This nifty earth relief globe was created using paper modelling. The images used to create the globe were taken from the National Geophysical Data Center - NOAA Satellite and Information service website. The template to make your own was kindly made available by paper modelling enthusiast Giuseppe Civitares on the PaperPino website. Download the template in  PDF format here.

[via MAKE]

Our pals over at Gizmodo have written up the amAze GPS software, which is newly launched and available to Australian mobile users for free download and use. The navigation system is compatible with Java-enabled phones (including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, Motorola, Samsung and LG models) and provides maps, directions and aerial photographs. Features include voice guidance, a choice between pedestrian, bicycle, truck or car navigation (appealing since car-centric GPS devices like the Tom Tom don't give good directions for pedestrians!). Further details over at Giz.

Mobile GPS on the (relatively) cheap [Gizmodo]

I am really glad this software exists. It's a little app which you can use to scan End User License Agreements  (you know those things that most people just scroll through and hit 'agree'). Simply cut and paste the EULA into the program, and it will flag any suspect phrases for you to check.  It's pretty unreasonable to expect people to read pages and pages of legal "agreement" before using your product or service, but the fact is that some companies rely on this to try to sneak spyware onto your computer, or share (sell!) your data to other companies. EULAlyzer is a nice way to get out of reading all the detail, but still checking for nasties.

I ran EULAlyzer's own EULA through the program and it flagged the word "third party" as a phrase of interest. You simply need to click to be shown each place where the suspect phrase occurs in the EULA. In this case, the software wasn't trying to trick me into handing over my personal details to third parties, it was just referring to third parties as users of the software. But I'm glad I checked. :)

You can download EULAlyzer here - it's freeware and there's a paid pro version available.

[via Makeuseof.com]

Find and download new music and build playlists of streaming tunes online with web site thesixtyone. This sort of site has been springing up a lot lately (like Songza, SeeqPod, and perhaps one of the originals, The Hype Machine), but thesixtyone is probably one of the most feature-rich, well thought-out sites of its kind. No matter what you do on the site the music keeps playing, so you can navigate anywhere and build playlists in real time, "bump" songs (à la digg), and download MP3s without ever stopping the music. Some music can be downloaded for free from thesixtyone, while other DRM-free MP3s can be purchased through Amazon MP3 [if you're in the US].

Ok elves, it's T minus 15 days till your bag o' presents is supposed to be wrapped and under the tree. To help you brainstorm, gather, and wrap the goods, Real Simple magazine offers holiday gift list worksheet as a PDF download. This is just a simple list with lines to fill in each person's name, the gift idea, and checkboxes to mark whether you've purchased, received, and/or gift-wrapped it. If printing's not your thing and you'd like to track your holiday spending as well, make yourself a spreadsheet with an additional column for cost, totaled at the end.

Mac OS X only: Freeware, single-use application Do-It provides a quick and simple way to create new iCal appointments without the clicking frenzy required with iCal's default interface. Just launch it whenever you want to add a new appointment, fill out the details (the form is completely Tab-friendly), hit enter and go back to whatever you were doing. It's a simple but wonderful improvement to iCal if the default behaviour has ever gotten on your nerves. Do-It is a free download, Mac OS X only.

Google's newly released chart API generates charts and graphs on the fly called by a URL with the right parameters set. The Google Blogoscoped weblog runs down what data to hand the API to get back a pie chart, line chart, bar graph and more. Don't hot-link the image on your high traffic web site, though, you only get 50,000 hits on it. Above I've used it to generate a chart of the percentage of the last 30 Google-related posts we've published here at Lifehacker by editor. Here's the live URL if you want to play with it and modify for your own purposes.

The Windows key seems to inspire loathing far beyond what is reasonable for a mere key on a keyboard. I know people who've pried it off the keyboard completely (disabling it just wasn't enough). As a gamer, I've learned to hate it because of my propensity for leaning on it at inopportune times, popping myself out of the game just as a monster is trying to eat me.
But Fast Company today has published a list of useful Vista shortcuts which it says could shave 10 minutes off the average person's workday - leaving you with a spare week a year. Perhaps it's time to learn to love the Windows key?

