Posts by Lifehacker US Edition
Work
1:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | It may not have the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover, but our Bookworm’s Guide to the Lifehacker Galaxy is a compilation of some of our favourite book-related hacks, projects and tricks, as part of our Book Week 2009 series. More »
The Bookworm’s Guide To The Lifehacker Galaxy
1:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | It may not have the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover, but our Bookworm’s Guide to the Lifehacker Galaxy is a compilation of some of our favourite book-related hacks, projects and tricks, as part of our Book Week 2009 series. More » 
Design
GDI++ Adds OS X Font Rendering To Windows
6:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | 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] More »
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Email Yourself Reminders From Launchy
4:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | 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. More »
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GMinder Puts Google Calendar In Your System Tray
2:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | 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 More »
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Use Google Reader From Within Outlook
4:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Reader David writes in with a useful tip for consolidating windows—he embeds Google Reader into Outlook as a replacement for the built-in RSS support. Replacing the current RSS Feeds folder with Google Reader instead is easy—just right-click on the folder, choose Properties, enter the URL to Google Reader on the Home Page tab, and then check the box for “Show home page by default for this folder”. You can even use the full URL to a specific folder in Google Reader, or create extra folders in Outlook and use a different URL for quick access to different views. More »
Design
The Graffiti Desktop
2:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Reader zackshackleton’s desktop blends system stats and useful information into a picture of a train covered in graffiti—it takes a careful eye to even notice they are there. More »
Work
Create Smarter Google Translate Keyword Bookmarks
7:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Reader Jerry Lue read our feature on creating smarter keyword bookmarks, and took the initiative to create a set of smart bookmarks that interact with Google Translate. These keyword bookmarks either translate the current page, or even translate a phrase directly from the Firefox location bar. More »
Design
Zamzar Converts Powerpoint Into Easy-To-Share Images
4:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Ever wanted to extract Powerpoint slides as images for embedding elsewhere? Try Zamzar. To convert the file, simply upload the file (ignoring the obnoxious popup ads), choose PNG format, and enter your email address to receive the link for the converted files—it took a little while for the files to show up, but the conversion process worked perfectly—all ready for you to embed or email the files. An alternative method for converting and sharing Powerpoint is to simply upload the file to Google Docs, and then use the PDF export option to download and share with friends—or you can use Google Docs to embed presentations on your web site or blog. Thanks, Nick! Zamzar More »
Design
The Mad Libs Desktop
8:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Reader okchickadee’s desktop takes a Mad Libs wallpaper and blends system statistics into the blanks—making one of the most entertaining and unique desktops we’ve seen. More »
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