Now that the air is properly cleared, we're here to announce PortableApps as the winning portable application suite, followed by Liberkey, which in turn is followed portable Linux. Check out the full Hive Five for additional information on all the contenders.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/K1TQiPz2vYc/google-images-adds-similar-search-function
From a cursory few searches, Google's own similar image search seems to perform a bit more accurately when it comes to hunting down real-life images that look like other captured images. You can't upload or draw your image basis, as with GazoPa, but then you get greater results filtering with Google as well—exact dimensions, color saturation, file type, and more.
Both sites are worth keeping bookmarked if you're often digging around for something just a little different than what you're working with.
AccidentSketch uses a simple template system. Cars, road segments, signs, pedestrians, and more all snap to the grid and in the case of small objects like signs can be moved from there. You can change the colors of things, zoom in and out to get as close or wide as you need, and even assign information to parties involved like the license plate numbers of the cars in the accident.
Once you create a diagram you can also generate a text-based report to fill in details that can't be easily conveyed by the picture. When you're done you've got a tidy accident sketch and report to submit to the interested parties. The service is free and requires no registration.
Have a handy tool and tidbit for dealing with insurance companies and life after a fender-bender? Let's hear about it in the comments.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/FqqeciFsi5E/trick-out-google-apps-for-your-domain
What the what? Sometimes we refer to all of Google's regular, free, public products as "Google Apps," but today we're referring to the product formerly known as "Google Apps for Your Domain" as just plain "Google Apps." (Note to Google: Come up with a clearer naming convention.) Give this flavor of Google Apps a domain name you own—like yourfamily.org or example.com—and it puts Google services behind it. If you've got a regular Google Account and you@gmail.com email address, that's cool—you can forward mail for you@yourdomain.com address to and from it. But Google Apps lets you create and manage several users associated with your domain and enable various services for them. Google Apps (for your domain) comes in several flavors: Standard Edition (free for individuals and non-affiliated groups, what we're going to cover here), Premier Edition (for businesses), Non-Profit Edition, Education Edition, and Government Edition.
The two key advantages to using Google Apps this way are: 1.) you get a custom you@yourdomain.com email address that you can take with you to another email provider if Gmail goes away or you want to transfer it. Your regular @gmail.com address is married to Google's service, so you can never use it with another provider. 2.) You get system administrator-level capabilities for setting up your workgroup's IT needs with Google's easy interface. We've already done an overview of what Google Apps can do; if you haven't already, here's how to get it set up with your domain.
If you're not using Google Apps but you're interested, know that it takes a low level set of system administrator skills to get it up and running. You'll need to configure domain settings, such as your email MX record for your domain at your registrar. It depends on who you used (I recommend NameCheap), but most likely your registrar offers a settings panel to configure these things. You'll also have to verify your domain by adding files to the web site, most likely via FTP or another method.
With me? Good. Take a look at some of the gems buried in Google Apps' administrative interface. Access it at google.com/a/yourdomain.com, replacing the "you! rdomain. com" part with, well, your domain name.
Google Apps give you the option to give your domain a human-readable label beyond just example.com. For fun and an inflated sense of self-importance, I called mine "Gina Trapani Enterprises," which you'll see in many of the screenshots here. You can set up your domain's name in the Google Apps Dashboard, under Domain Settings>General. You and your domain users will see this name in your apps tab titles, and when you sign into any service.
If you click on the "More Services" link, you'll see more (less popular) services, like Contacts (for accessing your contacts list outside Gmail in Calendar and Docs), Sites (which appears to be a simple intranet application), custom applications hosted on Google App Engine, and even Labs services that include a URL shortener and Google Moderator. I haven't used any other services extensively besides Gmail, GCal, and GDocs in my Apps account, but the more adventurous should dive right in.
(While you're there, it can't hurt to check off "Enable SSL" box in the section below that to encrypt your users' sessions automatically for a higher level of security.)
Essentially, Google Apps Standard Edition gives you IT director-level administrative control over your workgroup's domain, for free. For more adventures in Google Apps migrations, see Scott Hanselman's thorough writeup on how he switched his family from Outlook and Thunderbird to Google Apps.
This article only scratches the surface of what you can configure Google Apps to do. GApps users, what are your favorite tips and settings? Give 'em up in the comments.
Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's foundi! ng edito r, likes her GApps goodness and a portable domain name, too. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
Voice Mac has a pretty basic set-up—you have a filterable list of all your contacts (which can either be populated by Google, which includes your contacts and numbers from your sent and received call list that aren't in your contacts), or just your local Address Book on your Mac. You can call any of your contacts, choose which phone to ring, and even bring up a separate window for SMS, like an IM—complete with dock icon badges and Growl notifications.
In addition, you can also bring up a separate window to view your call history, SMS history, and voicemails. It even has it's own reverse lookup function, complete with Google Maps integration, to show you where that unknown number is calling from(and possibly who it is).
