Taking a small break...

Hi Folks,

We'll be back in week or so...enjoy the reduced RSS load in the meantime!

cheers
Pete

Blackstump Australia Issue 10 - March 26, 2009

The latest issue of new family friendly sites listed on The Black Stump.
Blackstump Australia Issue 10 - March 26, 2009

Website Monitor And Downloader

Wysigot is a browser that acts both as a website monitor and downloader. One of its main functions is the download of entire websites or selected pages. The process has been streamlined to make it as easy as possible.
Website Monitor And Downloader

Women still do majority of housework

A snapshot of Australian social trends shows couples are more likely to live together before marriage, but women are still doing most of the housework.
Women still do majority of housework

Etymology of Exception Proves the Rule

Native speakers of English accept without pause the many seemingly nonsensical sayings that are part and parcel of the vernacular. For instance, we blithely announce 'It's raining cats and dogs' to communicate the concept of a heavy downpour, yet spare precious little thought to the realization that neither felines nor canines play any part in the process of rainfall. For us, it's the saying's easy conveyance of meaning, not how it was put together, that matters. Another seemingly nonsensical familiar expression is 'The exception proves the rule.'
Etymology of Exception Proves the Rule

Bushfire origins lie in Indian Ocean

A weather pattern centred on the Indian Ocean may provide an early warning system for major bushfires in southern Australia, climate experts say.
Bushfire origins lie in Indian Ocean

101 Undiscovered Freebies: The List - PC World

We scoured the Internet to come up with 101 innovative, entirely free downloads and services. Here's the whole collection.
101 Undiscovered Freebies: The List - PC World

Google Street View Expands Australian Coverage

The coverage of Google Street View in Australia was already pretty comprehensive when it rolled out last August, but the search giant is continuing to expand its reach. The Google Australia blog says that a recent update has added extra coverage around Port Lincoln, Tweed Heads, Cairns - and a few more areas of a little city called Sydney.
Google Street View Expands Australian Coverage

Web Search Tips for Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 has many useful features that improve the way you search and browse the web.
Web Search Tips for Internet Explorer 8

Parking Fail

Parking Fail

8 Smart Strategies to Make Your Home Dust-Proof

Strategies that vastly reduce the never-ending dusting chore.
8 Smart Strategies to Make Your Home Dust-Proof

Search Google Images By Color

Google Image search can now be restricted to return results of a specific color. While this isn’t available as option in the advanced settings, you can use e.g. “imgcolor=green” or “imgcolor=blue,red” as parameter right in the URL.
Search Google Images By Color

Link to a specific part of a YouTube video

If you want to link to a specific part of a video on YouTube, you can.
Link to a specific part of a YouTube video

Windows Registry Watcher

The Windows Registry is one of the major attack locations for malicious software and should therefor be protected by security software to ensure that no settings get changed or added to it. One prime example is the addition of new startup items to the Windows operating system. The Windows Registry contains several locations where those new files can be placed so that they are loaded during system startup.
Windows Registry Watcher

How to Recognize Bias in a Newspaper Article

When all you want is the facts, navigating the newspaper might be a tricky ordeal. Sometimes bias is the result of laziness, and sometimes it's a deliberate attempt to push a particular point of view. Either way, you should always be on the lookout for bias.
How to Recognize Bias in a Newspaper Article

Netiquette: Undo Send Gives You Five Seconds to Stop a Bum Email

Ever hit send and realize immediately that you'd made a mistake? Wish you could unsend that email? With Gmail Labs' new Undo Send feature, you've got five seconds to reclaim that email and fix your mistake.
Netiquette: Undo Send Gives You Five Seconds to Stop a Bum Email

Population by Age and Sex, Australia

In the 12 months to 30 June 2008, the Australian population increased by 359,000 people, reaching 21,374,000. The annual growth rate for the year ended 30 June 2008 (1.7%) was higher than that recorded for the year ended 30 June 2007 (1.5%).
Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories

Internet Explorer 8 Available for Download

Windows only: The final version of Internet Explorer 8 is now available for download from the IE home page.
Internet Explorer 8 Available for Download

Don't Panic! Your TV Will Not Stop Working After May 1

If any of you happened to read the Herald Sun article on Monday entitled "Clock ticks for plasmas, LCDs" by Peter Familari and were wondering "what the f%*k?! How can a brand new TV be obsolete in less than 2 months?", you can now rest easy. The article is a load of rubbish. It's actually pretty unbelievable just how wrong the story is, even though the underlying issue is well worth looking at.
Don't Panic! Your TV Will Not Stop Working After May 1

Odd traveler complaints

Telegraph Travel put together a list of the "20 most ridiculous complaints received by tour operators".
Odd traveler complaints

Rare Trove of Army Medical Photos Heads to Flickr

An archivist has begun a massive project to make public a newly digitized collection of unique and sometimes startling military medical images, from the Civil War to Vietnam, without the Army's blessing.
Rare Trove of Army Medical Photos Heads to Flickr

Earth Class Mail

Use an Internet-Powered P.O. Box or a prestige address, then view images of your envelopes in email or online and have your mail securely scanned into a PDF, recycled, shredded, or forwarded.
The Ultimate PO Box, Post Office Box and Mail Forwarding Service

THE VINTAGE WEB

Celebrates so many of the things we look for:
* “Under Construction” animated gif
* Blink tags
* Use of “Web Log” to denote an online diary
* Cursor animation
* “Digital” visitor counter at the bottom
* Tiled background image
THE VINTAGE WEB

PDFVue Beta: Another Web-Based PDF Editing Solution

There’s less and less reason to fork over the expensive license fee for a full version of Adobe Acrobat these days. The web is littered with free, lightweight options that will allow you to do pretty much anything you’d want to do with Acrobat. Web app PDFVue is a relative newcomer to the field, and it brings a lot of useful PDF editing features to the table for the budget-conscious web worker.
PDFVue Beta: Another Web-Based PDF Editing Solution«

Acrobat.com Sends Large Files Through Outlook for Free

Windows only: Adobe's Acrobat.com web site gives you 5GB of online file hosting for free, and their new Office add-in lets you easily upload and share your documents directly within Outlook 2007.
Acrobat.com Sends Large Files Through Outlook for Free

Tactile illusions: Seven ways to fool your sense of touch

It's surprisingly easy for your body to fool your brain. Graham Lawton puts his sense of touch to the test.
Tactile illusions: Seven ways to fool your sense of touch

5 Ways to Stay Motivated to Finish What You Started

There must be a reason why many people quite often start projects or tasks, big or small, and at some point while working on the tasks they feel overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed, so much so that in the end they quit or feel like quitting.
5 Ways to Stay Motivated to Finish What You Started

Self-cleaning toilets: Genius!

Apartment Therapy recently posted an article that immediately caused me to remember a similar Gizmodo post that I loved from a couple years ago. Ever since I first saw that Gizmodo article I have decided that people in Switzerland are brilliant.
Self-cleaning toilets: Genius!

Privacychoice Stops Advertisers From Profiling You

Web site Privacychoice rolls the opt-out routines for a couple dozen advertising networks into a single javascript button—so you can stop them tracking you without having to mess with cookie settings.
Privacychoice Stops Advertisers From Profiling You

Tip of the Day: How to avoid dangers at home

Along with the spring cleaning you'll do over the coming weeks, conduct a thorough safety inspection of your home to uncover and deal with home dangers related to the products, systems, or areas of your home below.
Tip of the Day: How to avoid dangers at home

Blackstump Australia Issue 9 - March 18, 2009

The latest issue of new family friendly sites listed on The Black Stump.
Blackstump Australia Issue 9 - March 18, 2009

Take Better Self-Portraits

Taking a good self-portrait is both a handy skill and a way to expand your photographic repertoire. Save your next profile picture from the camera-held-at-arms-length cliche with these tips.
Take Better Self-Portraits

BBC exposes global cybercrime risk

The BBC in the UK has reported that it has easily acquired its own botnet controlling thousands of home computers as part of an investigation into global cybercrime.
BBC exposes global cybercrime risk

The magic number

At Google, they're getting ready to celebrate Pi Day, which culminates tomorrow, March 14 at 1:59pm, a date and time that correspond to the first six digits of pi: 3.14159. (Some people celebrate at 1:59am.) Of course, since pi is a member of a select group of irrational numbers, meaning they can't be expressed as a fraction, there are an infinite number of digits in pi. You can even set a world record for reciting pi from memory if you have the spare brain cells to remember 100,000 or so digits. Odds are, you certainly won't remember the one trillion digits past the decimal point that computers have calculated.
The magic number

Downgrade Vista to XP in seven easy steps

Windows 7's arrival is just a few months away, but many people aren't waiting and just want to replace Vista's newness — some say weirdness — for the familiarity of XP.
Downgrade Vista to XP in seven easy steps

How to Stop Being a Workaholic

It is dangerous to be a workaholic. Although you may finish a lot of work, you may endanger your marriage, ruin your relationships with your children, get burnt out, and end up in an early grave. If you want time to live a more enjoyable, meaningful life, the following steps will point the way.
How to Stop Being a Workaholic

Passwords You Should Never, Ever Use?

You can preach the gospel of secure password schemes 'til you run out of breath or typing strength—sometimes it's the bad examples that really teach us what not to do.
Passwords You Should Never, Ever Use?

