Ask MetaFilter Roundup [Hive Mind]
- Is there a application or webapp that I can use to keep track of my time at work?
- Is it possible to convert the songs in my iTunes library to ringtones for my iPhone?
- Are there any good GTD and/or organizational solutions using a Verizon phone with no data plan?
- I've just bought an external hard drive for carrying around my music, movies, and pictures. Is there a portable media centre program I could also put on it?
- How can I batch import album art into MP3s from JPEGs on my hard disk?
- How can I completely remove the Windows taskbar from view?
Mind.Depositor GTD Index Card Template [Printables]
If you liked the idea behind the custom notecards you saw in the GTD super-notebook mind.Depositor, you're in luck.
DIYer Patrick Ng has provided printable templates for his GTD index cards, complete with checkboxes for Next Actions, Projects, Waiting for, and Someday/maybe tasks and priority stars and to-done checkboxes. The template is available in both lined and unlined versions, so you can pick whichever version best matches what you want to print to. Gotta love a guy who shares.
Official Security Update for Internet Explorer Now Available [Internet Explorer]
Microsoft just released the official security update for Internet Explorer to address the serious browser exploit we told you about yesterday, so if you've got any computer running IE, you'd best get downloading.
Security experts advised users to stay off Internet Explorer due to a serious security exploit in all versions of IE, and a third-party developer even pushed out an unofficial temporary fix, but you can now go grab the official patch straight from the source. The patches are available in several different downloads depending on what version of IE you're using and what OS you're running, and not all of the downloads are pointing to existing pages yet, but they should hopefully all be rolled out sometime today.
VirtualBox 2.1 Now Available [Featured Download]
All platforms: Free and open source virtualization software VirtualBox gets a "major upgrade" to version 2.1 which is now available for download.
Besides a gaggle of fixes, the changelog details new features:
- Support for hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V) on Mac OS X hosts
- Support for 64-bit guests on 32-bit host operating systems (experimental; see user manual, chapter 1.6, 64-bit guests, page 16)
- Added support for Intel Nehalem virtualization enhancements (EPT and VPID; see user manual, chapter 1.2, Software vs. hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V), page 10))
- Experimental 3D acceleration via OpenGL (see user manual, chapter 4.8, Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL), page 66)
- Experimental LsiLogic and BusLogic SCSI controllers (see user manual, chapter 5.1, Hard disk controllers: IDE, SATA (AHCI), SCSI, page 70)
- Full VMDK/VHD support including snapshots (see user manual, chapter 5.2, Disk image files (VDI, VMDK, VHD), page 72)
- New NAT engine with significantly better performance, reliability and ICMP echo (ping) support (bugs #1046, #2438, #2223, #1247)
- New Host Interface Networking implementations for Windows and Linux hosts with easier setup (replaces TUN/TAP on Linux and manual bridging on Windows)
We've already shown you how to run Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux with VirtualBox; what OS combinations are you using it with? VirtualBox is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
One CEO's 12 "Laws of Life" [Advice]
CEO Tom Hoobyar publishes his 12 "laws of life," tenets he's cooked up based on his experience. If you can stomach a few self-help platitudes and all caps, it's actually not a bad list.
Laws include #4, "You make your habits and then your habits make you" (i.e., small daily acts create our larger lives), and #6, "Obligations are a fraud" (i.e., we don't owe anybody anything, even though often we're raised to think we do). Obviously some are more controversial than others, but overall it's a decent read. Hit the link to get all 12. What would your "laws of life" look like, besides "#1. Don't live by anyone else's laws"? Seriously—post 'em up in the comments. Photo by Frederik en Katleen. Thanks, Stuart!
Picasa Updates to 3.1, Supports 38 Languages and Name Tags [Picasa]
We took you on a screenshot tour of Picasa 3 just a couple of months back, and now Google has released a new official update in the form of Picasa 3.1. The biggest news in this release is that Picasa 3.1 adds support for 38 languages and name tags—just in time for managing all your holiday pics.
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner Finds Last-Minute Meal Recipes [Featured IPhone Download]
iPhone/iPod touch only: Free application Dinner Spinner puts a slot machine of great meal ideas and recipes from popular recipe-sharing web site Allrecipes.com on your iPhone or iPod touch.
