[Lifehacker] 4 New Entries: Learn Basic Sign Language [How To]

Learn Basic Sign Language [How To]

If you're interested in learning American Sign Language or want to brush up on some courses you took in college, there is an enormous amount of information available at LifePrint.

Assembled by American Sign Language teacher and evangelist Dr. Bill Vicars, LifePrint has dozens of ways for you to hone your Sign Language skills. There are basic word guides, Sign Language dictionaries, information on deaf culture and a plethora of links to other ASL resources. For other ways to learn Sign Language, check out the ASL Video Browser at Michigan State University or look up British Sign Language on the go with a mobile-friendly database of signs.



Recycle Old Crayons Into New Shapes [Parent Hacks]

Just because they are rough on their crayons doesn't mean your kids have to draw with little waxy nubs. Craft site Chica and Jo has a tutorial on breathing new life into your crayons.

Gather up all your old crayons, even the tiniest little broken up pieces. Sort them by colors, and them double boil them on your stove top to melt them down. Chica and Jo used a large tin can as an impromptu inner-vessel for their double boiler. While you could use any mold to form your new crayons, they used silicone ice cube trays because they were flexible and easy to get the crayons out of and non-stick. Out of all the shapes they tested a triangle ice cube tray from Ikea emerged as the most favored. The three pointed shape kept the crayons from rolling off the table and was easy for the smaller kids to grip well. For a more detailed and photo filled explanation check out the full guide.



The Great 2008 Reader Poll Results Recap [Best Of 2008]

Lifehacker readers are nothing if not smart and opinionated. Let's take a look back at what you had to say about 2008's biggest tech questions in the top 12 reader polls we ran this year.

Photo by ldcross.


While we ran dozens of polls this past year, these are the top 12 questions that got the most responses in total in 2008. Click on each question to read more about the question at hand and see the percentages other responses received.

We asked:
What's your Linux distribution of choice?
49% of you said:
Ubuntu (10,606 out of 21,536 votes)

We asked:
Is Google Chrome with extensions enough to get you to switch?
28% of you said:
Hells yeah. Those separate tabbed processes are killer, and as soon as I can customize the browser with extensions, I"m in. (4,078 out of 14,454 votes)

We asked:
Do multiple or widescreen monitor(s) make you more productive?
69% of you said:
Multiple Monitors (8,608 out of 12,455 votes)

We asked:
Where's your Windows taskbar?
60% of you said:
Bottom (7,052 out of 11,682 votes)

We asked:
Which feature has you most eager to try Windows 7?
33% of you said:
The souped-up taskbar (3,647 out of 11,123 votes)

We asked:
Location awareness: Is it cool or creepy?
54% of you said:
Creepy. (4,641 out of 8,641 votes)

We asked:
If you had the choice, would you opt into a four-day workweek?
80% of you said:
Heck yes! I"d save money on gas, get more done in a day, AND get a three-day weekend every week. (6,880 out of 8,556 votes)

We asked:
What kind of server are you running at home?
29% of you said:
Straight-up Linux/Unix, run from a command line. (2,117 out of 7,218 votes)

We asked:
What's the best smartphone operating system you've used?
35% of you said:
iPhone 2.0 (2,477 out of 7,075 votes)

We asked:
Do you run an antivirus app on your Mac?
42% of you said:
Never have, and I don't plan on starting. (2,972 out of 7,032 votes)

We asked:
Are you living beyond your means?
49% of you said:
No (3,337 out of 6,806 votes)

We asked:
How long does it take your computer to boot to the login screen?
33% of you said:
30-60 seconds (2,204 out of 6,698 votes)

Special thanks to the fine folks at PollDaddy who power our on-site polls.

What poll questions and answers do you want to see run on these pages? We're taking requests—suggest away in the comments.



Greenshot Captures and Annotes Screenshots [Featured Windows Download]


Windows only: Greenshot is a lightweight, open source, and portable screen-capture tool.

The executable and supporting .dll files weigh in at 464KB, making Greenshot a rather lightweight tool and well suited for a flash-drive toolkit. You can generate screen captures by a variety of methods including using the print-screen button as a hot key and activating the main menu from the system tray where you can capture by region, freehand cropping, etc. Greenshot can be set to send your crops directly to a printer, open for editing, or to be saved. The file naming convention is userspecifiedword_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS, typical for screen-capture tools and entirely practical. Once you have captured an image you can add text and shapes such as arrows to draw attention or a bright red box to isolate. One curiously lacking feature is the ability to crop after the initial capture. You can use the freehand-capture tool to carefully grab the area you want when getting the initial capture, but once you are in the actual editing stage there appears to be no method to crop. For another excellent, free, and portable screen-capture tool check out FastStone Capture. Greenshot is open source, Windows only.Thanks Ryan!



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