Friday, April 3, 2009
Work
“Internet Leisure Browsing” Is A Helpful Distraction, Study Says
11:30PM Kevin Purdy | A new study from the University of Melbourne shows that workers who spend less than 20 percent of their office time to take “short and unobtrusive breaks” to surf personal, less productive sites were 9 percent more productive than those who tried to tirelessly keep their nose to the grindstone. We’ve long been keen on buckling down for a productive dash, followed by a little break, so an 80/20 split seems pretty reasonable. Maybe the best part of this study, though, is the coining of the acronym WILB, for “Workplace internet leisure browsing.” [Wired via Reuters] More »
Organise
4:30PM Angus Kidman | No money? No problem! Here’s five ideas from the last week on Lifehacker that won’t cost you a cent: More »
Five Things To Do This Weekend
4:30PM Angus Kidman | No money? No problem! Here’s five ideas from the last week on Lifehacker that won’t cost you a cent: More »
Organise
3:00PM Angus Kidman | WA switched over last weekend, but now it’s the turn of the other daylight saving states, with clocks going back an hour at 3am on Sunday. No more curtain fading!
Remember Your Daylight Saving Tech Check
3:00PM Angus Kidman | WA switched over last weekend, but now it’s the turn of the other daylight saving states, with clocks going back an hour at 3am on Sunday. No more curtain fading!
Fix
1:30PM Angus Kidman | No matter how crammed the corner, you can turn it into a functional workspace, as this compact laundry conversion proves. More »
DIY IKEA Office To Hide In A Laundry
1:30PM Angus Kidman | No matter how crammed the corner, you can turn it into a functional workspace, as this compact laundry conversion proves. More »
Design
12:00PM Angus Kidman | SharePoint Designer, a Microsoft tool for designing sites for use with its SharePoint “intranet solution” (yucky phrase, but what else to call it?), is now free. If you’re working in a Microsoft shop (or just sharpening your IIS and SharePoint skills to score a job), it’s a good chance to check out a ribbon-enabled, MS-friendly design tool without having to splash out $450 or so for the full version.
SharePoint Designer [via Inside Office Online Blog]
Microsoft SharePoint Designer Now Free
12:00PM Angus Kidman | SharePoint Designer, a Microsoft tool for designing sites for use with its SharePoint “intranet solution” (yucky phrase, but what else to call it?), is now free. If you’re working in a Microsoft shop (or just sharpening your IIS and SharePoint skills to score a job), it’s a good chance to check out a ribbon-enabled, MS-friendly design tool without having to splash out $450 or so for the full version.
SharePoint Designer [via Inside Office Online Blog]
Money
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Big W is currently selling iTunes Cards at 15% off face value — an even better deal than its sibling supermarket’s recent 10% reduction offer. As we’ve pointed out before, these are always a good option to stock up with as emergency.gifts for iPod-loving friends and family. [via OzBargain]
Big W Offering 15% Off ITunes Cards
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Big W is currently selling iTunes Cards at 15% off face value — an even better deal than its sibling supermarket’s recent 10% reduction offer. As we’ve pointed out before, these are always a good option to stock up with as emergency.gifts for iPod-loving friends and family. [via OzBargain]
Organise
Gmail Search Autocomplete Makes Searching Your Inbox A Breeze
9:50AM Adam Pash | Gmail Labs has released a great new Search Autocomplete feature today that can give search suggestions for all kinds of Gmail searches, from simple search-by-contacts to more advanced search queries—like for specific attachments. More »
Communicate
Gmail Removes “On Behalf Of” From Your Consolidated Inbox
9:30AM Adam Pash | We’ve shown you how Gmail can consolidate multiple email addresses so you can use Gmail as a universal inbox, and it’s a great feature, but it’s always had one frustrating flaw: The emails sent from the non-default email addresses used to be sent with a message that looked something like: “From customaddress@domain.com on behalf of yourusername@gmail.com.” The good news? It appears that Google has dropped this rather annoying feature, meaning you can now much more legitimately use Gmail as your multiple email control centre without broadcasting that fact to the world. Thanks Rob!
Fix
Build An Under-the-Cabinet Kitchen PC From An Old Laptop
9:00AM Adam Pash | Inspired by our guide to giving an old laptop new life with cheap or free projects, Lifehacker reader Brian turned his aging Dell laptop into an incredible under-the-cabinet kitchen PC. More »
Communicate
8:49AM Angus Kidman | While its merger process with Vodafone rumbles along, 3 is still pushing ahead with plans to allow roaming onto Telstra’s Next G network. If a leaked price list is to be believed, that change will also make its data services somewhat more affordable. More »
3 To Drop Roaming Prices For Next G Access
8:49AM Angus Kidman | While its merger process with Vodafone rumbles along, 3 is still pushing ahead with plans to allow roaming onto Telstra’s Next G network. If a leaked price list is to be believed, that change will also make its data services somewhat more affordable. More » 