Friday, March 27, 2009
Work
Install Ubuntu On A White MacBook
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | It’s not too hard to install Ubuntu (just out with a new beta) on most computers. MacBooks, however, have a few unique quirks, especially if you want to keep OS X. FOSSwire has a thorough installation guide. Following along, you’ll learn how to carve out space for Linux alongside your partition for OS X (and Windows, if you want to triple-boot), and use the rEFIt bootloader tool to create an easily-switch-able startup. You’ll end up doing a little partition work, but it only requires the Ubuntu installation disc or USB drive you’d need anyways. This should work for the older line of non-unibody MacBooks, which have different hardware setups than the most current line. Found an easier way to get the orange-hued Linux distro on your sparkling white MacBook? Tell us how in the comments. How-To Install Ubuntu 8.10 on a White MacBook [FOSSwire] More »
Work
Designing The Perfect, Personalised Home Office
9:00PM Kevin Purdy | Until recently, Sara Rimer had the kind of home office where a filing cabinet ended up as just another surface for clutter piles. Then she called some home office designers, reconfigured everything, and shared her experience. Rimer’s story in the New York Times goes into detail on how her design consultants determined what she’d need as a writer, how it was implemented, and why the softer stuff—inviting lighting, familiar sights, a really comfortable chair—is just as important as proper organisation. And if you’ve ever felt like the label maker needs its own holiday, Rimer’s office designers can relate. More »
Organise
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Sometimes, the weekend is about just having time with your friends and family. Sometimes it’s about watching strangely reformed 90s pop bands. And sometimes it’s about catching up with the best tech hints from the past week on Lifehacker:
Work out how much international carry-on luggage you can get away with
If you’re a Commonwealth Bank customer, check out the mobile NetBank site
Pick a better bank account with Fumzup
Teach your keyword bookmarks not to misbehave
Equip your BlackBerry for voice search
More »
Five Things To Do This Weekend
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Sometimes, the weekend is about just having time with your friends and family. Sometimes it’s about watching strangely reformed 90s pop bands. And sometimes it’s about catching up with the best tech hints from the past week on Lifehacker:
Work out how much international carry-on luggage you can get away with
If you’re a Commonwealth Bank customer, check out the mobile NetBank site
Pick a better bank account with Fumzup
Teach your keyword bookmarks not to misbehave
Equip your BlackBerry for voice search
More »
Communicate
3:00PM Angus Kidman | There are plenty of sites that will let you check the weather, but the domain ‘thef**ingweather.com’ is one you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry, even if prevailing social mores mean we can’t reproduce it in its entirety. While the site looks US-centric at first glance, you can enter Australian cities and get suitably accurate results (and choose the Celsius option so the results make sense). Suffice to say any weather site that’s detailed enough to cover Bellingen is OK by us.
TheF***ingweather.com
More »
TheF***ingweather.com Tells You The Weather (NSFW)
3:00PM Angus Kidman | There are plenty of sites that will let you check the weather, but the domain ‘thef**ingweather.com’ is one you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry, even if prevailing social mores mean we can’t reproduce it in its entirety. While the site looks US-centric at first glance, you can enter Australian cities and get suitably accurate results (and choose the Celsius option so the results make sense). Suffice to say any weather site that’s detailed enough to cover Bellingen is OK by us.
TheF***ingweather.com
More »
Work
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Good news for code-cutting teenagers — Microsoft has extended its DreamSpark program, which offers free copies of its main development tools for education use, to Australian high schools. The program was rolled out for university and TAFE students last year, which has resulted in more than 43,000 downloads from Australia. As we noted when the scheme rolled out, there are some seriously big files involved, so pick your download schedule carefully.
DreamSpark
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Microsoft Extends DreamSpark Free Software Program To Aussie High Schools
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Good news for code-cutting teenagers — Microsoft has extended its DreamSpark program, which offers free copies of its main development tools for education use, to Australian high schools. The program was rolled out for university and TAFE students last year, which has resulted in more than 43,000 downloads from Australia. As we noted when the scheme rolled out, there are some seriously big files involved, so pick your download schedule carefully.
