Big Joe's Blog » Social

The Bicycle Tutor Explains Just About Every Kind of Bike Fix

bigjoe — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:47:45 +0000

If your two-wheeled transport is in need of a seasonal tuneup or any kind of fix, The Bicycle Tutor can clearly explain what you’ll need to get it done. Read More

SMS through E-Mail: Cingular, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Virgin Mobile

bigjoe — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:22:02 +0000

Sending SMS through email is very, very easy. If you can be reminded through email, you can now be reminded through SMS.

I have email reminders sent to me for everything. If you know the correct email address, you can also send these messages to your cellular phone. Here are the email addresses for the 6 most popular cellular phone carriers:

If you don’t know the phone carrier for the cell phone number you are attempting to call, you can try this universal service.

Pay off your mortgage more quickly to save money

bigjoe — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 21:47:30 +0000

If you have a mortgage, you might be surprised at how much money you can save by adding just a few extra dollars a month to the principle. Financial blog Wise Bread has put together three DIY mortgage acceleration schedules together for download in order to figure out how this would work for you.

— Joel Cottrell

Calculate and reduce your carbon emissions with Zerofootprint and Yahoo! Green

bigjoe — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:48:01 +0000

var permalink=”http://lifehacker.com/software/environment/calculate-and-reduce-your-carbon-emissions-with-zerofootprint-and-yahoo-green-260514.php”; Two new tools for combating global warming launched today. Zerofootprint’s Carbon Calculator determines your current CO2 emissions based on your lifestyle; and Yahoo! Green assembles your plan for reduction.

Over at Zerofootprint enter the kind of car you own and the number of miles you drive it per year, your air travel habits, your electricity bill and other carbon emissions-related info, and the calculator tells you how many tons of CO2 you’re adding to the environment. At Yahoo! Green, make the list of small changes you can make to reduce that number – like keeping your tires inflating, driving the speed limit, replacing light bulbs and reducing your meat intake. See also ten easy ways to go green. —Gina Trapani

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Parts: Check Tire Pressure

bigjoe — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 03:48:52 +0000

from jalopnik.com — The reason to check your tire pressure is usually explained with some nearly unbelievable statistical simile bordering on hyperbole. If everyone checked their tire pressure once a month, we could save enough oil to build comfortable cities on the moon and help kittens. Or something like that.

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Ask the Readers: Run iTunes from a USB drive?

bigjoe — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:21:16 +0000

Reader Ken is headed overseas to serve his country and wants iTunes to come along:

Would it be possible to run iTunes from a USB flash drive? I’m deploying to Iraq soon and I’d like to use iTunes from my USB drive on the base computers to download podcasts.

We’ve talked lots on carrying your life on a USB drive (or even an iPod), but I don’t think we’ve seen a mobile-iTunes solution. What say you, Lifehacker readers? If there’s no way to make iTunes flash drive-ready, what about another podcast-fetching program? Help Ken out in the comments. — Rick Broida

Courtesy of Lifehacker.com

Give your photos that 'A Scanner Darkly' look

bigjoe — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:20:18 +0000

Design ‘zine Adobe Illustrator Techniques shows you how to give your photos that cool graphic-novel look seen in the film A Scanner Darkly.

The technique combines heavy black lines with solid-color shapes, resulting in a kind of photo-realistic comic book effect. Needless to say, the process involves Illustrator, though I suspect you could use any drawing program that supports layers and painting. There’s quite a bit of work required–four to five hours, according to the author (who, incidentally, worked on the film)–but you can’t argue with the results. They’re incredible, far beyond what you can achieve with a filter alone. — Rick Broida

Plan now for veggie-garden success

bigjoe — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:19:19 +0000

Finance (and, apparently, horticulture) blog Get Rich Slowly explains that February is the right time to start planning your vegetable garden and offers tips for beginner growers. For example, test your soil:

Many states offer free soil testing, which will tell you how to amend the soil if nutrients or organic matter are lacking, or if the pH of the soil needs to be adjusted. Your county’s Master Gardener program may also offer this service.

Lots of good advice here, especially the stuff on annuals versus perennials. Mostly it just whets your appetite for winter to get the hell over with already. Come on, spring! — Rick Broida

pixer.us :: online photo editor

bigjoe — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:30:27 +0000

A very cool ajax based online photo editor. Allows basic operations like resizing, cropping, rotating, flipping as well as color adjustments and special filters.

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BUSTED: How to properly handle police encounters.

bigjoe — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:43:24 +0000

This video gives tips on how to properly handle police encounters. Everyone should know their rights, and how not to waive them.

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