Saturday, November 1, 2008
Organise
Google Alerts Get Support For Feeds
10:10AM Adam Pash | If you’ve been feeding your ego with vanity searches and Google alerts, you may be happy to know that the once email-only digest of Google alerts is now available in RSS feed format, too. Delicious. More »
Communicate
Notifu Contacts A Crowd Quickly
10:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Send a batch of email, IM, SMS or even voice messages with Notifu. The site is designed as a iPhone webapp, but it’ll work in any browser. Simply add a list of recipient email addresses, IM handles or text or voice phone numbers and send a message to a group of folks quickly and easily no matter how they prefer to be reached. Your typewritten message will be delivered to callers or voicemail via text-to-speech, and you don’t need an IM account to send messages to AIM, Yahoo IM, GTalk or other chat clients. Sign up to register and you can save a set of contacts, get confirmation of message delivery and manage replies. Notifu [via eHub] More »
Fix
Create New Folders In Explorer With A Shortcut
9:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Reader Juliana created a simple but extremely useful AutoHotkey script that creates a new folder in Explorer with a quick keystroke of Ctrl+N. If you’re an AHK user, you can download the script source here and just copy and paste it into your own AHK script. (This is a great compliment to the Better Rename script, for example, which brings Vista-style renaming to XP.) If you’re not an AHK user, you can still add the shortcut sugar to Explorer by downloading the executable (linked below). It may not change your life, but if you’re a shortcut lover, it certainly adds a much-needed feature to Explorer. New-Folder [Mediafire] More »
Design
John’s Background Switcher Updates, Supports Photo RSS Feeds
7:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: John’s Background Switcher—a free utility that rotates your desktop wallpaper using photos from sources like Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, or just your desktop—has updated to add support for RSS feeds. That means the popular wallpaper tool now supports sites like deviantArt, LOLCats, and pretty much any other photo site with an RSS feed. If you’re keen on keeping your desktop fresh, John’s Background Switcher is a godsend. John’s Background Switcher is a free download, Windows only. Thanks Chris! John’s Background Switcher [Official Blog Post] More »
Organise
HotKeyz Creates Keyboard Shortcuts For Any Task
6:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Free application HotKeyz makes it simple to create and manage keyboard shortcuts to run special commands or launch any file or folder on your computer. Most of what you’re likely to do with HotKeyz can also be accomplished in one form or another using as-you-type application launchers, but if you prefer memorizing a quick keyboard shortcut to the invoke-and-type style app launchers, HotKeyz makes it all very simple. Apart from basic file and folder launching, HotKeyz does offer a lot of advanced commands for controlling windows, locking or shutting down your workstation, adjusting the system sound, and tons more. Personally, I find a combination of keyboard launch shortcuts and as-you-type launching is the way to go. The gold standard app launcher Quicksilver has shortcut triggers built in, so if your app launcher doesn’t, HotKeyz might be worth a try. HotKeyz [via CNET] More »
Fix
DIY iPhone Landscape Stand Redux
5:00AM Gina Trapani | Inspired by Nathan Barry’s iPhone alarm clock stand, do-it-yourselfer gbzphoto also used the plastic mold his iPhone shipped in to mount the phone horizontally, and installed the Alarm Clock app to display the time. Using the 2G clear plastic mold that shipped in the box, a stray piece of wood molding, and a furniture sticky, this version is a nice alternative (though it doesn’t have room for the charging plug, like this version). Finally, for more iPhone stand goodness, the Voltage Blog runs down in photos how to turn a paperclip holder into an iPhone charger—the end result can still hold clips, too. Thanks, Wade! gbzphoto DIY iPhone clock [Flickr] iPhone 3G / iPod Touch Dock Build (DIY Instructions with Pictures) [Voltage Blog] More »
Organise
Picasa 3 Leaves Beta
3:37AM Adam Pash | We took you on a screenshot tour of the Picasa 3 beta a few weeks back, and now Google’s popular digital photo organizer has officially upgraded to 3.0. The download site still says beta, but the actual download is all final. [via] More »
Work
Re-run Your First Program With Commodore BASIC
3:31AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows/Mac/Linux: The programming language that probably introduced more people to infinite loops than any other, Microsoft BASIC 6502 for the Commodore 64, is now available as a scripting language for many modern machines. What might you use it for? Who cares! Fortran and Cobol are still in use today, so surely some menial but dignified work could be found for a former star finally rediscovered, a la Sunset Boulevard. Free binary downloads are available for Windows and Mac, source code for Linux. Commodore BASIC as a Scripting Language for UNIX and Windows – now Open Source [pagetable.com] More »
Work
A User’s Look At Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
3:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Author Keir Thomas has dropped by with an end-user’s perspective on the all-new Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). This is something Keir knows all about, having written two best-selling books about Ubuntu: Beginning Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu Kung Fu (recently excerpted here). More »
Design
