Water Cooler's Open; Gather Round [Open Thread]
Happy Friday, people—it's that time of the week again where you get to ask and post what you want in our open comment thread below. Tap your fellow reader's expertise and ask your burning questions, or show off your latest ingenious productivity tricks, or help out someone who needs it. Don't forget to hit the reply arrow in the lower right hand side of a particular comment to respond to it in-thread. Have fun! Photo by Drew and Merissa.
DilbertFiles Sends Large Files, Points Out Foibles of Modern Workplace [File Sharing]
DilbertFiles is a new paid file-sharing service from the creator of the delightful workplace satire, Dilbert. The problem: The service doesn't offer one free account, and even the pay accounts are overpriced for personal use. So unless you think a measly 1GB of storage, 250MB of transfer, and a few mild chuckles are worth $10/month (minimum!), I suggest you check out our Hive Five Best File-Sharing Services. [via]
ShutdownGuard Stops Automatic Windows Shutdown, Restart [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Ever update your system through Windows Update or install a new piece of software, and when the process completes, your system automatically shuts down or reboots? Of course you have. It's annoying, right? Free application ShutdownGuard addresses this problem by preventing Windows from automatically shutting down, rebooting, or logging off without confirmation. Each time it prevents a shutdown action, you'll see an alert in your system tray asking if you really want to shutdown. If you do, click the alert. If not, just keep on keeping on. The lightweight ShutdownGuard is a free download, Windows only.
BlackFriday.info Rounds Up the Post-Thanksgiving Deals [Deals]
If you're a deal hound and avid proponent of waking up at 3 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving, you probably already know about BlackFriday.info, which dubs itself the "official" site for early scans of the big chain stores' normally eye-catching sales fliers. For the rest of us, the site keeps current on what's been released and rumored, but also offers a helpful (and login-required) feature that lets you compile a list of deals that intrigues you from each flier for comparison and printing. Some are forecasting an extra push this Black Friday by retailers, and greater interest from bargain-hungry, recession-weary consumers, but Lifehacker alumnus Rick Broida isn't alone in seeing fewer eyebrow-raising deals this year. How are you tracking deals that are actually worth the crazy lines this year, or are you not seeing any? Let us know in the comments.
Best Video Chat Application? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]
When you're living far away from family and friends, a phone call is nice, but nothing quite beats a video chat for when you really want to reach out and touch someone. Earlier this week Google launched video chat inside Gmail, adding to the already long list of video chat services available for free on the internet. So for this week's Hive Five, we want you to tell us all about your favorite video chat application. Keep reading for more details, then nominate the video chat app you count on.
Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Remote Desktop App Goes Here. NEW RULE: Please don't include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.
About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get—"Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's Hive Five Best Remote Desktop Tools.
Workstir Helps You Verify Contractors' Credentials in Classifieds [Classifieds]
Free classified site Workstir aims to add eBay-style ratings and credentialing to contractors who offer their services freelance-style through classified ads. Those looking to hire someone local or remotely to program, write, fix some front steps, or whatever else can submit their job titles and descriptions to Workstir, and as the email-forwarded replies roll in, check out vendor pages where they list their skills, licenses, and reviews from other Workstir users. As TechCrunch points out, it's basically a free remix of the fee-based Angie's List, and success will depend on how much response it gets from your community's contractors and hiring types. Workstir is a free service, requires a sign-up to use.
MiniTask is a Light-Weight Task Tracker [Featured Download]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Adobe AIR): Free Adobe AIR application MiniTask is a light-weight task manager with a surprising number of features. MiniTask displays in single window, the entire functionality of the application exists in one menu available via right click. You can bulk remove done tasks, separate tasks them with a simple labeled line break, set alarms, and export your tasks easily to the clipboard. MiniTask has handy keyboard shortcuts like the ability to create a new labeled divider by typing **divider name** in your task list, MiniTask will automatically convert and place it. MiniTask is a free cross-platform download that requires Adobe AIR.
Share Your Wireless Network with the Neighborhood [How To]
Wired's How-To Wiki runs down how to effectively open up and share your wireless home network with the folks around you. Lifehacker readers and security experts alike have endorsed the idea of sharing bandwidth you're not using—unless your ISP recently instituted bandwidth caps, and with some caveats, of course. Wired's guide helps you figure out the best channel to broadcast on to make sure the folks down the street can grab it when needed, using trial software like AirMagnet and Wi-Fi antennas or repeaters. If your router allows for capping or password locking between certain hours, you can also avoid a staggering connection while that 14-year-old next door downloads the latest action flick.
Think of Megapixels in Terms of Cupcakes [Digital Cameras]
It's been noted that cramming more and more megapixels into consumer-grade digital cameras isn't really giving everybody better pictures. These days, in fact, cameras with more than seven or eight megapixels per picture are seeing more noise and grit because too much information is passing into too small a sensor. One New York Times writer explains the phenomenon using a cupcake analogy:
The mechanics of this can be understood by thinking of a digital camera sensor as a flat sheet of material pocked with millions (hence "mega") of cylindrical, cuplike pixels. In other words, picture the digital sensor as a tiny cupcake tin ... Larger pixels (cups, remember), with larger surface areas, capture more photons per second, which in electronics-speak means a stronger signal — and in camera-speak means less noise and cleaner colors.
The article recommends those seeking better shots for less cash not worry about grabbing the latest MP-busting digicam and focus on getting a decent, lower-end DSLR. Got a high-megapixel camera and feeling a bit of buyer's remorse, or are you seeing better shots these days? Tell us in the comments. Photo by jslander.
Google iPhone App to Offer Search by Voice [Google]
Google is expected to release a free iPhone application today that lets iPhone owners ask to find local businesses, get driving directions, ask basic search queries ("What's the capital of Belgium?"), and displays them on-screen "within seconds on a fast wireless network," according to the New York Times. I don't see it in the iTunes app store yet; tell us in the comments if you do. [via]
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