Voice Mac is a free download, Mac only. Thanks, Jamie!
Even if you don't use Facebook all that often (or maybe especially if you don't), this is a nice option. Once set up, you can check one calendar (your Google Calendar) to see what's going on with your Facebook friends and with whatever else you've hooked into GCal. Getting it set up is simple:
- In Facebook, go to your EVENTS page.
- At the top of that page click EXPORT EVENT
- You'll get a pop up window with a URL, copy it.
- In Google Cal, on the bottom left you'll see 'Other Calendars' and below that a link to ADD. Click ADD
- One of the new options you'll be presented with is ADD BY URL, select that
- Paste the URL from Facebook where it asks for it.
- Fin
I never check my Facebook events calendar until events pass me by, but I'm always keeping an eye on GCal. After performing this simple setup, you won't need to worry as much about missing an event just because you're not all that big on Facebook.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/XZ5zYK1VPVc/mozilla-seamonkey-updated-to-20
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/mC3B4nX0lWk/
Readers offer their best tips for screencasting in Windows 7, using Quicksilver to launch applications in VMware, and organizing your personal recipes using a blog.
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About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.
Mark shows us a nice built-in feature of Windows 7:
I found if you just type "PSR" in the run box, the problem solution recorder pops up. It looks similar to the sound recorder, and when you press record, it captures key actions and saves them as an MHT in a zip file (I assume MHT is Media HyperText Markup Language, because it is all in one file).
Photo by Ben Becker .
Joe shares a convenient tip on how to further Quicksilver's usefulness:
If you add
~/Documents/Virtual Machines/[name of the vm].vmwarevm/Applications
to the Quicksilver catalog you can index! all of the apps in your VMWare virtual machine and use Quicksilver from within the PC Virtual Machine or even launch PC apps from your Mac desktop even when the VM is not powered on (it will start VMware automatically)... Its faster than using the start menu!
David tells us how he closes down his computer quickly (without shutting down completely):
I came up with a very simple solution to a problem I've had, and I thought it might be something others would like to do as well. I've been looking for a way to easily log off of my account _and_ hibernate my Vista system in one step (I have work acct and a home acct, and I'd like to be able to hibernate at the end of the work day, but not still be logged on to my work acct...) I wrote (of all things) a two line batch file:
shutdown /l
shutdown /hI named it LogoffHib.bat and saved it to a convenient place, then made a shortcut to it on my desktop, complete with Ctrl+Alt+End shortcut key, and Boom! I've searched for something like this for ages and never found anything, but I thought someone else in a similar situation might like it too.
Photo by Jennifer Dickert .
Sara-Elizabeth shares her favorite tool for recipe logging:
I know you've had lots of people suggesting ways to keep up with recipes, but I'd like to add my two cents. Borrowing on the idea of saving the recipes in Delicious, I then created a Blogspot account and pos! ted the individual recipes as entries (with photos uploaded to my personal web space and source noted). I can quickly find recipes based on certain criteria and I'm even able to link within recipes to other
recipes needed for the whole project.
Photo by Chris Metcalf.
Stephen shares another way to keep wood from splitting:
Surprised that no one has mentioned wax, even a crayon, get it onto the nail and the nail drives about five times easier and much less chance of splitting, to boot.
And absolutely put wax onto a long screw that you're running into hard wood — you'll be amazed at the difference. Soap works also, wax is better IMO.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fv35tVv-ekM/how-motorola-stopped-sucking
Right after taking the cursed reins of Motorola, then-incoming CEO Sanjay Jha had a short town hall meeting and was accosted by a Moto engineer working on Android, Rick Osterloh, as he came off the stage. "By the end of that week, Mr. Osterloh was sitting on the corporate jet, flying with Mr. Jha back to California" to talk up Android, according to the NY Times' account.
Jha lopped off Moto's entire Symbian division in weeks, and when Windows Mobile hit delays, punted it entirely. Most impressively, I think, when it came time to pick out the brains of their new phones, Jha rejected a chip that his division had made when he was at Qualcomm, prior to Motorola, in favor of the TI OMAP chip that's in the Droid.
Funny thing about the Droid, while its aesthetic is dominated by a strict functionalism, it was actually even harder-edged before—Verizon asked Motorola to make it rounder and add the softer touch back so it didn't appeal solely to dudes. (Um, good job with that?) I'm just happy for Motorola that they weren't crushed into oblivion by the weight of their own ineptitude and might actually mount a real comeback. There's more to the story over at the Times: [NYT]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cXNAD0dxjRc/htc-hero-among-first-to-get-android-20-update
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/ropid-the-adorable-humanoid-can-jump-3-inches-into-the-air-swee/
Continue reading ROPID the adorable humanoid can jump 3-inches into the air, sweep you off your feet
Filed under: Robots
ROPID the adorable humanoid can jump 3-inches into the air, sweep you off your feet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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