The idea behind Dinner Spinner is very similar to previously mentioned Urbanspoon, the iPhone app that suggest restaurants in your area with the spin of a wheel, but this time your categories are dish type, ingredients, and cook time. Just tap the Spin Categories button or shake your device to set Dinner Spinner a-spinning. If you actually know what you want, you can lock in individual categories or lock them all in and check out the results. The idea is fun, but an actual search bar somewhere—anywhere—in this app would be a huge improvement. After all, when you get the inspiration to cook a specific kind of meal when you're wondering through the grocery store, the whole spin concept is more than a little frustrating. The Allrecipes Dinner Spinner is a free download from the iTunes App Store, requires an iPhone or iPod touch.
Firefox 3.0.5 Update Released [Firefox]
Mozilla has released a small update to Firefox in the form of Firefox 3.0.5. The update includes security and stability fixes, support for more languages, and smashes a whole handful of bugs. If you haven't updated already, click Help -> Check for Updates to get the update ball rolling.
Office Outlook Connecter Out of Beta with Better Syncing [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only (with Outlook 2003 or 2007): Outlook Connector, a free plug-in we previously mentioned, has left beta with claims of better stability and syncing.
This version exclusively syncs your local Outlook calendars to the free Live Calendar service, forgoing a formerly pay-only MSN solution. It also syncs contacts and emails with Windows Live Hotmail, and doesn't duplicate or stall as often on attempting to do so, according to its developers.
Office Outlook Connector is a free download for Windows systems only, requires a copy of Outlook 2003 or 2007 to use.
Search Cloudlet Reveals Better Search Terms [Featured Firefox Extension]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Search Cloudlet adds a click-on tag cloud to your Google and Yahoo searches, helping you find deep-seated terms and phrases and refine your results, as you'll see below.
The free add-on, developed by the International Software and Productivity Engineering Institute, can adjust the number of keyword results you see below each search, and automatically re-searches as you click to add them in. Search Cloudlet ends up being pretty handy for searches where you don't quite know what you're looking for—because if you didn't, say, know what the big story about Macworld was, hitting the large-sized "Jobs" and then "Keynote" would deliver the goods in the search results.
Check out some of Search Cloudlet's additional features below:
When looking to narrow where your results are coming from—and, in some cases, exclude sites that spam up the findings—the Cloudlet's "Sites" button is quite handy:
Click over to Google News, and you'll get a different set of options, allowing you to refine by news source and locality. The same tools are also usable in Google's blog search.
Nothing a true Google hacker can't do in pure text in the search box, but definitely much handier, visual, and open-ended. Search Cloudlet is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.
LucidChart Makes Stripped-Down Flowcharts for Free [Flowchart]
Flowcharts are supposed to be a combination of words and line drawings anyone can grasp, but some software solutions get far too complex with them.
LucidChart, an online flowchart creator that offers a free plan with 5MB of online storage, gets back to black-ink/white-background basics. The standard process/decision/input/etc. inputs are in a left-hand toolbar, the diagram background is graph-lined paper, and it works fairly snappy on most browsers. There are custom images for certain fields, and you can upload custom images if you'd like. But for those who just want a clean and easy PDF, screengrab, or print-out, LucidChart's basic tools are best. LucidChart has a free plan that requires a sign-up.
WhoCrashed Helps You Analyze Windows Dump Files [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: WhoCrashed is a handy tool for performing crash dump analysis to isolate hardware, software, and driver problems. When Windows crashes it generates a fairly complex log file of what went wrong. WhoCrashed is a front end based on the Windows Debugging Package, designed to make reading those crash dumps a little easier. After loading a dump file, WhoCrashed gives you a break down of what happened and when, helping you isolate the crash in relation to variables like installing new video drivers, possible corruption of existing drivers and so forth. If you've wanted or needed to read over a Windows mini-dump file before but found the process frustrating check out WhoCrashed to get at the necessary data faster. WhoCrashed is freeware, Windows only.
