Monday, January 12, 2009
Organise
Track Replies To Digg Comments Via RSS
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | If you’d like to keep up on your comments and the replies you receive at Digg.com but find the default comment tracking to be unwieldy, you can get comment updates by RSS. The admin over at technology blog I’m A Super has put together a comment tracking tool: I created this tool because I was frustrated with having to continually go back to my user page to determine whether anyone had left a reply to one of my less popular comments. There is a limitation on the tool. To abide by Digg.com’s “polite” API usage policy, RSS requests that come sooner than every 10 minutes may be denied. Repeated abusers could be rejected. Usage is extremely straight forward. Visit the link below to access the tool, put your Digg username in the text box, hit the button, and add the generated RSS feed to your favourite feed reader. From there on out all your comments and the subsequent replies will be piped over to your feed reader, no need to dig—no pun intended—in the bowels of the control panel. Thanks Ryan! Digg Comment Tracker [IAmSuper.com] More »
Work
Multi-Booting Windows 7 With Linux
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Are you a Linux user who (secretly, maybe?) wants to try Windows 7 alongside your Linux desktop? The Loku’s Domain blog details how to fit Win7 into your GRUB boot menu. Your own installation might/hopefully be simpler than having to manually edit your boot menu from a live CD, as one commenter suggests, but Loku’s post details the fail-safe method of getting everything back to normal once Windows decides to take over your system’s boot-up process. And it should work for any copy of Windows 7, either the officially key-licensed (once it arrives) or the one you found lying on the sidewalk of the internet. More »
Fix
Use Blankets To Save Food During Blackouts
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | The wikiHow site points out that when the power goes out and you’re wondering about your cold stash of food, having thick blankets handy can save you a lot of grocery bill heartache. Along with taking other measures of common sense and thermal dynamic control—packing in ice or dry ice, keeping doors closed as much as possible—wikiHow notes that wrapping your refrigeration units will aid in insulating them from gaining in temperature.< Also recommended? Eating any room-temperature, perishable food within two hours, and—among the best phrases we've written lately—having an "instant barbecue" to save any meats that can't be kept safe. Of course, you should always toss anything you think had even a chance of spoiling, but protecting fully-stocked fridges and freezers can carry your good up to 48 hours. What's the longest blackout you've had to contend with, and how did you manage your food stocks during it? Tell us your tale in the comments. Photo by SMercury98. How to Save Food During a Power Outage [wikiHow] More »
Work
How Cory Doctorow Gets Writing Done
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | BoingBoing blogger and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow admits the internet can be an “attention black hole,” but the prolific scribe learned how to actually write while staying open to the wealth of the web. Along with tips in realms we’ve journeyed through before—limiting real-time email/IM/RSS interruptions, working in shorter bursts instead of long slogs—Doctorow suggests staking a hard boundary between the work of writing and the quest of research. He separates them with an old-time reporter’s trick: More »
Travel
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Most of the media attention at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas goes to big releases like the Windows 7 beta or the new Palm Pre, but the event also provides a showcase for all sorts of other handy gadgets. After schlepping around Vegas all last week, these are the five technology innovations that I’m hoping might make my travel plans easier in 2009 and beyond. Several are only prototypes, and none have full-blown global distribution, but they’re all worth keeping in mind. More »
Road Worrier’s Favourite Travel Gadgets From CES
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Most of the media attention at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas goes to big releases like the Windows 7 beta or the new Palm Pre, but the event also provides a showcase for all sorts of other handy gadgets. After schlepping around Vegas all last week, these are the five technology innovations that I’m hoping might make my travel plans easier in 2009 and beyond. Several are only prototypes, and none have full-blown global distribution, but they’re all worth keeping in mind. More »
Work
2:30PM Angus Kidman | When you encounter a headline like ‘Aussies working world’s longest hours’, you’re likely to pay attention — especially if, like me, you’ve just come off a week with several 14-hour workdays. However, it turns out that what’s actually being discussed is the unwillingness of Australians to take holidays. According to a Tourism Australia survey, one-third of us won’t take official leave this year. Leaving aside the likely possibility that the whole thing is designed to encourage domestic travel now that Australia the movie hasn’t given inbound tourism much of a fillip, I’m wondering: why aren’t people taking holidays? Is it a lack of other people to fill in while you’re away? Fear of being fired? A desire to have an insurance policy if you do get fired? Being self-employed and hence having no options? Share your non-vacation aspirations in the comments. More »
Do Aussie Workers Need To Take More Holidays?
