Use Zip Ties to Better Secure Pegboards [Clever Uses]

Lifehacker:

“Last week we shared a commercial solution for securing your loose pegboard pegs. We’re back to share a cheaper and more effective solution, courtesy of an industrious reader.

Kim disliked Peg Locks, the product we highlighted last week, because they take up two holes on each side of the peg you’re trying to secure, and they never seemed to stay put for his. When he put up new peg boards in his workspace, he decided to use zip ties instead. You can loop them through a single hole and they hold the peg in place with a rock-solid grip.

The downside of course is that you need to have access to the back of the pegboard to use zip ties to secure the organization pegs. Kim overcame this problem by mounting his pegboards in a hinged frame. Most of the time he never needs to access the back, but when some rearranging is needed, he simply flips the whole thing up like a garage door and has access to the back where the zip ties are locked. Check out the link below to see more photos of his setup and additional information.

Have a clever workspace hack? Let’s hear about it in the comments.”

A Better Approach to Pegboard [Kim Pallister]

How to Fix Annoying YouTube Jumpiness in Firefox

Lifehacker:

“Ever notice an annoying, persistent lag every ten seconds or so when you’re watching a YouTube (or other) video in Firefox? Reader Bernard Sandberg has, and he’s written in with a smart about:config that solves the problem for him.

Although Bernard’s talking specifically about YouTube, this tweak should help fix any similar jumpiness in Firefox.

Many users, myself included, visit YouTube on an almost daily basis. Ever since Firefox version 2.0 implemented the session restore function, when you are watching a video on YouTube (perhaps on other video sites as well, I haven’t really tested that), you may notice a tiny freeze-up of the video every 10 seconds or so. This happens because the session restore is by default set to save all open tabs every 10 seconds. This is especially noticeable if you happen to have a lot of tabs open at once.

The quick fix for this problem, at least for my own sake, is to increase the time between each of the saves performed by session restore. By opening about:config in your Firefox address bar, then typing browser.sessionstore.interval in the filter box, you’ll see a value of 10000, which is in milliseconds. (Meaning your session is saved every 10 seconds.) I changed this to 300000, or every 5 minutes, as I don’t have the urgent need for tab restoration. If you feel like being more on the safe side, try increasing it to something a bit lower, say 120000, or every 2 minutes.

We did a bit of research, and it looks like Bernard’s not alone with his solution. I’ve experienced this problem plenty in Firefox, so it’s great to see a relatively simple solution, even if it does mean sacrificing a bit in the way of up-to-the-minute session saving. If you give it a try, let’s hear if it does the trick for you in the comments (assuming you’ve experienced this problem in the first place).”

Use the Scroll Wheel to Zip Through Your Browser History

Lifehacker:

“Firefox: Keyboard shortcuts are handy time savers, and when it comes to web browsers, a keyboard/mouse shortcut is even handier. Zip through your history on a web page with this simple shortcut.

Lifehacker reader Raghav, a Firefox completist who previously brought us a middle-click reminder, writes in with a great trick for zooming through your browser history:

It’s common knowledge that control-scrolling increases/decreases font size and that alt-scrolling slows down scrolling in firefox, but did you know that shift-scrolling shuffles through your history for that page? Shift + Scroll Up shuffles forward, and Shift + Scroll Down shuffles backwards.

Since you likely already have your hand on the mouse, this shortcut is quite the speedy one. If you have a favorite Firefox shortcut, obvious or otherwise, let’s hear about it in the comments below.”

Use Best Buy’s In-Store Pickup to Save Serious Cash

Lifehacker:

“Blogger Anastasia didn’t want to pay $44.99 each for four seasons of Stargate Atlantis—she wanted the online price of $19.99. Using her phone’s data connection, she managed to knock about $96 off her purchase.

Anyone who’s done some serious price comparison might already know of Best Buy’s strange differentiation between online and in-store prices. Anastasia found her way around that schism by buying the items online from her T-Mobile G1, while standing in the store she wanted to pick them up from. The only tax was about 20 minutes of waiting, most of it waiting for the email confirmations to return—and, let’s be honest, most of us can find something to gawk over for a short while in an electronics store.

