Windows Vista only: Microsoft has released a free "Technical Preview" of new macro features for Vista's Speech Recognition features, offering the kind of text substitution and macro-keystroke-firing provided by Texter and similar apps to voice commands. The interface is extremely simple, as explained by Lifehacker reader Abdul—simply choose the type of macro you want to enable, give it the text or commands to fire, and turn on Vista's speech recognition. It worked pretty well with my cheap USB headset on a test run, and the software is pretty refined for a "preview." Windows Speech Recognition Macros is a free download for Windows Vista systems; downloading requires running a Windows Genuine validation tool.

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Whether it's a liquid in the fridge or paint in the garage, it can be seriously annoying and time-wasting to open a non-see-through container and find only a few drops. The Marc and Angel blog recommends using plain old rubber bands to curb the frustration:

Mark the Level of Liquid Remaining in a Solid Colour Container - Take a paint can for instance... before you pound the top back on, wrap a rubber band around the outside of the can at the same level as the paint remaining in the can. Next time you need it you'll know exactly how much you have left in a single glance.

Hit the link for 39 more resourceful rubber band uses, and feel free to share your own creative re-purposing in the comments. Photo by Ben Stephenson.

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Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Create a selective backup of preference settings for your favourite Firefox extensions with OPIE, a free add-on for Firefox 2. Once you've got the Ordered Preference Import/Export extension installed, head to it in the "Tools" menu and you can choose which extensions and preferences you'd like to save and export to a .prefs file, making it easy to auto-configure all the add-ons when moving to new systems or re-installing the Fox. Not a bad extension to have around when Firefox 3 becomes official, but if you're looking to bundle up the extensions themselves, try the Firefoex Extension Backup Extension. OPIE is a free download, works wherever Firefox 2 does (Original FEBE/CLEO post).

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If you've stored your slide deck online in Google Docs, you don't have to worry about the internet connection going out when it's time to get onstage. The big G completed its rollout of offline access to spreadsheets and presentations using the Google Gears Firefox extension/Windows application. You can't edit the sheets or slides you open offline with Gears, just view them. If you haven't given it a try yet, here's a video demo of how Gears works. Now if they'd only Gears-enable Gmail for offline browser access to your email... even with IMAP, that would still be useful.

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The subtitle of this post should have been "Tabs versus Home Pages: The Showdown". :)
Aka Mike posed the question 'how many tabs do you have open for your main web browse of the day'. I always have too many tabs open, so I thought I'd check out his post and the comments to get some ideas for better tab management.
Here's my current morning browsing ritual  - it basically boils down to 2 Firefox windows - one for writing and the other for reading.
Each morning I open Firefox and hit the "Work Time" folder of links that I've set up on my bookmarks toolbar. That opens up my CMS, the Lifehacker AU website and our internal photo gallery - everything I need to start work with one click.
Next I open up another Window in Firefox (because I like to keep my work page separate to my reading page) and hit the "Blogs" folder I've also got set up on my toolbar. That opens up  my Bloglines page as well as IT Journo (a subscribers-only website for journalists) which gives me access to all the blogs I read. From there I'll open individual stories as tabs if I want to put them aside to read later, or if I want to read the comments on them.
There are a few other sites I visit on a daily basis, which include my iGoogle home page (which, if I'm honest, I'm just using to read Twitter via the BeTwittered gadget). I also have Google Talk and Google reader set up on my iGoogle page, as well as the Don't Break the Chain motivational gadget and the Activity Tracker gadget.
Apart from Twitter, I also check in on Livejournal and Facebook each day. I'm thinking I should look at centralising my social networking through Friendfeed or Netvibes.
So, Lifehackers. How do you manage your daily browsing? Do you lean towards tabs or home pages? Have you centralised through a social networking aggregator or a home page? Tips appreciated in comments.

Daily Browsing Tab Count [aka Mike via Problogger]

The following post was originally published in Chapter 11 of our new book, Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better.
You can have both a Mac and a PC on a single computer, using Apple's new Boot Camp software. Boot Camp lets you install Windows on your Mac in addition to Mac OS X. With Boot Camp set up, when you start your Mac, you can choose whether to use OS X or Windows. Boot Camp is a great way to consolidate the computers in your life and to run essential Windows programs that aren't available on the Mac. Here's how to set up Boot Camp to get a Mac and PC all rolled into one.

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Google can reorder search and news results from the last day, week, a few months, or entire year by adding a small string to the end of the search URL. Just add this string—&as_qdr=d—to the address bar and hit enter. You'll get a custom drop-down box that lets you re-order results based on date. It's great for getting past the same top results you've already looked through, as well as grabbing only the newest links related to gadgets, software, or whatever else you're searching. Sadly it doesn't work on Google Images, but let us know in the comments if it does work on other Google searches.

Windows only: We all got a little excited when we saw the new green screen-like background effects new to iChat in Leopard (especially the Star Wars hologram effect), but if you're living the Windows life, you may be thinking: Where are my wacky backgrounds and weird effects? Luckily, freeware application ManyCam is there for you. After you install it, you can set ManyCam to work with whatever third-party video chat application you're using—which means you need to take a background shot of your office so you can continue the impression that you're always at work. ManyCam is freeware, Windows only.

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Most web page authoring software like Dreamweaver—or even blog publishing systems like Blogger or WordPress—all come with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode, which formats web content without exposing the HTML and CSS behind it. But even in 2008, lots of web authors turn off WYSIWYG and just hand-code their own markup—even at the NY Times. Mac news site TidBITS reports:

The New York Times's design director Khoi Vinh noted in a recent reader Q&A segment on the Web site, "It's our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to 'hand code' everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results."

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Seemingly everyone has a home-spun remedy for the hiccups, from fright tactics to breathing exercises and beyond, but few consider where the gasping annoyances actually come from. The Growing Happiness blog points to drinking warm water as a cure, as they claim it actually works on the spasming diaphragm muscles that cause hiccups:

... And what do you do when a you get a muscle cramp? You apply heat. Does this method work? You bet. It works like a charm every time. The hiccups will resolve in less than a minute (usually about 15 seconds). If it doesn't, what you're drinking isn't warm enough, try something warmer.

I haven't had the chance to test this out myself (*crosses fingers*) but I'd be interested to hear if any of our commenters have had this work, or have their own never-fail methods. Share your solutions in the comments. Photo by Tom T.

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Web site Ecobites details how to cook with the power of the sun with your own DIY solar cooker. In a nutshell, the author rounded up a bit of plywood and aluminium foil to create a reflective parabolic surface capable of focusing the heat of the sun to the cooking surface—another great idea to add to the list of unconventional heat/fire-starting methods.

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