Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Folder-RSS Monitors Folder Changes Through RSS

11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows only: If you’re already using your feed reader to check for site updates, why not use it to get alerts when a folder changes on your system? Folder-RSS is a small application that allows you to specify a folder and how you want that folder to be monitored. Using the command line—the author includes a sample batch file and a detailed list of the command line parameters—you can set it to monitor a whole directory or just certain sub-folders, set filters for specific file types, and limit the age of changed files monitored. If you mess up on the terminal syntax, Folder-RSS pops up a detailed menu of the right way to type your preferences. Once you’ve set up Folder-RSS, you can plug the location of the .XML file into any local feed reader. To use a remote feed reader such as Google Reader you’ll need to provide some way for the remote server to access the file on your computer (via a home Web server, for instance). Folder-RSS currently requires scheduling on your system, so you’ll need to specify how frequently you want it run using Windows Task Scheduler or an alternative scheduling application like the previously reviewed Freebyte. Folder-RSS is freeware, Windows only. Folder-RSS [via gHacks] More »

Shift And Right-Click To Expand Windows 7’s Send To Menu

11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Lifehacker contributor and tireless Windows tweaker How-To Geek points out at his own blog that, just as with Vista, holding down the Shift key while right-clicking in Windows 7 gives you a fuller range of options. The expanded list of send to spots is simply every directory in your user account folder, but Geek also explains how to add your own send-to destinations. More »

Muxtape Reborn As Band-Driven Mixtape Site

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Muxtape, the previously mentioned online playlist creator, has re-launched with a focus on letting (mostly indie) bands share their own songs. Former users can log in, but won’t have access to their old playlists. The launch of Muxtape 2.0 is still promising, though, as it allows artists like Girl Talk, Reggie Watts, and others to create their own pages and share tracks in a much more eye-friendly way than, well, other band-focused networks. Access to all bands will open up shortly, and if you’re missing Muxtape 1.0’s minimalist, any-MP3-you-want streaming style, you can roll your own Muxtape with Opentape. Muxtape [via Ars Technica] More »

How Offline Gmail Decides Which Messages To Download

9:00PM Kevin Purdy | When you enable Offline Gmail, the new service doesn’t actually download all your messages—just about 10,000 of them. And Gmail has its own method of determining which messages it stores for serious email fiends. More »

Strathfield Group Goes Into Administration

3:17PM Angus Kidman | For a few weeks, I’ve been watching (and deleting) posts coming in from the US discussing electronics retailers going broke, and whether these represent bargain opportunities. Now it looks like we’ll get our own go at that principle down under, with Strathfield Group appointing receivers. Mahesh Sharma at AustralianIT reports that one outcome might be company-owned stores being sold to franchisees, so there may not be a bargain hunt on for a while, but it’s one to keep an eye on. Strathfield calls in administrators [AustralianIT] More »

Gmail Goes Offline With Google Gears

2:10PM Adam Pash | Today Gmail Labs released a new feature that bridges the gap between desktop and web-based applications like never before: Offline Gmail. You can now access your Gmail from your browser any time, whether or not you’re online. More »

Four Experimental Extensions To Power Up Firefox

2:00PM Kevin Purdy | You can find a lot of great stuff on the bleeding edge, and Firefox extensions are no exception. Here are four add-ons for the browser that aren’t officially approved, but worth checking out. More »

Do Widescreen Monitors Hamper Producitivity?

1:40PM Jason Fitzpatrick | The bigger-is-better attitude is rarely debated when discussing monitor sizes, but not everyone is in love with the trend towards widescreen monitors. What if all that width is largely wasted? Rafe Needleman, a contributor at the gadget blog Crave, has this to say about wide-screen monitors: Like reading a page of text or a book, most Web sites are set up with strong vertical orientation. That works for text-based material, since wide lines of text, longer than about 60 characters, become hard to read (the reader has a hard time finding the beginning of the next line). What happens with modern “stretchy” sites or apps that let the user read text in a widescreen format where line lengths get long? Pages get tiring or hard to read. He goes on to note that many arguments supporting widescreen monitors are based on the benefit of putting two applications side by side on the same monitor, but that most monitors have a fairly small number of vertical pixels and that it’s a poor compromise. Certainly the number of tips we’ve shared on how to make your widescreen more functional—making Google reader widescreen and how to micromanage your widescreen, to name a few—shows that widescreen monitors definitely require a little tweaking and adaptation to hit their productivity stride. But are widescreen monitors really as unproductive as Needleman suggests? Sound off in the comments below about your unholy love for or deep frustration with your widescreen monitor. Photo by Timothy J. The Myth of Width: When Wide Screens Don’t Work [Crave] More »

Being Made Redundant Can Have Its Upsides

1:30PM Angus Kidman | Every day, the odds get better that you know someone who’s lost their job, which is a scary prospect at the best of times. But there can be benefits to an unexpected swerve in your career path. The BBC News Magazine profiles four people whose redundancy inspired them to seek new and inspiring jobs. Insurance broker turned gardener Neil Miller sums up the benefits: now I can understand how people can love their job . . . Not one day do I think I’ve had an awful day.” That might seem like cold comfort if you’ve just been given the bad news by your boss, but it’s a reminder that changing careers can often be a positive step. Losing our jobs made us happier [BBC News Magazine] More »

Clivir Adds Creative Commons Licensing, RSS Aggregator, New Answer Options

12:00PM Angus Kidman | Aussie-developed online tutorial builder Clivir, which we’ve discussed before at Lifehacker, has just undergone something of a revamp. Chief among the new additions is the ability to apply Creative Commons licensing to uploaded lessons (a good way of protecting your hard work), and an RSS feed aggregator so lessons can include automatic updates from relevant sources. There’s also now the ability to answer questions in tutorials by embedding links, images or videos, and a fair bit more content than last time I dropped in. Clivir is free to use, requires registration. Clivir More »