Monday, November 10, 2008
Work
ClockingIT Is A Free Hosted Project Management Tool
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | The ClockingIT webapp is a hosted, open-source solution to managing team-oriented projects. The robust features in ClockingIT might be overkill for a single worker, but when applied to a team yield a gold mine of management tools and report generation. Projects contain subsets of tasks, which you can filter by various criteria, like “Open Tasks” and “My In Progress Tasks.” GANTT charts visualize the project schedule and update with date changes. ClockingIT includes unlimited file storage per project. While I was able to set up an account and try out the various functions, I didn’t have a software development team on hand to really put ClockingIT through the paces. If you have experience with ClockingIT, sound off in the comments below! For other free alternatives check out Project2Manage and activeCollab. Thanks David! ClockingIT More »
Communicate
FriendFeed Adds IM Notifications For Updates
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | We’ve considered social tracking service FriendFeed a pretty neat way to aggregate your online life, but now it’s a lot easier to keep tabs on what’s happening with your circle of net-connected friends, even if you hardly ever log in at FriendFeed’s site. The service has just rolled out a Twitter-like IM integration, which can send updates when particular friends update their feeds, let you update your own feed and post messages to it, pull down the full entry when you get a stub notification, and many more tasks. Perhaps the most useful aspect is IM notification whenever your posts on any service get a comment, which you can reply to through your IM client. FriendFeed’s IM tools require a Google Talk/Gmail or Jabber-compliant chat client. FriendFeed Over IM [via ReadWriteWeb] More »
Organise
Set Up A Personal Fuel Cost Hedge Fund
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | As part of his goal to get readers to save $1,000 in 30 days, personal finance blogger Ramit Sethi suggests setting up a personal fuel hedging fund to protect against rising petrol prices eating into your best intentions. His own method calls for figuring out what you were paying for petrol a month ago, setting up an automated bank sub-account, and transferring his monthly savings in gas costs to it. Setting a calendar reminder, he’ll check the cost of fuel in three months, and pull from the fund if needed, or drop more in if prices fall. If you’re not the type to save receipts, Sethi suggests an expense tracker like Mint to deliver your fuel costs to you. It’s basically an advanced means of tricking yourself into saving money, but a worthy one. Photo by ‘bert. Use gas prices to become your own hedge fund [I Will Teach You to be Rich] More »
Work
Write Or Die Makes Sure You Keep Churning Out Words
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Sometimes you need to stop yourself from over-thinking your long-term ideas, pondering a better topic or angle, and just throw down and write something. Write or Die, a clever webapp from Jeff Printy, gives you both a stripped-down web space to write your text in and a bit of negative reinforcement if you let your mind, or your fingers, wander too far from the task at hand. Set a word count and time you want to write for. Then, set how you want the app to “remind” you if you stop writing—”Gentle” pops up a text box, “Normal” plays a harsh sound file, and “Kamikaze” mode slowly deletes back from your stopping point until you get back to it. Can’t tell if “Electric Shock” is a joke or a feature in development. A bonus feature of Write or Die is that once you close the writing window, it asks to copy all your text to your clipboard—a serious salvation if you’re the type to accidentally close browser windows. No sign-up required. Write or Die [Dr. Wicked via MakeUseOf.com] More »
Fix
AlwaysVPN Takes US-Only Sites International
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): AlwaysVPN, a free virtual private networking service, is promoted as a safer way for anyone to browse the web or trading files over a public net connection. It works for that purpose, sure, but it also lets anyone on the disappointing side of a US-only service like Hulu, Pandora, or Fancast get around that often arbitrary restriction. We’ve previously featured a similar service, Hotspot Shield, but AlwaysVPN has the edge in not installing any toolbars (although it does put ads across the top of your browser), working on all three major platforms, and, well, being a go-to VPN proxy if Hotspot is only trickling in. Installation and startup are a simple right-click affair in Windows, while OS X users will have to configure a third-party VPN client, and Linux users compile from source. AlwaysVPN is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems. AlwaysVPN [via gHacks] More »
Work
3:57PM Angus Kidman | Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is currently giving the annual Boyer Lectures for the ABC. In his second lecture, he makes an obvious but welcome point about having to accept changes bought on by more effective technology:
Whingeing about the technology will get you nowhere. The only way to deal with new technology that up-ends your job or your business model is to get out in front of it. Otherwise it will get out in front of you.
Given the inherent conservatism of many media outlets (including some of those owned by Murdoch’s company, News Corporation), it’s refreshing to see an acknowledgement that the media business needs to evolve. Catch the full lecture (as a transcript, stream or downloadable audio) on the ABC site.
Boyer Lectures
More »
Rupert Murdoch On Overcoming Techno-Fear
3:57PM Angus Kidman | Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is currently giving the annual Boyer Lectures for the ABC. In his second lecture, he makes an obvious but welcome point about having to accept changes bought on by more effective technology:
Whingeing about the technology will get you nowhere. The only way to deal with new technology that up-ends your job or your business model is to get out in front of it. Otherwise it will get out in front of you.
Given the inherent conservatism of many media outlets (including some of those owned by Murdoch’s company, News Corporation), it’s refreshing to see an acknowledgement that the media business needs to evolve. Catch the full lecture (as a transcript, stream or downloadable audio) on the ABC site.
Boyer Lectures
More »
Organise
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Packing compactly is a useful skill, but for longer work-related trips, it’s often hard to get away with just a small overnight bag. However much luggage you’ve got, a digital scale can help you avoid paying ludicrous excess baggage fees and/or totally trashing your spine. More »
Why Digital Luggage Scales Are A Travel Essential
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Packing compactly is a useful skill, but for longer work-related trips, it’s often hard to get away with just a small overnight bag. However much luggage you’ve got, a digital scale can help you avoid paying ludicrous excess baggage fees and/or totally trashing your spine. More »
Communicate
11:30AM Angus Kidman | Dan Warne at APC reports that Virgin’s mobile broadband service, which uses Optus’ 3G network, is no longer going to be sold via retailers (though it will continue to be sold via the Virgin site and over the phone). While Virgin hasn’t gone as far as Optus itself, which pulled its similar Fusion product altogether back in September, it suggests once again that excess usage can quickly floor a 3G broadband service, and that checking you have suitable coverage before signing up is vital. If you’re in the market for 3G broadband, be sure to check our comparison guide to available options.
Virgin Broadband pulled from retail sale [APC]
More »
Virgin Broadband No Longer In Stores
11:30AM Angus Kidman | Dan Warne at APC reports that Virgin’s mobile broadband service, which uses Optus’ 3G network, is no longer going to be sold via retailers (though it will continue to be sold via the Virgin site and over the phone). While Virgin hasn’t gone as far as Optus itself, which pulled its similar Fusion product altogether back in September, it suggests once again that excess usage can quickly floor a 3G broadband service, and that checking you have suitable coverage before signing up is vital. If you’re in the market for 3G broadband, be sure to check our comparison guide to available options.
Virgin Broadband pulled from retail sale [APC]
More » 
Project Euler Exercises Your Mind With Mathematical Problems
10:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Exercise your mind with the challenging problem sets at Project Euler. Designed to provide a fun way to introduce new concepts , the frequently asked questions section of Project Euler has this to say about the nature of the project: Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems. The site is based around the concept of inductive learning, wherein as you solve the presented problems you gain mastery over concepts that can be used to solve other problems including ones you may have thought too difficult to solve. To help get you started the problems are ranked by the number of people who have solved them, the more difficult the problem the less people who have successfully solved it. Project Euler is a free educational resource. Thanks Jim! Photo by CarbonNYC. Project Euler More »
Work
