The Simple Dollar weblog says it’s time to get over the marketing “taboo” of generic and store brand products and save yourself loads of money. It shouldn’t come as news to anyone that generic products can save you cash, but it’s easy to get caught up in the marketing and…
Looking for a DIY project for this weekend? Build a remote camera trigger with publishing company Wiley’s free instructional PDF. The guide offers detailed instructions (44 pages worth, in fact) for making wired, delay, and interval triggers that so you can take pictures without holding and pressing the shutter button…
Use nail polish to help kids differentiate between the hot and cold taps in your bathroom and kitchen. Most kids understand that red means stop and green means go; so painting a teensy dot on each faucet can not only prevent injuries, but also encourage independence (“use the green faucet…
You’re probably as tired as I am of reading reports in the Australian media saying “the iPhone’s been hacked to work in Australia… according to some anonymous post on a forum somewhere”… so I promise this is not one of those stories! The Sydney Morning Herald is today reporting that…
If you have a journal/notebook, you can make your entries more productive with a simple plan of what you want your journal to record. Self-improvement blogger Allen Galbraith has come up with a good list of ten general journal topics – think of these as outlines for thoughts you can…
We all know that exercise is good for us, and the New York Times reports that exercise can make your brain process information faster and more efficiently: Scientists have been finding more evidence that the human brain is not only capable of renewing itself but that exercise speeds the process….
Google Maps has (finally) added the ability to embed maps into blogs or web sites. All you do is click on the “link to this page” link, copy and paste, and you’re all set. Not all maps can be embedded; Traffic maps, Street View imagery, and Mapplets are exempt. However,…
There are a ton of jobs posted on a daily basis at US job website Craigslist. Entrepreneurial blogger Guy Kawasaki has written up a list of tips to help you apply to that perfect job. The basic idea seems to be this: move fast, respond appropriately, and be specific to…
You can make yourself seem more confident (even if you’re not) with a few body language tricks. The Manager’s Cheat Sheet has compiled a list of ten ways you can do this, including: Stand tall. Keeping your shoulders back and holding yourself up to your full height will give you…
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Firefox extension TubeStop disables autoplay on YouTube videos and blocks obtrusive overlay advertisements. Deactivating autoplay will come in handy for anyone who’s followed a YouTube link and accidentally blared a video through the workplace, while the incidental overlay ad “blocking” very quickly dispenses with a new feature that…
Remove the background from any photo quickly and easily in Photoshop with weblog ThemBid’s quick and dirty tutorial. Using Photoshop’s Extract filter, trace the area you want to extract with the highlight tool and then color in the traced section using the fill tool. Excluding a few of the finer…
Listen to conversations over long distances with a homemade laser listening device. All you’ll need is a laser pointer, tripod, old pair of headphones, photocell and a recording device. Your completed laser spy microphone won’t be the most practical recording setup you’ve ever used, but it’s an interesting bit of…
Windows only: Freeware application CD Recovery Toolbox finds and retrieves files on scratched or otherwise damaged CDs and DVDs. Under normal circumstances, a badly scratched disc might show up as completely unreadable by your computer. CD Recovery Toolbox can read the undamaged portions of the disc and display the data…
The Weight Training Workout Sheet (WTWS) is a printout for tracking your progress at the gym. Record the details about what exercises you did, the amount of weight you lifted and sets you completed with WTWS. The sheet is specifically created for weightlifters—sorry cardio freaks. One sheet accommodates up to…
Oldie but goodie terminal command, find, can be used to locate literally any file on your system. Tech weblog dmiessler.com introduces find and runs through its functionality starting with simple searches and covering very complicated criteria. Find can be used to locate files based on a plethora of criteria that…
Comcast has started throttling BitTorrent traffic. Customers will start to see (if they haven’t already) dramatically slower download speeds and they will be completely unable to seed their downloads. AU -There are always mutterings on community forums like Whirlpool about whether ISPs are “shaping” P2P traffic or not. Often it’s…
The Web Worker Daily weblog suggests that the secret to accomplishing every task on your to-do list is—intuitively enough—making it tiny. Many of us have created to-do lists (or the multiple context lists of GTD) that have gone on way too long—a list that we couldn’t possibly finish in the…
Want to include a YouTube clip into your PowerPoint presentation that you’ll be giving offline? Hit this nine-minute video to see how. Use the Video Downloader to save the clip to your hard drive and the free SUPER to convert it for use in PowerPoint. [via Daily Cup of Tech]
Windows only: Freeware utility DropMyRights allows users with administrator privileges to run applications with reduced (“normal user”) credentials. The major problem with the existing security scheme in Windows XP is that most users run with administrator privileges all the time. This is comparable to running as the blasphemous “root” in…
Macworld serves up 10 Quicken tips, including this gem: While you’re in any field that you can enter an amount in, press an arithmetic-operator key (+, -, *, /, or =) to open the QuickMath paper tape. Enter the numbers you want to calculate, pressing an operator key between each…
Nobody likes a Negative Nancy—that is, the person that puts a negative spin on everything and makes sure you know about it. Well, what if Negative Nancy is you? Steve Pavlina has some excellent advice about how to change your behaviour and stop complaining. Perhaps the most important step in…
Yahoo Audio Search streams 30 second preview clips of songs in their audio search with links to download (read: buy) the song where available. The preview is a smart and natural addition to any audio search, but it’s the first we’ve seen from a popular search box. Beyond that, clicking…
The popular non-Google web-based word processor Zoho Writer now supports an offline mode with Google Gears. By default, Zoho Writer downloads 15 documents for offline viewing, but you can specify more if you want. Yes, that’s offline viewing, not editing, though Zoho says that offline editing will be available in…
