Qantas last year changed its policies on earning frequent flyer points from credit cards, so that the main option is now continuously earning points as you spend money, rather than choosing to transfer batches of credit card “points” to your frequent flyer account. March 31 (that is, today) is the last day you can make a manual transfer on many cards, and you’ll want to be set up for automatic earning after that if you’re trying to accumulate points. Different banks have different approaches with their cards; hit up the link below to check if your card is affected. To get more value from those points when you have earned them, check our guide to making the most of the Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme. Qantas
Mac OS X only: Free application Pod to Mac—sibling application of previously mentioned Pod to PC—copies any music or video file from your iPhone or iPod to your Mac.The app is dead simple to use: Just plug in your iPhone, iPod touch, or any other incarnation of iPod, browse through your library or individual playlists, and select and transfer whatever media you want to import to your iTunes library. Pod to Mac can search your device if you’re looking for a specific track, or you can just click Select All and download every track wholesale. Our guide to copying music from your iPhone or iPod to your computer for free featured one other app that could do iPhone-to-Mac transfers, but that application (Senuti) has since gone shareware—making Pod to Mac the best free solution that we’re aware of. It’s fast, it’s easy, and from our tests, it works like a charm. Pod to Mac is a free download, Mac OS X only. For a very similar app for Windows made by the same folks, give previously mentioned Pod to PC a try.
Pod to MacOver at Ars Technica, former Lifehacker editor Erica Sadun reports that, “although Google will not specify a target date, they assured us that they would be ‘very surprised’ and ‘very unhappy’ if [US]fall came and went without a public beta”—meaning that, by any luck, OS X users can expect a very functional Chrome before the end of the year. (Remember, after all, that Chrome launched into Windows as a beta just a few months back). [Ars Technica via Gizmodo]
Ever wanted to share your email address with someone in a public forum, but don’t want every spambot in the world adding your email address to their database? Scr.im can help. Scr.im is a very simple service that creates small, custom URLs for sharing your email with real people. It works like this: You add your email address to Scr.im, it gives you a small URL—like this one—that requires you to pass a captcha to view the email address. That’s all Scr.im does—which means you can file this one into the handy, single-use category for webapps—a category we love dearly.
Scr.im [via Emily Chang]Windows only: System tray application GDI++ replaces the Windows font engine with smoother OS X-style rendering instead of Microsoft’s ClearType.
In the screenshot, original Windows fonts are on the left, GDI++ fonts are on the right. Using the application is simple enough—just extract and run the gditray.exe utility, and then make sure the font rendering is enabled in the system tray menu. You’ll probably have to refresh the applications on the screen to see the changes—just minimise and restore them and you should see the changes immediately. The font rendering is based originally on the GDI++ library from drwatson. That means most of the documentation is in Japanese, the application is clunky, and hooking into Windows this way could cause system instability, so definitely proceed with caution. Still, it’s an interesting application that might be worth a look if you really dislike Windows fonts. Mac vs. Windows font rendering is a common subject of debate, and it really comes down to a matter of personal taste—we aren’t recommending one over the other, but now Windows users have an easy-to-implement choice in the matter.
Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts [digital parsimony]The human body hasn’t quite evolved to comfortably spend 12 hours a day hunched at a desk. If long hours are taking their toll, it’s time to get vertical and build your own standing desk.
WebWorkerDaily writer Mark Hinton decided he wanted a standing desk as a workplace back-up, so he could move between sitting and standing throughout his day when his back needed a break. He opted to build his own for several reasons: he could build it the exact size and height he wanted, it was cheaper to build it himself, and he wanted a desk he could take apart easily when he was inspired to rearrange his office. The construction required only a simple 2×4 frame with a plywood top.
Reader Ryan writes in with his ubergeeky method for sending emails to himself directly from Launchy—a very useful trick to quickly send yourself reminders. To accomplish this hack, Ryan assembled a visual basic script (VBS) file that sends the email using Gmail’s SMTP server—the email addresses are hard-coded but the subject line can be entered directly in Launchy.
Remember the Canon Hacker’s Development Kit, aka CHDK—the open-source firmware that turns your point-and-shoot into a super-camera? Here’s how bug enthusiast Tim used CHDK and DIY ingenuity for better macro results from his point-and-shoot. Spending more money was off the table for Tim’s spending budget, so rather than pony up for some new, expensive equipment, he turned to the wonder of open source. His setup is a little heady if you’re not familiar with the subject, but Tim used a reverse mounted lens technique along with the focus bracketing feature of CHDK. The results—one of which you can see in the screenshot—speak for themselves. If this project doesn’t quite appeal to you but you are interested in getting a ton more functionality from your standard Canon point-and-shoot, check out our guide to getting started with CHDK.
My setup [BugGuide.net via Hack a Day]If you’re a fan of Tab Mix Plus, you already know how handy having your unread tabs italicised can be—but you don’t need to install an extension for this useful feature. You can run a tight ship and keep extensions to a minimum by editing your userChrome.css file to achieve the same effect. The userChrome.css should be located in the sub-directory /Profiles/Chrome/ wherever your Firefox installation resides.
Windows only: System tray application GMinder gives you quick offline display of multiple Google Calendars—and even alerts you of upcoming appointments. The application was created by reader Greg Todd, who wrote the application for his own use—but decided to release it for the rest of us to enjoy. Using the application is simple—just enter in your Google account information, click the Download button to get your list of calendars, and then select the ones you want to display. The only small issue is that Windows Vista users will need to select a different sound file in the options panel since the default one doesn’t exist on Vista—a small price to pay for an excellent application that bridges the gap between Google Calendar and your Windows desktop. Thanks, Greg! GMinder is free and open source, available for Windows only. Google Desktop users can also check out the powerful Google Calendar gadget, and readers using Firefox should check out our own Better GCal extension.
Gminder
