Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Work
Multi-Monitor Mouse Snaps Your Cursor Around Multiple Screens
11:30PM Jason Fitzpatrick | Windows only: Moving your mouse cursor across multiple monitors can be a long haul, especially in triple- and quad-monitor setups. Snap your mouse from screen to screen instead with keyboard shortcuts. Multi-Monitor Mouse is a small application which, when triggered by a keyboard combination, snaps your mouse cursor to the next monitor in your multi-monitor setup. You can specify whether the mouse jump should be relative—having the cursor placed in the same relative position on the new monitor—or in the centre of the screen. You can also specify the order of monitors the mouse will leap to, if sequential’s not your thing. It takes a few minutes to get used to, but once you get the hang of this app, it’s hard to imagine dragging your mouse across 3,000+ pixels again. Multi-Monitor Mouse is freeware, Windows only. Multi-Monitor Mouse More »
Design
Comparison Chart Breaks Down 15 Web-Based Photo Editors
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | CNET’s Webware puts 15 web-based photo editors in a spreadsheet comparison battle, including well-knowns and previously reviewed Picnik and Photoshop.com/Express, but also some good-but-obscure picks. The author likes Picnik and Fotoflexer, but says the “best” depends (of course!) on what you’re trying to do. More »
Communicate
Gmail Puts Unread Message Counts First In Tabs, Title Bars
9:30PM Kevin Purdy | If we had to guess, we’d say that Gmail’s latest Labs feature, putting an unread message count first in the title bar and tabs, was probably inspired by a certain Firefox add-on … More »
Organise
Install Google Toolbar 6, Get Quick Search Box
6:00PM Adam Pash | Windows only: Remember Quick Search Box, Google’s new search-and-launch application built by the same guy who developed Quicksilver? Well, now it’s available for Windows—you’ve just got to install Google Toolbar in IE to get it. That’s right, Quick Search Box is only available to install through Google Toolbar for IE, of all things. We don’t even particularly like the Google Toolbar to begin with, let alone IE. On the plus side, if QSB requires Google Toolbar, better that I install it on IE—where I never have to see it—than on a browser I might actually be using. But anyway, on to the application we’re interested in. More »
Money
3:00PM Angus Kidman | In response to our recent writeup of how communications costs continue to rise, one reader advocated a highly aggressive approach to bargain-hunting:
Call your provider (calling is necessary in this case). Tell them that you aren’t happy with the cost of your service and ask what they can offer you. Do this once a month. It’s surprising how well this works.
Now, I’m all for trying to score a bargain, but it seems to me that once a month would be somewhat excessive and counter-productive. Not only will you waste hours on the phone, but eventually your provider is likely to point out that your deal has already changed repeatedly. It’s a truism that it’s much cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, but not if the new customer is on the phone seeking better deals all the time. And if you end up on a 12-month contract, why will they care until month 11? So monthly is probably overkill, but the exact limit is probably up for debate. How often can you squeeze a better deal out of your phone company or ISP? More »
How Frequently Can You Nag Your Communications Bills Down?
3:00PM Angus Kidman | In response to our recent writeup of how communications costs continue to rise, one reader advocated a highly aggressive approach to bargain-hunting:
Call your provider (calling is necessary in this case). Tell them that you aren’t happy with the cost of your service and ask what they can offer you. Do this once a month. It’s surprising how well this works.
