Scientists have long held that seven items—be they images, numbers, or tasks—was the best a brain could manage to hold at once, but LiveScience points out that, without specific practice, the best-case scenario for most people is three or four. It's a good explanation why phone numbers are written and spoken as three and four-digit groups, and a better reminder that if you've got a lot to do or remember, writing it down is probably the only way to hit 100 percent. What's your personal limit on non-practiced memory? How do you break up tasks and must-remember items into small groups for better recall? Share your successes in the comments, and check out our top 10 memory hacks for some pointers on augmenting your grey matter's somewhat paltry RAM.

Philipp Lenssen, author of the oft-linked Google Blogoscoped blog, has put together an entire book of Google Apps Hacks, covering Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and beyond, and his publisher is offering a sample chapter as a free PDF download. The sample delves into Google Presentations and how the PowerPoint-like app can be extended pretty far with style sheet tweaks, theme changes, and a little creative use of photos. Hit the link below to grab the free 19-page excerpt.

Windows only: WinUpdatesList, a free utility for Windows, lets you see what updates your system has grabbed during its existence, and provides quick links to Microsoft Knowledge Base articles related to each one. Why would you use this instead of heading to the Windows Update server, you ask? If you're without internet and want to see which update borked your system, perhaps, or if you want to pre-download and slipstream updates into a custom-made Windows install CD. Since it's a self-contained app, no real installation is required, so use and discard at your discretion. WinUpdatesList is a free download for Windows systems (except Vista).

Sure we've all downloaded a free copy of Google Earth, the big G's eye-popping desktop map application, and flown around the planet with a heightened sense of awe at how cool the whole thing is. But have you done anything else with Google Earth since then? Traveler Anick Jesdanun used Google Earth to create a robust photo tour of a trip through Antarctica and South America, and found the software powerful but complicated and difficult to intuit—especially for friends with whom he shared the resulting KML file.

read more »

Lifehacker Australia is on the lookout for a new Editor!

Who are you?
You might be a software hacker with a yen to spend some time writing helpful how-tos and connecting with a community of lifehacking power users. You might be a technology writer or blogger. You might consider yourself a power user of Windows PCs, Macs or your favourite flavour of Linux. But overall we hope you will be someone who wants to help Lifehacker Australia become a truly great hub for people to get and share computing, productivity and life hacks.

Who are we?
Allure Media is a young and growing blogging empire which publishes Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku and Defamer in Australia. We have an office in Sydney and our Editors work from Sydney and Melbourne.

How do I apply?
Easy! Send an email to: jobs AT alluremedia.com.au. I'd strongly suggest you send in an example or two of stories you've written which you think are Lifehacker-worthy.

read more »

In the name of Friday unproductivity and the worship of our felines companions, I present you with the following gem from YouTube:

Even if you only have a few battery operated devices at home, it can feel like you're always buying new ones. As an example, Wii remotes are terrible power suckers - make sure you take the batteries out when you're not playing. So would it work out cheaper to buy rechargable batteries?
The Simple Dollar blog has helpfully crunched the numbers on whether investing in rechargable batteries makes financial sense.
Assuming a use of 10 AA batteries a month, the rechargables worked out cheaper over two years, saving around $US75 per year after that. Of course this will depend on the quality of the batteries and recharger you buy, but it's worth checking out the article and comparing your own situation.
And of course, switching to rechargables would save sending piles of batteries into land fill!
Got any tips for getting the most out of your batteries? Share in comments please.

Are rechargable batteries really cost effective? [The Simple Dollar]

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!

Comic stores around the world will be participating - check out the Global Store Locator to find one near you. Each store gets to decide the guidelines for receiving comics, so it's a lucky dip what you'll get, but you may well discover a cool author you didn't know about.

For people in Sydney, Kinokuniya will be giving out free comics as long as you come inside and ask.

If you're thinking of turning off your computer for Shutdown Day tomorrow, this could be a nice way to pass the time. :)

Thanks for the tip, Paul!

Gizmodo editor Brian Lam takes his MacBook with him everywhere, but he's not a big fan of the bulky power cord that accompanies his laptop. Instead, he opts for a slimmer, ungrounded PlayStation power cord.

Where the Mac power cord is too thick to easily coil or toss in a bag — and has a ground prong so it's limited to those types of AC outlets — the PlayStation cord is ostensibly perfect. It fits into the Mac power brick, coils up nice and small and has two prongs. Plus, you can leave your giant Mac cord at your desk back home and don't have to deal with dust bunnies every time you get ready to go out the door.

You're not limited to a PlayStation power cord, as any similar cord would fit the bill. Be warned: We're not electricians, but we generally don't recommend circumventing the safety of a ground if you can help it. Use this tip at your own risk.

US-centric: Our gadget-obsessed brothers at Gizmodo report that many AT&T hotspots—including Starbucks and Barnes and Noble—have started offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users. With a little ingenuity, the same free Wi-Fi access can be granted to your laptop. read more »

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you're sick of clicking through to subsequent pages of online articles, Firefox extension Repagination adds an option to your context menu to pull all of the pages onto one. After installing the extension, just right-click a page's Next link (or the 2 link, for example) and select to view all pages or a limited number. Repagination will load the pages you tell it to inline at the end of the current page so you don't have to reload at every turn. I tested it on Lifehacker, this barefoot walking article, and Google, and it worked flawlessly with all of them. The only downside is that it loads the entire subsequent page and not just the text, but it's better than the annoyance of multi-page articles. Repagination is free, works wherever the 'fox runs.

Real Simple online rounds up seven common cooking mistakes you can easily avoid if you practice a few simple tricks of the trade. For example:

Covering the entire surface of a pan traps heat and creates steam. And steam, says Simpson, is an enemy of browning, which locks in flavor and juices. To guard against overcrowding, use two pans or cook in batches. To prevent the first batch of food from getting cold while you cook the second, keep it on an ovenproof plate in an oven set at a low temperature (about 200° F).

Since getting good in your kitchen is generally a matter of trial and error consisting of just such mistakes, let's hear your favourite and best cooking tips in the comments.

From managing our to-do lists and writing code to jotting ideas and keeping a grocery list, nothing beats a solid plain text editor. On Wednesday we asked you to nominate your favourite text editor, and over five hundred passionate comments later, we've whittled your nominations down to the most popular. Hit the jump for a look at the editors that made the list, and then vote for your favourite to crown the ultimate text editor.

read more »

Windows only: Freeware utility Z-Cron replaces the Windows task scheduler with a more robust, cron-like alternative (but with a graphical interface). Z-Cron ships with a long set of useful actions you can automate, like sending an email, copying a folder, deleting files, emptying the trash, and way more, which makes writing batch files to do these things for you effectively obsolete. Z-Cron is a free download for Windows only.

read more »

When icons start disappearing from Windows Vista's system tray—like the networking, volume control, or time display—and you can't restore them from the standard options menus, the itch to re-install can be strong indeed. The How-To Geek, however, finds the balm for disappearing Vista icons in the registry, where a few key options need to be deleted to restore your system tray to functionality. Hit the link for instructions on how to kill out the options yourself, or download a registry hack that does it for you.

Amit at the Digital Inspiration blog has written up a how-to on launching web sites directly from Windows Vista's Start Search box (and therefore at the tap of a "Windows" key), using Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" function to quickly bring up the first result of a search using your entry. The hack involves using the Group Policy editor (gpedit.msc), which is unfortunately available only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions—unless, of course, one of our intrepid readers can point us toward enabling or unlocking that feature in the Home and Basic versions. Hit the link below for yet another way to make your Windows key into a full-fledged quick-launcher.