Monday, February 9, 2009
Fix
JPEG & PNG Stripper Removes The Metadata From Your Images
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows only: JPEG & PNG Stripper an extremely small portable application that strips the metadata out of JPEG and PNG image files. Why would you want to strip down an image file? Ask former TechTV host Cat Schwartz, who in 2003 received a rather embarrassing lesson in the power of metadata. In short, a cropped headshot posted on her blog contained an embedded, full-pic thumbnail with, well, a lot more than just a head and shoulders. Even if you’re not cropping your mug out of a nude composition, there are others reasons you’d want to remove the metadata from an image. All sorts of information—like exposure time, aperture settings, camera used, and GPS coordinates—can potentially be embedded into an image. JPEG & PNG Stripper removes every bit of metadata, leaving just the unaltered image behind. Whatever your motivation for sanitising your image, you’ll know that only the image itself remains. The screenshot at right shows a read of some of the metadata for an image I scrubbed in testing and, as promised, the application ripped all the metadata out without altering the appearance of the image itself. JPEG & PNG Stripper is freeware, Windows only. JPEG & PNH Stripper [via gHacks] More »
Communicate
Gmail Adds Easier Email Switching Tools
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Gmail users will soon notice a new tool in their settings that makes switching from Yahoo, Hotmail, and many other email services a good bit easier than tinkering with IMAP and POP importing. The new import tool arrives as a partnership with the email-changing service TrueSwitch, which is normally free only for switchers to its selected ISP partners. In Gmail, though, the switch tool can automatically handle the transfer of contacts, old mail and 30 days of mail into the future (until your contacts get up to speed), and adding a label to all mail picked up from your old account. If you or someone you know is looking to make the switch to Gmail, check the list of supported email hosts and give it a go. Of course, if an email host isn’t supported by this new-fangled import, you can always follow the official POP guide. As Google Operating System’s tipster points out, Gmail users will eventually see the new import options in their settings tab that gets renamed as “Accounts and Import.” < Screenshot from Google Operating System. Import Contacts and Mail to Gmail [Google Operating System] More »
Travel
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Throughout my time as an airline traveller, I’ve always been a great believer in the “Russian doll” principle of packing – keeping the contents of your suitcase organised and separated in bags of their own, nested to near infinity if necessary. And despite an incident last week, I still believe that’s the best way to go. More »
Why Packing Bags Inside Your Bags Makes Sense
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Throughout my time as an airline traveller, I’ve always been a great believer in the “Russian doll” principle of packing – keeping the contents of your suitcase organised and separated in bags of their own, nested to near infinity if necessary. And despite an incident last week, I still believe that’s the best way to go. More »
Money
2:00PM Angus Kidman | If you want your next car purchase to be more environmentally friendly, the government-funded Green Vehicle Guide is a sensible place to start. The site ranks cars based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions, and lets you compare up to three models for relative performance. The lists are ranked by both best performance and vehicle sales, which reveals that most of us apparently haven’t yet taken the green message to heart when it comes to car purchases.
Green Vehicle Guide
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Green Vehicle Guide Rates Cars By Emissions
2:00PM Angus Kidman | If you want your next car purchase to be more environmentally friendly, the government-funded Green Vehicle Guide is a sensible place to start. The site ranks cars based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions, and lets you compare up to three models for relative performance. The lists are ranked by both best performance and vehicle sales, which reveals that most of us apparently haven’t yet taken the green message to heart when it comes to car purchases.
Green Vehicle Guide
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Travel
12:00PM Angus Kidman | The Las Vegas Strip is an experience that everyone should have once in their lives, but with dozens of mega-casinos on offer, it can be difficult to choose one that suits your preferred combination of price, casino games, food, shopping and location. The Casinovac Las Vegas Casino Finder site lets you set seven simple options, from how much you want to spend to your preferred evening activities, and then offers venue recommendations. The results aren’t perfect — it didn’t manage to single out my already-preferred Vegas venue despite several attempts — but if you’re weighing up a trip to Sin City, it might help you come to a decision.
Casinovac
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Casinovac Picks A Vegas Venue That Matches Your Needs
12:00PM Angus Kidman | The Las Vegas Strip is an experience that everyone should have once in their lives, but with dozens of mega-casinos on offer, it can be difficult to choose one that suits your preferred combination of price, casino games, food, shopping and location. The Casinovac Las Vegas Casino Finder site lets you set seven simple options, from how much you want to spend to your preferred evening activities, and then offers venue recommendations. The results aren’t perfect — it didn’t manage to single out my already-preferred Vegas venue despite several attempts — but if you’re weighing up a trip to Sin City, it might help you come to a decision.
Casinovac
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Fix
10:00AM Angus Kidman | In a compact office space, a floating desk can be a stylish and handy solution, but dedicated units for that purpose can be expensive. Kim pulled together her own DIY solution using two cheap IKEA components: the $120 Effektiv low wall unit and the $19 Summera pull-out keyboard shelf. Add a few tricks for cord management and you’ve got a neat option taking minimal space.
