If you’re rocking a Windows Mobile Smartphone but have yet to set up your Gmail account with the device, the Hackszine weblog offers a simple step-by-step for setting up your Windows Mobile phone with Gmail. Keep in mind that your Gmail account can only be accessed through POP and not IMAP using this method, meaning that your read mail status won’t be reflected in your Gmail account. If you really want tighter integration between Gmail and your smartphone, I’d suggest setting up a Java Virtual Machine on your Windows Mobile phone and then installing Gmail Mobile. Whichever method you choose, both should give you excellent on-the-go access to your Gmail account.
HOWTO – use Gmail with your Windows Mobile Smartphone [Hackszine]Ever have to crop or resize a picture to fit it better on a web site but end up disappointed with the content you have to lose from the photo? Using a method called liquid rescaling, your pics can be rescaled while retaining almost all of the pertinent content, so you can get the best of both worlds—a smaller image that retains everything you want. If it still sounds a little unclear, check out the video to see this brilliant idea in action.
If you’re a fan of the open source image editor GIMP, you can download and install the Liquid Rescale GIMP plug-in to get liquid rescaling results (after you install it by moving the downloaded files into your GIMP directory, you’ll see the Liquid Rescale option under the Layer menu). If you don’t feel like installing anything, you should try out the Rsizr webapp, which does the rescaling from the comfort of your browser. Both tools are a good deal slower than what you see in the very cool video above, and neither are implemented to the full extent of what you’re seeing in the video, but the results are still promising.
Liquid Rescale GIMP pluginRsizr [via Photojojo]If you’ve ever had to carry a long rope—perhaps for rappelling or mountain climbing—for a lengthy period of time, you might get sick of shifting the rope from one arm to the other. Instead, the “butterfly coil” method may prove useful. You’ll end up with a rope backpack, which should be much more comfortable. Of course, if you already have a backpack, you may not find an immediate use for this trick, but the tip comes in handy during times when you can’t carry around the extra gear.
Rope into Backpack [Instructables]US-centric: If you want to block your cell phone number from showing up on other phones (for whatever reason), you can do it temporarily simply by dialing *67 before the number you’re calling. According to tech how-to site How To Do Things, you won’t have any way to tell this is working (it does), but if you want to reassure yourself just call another phone number that has caller ID to double-check that your number, indeed, is blocked. AU – To block your number being call-ID’d in Australia, I believe you need to dial 1831 before the number.
How To Block Your Cell Phone Number [How to Do Things]Computer thief unknowingly uploads Photo Booth images to Flickr thanks to the FlickrBooth plug-in. Looks like there’s more than one way to turn your iSight into a security camera. More »
Getting Things Done author David Allen calls any kind of productivity trick or system “advanced common sense”—using the smart part of your brain to help out the dumb part in its most feeble moments. The Getting Things Done weblog lists some of its best “advanced common sense,” like writing things down, ubiquitous capture and setting up to-do’s in their right contexts. For me, hanging up the car keys on the keyrack is the advanced common sense that keeps my dumb future self from running around the house looking for them when it’s time to go. More »
Newly-launched webapp Fuser fetches your email and social networking messages and displays them in a single place to simplify their management. Register at Fuser and then add your Facebook and/or MySpace login details, as well as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AIM or any POP3/IMAP email accounts and see all your messages in Fuser. Fuser isn’t an email client or backup service, mind you—if you delete a message from your Gmail account it will not appear on Fuser. It’s just a single place to see all your stuff. More »
If you’ve been following the evolution of the One Laptop Per Child campaign, you know that along with working to bring cheap computers to kids in developing countries, they’ve also developed an awesome rugged laptop with an indoor/outdoor screen, no moving breakable parts, which requires no external power source, and has mesh networking capabilities. Very cool. Prototypes of the OLPC have been passed around at various geek conferences in Australia recently, but now they’re opening up a limited “Give 1 Get 1″ program so you can fund a laptop for a child in the developing world, and get one for yourself or your own child:
“Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time. For $US399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.”
Sounds like an awesome way to do some good, and get your hands on an awesome piece of technology. I suspect I know what a few altruistic geeks will be finding under their Christmas tree this year: More »
US-centric: If your cell phone bill is giving you the flutters, then mobile enthusiast jkOnTheRun can (possibly) help you out with their list of employer and educational discounts. Just find your carrier (links are all provided) and figure out if you are eligible. Because I’m self-employed, I don’t qualify for diddly, but if you find out you scored some savings please share in the comments. How to score a discount on your monthly cellular bill [jkOnTheRun]
