With your BitTorrent addiction in full swing, you’ve filled hard drives with media but can’t seem to figure out how to burn any of the videos you downloaded to a DVD. Sound familiar? It’s a common problem, and there was a time that it didn’t have many simple (or free) solutions. Luckily that’s no longer the case, and today we’re taking a look at two dead simple solutions for burning virtually any video to a DVD you can pop into your DVD player and enjoy.
Internet service provider Internode has dumped its $199 setup fee for new customers — but there’s a catch, which is that you have to sign up for the service for two years. That restricts your ability to easily switch to another ISP down the track if a better deal comes along, since Internode then slaps you with an early exit fee of (you guessed it) $199. Alternatively, you can pay $129 for a one-month cancellation contract deal (which is what I think I’d do if I was switching ISPs). Would you rather pay less up front for your broadband in return for a longer contract — a common model with mobile phones — or maintain flexibility by not signing up long-term? Share your thoughts in the comments.
InternodeThe Beijing Health Ministry is soon to adopt “internet addiction” as a disorder along with compulsive gambling and alcoholism in the official diagnostic manual. Doctor Tao Ran, who treats sufferers at Beijing’s Military General Hospital, says the threshold is around six hours a day and one of the following symptoms in the past three months: “yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, irritation and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.” So, um, yeah, I’m addicted, along with ten percent of users under eighteen in China, according to a study cited by a state official. There is hope:
“Eighty percent of addicts can be cured with treatment, which usually lasts about three months,” said Tao. He did not describe the treatment, however.
Online gaming gets called out for abuse, but I’ll get the shakes if I can’t check email. Anyone else have trouble staying offline, and if so, how do you cope? Photo by AP/Greg Baker
China issues first definition of Internet addiction [China Daily via Tech Radar]The video bloggers at Tekzilla aren’t keen on the way the Power button in the Vista Start menu sleeps your computer by default rather than shutting it down, and neither are we. As the video above demonstrates (UPDATE: We’re having some problems with the video, so click through to Tekzilla or Digital Inspiration for the full rundown), a quick tweak in the to the Power Options in the Vista Control Panel can switch the default behaviour to Shut Down (or Hibernate) rather than Sleep. It’s still lame that Vista doesn’t make it easier to perform a quick shut down or restart from your keyboard, but the simple settings tweak highlighted in the video is a welcome adjustment. Episode 214 – Windows: Customise the Vista Power Button [Tekzilla via Digital Inspiration]
Previously mentioned syncing app Syncplicity (one of your top five favourite syncing tools) has graduated out of beta, but still retains a free account option with 2GB of space to start (up to 7GB if you invite your friends). It’s still Windows-only as well, though Mac and Linux clients are on their way.
Looking for the latitude and longitude of a particular address, to geotag a Flickr photo for instance? Tiny Geo-coder will give you results in an instant, and based on my tests is accurate even when the address isn’t perfect (for instance, leaving “street” out of a street number or using a city’s popular acronym). If you’re looking to automate multiple calls through a script or create map mashups, Tiny Geo-coder has an even lighter-weight API. Simply append a search term to the API url like the example for Perris, CA on the site’s homepage, and all the server will return is that geocode and nothing else. No API key or complicated parsing required. Nifty!
Tiny Geo-coder [via eHub]Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension only: You already know that by enabling the Gmail Labs’ Superstars experimental feature you can mark your messages with more icon choices than just the default yellow star. Well, the Gmail Superstars Turbo Greasemonkey user script adds even more custom stars, and lets you create and use your own icons. With Greasemonkey installed, enable Superstars in Gmail’s Settings area, and refresh your inbox. Click on the star several times to choose your custom superstar (available choices are pictured right). Designers, you can even set up your own icons: use the script’s menu to set a URL where your own icons are hosted. (See detailed instructions for creating your own icons on the script’s homepage.) The only problem with this script is that unless you have it set on every computer you use, your custom star icons won’t match up. The Gmail Superstars Turbo script is a free download, works with Firefox and Greasemonkey. Gmail Superstars Turbo [Userscripts.org]
Video tutorial weblog Tinkernut demonstrates how to create custom screensavers from your own collection of digital photos or videos. You’ll need to download a couple of free apps to get started—namely Format Factory and WG-Screensaver Creator—and then it’s simply a matter of plugging in the media you want to convert. Granted, most operating systems have a screensaver-from-folder feature for rolling your own photo screensavers, but this method does video and gives you more control over what you see. How To Create A Screensaver [Tinkernut]
Last week we timed the Windows 7 Preview, XP, and Vista’s startup times on a single PC triple-booting the three generations of operating system. However, our tests had their flaws, we made a big boo-boo by not including Vista’s SP1 in the mix, and you all suggested ways to make them more thorough and accurate in the comments. Taking your lead, we evened up the playing field, installed the Vista service pack, added a set of tests that take Windows all the way to a fully-loaded user desktop, and updated our numbers. Turns out that the Windows 7 Preview is indeed faster than both Vista and XP, but not at all by the margin we originally published. Get our updated numbers and test details here.
Windows only: Free utility Aero Shake brings the Windows 7 Aero Shake feature—which we previewed last week—to your pre-Windows 7 computer. Like the new Windows 7 feature, shaking the active window with your mouse will minimize all other windows; shaking it again will restore them. This one was contributed by reader bobbo33 to the Lifehacker Coders Group, and it’s still got a few rough edges, so if you try it out let us know what you think in the comments and we’ll see if we can address any issues. Aero Shake is written in AutoHotkey, so if you’re a fan of the simple scripting language, you can download the source and add it to your main AHK script. Otherwise, grab the EXE below. Download Aero Shake