DreamSpark
More »
Organise
12:13PM Angus Kidman | For most of Australia, daylight saving doesn’t end this weekend — there’s still another week to go before NSW, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania switch back. While most computers should handle that change automatically, some older mobile phones or other gadgets might automatically try and change the time come Sunday morning, so it’s worth checking. Western Australian readers do end daylight saving this weekend, so a double-check will be even more important. (Queensland, as always, had ignored the whole concept, which still really sucks if you live in Tweed Heads.) More »
Double-Check For Daylight Saving Changes On Your Gadgets
12:13PM Angus Kidman | For most of Australia, daylight saving doesn’t end this weekend — there’s still another week to go before NSW, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania switch back. While most computers should handle that change automatically, some older mobile phones or other gadgets might automatically try and change the time come Sunday morning, so it’s worth checking. Western Australian readers do end daylight saving this weekend, so a double-check will be even more important. (Queensland, as always, had ignored the whole concept, which still really sucks if you live in Tweed Heads.) More »
Communicate
12:00PM Kym Weathersten | Remember, for your chance to win a BlackBerry Bold, courtesy of BlackBerry, head on over and complete this small… you guessed it… BlackBerry survey.
More »
Don’t Miss Your Chance To Win A BlackBerry Bold
12:00PM Kym Weathersten | Remember, for your chance to win a BlackBerry Bold, courtesy of BlackBerry, head on over and complete this small… you guessed it… BlackBerry survey.
More »
Communicate
10:30AM Angus Kidman | There’s no shortage of alternative Twitter clients if you don’t like the basic Web interface Twitter itself provides (TwitteReader and Twitlet are two we’ve highlighted recently). Twexxter is aimed at a specific group of users: netbook owners, who can often find that their limited screen real estate creates challenges in a world that often assumes widescreen is the norm. Written by legendary Australian tech journalist Darren Yates, Twexxter is still very much in beta phase (the current version number is 0.2.31), but already has a bunch of useful features, including fitting 20 tweets on limited screen real estate and letting you see how many Twitter-related activities you have left before you hit the per-hour activity limit. If you’re stuck with a small screen, it definitely makes keeping track of tweets a lot easier. Twexxter is a free download for Windows and Linux only.
Twexxter
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Twexxter Is A Twitter Client For Netbooks
10:30AM Angus Kidman | There’s no shortage of alternative Twitter clients if you don’t like the basic Web interface Twitter itself provides (TwitteReader and Twitlet are two we’ve highlighted recently). Twexxter is aimed at a specific group of users: netbook owners, who can often find that their limited screen real estate creates challenges in a world that often assumes widescreen is the norm. Written by legendary Australian tech journalist Darren Yates, Twexxter is still very much in beta phase (the current version number is 0.2.31), but already has a bunch of useful features, including fitting 20 tweets on limited screen real estate and letting you see how many Twitter-related activities you have left before you hit the per-hour activity limit. If you’re stuck with a small screen, it definitely makes keeping track of tweets a lot easier. Twexxter is a free download for Windows and Linux only.
Twexxter
More »
Fix
Password Lessons And Tips From Our Readers
9:30AM Kevin Purdy | We opened the floor to stories about passwords you should never, ever use earlier this month, and our readers didn’t disappoint. IT types and the security-passive can learn a lot from what Donny Don’t does. Photo by Freddy The Boy. More »
Travel
9:00AM Angus Kidman | If you’ve got a forthcoming trip to the US, dropping by the (fictional) location of one of your favourite TV shows of yore can be a nice activity to add to the list. Blogger Dan Meth offers up two useful maps for helping with that kind of planning: one covering New York City and the other the whole of the US. There’s room here for someone to do a more detailed Google Maps mashup, but this is still a nice start. More »
Sitcom Maps Help You Plan That TV-Inspired Holiday
9:00AM Angus Kidman | If you’ve got a forthcoming trip to the US, dropping by the (fictional) location of one of your favourite TV shows of yore can be a nice activity to add to the list. Blogger Dan Meth offers up two useful maps for helping with that kind of planning: one covering New York City and the other the whole of the US. There’s room here for someone to do a more detailed Google Maps mashup, but this is still a nice start. More » 