Remove the Chat Box from iGoogle [How To]
If you're one of the iGoogle start page users who get a Google Chat box loaded in their sidebar and doesn't appreciate the (even) slower loading time it causes, there's a lightly hack-y fix. Google Operating System points to this post, explaining how to edit the XML for your page and knock the chat box permanently off your page. [via]
Most Popular Linux Downloads of 2008 [Best Of 2008]
Along with Windows and Mac downloads, this year was chock-full of free software for Linux users. Read on to see what our readers were eager to grab and install on their free desktops.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1
While the official release of Firefox 3 was the really big news this year, a huge number of early adopters, testers, and, most likely, Linux fans who won't wait for their packages to update sought out the first publicly-available beta of a major improvement package for the open-source browser. When 3.1 officially comes around, expect to see keyword filters on the Awesomebar, "tearing" and previews for tabs, multi-touch for Macbooks, and much more. (Original post)
Dropbox Syncs and Backs Up Files Between Computers Instantaneously
It's certainly not the only online storage biz on the block, but Dropbox's 2GB of free, desktop-based syncing for all three platforms sets it apart from most of the pack. Whether you use it to back up your home directory's important config files or as the ultimate password syncer, it's a seriously handy tool for users of open-source desktops. (Original post)
Gmail Backup Archives Your Email Account
A simple but effective tool for all three platforms, Gmail Backup grabs all your Gmail, Google Apps, or (in Germany) Google Mail messages and backs them up in the Microsoft-read-able .EML format. It's currently got a very simple GUI in the Windows and Linux versions, while (surprisingly) Mac remains command-line-only. Linux users already rocking Thunderbird, though, can use it to back up Gmail. (Original post)
Ubuntu 8.10 Released, Includes Bootable USB Maker
Ubuntu doesn't keep users and the press guessing about when their releases are due out—they almost deliver on the day, and the six-month releases are numbered for their release dates. So in October, we woke up early and auto-refreshed until Ubuntu 8.10 arrived, and found ourselves mostly impressed with its polished edges and user-friendly features. (Original post)
Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases
Actually, for Linux users, unfortunately, FairPlay purchases through the iTunes store isn't quite ready for the open-source Songbird music player, but iPod support is fully locked in. And nearly all of the other killer add-ons are there as well, making Songbird a great media solution for any system. (Original post)
Other Top Linux Downloads:
- Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" Released: It was actually a more significant and game-changing distro than 8.10, but maybe that goes to show the increasing number of adopters.
- Fedora 10 Officially Released, Ready for Download: The Red Hat spin-off distribution Fedora is nearly identical in speed to Ubuntu 8.10, and offers a robust set of unique features.
- CrossOver Mac and Linux Products Free Today Only: So popular with our readers, and many, many others, CrossOver's one-day give-away of its Windows-apps-on-Linux suites overwhelmed their servers, but most everyone who signed up got their downloads eventually.
- Wine 1.0 Runs Hundreds of Windows Apps Flawlessly: WINE's 1.0 release was a long time in coming, but that's a good thing. By the time it got "official," the platform for running Windows apps inside Linux (without virtualization or emulation) already supported lots of cool apps.
- RarCrack Opens Protected Archives Without Passwords: Turns out RarCrack, one of our most popular Linux downloads this year, was just what the doctor (okay, readers) ordered: A simple program that busts open password-protected ZIP and RAR files.
What was your favorite Linux download of 2008? Whether it's in the list and poll above or found elsewhere, tell us about it in the comments.
Convert a Gmail Message into a Google Document [Gmail Labs]
Gmail Labs adds yet another new feature to the roster: the ability to turn a message into a Google Document in one click.
Enable this feature in the Labs area of your Gmail account's Settings. Once it's turned on, click the "Create a document" link next to any message to shoot it over to GDocs.
Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2008 [Best Of 2008]
We've featured gobs of great Mac freeware over the course of the year—now it's time to check out the best. Keep reading for a look back at the 10 most popular Mac downloads of 2008.
NOTE: This list is based on the popularity of posts we've published in 2008 only, regardless of the original release date of the app. Many were brand new this year, while others were solid updates to popular software. If you took a look at yesterday's Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2008, a few of the cross-platform favorites may look familiar.
Firefox 3 Is Released for All Platforms
Oh Firefox, what a journey it's been. We've seen all sorts of competition spring up in the browser market over the past year, but no browser excited readers like the third major release of Firefox. If you're living la vida Firefox, make sure you're taking advantage of the top 10 Firefox 3 features, then school yourself with our power user's guide to Firefox 3.
