Five Best Online Job Search Sites [Hive Five]
Looking for a new job in a struggling economy is hard work. Make it easier on yourself by getting to know the best tools for the task at hand.
Monster
Monster.com first opened its doors way back in 1994 (first called The Monster Board), and has since been a very popular destination for employers and employees alike looking to fill and find a job. With over a million job postings and over 150 million resumes at any one time (according to Wikipedia), Monster has one of the largest job search databases available. In addition to its job search and resume posting tools, Monster also offers career advice, a beta tool for researching companies, and more. From the sound of our call for contenders post, many of you have secured or been offered jobs through Monster. 
LinkedIn is a social networking site along the lines of Facebook with an emphasis on building a work-related network. Launched in 2003, LinkedIn quickly became a popular destination for workers looking to build their professional relationships. While LinkedIn isn't primarily a job search destination, the idea is simple enough: People get jobs from their professional network, so rather than digging through enormous search databases when you're looking for work, your LinkedIn network becomes an excellent resource for connecting with people in your field who know where you might be able to get good work. CareerBuilder
Along with Monster, CareerBuilder is the oldest job search site on the list (founded in 1995). Also like Monster, CareerBuilder's pages boast millions of job postings, hundreds of thousands of employers on the hunt for potential employees, and a whole lot more. Although many commenters have secured jobs from both Monster and CareerBuilder, others have also commented on receiving a fair amount of spam "opportunities" from them as well. HotJobs
HotJobs is another age-old job search engine that first started in 1996 (under another name), went through a few other changes, and was eventually purchased by Yahoo in 2002. HotJobs is a traditional job search engine cut from a similar cloth as Monster or CareerBuilder. When you head to HotJobs, you're searching a giant database of jobs. Like the other two, you can also post your resume for employers to search and find you. Several commenters point out that the three largest job search engines on this list (Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs) all generally carry a lot of the same job postings, so it's more a matter of choosing which one you feel most comfortable with when you're managing your resume and searching for jobs. Craigslist
Craigslist is best known for free classified ads that have secured Craigslist power users great deals, but the pages of Craigslist also offer a thriving job board. According to commenters, Craigslist can be especially useful for workers looking for regional work. Before you send out another application through Craigslist, be sure to check out these tips for applying for a job on Craigslist. Indeed
Job search engine Indeed is a meta-search engine that scours job sites, newspapers, and company career pages for jobs. Matching jobs are fed to you on a familiar Google-style results page. Indeed isn't a full-service job search site where you post your resume and hope for calls from employers, but if you know what kind of work you're looking for, its impressive meta-search (complete with email alerts and RSS feeds) is worth a look. Note: The majority of votes for Indeed were from first-time commenters (which generally means spam), but Indeed still snagged plenty of legitimate votes from satisfied users. Now that you've seen the favorites, it's time to vote for the best: Whether or not your fave made the Hive, let's hear more about it in the comments.
How to Live Freegan and Die Old [Ungeek To Live]
Marko Manriquez is the founder of The Freegan Kitchen, a site that promotes cooking found food. He's been diving in dumpsters for food going on three years now.
As a result his lifestyle is both environmentally and socially responsible. I recently became aware of freeganism through a mutual friend. Then I got to interview Manriquez about how he's been off the agri-business grid since. Photo by electromute.
Kelly Abbott: When did you first become interested in the freegan lifestyle and what drew you to it?
Marko Manriquez: I've always considered myself an environmentalist (as well as a bit of cheapskate), so it was a natural fit for my lifestyle. My friends kept finding amazing things from the dumpster, including food. At first, I was apprehensive to eat any of it, taking only timid bitefuls. But, I was surprised at both how much perfectly good food was being thrown away (~14% by conservative estimates) and that no one really knew about it. And it also bothered me that most of our garbage was being literally entombed in landfills rather than composted or returned into the ecosystem. The United States is a culture of enormous consumer appetites (obviously)—we consume (and waste) so much but it never really seems to satisfy our desires. The impulse to buy our way out of anything is very strong, rarely questioned and conditioned into us perpetually from a very early age. I wanted to share this revelation with others. I created FK as a way to both satirize our consumer media bubble (how better than with a cooking show?) while at the same time empower others to alternative forms of sustainability—all the while leveraging the tools of the system to critique itself.
