Posts from — January 2008

A lot of people always wonder how long certain documents need to be kept for Tax purposes and I found this post at Consumerist by Ben Popken very helpful for this purpose. Very helpful to reduce clutter and keep what you need for the future.

Over at XDA Developers a lot of discussions have been on going about the missing video drivers for quite a few HTC devices and specifically the HTC Tytn II/Kaiser/Tilt which I also use. The video,2D,3D and the camera performance on this device is very crippled and disappointing. This is one of the best devices HTC has come out with so far and it will be perfect once this issue is resolved. For more info please join the on going discussion at XDA. Also visit HTCClassAction.org for detailed info about this issue and the on going updates recived from HTC.

So far it seems that HTC is supposedly doing something about this issue finally, considering all the media attention its been receiving since Chainfire started the HTCClassAction.org site. But there hasn’t been any official response yet. Hopefully a solution will come forward soon.

Lifehacker Gina Trapani has a very nice write up of Practicing Simplified GTD which is something I am currently in the process of implementing myself. It’s very detailed but not long enough to be boring. The article is to the point and basically offers a simplified version of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” productivity bible. It tells you to make three lists which include a To-do List, Projects list and a Someday/Maybe list. If you need help creating the perfect to-do list here is an article to help you do just that. It also points out that you need to perform daily and weekly revisions to keep everything updated and productive. It also has tip on how to organize you email inbox and here you take advantage of Gina’s three folder “Trusted Trio” system. In the end as you keep practicing these techniques or any other ones at that you will eventually develop your own customized version of GTD that suits your needs.

I am personally applying the above mentioned GTD system to increase my productivity and so far it has been working great.

On another note over at Keener Living you can download an ebook based on the website articles themselves which help you use technology to your advantage when organizing your lifestyle.

I came across this website a little while ago called “Find Internet Tv” which basically as the name implies helps you find TV shows available online easily in one place. It comes in real handy when you have missed an episode of a show that you also forgot to record on your DVR like I do sometimes. It’s very comprehensive and includes pretty much all shows available online on different US channels but also includes some UK, Canadian, and a few Global shows.

Another website worth mentioning is “Tape It Off The Internet” which lets you search for shows on its website and provides you with multiple of options of viewing them which can include downloading them via Torrents or streaming them directly.

Pocketnow.com points to a little configuration hack for better playback of YouTube and Google Videos on your Tytn II’s/Kaiser/Tilt. As with default settings the videos will play for a few seconds and then stop for buffering obviously making them choppy and appear like pretty much crap. AllShawdow.com posters came up with these steps to enhance playback for these types of videos which are for TCPMP:

“1. From the main video screen press Options > Buffering > and double the number in the Normal Buffer Size field. Press Ok.

I performed the above settings and videos just take a few seconds to buffer when you first play, but do not stop intermittently to buffer in between, which is a vast improvement on how videos played before.”

I came across this through Lifehack.org posted by Craig Childs referring to 64 answers from CrackInterview you should know prior to going on a job interview. The list is very comprehensive and includes common questions asked at almost every interview you would go to. Definitely something to look over when preparing for job interviews.

Lifehacker Gina Trapani wrote a nice article accumulating the top 10 Wi-Fi tips that can increase your signal range and make your wireless network secure. Tips include things like better router placement, extending your signal by using a repeater or a bridge, using  Wireshark to sniff your wireless network packets passing through, enabling WPA Encryption to make your network much more secure than using WEP, enabling MAC address filtering to restrict your wireless network even more, stop SSID (Network Name) broadcasting, using NetStumbler to detect other wireless networks with information about how secure they are and also for war-driving purposes, using portable routers share a wired connection in hotel rooms for instance, a nice youtube video showing how to use tinfoil to increase your signal range, and of course using DD-WRT Firmware to enhance your routers usability and adding more features making your $50 router into a $600 one. It also includes instructions on how to flash the firmware to your router.

As usual Lifehacker Gina Trapani has a great article about how to optimize your resume to include specific keywords so it can show up more easily in front of recruiters. It points to a website that has a updated list of the Top 100 keywords. It also points to another great Lifehacker article about having a say in what Google says about you.

It sucks when you feel like you don’t wanna concentrate on things that are important and you try your best to avoid them. Lifehacker has a nice post about how to counter Brain Drain. Definitely worth a look if you are feeling down and of course drained!!

A new Firefox add on has sprang up called RetailMeNot which basically observes when you are on a shopping website like amazon.com and automatically displays available discounts for it. I have been using it for a while and it seems really cool. I have yet to actually buy anything using on the coupons but still it is a really nifty extension to have in Firefox. Originally posted on Lifehacker by Adam Pash