Mojo Downloads Music from Your Friends' iTunes Libraries Over the Internet
iTunes may be one of the most widely used desktop media players on the block, but that doesn't mean it can't be better. Mojo lets you browse through your friends' iTunes libraries and download any song directly to your computer. Sounds like an improvement to us. If you haven't used Mojo, check out our guide to getting started with Mojo.
OurTunes Makes a Comeback, Still Snags Music from Shared iTunes Libraries
What's that? Two iTunes-related apps back-to-back? That's right, the dormitory classic ourTunes is back at it. It's got a new developer releasing updates semi-regularly, it's still open source, and it still downloads any song from any shared iTunes library on a network. (Original post)
PwnageTool Jailbreaks the Hell out of Your iPhone and iPod touch
Mac users jumped all over the opportunity to jailbreak their iPhones with the dead simple PwnageTool this year (the official download is a torrent from The Pirate Bay). Though Apple continues to battle jailbreaking with every new software update, the iPhone Dev Team has so far managed to push out new jailbreaks through PwnageTool within a few days of each update. Using PwnageTool is dead simple, but if you'd prefer a little reassurance, check out our guide to jailbreaking your iPhone with PwnageTool.
XBMC Moves to the Mac in a Serious Way
XBMC made its first official appearance on the Mac back in February, and since then the popular media center application has made the move to all platforms and found a huge following along the way. Mac lovers have been especially lucky: XBMC's move to the Mac has come in many different forms, including Plex and Mac-supported spinoff, Boxee.
Dropbox Makes Cross-Platform, Instantaneous File Sync a Breeze
We saw several exciting new file-syncing applications in 2008, but none more popular than Dropbox. It's fast, it's free, and—if you need it—it makes for a helluva password syncing utility. (Original post)
iTimeMachine Backs Up Leopard Over Your Network
Mac OS X Leopard's Time Machine may offer one-click backup so simple that you've got no excuse not to back up, but unless you like carrying an external hard drive with you everywhere you take your laptop, it's not always terribly convenient. iTimeMachine backs up your Mac using Time Machine to any hard drive on your network. (Original post)
Top Draw Generates Psychedelic Images
The Official Google Mac Blog released a crazy little utility called Top Draw that creates killer wallpapers and other trippy psychedelic images. (Original post)
Songbird Challenges iTunes
Songbird is a free, cross-platform music player built using the same bricks as Firefox. That means it's open source, extensible, and looking to innovate. Songbird has been incubating for a while, but now that the official 1.0 release has hatched, it's sparked all kinds of interest. If you're just trying Songbird for the first time, check out these killer add-ons that make Songbird sing. (Original post)
Secrets Presents an Easy Way to Tweak Leopard's Hidden Features
Developed by the Mac philanthropist who brought us Quicksilver, Secrets rolls every hidden feature of Leopard into an easy-to-use preference pane in your System Preferences. Tweaking hidden features that would normally require obscure Terminal hacks is as simple as ticking a checkbox with Secrets. (Original post)
Whether or not your favorite Mac download of '08 found a top spot in this list, let's hear more about your favorite download of the year in the comments.
Internet Explorer Exploit Temporary Fix Now Available [Internet Explorer]
Microsoft will be pushing out an unscheduled security patch for Internet Explorer's recently-discovered vulnerability tomorrow, but you can get a temporary patch from British software security firm Prevx today.
Tech news site TechRadar reports that simply not using IE won't keep the vulnerability from affecting your PC; an estimated 2 million PCs have already been infected. The vulnerability affects IE 6 and above, including Internet Explorer 8. Chances are most users (not reading this) won't get to the Prevx temporary fix before tomorrow, but if anything make sure Windows' software updates are turned on so you get Microsoft's official fix then.
UnChrome Anonymizes Your Google Chrome Installation [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application UnChrome bolsters your browsing anonymity by removing the unique ID from Google Chrome that Google associates with your Chrome installation.