Now, I’m all for trying to score a bargain, but it seems to me that once a month would be somewhat excessive and counter-productive. Not only will you waste hours on the phone, but eventually your provider is likely to point out that your deal has already changed repeatedly. It’s a truism that it’s much cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, but not if the new customer is on the phone seeking better deals all the time. And if you end up on a 12-month contract, why will they care until month 11? So monthly is probably overkill, but the exact limit is probably up for debate. How often can you squeeze a better deal out of your phone company or ISP? More »
Work
1:00PM Angus Kidman | I recently attended a seminar run by the by the New Producers Alliance (a film industry organisation) in London, on making sure your fees as a freelancer don’t drop too much during the current economic meltdown. Having read the frankly astonishing accounts of movie industry negotiation in books like William Goldman’s Adventures In The Screen Trade and Julia Phillips’ You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, I figured that the film industry might have a different approach to print and Web-oriented writers like myself. Much of the material was pretty familiar, but presenter Rebecca Knapp made one surprising revelation about the haphazard nature of meetings in the movie business:
“The most important thing in terms of negotiation is preparing — really thinking about your meeting before you get there and what your goals are. We all sometimes turn up at meetings and act like it’s an initial meeting and then when they go “how much do you want?” we’re surprised. Even if it is an initial meeting, you should know what you want out of it.”
Sound advice even if you have no intention of seeking funding for a robotic vampire rom com in the near future. For more on negotiating, check out how to get a pay rise by not asking for cash and how to haggle.
More »
Don’t Enter A Meeting Without Knowing What You Want
1:00PM Angus Kidman | I recently attended a seminar run by the by the New Producers Alliance (a film industry organisation) in London, on making sure your fees as a freelancer don’t drop too much during the current economic meltdown. Having read the frankly astonishing accounts of movie industry negotiation in books like William Goldman’s Adventures In The Screen Trade and Julia Phillips’ You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, I figured that the film industry might have a different approach to print and Web-oriented writers like myself. Much of the material was pretty familiar, but presenter Rebecca Knapp made one surprising revelation about the haphazard nature of meetings in the movie business:
“The most important thing in terms of negotiation is preparing — really thinking about your meeting before you get there and what your goals are. We all sometimes turn up at meetings and act like it’s an initial meeting and then when they go “how much do you want?” we’re surprised. Even if it is an initial meeting, you should know what you want out of it.”
Sound advice even if you have no intention of seeking funding for a robotic vampire rom com in the near future. For more on negotiating, check out how to get a pay rise by not asking for cash and how to haggle.
More »
Organise
11:00AM Angus Kidman | When I posted my recent account of how I got my overflowing inbox under control, one reader pointed out that I could have also automatically converted some of the remaining emails into tasks by dragging them into my task list. As it happens, I like to use my Outlook task list purely for stuff directly related to my writing career (assignments and invoices), with email as a separate, more general to-do area. Also, I’m not big on dragging and dropping, and I find the feature is often buggy anyway (as the screenshot indicates).
Of course, I’m not everybody. But Microsoft really wants everyone to use this feature: so much so that it actually removed some other options to make it work. When I first began using Outlook 2007 shortly after its commercial release, I was irked to find that it was apparently no longer possible to sort tasks by subject in regular task view, an option that had existed for several versions before. That seemed like a major omission, so I hassled Microsoft about why that change had been made. Several weeks later, I got a reply which explained that the lack of sorting was because the previous Subject field had been replaced with a new ‘Task Subject’ field:
The Task Subject field was added to Outlook as part of the work done to support treating email items as tasks. It is auto-generated by Outlook. Since a sortable ’subject’ field was already available, the decision was made not to expend the resources to make this system-generated field sortable.
Me, I’m not convinced that this is much of an excuse (honestly, how hard is it to sort something?) — but it shows that Microsoft remains unafraid to break a perfectly good system just because it thinks it knows better. You can fix this limitation by creating custom views that use the existing Subject field, but I haven’t got around to it yet — and with my own system working, I don’t imagine I well in a hurry.
More »
The Downside Of Converting Outlook Emails Into Tasks
11:00AM Angus Kidman | When I posted my recent account of how I got my overflowing inbox under control, one reader pointed out that I could have also automatically converted some of the remaining emails into tasks by dragging them into my task list. As it happens, I like to use my Outlook task list purely for stuff directly related to my writing career (assignments and invoices), with email as a separate, more general to-do area. Also, I’m not big on dragging and dropping, and I find the feature is often buggy anyway (as the screenshot indicates).
