This week I had the opportunity to interview independent journalist-cum-shit stirrer Stephen Mayne - the founder of Crikey, and more recently the Australian social news aggregator Kwoff and the shareholder activist and news website, The Mayne Report.
How did a technophobe manage to create one of Australia's most successful independent online news services, and end up videoblogging on YouTube? It's an interesting story and you'll see it on Lifehacker AU later this week. :)

The pre-Christmas price wars seem to be on in the mobile broadband space. Both Optus and Vodafone cut their prices recently and this month 3 announced it was cutting its mobile broadband charges by half until January 15. Its entry level 1GB plan is now $14.50 per month (you need to start or have an existing 3 phone account to be eligible).
APC magazine wrote up the lastest details of the price war here - author David Flynn concluded that Vodafone has the edge in the pricewar: "Its $39/5GB plan is $10 per month cheaper than 3, and the choice of a USB or ExpressCard modem will appeal to notebook users who'd rather fill a card slot than plug in a soap-on-a-rope dongle."
You can find details of Vodafone's $39 per month, 5GB mobile broadband offer here and the details about 3's offer are here. Remember to read the fine print of the contract, and check coverage areas too.

Google Earth is a great way to explore our gorgeous planet and indulge in a spot of geo-porn, and it's just gotten even more beautiful and accessible, with the addition of a new layer of  photos by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
The series of nearly 500 photos, entitled "The Earth from Above" feature aerial views of the earth - many taken from hot air balloon.
The cool thing is there's also a new gadget you can add to your iGoogle home page so you'll see a different image from the photo set every day. At the bottom of the gadget window is a "View in Google Earth" button which lets you switch from viewing the photo on your homepage into seeing the area on Google Earth. Very neat.
The photos come paired with information and statistics about the current environmental situation they depict. This information comes from GoodPlanet.org, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of sustainable development.You can find the iGoogle gadget and a YouTube interview with Yann here.
And in case you're wondering - the photo above is Grand Prismatic Spring, at America's famous Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Windows only: Take control of your unresponsive computer next time it freezes up with freeware system tray app AntiFreeze. After you've installed it, just wait for the next time your computer hangs and hit Alt-Ctrl-Win-Home to activate AntiFreeze, suspend your running programs, and free up your memory and CPU cycles. You can then use AntiFreeze's interface to selectively resume processes or end the process that you suspect is to blame. You probably won't use it a lot, but it does seem like a good alternative to the reset button as a last resort. I've installed and tested AntiFreeze, but I'll admit that I wasn't able to put it to a full test because I haven't hit any significant hangs, so your mileage may vary. If you get a really good test case, let's hear how it worked for you in the comments. AntiFreeze is freeware, Windows only.

One of my favourite geek slang words has been voted Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2007. w00t, indeed. :)
w00t now appears in Merriam-Webster's online Open Dictionary, but it doesn't feature in the official print version - yet.
Now if only Think Geek would offer their w00t shirt in a colour other than that gawdawful green and gold, I'd be a really happy camper.

Men's Health lists six snacks to munch on that can give you a chemical attitude adjustment, according to Dr. Elizabeth Somer, author of a book called Food & Mood. For example:

Your Mood: Restless You need some serious shut-eye before the big day.Your Meal: Nonfat popcorn half an hour before you go to bedHere's Why: The carbs will induce your body to create serotonin, a neurochemical that makes you feel relaxed. "Make sure it's fat-free, because fat will slow the process of boosting serotonin levels," says Somer.

Beyond that, the article suggests foods like a grilled chicken wrap for the restless, sesame seeds for stress, sushi when you're feeling depressed, chocolate when you're insecure, and pineapple when you're feeling flummoxed. Got a favourite food for your mood that actually helps improve it? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Techdirt ran an amusing piece today which claimed that some cafes in the US have become tightwads about letting people plug in their laptops or phones to recharge. Which strikes me as pretty counterproductive if you're offering internet access as part of your service to customers. I haven't heard of net cafes doing this in Australia, but then again, decent internet cafes seem to be pretty scarce here full stop!
This last point got me thinking. We already told you how to get airport Wi-Fi while travelling in Australia, but if you're out and about and in search of a cafe to stop and do some work or web browsing, I'm not 100% sure where to recommend. There are the larger chains like McDonalds, Starbucks and Gloria Jeans, but apart from those usual suspects, many internet cafes are small and grotty and I wouldn't want my beloved laptop going anywhere near their (probably virus riddled) network. Cybercafe e55 in Melbourne is a notable exception - I used to while away many an hour there while visiting Melbourne.
So if you can recommend your favourite internet-friendly cafe (preferably somewhere with decent coffee too!) please share in comments.