Freegan Biriyani. Photo by Monka.
KA: If you started dumpster diving in college, did you do it in La Jolla or the San Diego area? If so, where, specifically, did you do it and did you encounter problems?
MM: Yes, this has become a problem as freeganism becomes a victim of its own success; in terms of more and more dumpsters becoming fenced off and locked up. The Whole Foods dumpster in La Jolla is a good example of this—its trash is securely locked tight. I think it's ironic that a green company perpetuates this green façade in the front of the store and a different stance in its back alley. Right now, I'm working on a web widget/mobile app that will be a tool freegans can use to addresses this problem. I hope to introduce it in time for Earth Day.
KA: How long have you been a freegan?
MM: I discovered freeganism circa 2005 (three years ago), and have been an environmentalist practically all my life. I think it started in first grade when I drew a picture of a submarine than would travel the sea filtering out toxic waste and garbage. I was an odd little kid, haha.
KA: Why do you choose to be a freegan?
MM: I think it's immoral to waste food or to harm our ecosystem. It follows then, that freeganism specifically and environmentalism/sustainability in a broader sense is a lifestyle choice. I like to view myself as passionate about sustainability without being dogmatic or intolerant. I hope that translates into my art.
Freegan Ice Cream. Photo by doubledareya.
KA: Can you explain the art of dumpster diving? What advice might you give to beginners?
MM: It's fun and kind of a rush when you first get started and don't know what to expect—like a scavenger hunt. It's especially useful for art students or creative-minded individuals looking for raw materials to salvage into clever art projects since you find all sorts of odds and ends in the dumpster. You name it, chances are it's laying in a dumpster somewhere. College campuses and affluent neighborhoods can be goldmines for furniture, housewares, and electronics. Food is hit-or-miss in the supermarket dumpsters of these areas. Here's what I've found helpful:
Dumpster Diving Etiquette
- Be quiet, discreet
- Be considerate—don't leave a mess
- If you find something of value that you don't need, place it aside for the next freegan
- Bring a flashlight or headlamp
- Organic produce is coded begining with a '9' in its PLU (Price Look-Up code), conventional food has a 4 digit PLU
- A pocketknife is also helpful
- Bring a bag or something to carry your loot
- Gloves are nice but optional
- Early morning or later in the evening is optimal
- If a worker asks you to leave, don't argue, just move on to the next dumpster
- If it smells/looks bad, it probably is
- Thoroughly scrub your produce with a brush (and I like using baking soda too)
KA: As for food, do you ever get tired of what you find? Is there usually a variety of food? What do you do if the dumpster is empty?
MM: Not really. You can find pretty much anything you need to survive tossed by someone in the dumpster. This includes but isn't limited to: furniture, electronics, computers, monitors, vacuums, food, clothing, books, even unopened alcohol (my friends have been more lucky at this than I). Most of the furniture in my house came from the street. We like to look around college campuses (SDSU dorms especially), especially at the beginning or end of the quarter—it's a goldmine. I've personally found TVs, monitors, computers, vacuum cleaners, speakers, shelves, cookware, art, CDs, books—all in perfectly good shape and more than we can use. Most of it only needs a little repair and is soon good as new.
Freegan Pastries. Photo by veganstraightedge.
KA: As for sanitary issues? How do you know you're not eating contaminated or spoiled foods? Do you have methods for securing food sanitation?
MM: It's the same whether you're inside the grocery store or out back in its dumpster—use your eyes and nose. You look for mold, rotting, and discoloration. If something smells bad you toss it. If a bag or can is bulging, you avoid it. But here's the thing: grocery stores are continually restocking and tossing out food that is technically expired (due to the expiration date) but is perfectly edible—sellable one day, labeled as garbage the next day. So, the dumpsters are continually being replenished and odds are good that you'll find plenty of bounty. Overall, by following a careful practice, I feel pretty good about the quality of food I gather and have never gotten sick or ill from it.
