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 »
No money? No problem! Here’s five ideas from the last week on Lifehacker that won’t cost you a cent: More »
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!
No matter how crammed the corner, you can turn it into a functional workspace, as this compact laundry conversion proves. More »
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]
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]
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 »
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!
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 »
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 »
