Whether trying to win bidders on eBay or attract eyeballs on a tutorial or craft site, the best way to stand out is with an attractive, detail-showing picture. Photography tutorial site Photojojo offers a wealth of tips for your... Read More »

YouTube recently started offering video playback in higher-resolution, better-sounding formats like MP4, and that bump in quality can now be downloaded for desktop use as well. The Google Operating System points out two easy methods for grabbing files: A bookmarklet that adds a "Download as MP4" link to video pages when clicked, and a Greasemonkey script that automatically creates the link. Both require that you right-click and assign the to-be-downloaded file the ".mp4" extension, and both may violate YouTube's terms of use, but, as blog author Ionut points out, the same files are available in your browser cache after watching. Hit the link to grab the bookmarklet and Greasemonkey script for Firefox (and Opera) users.

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Google already let you share your favourite gadgets through iGoogle, but now you can share and edit data within your gadgets -which means you can do things like share shopping lists created in Sticky Note.
It's easy too - just click on the drop down triangle, and you'll see the option to 'share this gadget'. If you use Gmail, now you just need to pick the friends you want to share with via the contact list that will pop up, or type in their email address.
You get to decide if you'll just share the data, or let them edit it also. Click send and it will go out as an email which gives the recipient a preview of the gadget and invites them to add it to their iGoogle page.

Sharing gadgets just got better [Official Google blog]

If you're decluttering, or have been thinking about trying out ebay or etsy to sell your wares online, the Photojojo site has a helpful guide for improving your chances of making a sale by taking a great photo.
It's a helpful guide because it gives tricks and tips for using what you have on hand (ie best ways to capture natural light or create a good back drop for a photo of something small like jewellery).
This was my favourite tip:

"For small items such as jewelry, you can use more interesting backgrounds. Gemmafactrix uses vintage books and industrial surfaces to show off her jewelry on Etsy, and it works great. Wood, paper, cloth and metal can all add a little something to your images."

Sci-fi blog IO9 takes a look at the future of social software and says that while we may be worried about its hit on our productivity, in the future we may need to work about whether it will actually make our jobs obsolete.
Their interview with interactive telecommunications professor Clay Shirky on the future of social software and communications asks if freely produced user generated content will lead us to a world in which content producers won't get paid. He says we're creating a whole new social environment, not just new forms of content.
The gist of it seems to be that your greatest potential for survival in the new online world order is to be one of the builders of this new world (eg create a social network or application that works) or be the top of your niche in content production.

Will efficient social software take your job away? [IO9]

I got an email from Aaron Spence at Panedia letting me know about his new site offering gorgeous panoramic landscape photography as wallpaper for multiple monitor users.

An offshoot of panoramic mapping site Panedia Maps, they're now offering their widescreen panoramic Australian landscapes as desktop wallpaper for single, dual and triple monitor users. They're Windows and OS X friendly, and each wallpaper is available in 16 sizes for single, dual and triple screen.
They add a new picture every day, and there are free or paid memberships to the site.
Paid memberships also offer a "favourites" feature which lets you save your preferred wallpapers for quicker access.
If you're interested in a 12 month membership to Panedia, Aaron's kindly given us a few to give away, so look for the free membership code under the cut.
Thanks Aaron!

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A reader at the Unclutterer blog suggests that since stores only really need the number off the cards they issue, she's put all her account numbers in her cell phone contacts list to lighten her wallet:

Basically, I have every membership number saved in my phone, organized to be alphabetised together such as 'aMemb-Barnes&Noble, aMemb-Southwest, aMemb-Avis, etc' so they are easy to find. It has uncluttered my wallet/purse and made is substantially easier to find the number when I need it.

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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.

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Do-it-yourselfer proyZ posts a step-by-step for building a lightweight, sturdy laptop stand for a measly two bucks using a couple of twisted wire easels he picked up from the local dollar store and a few common household items. If you didn't already find a solution that worked for you in our top 10 DIY laptop stands, maybe this is the stand you were waiting for.

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Regular expressions are archaic-looking, extremely specific, and amazingly helpful for finding the right data, files or whatever else you need. RegEx, a free online regular expression tester, lets you hone your expression language and terms down, giving you a box to put testing text in and highlighting the words that match your query. For users of Mac OS X, Linux, or even Windows with Cygwin installed, this web-based workshop (or desktop version) is a great way to get uninhibited but real practice at file-sifting. RegEx's desktop versions require the Adobe AIR platform installed to run.

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