Gmail Makes Email Switching Easier.

By Kevin Purdy, 5:30 AM on Thu May 14 2009

Been looking to move a friend or relative to Gmail, but they complain the move from AOL, Hotmail, or their ISP email would be painful? Let ‘em know Gmail now offers an easy switching tool.

New sign-ups to Gmail from here on out should see a feature in their settings, under a renamed “Accounts and Import” tab, that can make an account switch with just a few checkboxes and one button push. Contacts, old mail, and new mail for the next 30 days can be grabbed from a fairly big list of supported email provider.

via Lifehacker.

Install a Minimal Ubuntu Desktop.

By Kevin Purdy, 5:30 AM on Wed May 13 2009, 9,596 views

If you like the looks and features of Ubuntu 9.04, but want a lighter, swifter version of it, try this minimalist installation that can knock memory usage down by up to 75 percent.

Ubuntu Forums user TheShiv likes to build his system from the ground up, and doesn’t like a lot of software and services he’ll never use. So he installs a core, bare-bones system from either the Ubuntu Server Edition CD or a Minimal CD, then, when he gets access to a command prompt and he’s wired to the internet (presumably through a LAN cable, though perhaps wireless works as well), he uses two or three commands to install enough features to get a working desktop, but very little that won’t be used day to day.

via Lifehacker – Install a Minimal Ubuntu Desktop – Ubuntu.

Synergy-Plus Controls Multiple Systems from a Single Keyboard & Mouse

By Kevin Purdy, 8:00 AM on Fri Mar 27 2009, 5,510 views

Windows only: We took a strong liking to controlling multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse nearly two years ago, and the concept’s still cool, but the software hasn’t updated. Synergy-Plus keeps the multi-control party going.

via Lifehacker.

NoSleepHD Stops External Hard Drives from Shutting Down

By The How-To Geek, 9:00 AM on Tue Mar 3 2009, 1,656 views

Windows only: Tiny utility NoSleepHD stops external hard drives from powering down, bypassing the mandatory sleep mode built into many USB drives—and eliminating the delay while the drive powers back up.

via Lifehacker

Maxto Divides and Conquers Your Screen Real Estate

Maxto Divides and Conquers Your Screen Real Estate

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 2:00 PM on Sat Feb 21 2009, 5,218 views

Windows only: If you’re looking for a lightweight tool for compartmentalizing space on your monitor and need support for multiple screens, MaxTo lets you subdivide to your heart’s content.

via Lifehacker.

Blueman 1.0 Brings Better Bluetooth to Linux

By Kevin Purdy, 8:00 AM on Wed Feb 18 2009, 4,881 views

Linux only: Blueman, the Bluetooth manager for many Linux desktops, has update to provide a friendlier, easier means of connecting your phones, earpieces, and even 3G/EDGE-connected devices to your system.

via Downloads: Blueman 1.0 Brings Better Bluetooth to Linux.

YourFonts Turns Your Handwriting Into a Personlized Font

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 12:00 PM on Mon Feb 2 2009, 134,835 views

YourFonts is a web-based service that turns your handwriting into a TrueType font for free. If you have a printer and scanner, nothing can stand between you and the awesomeness of your own script.

We’ve covered a similar service before, but the handwriting-to-font process at Fontifier costs $9 per font you create. YourFonts has a software package for making personalized fonts that runs $49, but the web-based tool is entirely free. The process is straightforward: download the provided PDF template, print it out, and fill in each number and letter blank with your own hand writing. When you’re done you upload the template back to YourFonts, preview it to make sure it looks like your own calligraphic gift to the world, and then download it as a monitor-friendly font. Additionally you can use the service without actually printing the PDF out and using a scanner—if you’ve ever wanted to create your own set of crazy wingdings, you can load up the PDF in an editing application like Adobe Illustrator and fill in the font-grid with anything you wish—hand writing or otherwise.

via Lifehacker.

Firefox Tip: Make Firefox Remember Any Password, No Bookmarklet Required

By Kevin Purdy, 5:30 AM on Fri Feb 13 2009, 2,969 views

The CyberNet blog previously showed us how to make Firefox remember any password, even for high-security websites that prevent password saving. That hack doesn’t always work in Firefox 3, but they’ve got another solution.

By changing one value in a Firefox configuration file—found at C:Program FilesMozilla FirefoxcomponentsnsLoginManager.js in Windows, and Firefox.appContentsMacOScomponentsnsLoginManager.js on Macs (the location will vary for Linux users, best to search for it), you can have Firefox ignore any flags thrown down by websites to prevent password saving.

via Lifehacker.

8 Ways to Kill Clutter in 5 Minutes.

One of the biggest reasons for the pervasive clutter in my apartment is a lack of time to deal with it. It takes longer to put a shirt away than it does to just throw it on the floor, so onto the floor it goes. As long as there’s a path from the door to my bed, I tend not to ignore and perpetuate the clutter. I’m increasingly realizing, though, that all the out-of-place stuff in my life can become a huge time drain. I spend precious minutes and hours looking for things that could be easily avoided by a better system, and a few minutes devoted to staying organized.

In an effort to become more organized, especially in my personal space, I’ve found a few methods that can help even the busiest of us to get organized, or at least get the organization ball rolling, in only a few minutes. In the time it takes to brush my teeth or check my voicemail, I’m able to get some of the junk in my life a little more in order.

via Stepcase Lifehack.

Geek.Menu Organizes Your USB Applications

By Jason Fitzpatrick, 10:00 AM on Mon Jan 12 2009, 4,596 views

Windows only: Geek.Menu is a fork of the PortableApps.com menu that includes a host of extra features and customizations.

The over all appearance of Geek.Menu is very similar to the PortableApps.com menu it split from. You won’t find yourself clicking in the wrong spot and opening your documents instead of your videos for instance. One of the most prominent features of Geek.Menu is integration with TrueCrypt. The installation comes with a TrueCrypt package included and accessible from the main menu. If you’re not usually on a computer with administrative privileges—which would put a damper on the handiness of the TrueCrypt integration—there are other features that make Geek.Menu worth a try.

It’s the little tweaks that make using the menu more enjoyable. The tray icon stays fixed to the edge of the tray, even as other icons appear and disappear. The menu includes support for multiple profiles for trusted and untrusted computer environments and for automatic application launches after activating the menu and scripts to be run on shut down. Additionally, there are quick launch icons for Google services and Wikipedia, and you can edit the quick icons under the advanced menu to change them to whatever you’d like. If the idea of launching your portable applications from a single menu sounds great but Geek.Menu sounds entirely too complicated, check out the radically more spartan launcher Porta’Menu.

via Lifehacker.com.