Writer Barbara Toner has just released a book entitled What To Do About Everything, which offers tips on how to organise every aspect of your domestic life, from managing your budget to getting a divorce and even making a citizen’s arrest. That sounds like prime Lifehacker material, so we had a chat with Barbara Toner, starting with the obvious question: if you’re writing about everything, how on earth do you plan for that? More »
Getting Ubuntu running on your PC is pretty straightforward, and most of its features are fairly obvious if you’ve been used to a graphical user interface like Windows or Mac OS X. Here’s a handful of tips to help you make the transition and find some useful features if you’ve started playing with Ubuntu. More »
Editor: Meet io9 contributor Lisa Katayama. When she’s not blogging about robots and futurism, she’s spreading the word about how to GTD in the most unexpected ways. Here’s a sampling of a few clever tricks you’ll find in her new book, Urawaza. When it comes to life and getting things done, we like to do things a little differently in Japan. When I break a glass in the kitchen, I don’t use my vacuum cleaner to clean it up; I use a slice of bread. When my socks become dirt-stained from running in a muddy ravine, I don’t pour bleach on them; I stuff them with marbles. And to save space and money, I have never bought a document shredder. I just stuff incriminating documents in a stocking and toss them in the washing machine.
Photography web site Photojojo details how to get crisp, beautiful prints from your digital photos with Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask. What’s the point of sharpening, you ask? Digital cameras have a fixed grid of pixels, each of which can only capture one colour or shade at a time. Say you take a picture that has a sharp edge between black and white… The single pixel that records that hairline edge can only record one colour, so it renders it as grey. What we think of as sharpness is actually the contrast we see between different colours. A quick transition from black to white looks sharp. A gradual transition from black to grey to white looks blurry.
The webcam that came packaged with your computer system can do a whole lot more than just let you video chat. With the right tools, you can turn your webcam into a watchful surveillance tool, a face recognition-enabled computer login utility, a time-lapse movie-maker, and more. Let’s take a look at some ways you can get more out of your underutilised webcam.
The How-To Geek blog posts a truly helpful guide to figuring out what’s causing Internet Explorer 7 to slow down, particularly on Windows Vista systems. Starting with running IE7 in safe mode, the guide is a boon for anyone not particularly tweak-savvy as it moves through disabling add-ons, confusing options boxes, and all the way to disabling auto-tuning, plus the ultimate fix—unplugging and re-plugging your router, of course. Regardless of skill level, it’s a good forward for anyone you know who can’t/won’t install Firefox and is tired of browsing the Internet at slug-like speeds. (Original auto-tuning post) Troubleshooting Internet Explorer on Vista Locking Up or Running Slowly [The How-To Geek]
Drop for drop, colognes and perfumes are some of the most expensive liquids around, and yet they can wear off before you step out your door. The TipNut blog suggests that moisturising the area where you’ll apply the strong stuff—like with petroleum jelly or any non-scented moisturiser—helps lock in its strength longer than spraying onto dry skin. Combine that with another hint that pulse points are a scent distributor, and your eau de toilette just might earn its keep for the night. Hit the link for more advice, and feel free to offer up your own fragrance suggestions in the comments. Photo by Here in Van Nuys. How To Make Fragrances Last Longer [TipNut]
Portfolio magazine has a great guide to the realm of higher-end teas, with an introduction to different varieties and age-old wisdom (along with some new-age connoisseur-style advice) on how to best prepare and enjoy the lower-caffeine pick-me-up. I was surprised to see this tip amongst the offerings: Experts say that you should use boiling water for black tea. For more delicate green or white tea, Sebastian Beckwith, co-founder of the Connecticut-based specialty-tea seller In Pursuit of Tea, suggests letting the water cool for a few minutes. “You lose a lot of flavour if you put boiling water on white or green tea,” he says.
We’re obviously not big fans of making simple things more complicated around here, but if it improves your morning ritual, all the better. Gourmet Tea Guide [Portfolio]
We’ve previously featured “Professor” Solomon’s free pages featuring his 12 Principles for finding what you’ve lost, but now the good man is offering up his entire 67-page book, “How to Find Lost Objects,” as a free PDF download. If you not only want to find a particular lost object—like, say, the iPod Touch I managed to misplace for two months—but want to learn the habits and thinking that help you find things on a regular basis, hit the link for your guide to “The Eureka Zone,” “Domestic Drift,” “Pocket Gobble,” and more. How to Find Lost Objects [Professor Solomon]
Olympic gold-medal-winner Ryan Lochte trains a lot harder than you or I do when he’s in the pool, but anyone who uses swimming as part of their fitness routine can pick up a few tips from him, whether on stroke technique or general training suggestions. Among them is a suggestion to create artificial “races” you’re aiming to win, or personal records you have to break. From Locthe’s advice:
