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from gHacks tech:
Snadboys Revelation (review, developer) – You can use Snadboys Revelation to make Windows passwords that are hidden behind asterisks visible again. A real life safer if you tend to forget passwords from ftp programs or other tools that save the passwords.
Just three years ago, the International Energy Agency said that China would overtake the US as the biggest carbon emitter, sometime after 2025.
It has now been revealed that in fact they will overtake the US this year. You have to wonder about some of the numbers underlying policy decisions, when they can get it so wrong for just one country.
It also raises the point that the flawed Kyoto Protocol has effectively zero obligations on China, which will be the biggest emitter. Kyoto is as much about punishing the west as it is climate change.
From ghacks net:
Microsofts Internet Explorer 7 has that strange limitation that you can only download two files simultaneously.
If you are on a fast connection you might not want to use a download manager anymore for the purpose of downloading relative small files from the Internet. A better way would be to boost the number of simultaneous downloads in Internet Explorer 7 from 2 to a higher number. As always the setting is hidden deep inside the registry. To start the registry press Windows + R, type regedit and hit enter.
Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Internet Settings and create the following two DWord (32 bit) keys by right-clicking in the right pane. Name the first MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and set it to a number greater than 2. This is the amount of simultaneous downloads from now on.
Create a second registry entry called MaxConnectionsPerServer and give it the same value that you have selected above. Close everything and restart your computer. I would suggest you test the settings with large enough files to see if this brought the desired effect. If you encounter problems you could reduce the number that you entered in both registry keys.
It’s really hard to buy a computer preinstalled with Windows that doesn’t have all kinds of bundled software. From anti-virus software like Norton AntiVirus, music players to DVD burners, links to affiliated services, these programs occupy a lot of space and memory, and you may not even be aware of their existence.
Even Google has a three-year agreement with Dell to install Google Toolbar and Google Desktop on new PCs.
If you don’t like to let others choose for you and want an easy way to uninstall the software that comes with your new computer, PC Decrapifier could be a solution. It’s like Google Pack in reverse: uninstall everything in just a few clicks.
So, you’re the proud owner of a new PC. You anxiously open the box, dumping out the contents, casting the instructions aside. You feverishly push your old PC off the desk and get the new one set up. On the floor lies a pile of plastic wrap and twist ties. Your brand spanking new PC boots up only to greet you with a plethora of pop up advertisements pestering you to pay for anti-virus software or sign up for a music service. Your desktop is littered with website links for ‘special offers.’ The system tray is already full of programs that continuously use your internet connection to make sure that you’re ‘up to date.’ (…) All of this stuff is placed on your new PC because the big companies like Dell, HP and others sell advertising space on your PC to put more money in their pockets at the expense of your time and frustration.
There is something a little intriguing about the “one-stop shop”, Fair Work Australia proposals that leaves me wondering what deals have on between the ALP team and the ACTU over these proposals and any post-election ALP industrial relations policy. Some of the details, like no-strike periods and secret ballots, would be hard for the unions to accept from “their party”, but many core foundations of the trade union platform are likely to continue in place, or even be extended.
For example, the current five minimum Australian standards will be expanded to include certain holiday allowances and penalty rates (or equitable compensation for trading them away), collective bargaining will be restored, and new initiatives will be introduced to ensure “good faith” bargaining with trade unions.
However, Fair Work Australia requires state governments handing over their IR powers to a future Rudd-led Labor government. A few years ago, both the NSW and Queensland Labor governments spent millions of taxpayer dollars on legal costs associated with High Court action against the Howard Government’s use of the corporations power as the basis for WorkChoices’ national system. Will they hand over control this time (perhaps at Brother Combet’s persuasion) ?
The Rudd proposal includes a ban on unfair dismissal claims for workers with less than 12 months’ experience (for businesses with fewer than 15 employees) and workers with less than six months’ service (in businesses with more than 15 employees). Increased churning of staff by small businesses that dismiss workers before the 12-month deadline can be expected in some areas such as retail.
Given the political stakes involved, some argue that this ideology-driven IR debate has little to do with disadvantaged workers and a lot more to do with the very existence of trade unionism in Australia and the power of its leaders. According to the latest ABS statistics, which gave a grim view of the future of the trade union movement generally, only about 20 per cent of workers are members of a trade union, a fall of 125,000 or nearly 7 per cent in the past year. In the private sector, only 15 per cent of workers are in a trade union while the public sector also showed a fall in union membership, to 43 per cent.
For the unions, WorkChoices presents the last chance to avoid redundancy and irrelevance in Australian society.
The Google Notebook extension for Firefox is a pretty handy tool for quickly bookmarking web pages you might want to save or come back to later in the day. But the extension opens in a rather small window and generally just gets in the way. But there’s a solution: Make Google Notebook your Firefox sidebar.
Here’s what you do:
Voila! Now you have a sidebar filled with your web clippings and personal notes.
Jon Udell discusses an add-on for Internet Explorer, Reify Software’s Turnabout, which gives you the ability to run some Greasemonkey scripts in Internet Explorer:
…it comes in two versions: basic and advanced. If you download the basic version it only runs a small set of scripts that the Reify folks have blessed. You have to download the advanced version in order to be able to install other scripts, such as my LibraryLookup script.
I realize that relatively few IE users are likely to run Turnabout, just as relatively few Firefox users run Greasemonkey. But a small fraction of IE’s large share is still a healthy number, and I’d like to do what I can to encourage interesting, important, and of course safe and responsible uses of this technology.
Jon spent some time modifying one of his scripts to work under Turnabout, and has written up some notes for anyone who wants to do the same. Also see some Greasemonkey Hacks.
One of the most influential and loud rock bands in the history of music is coming back together to perform at Live Earth this summer. Yes, that’s right…. Tap is Back. The article has some good news (a new single is coming) and some bad news… apparently Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet. Best wishes to him on his recovery- I’m sure it won’t impact the performance…
A video from the Spinal Tap reunion tour of 1992.
More video of Spinal Tap
Nearly everyone has made paper airplanes or tried origami when they were children. Take these memories further when you download dozens of 3D-Papercraft projects for free.
Note: there is NO nudity in this video, but it is funny. Done in World of Warcraft style.