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10 Free System Recovery Tools

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 05:16:54 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

LH Top 10: Free Computer System Recovery Tools

Which one of these tools is right for you depends on your skill level, operating system and particular problem. Do yourself a favor and burn yourself a disc with a couple of these before the terrible day when you need 'em happens.

Tags: pc, free, tools

LinuxMCE vs. Windows MCE

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:54:37 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: video.google.com

[Video]

Tags: linux, home theater, dvr

Whip your MP3 library into shape - PT3

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:48:32 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Alpha Geek: Whip your MP3 library into shape, Part III: Metadata

By now all the songs in your MP3 library should have level volumes and embedded, accurate album art. The last step? Fixing your collection's metadata, also known as ID3 tags.

An MP3 file contains not only the actual song, but also categorical information--metadata--about that song: name, artist, album and so on. (It can also contain album art, as we discussed last week.) It's critical that the metadata be accurate, otherwise your music software or portable player may not be able to sort or identify songs correctly. Fortunately, it's not hard to fix or update MP3 (or WMA, Ogg, etc.) metadata. Let's get to it.

Tags: mp3

Restaurant's secret recipes

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:47:33 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Find restaurant secrets at Top Secret Recipes

Want to make a cherry Slurpee in your own kitchen? How about California Pizza Kitchen's famous BBQ Chicken Pizza? And homemade Cinnabon for dessert? You can find these recipes and hundreds more at Top Secret Recipes.

The site organizes the recipes by brand, starting with Applebee's and ending with Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill. In between you'll find not only restaurants, but also individual foods and drinks: AriZona tea, Bisquick, Mrs. Dash and so on. Each recipe includes comments and user ratings, most of which are overwhelmingly positive. The site promises a new recipe each week, and although there's no RSS feed for easily tracking them, you can subscribe to a once-weekly e-mail newsletter.

Tags: recipes

OS X - like dock for Windows

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:55:38 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Download of the Day: RocketDock (Windows)

Windows only: Freeware application launcher RocketDock is an OS X-like Dock for your Windows computer.

When I posted about sTabLauncher last week, I was surprised to see the number of readers who were keen on RocketDock, so I decided I'd better check it out. RocketDock is an attractive, easily-customized dock from which you can launch folders, applications, and - again, like OS X's Dock - you can even minimize Windows to RocketDock. Whether you're eager to find a new graphical application launcher or you're a rare Mac-to-Windows switcher looking for a familiar face, RocketDock is a very slick (and relatively lightweight) tool. RocketDock is freeware, Windows only. — Adam Pash

Comment

Tags: freeware, dock, application, windows

Surviving on $12,000 a year

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:33:26 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b
clipper's remarks: Good read - part motivational, part inspirational

Clip Source: articles.moneycentral.msn.com

Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year

I'll be living on just over $1,000 a month this year. That doesn't sound like much -- and it isn't -- yet I plan not just to live on it, but to build a savings account.

Tags: finance, budget, spending, saving

Whip your MP3 library into shape - PT3

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:31:04 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Alpha Geek: Whip your MP3 library into shape, Part III: Metadata

By Rick Broida

By now all the songs in your MP3 library should have level volumes and embedded, accurate album art. The last step? Fixing your collection's metadata, also known as ID3 tags.

Comment

Tags: mp3, organization

Fix your finances in 31 days

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:41:09 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: www.thesimpledollar.com

During the month of January, The Simple Dollar has been running a series entitled “31 Days To Fix Your Finances,” a series of activities that can enable anyone to improve their financial status by centering your financial life around your own core values. Instead of supplying a bunch of budgeting sheets and asking you to commit yourself to a program, this series is about figuring out what you want out of life and reorganizing your finances so that you can have it.