UnChrome isn't the first app to do this; we highlighted another program called Chrome Privacy Guard in our power user's guide to Google Chrome. But for the many who installed Chrome for the first time after Chrome officially left beta last week, it's worthwhile to highlight this kind of tool once more. UnChrome is a free download, Windows only.
Create iCal Events in One Click with Automator [Mac Tip]
Mac OS X (10.5.6) only: Instead of launching iCal and clicking on a date to add something to your calendar, Macworld details how to put together a one-click Automator action.
With a simple New Event Automator app on your Dock (or accessible to your favorite keyboard launcher), you can add an iCal event or a new to-do in one shot, with the ability to add event details on the spot. If you've never used Automator before, don't worry, because putting together this one is a cinch. Apparently this tip didn't work in OS X 10.5.3 through 10.5.5, but yesterday's 10.5.6 Software Update fixed the bug and it works again. Here's what the new event dialog looks like when you launch the Automator applet:
When you hit Continue, iCal launches (if it's not running already) but doesn't steal focus, so you can keep doing what you're doing.
Hive Five Winner for Best Site for Finding Deals Online: Slickdeals [Hive Five Followup]
Slickdeals grabbed the largest slice of pie in this weekend's Hive Five Best Sites for Finding Deals Online, raking in 46% of the vote. The rest of the vote was split fairly evenly between deal aggregators FatWallet, Dealnews, and comparison search engine PriceGrabber.
Holiday-Themed Desktop Roundup [Show And Tell]
The holiday season is in full swing and our Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Pool is overflowing with smart and fun desktop configurations bursting at the seams with holiday spirit. Let's take a look.
We've already featured one festive but productive desktop, but now we're highlighting the rest of the holiday-inspired goods our readers have created.
Holiday Hearth and Home
12 Dec 2008 by Vergull.
Presents Under the Tree
Christmas Desktop by KA-MAI.
Countdown to Christmas
Snow Crystals
Naturelle Wallpapers by skarhead187.
Snow Globe and Stats
desktop by Noofer.
Winter Wonderland
Xmas Desktop by nlupus.
Have a Linux Christmas
Linux christmas desktop by Thomas Åsen.
Parade Float
'tis the season... by tylersticka.
10-Foot HUD Xmas Edition
10-Foot HUD Xmas Edition by Espiox.
Ornaments
Christmas Wallpaper by TuxStorm.
Customize Remember the Milk with User Styles [Remember The Milk]
Web-based to-do list Remember the Milk's streamlined interface and excellent shortcut key support are great out of the box, but there are a few useful fixes and tweaks, too.
I've compiled a short list of user styles and scripts that can be used with the Stylish or Greasemonkey extension in Firefox to make RTM much friendlier. Let's take a look.
If you haven't used user styles with Stylish before, check out Lifehacker's complete guide (along with some functional Firefox user styles). All set? Now onto RTM tweaks with useful Stylish user styles.
Add Keyboard Shortcut Reminders User Style
The powerful keyboard shortcuts in RTM are the main reason I made the switch (well that and the Remember the milk Gmail Gadget). The only problem is there are so many keyboard shortcuts, and it takes a while to learn them all, so this user style adds the keyboard shortcuts next to each function so you can learn them.
The C-S shortcuts in the header stand for Ctrl+Shift, so Ctrl+Shift+/ will focus the search box, for instance.
Some of the shortcuts do clutter up the interface a bit... but you can use that as incentive to learn the shortcuts!
I have the style installed, but I only enable it when I need to remember a shortcut that I'd forgotten.
Install the Display Keyboard Shortcuts User Style.
Longer Search Box User Style
One of the most annoying things about the default RTM interface is the really tiny search box, which makes it almost impossible to use their rich searching functionality. Until I found this style I would create my search criteria in Notepad and then paste it into the box.
The only problem with this style is that sometimes it will conflict with the status messages, if they are double sized (which they usually aren't).
Install the Longer Search Box User Style.
Only Show Smart Lists User Style
If you are a serious GTD user you likely have created dozens of lists to track all of your projects, which leaves you with a cluttered mess of tabs that simply can't be good for productivity. This user style hides all of the regular lists, leaving only the Smart Lists (otherwise known as saved searches), and shrinks the tabs down a bit as well.
