We Have a Package for You: A Faucet!

 

 

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We Have a Package for You: A Faucet!

via There, I Fixed It - Redneck Repairs by Cheezburger Network on 12/30/10

Submitted by: Unknown

 

 

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Cool Tricks You Can Do With That New Android Phone Or iPad

 

 

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Cool Tricks You Can Do With That New Android Phone Or iPad

via The Consumerist by Phil Villarreal on 12/28/10

Maybe you unwrapped a new iPad, only to leave it in the box because you aren't quite ready to take it on. Or perhaps you forced a Droid X on your kindly grandmother, hoping to spread bliss, only to see her cower in fear.

Your new gadgets won't do you a heck of a lot of good without the knowledge of what they can do for you. Trial and error is the best teacher, but luckily the veteran hands over at Engadget have culled their knowledge into a couple handy start-up guides for the best apps, accessories and tips for both the iPad and Android Phones.

Among the most intriguing finds are Swype, an app that lets you type on your virtual keyboards by moving your fingers from one letter to the next in a connect-the-dots manner, and the Angry Birds games, which are free on the Android Market but $2 and $5 on the iPad.

If you're new to either device, you'll probably learn a thing or two by going over the posts. And if you bought an iPod or Android phone for someone else, your gift isn't complete unless you forward them the appropriate links.

What are your favorite iPad and Android tips?

Just got an Android phone? The best apps, accessories, and tips [Engadget]

Just got an iPad? The best apps, accessories, and tips [Engadget]

 

 

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Make Candy in Your Microwave for Easy Homemade Gifts [DIY Creations]

 

 

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Make Candy in Your Microwave for Easy Homemade Gifts [DIY Creations]

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 12/22/10

Making candy at home reads like a simple job: boil water and sugar, basically. But in practice, it's a lot of time standing over a stove. Food science maestro Harold McGee suggests your microwave makes homemade gifts and sweet snacks much easier.

McGee explains why boiling sugar and water together requires constant attention and stirring, so as not to scorch or bubble over. Use a microwave instead, and you only need to jump in every few minutes to scrape down sides and stir:

The microwave oven is much better suited to the task. Nearly all the microwave energy goes directly into the water molecules, and evenly, from all directions at the same time. It heats the syrup very quickly, and there's no chance that one part will be hotter than its boiling point and scorch.

Included with the article are recipes for microwave nut brittle, pralines, and that C.S. Lewis favorite, Turkish delight. While you're in the mood to make gifts or supplement your personal stash, try our recent findings of icicle candy, cotton candy, and gummi candy.

The Microwave Makes Holiday Candy Making Easier [NYTimes.com]

 

 

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Looks “Legit”

 

 

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Looks “Legit”

via There, I Fixed It - Redneck Repairs by Cheezburger Network on 12/22/10

Submitted by:

carlarseal

 

 

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Yahoo! Says Delicious To Get the Boot, Not the Axe

 

 

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Yahoo! Says Delicious To Get the Boot, Not the Axe

via Slashdot by timothy on 12/18/10

geegel writes "In a statement on their Delicious official blog, Yahoo now claims that: 'No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.' What that means can be everyone's guess, but at least for now, your delicious accounts are safe."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

 

 

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Microsoft Security Essentials 2 Released, Still the Best Darn Antivirus Arou...

 

 

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Microsoft Security Essentials 2 Released, Still the Best Darn Antivirus Around [Downloads]

via Lifehacker by Whitson Gordon on 12/17/10

Windows: We've learned to stop worrying about antivirus software since Microsoft released their great Microsoft Security Essentials suite, but today it gets even better, improving Windows Firewall integration, network traffic inspection, and an heuristic scanning engine.

Microsoft's next version of Security Essentials is actually a pretty great update from its already-great predecessor. Microsoft's option has always been adequate at finding new malware without definitions, but the addition of an heuristic engine bumps its power up quite a bit. It may be subject to a few more false positives, but you're much less likely to get hit with malware than ever before.

