The Simple Dollar personal finance blog posts a great idea for anyone looking for a deal on a particular item or group of goods who doesn't want to be tempted by other deep discounts at a place like Amazon's Gold Box section. Using an RSS-filtering tool like Feed Sifter (or any keyword-search tool, like Feed Rinse), you can get pinged only when the specific item you really can buy shows up at an affordable price. For local deals, try setting up Craigslist feeds using boolean operators.

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Windows Vista's built-in speech recognition tools are seriously powerful and convenient, as Adam demonstrated by controlling his PC with his voice, but, as he noted, the process for adding seriously helpful macros to the "technical preview" macro tool isn't quite apparent. Luckily, Rob Chambers of Microsoft's speech division has posted a guide to editing, saving, and enabling speech macros in Vista. Good thing, too, because his own blog has lots of geekily awesome macros available for free copying: a Windows Media Player controller that lets you say something as casual as "Play something by Led Zeppelin"; a simple "Send email to ..." Outlook macro; and many more. Got some of your own favourite macros? Post 'em up in the comments. Thanks, Al!

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Jailbroken iPhones/iPod touches only: Agile Messenger isn't the only multi-client app available for the iPhone, but it makes mobile messaging seriously convenient, and it's pretty slick-looking, to boot. Agile supports the AIM, GoogleTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and Jabber protocols, can run in the background and update its home screen badge for messages, and places your multiple conversations easily-navigable tabs. What's really intriguing is its copy/paste function—simply select some text with your finger, click to copy it, then paste it into your text field. The app also makes sending pics from your iPhone camera a one-click process. Agile Messenger is a free download (at least while in beta), available through the Installer program on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

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Fireworks might be illegal down under, but that makes getting pictures of the big public events where they are permitted even more important enough. But photographing fireworks is tricky. You'll either wind up with immensely rewarding photos or frustration that makes you wish you'd left your camera at home and just enjoyed the show. The outcome has everything to do with the preparation and knowledge you take to the event. Before you go, arm yourself with a few tips and tricks that will prepare you to capture fireworks in all their brilliant glory. Photo by jonrawlinson.

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As both Nick at Gizmodo and Logan at Kotaku reported this morning, Microsoft has dropped the Australian price of the Xbox 360, making the cheapest model $349. Those price cuts might well tempt you to add the Xbox 360 to your technology arsenal, but remember that the machine isn't just a console and media player. Check after the jump for five mods you can make to your new discounted Xbox to render it more useful and more efficient.

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By default, Twitter sends you a new email whenever someone starts following your tweets. You can switch that option off in Twitter's settings, but what if you'd prefer to have those notifications sent to an RSS feed rather than just disabled? Australian Forrester analyst Steven Noble came up with a neat solution: set up a specific email address to handle your Twitter correspondence and access that via your feed reader. Full instructions after the jump.

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As we've previously mentioned, as of June 30 Microsoft is no longer be selling boxed copies of Windows XP or allowing manufacturers to install it directly (although some white-box vendors are immune). If you want to stick with XP, you'll need to purchase a machine running Vista Business and then get a downgrade licence to revert to XP.
Fran Foo at AustralianIT rang around local vendors to find out how much such a downgrade would cost. Pricing ranged from nothing (for HP models) to $83 to get an XP CD from Lenovo. If you decide to stick with Vista instead, check out our Vista hub for tips on how to make the most of Vista.
Local vendors gear for Vista downgrade [AustralianIT]

No visit to Melbourne would be complete without hopping on the city's tram network, but working out routes, stops and timetables isn't always straightforward if you're an out-of-towner. Tramroute simplifies the process by merging Google Maps with timetable information, allowing you to enter an address, identify the nearest tram stops, and then view timetable and real-time running information for that route. There's also a feature to find trams near popular attractions such as Luna Park, Federation Square and the MCG, and a handy mobile version which offers stop information without the maps being loaded. Although the terms suggest that you need to register, the site currently appears to operate for any visitor. [Tramroute]

Having just rolled out TV shows in the Australian iTunes store, it's no great surprise that Apple is also hoping to have movies available to Australian buyers within a month, as a story at APC (written by yours truly) confirms. With many movie files easily topping a gigabyte in size, that makes the strategies discussed in our recent guide to minimising costs for iTunes downloads even more essential. If you're a serious movie buff, right now it also makes iiNet particularly appealing as an ISP. (Shot from Tropic Thunder from PR Newswire)

Weblog Third Error suggests a clever use for your Windows Active Desktop: Embed your Remember the Milk to-do list on your wallpaper. In all it's pretty standard use of the oft-disregarded Active Desktop, but the main trick is that you subscribe to the Remember the Milk iGoogle gadget so you get a nice, clean interface for your to-do list directly on your desktop. We've detailed how to embed your local to-do list before, but if you're a RTM user, this slight tweak is a must-have for your desktop.