I've found this one to be quite useful if you are a big tag user, as you can create custom "lists" that exclude items that are scheduled in the future, or only show items tagged with next action, etc.
Install the Smaller Tabs, Smartlists Only User Style.
WideScreen RTM User Styles
I personally don't mind the size of the RTM screen, but if you want to utilize more space on your widescreen monitor, there's a number of user styles that will increase the width of the lists.
You can choose between the different sizes based on your monitor, or you could download it and customize yourself.
Remember The Milk widely(1200px)
Remember The Milk widely(1000px)
Remember the Milk(1440 px)
A "Bit" Better RTM Greasemonkey User Script
This script is the best of the bunch, in my opinion, as it adds a bunch of new keyboard shortcuts and fixes my biggest gripe by moving the cluttered tabs into a list over on the left side, and even lets you hide lists that you don't want to see. Here's the full list of features:
- Move List Tabs to the Left
- Add Count to List
- Shift + j/k Switches Between Lists
- Ctrl+G - Go to list
- Ctrl+M - Move to list
- Hide Lists
You can see here how much more clean and organized the view is with the lists over on the left side.
The ability to move items to another list with the keyboard is a really nice touch... just hit Ctrl+M and a little dialog will show up, with auto-complete as you type.
If you go into Settings \ Lists you'll see a new "hide" link on each list, which will let you hide it from view.
Unlike the others in this list, this script requires the Greasemonkey extension.
Install the A Bit Better RTM User Script.
What other tips and tricks do you use for Remember the Milk? Tell us in the comments.
The How-To Geek is a tech writer and geek enthusiast who loves to control every aspect of his computer from the keyboard. More of his tips and tweaks can be found daily at Howtogeek.com.
LogMeIn Ignition Brings Simple Remote Control to the iPhone [IPhone]
LogMeIn Ignition lets you remotely connect to and control your Windows or Mac PC from your iPhone. The catch: It costs a whopping $30—expensive by any standards, especially in the iTunes App Store. LogMeIn may be the most popular remote desktop tool on the market, but it seems unlikely that it's $30-for-your-iPhone good. LogMeIn users, let's hear what you think in the comments. Alternately, check our previously mentioned Mocha VNC Lite for free (but perhaps less simple to set up) remote control.
Greasefire Finds Greasemonkey Scripts for the Site You're Visiting [Featured Firefox Extension]
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Greasefire is a companion extension to the popular Greasemonkey extension designed to help you customize your web browsing by finding user scripts for any page you're currently visiting.
Once installed, the extension automatically searches the popular Greasemonkey script repository Userscripts.org for scripts related to the site you're visiting; if a script is available, the Greasemonkey icon in your Firefox status bar will display a fiery background to indicate that it found matches. For Lifehacker, as you can see from the photo above, Greasefire found nine matching scripts.
From there, installing new scripts is simple. Just click the "X scripts available" entry, then browse and find a script you like in the pop-up window. Click the install button at the bottom of the window when you find something you like.
If you've never been able to get into Greasemonkey beyond our top 10 Greasemonkey scripts, Greasefire is a great tool to discover new user scripts and customize your web with Greasemonkey. Greasefire is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.
Better GReader Updates Minimalistic Skin [Lifehacker Code Update]
If you're souping up Google Reader with our Better GReader Firefox extension, download today's latest update—which fixes the excellent Minimalistic skin, that toggles Readers's top bar with a key press.
Firefox Mobile Slated for Symbian Phones in April [Firefox]
Mozilla engineer Christian Sejersen announced today that Firefox Mobile (codename Fennec) will be released for Symbian phones by the end of April, 2009—complete with full browsing features. The bad news: Sejersen says we shouldn't plan on seeing Firefox Mobile on the iPhone, BlackBerrys, or Android any time soon due to "technical or licensing reasons." If you're curious about what Firefox Mobile will offer once it's released, check out our screenshot tour of Fennec. [via]
iPhone 3G Unlocked, Free Unlock Software By End of Year [IPhone]
The jolly band of hackers known as the iPhone Dev Team have successfully unlocked the iPhone 3G for use on unsupported GSM networks. Right now they've simply confirmed the 3G unlock, but according the the Dev Team blog post, a free unlocking software should be available by New Year's Eve. [via]
Open IT Online Adds Image Editing, Other Online Document Options [Featured Firefox Extension]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Open IT Online, a Firefox extension that adds online editing/viewing options for all sorts of files you click on, has updated to include online image editors and an easier setup screen.
