Carry your life on a thumb drive
When I think back to the first computer I had with a hard drive bigger than a gigabyte ("I'll never run out of space now!") I have to laugh. Nowadays you can get 8 gigabytes of disk hanging on your key ring, not to mention all the gigabytage we tote around on our iPods.
Geek to Live: Carry your life on a thumb drive (or iPod) - Lifehacker
Could luggage-free airports help avoid holidays from hell?
Holidaymakers could avoid their trips being blighted by airport chaos under plans for "luggagefree" terminals to be unveiled today.Instead of dragging their suitcases to check-in, passengers would pay to have their baggage picked up from home and delivered independently to their destination.
Could luggage-free airports help avoid holidays from hell? | the Daily Mail
Download Safari 3 for Windows
Safari has been released for Windows. It lacks the extensibility of Firefox but this release brings a beautiful browsing experience to the Windows platform.
Follow the discussion here and here.
Spice up your schedule with the Google Calendar gallery
Don't you think that calendars should be more than lists of appointments and meetings? Well, we think an online calendar should be filled with what interests you most, which is why we just unveiled the Google Calendar gallery. Those of you with Google accounts and your friends (who might not have one) can create, share and save your favorite upcoming events directly in Google Calendar.
Official Google Blog: Spice up your schedule with the Google Calendar gallery
Organize your family's essential information in case of an emergency
If there's ever a time when you don't want to be caught unorganized, it's in the middle of a health crisis. You need certain documents on hand and ready to go when you're in situations like these. Today I'll show you how I've gotten my procrastinating booty in gear (finally) and made my very own essential information kit.
Technophilia: Organize your family's essential information in case of an emergency - Lifehacker
Goodbye wires
Imagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate.
Goodbye wires... MIT experimentally demonstrates wireless power transfer
Outsourcing Your Life
Sending work offshore has transformed the U.S. economy. Now, some families are tapping the same approach for personal tasks, getting them done for a fraction of what they'd cost at home. Taking your to-do list global.
Outsourcing Your Life - WSJ.com
Tina Turner on creativity:
"Sometimes you've got to let everything go -- purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything ... whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out."
Fever Builds for iPhone
The anticipation, which is intense even by Jobsian standards, has led to some quiet, behind-the-scenes anxiety at Apple. Some Apple executives worry privately that expectations for the one-button phones may be too high and that first-generation buyers will end up disappointed.
Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too) - New York Times
Annoying fun: DIY Airhorn
How to anger your neighbours and go deaf. A film canister, balloon, and straw is all it takes to blast 120-decibel honks from this DIY air horn after just minutes of simple construction. via Lifehacker.
Thailand gets new cyber crime law
Thailand's descent into authoritarianism continues unabated.
The chief immediate effect of the new bill will be to outlaw any attempt to get around government censors to access any of the tens of thousands of sites censored for moral or political purposes, or "to damage the country".The government pushed the new law by saying it hopes the bill will provide an effective legal tool to fight cyber crime, including theft of data and chatroom contacts that lead to rape.
Bangkok Post: Thailand gets new cyber crime law
Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent
I feel better already.
Wasting time gets a bad rap. We pester our children not to do it; we take pride in the multitasking that ensures we never do it; and we bristle at our fellow workers, shop clerks and just about anyone else who slows us down by doing it.But we all do it.
Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent - New York Times
Space Colony Artwork from the 1970
A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made.
Anne Fadiman, Jonathan Lethem, Richard Posner, and others reveal what font they compose in and why
What fonts do authors like to write in? Courier is favourite, apparently.
Jonathan Lethem, Richard Posner, and others reveal their favorite fonts. - - Slate Magazine
7 Apps for Online Note Taking
If you’re like most of us, you deal with piles of unstructured information every day: phone numbers, ideas for later consideration, snippets of information from the web, recipes, phone messages…the list is endless. For the web worker, moving this information into an online notebook can be an attractive proposition. Rather than tie yourself to one computer, or even one operating system, you can get at your notes from anywhere that has a web browser handy. Not surprisingly, there are a fair number of choices in this arena these days.
Web Worker Daily- 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking
86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore
Bloat. If you think that Americans are getting fatter, take one good look at the operating system (OS) your computer is running right now. It gets larger and more weighed down with every update. We are in the third decade of global personal computing, and have we really progressed that far?
86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore. You Won't Believe Who Wins
Yojimbo Import Scripts for Mailsmith and NetNewsWire
The central point of Yojimbo, as I see it, is that you can just throw bits of information into it without really thinking much at all. It’s a deceptively simple application, and most of the places where it gets particularly clever – like, say, the Drop Dock and the Quick Input window – share the same fundamental purpose: to make it as easy and frictionless as possible to add new bits of information.
Daring Fireball: Yojimbo Import Scripts for Mailsmith and NetNewsWire
Panels for Apple iPhone expected to come from Japan
Although market speculations recently indicated that AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux Display may receive orders from Apple for its iPhone panels, sources at panel makers recently said the major suppliers for the panels may be two Japan-based players while an unspecified Taiwan-based company may be a secondary source for the iPhone panels.
Panels for Apple iPhone expected to come from Japan
Typography Jokes
"Two fonts walk into a bar, the bartender says 'we don't serve your type here'. So they called the serif."