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Windows only: Freeware application Click&Clean works in conjunction with previously mentioned favourite CCleaner to cover your browsing tracks with the click of a button. To use it, first make sure that you've already installed CCleaner and then download and install Click&Clean. Once installed, Click&Clean will add an entry to your quick launch bar. You can stop with that if you like, but Click&Clean also provides a Cleaner button for you Firefox and Internet Explorer toolbars—you just have to add them through the customise dialogs. Once there, clicking the toilet paper icon will automatically run CCleaner's browser cleanup tools to give your browsing session a deep clean. Click&Clean is freeware, Windows only.

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Windows Vista tip: If you've been missing the Up navigation button in Windows Explorer since you upgraded to Vista, the functionality is still there—it's just hidden behind an Alt-up keyboard shortcut. Now when you want to move to the parent folder of the folder you're currently browsing inside, just hold Alt and tap the up arrow. We're assuming Windows decided to drop the Up functionality in Vista because in most cases, the Back arrow (or Backspace) will suffice, but if you've jumped to different folders in the sidebar or you started browsing your filesystem below the root, the Back button just doesn't do the trick. Luckily Alt-up is a simple, intuitive shortcut alternative. Thanks Chuma!

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Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension RAMBack manually frees up memory from Firefox to keep your favourite web browser running light. Once installed, RAMBack adds a Clear Caches entry to Firefox's Tools menu. When clicked, RAMBack clears the memory cache of sites that aren't in use (like tabs that you've closed). After playing around with it for a bit this morning while keeping my eye on the memory usage in the Windows Task Manager, RAMBack certainly does appear to free up RAM. The smallest drop I saw was around 10MB, while the largest was somewhere over 40MB. RAMBack is free, works wherever Firefox does. If you give it a try, let's hear how RAMBack works for you in the comments.

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Cross-platform media player VLC is often referred to as the "Swiss Army knife of media applications" for good reason: Not only does VLC play nearly any file you throw at it (you even voted it the best desktop media player), but it can do so much more. From ripping DVDs to converting files to iPod-friendly formats, let's take a look at the four coolest things you can do with VLC and start you on your way to becoming a VLC ninja. Photo by R'eyes.

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Dear Lifehacker,
Even though it may "void my warranty," I've made changes in Firefox's about:config area based on tweaks you've published and ones I've seen elsewhere. Problem is, at some point I mis-entered one, and I can't seem to delete it. I can only edit the value in about:config, but I can't remove the entry entirely. I know it probably isn't a big deal, but just in case, because I hate knowing it's there: Is there any way to delete an about:config entry in Firefox?
Signed,
Config Fat Finger

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Sure you can waste a whole lot of time hearing about what your friends ate for lunch on micro-blogging service Twitter, but if you're already a Twitter addict, you might as well make your time there as productive as possible. My fellow Twitterers, while it's impossible to avoid some useless noise on Twitter, there are a few tweeters and bots that offer up-to-the-minute alerts, useful information, functionality, and inspiration. Here are a few Twitter users—besides your friends—worth following.

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Windows XP/Vista only: SteadyState, a free Windows utility offered by Microsoft, is a handy tool to have if you've got kids, friends, or just a program or two that could possibly wreak havoc on your system. SteadyState basically creates new user profiles inside a disk section kept at arm's length from your actual system, and can go a step further by locking down access to drives, putting tight restrictions on a user's configuration access, and have the main user's hard disk restored to its previous state whenever an interloper logs on and does their misdeeds. As commenter JBDaddy pointed out, it's a great way to kid-proof your computer—but you can also try out potentially crash-prone or system-changing apps in a virtual blast container. SteadyState is a free download for Windows XP and Vista; it requires a Windows Genuine validation before downloading.

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