Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Work
Power Meter Plus Puts Ambient Battery Meter On Your Desktop
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Software maker Matt Collinge wanted a better way of knowing how much battery power his laptop had. So he wrote one that’s visible and intuitive, yet unobtrusive. Power Meter Plus only shows up when you’re charging or discharging your battery (unless you want it always on). As your battery drops from 100 percent, the transparent vertical gauge becomes more visible. It rests on the bottom left and right corners, switching over whenever your mouse gets near. And it’s highly customisable in colour, font, and warning levels. For those who regularly work or play unplugged, Power Meter Plus provides a welcome alternative to obsessive-compulsive mousing over the Windows system tray icon. Power Meter Plus is a free download for Windows 9x, XP, and 2003 systems (though it seemed to work fine on Vista). Power Meter Plus [Matt Collinge] More »
Work
Safari+ Adds Useful Functions To The iPhone’s Browser
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | If you’ve ever needed to search for text on a page on your iPhone, Safari+ has a bookmarklet with your name on it. Oh, and translation, speed-scrolling, and image displaying are covered too. In general, the Safari+ bookmarklets offer up the same kind of functionality you’d get in a full-size browser through the magic of specialised JavaScript. Most are unobtrusive and seamless, and some are quite helpful—forcing mobile Safari to open any link in a new window, for example, or displaying all the photos on a page in a single layout. Like similarly helpful bookmarklet-powered tools Pastebud and Instapaper, you’ll probably have to manually edit these bookmarks to single out the JavaScript, but it seems worth the point-and-drag effort. Head to the link below in your mobile Safari browser to install and use the bookmarklets. Safari+ More »
Organise
Must-Have Free Windows Programs
6:00PM Gina Trapani | One of our favourite sources of free downloads, the Freewaregenius blog, posts their top 10 list of lesser-known, “must have” free programs and we’re on board with most of the list, which includes Digsby, Everything, Launchy, Xobni, and the KMPlayer. More »
Organise
SiteLauncher Adds Keyboard Shortcuts To Your Bookmarks
4:17PM Gina Trapani | All platforms with Firefox: The SiteLauncher extension adds a keyboard launcher for your favourite bookmarks in Firefox. Hit the extension’s default launcher shortcut—Ctrl+Alt on my Mac, Ctrl+Space on Windows—then hit the key you see next to your bookmark of choice in the dark prompt panel shown below. More »
Money
A Year-Long Experiment In ‘Living Smaller’
1:09PM Gina Trapani | Speaking of living with less, techie Rick Jelliffe reports on his year-long experiment of “living smaller” in 2008—a year in which he worked less, made less, and stressed out a lot less.< Jelliffe writes: I caught public transport only. I got rid of extra lightbulbs. I baked my own bread. I froze my own dumplings. I didn’t buy any gadget. I didn’t buy any CD. I didn’t get a flatscreen TV. No home phone; no home internet; no cable TV; no new art; no gin. I only took one international trip (which was quite important) and two domestic flights (to my dear parent’s 80th birthdays) but turned down several work opportunities that involved flying, even though it meant less satisfactory participation at SC34 WG1. I let my passport lapse. … This leads to a very placid lifestyle: I don’t think I have ever been less engaged with the rat race, and at the same time, less restless (outside office hours.) While Jelliffe’s approach was pretty extreme (no home internet! or working contact lenses!) the concepts behind the experiment are solid and timely, given the current financial meltdown. Jelliffe says the experiment is over for him in 2009—he’s getting new contact lenses. 2008: my year of living smaller [O'Reilly Broadcast] More »
Organise
Print Documents In Batches With Automator
1:00PM Gina Trapani | Reader Greg’s biggest timesaver reduces his trips to the office printer with a simple Automator workflow on his Mac. Greg writes: I work in a research lab with a shared printer that takes me around two minutes to walk to and from after printing something (desk, hallway, door, hallway, door, hallway, photocopier, hallway, door, hallway, swipe badge for access to door, hallway… you get the idea). So instead of getting up every time I had to print something, I started queuing what I wanted to print into a file called ‘To Be Printed’ on my hard drive. Then I created a program (in Automator, since I really have no background regarding programing) to grab the documents, print them, then trash them automatically. I put a link right to the program on my dock. Less walking, but also less hassle! Check out the workflow, pictured above, to make one for yourself. Nice job Greg! You just earned yourself a signed copy of our latest book, Upgrade Your Life. More »
Communicate
12:00PM Angus Kidman | There’s champagne to chill and 2009 to-do lists to write, so we’re heading off early to get on with it. There’ll be US posts tomorrow, and normal service will resume Friday January 2.
More »
Happy New Year From Lifehacker AU
12:00PM Angus Kidman | There’s champagne to chill and 2009 to-do lists to write, so we’re heading off early to get on with it. There’ll be US posts tomorrow, and normal service will resume Friday January 2.
More »
Fix
10:30AM Angus Kidman | A roundup of post-Christmas hacks from IKEA Hacker includes a contribution from Aussie hacker John, who improved the appearance of two cheap digital photo frames by mounting them inside two equally cheap IKEA display frames. You could adapt this trick to pretty much any frame, useful if you want a digital photo frame but favour a more eclectic home decorating look.
Post Christmas hacks [IKEA Hacker]
More »
DIY IKEA Digital Photo Frame Hack
10:30AM Angus Kidman | A roundup of post-Christmas hacks from IKEA Hacker includes a contribution from Aussie hacker John, who improved the appearance of two cheap digital photo frames by mounting them inside two equally cheap IKEA display frames. You could adapt this trick to pretty much any frame, useful if you want a digital photo frame but favour a more eclectic home decorating look.
Post Christmas hacks [IKEA Hacker]
More »
Communicate
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Telstra is predicting that 76 million text messages will get sent on its networks on New Year’s Eve, and that’s before you add in Vodafone, Optus and 3. While some people think traditional communication is better for major events like Christmas, it’s hard to argue with the utility of texting if you’re in the city centre struggling to find a consistent signal. On the other hand, texting isn’t the only high-tech option — if you’ve got a Net-enabled phone, Twitter and Facebook can also look appealing. How do you plan to communicate tonight? Pic by Alex Sims from Wikimedia Commons More »
Will You Go Text-Crazy For New Year?
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Telstra is predicting that 76 million text messages will get sent on its networks on New Year’s Eve, and that’s before you add in Vodafone, Optus and 3. While some people think traditional communication is better for major events like Christmas, it’s hard to argue with the utility of texting if you’re in the city centre struggling to find a consistent signal. On the other hand, texting isn’t the only high-tech option — if you’ve got a Net-enabled phone, Twitter and Facebook can also look appealing. How do you plan to communicate tonight? Pic by Alex Sims from Wikimedia Commons More »
Work
