Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Organise
Declutter An Entire Room In A Single Sweep
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Figuring out where to start decluttering a jam-packed room can be intimidating. Leo Babauta of the blog Zen Habits has put together a step-by-step guide to help you declutter a room in a single sweep. His first and most important step is to establish a working space. He uses the example of a clean bed in the middle of a bedroom—I frequently use a card table in rooms without a large and bare surface. From there you empty one drawer, shelf, or surface at a time onto the working space and assess the clutter: Sort the pile into two piles: 1) what you use regularly and love, and 2) what you’re going to get rid of. Pick up one item at a time and make an instant decision – when was the last time you used this? If you haven’t used it in a few months (6 months at the longest), get rid of it. This excludes seasonal stuff like winter jackets or what have you. Making a decision the moment you pick something up greatly cuts down the chances you’ll come up with some excuse for keeping it. If you’re having trouble deciding if something should fall in the keep or discard pile, a look over some tough questions to help you declutter can provide a framework to help you place a value on your things. If you’re getting rid of things that have a market value—but just not to you—and aren’t quite donation-worthy, consider selling them to create a Stuff Replacement Fund so you have extra cash handy to replace or repair the useful things you keep. If you have a master decluttering strategy, sound off in the comments below. Photo by Annahape Gallery. How to Declutter an Entire Room in One Go [Zen Habits] More »
Organise
Flickr Makes It Easier To Find Nearby Geotagged Photos
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | If you’re photo-geeky enough to geo-locate your Flickr shots, or just want to find pics of a certain place or landmark, Flickr has added links that map out nearby photos .Third-party developers have already had access to a geo-specific search function in Flickr, but now anyone can see what’s next to their mapped photos, or the more than 100 million photos geotagged by everyone else. The quick and text-y way is to add /nearby to the URL of any Flickr photo page. The click-ier method is to hit the “map” link in the “Additional Information” section, then choose “See nearby photos and videos.” You can then scale and zoom on the resulting Yahoo Map mashup, and filter which nearby shots you see by date, friends or strangers, and sorting technique. Note that the photos are shown in groups of 20 or so at a time—you have to click “Next” on the bottom of the page, like any Flickr search result, to see more. The total randomness of what you see can be really intriguing, and if you’re a true photo geek, the nearby function might help you find great angles and subjects to shoot, based on where others have trod before you. Things I’m Standing Next To [code.flickr blog via ReadWriteWeb] More »
Work
Pod To PC Transfers Music From Any iPod, iPhone Onto Your PC
9:30PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Pod to PC can grab the music and movies off nearly any Windows-formatted iPod for transferring to your PC, and avoids duplicates while doing so. Install and fire up the software, and if your iPod is connected by a USB transfer cable, Pod to PC should find it and offer up basic stats: More »
Communicate
4:26PM Angus Kidman | We already knew that the local TV networks were being slack in rolling out extra digital channels, but here’s further proof: Nine’s SD digital channel reportedly won’t roll out until at least July. Other commercial networks are being similarly slack — Ten’s ONE sports channel, for instance, won’t necessarily show the same sports in all cities — making the whole concept of Freeview look like even worse value than it appeared at first sight. More »
Nine Delays Extra Digital Channel Until July
4:26PM Angus Kidman | We already knew that the local TV networks were being slack in rolling out extra digital channels, but here’s further proof: Nine’s SD digital channel reportedly won’t roll out until at least July. Other commercial networks are being similarly slack — Ten’s ONE sports channel, for instance, won’t necessarily show the same sports in all cities — making the whole concept of Freeview look like even worse value than it appeared at first sight. More »
Communicate
3:00PM Angus Kidman | The BBC News Magazine examines a difficult social question: how can you sensibly respond to a friend who makes a racist comment? While the article was inspired by a UK-centric media scandal, the issue it raises is one that has relevance across the globe. One possible tactic the article doesn’t examine is using an anonymous webapp like previously mentioned NiceCritic or Whisper Bot to call out your friend on their behaviour, but that’s still an imperfect solution in many contexts. Got a better way to handle this social minefield? Share it in the comments.
What if you had a racist friend? [BBC News]
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How Can You Respond To A Racist Friend?
3:00PM Angus Kidman | The BBC News Magazine examines a difficult social question: how can you sensibly respond to a friend who makes a racist comment? While the article was inspired by a UK-centric media scandal, the issue it raises is one that has relevance across the globe. One possible tactic the article doesn’t examine is using an anonymous webapp like previously mentioned NiceCritic or Whisper Bot to call out your friend on their behaviour, but that’s still an imperfect solution in many contexts. Got a better way to handle this social minefield? Share it in the comments.
