“In case it went under your radar, Leopard’s Spaces feature has improved in the 10.5.3 release by making the workspace switch more intuitive. The upshot: You can now create and switch between workspaces based on tasks rather than apps.”
“When it comes to life and getting things done, we like to do things a
little differently in Japan. When I break a glass in the kitchen, I
don’t use my vacuum cleaner to clean it up; I use a slice of bread.
When my socks become dirt-stained from running in a muddy ravine, I
don’t pour bleach on them; I stuff them with marbles. And to save space
and money, I have never bought a document shredder. I just stuff
incriminating documents in a stocking and toss them in the washing
machine.
In
Japan, there’s an organic, non-commercial cure for almost anything.
It’s a tradition that blossomed in the post-WW2 era when people had to
save money and space for economic reasons. Today, this habit of
utilitarian thriftiness paired with a quirky national sensibility has
spawned a phenomenon called urawaza—a collection of offbeat life hacks and unmapped shortcuts. It’s also the subject of my new book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.
Keep reading for excerpts on how to silence a crying baby, get rid of
splinters, swim backward, make grass greener, and easily clean up egg
yolk… all using common household objects.”
“Apart from being the most useful application on my Mac, Quicksilver
is also one of the most attractive. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved,
either, and weblog MacApper has rounded up a few of the sexiest
Quicksilver interfaces on the block. Aside from the eye candy, the
other great thing about alternate interfaces is that many of them
change the way you interact with Quicksilver—meaning that if you’ve
never quite gotten the hang of Quicksilver, a new interface may be just
the ticket. If you’ve got a favorite Quicksilver interface that you’ve
been using, let’s hear about it in the comments. If a new interface has
you aching to dive into Quicksilver, check out our beginner’s guide along with our many other Quicksilver guides.”
“Nearly every new webapp on the block offers some kind of text message
integration, but not all of them are the kind you’ll want to keep on
every phone you own. However, there are a few contact numbers and
services that make even the cheapest phone a high-tech wonder that can
schedule and plan events, transfer money, price a potential purchase,
or do just about any Google search. Let’s take a look at 10 contact
numbers and email addresses worth making frequent SMS correspondents.”
LINK TO FULL LIST
“A lot of unexpected things can happen in the course of a day at the
office, so the SimpleProductivityBlog recommends putting together an
office survival kit in preparation for the unforeseen. The author’s
must-have tools include a sewing kit to mitigate a popped button or
tear and a stain remover for those times you bring lunch back with your
clothes. The author’s toolkit is rather small, so let’s hear what you
would add to the ultimate office survival kit in the comments. While
you’re at it, you’ll never be unprepared with a solid go bag. Photo by aokettun.”
The Office Survival Kit [SimpleProductivityBlog]
“If
you take a lot of digital photos but are frustrated with the strange
yellow glow or green hue to your results, weblog Of Zen and Computing’s
guide to adjusting the white balance of digital photos is for you.
Taking you step-by-step through adjusting the color temperature in
Photoshop, the guide makes it easy to understand how to fix these
imbalances and give your pictures the more natural look they deserve.
We’ve covered this territory once in the past, but this post’s screenshots and detailed instructions are worth another look if you’re new to correcting color.”
“Blogger Albert Alberts loves a slim wallet, and after reading over some of our wallet-slimming tips,
he realized he had a powerful wallet-slimming tool in his pocket all
the time: his iPhone. His idea? Rather than reducing his membership
cards to just one club card,
he scanned his membership cards to his computer, then synced them to
his iPhone as an album called WalletCards. According to the post, his
phone-friendly cards even scan successfully. You’re still going to be
at the mercy of whether or not the workers are willing to accept your
scanned cards, but if they are, you can carry around all the membership
cards you want without adding any bulk to your wallet.”
“Web site Mac OS X Hints details how to create an iTunes audiobook
(i.e., an M4B audio file) from any text in just a couple of clicks. The
process involves installing a new service to your Services menu, then
selecting your to-be-audiobooked text and choosing AppName ->
Services -> Speak to iTunes Audiobook. When the conversion is
complete, the resulting audio file is automatically imported to iTunes
in the Audiobooks section. The service uses the new Alex voice in
Leopard, and the results are actually very listenable.”
“Now
you can truly see why our commenters dubbed Python the programming
language that “can do anything.” One intrepid (and hungry) hacker,
possibly named Nick Jensen, put together a small script that tracks
Domino’s Pizza orders from phone call to door bell ring. Download and
launch the script (with instructions at the link), plug in your phone
number, and you don’t have to get up until that cheese-covered saucer
is at the door. It’s just another true sign of how life-changing the
command line can really be.”
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