It also includes some Windows Firewall integration that lets you tweak the Firewall from inside Security Essentials, as well as a network inspection feature that can inspect traffic as you browse, which is pretty neat. All in all, if you're using Microsoft Security Essentials (and why wouldn't you be?), you'll want to grab this update. Hit the link below to manually download and install the update.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download for Windows.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 [via Download Squad]

 

 

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The Best Alternatives to Delicious [Video]

 

 

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The Best Alternatives to Delicious [Video]

via Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy on 12/17/10

Tag-friendly and social bookmarking service Delicious is headed for shutdown. Sure, you can export those bookmarks, but what if you want a new place to tag, save, share, and maybe go beyond what Delicious offered? These are your best bets.

Best All-Around: Pinboard

Pinboard makes no bones about its role as a simple, tagged, social bookmarking service, one that's even more stripped down in interface than Delicious. Wondering about how it stacks up to Delicious, pro and con? Pinboard tells it pretty honestly, though, honestly, staying with Delicious isn't really an option, it seems. The team also forecasts its features, with a dig at Yahoo included.

Pinboard does charge for the service: $7.50 as this was written, but it goes up as more people join. At that level, you get a lot of great features above and beyond the Delicious-style bookmarking: automatic link de-shortening, automatic bookmarking of anything you save to Instapaper or Read It Later, archives of your links and favorites from Twitter, private tags that only you can see, and better bulk editing. For $25 per year, you can have Pinboard keep a copy of each page you bookmark, so that even dead links are readable, and have full text search of all those bookmarks, too. There are a good number of third-party Pinboard extensions and plug-ins out there, and likely one for your browser of choice.

Pinboard offers a full how-to section, including a full export/import walkthrough for Delicious users.

Best for Going Beyond Bookmarks: Diigo

Diigo is a bit more expansive in aim than Delicious. It doesn't just handle bookmarks, though it handles Delicious-style bookmarking, and straight imports from Delicious, fairly well. Diigo offers a lot of tools to accompany its service, including browser extensions and bookmarklets, and clients for Android, iPhone, and iPad that let you save your notes for offline reading in some cases.

Beyond basic bookmarking, Diigo offers a multi-color highlighting tool for browser-based research, and archiving of any bookmarked web page. There are lots of ways to collaborate with a group on notes and bookmarks, and the privacy settings are pretty Delicious-like and granular—you set which bookmarks are private or public, on a case-by-case basis.

You can see the cost of Diigo's basic, premium, and education-focused plans at this extensively detailed chart. They offer some basic importing explainers, but the How-To Geek's site has a nice step-by-step Delicious-to-Diigo walkthrough.

The Universal Capture Options: SpringPad & Evernote

Both services aim to be more than just a bookmark catalog service, but they can both does this job pretty well. They're also both moving quick to claim Delicious users as they look for a new home, though neither does quite an adequate job for Delicious power users:

• Evernote can import your bookmarks, but without the tags.
• Springpad states on their Twitter account that they're working on a custom Delicious importer.

Note, though, that these services are not necessarily made for such a use. They're generally aimed at wider use cases—what Adam calls "Everything Buckets", where a few bookmarks might get lost among photos of gift ideas, audio recordings, and other esoterica. But they can take in and hold your bookmarks, if you want a spot to toss them into, and they do support tagging.

Simple Backup (Without Tags): Xmarks & Mozilla Sync

As we detailed in a post yesterday, it's pretty easy to export Delicious bookmarks into your favorite browser. They arrive without tags, unfortunately, and they're only stored locally, unless your browser happens to sync its bookmarks, like Chrome. Keep your Delicious bookmarks safe (or at least safer) by backing them up to a cloud-based service. All you have to do is install Xmarks on any browser you happen to have, or Mozilla Sync if you happen to be a Firefox fan. Both services also offer means of syncing your bookmarks to your own server (we walked through Xmarks self-syncing recently).

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Those are the services we see as the most receptive and accommodating to Delicious users. If you've found a great new home for your blue-and-white bookmarks, tell us about it in the comments.

 

 

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