Of course, I’m not everybody. But Microsoft really wants everyone to use this feature: so much so that it actually removed some other options to make it work. When I first began using Outlook 2007 shortly after its commercial release, I was irked to find that it was apparently no longer possible to sort tasks by subject in regular task view, an option that had existed for several versions before. That seemed like a major omission, so I hassled Microsoft about why that change had been made. Several weeks later, I got a reply which explained that the lack of sorting was because the previous Subject field had been replaced with a new ‘Task Subject’ field:
The Task Subject field was added to Outlook as part of the work done to support treating email items as tasks. It is auto-generated by Outlook. Since a sortable ’subject’ field was already available, the decision was made not to expend the resources to make this system-generated field sortable.
Me, I’m not convinced that this is much of an excuse (honestly, how hard is it to sort something?) — but it shows that Microsoft remains unafraid to break a perfectly good system just because it thinks it knows better. You can fix this limitation by creating custom views that use the existing Subject field, but I haven’t got around to it yet — and with my own system working, I don’t imagine I well in a hurry.
More »
Money
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Online retail might sometimes seem like an unregulated wilderness, but these days it gets just as much attention as regular bricks-and-mortar stores. This week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a warning to parents after finding an online store selling toy cars that didn’t meet Australian safety standards (which require no small parts which under-3s might choke on). That applies not just to removable elements but also parts which might break off, as the ACCC explained:
“Young children, particularly those under three, put most things in their mouth. They haven’t learned to cough things up that might become lodged in their throat. This is why small pieces of toys or bits that break off easily are so hazardous to young children and must be kept away from them.”
The retailer in question seems to have handled the situation in exemplary fashion, contacting each of the purchases and offering them a refund (something that’s much more difficult with a meatspace store). However, it’s a timely reminder if you fancy setting up shop selling toys on eBay as a sideline, you’d better be across the relevant consumer laws.
More »
ACCC Cracks Down On Unsafe Online Toys
9:00AM Angus Kidman | Online retail might sometimes seem like an unregulated wilderness, but these days it gets just as much attention as regular bricks-and-mortar stores. This week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a warning to parents after finding an online store selling toy cars that didn’t meet Australian safety standards (which require no small parts which under-3s might choke on). That applies not just to removable elements but also parts which might break off, as the ACCC explained:
“Young children, particularly those under three, put most things in their mouth. They haven’t learned to cough things up that might become lodged in their throat. This is why small pieces of toys or bits that break off easily are so hazardous to young children and must be kept away from them.”
The retailer in question seems to have handled the situation in exemplary fashion, contacting each of the purchases and offering them a refund (something that’s much more difficult with a meatspace store). However, it’s a timely reminder if you fancy setting up shop selling toys on eBay as a sideline, you’d better be across the relevant consumer laws.
More »
Organise
TwoUp Makes Better Use Of Your Screen Real Estate
8:00AM Adam Pash | Mac OS X only: Free utility TwoUp moves and resizes windows from the comfort of your keyboard for quick and easy optimisation of your screen real estate. Earlier this week we showed you Maxto, a similar Windows tool that tiles windows across your desktop via keyboard shortcuts. TwoUp is a similar beast, though it’s unfortunately a little lighter on features. Where Maxto allows you to define regions on your screen for more fine-grained control over how large your resized windows are, TwoUp, simply halves your screen vertically and horizontally. By default, pressing Cmd+Opt+Ctrl+Up/Down/Left/Right will move and resize the active window to the corresponding half of your screen (the shortcuts are customisable). So while TwoUp doesn’t quite pack the wallop of its Windows counterpart, it still packs some useful screen optimisation goodies. TwoUp is a free download, Mac OS X only. Thanks WandaRadassical! TwoUp [Irradiated Software] More »
Design