KA: I have to ask: Does being a freegan ever interfere with your social life or family dynamic?
MM: Never. In many ways, it probably enhances the dynamic. It's a great reason to go out dumpster-diving with a couple friends and divide and cook the bounty afterward.
Guest contributor Kelly Abbott's weekly post, Ungeek to Live, highlights all the ways you get can stuff done without (gasp!) a computer.
BitMeter Monitors Your Bandwidth [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: BitMeter is a small bandwidth-monitoring application packed with features to help you track and analyze your bandwidth usage.
If you're using an ISP that caps your bandwidth usage or you're just more curious than the average bear, you can keep an eye on things with BitMeter. On top of the basic features like a real time usage meter, BitMeter allows you to export your usage stats as a spreadsheet for further number crunching and remotely access your bandwidth data when away from your computer. Additionally, if you are in the unfortunate lot of having a restrictive data plan, you can set BitMeter to alert you when you've reached a user specified percentage of your bandwidth allotment. For another free Windows bandwidth meter, check out Net Worx. BitMeter is freeware, Windows only, and requires Microsoft .NET 1.1 or later. Thanks nfs!
LiveDrive Offers Unlimited Online Storage [Online Storage]
LiveDrive, not to be confused with Windows Live Skydrive, is a free and unlimited online storage service.
LiveDrive users can upload an unlimited number of files, and while the size limit per file isn't explicitly stated anywhere on the site I had no trouble uploading multi-GB files. The upload speed maxed out the available upload bandwidth I had, someone with a much faster pipe will have to weigh in on what the upload ceiling is. Users running Windows XP/Vista machines are able to download a stand alone client which adds a virtual drive to their computer assigned to the letter L. According to the site a client for Mac users is in the works. During the sign up process users are able to select a custom domain, http://someusername.livedrive.com, for accessing their files and sharing them. While the service is in beta, accounts are free. For other places to park your files, check out the Online Storage Comparison Chart.
Don't Forget Your Toothbrush Makes Packing a Snap [Travel]
Don't Forget Your Toothbrush makes the packing list you scribbled on the back of an envelope look down right anemic. Take advantage of the useful features and arrive without anything, including toothbrushes, left behind.
Tell Don't Forget Your Toothbrush where you are going and when, and it will generate a list of potential things you need to do based on your travel type. The to-do list is divided into advanced planning, two weeks before, one week before, the day before, the night before, and as you are leaving for the trip. Because not all suggestions may fit you, you check only those that apply to your situation and trip. Once you've created your custom list the site will give you a list of items that aren't actionable but that you may need for the trip such as tickets, directions, additional memory cards for your camera, and so on. Again, customize the list by checking only the things you'll need for your trip. Finally you are given an option to add extra items that may not be on their—rather extensive— packing list. After you create the list you have the option to print it as well as have reminders sent to you based on the time frames in the list. For another packing-list generator, check out The Universal Packing List. For more travel tips check out The Power Traveler's Checklist Part One and Part Two.
ColorPad Helps You Grab Color Values [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: ColorPad is a lightweight color picking application. Weighing in at only 148k and fully portable, it's no burden at all to tuck it in your flash drive toolkit.
The default interface is spartan and will appear a bit dated to users that have grown used to some of the flashier graphics in modern operating systems like Vista. Fortunately if the chunky graphics of the default skin bother you, it's a completely skinnable app. Appearances aside, ColorPad delivers a ton of features in a tiny package. You can grab the color value of anything you can see on your screen in hex, dec, and floating point number format. ColorPad has a persistent zoom function and a split screen option. There are numerous keyboard shortcuts that cover the basic functions and allow you to do more advanced tweaks like shift the color once you've grabbed it. For another Windows-based color picker, check out ColorPic. ColorPad is freeware, Windows only.
IngenuiTEA [Stuff We Like]
You wouldn't think that there would be any innovations left when it came to drinking tea, a 2,000+ year old beverage, but the IngenuiTEA from Adagio Teas is tea drinking tool not to be missed.
