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Lifehacker
Dear Lifehacker,
The only Vista feature (honestly) I hoped that XP could have is a very simple one. In Explorer if you hit F2 to rename a file Vista automatically selects the file name WITHOUT the extension, something that does not happen in XP. I cannot begin to describe how frustrating it is to hit F2+Shift+<-<-<-<- every time I need to rename a file. Can you help me?
Respectfully,
Renaming Randy
All platforms: Mozilla has just published the latest iteration of Firefox 3, Beta 3. Intended for testers and early adopters who are willing to live on the edge, Firefox 3 has fewer memory issues than its predecessor, but most likely your most important extensions aren't yet compatible with it. Our previously posted Firefox 3 Beta 1 screenshot tour doesn't include Beta 3 changes, but this in-depth review of Beta 3 does show off Firefox 3's newest look, buttons, dialogs, and features. Update: Here's a summary of the improvements over Beta 2:
Corporate executives estimate that employees are most productive on Tuesdays, a new survey shows. On Monday office workers have too many meetings and email to catch up on, but people knock down the most items from their to-do lists on Tuesday. Hump day and Thursday are pretty productive, but come Friday weekend plans and early dashes for the door make for less stuff getting done. Has today been your most productive day of the week? Let us know in the comments.
It's no secret that people the world over use caffeine as a work stimulant, but weblog Developing Intelligence suggests that you may not be getting the most form your caffeine high. For example, the author suggests playing to your cognitive strengths when caffeinated.
Caffeine may increase the speed with which you work, may decrease attentional lapses, and may even benefit recall - but is less likely to benefit more complex cognitive functions, and may even hurt others. Plan accordingly (and preferably prior to consuming caffeine!)The post even explains the optimal caffeine consumption (think small, frequent doses), so if you already count on caffeine to get through the day, check out the rest of this post to see how to do it best. On the other hand, if you're ready to kick your caffeine habit to the curb, your fellow readers can help.
Writer and self-described internet addict Ariel Meadow Stallings wants to be "more present in the present," and for her that means reducing the amount of time she spends in front of the computer/TV/phone screen. To do just that, she's started a new, year-long project called 52 Nights Unplugged. The rule is simple: once a week, for one night, she doesn't do anything involving a screen.
This means no computer, no cell phone, no movies. I plan to focus instead on the other things I like doing like writing letters, crafting, organizing, dancing, going for walks, cooking and making tea, writing in my paper journal. I might also try picking up some new things to like such as watercolors, scrapbooking, mail art, dance classes, attending lit readings, etc. Maybe I'll even work on another book, writing ideas by hand. (BY HAND!) Regardless, one night a week I'm going to unplug.
Posted by Sarah Stokely at 8:55 AM on February 13, 2008
Google already made it easy to search for the current time anywhere in the world, or to track incoming flights, and now they're helping us search for local movie times too. You just need to type the name of the movie and your city.
For example, type in "Juno Sydney", and this is what you get:
Posted by Sarah Stokely at 8:17 AM on February 13, 2008
According to a piece in the SMH today, Navman users who have been waiting for the 2007 map updates can get them from today. Looks like new models have already received the update, but the N40i model was lagging behind.
The form to fill out to register for 2007 map upgrade is here. The form says you'll be notified when the maps are available to purchase, but it's my understanding that customers who bought a new N40i which was supposed to include the 2007 maps will receive the maps as a free upgrade. (A promotion run in September last year offered the maps upgrades as part of the purchase of an N40i).
Note that the form is for the F20, F40, N40i, N60i or iCN
720. If you own any other Navman model, the form refers you to the phoneline 1300 NAVMAN.
Take beautiful, detailed close-ups with your compact digital camera with DIY weblog Curbly's guide to macro photography. Macro mode is an excellent but underused (for most of as, at least) feature available to most compact digital cameras that focuses sharply on a small, close-up area, leaving the background nicely blurred. A good introduction to macro photography can open a whole new world to your point-and-click, so if you've never gone macro before, get ready to go on a snapping binge.
Personal finance blogger J.D. Roth is pre-paying down the principal on his mortgage to speed up the amount of time it will take him to own his home outright.
We decided to use the method described by Charles Givens in his 1988 best-seller Wealth Without Risk: "You can pay off your 30-year mortgage in half the time without refinancing by making extra principal payments. On the first of the month when you write your regular mortgage check, write a second check for the 'principal only' portion of the next month's payment."Roth admits that money may be put to better use investing instead of pre-paying a low-interest loan, but he says the psychological advantage is what he's after. (He's investing as well.) Do you like to take a bite out of your mortgage's principal when you've got some extra cash? Let us know in the comments.
Windows only: Rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest. Why? A while back I explained why I'd soured on optical media, the gist of which was the ease with with DVDs are damaged. Sick of scratched, skippy DVDs, I put together a simple AutoHotkey script that automated DVD rips in conjunction with a freeware application called DVD Shrink. I've since gone back and drastically improved the original DVD Rip application complete with options and improved automation.