Bad Trends: Cafes block outlets [Techdirt]

OpenOffice has been given the online app treatment by Ulteo, who've just launched the beta of their service which aims to provide Firefox and IE users with an online version of the document suite. Along with instant access to OpenOffice via browser without having to download it, Ulteo also offers collaboration features.
A user working with OpenOffice on the Ulteo server can invite other people to work with her on a shared document in real time. Invitations are sent via email and allow access in either read only or full edit mode, simply by clicking on a link in the email.
It looks like Ulteo are seeking to follow Google Docs, Zoho and Microsoft's Office Live Workspace down the online apps path - but they are aiming squarely at the existing install base of OpenOffice users. The company's statement on Ulteo said "Ulteo plans to release other services simplifying the life of PC users by providing easier access to desktop applications and online services as well as data management in the coming months."
The Ulteo beta is being opened up to 15,000 users, however they've stipulated it's for European and North American users at this stage. I'm not sure whether they're being strict on that or not as there seems to be a lag between registering and getting your invitation (or knockback for being in the wrong hemisphere!). If you want to register for it, go to http://www.ulteo.com/home/ooo.  If you get into the beta, please let us know how you find it.

Mac OS X Leopard only: Despite its unfortunate name, task manager Anxiety is a slick, good-looking, lightweight way to keep track of your to-do lists. Since Leopard now includes a "calendar store," or central repository of tasks from both iCal and Mail.app, Anxiety taps into those lists and displays the items on your desktop. Add, change or check off a to-do in Anxiety, iCal or Mail? And the info updates across all three applications. Neat. Anxiety is a free download (donations encouraged) for Mac OS X Leopard only.

US-centric:Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Search one site for a product and get comparison prices inline from several other merchants with the PriceAdvance Firefox extension. PriceAdvance works very similarly to previously mentioned extension Book Burro, but it works with products beyond... Read More »

Motivational author Jack Canfield explains why you should plan and schedule your day's tasks the night before: to avoid spending all day reacting instead of acting, and (this is interesting) to put your subconscious mind to work all night while you sleep on your plan. The second bit might be a bit too woo-woo for you, but specific intentions are undoubtedly a good way to stay on track in hectic times at work.

• Is it actually possible to "train a battery" for better longevity, and if so, how?
• How can I deal with my co-worker's intermittent odor issues?
• How can I help my girlfriend wake up on time?
• Is it at all possible to replace my Eee PC's monitor with a bigger one?
• How do I create keyboard shortcuts that include the Tab character?

One of the nicest things about IMAP in Gmail—which can download and upload messages to the server, versus POP's download-only—is that you can drag and drop folders of messages into Gmail using any IMAP client. Over at the Draconis Software blog, reader Ryan had about 10,000 messages in Apple Mail he wanted to store in Gmail. He writes:

It was simple: I merely added Gmail as an IMAP account to my Apple Mail client, then just dragged folder-by-folder all the messages important to me onto my Gmail account. It took a while to transfer all the messages (be sure to open the Activity window in Mail to see your progress), but once it was done, all my old messages were safely stored in Gmail and had their original dates! Perfect!

Unlike pre-IMAP methods of importing messages, like Ryan says, using IMAP will preserve the messages' original dates. If you're not using Apple Mail, check out how to turn Thunderbird into the ultimate Gmail IMAP client.

Web search site Ask.com has added a new privacy feature to their search called AskEraser, which, when enabled, deletes your search activity from the Ask.com servers within hours while it remains turned on (as opposed to the standard 18-month hold time). That includes your search query, IP address, user ID, and session cookies, which should make up the bulk of data that could possibly identify you. For more information, check out the AskEraser FAQ, or if you're looking for something similar for Google, try the third-party Googlonymous—though it'd be great to see something similar to AskEraser implemented directly in Google. To enable AskEraser, just click the link on the top of any search page.

UPDATE: Lifehacker US has advised that Microsoft has now withdrawn this offer. US-centric: Snag yourself a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, Office 2007, or Microsoft Money Plus before December 31st by participating in Microsoft's Windows Feedback Program. Here's... Read More »

Windows only: Microsoft has just released their first service pack for Microsoft Office 2007, promising lots of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and improved security. You can grab a full list of improvements here (DOCX alert!), but the update claims to have tackled all of the top software problems as reported by the Dr. Watson bug reporting system in addition to more popular bugs like the Excel multiplication bug. This service pack will be pushed out through Windows Update in the next three to six months, but you can grab it online now directly from Microsoft.

