Top 10 Web Tools for Election Season (23)
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It's hard these days to imagine how elections happened before the web grew to popularity. With all the instant-access news, video, data, and social networking available in a few seconds' time, election season is a prime time to dig in and find out where the candidates are getting and spending money, what's being by and about them and which of it is true, and how to make sure you get your vote in on Nov. ...
Lifehacker Confessions: The Tips and Tricks I'm Not Using (12)
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Kevin Purdy (3392)
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Reading Lifehacker can inspire you to reboot your computer habits, your workflow, your workspace, and even your home life. Believe me, I should know. About a year ago, I was a messy-desked, easily-distracted reporter who relished his lunch-break reading of Lifehacker's RSS feed. I asked to write a few posts, lucked into a real gig, and can now tell the story of becoming a task-minded guru who gets things done with the right software. That's ...
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Brian Junyor said:
In the same boat, sans the MS Word website. My first was in a text editor though. Of course, there were only text editor then.
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Shane Conder said:
Sounds a lot like me. But I do use MS Office. Had to.
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deniman said:
Plas plas plas o clap clap clap, como vds. prefieran
Writing Tips from an Economist [Writing Tips] (7)
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The Stepcase Lifehack blog pulls out a trusted tome, Deirdre McCloskey's Economical Writing, and extracts some wisdom from an accomplished economics professor on writing tight sentences that are thrifty with words (unlike, say, this sentence). Here's one bit especially relevant for online writers: Always ask “So what?” ... Your reader’s time is very valuable, and he or she could be doing a lot of different things. They have decided, for whatever reason, to take a ...
Zoho Mail Launches, Offers Offline Access Through Gears [Email] (10)
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Zoho Mail, a web-based email client long in private beta in the Zoho office suite, is now publicly available. Those with Zoho accounts and Google Gears installed will notice that you can hit an "Offline" button to download a pre-set number of sent mail and inbox messages, and reply to them for sending when you're back online. Zoho Mail features both traditional folders and label sorting, or use of both, and POP import/export, with IMAP ...
Make Your Own R-Strap for Camera-Slinging Convenience [DIY] (14)
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2 days, 16 hours
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The R-Strap, a $44 sling for DSLR cameras that hooks into the tripod socket, makes it easy to keep a camera slung low during idle moments, then quickly bring it up for shooting without scraping your neck or twisting the strap. The Photojojo site points out two DIY R-Strap how-tos that require just a few dollars of gear and not too much hardware work to get the same effect. Best of all, you can use ...
Netflix Charging $1 More for Blu-Ray [NetFlix] (2)
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DVD rental service Netflix is adding a $1/month charge, starting Nov. 5, to any accounts that have higher-def Blu-Ray discs in their queue, or have turned on a preference to get Blu-Ray discs. Customers can turn this off, however, in their account settings. Does $1/month extra seem fair for higher-def flicks, or are you switching back to standard DVDs? [via]
How to Clean Your Workspace, and Keep it That Way (26)
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2 days, 17 hours
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Whether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other Lifehackers' (and mine)—the ability to attract clutter, make important documents and objects hard to find, and, over time, become an actual impediment to getting things done. Some of us are able to work in a way that doesn't leave things a mess and clean as ...
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Srinvard said:
ach, if only I could organize myself like that
Test Your Web Mail's Password Recovery (Before Someone Else Does) [Email] (9)
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CNET's Michael Horowitz runs down the ins and outs of securing and restoring access to your Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account, whether it's been infiltrated, locked you out, or you're just looking to ensure its privacy. It's a good guide that might make you think twice about your web mail practices, especially if you haven't run through his final bit of advice: Test your password recovery procedure—the kind that left Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account ...
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Eric Atkins said:
I thought password recovery questions would only be used by me. I was wrong. Anyone can use them and get access to your email and other web accounts.
Theme XP in Dark Blue, No Hacking Required [Themes] (9)
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2 days, 21 hours
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The Ask VG blog points us to a dark blue, modern-looking "Embedded" theme for Windows XP, designed and signed by Microsoft. That means no file hacking—just install the package and switch your theme in your desktop preferences. Here are two direct download links. To use other, non-signed themes, check out our guide to using custom visual styles in XP and Vista. [via]
Make No-Knead Bread Faster and Healthier [Food Hacks] (13)
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2 days, 21 hours
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Nearly two years ago, food author Mark Bittman launched an army of first-time bread makers with his no-knead, super-simple bread recipe (including a few of our helpful commenters). Now Bittman has tweaked the recipe to reduce the leave-it-alone time from 14 hours down to about four, while also allowing for a healthier, whole-grain variation. Actually, the recipe can be tweaked almost any way you want, as long as it's made in a standard loaf pan ...
