Windows only: Free menu and icon launcher Kana Launcher won't be a boon to those who've given Launchy or another app-finder a home on their desktop, but it might just fit the bill for those looking to reduce desktop clutter and stop digging through Start menus. Sitting in the system tray, Kana lets you assign the folders, files, and programs you want to access to a floating tray of icons, a collapsible menu list, or all-in-one system tray icons. You can assign multiple programs to a single "Group Launch" list, and set a delay between opening each app to save your memory the strain. Kana Launchers is a free download for Windows systems only.

Read More »

Feel like you're spending far too much time on less-than-important meetings, phone calls, and other daily drudgery? Take a tip or two from the prioritising managers at General Electric. An editor at Harvard Business Review sat in on one of their training sessions and walked away with a few practical tips. One simple idea in particular can help overcome burdens you didn't even know you were shouldering.

Compare your calendar with the priorities. Label the purpose of every regular or recurring activity on your quarterly calendar and highlight those activities that are connected with your top five priorities. This simple exercise will reveal where you're squandering your time.

Read More »

The open-source-friendly folks at the FOSSwire blog have posted a PDF "Ubuntu Cheat Sheet," covering the basic terminal commands one might have to use and, just as importantly, naming important programs and packages so you don't end up deleting or messing with something that'll cause headaches down the line. WIth the release of Hardy Heron one day away, adventurous newcomers might want to keep FOSSwire's cheat sheet printed and handy for reference.

Read More »

Travel website Expedia has launched a Hotels and Attractions Mapplet for Google Maps which lets you search for accommodation and tourist attractions in the area you're visiting.

When you look up a location in Google Maps, click on My Maps and you'll see Expedia Hotels and Attractions - click on that and it brings up a search box (see image, left).

Red pins denote a hotel (and there's a 'book now' button which will take you straight to the Expedia site), while blue pins denote a tourist attraction. The hotel listings include independent traveler reviews from TripAdvisor.

Map your way to your next trip [Official Google Australia Blog]

In the 21st century, the majority of our correspondence takes place digitally, which means easier, faster, and more efficient communication with our contacts. But the proliferation of digital communication also means we're faced with more contacts, email addresses, phone numbers, and instant messaging handles to remember; even more difficult is keeping all of this information up-to-date and available wherever and whenever you need it. Countless contact management solutions are available on the web and for your desktop, but among all that choice, it's difficult to narrow down the best. So for this week's Hive Five, we want you to tell us all about your favourite contact management tool. Hit the jump for more details and to nominate your favorite.

Read More »

Frequent international flyers will be interested to hear that a US legal decision last week has confirmed that border security at their international airports have carte blanche to search people's laptops, without the need for any specific evidence of criminal activity.

I remember reading a while back that the EFF  was campaiging against this policy on the grounds that it was a violation of people's privacy and would put international travellers off coming to the US. Guess that campaign hasn't worked so well.

In the meantime, if you're planning a trip to the US anytime soon, might want to check out our previously mentioned guide to Customs-proofing your laptop and how to save time and stress at airport security. Good luck traveller!

Prepare for your laptop to be searched [APC]

If you're a fan of donating your computer downtime to distributed computing projects like SETI@home (the search for extra terrestrial intelligence) you'll be interested to know that the Folding@home project has released a beta version of its new client software.

Folding@home help Stanford Uni in its medical research into protein folding - which is hoped will lead to cures for diseases like Alzheimer's.

Extreme Tech has published an interesting interview with the Folding@home Director, Dr. Vijay Pande talking about the new client. You can download the GPUT client here  - bearing in mind that it's only in beta at the moment, so handle with care.

A savvy photographer at DIY web site Instructables details how he built his own anywhere tripod mimicking previously mentioned Gorillapod on-the-cheap. Using a few bucks worth of materials ranging from segmented hose to a couple nuts and bolts, the DIY Gorillapod is well within the reach of the beginning DIYer. It's still unclear whether or not the DIY version can handle the true gorilla functionality of the original, like wrapping around objects, but it's a promising start. For a slightly different take, check out this DIY wire Gorillapod, or use practically the same materials to build a third hand for your tinkering needs.