Hack a floating laptop table [IKEA Hacker]
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DIY IKEA Floating Laptop Desk
10:00AM Angus Kidman | In a compact office space, a floating desk can be a stylish and handy solution, but dedicated units for that purpose can be expensive. Kim pulled together her own DIY solution using two cheap IKEA components: the $120 Effektiv low wall unit and the $19 Summera pull-out keyboard shelf. Add a few tricks for cord management and you’ve got a neat option taking minimal space.
Hack a floating laptop table [IKEA Hacker]
More »
Organise
Last Week’s Best Posts
8:30AM Angus Kidman | Kick off your Lifehacker Monday by making sure you didn’t miss any of the biggest posts from last week: Dear Lifehacker: Can I Survive University With Just A Laptop PC?“I’m considering going down the laptop route however feel that there are times where paper will be necessary. Is all electronic the way to go?” Five Best System Tray ApplicationsThe Windows system tray can be so much more than a parking lot for programs you don’t want cluttering up your task bar. Freeview Doesn’t Want To Share Its EPG“Freeview won’t be compatible with current TVs and boxes — you’ll need a Freeview box to access that, though some manufacturers may offer firmware upgrades to make it possible.” Google Earth 5.0 Beta Released, Looks Incredible Windows/Mac/Linux: Google’s 3D mapping application Google Earth has just released version 5.0, adding historical imagery, maps of the ocean’s floor, and even better features for touring the world from your desktop. ANZ01.jpg“In recent weeks, several readers have emailed us to sing the praises of the ANZ Money Manager site, which works with a wide range of Australian financial institutions.” GNOME Do’s Smart Dock Takes App Launching To Another LevelA new version of the quick-firing Linux keyboard launcher GNOME Do landed last week, bringing with it a “theme” that acts as a whole new desktop interface. Make Ubiquity Your Ultimate Firefox Commander (Firefox)One of the niftiest Firefox add-ons to come out of Mozilla Labs is Ubiquity, a natural language commander that adds killer functionality on-page in Firefox. Let’s take a closer look. DesktopGaming Has Killer Retro Gaming Wallpapers (Desktop Customisation)The DesktopGaming web site has created hundreds of retro gaming wallpapers by ripping screenshots from emulated games-and then spicing them up with some Photoshop goodness to fit today’s giant monitor sizes. Fences is a Seriously Awesome Desktop Icon Organiser (Windows)Desktop icon organiser Fences arranges your cluttered desktop icons into containers so you can clean up the mess into useful groups of shortcuts-or optionally hides them altogether. bitRipper is a Dead Simple Solution For DVD Ripping (Windows)If all you want is computer-playable video off your DVDs, bitRipper is the most simple, click-one-button-and-you’re-rolling solution we’ve seen. You can change your rip’s audio and video parameters, but you don’t have to. Skype 4.0 Finalises Video Chat, Bandwidth Improvements (Windows)Skype 4.0 is officially out, and it features all the really big video windows and Outlook and problem-reporting tools from last year’s betas. It also beefs up Skype’s handling of bandwidth. Google Redesigned Updates, Adds GReader Redesigned (Firefox)The crafty skinners at Globex Designs have officially released Google Redesigned 0.2, a Firefox extension that gives a whole-cloth new look to Gmail, Google Calendar, and, new to this release, Google Reader. Free Disk Analyzer Finds The Largest Space-Wasting Files (Windows)File space usage application Free Disk Analyzer quickly and easily finds the largest files that are wasting space on your drive. au, organise, best posts More »
Fix
DIY Fibre Optic Ring Flash
8:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Ring flashes fit around the barrel of a camera lens to provide an even and diffused light—and they often cost upwards of $200. Spare yourself the expense with a DIY model. Ring flashes are great for macro photography, as the light comes from all sides of the lens and provides extremely even illumination on your subject. They can also be used for interesting effects in portrait photography. Unfortunately the high price point makes it entirely uneconomical to pick one up just to mess around with photographing ants or casual portraits. Over the the website Fring—short for Fibre Optic Ring—there’s a detailed tutorial for taking about $5 worth of parts from your local cheapo store and turning them into a tool that channels your on-board flash’s light onto the rim of your lens. If you’re dabbling in macro shooting, it’s a great way to try out ring-flash style lighting without breaking the bank. Fring – DIY Fibre Optic Ring Light [via Hacked Gadgets] More »
Work
Add-Art Replaces Advertisements With Artwork
7:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Add-Art is a unique advertisement-blocking solution for Firefox. Instead of simply deleting ads from the page, it replaces them with art by featured artists.The open-source project was inspired by the popularity of ad-blocking Firefox extensions—Adblock Plus, the perennial Lifehacker favorite, is downloaded over 250,000 times a week—and a desire to put all those blocked pitches to good use. Artists are selected by a team of curators to have their work displayed, and the roster is rotated every two weeks. An interesting twist to the project is that the artists themselves can target sites with their artwork—it’ll be up to you to decide why there are photographs of unicorns wearing party hats during your daily reading of the New York Times. Add-Art won’t be too tempting to those who ad-block to streamline for speed or memory use, but for those tired of seeing “ONE WEIGHT LOSS RULE” and the like might just enjoy the web a bit more. Add-Art is free, works wherever Firefox does. Add-Art [via Download Squad] More »
Design