The IngenuiTEA is a 16 oz. teapot with a lid. At first glance it appears to be just an oversize mug with a rather large base. The base is the most interesting part of the design. You place loose tea into the IngenuiTEA after either microwaving the water or pouring boiling water into it and let the tea steep and drift about freely. When the steeping is complete, you simply lift the IngenuiTEA from the included coaster and place it atop your teacup. The pressure of cup against the bottom of the IngenuiTEA pushes up a small valve in the base and the brewed tea is released down into the cup. The loose tea is kept in the IngenuiTEA by a small plastic screen in the bottom. I've had one for several months now and the convenience of it is enormous when you're only brewing a cup or two of tea at a time for yourself. The unit retails for $19, but purchasing it through the gift section of the website allows you to pick out an additional sampler of their loose teas of the black, green, flavored, and herbal variety. Thanks RenegageTemptest for introducing me to Adagio Teas earlier this year!
Best Places to Find Multi-Monitor Wallpaper [What You Said]
Last week we asked you where you found wallpaper to customize multiple monitor setups, you responded and we rounded up your favorite sites to help share the high resolution goodness! Read on for the dirt.
Most popular by a landslide, was Mandolux. The site has an extremely simple design, lacking even a search function. The newest wallpaper is displayed on the main page, all previous ones are available on the archive pages. The easiest way to browse the site, since there are no thumbnails on the archive pages, is to simply start at the very front or the very back and browse page by page from there. Not a very efficient way to search but the images are interesting and beautiful. The majority of the images are sized for dual monitors, with some for triple monitors. Depending on your resolution the dual monitor backgrounds can be sized for a triple monitor fairly easily.The site has RSS support to help you keep up on the new additions.
Second and still highly favored was InterfaceLIFT, an enormous respository of wallpapers. Where Mandolux lacks any search at all, InterfaceLIFT allows you to sort by resolution, date, downloads, ratings, personal favorites, and so on. If you're looking only for highly-rated triple-monitor wallpapers, finding them is a breeze. Many of the wallpapers are available in sizes all the way down to 320x240, so if you find a multi-monitor wallpaper you love for bank of monitors you may be able to find it for your cellphone too.
Although you wouldn't expect anything less from a website devoted to creativity and artwork, the wallpaper section of DeviantArt is packed with beautiful wallpaper. The link we've provided takes you to the most popular multi-monitor wallpaper, but straying into the regular wallpaper and widescreen wallpaper yields many gems. Adolescent Eyes, partially seen in the screenshot at right, was my triple monitor wallpaper of choice for several months.
Vlad Studios was another popular contender. Having seen Vlad's work featured elsewhere it was nice to see so much of it in a central location and put a name with the excellent work. While the site offers free wallpapers, the really stunning widescreen and multi-monitor wallpapers are available for paying members. Many readers felt that the $19.99 lifetime membership was more than worth it. The multi-monitor category alone has over 300 beautiful custom wallpapers.
Social Wallpapering take a Digg-like approach with users submitting and voting wallapers up and down in popularity. Unfortunately there isn't a category for triple monitors, but the larger dual monitor papers can be adjusted to fit some triple monitor setups. Wallpaper packs of the entire contents of the site can be grabbed as a multi-part torrent file if you'd like to browse the entire collection at your on or offline leisure.
No survey of swanky wallpaper would be complete without a stop at Digital Blasphemy. If you've been a computer user for any length of time you've likely come across some of the work of Ryan Bliss, the creative brains behind Digital Blasphemy. I know I've been using wallpapers from Digital Blasphemy for over 10 years now and find the quality just as high now as I did in 1997. Like previously mentioned Vlad Studios, Digital Blasphemy is a pay site with a nice selection of free wallpapers. The link above takes you to the free section to get a taste for his style. Memberships start at $15.
While not as wildly popular as the above sites, the following websites received praise from your fellow readers and are definitely worth an honorable mention:
Dual and Triple Monitor Wallpapers @ MintyWhite
DualScreenWallpaper.com
DualMonitorBackgrounds.com
For more reading about multi-monitor setups and help managing them, check out Make the Most of Your Dual Monitors and Customize Your Dual Monitors with Display Fusion. Finally, if you have any great sites for high resolution wallpapers, share the wealth in the comments below!
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