Clean Your Workspace--and Keep it That Way (22)
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2 days, 22 hours
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Whether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other Lifehackers' (and mine)—the ability to attract clutter, make important documents and objects hard to find, and, over time, become time an actual impediment to getting things done. Some of us are able to work in a way that doesn't leave things a mess and clean ...
Turn an Old Cell Phone and Headset into a "SkypeCell" [DIY] (6)
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3 days, 14 hours
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Instructables author JFDuval had an old cell phone and a cheap headset laying around, so he decided to fuse them together to make better-quality calls on free VOIP service Skype. As you might imagine, you don't get wireless calling, and this method requires a small bit of soldering and case-opening, but the author says the call quality—and, in the case of a really cheap headset, the comfort on his ears—improved noticeably. It was also a ...
Block Ads on Your Jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch [Step By Step] (3)
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3 days, 14 hours
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Whether you're on Wi-Fi or an EDGE/3G cellular connection, many web pages would load up a heck of a lot faster on the iPhone's Mobile Safari browser if you weren't stuck waiting for "LOWER YOUR INTEREST RATES NOW" and the like to push through on Mobile Safari. If you've jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch, however, there's a none-too-hard hack you can make to block a good number of ads from slowing down your page ...
Understanding the Crisis and Bailout [Money] (4)
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Ramit Sethi at the I Will Teach You to Be Rich blog offers up 10 links intended to explain and detail how the economy got into this crisis, what average investors should be doing, and what's happening with the bailout. Some are a bit inside-baseball, but many answer essential questions. Also see what fellow Lifehacker readers are doing to stay calm and sane in the turmoil.
Block Ads on Your Jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch [Step By Step] (10)
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3 days, 16 hours
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Whether you're on Wi-Fi or an EDGE/3G cellular connection, many web pages would load up a heck of a lot faster on the iPhone's Mobile Safari browser if you weren't stuck waiting for "LOWER YOUR...
SiteReloader Refreshes Multiple Sites on Timers [Web Utilities] (5)
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3 days, 18 hours
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It's nothing that Firefox 3 can't do by itself with an extension, but free webapp SiteReloader makes monitoring multiple pages for new content—like, say, during a certain nation's presidential debates—easy on any browser. Type or paste in the address, choose a refresh rate, and SiteReloader opens your site in a new window, piping refresh requests out to it every so often. The app is free to use, but signing in lets you save a list ...
Turn an Old Cell Phone and Headset into a "SkypeCell" [DIY] (8)
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3 days, 18 hours
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Instructables author JFDuval had an old cell phone and a cheap headset laying around, so he decided to fuse them together to make better-quality calls on free VOIP service Skype. As you might imagine, you don't get wireless calling, and this method requires a small bit of soldering and case-opening, but the author says the call quality—and, in the case of a really cheap headset, the comfort on his ears—improved noticeably. It was also a ...
Instant Eyedropper Grabs Any Color from Your Screen [Featured Windows Download] (1)
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Windows only: Instant Eyedropper, a free system tray utility, is a color-finder's best friend. Simply pick up the app's icon from your system tray, drag it toward the color you want to find, and a magnified, pixel-by-pixel view lets you pinpoint exactly what shade you're looking for. The color code—HTML, RGB, or whatever you prefer to set in the options—is instantly copied to your clipboard for easy pasting in any editing tool. Instant Eyedropper is ...
Instant Eyedropper Grabs Any Color from Your Screen [Featured Windows Download] (8)
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Windows only: Instant Eyedropper, a free system tray utility, is a color-finder's best friend. Simply pick up the app's icon from your system tray, drag it toward the color you want to find, and a magnified, pixel-by-pixel view lets you pinpoint exactly what shade you're looking for. The color code—HTML, RGB, or whatever you prefer to set in the options—is instantly copied to your clipboard for easy pasting in any editing tool. Instant Eyedropper is ...
