Monthly Archives: June 2009

WatchDox Adds Security Options to Online Document Sharing [File Sharing]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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We’ve highlighted many ways to help you share files over the internet. Newly launched service WatchDox aims to make the document-sharing process more secure.

Once you've chosen and uploaded the document(s) you want to share, WatchDox lets you enter your recipient's email address along with your own, which WatchBox will validate. Then you can select what permissions you want to give to the person you're sharing with—including whether they can print, forward, or copy the document. You can also set when you want the document to expire (maximum 30 days).

As its name implies, WatchDox lets you track who views and opens your documents and modify the permission settings as you like. You can send an unlimited number of documents (uploaded two at a time, up to 15MB), and store up to 50MB online. There’s also a Microsoft Outlook plug-in available for download to share directly from Outlook.

Of course, WatchDox can't guarantee 100-percent safe document transfers—it can't prevent someone from taking a screen grab, for one—but the service provides enough added security benefits to make it worth a look. WatchDox is currently in beta and free to use.





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The Alexander Technique Provides Short-Term Relief From Back Pain [Health]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Chronic and recurring back pain is painful at best and incapacitating at its worst, and sitting in front of a computer all day rarely helps. The New York Times reports that using a method known as the Alexander technique may offer some short term relief by repositioning your head.

Photo by pappajohn1969.

The Times’s Consults blog picked up on a study published in the British Medical Journal that found that the Alexander technique “could potentially reduce back pain by limiting muscle spasm, strengthening postural muscles, improving coordination and flexibility, and decompressing the spine.”

An previous Times story helps explain the technique, which derives its name from Australian actor F. Matthias Alexander.

The focal point of Alexander therapy is the positioning of the head, 10 to 15 percent of the body’s total weight perched atop a slender rod, the spinal column. With two-thirds of the head’s weight in front of the spine, it tends to fall forward (as it does when you doze off sitting up). The muscles in the back of the neck must keep it balanced. Some people adopt a military posture: chest out, shoulders back, chin in. Others tilt their heads back and lead with their chins. Still others bend their heads forward and hunch their shoulders. All such abnormal postures create undue stress on the spine and its supporting tissues.

The Alexander method teaches a more relaxed and natural posture and movement patterns that balance the head while relaxing the neck muscles. It also strives to free the neck from having to participate in every move the body makes.

Considering that posture is a major problem at the computer and that many of us spend entire days with our head leaning forward gaping at computer monitors, re-learning how to hold our heads to avoid back pain is potentially beneficial for many of us. The NYT spoke to the BMJ study's lead author Paul Little who said that—though the technique is not a form of back exercise—it can be applied to everyday situations like standing, walking, or sitting at a desk.

The Times also offers tips on how to find a qualified teacher to guide you through the technique, or you can DIY by picking up a book on the subject. Check out the video for a more detailed explanation from the British Medical Journal.





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Gmail Notifier Plus Adds Email Alerts to the Windows 7 Taskbar [Downloads]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Windows 7 only: Gmail Notifier Plus displays your unread email count right in the Windows 7 taskbar, including popup message previews and Jump Lists integration.

Once you've launched the application, you will be prompted for your Gmail account information—after which you will see the unread count as an icon right on the taskbar button and hovering your mouse will show a preview of your unread email. Right-clicking on the button uses Windows 7′s excellent Jump Lists feature—with quick and easy access to frequent tasks like opening your inbox or composing a new email message.

Gmail Notifier Plus is a free download for Windows 7 only—hit the link for more screenshots and the free-registration-required download, or use the mirror to just download it quickly. For more ways to add email notifications, check out Growl for Windows or Gmail Notifier for Ubuntu.





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NumLocker Disables the Caps Lock Key [Downloads]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Windows only: Tiny application NumLocker disables the Caps, Num, and Scroll Lock keys from an easy-access menu in the system tray.

Using the application is simple enough—just right-click on the tray icon and choose whether you want the key enabled or not, or you can set the key to be always disabled. If you rarely use the keys and don't mind having an extra utility running in the background, it might be worth a look.

If you never want to use the Caps Lock key again, you have plenty of other options: You can disable or remap any key in Windows, use TabsLock to make it launch your browser, turn it into a dedicated minimize button, or just neuter it with a quick autohotkey script. If you’re really feeling geeky, you can learn how to disable or remap Caps Lock using a registry hack instead. Thanks, Shankar!

NumLocker is a free download for Windows only. Do you ever use the Caps Lock key for anything useful? Tell us in the comments.

NumLocker [Dead'Soul via WhoisMadhur]





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Nextstop Offers Travel, Food, and Local Activity Guides [Travel]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Plenty of web sites offer business reviews, restaurant recommendations, and other local finds for those less in the know. Today marks the launch of still one more, called Nextstop, which lets users create their own local or global guides—think best beer bars in the world, for example.

