Have Your Say This Friday [Open Thread]
Election day only rolls around every so often, but once a week you get to speak your mind in our Friday open thread. This is the place to post your questions, tips, links, images, videos, impromptu reader surveys, and topic-appropriate screeds. Post your little heart out in the thread below, and don't forget to use the arrow on the lower right hand corner of individual comments to respond inline. Have at it, citizens of Lifehacker nation! Photo by Jamie Dwyer.
Quickly Copy and Paste Your Firefox Bookmarks [Firefox Tip]
The Smart Productivity weblog posts a simple Firefox shortcut: You can quickly copy any group of bookmarks to your clipboard—from a bookmark folder to every single bookmark you've made—by right-clicking your folder of choice and selecting Copy. Want to copy every bookmark to you clipboard for a quick backup? Do the same thing on the Organize Bookmarks entry. When you paste your bookmarks, each URL is organized by folder name.
This worked without a hitch on Windows, but in OS X you can't right-click the menu item, so you'll have to stick with the bookmark folder in the bookmarks toolbar or the Organize Bookmarks sidebar. This may not be useful every day, but if you've done some quick research and bookmarked pages in a folder, this is a quick way to email those links to a friend or to yourself for access from a different computer.
Windows 7 Will Ship Mid-2009 [Windows 7]
CNET reports that Windows 7 will ship mid-year 2009, just in time to find its place under the tree on pre-configured machines by the 2009 holiday season. After taking a look at our continuing Windows 7 coverage, will you be first in line for Windows 7? [via]
Pacecar Highlights Web Page Sections as You Read [Screencast]
The Pacecar bookmarklet makes reading web pages with distracting graphics or a lot of crammed text easier by highlighting the section you're reading and dimming out the rest. Once you've saved the bookmarklet, you can visit any page, click to activate the bookmarklet, and get a mask attached to your mouse pointer to deprecate any visual information you want to avoid on the web page — helping you focus on the textual or graphical facts. It works best if you have a key command, mouse scroll wheel or other way of scanning down the page as you read. A simple contextual menu pops up if you right-click, allowing you to limit the width or expand the depth of the highlighted area. Double-clicking turns the tool on and off. Auto-scroll and auto-zoom on text would make the tool an even better accessibility aid. Check out this screencast of Pacecar in action.
The Pacecar bookmarklet currently only works with Firefox.
uSend.io Makes Semi-Big File Sharing Ludicrously Simple [File Sharing]
Free online storage and sharing site Drop.io was already a pretty streamlined service—upload a file, copy the "drop" address, then share it with anyone you wanted to have access to your files of up to 100MB. Since opening up an API, though, the service has spawned an even more streamlined service, uSend.io. Click to choose a file, enter emails separated by commas, and your recipients get a link to your file (also with a 100MB limit). No ads on the download page, no wait times, just shared files. For another intriguing remix of Drop.io's service, check out Collab.io, which sets up a conference call phone number and meeting time with a document collaboration space. Need more space to stash big files? Try our online storage comparison chart.
Make Your Own "Stealth" Camera Bag [DIY Creations]
If you've got a nice camera and all the attachments and accessories to go with it, you'll definitely want a camera bag to protect it. But you don't have to pay a professional-grade markup or make it obvious you've got expensive gear in there. The Wired How-To Wiki details turning a military surplus bag, some rolled-up foam and stiff cardboard into a compartmentalized, sturdy, and non-branded camera bag. It's not waterproof, and won't necessarily fit all the lenses you could want, but it's made for carrying and could easily be upgraded by those with an eye for it.
mTAIL Tracks Log File Changes [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Actively track changes in your log files with lightweight application mTAIL, a Windows-based emulation of the venerable tail command found in *nix based operating systems. Instead of opening a log file to review the contents, mTAIL keeps the file open and displays it as the system writes to it. Firewall your attention by setting up filters and alerts in mTAIL based on keywords. The app will cull out events in the log you don't need to see and alert you to the events you've pre-flagged. If you'd like a few more flourishes to go with your tail emulation, check out equally as free BareTail. mTAIL is a free download for Windows only. Thanks Michael Kizer!
Over-the-Air Podcasts Coming to iPhone [IPhone]
Leaked screenshots of the upcoming iPhone 2.2 firmware update show a cleaned-up interface for the App Store, but, more importantly, the ability to download podcasts directly to your device over Wi-Fi or 3G. Direct downloads will be limited, however, to 10MB or less, so jailbreak-required apps like Podcaster still have a decent half-life. [via]
TaskFive Streamlines Tasks in an Elegant Calendar View [Task Manager]
The first thin you'll probably notice, and possibly complain, about in the free online task manager TaskFive is that it limits you to five to-dos for each day. If you see that as more of a creative/realistic constraint than a hindrance, you'll probably like its other features. TaskFive sports a seriously clean design, with a one-week calendar view and simple click-to-edit tasks. You can set up SMS and email notifications for task due dates and daily agendas, and companies can set up group task calendars for multiple users—though TaskFive charges a per-user fee after more than two are added. For individual task management without too much fuss, though, TaskFive seems like a pretty great solution. TaskFive is a free service, requires a sign-up to use.
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