Since we last looked at it, the add-on has added Picnik and Pixlr to its options for opening images (and background images), and added a simple screen for choosing mainly-used services, to avoid having to individually set each file type. Google Apps users can also differentiate their hosted services from standard Google Docs accounts.
Open IT Online is a free add-on, works wherever Firefox does.
SlideShare Ribbon Puts Web Sharing Tools in PowerPoint [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only (with PowerPoint 2007): SlideShare, the YouTube-style sharing and embedding service for presentations, has released an Office 2007 plug-in that lets creators directly upload and control web presentations from inside PowerPoint.
The plug-in, which requires the very latest .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, adds basic "Open/Publish/Manage" buttons to a new SlideShare tab, as well as buttons for finding related material on the sharing site (for design inspiration, perhaps?) and letting you see how many co-workers, or general surfers, have checked out your shared stuff.
Check out SlideShare's own embedded presentation on installing and using the toolbar, and a video demonstration of its features, below.
Windows Live Writer Update Makes Tagging, Searching Posts Easier [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Windows Live Writer, Microsoft's multi-platform blogging tool, was one of many Live Essentials apps that recently received a few upgrades, and they're really helpful for anyone writing on the web.
Most helpful in this release candidate, for anyone writing a blog on Live.com, Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, or any other supported platform, is the ability to search through local drafts and published posts for text in any post, letting you get at older posts for editing and unfinished ideas quickly. WordPress.com and self-installed WordPress users get the same kind of auto-completing tags as on their site editors, and new plug-ins for Writer have been released that let you upload and link pictures from Flickr, auto-tweet your posts on Twitter, and do more. New to Live Writer? Head over to blogger Jared Goralnick's tips and tweaks for Windows Live Writer.
The release candidate of Windows Live Writer 2009 is a free download for Windows systems only.
Tiddly Backpack Tracks Your Notes on the Go [Productivity]
Tiddly Backpack is an extremely lightweight (20k!) portable wiki for your USB drive. The spartan interface is extremely easy to use and the entire wiki is self contained in the original html file.
The following flash video demonstrates just how simple the interface on Tiddly Backpack is:
The icon menu that appears next to all the entries is a nice feature, allowing you to quickly edit, move, or delete entries with a single click. For another lightweight and portable wiki, check out TiddlyDu2. Tiddly BackPack is a free download, and works where ever you can load a web browser.
Security Experts Advising You Stay Off Internet Explorer (For Now) [Internet Explorer]
A serious scripting hack that can grab passwords (or, potentially, do worse) from any version of Internet Explorer is leading security and malware experts to suggest switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or any other browser, if only for the time being. Microsoft itself is, of course, asking users to just be cautious while it works on a fix. The BBC article thumbnails security tips, including switching IE's security settings to "High," if you won't be migrating (or can't switch at work). [via]
Don't Let a Tiny Kitchen Halt Your Cooking [Cooking]
In a New York Times weekend piece, get-it-done foodie Mark Bittman says your tiny kitchen is no excuse for avoiding great home-cooked meals.
It's an inspiring read for anyone who's ever felt defeated when seeing all the counter space and shiny metal doo-dads in someone else's kitchen, or wondered if they really have the space to make that three-course meal for friends coming over. In short, Bittman says, you do:
To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.
Inspiring stuff. For tips on actually getting by with your tiny little space, check our tips on creating more kitchen space and kitchen time-savers that speed up dinner.
Bonus quote from Mario Batali: "I can make almost every dish in my restaurants on four crummy electric burners with a regular oven — as can just about anyone else who cares to." Photo by evelynishere.
Lessons Learned from a Hacked Gmail Account [Security]
Around my house, hacked email accounts were something that happened to other people—relatives with weak passwords, generally, or Dateline story subjects. Until yesterday, when my wife emailed everybody about "gps ,TV LCD,cell phones ..."
She didn't really blast-mail everyone about a spammy electronics site, of course—whoever broke into her Gmail account did. They also changed her signature to incorporate the same poorly-worded pitch, and turned on a vacation auto-responder to reply with the same. The mailings and confused replies started at 12:49 p.m., and we had her account cleaned out and, thankfully, password changed by 1:10 p.m. But we both learned a few important lessons about email security, and dealing with lapses in it, during the short but intensely aggravating break-in.
The first was that we had no idea how someone got her password and got into her account. Her old password wasn't up to NSA standards, but it was a phrase not found in a dictionary with a few numbers after it, which we'd both figured was good enough for a site run by a legitimate firm like Google. Our home wireless network is encrypted (WPA2) and restricted by MAC hardware addresses, so it's doubtful it came up there. Still, though, somebody we didn't know got in, and we could only guess at a few possible causes:
- "Open" wireless networks: Often times, my wife or I will jump onto a random, non-secured wireless point from my iPod touch or one of our laptops to check email. While we were on vacation in Europe recently, this was definitely a daily occurence.
- Staying logged in on other computers: Friends and relatives are often nice enough to let us log into our Gmail accounts on their own desktops or laptops. If they don't have their own accounts with the big G, and we forget, we could stay logged in on their systems long after we leave.
- Phishing attack: The wife uses Internet Explorer 7 on an up-to-date Windows XP system, so there is supposedly both an anti-phishing tool and firewall to prevent sites from pretending to be a Gmail log-in screen or key-logging her. Still, though, a distracted mind might not notice a single curious link—good reason to have us both check our phishing IQ.
- The password just wasn't good enough: Entirely possible, if someone hit on the right combination of username and password, or perhaps tracked it back from being used in similar form on another, less-secure site (which my boss definitely recommends against.
Then there's just general fears about net security and passwords. A few domain administrators fell victim to email-related attacks recently, and being unable to convince my wife to switch browsers leaves me regularly concerned.
But there's no real way, it seems, of knowing how her password got out, and so it's just an embarassing fluke for my wife, and her tech-obsessed husband is more than a little red-faced as well. And one feels seriously vulnerable knowing that someone with experience busting into webmail accounts had access to years of messages. But in dealing with the break-in, we've picked up a few good practices to deal with, and hopefully prevent, something similar happening in the future.
Clean out your contacts: Assuming the hacker(s) really did just want to get their stupid link in everyone's face, the worst part of the experience for my wife was having to send out an email to everyone in her contacts, since the hacker hit everybody in her "suggested" contacts (people she's emailed at least once, auto-saved by Gmail) with the spam. That meant people she'd only mailed once or twice for online auctions, lost acquaintances she hadn't planned on chatting with again, relatives, in-laws—you name it. I'm definitely weeding through my own contacts now, deleting anyone I really don't email anymore, and who I certainly wouldn't want to spend time replying to after receiving a message akin to "What is this? Who are you?"
Be short, but courteous, in your clean-up email: After quickly changing the account password and turning off all the trickery, I set up an email with everyone in her contacts put into the BCC field. We spent a good ten minutes thinking of ways to explain, apologize, and maybe elicit sympathy, but realized that people had already been annoyed once, so a quick message was best: Account compromised, don't click that link, apologies, thanks.
Use Gmail's mass sign-out tool: I knew about Gmail's multiple session info and remote sign-out tool because, well, I write for Lifehacker. My wife didn't, however, and it would've come in handy whenever she thought she might've been signed in elsewhere. And had I thought to screenshot the session info during the break-in, I might've had some help in figuring out where the compromise came from.
Keep passwords and accounts out of your email: Luckily, a few quick searches reveals that my wife never sent an account password, or even account number, over her email. The seemingly unlimited storage and search-ability of Gmail makes it a tempting place to stash your life's details, but once someone gets in, that can work against you in some pretty dire ways.
Use the https:// connection: This goes for Gmail or any other webmail account. In Gmail, switching to the encrypted version is a setting on the first page of your "Settings." If you're using a Google Apps account that doesn't have that ability enabled, try our Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension, which can force it.
That's my little morning tale of woe and warning. Have you ever had your own or friends' accounts, email or otherwise, compromised? What did you learn from it? Got suggestions for a non-tech-obsessed spouse in building better security into their day? Tell it all in the comments.
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