Founded by several former Google employees, Nextstop lets users read and build various guides covering anything under the sun, from the the best beer bars in the world (mentioned above) and best beer bars in Massachusetts to hidden spots in San Francisco and Go! Play! Portland! (a fun tour of Portland).

You can search for guides on Nextstop by places, guides, and map, or just focus your search on a specific city. The site was in closed beta until today, which helps explain why a good number of my NYC recommendations included more obvious tourist spots (think Statute of Liberty) and less off-the-beaten-path selections. Of course, if and when more users create their own guides, the site could potentially be a decent resource for interesting things to do in a given city, especially centered around a specific theme.





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Prey Phones Home to Help You Recover Your Stolen Laptop [Downloads]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Your laptop is missing. You’re completely out of luck, right? Not if your laptop can phone home. Prey is a cross-platform security application that sends home pictures and location data when your laptop goes missing.

When your laptop goes missing Prey scans for open WiFi connections. When it can connect, either via WiFi or a hard line it will send you a report including the status of the computer, which programs are running, the active connections, a run down of the network location, a screenshot of the desktop, and if your laptop has an integrated webcam you’ll even get a picture of the person sitting in front of it.

Prey can be set to trigger in two different ways. You can specify a URL for it to check, if the URL exists then it sends out a report. You could, for example, tell it to check www.yourwebsite.com/stolen.htm and if that URL is valid then a report is sent. Alternately you can set Prey to fire off a report to your email every time it runs. You’ll need an email address and the SMTP information for your email server to set up Prey. The Linux and Mac versions have already been translated into English but the Windows version is still awaiting translation. It was easy enough to set up despite the non-English interface.

Want to go beyond simply getting updates after the fact? Check out our guide to setting up a laptop security system and how to thief-proof your laptop for more ideas on how to keep your laptop safe. Prey is open source and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Prey [via gHacks]





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Synchronize Nearly Any Storage Device with iTunes [Downloads]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Palm’s Pre smartphone has received fairly positive press coverage for claiming to sync “seamlessly” with iTunes. The Boy Genius Report blog points out that free software can do pretty much the same thing with any removable drive.

iTunes Agent, a free Windows app we’ve previously mentioned, sits in the system tray and lets you turn anything that plugs in through a USB slot and can store things into an iTunes-friendly device. Plug in your device, create a “New” device in iTunes Agent’s preferences, give it a name, and point to a folder where you want synchronized music to be kept, and the software creates a unique file to identify the device to itself and iTunes. Take note that it will wipe out any music manually placed in there already, but from then on out, iTunes Agent takes care of your music transfers from a single iTunes playlist and a system tray icon that you can click “Synchronize Now” from.

We’ve previously praised SyncTunes for having similar Mac abilities, but that project was shut down by its author. The Boy Genius Report recommends iTuneMyWalkman for a similar experience to iTunes Agent, although that software actually looks more integrated and easier to manage than its Windows counterpart from the screenshots.

Some phones and MP3 players come with their own iTunes hook-ins, but if you’ve got another third-party solution to syncing non-Apple media players to iTunes, let us know in the comments.





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Browse, Create, and Share Recipes at Nibbledish [Cooking]

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Nibbledish is an open-source cookbook for the wired world. If you’ve found other recipe sites to overwhelmingly stuffed with nearly identical recipes and nondescript entries, you’ll love the variety, and photos, at Nibbledish.

Be forewarned, if you’re cursing yourself for missing breakfast this morning, visiting Nibbledish isn’t going to help. Not only are the thousands of people who contribute recipes to Nibbledish consummate chefs, but based on the quality of the photographs, they’re also passionate about documenting the results of their kitchen forays. Nibbledish practically pushes you into the kitchen with all the beautiful shots of artfully prepared food.

You can comment on and rank recipes, and follow Nibbledish users whose recipes you have enjoyed. Every recipe is tagged with keywords, so if you find yourself looking at a dessert that’s close, but not quite right, for the party you’re hosting, check out the keywords to find similar recipes. You can search or browse by recent popularity, all-time best, and individual tags. Users who have been recognized by the community as having excellent recipes are flagged as Professional, and you can have only recipes created by Pro users show up in your search. Nibbledish is free to browse and use, and every recipe is free to use and reproduce under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.





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New SketchUp Drawing of a Roubo Workbench

Posted on June 1, 2009
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Last week a reader posted a nice SketchUp drawing of a Roubo workbench that you can download (for free) from Google’s 3D Warehouse.

The drawing features the Benchcrafted Wagon Vise and a dovetailed end cap that holds the vise in place. I’ve had several readers ask me what this construction should look like. Now you can download the plan, take this bench apart and see one good solution.

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