It's not easy finding the right gift for everyone on your list, especially if you've got a lot of people to buy for, so today we're taking a look at gifts small and large—from under $10 to the over $50 set—perfect for the life-hacking loved one on your list (even if that's you). To make things a bit easier, our gift guide is sorted by price range so that you can browse gifts depending on what you're looking to spend (from office gift to special someone), and if you're quick, most of these gifts should make it to your doorstep well before the 25th.

Read More »

The fsckin w/ linux blog points Linux users to a really cool tool that creates detailed (and extremely huge) photo mosaics out of your own pictures. All that's required is a folder full of pictures, a free command line tool named metapixel and, well, enough memory to process and open the output picture if you just copy and past the blog's instructions (try knocking the "=-scale=X" value down a bit). We've shown you web sites and Windows programs that get similar results, but metapixel puts out results that are ready for your local print shop. Using the linked guide requires a free download of metapixel, which is available in some Linux repositories or as a download.

Reader J.C. writes in:

I've been tasked with organizing at least 4 holiday lunches and dinners for various work-related teams and groups of friends in the next few weeks. I'm sick of all my regular out-to-eat haunts. What's the best way to find a great new restaurant?

Yelp would be my first recommendation; what about you? Where do you turn to find the perfect restaurant? Let us know in the comments.

Ars Technica's Open.Ended blog has a nice walkthrough up detailing how one editor got his Ubuntu system and a Bluetooth cell phone from Verizon hooked up and happy. The first segment is somewhat Ubuntu-specific, but if you can get your phone and computer paired in any Linux distribution, you can follow the rest of the guide on using BitPim. Not all phones and computers will play nice, of course, but even the notoriously restrictive Verizon phone can be stuffed with MP3 ringtones, videos and the like. If you just want to back up your contacts, you could check out Yahoo Mobile.

Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly rounds up some of its readers' comments from a recent post about the pros and cons of gift cards, and unearths a few strong tips and things to consider in the process. For example, one reader advises against making those checkout-aisle impulse card buys:

It is better to buy a card directly from the issuer versus at the grocery store, because the issuer will have greater control over adding refunds directly to the card (if you or your recipient should need to do so). Shell accidentally charged me a $1 or $2 inactive fee, but since my card had been purchased at Safeway, they could not add the balance directly back onto the card. I would have to write to them for a refund (in the form of another gift card). At that point it just wasn't worth it!

Another reader who worked in retail points out that buyers almost always spend more when they're toting gift cards—a good reason to avoid giving them to less money-savvy friends. How do you decide whether to buy a gift card or straight-up gift for those on your holiday list? Share your thoughts in the comments. Photo by misocrazy.

US-centric: Restaurant search site FoodieBytes takes a more detailed approach to helping users find a place to eat. Rather than type in a general cuisine and neighborhood, FoodieBytes asks for specific dishes you like, or restrictions like gluten-free or vegetarian you may want, and finds the restauarants that offer them. The site has menus indexed in five cities right now—Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—and offers custom Google Maps of search results. For travelers or new city residents with a hankering for something specific, FoodieBytes seems like a worthwhile search.

The Digital Inspiration weblog posts a good set of pointers on how to avoid being that poor soul we all know—the one standing nervously by a laptop and projector, wondering why their PowerPoint slides just aren't working. One tip in particular is worth locking away in memory:

Tip 2: Use Arial or Times New Roman Font
The default fonts in Office 2007 programs are Calibri, Corbel, Cambria, etc but unfortunately these fonts are not available on computers running older version of Microsoft Office. If you want the presentations to look the same in the conference room as on your laptop, use fonts like Arial or Times New Roman which are universally available.

Of course, one of the best tips on avoiding PowerPoint fiascoes is to avoid using it in the first place. For those stuck with the thing, these tips can at least help prevent one more headache.

Windows and Linux: Send the photos you fix in the GIMP, the open source, cross-platform image editor, directly to your Flickr or Picasa Web accounts with GimpPublishr, a GIMP plug-in. After downloading and installing the plug-in, the "File" menu on any picture you open will offer "Publish on Web" option, with links to send the picture to each service. The plug-in's Google Code site gives instructions for Windows and Linux systems, but I'd wager the plug-in would work on Mac systems as well. GimpPublishr is a free download.