Saturday, January 31, 2009

Mind.Depositor 2: The All-Leather, GTD Super-Notebook

8:00AM Adam Pash | Creator of previously mentioned mind.Depositor and Lifehacker reader Patrick Ng has updated his killer DIY GTD notebook design with a more streamlined, all-leather mind.Depositor 2. Why the update? After creating the original mind.Depositor with clips and using it for a while, I found a small problem but it bugs me on regular basis. To insert and pull out the cards, it requires force, no matter how small it is, it creates stress. That’s why superior Japanese stationery designs often put into considerations how to reduce user efforts. They call the practice “Universal Design.” So I set out to do a simpler version by using two pieces of leather only. I also have a practice to carry a small notepad or Field Notes to capture to-do inputs temporarily before transferring them to GTD index cards. So I’m adding a slit for the notepad and a slit to store extra blank index cards. Check out Patrick’s full post or his Flickr guide for the detailed rundown of how he created this attractive and GTD-packed notebook from two pieces of leather. Whether or not you like the design of the new mind.Depositor, you may still want to give his mind.Depositor GTD index cards a try, a printable index card template for GTD enthusiasts. mind.Depositor 2 – leather only [Scription] More »

Rowmote Turns Your iPhone Into An Apple Remote

7:01AM Adam Pash | iPhone/iPod touch only: The Rowmote iPhone application turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a full-fledged Apple Remote capable of controlling Front Row, iTunes, Quicktime, DVD Player, and Keynote over your Wi-Fi. As Gizmodo points out, Rowmote actually one-ups your Mac’s IR remote in a couple of ways. For example, your Apple Remote requires line-of-sight to control your computer. Since Rowmote works over Wi-Fi, line-of-sight isn’t an issue. It also works as a cheap replacement if you’ve lost your tiny Apple Remote. Rowmote only offers the simplest of controls (the same ones available on the Apple IR Remote), so it’s not terribly robust. If you only need to control iTunes, for example, you’d be better off sticking with Apple’s free Remote app (which makes for a helluva multi-room wireless remote). If you want to control any of the other apps, Rowmote looks like a great option. Rowmote works with your iPhone or iPod touch, will set you back $US1 in the iTunes App Store. Once you’ve downloaded Rowmote, you’ll need to install and run a companion app to get it working. Rowmote [iTunes Store via Gizmodo] More »

Yawffer Puts Unruly Processes In Timeout

6:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: Oddly named system utility Yawffer can freeze an out-of-control process in place, letting you shut down other running applications or save your work. Yawffer is actually meant to be a system monitoring tool, but it frankly doesn’t do that terribly well-the killer feature is found by right-clicking on the tray icon and choosing Freeze a Process from the menu, at which point you can click on a process in the list and Freeze it. If you want to test this feature out for yourself but don’t have a problem app at the moment, you can use Max CPU to peg your processor at 100%, and then freeze the process using Yawffer, which will immediately drop your CPU usage back to normal levels. This application could be a useful addition to your toolkit the next time your favourite Windows application goes out of control and you’d like to just pause it momentarily. For a more automated solution, you can use previously mentioned Process Lasso, or you can always free some memory by mastering Task Manager. Yawffer [via Life Rocks 2.0] More »

Extended Task Manager Gives You A Broader System Overview

5:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows only: Extended Task Manager —a robust Windows Task Manger replacement—will help you get a clear view of what is going on with your system, from random disk writing to locked files. Extended Task Manager goes above and beyond the basics of the default Windows Task Manger to give you information on disk activity, network usage, which ports are open, and more. All the graphs have mouse-over support, so if you see a spike in CPU usage, you just put the mouse over the spike and see which program was chewing up your cycles, and the same goes for disk usage and networking. If you’re new to tinkering in the bowels of a task manager, check out our guide to mastering the Windows Task Manager; all of the principles there apply to the souped-up Extended Task Manager. If you’re interested in trying out other task manager alternatives, take a peek at previously reviewed TaskExplorer. Extended Task Manager is freeware, Windows only. Extended Task Manager [via Ask The Admin] More »

Run Disk Cleanup Automatically At Startup

4:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | The CyberNet tech blog details how to create a set-it-and-forget-it scheduled task to automatically run Disk Cleanup every time your computer starts. The setup requires a few steps, starting with running Disk Cleanup from the command line with the /sageset:1 parameter to choose your settings, and then creating a scheduled task with the /sagerun:1 option to automatically run using the saved settings every time you start your computer. If you’d prefer to use the reader favourite CCleaner to clean up your computer, we’ve already detailed how to run CCleaner silently with a shortcut, or run it automatically with a scheduled task, which could be adjusted to run on startup. Automatically Empty the Recycling Bin at Startup [CyberNet] More »

Create Your Own Bokeh For Beautiful Photo Effects

3:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | What’s a bokeh you say? It’s that oh-so-wonderful fuzziness in the background of photographs with a shallow depth of field and accompanying starry highlights. You can create you own bokeh effects with a little craftiness. The term bokeh is an anglicised version of a Japanese word used to describe the portion of a photograph that is out of focus behind the area of principal focus in a picture. When you see a portrait that has a creamy soft background and a nice crisp focus on the person being photographed, you are seeing bokeh. The shape of the highlights—sometimes round, hexagonal or other geometric shapes—is determined by the shape of the aperture in the lens. More »

Official Microsoft Live Search Extension Comes To Firefox

2:40AM Adam Pash | If you’ve got any interest in Microsoft’s Live Search engine, Microsoft has pushed out an official Firefox extension that adds Live Search auto suggestions to your Firefox search box. It seems unlikely that many folks using Firefox are all that interested in Live Search, but if you happen to fall into that category, then this unholy marriage is for you. Live Search 20090124 [Firefox Add-ons via Betanews] More »

Last Changed Files Finds The Document You Just Lost

2:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: File search utility Last Changed Files finds the last 100 modified files on your drive, so you can find the file you just saved but can’t remember where. Using Last Changed Files—which requires no installation—is as simple as launching and waiting while it searches through your drive to find the last 100 modified files. Your best bet is to use the built-in exclude feature to prevent the application from searching through temporary or system files, or modify the INI file with a list of exclusions if you plan to use it a lot. This application could be very useful the next time you save a file and then can’t remember where you put it—if you haven’t modified 100 files since then. Last Changed Files is a free download for Windows only. Last Changed Files [via gHacks] More »

PwnageTool, QuickPwn Jailbreak Tools For iPhone 2.2.1 Officially Available For Mac

1:30AM Adam Pash | Mac OS X only: Yesterday we pointed your toward an unofficial QuickPwn for Windows jailbreaking, but now the band of happy hackers known as the iPhone Dev Team have released PwnageTool and QuickPwn 2.2.5 for Macs. The official Dev Team blog posts says that QuickPwn 2.2.5 for Windows is “coming soon,” so despite the fact that the version of QuickPwn we linked to yesterday did appear to work for many, it was still an unofficial version. You can download the official BitTorrent releases of PwnageTool here and QuickPwn here. We’ll keep you updated on when the official Windows version hits the tubes. If you need a little hand-holding while you’re jailbreaking, check out our previous guide to jailbreaking your iPhone with PwnageTool. Be sure to read the full text from the Dev Team blog for more details on the state of jailbreaking and unlocking. Close the stable door! [Dev-Team Blog] More »