Read the full details of her use of post at the Long Live Geeks blog for complete details of her quest, and read up on Best Buy’s In-Store Pickup policies at their site. How have you worked around the online/brick-and-mortar divide at Best Buy or any other retailer? Share your strategy in the comments.”

Getting the Best of Best Buy [Long Live Geeks]

Fonolo Cuts Through Corporate Voicemail Trees

Brilliant…

Lifehacker:

“Fonolo, an online phone tool for getting past all the “Press X for …” prompts on customer service numbers, is now open for public beta. Our sister site Consumerist took a screenshot tour when Fonolo was privately tested, and it looks much the same—in other words, just as cool. Pick a company, browse their phone directory tree by title and automated dialog, choose where you want to jump in, and Fonolo calls you with a direct connection there. We gave Fonolo a quick spin this morning, so read on for screenshots and a quick tutorial on working some auto-dial jujitsu.

Fonolo has limited their directory of businesses covered during their beta phase, but there’s still a good range of companies covered—credit card issuers, cell carriers, retailers, even AARP and EZ-Pass (the New-England-area auto-toll taker). Once you’ve signed up with a username, password, email, and your phone numbers, you’ll validate your email and be on your way.”

FULL ARTICLE

iTunes as PDF Organizer

Lifehacker:

“Radiologists in Shanghai are reportedley using iTunes to organize medical papers published as PDFs. It’s not as crazy as it sounds—we ran down how to organize your PDF library with iTunes over a year ago.”

Perform Site Searches with the Google Mobile App

Lifehacker:

“iPhone/iPod touch only: The Google Mobile app has a hidden secret
that can save tons of time looking up web pages on your iPhone: an
undocumented shortcut that performs Google site searches. Let’s say,
for example, you want to read our original post on the Google Mobile iPhone app.
Just fire up Google Mobile on your iPhone or iPod touch and start
typing in Lifehacker until the Lifehacker homepage shows up in the
search results. Then just touch and hold down on that result for a
second or so, until the selection flashes. You’ll notice that the
search box now lists lifehacker.com in a small blue box.

Now
all subsequent text you search will perform a Google site search (which
you can do from a regular Google search box by typing site:lifehacker.com 'search terms').
This trick works for any web site, meaning you can skip loading a web
site in Safari if you just want to use its search box; use the Google
Mobile app’s site search trick for much quicker results. For more
Google Mobile for iPhone tricks, check out how to use Google Mobile for quick local lookups.”

Alt+Enter to Open a Typed URL in a New Tab

Lifehacker: “Macworld points out a handy Firefox tabbing keyboard shortcut: Hit
Alt+Enter (Opt+Enter for Mac users) to open a URL you’ve typed into the
address bar in a new tab. This way, instead of hitting Ctrl+T to open a
new tab, then the address, then Enter, you can skip one step. For more
useful Firefox keyboard shortcuts, see our mouse-less Firefox feature.”

Open typed URLs in new tabs [Macworld]

Domain Shortcut Helps Type URLs in Your iPhone More Quickly

Lifehacker:

“iPhone/iPod touch only: The iPhone has sported a .com keyboard shortcut for making quick work of URLs in Mobile Safari since it was released, but reader George points us to an expansion to this keyboard shortcut that can save tons of time for entering email addresses and non-.com URLs. First, in Mobile Safari, just hold down the .com button for a second to see other domain options (namely .net, .edu, and .org). Second, when the keyboard has the @ symbol but no .com key, you can hold the ‘.’ (period) key to get the same domain shortcuts—something that comes in especially handy when you’re manually entering email addresses or filling in login credentials in new apps. I’m not sure if this keyboard shortcut is an iPhone 2.0 feature or something that was added when hold-for-accents was added for international language support, but it’s definitely one to know.”

Find and Embed Album Art in Your MP3 Collection

Lifehacker:

“Your
digital music doesn’t stay in one place, and it should look the same no
matter where it’s playing. But somehow, in all the transfers from
system to system, onto and off of MP3 players, and to and from the net,
the album art illustrations that should add visual cues and familiarity
seem to always get lost. If you’re looking to match up all your music
with their album covers, read on for a quick guide to the best tools
and sources for finding and locking down album art, no matter what
computer you’re using.”

READ FULL ARTICLE