Friday, March 20, 2009
Work
ShortcutKey2URL Gets You To Any Site By Keyboard
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux: ShortcutKey2URL is an ideal Firefox add-on for anyone who visits certain sites so often, they’d save serious time with just two key motions instead of typing out a URL (or learning some AwesomeBar magic). ShortcutKey2URL offers just a single option dialog, where you give a frequently-visited site a single letter shortcut, name it, and then provide the URL. You can pre-set this shortcut to open in your existing tab, in a new one, or search to see if it’s already open in another tab, then open as a refresh in that one. You activate all of your one-letter shortcuts by first hitting your activation combo, which is Ctrl+Q by default, but can easily be changed. You can also register any site you visit as a ShortcutKey by hitting the grey arrow in your address bar—but, in a bad design move, that arrow never goes away. If peripheral clutter doesn’t drive you nuts, though, this could be a really helpful keyboard enabler. ShortcutKey2URL is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. ShortcutKey2URL [Firefox Add-ons via Mozilla Links] More »
Work
Songbird iPod Add-On Fixed
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | A bug that caused music to be deleted off some iPods has been fixed by the Songbird developers. The fixed and updated add-on has been uploaded to Songbird’s servers, and anyone with the add-on installed should be prompted for an update on launching or checking for it. Did you lose any tracks, even just temporarily, to Songbird’s confused database? More »
Communicate
Create, Listen To And Share Playlists At MixTape.me
6:30PM Adam Pash | Web-based music application MixTape.me lets you create, listen to, learn about, and share playlists quickly and easily. It’s awesome. More »
Organise
4:30PM Angus Kidman | I’m going to spend part of the weekend photographing restored steam trains, at which point our recent post about taking HDR photos might well come in handy. Here’s some other tips from the past week that could prove useful if you get a spare minute:
Try out the five-minute prison workout
Buy some discount iTunes cards at Woolies before the sale ends
Download IE8 before the Windows Update rush starts
Video your elderly relatives to get a chance of putting them on the ABC
If you’re tempted by Nokia’s Comes With Music, which officially launched on March 20, check our cost benefit analysis before coughing up
More »
Five Things To Do This Weekend
4:30PM Angus Kidman | I’m going to spend part of the weekend photographing restored steam trains, at which point our recent post about taking HDR photos might well come in handy. Here’s some other tips from the past week that could prove useful if you get a spare minute:
Try out the five-minute prison workout
Buy some discount iTunes cards at Woolies before the sale ends
Download IE8 before the Windows Update rush starts
Video your elderly relatives to get a chance of putting them on the ABC
If you’re tempted by Nokia’s Comes With Music, which officially launched on March 20, check our cost benefit analysis before coughing up
More »
Fix
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Lifehacker reader Graham Jupp didn’t think a bargain standalone photo frame was quite the match for his household decor, so he got busy with an IKEA frame and customised it for a more fetching appearance. We’ve pointed to similar hacks before, but Graham’s detailed tutorial makes the process easy even if you’re a tad nervous messing with your new digital toy. There’s also a neat suggestion at the end on how to use more elaborate cut-out patterns to make any frame more interesting.
DIY Square Format Digital Photo Frame Project [Framebug]
More »
Smarten Up Your Digital Photo Frame
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Lifehacker reader Graham Jupp didn’t think a bargain standalone photo frame was quite the match for his household decor, so he got busy with an IKEA frame and customised it for a more fetching appearance. We’ve pointed to similar hacks before, but Graham’s detailed tutorial makes the process easy even if you’re a tad nervous messing with your new digital toy. There’s also a neat suggestion at the end on how to use more elaborate cut-out patterns to make any frame more interesting.
DIY Square Format Digital Photo Frame Project [Framebug]
More »
Communicate
1:30PM Angus Kidman | If you’ve ever thought success as a writer is a question of volume, then a list of authors who achieved literary immortality by writing just one novel should provide some strange degree of reassurance. The Times lists 10 writers who fit that criteria, from Harper Lee to Boris Pasternak (though including Oscar Wilde and JD Salinger is cheating just slightly, methinks). If keeping yourself to the writing task at hand is the main problem, check out previously mentioned Write Or Die or the one hundred words a day trick. Picture from Wikimedia Commons.
10 Literary one-hit wonders [Times Online]
More »
How To Get Famous By Writing Just One Novel
1:30PM Angus Kidman | If you’ve ever thought success as a writer is a question of volume, then a list of authors who achieved literary immortality by writing just one novel should provide some strange degree of reassurance. The Times lists 10 writers who fit that criteria, from Harper Lee to Boris Pasternak (though including Oscar Wilde and JD Salinger is cheating just slightly, methinks). If keeping yourself to the writing task at hand is the main problem, check out previously mentioned Write Or Die or the one hundred words a day trick. Picture from Wikimedia Commons.
10 Literary one-hit wonders [Times Online]
More »
Work
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Even when you’re a dedicated keyboard shortcut junkie, there’s always something new to learn. I’ve often needed to clear rubbish formatting in Word documents, and have even set up my own macro to do so — little realising that you can simply select text and type Control-Space to strip any Word text back to default formatting. Click the link below for a demonstration of this technique on video. (Note that while this also works in Outlook and PowerPoint, in Excel, Control-Space chooses the current column.)
Clear rogue formatting [MSN Video]
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Use Control-Space To Clear Formatting In Word
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Even when you’re a dedicated keyboard shortcut junkie, there’s always something new to learn. I’ve often needed to clear rubbish formatting in Word documents, and have even set up my own macro to do so — little realising that you can simply select text and type Control-Space to strip any Word text back to default formatting. Click the link below for a demonstration of this technique on video. (Note that while this also works in Outlook and PowerPoint, in Excel, Control-Space chooses the current column.)
Clear rogue formatting [MSN Video]
More »
Work
10:30AM Angus Kidman | People who aren’t using recently updated Internet Explorer often feel a certain sense of smugness about the relative vulnerability level of their browser. The annual Pwn2own competition demonstrates the foolishness of anyone feeling smug. Our sister site Gizmodo reports that Safari was hacked within ten seconds of the competition starting, with Firefox and IE following some hours later. So no matter what your browser (or your platform), sensible security measures from strong password to security software need to remain a focus for everybody. If you’re looking for options for the latter, check out our Hive Five on the best antivirus software.
Safari Cracked in Seconds at Pwn2Own Hacking Competition [Gizmodo AU]
More »
Safari Falls First (And Everything Falls Eventually) In Browser Hacking Competition
10:30AM Angus Kidman | People who aren’t using recently updated Internet Explorer often feel a certain sense of smugness about the relative vulnerability level of their browser. The annual Pwn2own competition demonstrates the foolishness of anyone feeling smug. Our sister site Gizmodo reports that Safari was hacked within ten seconds of the competition starting, with Firefox and IE following some hours later. So no matter what your browser (or your platform), sensible security measures from strong password to security software need to remain a focus for everybody. If you’re looking for options for the latter, check out our Hive Five on the best antivirus software.
Safari Cracked in Seconds at Pwn2Own Hacking Competition [Gizmodo AU]
More »
Fix
Undo Send Gives You Five Seconds To Stop A Bum Email
9:45AM Adam Pash | Ever hit send and realise immediately that you’d made a mistake? Wish you could unsend that email? With Gmail Labs’ new Undo Send feature, you’ve got five seconds to reclaim that email and fix your mistake. As always, just head to the Gmail Labs settings page, enable the feature, and you’ve got an extra layer of protection from internet catastrophe. New in Labs: Undo Send [Official Gmail Blog] More »