Office Accessories We Can't Live Without
You’ve got your smart phone, you’re addicted to your Blackberry, your laptop is wirelessly connected to the Space Station, and you can run it all from the local coffee shop using web-based project management. Groovy, you’ve mastered these basic and not-so-basic tools.But what else does it take to keep your web work flowing?
Web Worker Daily ｻ Blog Archive Office Accessories We Can't Live Without ｫ
Simple Weather
I like this interface for the weather.com data feed. Unfortunately it's America only at the moment.
Current Weather and forecast - SimpleWeather. Via Chris Glass - ya, that drop shadow has to go.
A Japanese Export: Talent
In Hsinchu where I live, you see the effects of the influx of Japanese workers everywhere. In many ways they seem catered to far more than the many other foreign workers here.
One of the hottest exports from Japan these days isn’t video games or eco-friendly cars.It is engineers.
Japan’s once vaunted electronics industry has downsized to survive global competition, and is inadvertently setting off a brain drain. Thousands of Japanese engineers and other industry professionals have gone to Taiwan, South Korea and China to seek work at aggressive, fast-growing companies that want to use Japanese technological expertise.
Japan's brain drain - New York Times
The Last Question
Isaac Asimov was the most prolific science fiction author of all time. In fifty years he averaged a new magazine article, short story, or book every two weeks, and most of that on a manual typewriter. Asimov thought that The Last Question, first copyrighted in 1956, was his best short story ever. Even if you do not have the background in science to be familiar with all of the concepts presented here, the ending packs more impact than any other book that I've ever read. Don't read the end of the story first!
Printed Ephemera - a photoset on Flickr
Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs
You’d think that as a result of open-source development practices, blog architectures would be pretty close to perfection in areas like Web standards and maximum SEO impact.You’d be wrong.
The Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs — Pearsonified Via Swissmiss.
Open Source Mac Software
A list of free, open-source software for Mac OS X.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface
Liberated from monogamy, I became typographically promiscuous. I have since, I think, learned to modulate my behavior — like any substance abuser, I learned that binges are time-consuming, costly, and ultimately counterproductive — but I've never gone back to five-typeface sobriety. Those thousands of typefaces are still out there, but my recovery has required that I become more discriminating and come up with some answers to this seemingly simple question: why choose a particular typeface? Here are thirteen reasons.
Design Observer: writings about design & culture
Winners of the National Design Awards
Apple's Jonathan Ive included. National Design Awards | Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
The Freelancer Toolset
Running a business for yourself means you have to be inventive and always on the lookout for a new and better way to get things done. Innovation junkies, take note: the Internet has a lot to offer. From invoicing to marketing, these are tools that freelancers need to know about.
100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need
The Secret of Apple Design
Apple, Inc. has made an art of not talking about its products. Fans, journalists, and rumormongers who love it or love to hate it have long had to practice a sort of Kremlinology to gather the merest hints as to what is coming next out of Cupertino.A case in point is this story, which was to be about the iPhone--about how an innovative and gorgeous piece of technology was conceived, designed, and produced by the vaunted industrial-design team at Apple. Along the way, it would address the larger question of how one company can so consistently excel at making products that become icons, win design awards, and inspire customers.
Technology Review: The Secret of Apple Design
12 essential facts, formulas, and photographic rules
What happens when your systems go belly-up, when all of that cutting-edge technology dies and you must rely on (gasp!) your own knowledge? It pays to have these basics in your head. They can get you out of a jam and help you get good shots when nothing else will.
Memorize This! . Via Swissmiss
High fidelity takes backseat to portability
Music lovers remember a familiar advertising image from the past: a man reclined in a chair, head back, blown away by music from his high-fidelity sound system.Like the Marlboro Man before him, Maxell's pitchman is now a relic.
With their ability to store vast libraries of music in your pocket, sleek digital music players have replaced bulky home stereo systems as the music gear of choice. But the sound quality of digital audio files is noticeably inferior to that of compact discs and even vinyl.
High fidelity takes backseat to portability - CNN.com
Apple's Address Book More Powerful than You Might Think
On the outset, there doesn't seem to be much to Address Book - and why should there be? An address book is an address book, right? It seems like the essential function of Address Book, just like half a dozen alternatives, is to store basic contact information. It would be pretty difficult to mess this up.Entourage offers more than this; I'll freely grant that Entourage does indeed provide a robust contact manager. But don't mistake Address Book's simple form as an implication that it's substantially less than Entourage offers. In fact, Address Book offers contact management that meets - and in some ways exceeds - the capabilities of Entourage.
Replacing Entourage: Apple's Address Book More Powerful than You Might Think
HTC to ship Google handsets by year-end
High Tech Computer (HTC) is now manufacturing Google handsets with shipments officially commencing at the end of 2007, according to handset component makers. The makers also said the shipment volume will reach as high as one million units.Google handsets will hit the global market in 2008, noted the component makers.
HTC to ship Google handsets by year-end
Get DVDs and other video on your hard drive to play through Apple's set-top box
Macworld tells us how to convert videos into Apple TV-compatible files that you can enjoy from the comfort of your couch in the best possible quality.
Macworld: Secrets: Convert video for Apple TV