Quarterly updates to OED Online

Every quarter, a range of entries in OED Online will be replaced by updated versions produced by the OED's revision programme. New entries will also be added across the alphabet.
Quarterly updates to OED Online

How to Green Your Lighting

Given high energy prices, many aspects of the way in which we live have been brought to the fore. And not least of these is our demand for electricity. We can blame politicians and electricity suppliers for bad planning to a certain extent, but we can’t defer our responsibility for continuing to drive demand. Rather than being careless in our approach to the design of our homes, it would pay us to pay more attention to how we use our energy. And the easiest and cheapest place to start, is with our lighting.
How to Green Your Lighting

100 top sites for the year ahead

Two years after we last picked the web's cream of the crop, our latest selection finds that location-based services, work-anywhere collaboration and video are prominent.
100 top sites for the year ahead

Add an extra 14 years to your life

Eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, not smoking, and drinking alcohol moderately could add 14 years to your life, according to British researchers.
Add an extra 14 years to your life

How to Deodorize a Room

We've all been there. Your room has 'acquired' a smell, and you just can't seem to get rid of it. Things that are clean generally shouldn't smell, but some odors have a way of getting all over everything. Here are several ways that really work to lessen odors in a room, in order of effectiveness and relative ease. Use the ones that seem most appropriate to your situation, but for really bad odors it may be worth using multiple methods to attack the smell. Finally, don't panic - these really do work and with a little time and effort the odor can be significantly reduced in a couple of days.
How to Deodorize a Room

7 Tearfully-Pleasing Uses for Onions

People, despite getting teary-eyed, enjoy the numerous culinary uses of the onion. The gas containing vegetable is both a primary ingredient and a flavor enhancer in many dishes. If you think its list of uses end at the kitchen, you better think again. It is proven to be a medicinal wonder, as well as a metal polisher and an insect repellent. With its number of alternative uses, the onion may induce tears of joy to any DIY pundit. Here are seven of its tearfully - pleasing uses.
7 Tearfully-Pleasing Uses for Onions

25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb

A rule of thumb is a general guideline, an easy way to approximate a value quickly. It’s not meant to be completely accurate.
25 Useful Financial Rules of Thumb

How to Make Work Feel Effortless

Sometimes work feels like a drag. You get caught up in trying to be more productive and suddenly your life turns into a series of to-do lists. You gauge your measure of success by how much you accomplish. You even determine how happy you allow yourself to be by how much you’ve gotten done in the day. When this occurs, work turns into a chore. You don’t enjoy the work, you just to do it so it can be over with. Then you can feel good, right? But wait, there’s that thing you forgot about. You still need to do that. And oh yeah, there’s that other thing you haven’t done yet.
How to Make Work Feel Effortless

Find Free Transport In Most Australian Capital Cities

Australia's different capital city public transport systems don't have much in common -- but many of them do offer free bus services in their CBD areas (along with the occasional no-cost tram or train). Check out this comprehensive listing to save money (and traffic jams) the next time you're in an unfamiliar city.
Find Free Transport In Most Australian Capital Cities

Microsoft Time Zone

There is no build in way to display different time zones in Microsoft operating systems. The clock in the system tray will always display the time of the selected time zone. Users have to rely on third party programs or the Internet to view multiple time zones at once. One of the possibilities is a small Microsoft application that can be used to display the times of various time zones in the Windows system tray. The application will pull the information directly from the default time zone list of the Windows operating system which means that every time zone in the world is covered by it.
Microsoft Time Zone

International Women's Day: Web and Social Media Resources

If you’re wondering why “Happy International” is a top trend on Twitter today, it’s because today is International Women’s Day, an important day that celebrates the achievements of women everywhere. This year will be the 98th celebration of International Women’s Day. And although we celebrate the advances women have made today, we are also humbled by the reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done in the realm of gender equality.
International Women's Day: Web and Social Media Resources

Spoof Magazine Covers and More at WriteOnIt

Your mother always told you you'd never sell enough gold records, or fall hard enough from a high enough office, to make the cover of a magazine. Prove her wrong with spoof site WriteOnIt.
Spoof Magazine Covers and More at WriteOnIt

HTML to PDF Converter Turns Web Sites into PDF Files

If you'd like to save a web site for posterity without the mess of saving the page and all its files, the web-based HTML to PDF Converter can crank out a PDF.
HTML to PDF Converter Turns Web Sites into PDF Files

Blackstump Australia Issue 8 - March 8, 2009

The latest issue of new family friendly sites listed on The Black Stump.
Blackstump Australia Issue 8 - March 8, 2009