Stage 1: Figuring Out Your Goals And Values

Day 1: Your Five Main Values
Day 2: Defining Your Goals From Your Values
Day 3: Create A Plan For Each Goal

Stage 2: Evaluating Your Situation

Day 4: How Much Did You Earn Last Year?
Day 5: How Much Did You Work Last Year?
Day 6: Your True Hourly Wage

Stage 3: Building Your Own Life Budget, Not Following Someone Else’s Prescription

Day 7: Work For Your Dreams, Not Your Money
Day 8: Breaking Down Your Expenses
Day 9: Cleaning Up Your Expenses
Day 10: Fitting Your Expenses Into The Bigger Picture
Day 11: Dividing Up The Rest and Finishing Our Time Budget
Day 12: A Flexible “Budget” That Reflects Your Reality

Stage 4: Looking At Your Life, Piece By Piece

Stage 5: Setting The Stage For Lifelong Success

Day 26: Refining Your Budget
Day 27: Keeping Good Records
Day 28: Preparing For The Inevitable
Day 29: Paying Cash
Day 30: Live What You Love
Day 31: Keeping It Up

Tags: finance, tips

Links to a Better Education

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:18:05 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: www.chemistrycoach.com

Links to a Better Education

Effective Reading University of Bradford
Effective Reading James Cook University
Reading Effectively East Carolina University
Reading Effectively RMIT
Reading Effectively North Coast Institute
Reading Effectively Allen & Unwin
Reading effectively Flinders University
Reading Effectively Kangan Batman TAFE
Reading Effectively for Study University of Puget Sound
Reading & Listening Effectively Geoff Cutts
Tips For Reading More Effectively DSEA
Reading Skills Penn State - York
Reading to Comprehend and Learn: University of Victoria
Reading Skills for University: York University
Recommended Strategies for Reading Effectively and Making Useful Note or Summaries UNC-Wilmington
Improved Reading Skills How To Study
On the Art of Reading Lectures Delivered in the University of Cambridge, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Rapid Reading Cornell
Rapid Reading University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Speed Reading Techniques Indiana Wesleyan University
Reading Rates and Comprehension University of St.Thomas
Reading Rates and Comprehension University of Dayton
Reading Comprehension: Reading with Confidence University of South Florida
Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed: Virginia Tech
Improving Reading Speed BYU
Five Step Program for Quick Reading Shepard University
Brief Suggestions for Increasing Speed and Effectiveness of Reading: U. Texas, Austin
top

Writing

Underlining

Reading Textbooks

Reading (SQ3R)

Writing Essays, Papers

Grammar

Vocabulary

Spelling

Plagiarism

Research

Reverse Links to Links to a Better Education
If they are interested in us, perhaps we should be interested in them...

Tags: links to a better education, knowledge, learning

Whip your MP3 library into shape - PT2

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:44:31 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Alpha Geek: Whip your MP3 library into shape, Part II - Album art

by Rick Broida

Last week we took a big step toward improving your MP3 collection by leveling the track volume. Now it's time to focus on album art, which is less of a practical improvement and more of a fun one.

Indeed, there's something to be said for eyeballing an album cover when you play a song. It draws you in a little more, connects you with the band or artist. Plus, some covers are just plain cool-looking. And don't forget the nostalgia factor: Those of us who grew up with LP records have fond memories of flipping through those glorious covers.

If your music library was built from a variety of sources (CDs, friends, download services, peer-to-peer software, etc.), chances are good you've got some missing or messed-up artwork. Fortunately, it's not hard to fix, though it does take some time. Let's get started.

24 comments, latest by TheVault

Tags: mp3, tools, album art

10 most popular Torrent 2006

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:42:16 GMT

clipped by: blusior

Clip Source: www.benh.org

Mininova is simple to use and biggest torrent listing sites. The site started in January 2005 as a successor SuprNova, It is a directory and search engine for all kinds of torrent files. Visitors of mininova can anonymously upload torrents to this site, tracked by any BitTorrent tracker. The word ‘mininova’ ranked 9 on Google’s list of most queried terms in 2006. Mininova is our top picks for this year.