2:30PM Angus Kidman | When you encounter a headline like ‘Aussies working world’s longest hours’, you’re likely to pay attention — especially if, like me, you’ve just come off a week with several 14-hour workdays. However, it turns out that what’s actually being discussed is the unwillingness of Australians to take holidays. According to a Tourism Australia survey, one-third of us won’t take official leave this year. Leaving aside the likely possibility that the whole thing is designed to encourage domestic travel now that Australia the movie hasn’t given inbound tourism much of a fillip, I’m wondering: why aren’t people taking holidays? Is it a lack of other people to fill in while you’re away? Fear of being fired? A desire to have an insurance policy if you do get fired? Being self-employed and hence having no options? Share your non-vacation aspirations in the comments. More »
Fix
Disk Investigator Examines Raw Hard Drive Data
1:00PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows only: Disk Investigator takes a different approach than many data retrieval tools by examining the raw data on the disk. Using the tool is enormously more intensive than a casual Windows search or even using an indexer like Google Desktop. Searching for a string like “password” will reveal every single instance of the word throughout the entire disk inside code, help files, documents, where ever it may be found. If you’re at your wits end trying to recover a deleted file or mine the depths of your computer for something that is stubbornly resisting being found, if it exists there is a strong chance Disk Investigator will turn it up. During my testing of the application, I was rather impressed with just how much it found. Every search I came up with short of Purple Bearded Break Dancing Dragons found hundreds to thousands of instances. I’m sure had I ever actually typed that prior to this moment in time it would have found that too. Whether you need to find lost things or verify that the things you deleted will stay deleted, Disk Investigator is a powerful tool. Disk Investigator is freeware, Windows only. Disk Investigator [via gHacks] More »
Work
12:30PM Angus Kidman | Google Operating System offer up a useful script for automating the process of saving Google Documents sent to you by others into your own account – useful if you’ve been sent a document for viewing but don’t have editing rights. The script relies on a simple URL hack which replaces the normal ‘view’ function with a document copy action, so if you don’t want to mess with Greasemonkey, you could perform the same task with a little typing.
Copy Google Documents to Your Account [Google Operating System]
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How To Save Google Documents Into Your Own Account
12:30PM Angus Kidman | Google Operating System offer up a useful script for automating the process of saving Google Documents sent to you by others into your own account – useful if you’ve been sent a document for viewing but don’t have editing rights. The script relies on a simple URL hack which replaces the normal ‘view’ function with a document copy action, so if you don’t want to mess with Greasemonkey, you could perform the same task with a little typing.
Copy Google Documents to Your Account [Google Operating System]
More »
Work
10:30AM Angus Kidman | If you’ve managed to download Windows 7, then the official IE blog has a useful rundown on what features of Internet Explorer 8 work differently on the new Windows platform. Most of the changes relate to the new Windows 7 interface, such as offering “jump lists” for common sites, previewing IE tabs from the taskbar and modifying the browser for touch screens. There’s also a handy list of IE plug-ins that don’t work as yet on the platforms, some of which have workarounds.
IE8 in Windows 7 Beta [IEBlog]
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Why IE8 Works Differently In Windows 7
10:30AM Angus Kidman | If you’ve managed to download Windows 7, then the official IE blog has a useful rundown on what features of Internet Explorer 8 work differently on the new Windows platform. Most of the changes relate to the new Windows 7 interface, such as offering “jump lists” for common sites, previewing IE tabs from the taskbar and modifying the browser for touch screens. There’s also a handy list of IE plug-ins that don’t work as yet on the platforms, some of which have workarounds.
IE8 in Windows 7 Beta [IEBlog]
More »
Fix
