Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): list.it combines the keyboard-tap availability of Firefox’s sidebar with the helpfulness of always-there, synchronized text notes. After installing the extension and setting up your shortcuts for the sidebar, note searching, and the quick-input bar (the defaults are, unfortunately, Mac-specific), you’re pretty much set up to start tapping away. If you’re frantically browsing and searching for gift ideas or last-minute work research, being able to quickly enter notes that get automatically backed up across Firefox browsers is no small help. If you’re feeling generous and non-private, you can opt to let MIT’s Haystack research team examine your notes and timing in their studies of productivity, memory, and the like.
list.it is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. list.it [MIT Haystack Group]
Human-powered search site Mahalo launches a familiar-seeming group Q&A forum, Mahalo Answers, with a Google-like twist—having the best answer might just earn you a few bucks from the question-asker. In other words, it’s intended to be a cross between the pay-for-answers seriousness of Google’s now-shuttered Answers tool, which tilted toward researchers and super-specific questions, and Yahoo’s own wide-open Answers. Mahalo is seeding a few hundred thousand “Mahalo Bucks” (worth $0.75 in real dollars, cash-able after accumulating $40) to current Mahalo members and testers for spending on answers. And to prevent fraud and cheap-skating, askers will have four days to pick an answer before other users choose it for them, and rating systems are intended to kill off spammers and griefers. If Yahoo just isn’t cutting it for you, or you’re looking for a semi-serious answer to a question you’re willing to spend a few on, Mahalo Answers might be the place to sound off. Mahalo Answers [via Wired]
Google has upped its commitment to bringing newspaper archives online, first announced in September, by buying 20 million historical pages from Paper of Record, covering the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Good news for scholars, students, and “Day you were born” print-out.gifts.
The Google Operating System blog points out that Google’s integration of Scholar results means that students and researchers have to settle for “subscription required” firewalls when trying to pull up a paper. Hit the “All (x) versions” link, and you’ll often find a readable copy on Google’s servers.
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Free search and research add-on Juice seems to be aimed directly at web browsers who are easily distracted by following links, viewing web videos, and other hey-look-here devices. The Firefox add-on creates a pop-out sidebar, and whenever you select and drag text, pictures, or videos every so slightly, Juice adds those items to its tracking list, then runs them through what the developers call an “intelligent discovery engine,” searching Google, blogs, Wikipedia, or other sources, depending on what you grabbed, and showing them in the sidebar. Unlike other web clipping tools like Snipd or Google Notebook, Juice only stores your items in that particular Firefox browser, and there’s no option (yet) to move the results pane off the right side. Still, for those looking to do some run-and-gun reading, Juice might just fit the bill. Juice is a free beta download, works wherever Firefox 3 does. Check out a video demonstration of Juice’s deeper features below.
Web site Quarkbase offers an organised and detailed overview of any web site, complete with summary, popularity, ownership, traffic information, and even recent blog posts and tweets about the site. In a nutshell, it’s sort of like Whois.net on steroids. Quarkbase’s accuracy and wealth of information varies based on the popularity of a site, but if you want to know more about a web site, it’s a great place to start your search.
QuarkbaseScientists have long held that seven items—be they images, numbers, or tasks—was the best a brain could manage to hold at once, but LiveScience points out that, without specific practice, the best-case scenario for most people is three or four. It’s a good explanation why phone numbers are written and spoken as three and four-digit groups, and a better reminder that if you’ve got a lot to do or remember, writing it down is probably the only way to hit 100 percent. What’s your personal limit on non-practiced memory? How do you break up tasks and must-remember items into small groups for better recall? Share your successes in the comments, and check out our top 10 memory hacks for some pointers on augmenting your grey matter’s somewhat paltry RAM. Mind’s Limit Found: 4 Things at Once [LiveScience via Dumb Little Man]
Ever feel supremely stiffed after paying good money for a textbook or paperback copy of a book that’s been in the public domain for decades? The Public Domain Books Reprints Service acts as a go-between for sites like Project Gutenberg, Google Books’ public works, and other copyright-free sites and self-publishing service Lulu.com, which charges fairly decent prices to print nice-looking tomes. It’s not free, but it could save you a bit of cash on textbooks, or help you find a paper copy of any obscure works you’re looking for.
Public Domain Books Reprints Service [via The Red Ferret Journal]Does the internet tell the truth? Not always. Two year ago on Lifehacker, we showed you how to verify the accuracy of the sources of information you find on the ‘net.
Lifehacker AU reader Peggy has posted some study tips for students, including a nice tweak for Google Scholar which helps you find resources at your local Uni.
1. Go to ‘Scholar Preferences‘2. In the Library Links section, search for your uni3. Hopefully your uni will be listed, if so tick the check box (If not, maybe ask a librarian and see if the uni can get listed)4. In the Bibliography Manager section, select EndNote5. Click on ‘Save Preferences‘Now when you search, for the papers you usually need to login to download you’ll see a link similar to “Find it@UNSW” next to it. When you click on the link, it’ll take you to your uni’s login page and once you login you’ll be taken directly to the article. Nice isn’t it? Also, with EndNote, all articles should now have an “Import to EndNote” link, click on it to import into your EndNote library – no need to manually enter the details (though be careful there are times when Google doesn’t reference properly, but it’s rare, and usually an easy fix)
Ten Useful Tips to Help with Research [Psychopyko]
Thanks for the tip, Peggy!