CNET News takes a behind-the-scenes look at data recovery service Drive Savers, and the frantic customers who come to them with fried hard drives and lost data. We've posted at least one DIY solution for getting your data back from an unbootable drive, but desperate times call for desperate measures. How desperate have you gotten?
Mac OS X only: Yesterday's software update added several subtle options all over Leopard for Mac users, especially for Stacks—to see them, simply Cmd+click on a Stack. We've posted before how to overlay icons on your Dock's Stacks for easy visual identification, but now under "Display as" you can choose "Folder" instead to see the folder icon. (Easier, but I still like the drawer icons better.) Instead of your Mac deciding how the Stack should be viewed (as a grid or list), you can choose under "Display as." Even more exciting, the "List" view isn't that arcing fan any more—it's a throwback to Tiger's hierarchical file list which lets you navigate down into subfolders.
Free social commuter alert service Commuter Feed harnesses the quick and brief nature of Twitter to offer commuters in major metro areas a way of avoiding train delays, subway break-downs, and other travel information in nearly-real time. The service has one of the most extensive lists of metro areas covered of its type, although each is only as useful as the number of dedicated Twitterers on their daily routes. If you know how to follow or reply on the micro-message service, you can easily join and submit to any metro area's feed, although how you handle the surfeit of Twits in the more populous areas is up to you. For similar community-driven commuter help, check out The Clever Commute.
AU - I checked out Commuter Feed's website and while it's set up to accommodate Australian users, so far only 1 tweet has been recorded in Sydney - about the fire at Broadway Shopping Centre which happened yesterday. It's good to know that it's there if we want to use it though!
Windows only: System optimiser and browser add-on pruner HijackThis remains a powerful tool for streamlining your Windows computer, but only if you can understand exactly what it's telling you is running. Free utility HijackReader does the leg work of checking with trusted web databases and providing Google search links to help you understand what's running on your system and whether you can safely get rid of it. It works by taking a HijackThis log file (by browsing or cut-and-paste) and analyzing its contents, then producing an HTML file with descriptions and relevant links to more information. Even if you don't quite grasp every process it reports on, seeing the "OK" next to something you're suspicious of can be a big relief. HijackReader is a free download for Windows systems only.
The Gomestic blog has a nifty idea for households where bars of soap get used up until they're just little bits that stick around. Grab a busted pair of pantyhose, and then:
Cut the legs off and use (the remainder) to keep all those odd bits of soap that tend to get left in the bathroom. Tie the end and keep it beside the sink for hand washing.So you're in effect making a DIY loofah for your hands. My house always seems to get hand-crafted soaps around the holiday season, and this is a great way to ensure they see actual use—and see what they all smell like together, also. For more MacGyver-type pantyhose uses, hit the link for 19 more ideas, or try buffing nicked candles and keeping onions fresh.
When it comes to reading feeds for a job or need-to-know informatoin, it's hard to beat the (unofficial) reigning champions of the web and desktop, Google Reader and NewsGator's (now free!) products. But sometimes you might just want to run through a lot of content quickly, with no read/unread stress to remind you of your email inbox. For that kind of browsing, Alertle, a new AJAX-based feed reader, might be just the right thing. It comes jam-packed with pre-sets in a range of categories, and it moves nearly as quick as Reader (even with seemingly wider support for embedded video and audio). Alertle doesn't bother marking posts as read, so it's more a tool for seeing what's new around the web than hitting a goal. The big drawbacks are non-support of Internet Explorer and a hard-to-grok sign-up interface (check the upper-right corner), but Alertle makes for an interesting addition to the growing stable of worthy feed readers.
Many of us Lifehackers are big fans of the StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer, but what about fans of Safari, Opera, and other browsers that want to happen upon peer-approved, wicked-cool web sites? The Digital Inspiration blog points us to a "virtual toolbar" offered by the site that works in most any modern browser—including the iPhone/iPod Touch version of Safari. Simply head to the link below, and the StumbleUpon toolbar should stay at the top of your browser for that session. For an in-depth look at just what StumbleUpon does, check out this Technophilia tutorial.
Linux only: SSHMenu, a free taskbar application, makes Linux life a little easier for those who regularly make one or more SSH connections to remote machines on a regular basis. Once you've added the app's repository and installed, you place the SSH menu button anywhere you'd like on your taskbars, and then click it to pull up shortcuts to your frequently connected clients. The real benefit here is client-specific colouring—you can have your home server terminal pop up blue, for instance, and an important work server with a red background, and you can have the app remember preferred window sizes and positions. SSHMenu is a free download for Linux systems only; hit the link below for help on getting the program set up.
Mimic Vista's File Rename Feature in XP
Firefox 3 Beta 3 Now Available
Get Optimally Wired with Caffeine
