away Aussie Googleplex Tour For Blog Action Day
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Blog Action Day takes place on October 15, with the aim of getting bloggers across the globe to write about issues and solutions relating to a single issue. In 2008, that issue is poverty. If you need a little more incentive to write on the topic, World Vision Australia is running a competition for the best Australian blog post on how to combat poverty, with prizes including a tour of Google’s Sydney HQ, a chance to play with Microsoft’s Surface computer, iPhones and other goodies. Just add a link to your post on the competition page to be in the running. (Yes, there’s an obvious irony in seeking out a prize when writing about poverty.)
Blog Action Day Competition
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Fix
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Windows Vista only: The built-in search feature is one of the more useful aspects of Windows Vista, but the need to constantly update the file index is often seen as creating a performance hit. Switching off indexing altogether isn’t a wise idea (it’s needed for apps like Outlook, for instance). The MS-developed Indexer Status Gadget gives you more insight into how the indexing process works, showing how many items on your machine Windows still needs to index, letting you stop and start the indexing process if you want those to temporarily reclaim those processor cycles, or letting the indexer run full tilt rather than its default behaviour of slowing down when you’re performing other tasks on your PC. Indexer Status Gadget is a free download for Windows Vista only, runs inside Windows Sidebar.
Indexer Status Gadget [via Engineering Windows 7]
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Indexer Status Gadget Lets You Control Windows Vista Indexing
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Windows Vista only: The built-in search feature is one of the more useful aspects of Windows Vista, but the need to constantly update the file index is often seen as creating a performance hit. Switching off indexing altogether isn’t a wise idea (it’s needed for apps like Outlook, for instance). The MS-developed Indexer Status Gadget gives you more insight into how the indexing process works, showing how many items on your machine Windows still needs to index, letting you stop and start the indexing process if you want those to temporarily reclaim those processor cycles, or letting the indexer run full tilt rather than its default behaviour of slowing down when you’re performing other tasks on your PC. Indexer Status Gadget is a free download for Windows Vista only, runs inside Windows Sidebar.
Indexer Status Gadget [via Engineering Windows 7]
More » 
