Mittwoch, 30. April 2008

Exercise to Cure What Ails You [Health]

Exercise can protect against everything from heart attacks and cancer to depression and erectile dysfunction, but the New York Times focuses on how working out also helps with ailments you're already suffering from—even those that make exercise difficult.

Perhaps the most immediate benefits are reaped by people with joint and neuromuscular disorders. Without exercise, those at risk of osteoarthritis become crippled by stiff, deteriorated joints. But exercise that increases strength and aerobic capacity can reduce pain, depression and anxiety and improve function, balance and quality of life.
The key, of course, is knowing what kind of workouts counter your ailment. If you've used exercise to address health issues in the past, let's hear what worked best for you in the comments.







Quickly Edit Gmail Contacts Through Your Chat List [Contact Management]

gmail-contact-edit1.pngThe Official Gmail blog points out a small new feature update in Gmail that allows you to edit contact information on-the-fly directly from your chat list. In short, when you hover your mouse over a contact in chat (or an email), the name in the pop-up details window is now editable. Since the chat pane is really the quickest way to search and access your contacts, it's a great way to quickly add meaningful names to your contacts—especially since Gmail's contact management tools are still a little unwieldy. Small improvements like that could go a long way in boosting Gmail's status as a top 5 contact management tool.







Boolify Simplifies Advanced Search [Search Techniques]

boolify.pngWeb site Boolify makes advanced web searches easy through a simple drag-and-drop interface. Intended as an educational tool, Boolify teaches users how to create boolean searches in Google using operators like OR and NOT (-) to get very specific search results. Boolean searching isn't new by any means, but if you've never gotten the hang of it or you just prefer a more visual approach, Boolify is worth a look. If you're way past this, then our top 10 obscure Google search tricks may be more up your alley.







Prop and Cool Your Laptop with a Water Bottle [Clever Uses]

water-bottle.pngBlogger Ron Brinkman doesn't want to buy an overpriced laptop stand or build his own DIY laptop stand. Instead, he takes the cheap and easy route and uses a $6 hot water bottle as a water-cooled laptop stand. Brinkman says:

Yup, buy a hot water bottle, fill it up with tap-water (room-temperature is fine) and insert strategically between laptop and lap. It's comfy, acts as a nice heat-sink, and as a bonus it probably blocks a fair bit of the dangerous 'electronic rays' that are shooting out of the bottom of the computer straight at your important bits.



Brinkman claims the water bottle works great on the table as well—just lean your laptop on the water bottle and the rubber surface grips the table and keeps your propped up laptop in place. Nothing beats this cheap and simple, and the cooling effect of the water bottle means no more burning laps.







The PC Decrapifier Detects More Bloatware [Crapware]

pcdecrapifier.png The previously mentioned PC Decrapifier utility, which cleans pre-installed bloatware that ships with new Windows laptops, sees an update today and detects more applications than ever, like Norton 360, the Microsoft Office 2007 Trial and Activation Assistant, and Symantic LiveUpdate. [via]







Ask MetaFilter Roundup [Hive Mind]