We are scratching our collective heads as to how the Windows 10 October Update ever made it past Microsoft’s QA teams. According to numerous reports, something about the update could delete the contents of your Windows 10 user folders — you know, your documents, photos, music, videos and so on.
One of the best things the Internet has delivered over the last 20 years or so, since it moved from being a tool of academia and the government into broad public use, is email. The days of sending letters if you were patient, faxes if you had a machine, or a telegram or Telex were suddenly usurped by a tool that offered near instant delivery and is almost free. But that's led to a new challenge; managing the volume and velocity of messages. How do you manage the mountain of email, or does it manage you?
Getting up in a board room or on a stage and exposing yourself to the judgmental eyes of an entire group of people is damn scary. So when you get a chance to do it via video conference, you might feel a little more confident. However, video conferencing is no cakewalk. Damian Lepore, Managing Director at Logitech ANZ, has given a fair few presentations in his time and he knows that to be true.
He shared his tips with Lifehacker on how to best master the art of video conferencing.
I've always wanted to drive a Tesla. Silent electric motors, instant torque and autonomous driving capabilities? Sign me up. As luck would have it, during my Christmas vacation spent at my partner's parent's home, I was able to drive their Tesla Model S for a week. The experience was, in a word, magical -- primarily because of the differences between a Tesla and a traditional automobile.
Haggling has almost become a dirty word, but you shouldn’t feel cheap for trying to get the best price on the products you want to buy. If you’re looking to save a few extra dollars on that pay TV subscription, piece of furniture or even your rent, learning the art of negotiation is the perfect way to keep your bank account looking healthy.
Android/Web: It's easy to use Google Maps to see how far your office is from your favourite restaurant, or how long it will take to drive from Sydney to Melbourne. Estimating the distance between two locations without relying on winding roads messing up your estimate, however, is a bit more complicated. Sure, you could try and measure it with the distance scale at the bottom corner of your screen, but a little-known trick, as mentioned by Redditor niktemadur, makes estimating distances from point to point (or "as the crow flies") pretty easy, depending on the device you have.
We've all done it. Thrown ourselves onto the couch, phone in hand, determined to like only a few Instagram pictures of dogs in backpacks and inspirational calligraphy work. Three hours later, you realise you've done nothing but make yourself feel a little bit sadder (your calligraphy work is just fine, by the way). You're able to track the time you spend on your computer pretty easily thanks to a host of time management apps, but not many exist for your iPhone, mostly for security reasons.
Former Design Ethicist at Google and founder of the non-profit Time Well Spent, Tristan Harris has been making the rounds lately, talking about how technology is engineered to be addictive and hijack our attention. He's pretty persuasive, comparing the lure of your phone to the that of a slot machine.
Nachos are one of the world's most perfect foods, but some attention must be paid to format. To ensure every single bite is just as cheesy and delicious as the first, you have to know how to stack them.
On the morning of March 9, there will be a total solar eclipse. From Australia, we'll only get to see a partial eclipse -- but the sight should still be highly arresting -- especially if you live in Darwin or Cairns. Here's how to watch this celestial event without damaging your eyes.
Hanging something really heavy, like a mirror, may seem more difficult than hanging a small painting. With the right anchors, though, it's pretty simple. Here's a tip to keep your newly-hung mirror from going askew.
Web: If you're in a new country and unsure of how much you should tip, head to Tip This Much to find out. The web app works perfectly on desktop as well as mobile.
If you want to grow in your career, you’re going to have to present to business people — the phrase we geeks use to refer to everyone who isn’t technical. And you’ll need to present well. Successful geeks are the ones who can bridge the divide between technical and business groups. If you invest in preparation, not only will you accomplish your goals, you’ll find that giving presentations isn’t difficult at all.
Cooking isn't difficult when compared with neurosurgery, but it is much easier if you have nifty equipment and a few sneaky strategies. Here are Gizmodo's favourite kitchen gadgets and Lifehacker's best tips for creating gourmet meals without spending five years learning to chop onions in a basement. (Though if you want to...)
If you do a lot of heavy browsing on your iPhone, you'll love this hidden little shortcut in iOS 6. In Safari, just press and hold on the back button to view a list of recently visited pages.
Writer Barbara Toner has just released a book entitled What To Do About Everything, which offers tips on how to organise every aspect of your domestic life, from managing your budget to getting a divorce and even making a citizen's arrest. That sounds like prime Lifehacker material, so we had a chat with Barbara Toner, starting with the obvious question: if you're writing about everything, how on earth do you plan for that?
Getting Ubuntu running on your PC is pretty straightforward, and most of its features are fairly obvious if you've been used to a graphical user interface like Windows or Mac OS X. Here's a handful of tips to help you make the transition and find some useful features if you've started playing with Ubuntu.
Editor: Meet io9 contributor Lisa Katayama. When she's not blogging about robots and futurism, she's spreading the word about how to GTD in the most unexpected ways. Here's a sampling of a few clever tricks you'll find in her new book, Urawaza. When it comes to life and getting things done, we like to do things a little differently in Japan. When I break a glass in the kitchen, I don't use my vacuum cleaner to clean it up; I use a slice of bread. When my socks become dirt-stained from running in a muddy ravine, I don't pour bleach on them; I stuff them with marbles. And to save space and money, I have never bought a document shredder. I just stuff incriminating documents in a stocking and toss them in the washing machine.
Photography web site Photojojo details how to get crisp, beautiful prints from your digital photos with Photoshop's Unsharp Mask. What's the point of sharpening, you ask? Digital cameras have a fixed grid of pixels, each of which can only capture one colour or shade at a time. Say you take a picture that has a sharp edge between black and white... The single pixel that records that hairline edge can only record one colour, so it renders it as grey. What we think of as sharpness is actually the contrast we see between different colours. A quick transition from black to white looks sharp. A gradual transition from black to grey to white looks blurry.