What if you had a racist friend? [BBC News]
More »
Fix
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Even if you don’t think Valentine’s Day is largely designed to enrich manufacturers of crap gifts, here’s another reason to give the alleged celebration of love a wide berth: it’s a great excuse for people to send spam mail replete with malware and other unwanted nasties. Doing the nasty seems like a major incentive: an analysis by Symantec suggests that “erotic” topic lines are a major feature of this year’s crop of Valentine’s Day spam. So be cautious: if you get a message from an anonymous admirer, chances are they’re more interested in your credit card number than your measurements. More »
Valentine’s Day A Hot Target For Malware
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Even if you don’t think Valentine’s Day is largely designed to enrich manufacturers of crap gifts, here’s another reason to give the alleged celebration of love a wide berth: it’s a great excuse for people to send spam mail replete with malware and other unwanted nasties. Doing the nasty seems like a major incentive: an analysis by Symantec suggests that “erotic” topic lines are a major feature of this year’s crop of Valentine’s Day spam. So be cautious: if you get a message from an anonymous admirer, chances are they’re more interested in your credit card number than your measurements. More »
Organise
Merge Multiple Emails To One Contact In Gmail
12:30PM Adam Pash | If today’s Google Sync announcement has convinced you that it’s time to move your contact management to Google servers, you probably need to do a little housekeeping with your Gmail contacts first. For example, if you’re staring in the face of numerous duplicate contacts that should represent the same person, the built-in contact merge feature in Google Contacts is a must. Just find the duplicate contacts, tick their checkboxes, and click “Merge these contacts….” Easy peasy. To manage your contacts, either head to the Contacts page in Gmail or to the unadvertised standalone site. Thanks Michael! More »
Communicate
12:00PM Angus Kidman | The ABC’s iView catchup service was already pretty appealing, but the addition of a second child-centric channel will be good news for anyone with kids (especially if they’re on an iView-friendly ISP. The new FAVES channel focuses on drama, comedy and sci-fi (three areas you don’t see much of on most kid-oriented channels, online or otherwise).
ABC iView
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ABC Adds Extra Kids Channel To iView
12:00PM Angus Kidman | The ABC’s iView catchup service was already pretty appealing, but the addition of a second child-centric channel will be good news for anyone with kids (especially if they’re on an iView-friendly ISP. The new FAVES channel focuses on drama, comedy and sci-fi (three areas you don’t see much of on most kid-oriented channels, online or otherwise).
ABC iView
More »
Communicate
10:30AM Angus Kidman | BigPond Movies is sweetening the deal for users of its download service by offering free movie rentals for download for customers using the service. New free titles will be offered on a weekly basis between February 9 and May 11; the first titles on offer are Hellboy and episode 1 of The Tudors. BigPond ISP subscribers won’t have the downloads counted against their quotas; users of other providers will want to tread carefully.
BigPond Movies
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BigPond Movies Offers Free Downloads For Subscribers
10:30AM Angus Kidman | BigPond Movies is sweetening the deal for users of its download service by offering free movie rentals for download for customers using the service. New free titles will be offered on a weekly basis between February 9 and May 11; the first titles on offer are Hellboy and episode 1 of The Tudors. BigPond ISP subscribers won’t have the downloads counted against their quotas; users of other providers will want to tread carefully.
BigPond Movies
More »
Communicate
9:00AM Angus Kidman | When the story broke that Vodafone and 3 were going to merge their Australian operations, I was on a plane. But coming late to the news hasn’t made much practical difference, because in terms of the impact on current customers and future product plans — the two elements that are of interest to Lifehacker readers, rather than the fiscal mechanics of the deal — there’s not that much to know as yet. Even assuming the deal gets approved, the long-term nature (24 months or more) of most contracts means that it will be a long time before there’s any change for most customers. Our most consistent criticism of 3 has been its high roaming costs outside capital cities, which will probably disappear eventually. On the other hand, 3’s super-cheap mobile broadband deals will probably also get subsumed into slightly more costly plans. Given Vodafone’s dominance in the new joint venture, if you were in the market for a new phone or 3G plan, Vodafone might seem a better choice. But the ultimate guiding principle should be the suitability of the deal as it stands, not how it might change in the future. More »
Vodafone And 3 Merger Plans Offer Little Guidance For Customers
9:00AM Angus Kidman | When the story broke that Vodafone and 3 were going to merge their Australian operations, I was on a plane. But coming late to the news hasn’t made much practical difference, because in terms of the impact on current customers and future product plans — the two elements that are of interest to Lifehacker readers, rather than the fiscal mechanics of the deal — there’s not that much to know as yet. Even assuming the deal gets approved, the long-term nature (24 months or more) of most contracts means that it will be a long time before there’s any change for most customers. Our most consistent criticism of 3 has been its high roaming costs outside capital cities, which will probably disappear eventually. On the other hand, 3’s super-cheap mobile broadband deals will probably also get subsumed into slightly more costly plans. Given Vodafone’s dominance in the new joint venture, if you were in the market for a new phone or 3G plan, Vodafone might seem a better choice. But the ultimate guiding principle should be the suitability of the deal as it stands, not how it might change in the future. More » 