Here are a couple of the shortcuts they recommend:

Windows + # = Launches shortcut in Quick Launch with the position corresponding to the # entered.

Windows + X= Launches Windows Mobility Center
Windows + G= Cycles through Sidebar Gadgets
Windows + Tab  +CNTRL= Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Windows Flip 3-D   

While it's typical for heavy keyboard users (like programmers) to minimise the amount they use the mouse, preferring keyboard shortcuts for efficiency and ergonomic reasons, I wonder if this love of the keyboard extends to the Windows key. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with the shortcuts above. Do you use them?

Shortcut keys in Vista [Fast Company]

I've become a bit of a fan of tech sites like Giveaway of the Day lately - and today they're giving away backup software. I haven't used Titan Backup 1.2 (right now I'm content with Vista's inbuilt backup tool) so this isn't a personal recommendation. But from the description it sounds worth a look if you're looking for a backup tool. You can use Titan Backup to store your data on CD/DVD-RW, removable devices, network drives and remote FTP servers. It offers 256-bit AES strong encryption and I also liked the fact that comes with a number of plug-ins installed by default, so it can handle backup of emails and rules for Outlook, Firefox, Opera, Thunderbird and Eudora. If you download it, let me know how you get on.

Giveaway of the Day - Titan Backup 1.2

Already spent enough cash to put that iPhone or iPod touch under the tree that you're not bouncing with excitement at the idea of dropping more cash on a video stand... and you love origami? With Swiss photographer Enrique Pardo's dollar bill stand for the iPhone or iPod touch video you can roll your own DIY stand with nothing more than a dollar-bill-shaped piece of paper. Pardo uses a Benjamin for his stand, but you won't think I'm crazy to suggest you could use a twenty or even (gasp!) a one dollar bill. And if you're giving one of these hot gadgets this holiday season, why not throw in a cheap little stand (there's also the comparatively simple business card stand) and put your gift over the top?

Author Tim Ferriss says he takes notes "like some people take drugs," filling paper notebooks with book highlights, ideas, dream descriptions, lists, brainstorming, contacts, questions, and anything else he wants to remember. Ferriss writes:

I trust the weakest pen more than the strongest memory, and note taking is—in my experience—one of the most important skills for converting excessive information into precise action and follow-up.

Then he describes how he chooses, indexes, and organizes his paper notebooks, using size and flexibility plus hand-written page numbers to find what he needs later.

While I love the idea of taking thorough, well-organized notes consistently (and I try to do just that), I don't see myself either flipping through paper notebooks a year from now or transcribing my scribbling to digital documents as I go. How do you take notes while you read books, attend seminars, and go to meetings? Let us know in the comments. Students, see more on how to take study-worthy notes with the Cornell note-taking method.

Windows/Mac/Linux: The OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension imports documents from Google Docs and Spreadsheets to OpenOffice.org and exports from OO.org to GDocs so you can work with your docs both online and off as you see fit. Whether you're primarily a Google Docs or OO.org fan, this desktop-to-web integration seems like an excellent way to take your docs with you whether you're online or off, and if nothing else is a quick and simple way to backup your local documents to the internet. The OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension is free, works anywhere you've installed OpenOffice.org (Windows, Mac, or Linux). Web site DocSyncer is looking to do similar things for your Microsoft Office docs, but right now it's in an invite-only beta. OO.org2GDocs is here right now.

Disney CEO Bob Iger shares a few tidbits about how his typical workday goes with Fortune magazine. He gets up at 4:30 a.m., exercises regularly and he eschews the chauffeur and drives himself to work so he has a little extra privacy. He's also a stickler for punctual meetings:

My day needs to be managed like clockwork. If people are late for meetings, the meetings tend to go late, which throws off my agenda thereafter. I frequently start the meeting even if all the people expected to be in attendance aren't there. I don't need to say to people, "Be on time." They know.

Oh, to be the CEO! See how more business gurus—like Google's Marissa Mayer and designer Vera Wang—work.

