There is an unusually long and original post over at LifeHacker today discussing some common tweaks people use to speed up Windows, and which the author does not recommend.  Very useful and it would be nice to hear some feedback from donationcoder readers.

As a tech writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered across almost every web site dedicated to system tweaking. Besides the tweaks that simply don't work, some of them will actually cause your computer to run even slower—or worse. Let's examine some of the most offensive myths out there regarding PC performance tweaking, and debunk them once and for all.

http://lifehacker.co...mance-tweaking-myths

What are some of the weird websites you have found while surfing?

Hi all,

I wanted to share with you this impressive list of outliners/note-taking apps grabbed from outlinersoftware.com

I'm still looking for the perfect outliner program (and I've tried so many!)..

I'm just making my way through this, but i like what i'm reading.. Not exactly mind-blowing stuff, but a very nice description of some problems and ways they can be ameliorated.

When I wrote the first version of this article six years ago, I called it “Why Free Software usability tends to suck”. The best open source applications and operating systems are more usable now than they were then. But this is largely from slow incremental improvements, and low-level competition between projects and distributors. Major problems with the design process itself remain largely unfixed.

Many of these problems are with volunteer software in general, not Free Software in particular. Hobbyist proprietary programs are often hard to use for many of the same reasons. But the easiest way of getting volunteers to contribute to a program is to make it open source. And while thousands of people are now employed in developing Free Software, most of its developers are volunteers. So it’s in Free Software that we see volunteer software’s usability problems most often.

http://mpt.net.nz/ar...e-software-usability

Came across this nice short video tutorial demonstrating the use of Flipbook Printer.  Thanks to the author who made it!

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=DbHAXzxUUHI

I figure I'm not the only one broke these days. However, where I can, I buy things gently used or buy high quality new merchandise. I try not to waste money on cheap crap. I'm not a millionaire; I'm not even a hundred-aire. but as this MSN article suggests, there are a few items you can selectively save on:

• Mattress: SPLURGE. You sit, sleep and God knows what else on this item. Get a good one.
  
• Wristwatch: SKIMP. The phone now doubles as a timepiece.
  
• Kitchen knife: SPLURGE. One good kitchen knife is a time-saver and is safer.

Maybe you should think of it as "splurging." It's not irresponsible or decadent to buy a quality item that you can use for decades at a reasonable price. (Of course, just because a product is expensive doesn't mean it is high quality...) And remember, if an item is high quality, sometimes you can buy it used!

So my question is: In what things do you "invest" for the long term?