If you search for “ascii art” in Google, the logo turns into ASCII Art. It is actually text, not just an image.
(via waxy.org)
Archive for August, 2009
How to Discover New and Interesting Music Online
Ars Technica has posted a great article covering a few of the many music services available online. They start with the well known Pandora and move onto others that may be off the mainstream.
How to discover new and interesting music online – Ars Technica:
Everyone has faced this conundrum at one point or another: you’re sick and tired of the music in your library, but you can’t stand commercial radio. As a result, you haven’t been exposed to new music in quite a while. How do you find new things to listen to that you won’t hate? Or, even better, music that you might actually like?
Aside from the brute force approach—just listen to everything!—there are numerous ways to discover new music right at your fingertips that are a little more intuitive. Thanks to an explosion of online streaming services, you can often listen to a plethora of recommendations based on what you already like without even opening your wallet—at least until you’re ready to commit to downloading.
Disable “Wake on Lid Open” on the MacBook (Pro)
Andy Ihnatko has a great post on how to disable the wake from sleep action that occurs when you open the lid of an Apple notebook. As a victim of what Andy describes below, I ran the command on my MacBook Pro before finishing his post.
Why I always disable “Wake On Lid Open” on my MacBooks:
“Why the bloody hell would _anybody_ want to disable that?” you might ask. “What, you often open your MacBook just to check your makeup in the glossy screen?”
It’s a safety thing. Way, _way_ too frequently I’ve picked up my laptop bag and it felt…warm. I unzipped it and heared a screaming fan. At some unguessable point in the recent past, the MacBook got jostled just enough to twitch the screen sensor and it woke up.
If you are interested in disabling this on your machine, open the Terminal and enter this command.
sudo pmset -a lidwake 0
You will be prompted for your administrator password and all will be good to go.
Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money – Lifehacker
Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money – Lifehacker:
The popular Digsby instant messenger client not only bundles half a dozen “optional” crapware applications, it’s also using your computer to crawl the web, do stock market research, and more. It’s time to uninstall.
This is such a shame. Digsby looked very promising and brought a ton of great features to the IM world. What they are doing is insulting and just evil. It is one thing to make money and another to deceive customers. I suggest reading the entire article to see the various things they do to make money off their users.
While there’s no way to tell exactly how much money Digsby is making from the sneaky use of your computer and abusing the less knowledgeable with loads of crapware, there is one disturbing fact that you should consider: They are paying up to $1 for every new user that you refer to them through their affiliate program. If they can pay that much money for every new user, they aren’t just paying the bills anymore.
This part presents the solid proof that they are making significant money off their users. A seemingly free program would have no way of paying up to a dollar a user unless it had significant cash flowing in. The strangest part is that the affiliate payment is related to the users geographic location.
Getting Things Done Explained for Students – Lifehacker
David Allen’s Getting Things Done (Kindle) plays a large role in my life. I use his system to keep track of all my commitments and get things out of my head. The book has had a large impact on my life and is partially responsible for the increase in my grades.
A lot of people can benefit from Getting Things Done (GTD) practices but may not want to read through the book. Lifehacker has put together a watered down overview of GTD specifically targeted at students. It is definitely worth a look and may lead you to dive in deeper and pick up the book.
Getting Things Done Explained for Students – Lifehacker:
GTD is basically a “workflow for life,” so if all you want to do is get papers in by their deadlines, it’s overkill. Luckily, some of the GTD precepts work for the student workflow—so that’s what I’ll share here.
If you find yourself juggling many commitments, missing deadlines, or feel overwhelmed by tasks then GTD may have the tools you need.
It’s 5 O’Clock. Do You Know Where Your Tools Are? – Gearlog
Ford and DeWalt are teaming up to bring RFID and contractors together. For a comparatively low cost, contractors can add the RFID to their Ford trucks to track what tools are on board. This is a great implementation of the technology and hopefully it helps reduce the cost of replacing lost tools.
It’s 5 O’Clock. Do You Know Where Your Tools Are? – Gearlog:
You get a 50 ID tags (in DeWalt yellow, of course) that you apply to tools, an RFID scanner and software for creating a database, and two RFID antennas that go in the truck bed and monitor what’s onboard and what’s missing. You monitor the tool status via the Ford In-Dash Computer. One button press brings up a screen that shows what’s missing that you had on board earlier in the day
The Unclutterer blog has a great low tech tip for keeping track of your stuff.
When I was teaching, I helped a student with severe ADHD develop a system to help her get between home and school and back home again with all of her materials. The program was based on counting to three. Her lunch box was marked #1, her daily planner was #2, and her “inbox” in her locker was #3.
She had two sets of books (one left at school, and her parents rented a second set to leave at home), so all she needed to do was count “1, 2, 3″ to make sure she had everything in her backpack at the start and end of the day.
(via Unclutterer)