Video weblog Unwired explains how to browse the internet anonymously with The Onion Router network (commonly known as Tor). We've covered anonymous browsing with Tor in the past, but this Unwired explanation features a nice introduction to how Tor works and how to get started with Tor using the TorButton Firefox extension. Concerned about privacy at work? Check out more ways to bolster your browsing privacy on the job.

Want your very own web site address, but don't want to mess with pay-for hosting packages or server configuration? Today you can buy a domain name for around 10 bucks a year (or less) and map it to a variety of free web-based apps for no-mess and no-cost hosting. Typical commercial web hosting starts at around $100 a year and comes with clunky webmail and apps you have to set up yourself. Instead, you can have a full-featured web site with multiple spacious email accounts, blog or static web page hosting, and other services for free. You don't have to lease server space or run your own server to have your own URL. Let's take a look at how you can set up a complete domain name backend for free.

Read More »

See less chrome and more web page in Firefox by combining your toolbars onto the same line. The How-To Geek tech site describes how, using an extension or just by repositioning the fox's toolbars by right-clicking and choosing "Customize." Want to utilise every single pixel in Firefox? Check out how we consolidate Firefox's chrome with several configuration and style tweaks.

Ah, the holidays—the only time of year the boss ponies up for an open bar and your co-workers get drunk and stupid together after hours. The Dumb Little Man weblog details how to avoid slinking into your cubicle humiliated and hungover the day after the company holiday party. All of this is common sense advice that may seem unnecessary, but a reality check before you face all that free eggnog, holiday cheer, and that cutie three cubicles down dressed to the nines might help. How do you enjoy yourself with your co-workers at the holiday party without losing your job? Tell us in the comments.

Tired of having an over-stuffed wallet and paying too many credit card bills each month? Personal finance blog The Simple Dollar has a few suggestions on which cards to keep and which to start cancelling over time. It's not as simple as cutting all of them up except one, as the post points out:

Which is your oldest card? That card is the one that has the longest credit history, which is important for your credit report. For me, my oldest card is one that I got as a freshman in college. It has an atrocious "bonus" program associated to it (1/4% return in the form of "points"), but it was the first one I had and thus it's been on my credit report for more than a decade, establishing that I've had positive credit for a long while.

Rather than keep the card in his wallet, however, the author simply locks it away in a safe, so the good credit hits keep coming every month. How did you decide which credit card gets the prime slot in your wallet? Share your wisdom in the comments. Photo by mlinksva.

Linux only: Google has released a "preview" of its photo management and editing suite Picasa, giving Linux users the same ability to upload to web albums as Windows and Mac users have had for months. That alone might make... Read More »

Organization web site Unclutterer hits on a novel way of enforcing a daily cleaning habit instead of letting your mess take over your weekend. The author, who tackles one room each workday, uses her iPod to keep track of time:

We have created playlists that are 15 to 30 minutes long on our iPods with collections of fun songs to listen to while we clean. So, when the music stops, our cleaning tasks are usually coming to a close.

It might sound kind of "duh," but many can attest to the power of losing yourself in music to make cleaning seem less like work. If you really want to get ambitious (and have a lot of Motorhead in your MP3 player), you could try keeping your house clean in 19 minutes a day.

Tech blog Techlicious.tv rounds up the features and advantages of 16 different photo management tools, including Picasa, CompuPic Pro, Nero PhotoShow, and others. Beyond just helping you find and rename your pics, however, are tools like Image Dupeless, which compares image pixel content to find duplicate photos, whether they're resized, cropped or otherwise altered. For digital camera enthusiasts who find themselves constantly messing and re-saving files, that's a nice de-cluttering tool.

Find yourself falling behind on your fitness goals? A reminder system can be just as helpful as having a personal trainer to report to. That's according to researchers at Stanford University, where a study found that a group of... Read More »

Mapquest has added a new feature on its Gas Prices page that pops up a small, simple calculator that can help you figure out how much it will cost to, say, visit your in-laws. Gas cost calculators are, of course, nothing all that new, but Mapquest's tool sits on the same page as its local gas price finder, eliminating at least one step in the process. Mapquest also added alternative fuel stations to its local gas listings for those rocking a diesel, bio-diesel, or other eco-conscious wheels.