TorrentSpy is a popular BitTorrent indexing Web Site. It hosts torrent and provides a forum to comment on them, as well as a graphical portrayal of how healthy the torrents are. Torrentspy was as popular as Mininova and made it to 2nd place.

The Pirate Bay (often abbreviated TPB) is an Internet site that bills itself as the world's largest BitTorrent tracker, and also serves as an index for torrent files that it tracks. Due to BitTorrent's ability to handle extremely large files, it is popular for sharing large music sets, movies and software as well as Linux distribution discs.

Torrentz is a popular Torrent indexing and Torrent search engine. It does not help to track your torrents. The torrent search engine is more advance as it allows you to search for files within the torrents. If you’re looking for unique stuff you should prefer this site.

TorrentBox is your best source for the greatest torrents. TorrentBox also lets users to track their torrents. TorrentBox also features a forum, directory and simple search engine for torrents.

isoHunt is a popular BitTorrent index. isoHunt is one of the most popular search engines for BitTorrent links. The website has been sued for copyright infringement recently. Isohunt has a large collection of varied content.

Tags: torrent

Free online photography lessons

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:23:51 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Learn photography with free online course

Freelance photographer Jodie Coston offers a free online course in photography, covering everything from aperture to zoom.

The course is divided into 10 lessons, each presented with loads of sample photos and assignments at the end. Coston employs a friendly, personal style and provides plain-English descriptions of complicated subjects. Even better, host site morgueFile maintains a separate discussion board for each of the lessons, so you can ask questions, share info with your "classmates," etc. This course is actually a couple years old, but it's still an excellent introduction to photography. It's too bad you can't download the lessons as PDFs--they're HTML only--but that's a minor gripe. You won't want to miss this one. — Rick Broida

5 comments, latest by Joe_Bagadonuts

Tags: free, online, photography, lessons

GREAT way to hide private data!

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:53:35 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Remember those invisible ink kits from when you were a kid? You'd write a secret message that no one could see unless they had a black light or the decoder marker. The digital equivalent of invisible ink is steganography software, apps that embed files and data inside other files, hidden from everyone who doesn't know any better.

You don't have to be a trained spy plotting international espionage to put steganography to good use. With some free tools for both the Mac and PC, you can embed secret information in image, PDF, HTML and MP3 files for fun or profit.

Geek to Live: Hide data in files with easy steganography tools

Tags: privacy, security, steganography

Copy HD cable box DVR recordings to PC

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:10:36 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Copy HDTV recordings from your cable box to your PC

The HDTV fans at HDjunkie.com show you how to copy recorded TV shows from your cable box to your PC, where you can archive them for later viewing.

According to the author, this should work with any non-premium HD channels (as well as SD channels). You'll need a cable box that has a FireWire port, a PC with the same, a FireWire cable and a few drivers and utilities (all linked within the tutorial). This 15-step process doesn't strike me as novice-friendly, though you should have success if you follow the instructions precisely. I don't use a cable box (we're all about Media Center PCs here at Lifehacker Midwest), so I can't put this to the test. If you're able to give it a try, use the comments to tell us how you fared. Thanks, Stuart! — Rick Broida

10 comments, latest by Craig

Tags: hdtv, dvr

Build your own DVR

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:35:21 GMT

clipped by: bigb0b

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Ever since TiVo came around, I was eager to jump on the time shifting bandwagon. After all, nothing makes a productivity junkie happier than turning an hour-long show into forty minutes. But for all its loyal fan base, TiVo never seemed like the right fit for me.

For my money, time, and, let's be honest, the gratification of a solid DIY project, I'm a big proponent of building your own digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo is pretty good at what TiVo does, but imagine a world where you can also tweak your TiVo to do anything you can do with any other computer.

What you need

In order to put together your own DVR, you really only need to add two things to any given computer:

A TV capture card
DVR software

Tags: diy, dvr