Read More »

Windows only: Freeware application Debut records video from any source—like your computer's webcam or your desktop—to a number of popular file formats. Once you've recorded a video, Debut makes it easy to automatically share the results over the internet via email or by uploading them to an FTP server. I'm still a big fan of previously mentioned Jing for quickly recording and sharing screencasts, but Debut's added webcam abilities add a useful new element, and it's got an impressive toolbox of features to boot. Debut is lightweight freeware, Windows only.

Read More »

Whether you're adding notes inside a book or sticking a request to your co-worker's monitor, you can automatically keep a copy for yourself with Rediform 2-Part Self-Stick Message Pads. These wallet-sized notepads keep one copy of your notes in the book, and let you tear off a sticky version for placement elsewhere—in short, they're Post-It's with carbon copies built in for easy follow up. Office Depot's got a pack of six of these pads for $8.

Read More »

US-centric: Web site FreeShipping.org rounds up free shipping coupons to over 600 stores, helping you save cash on your next online purchase. Similar to previously mentioned Free Shipping On, FreeShipping.org appears to have a slightly broader reach and better... Read More »

Windows only: Remember everything you've learned using spaced repetition with SuperMemo. From the Wired article on its creator, Piotr Wozniak:

SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget.... Twenty years ago, Wozniak realised that computers could easily calculate the moment of forgetting if he could discover the right algorithm. SuperMemo is the result of his research.

Read More »

Not everyone can afford to install solar panels or get a new Prius this Earth Day, but there is one place you can go green without spending an arm and a leg or radically changing your lifestyle: your computer. Chances are you spend the majority of your day sitting in front of the keyboard, and a few small changes can go a long way toward reducing its negative impact on the environment. As an added bonus, doing your part for the environment will save you money, too. This Earth Day, we've rounded up a few simple ways you can go green with your computer.

Read More »

Mac OS X only: If Spotlight metadata just doesn't cut it and you want to organise your files by tag, free utility Punakea might be for you. Entering file tags is easy with Punakea: Just drag and drop any files you want to tag either to a pop-up Punakea sidebar, the icon on the Dock, or the app itself. Enter your tags. Then, within Punakea, choose any tag to list its files and also see related tags. In Finder, Punakea actually creates aliases to your files within folders with your tag's name. (You can set Punakea to actually move the files to those folders as well instead of using an alias.) If you're interested in doing more with tags but don't want to get a third party utility involved, check out how guest editor Nick Santilli organizes his files with Spotlight tags. Punakea is a free download with donations requested for Mac Tiger or Leopard only.

Read More »

In honour of Earth Day, Yahoo put together a "Free Is Good" web site promoting previously mentioned Freecycle, local mailing lists of folks who give away stuff they don't need. Pop your city and state into the search engine and get a map back of nearby groups. The Freecycle groups themselves are Yahoo Groups, so you have to join the group using your Yahoo ID to see messages (and often a moderator has to approve the membership request.) From there you can offer stuff you'd throw away anyway to give to your neighbours for free, and take them up on their offers, too.

Read More »

Windows only: Free transparency utility Blend isn't like a lot of other see-through window hacks for Windows, and that's a good thing. The system tray utility takes up very little memory (3 MB or less, by some estimates), and has simple but highly-configurable options. Setting Blend to only make certain desktop apps transparent is easy, as you can enter either the executable path or drag an icon onto the window you want to tweak. You can quickly kill or suspend the transparency effects from Blend's systray icon, and that's all there is to it—other than the fact that it just works. Blend is a free download, works with Windows XP, 2000, and Vista

Read More »

Sometimes you like a photo so much, you want to post it to Facebook, Flickr, and all your other Web 2.0-type identities. Media sharing web app Oosah (a strong contestant for weirdest web app name so far) has opened up a new feature that makes trading a digital photo or other media files between Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, and other social sites pretty easy. After signing up and confirming logins, you can simply upload to Oosah or drag a file from one web app to the other, saving you the time of multiple uploads. If you're going to spend valuable work time sharing your latest photo journey, you may as well hit at as many outlets at once as possible. Oosah is free to use, requires a sign-up to activate.

Read More »

Most relatively new Linux users might have used the wget command a few times while installing packages or grabbing specific files, but the little command word can be a pretty powerful tool. The FOSSwire open source blog points out how you can use wget to mirror a website, either one page at a time or with all the internal links available for offline browsing. As noted, however, grabbing large, multi-page sites can be a serious drain on bandwith (both yours and the site's), so adding a delay option is both considerate and wise. Hit the link for details on using wget for offline website access.

Read More »