When fast-food's nearby, stroke risk is high

For me, and no doubt many others, proximity to fast-food breeds consumption. Now, a new study suggests that easy access to fast-food may also be tied to a higher risk of stroke.
When fast-food's nearby, stroke risk is high

Ten Things That Won’t Matter In Ten Years’ Time – And Ten Things That Will

You’re stressed, overworked, and tired. You feel like you’re dropping the ball on so many things. You find yourself lying awake in the early hours, thinking about those items still on your to-do list, those emails not yet cleared.
Ten Things That Won’t Matter In Ten Years’ Time – And Ten Things That Will

Tough geometric brain teaser

Good luck!
Tough geometric brain teaser

Funny traffic sign hack

A cleverly-placed sticker.
Funny traffic sign hack

Roman Catholic bishops to faithful: Give up cell phone and Internet during Lent

Concerned that Christians are not entering the Lenten season (which began last week on Ash Wednesday) with the proper spirit, some clergy are calling on their flock to nix text messaging for the next six Fridays leading up to Easter on April 12. Christians are annually asked to refrain from eating meat on Fridays and to pray more regularly during Lent, but the church has apparently gotten hip to the hold that technology has on its brethren.
Roman Catholic bishops to faithful: Give up cell phone and Internet during Lent

New Google Site to Share Money-Saving Tips

Google offers a new Google Moderator-based application called Tip Jar. The purpose of the mostly green-color-themed site is for people to contribute money saving tips and tricks in areas like work, family, transit and more.
New Google Site to Share Money-Saving Tips

Image Of The Day: What Is This?

What the hell is this? Neurons firing up inside a brain? An installation with several Tesla coils? A weird electrical storm phenomenon? A color-inverted photo of an spiders orgy? A new nano-technology organic-based processor?
Image Of The Day: What Is This?

Windows 7 Lets You Finally Uninstall Internet Explorer (Kinda)

The AeroXperience weblog has uncovered a shocking change in the latest release candidate of Windows 7—Internet Explorer can be removed through the Windows Features dialog. Finally!
Windows 7 Lets You Finally Uninstall Internet Explorer (Kinda)

Best and Worst 2009 Cars

Here are the Consumer Reports top-rated vehicles in ten categories (with previous years’ top cars in parentheses):
The Consumer Reports Auto Issue: Best and Worst 2009 Cars

How to Cultivate Compassion in Your Life

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama.
How to Cultivate Compassion in Your Life

How to Open a Bottle Without a Corkscrew

A wine bottle, without having a corkscrew, is a tough nut to crack. Removing the cork, which is wedged through the nozzle, is not easy to dislodge, especially if you don’t have a tool to pull it out. Good thing the makeshift world presents more than one solution to this problem. In fact, you will realize that the corkscrew is not all too important with your available options. Here are three distinct ways to open a bottle without using a corkscrew.
How to Open a Bottle Without a Corkscrew

Capture Your Outlook Contacts With gwabbit

I’m often surprised by the number of people who use Microsoft Outlook as their primary email and information manager who don’t also take full advantage of its contact capabilities. While I wouldn’t say it compares with a full blown CRM system, it is certainly a capable program for maintaining contact information.
Capture Your Outlook Contacts With gwabbit

HOW TO: Measure Online Influence

Influence is difficult to ascertain online. What about that guy on Twitter with 25,000 followers? Isn’t he influential? What about that woman who has 5,000 RSS subscribers? She has to be influential, correct?
HOW TO: Measure Online Influence

Fish with "humanoid" face

Two fish with human-looking "faces" apparently live in pond behind a home in Chongju, South Korea. They are reportedly hybrids of a carp and a tangerine fish. Weird Asia News has more info and a Korean TV news report.
Fish with "humanoid" face

Square root day, 3/3/09, is upon us

Math lovers and numerologists take note: Yesterday, March 3, 2009, was square root day.
Square root day, 3/3/09, is upon us

Privacy Fail

"For the larger board meetings, the basin can be used as a spare."
Privacy Fail

Cc:Betty Offers Your Own Personal Email Assistant

Email, which underpins everything we do online, hasn’t changed very much over the last decade or so. In fact, the ever-increasing number of messages to follow (estimated to be some 210 billion per day in 2008) means that email takes up way too much time and is nowhere near the productivity tool that many of us would like it to be. Cc:Betty, launching in open beta today at DEMO, hopes to change that by offering a “group email assistant” that helps you digest email conversations by presenting them in an easy-to-follow way and extracting useful stuff, like dates, contacts, files and links.
Cc:Betty Offers Your Own Personal Email Assistant

Bulk Upload and Host Images for Free at Imagebam

If you're looking for a quick and dirty free image host for fast image sharing, Imagebam makes it extremely easy to get your photos out there.
Bulk Upload and Host Images for Free at Imagebam