RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
VMware makes the first beta of Fusion 2.0 available to download and try for free. The next generation Windows-on-Mac virtualization software includes support for multiple displays (up to 10!), better printer drivers, networking, and USB support, and improvements to Unity (which runs Windows applications integrated within OS X). The beta is a free download for brave testers only—here are the release notes.
Wired's How-To Wiki takes a group-edited look at the digital camera market and how a newcomer (or, more likely at this point, a buyer replacing their first, outdated model) can parse all the features and statistics to come out with a reasonable bargain. Their advice on megapixels, one of the most hyped features on any camera, is pretty reasonable:
Then there is the fact that even a 3.1 MP camera, which is obsolete for non-camphones, can take a perfectly passable 6" by 8" photograph. The current standard for the low end of consumer digital cameras is between 5 and 7 megapixels, allowing flawless 8x10s. Really, when any camera you buy lets you print 8x10s, do more mexapixels matter?
The Digi.Wander.Lust blog posts a handy tip for users of Linux application launcher GNOME Do who find its default pop-up at logon a bit annoying. If you're rocking an Ubuntu system, head to the "Sessions" item in your "Preferences" menu, select GNOME Do and hit edit, then add —quiet (use two dashes, as shown in the pic) to the "Command" field (or edit whatever auto-launcher brings up GNOME Do in other distributions). It's a nice way to save a click and ensure a clean logon screen.
Google adds yet another social-ish function, "Notes," to its Reader feed-browsing tool. The practical use comes from a new bookmarklet that posts whatever page you're looking at to your shared Reader items, with your own notes attached. You can also post notes with no link at all to be shared with your "friends," making it a kind of Twitter clone for, well, avid feed readers. As one blogger points out, savvy note-sharers can also alter the basic text of anything they share, so it might pay to double-check permalinks on shared items. Are "Notes" and the sharing aspects of Reader something you're enjoying, or needless biting from the Web 2.0 aesthetic? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.
Posted by Sarah Stokely at 1:09 PM on May 6, 2008
A personal trainer once said to me that exercise is only about 20% of what you need to do to get fit and lose weight - the foods you eat make up the other 80%. So when I saw a post on Dumb Little Man which tackled not only pointers for healthy eating, but also some healthy habits to get into, I was interested.
Foods - say no to white bread, white potatoes (sob!) and white rice which and instead go for their brown cousins which are less processed and more filling. Say yes to nuts, avacado, fish and other sources of nutrients and Omega 3. Green tea also gives anti-oxidants.
Habits - Reverse your meals by going for a large lunch, medium lunch and small dinner. Apply the 80/20 rule to your food - eat healthy food 80% of the time, eat what you want for the other 20%.
Click through to the article to read the reasons behind these tips. There are also a couple of tips there for encouraging positive thinking about yourself and what you're doing.
10 Commandments for Dropping 10 Pounds and 10 Years [Dumb Little Man]
Posted by Sarah Stokely at 12:55 PM on May 6, 2008
Passive marketing (like passive income) is great because once you have it set up, it does its job without needing constant time and effort to keep it ticking over - so, it's a nice time saver.
The Freelance Switch blog has some tips for how freelancers can use passive marketing to promote themselves - and most of the tips are equally applicable to job seekers as well.
These include:
*having an awesome portfolio of your work
*maintaining good customer relationships to get the benefit of word of mouth referrals and repeat business (for a jobseeker, focus on good professional relationships within your industry)
*maintaining an online professional portfolio at sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.
Do you have any preferred methods for maintaining your professional profile? Share in comments please.
Passive Marketing for Freelancers [Freelance Switch]
PC World magazine rounds up eight tips to stop thieves from stealing your laptop, the most obvious-yet-effective of which is simply locking it up. Apart from their suggestion that you encrypt your hard drive (we'd recommend the cross-platform TrueCrypt for that), all of their suggestions require you to throw down a bit of cash. If you're not up to spending any money but you still want to beef up your laptop security, hit the jump for a look at a few no-cost solutions for guarding your laptop against thieves.
Windows Vista only: Freeware Windows Media Center plug-in MceFM integrates music recommendation and streaming service Last.fm with your Vista Media Center. The tool actually works in conjunction with the music already in Media Center's music library, so you can get recommendations based on your music and then listen to it all within Media Center. MceFM is currently in beta and could use some polish, but it's a great start. If you haven't already turned your Windows PC into a Media Center powerhouse on the cheap, I'd highly recommend it—Vista Media Center is Vista's one feature I consider worth the upgrade.
Mac OS X only: Freeware application RapidoSerial stores and secures your software licenses in an easy-to-access database. When you dig into your pocketbook to pay for a great software package, the last thing you want to do is lose the licence key you purchased. RapidoSerial aims to make sure that you don't. For a web-based alternative, check out previously mentioned Keyfiler. If you've already got a tried-and-true method for storing your software licenses, let's hear it in the comments.
Earlier today we mentioned the Quick Launch toolbar in our best ways to make Windows more productive. But Windows comes bundled with several toolbars that offer search, web site launching, and media player controls—and at least one reader can't live without his toolbar setup. What toolbars do you have on your Windows desktop, and which is the most useful? Vote in the battle of the Windows toolbars after the jump.
A user from DIY web site Instructables details how to cut a watermelon to easily remove most of the seeds so you don't have to endure the familiar seed-spitting routine. The key is cutting the watermelon along the seed line, allowing you to simply scrape off the majority of seeds. Of course this is a lot more complicated than just cutting your watermelon in half, grabbing a spoon, and digging in, but if you can't stand the seeds and you don't want to pay more for lesser quality, more expensive seedless watermelon, this little melon hack may be worth a try. Now you know how to cut a mango, a pineapple, and a watermelon with confidence.
The most common complaint we get from Lifehacker readers in Windows IT lockdown is that the majority of our tips require installing third-party applications—which you can't do if you don't have the right permissions on your PC. If you don't have the rights to install software on your company-issued computer, there are still lots of ways you can make Windows a more productive place to work. Let's take a look at how you can maximise your computer productivity with keyboard shortcuts, desktop tweaks, search tricks and more—without installing a thing.
Linux only: We're big fans of application dock and launcher Avant Window Navigator around here, but free utility Cairo-Dock makes a strong showing as well, not least for its highly-configurable and slick appearance, as well as a good range of plug-ins and third-party applets. Changing Cairo-Dock's appearance with transparencies, two-bar-splitting, and other tweaks is a bit easier than with AWN, and, while not offered in as many official repositories, it's easily installed on Ubuntu and Debian-based systems, and not too hard to compile for other distributions as well. Cairo-Dock is a free download for Linux systems only. Hit the via link for help on an Ubuntu installation and configuration.
Blogger Dennis Best, who previously schooled us about the value of built-in Getting Things Done apps, expands on his all-inside-the-Mac thinking by noting a simple way to organise every email message, document, iCal event, or other file. Add the ° character (Shift-Option-8 on Mac keyboards) directly in front of any word you want to track with, and both Spotlight (and, of course, Quicksilver) can quickly catch and sort your keywords for you. Guest poster Nick Santilli suggested a similar metada system using the "&" character, but Dennis' idea tags files by adding only a single, non-intrusive step you can do right inside the text.
How to Buy a Digital Camera and Ignore Expensive Hype
Google Reader Adds Shared Notes, Non-Feed Page Capture
How to Thief-Proof Your Laptop
