Some things you might not know about Windows Live

1	If you use multiple Windows Live IDs then you can link them together so that you can easily swap between them using the dropdown list in the top right-hand corner of every online Windows Live service. Go to https://account.live.com/managelinks.aspx to set them up.
2	If you receive instant messages when you are offline then you can pick them up in Windows Live Mail and reply to them via email
3	If you choose to keep a history of your Live Messenger conversations then you can see a record of all your conversations with one of your buddies all in the same place. Go to Tools–>Options–>Messages and check the box next to ‘Automatically keep a history of my conversations’.
4	If the 5GB storage limit on SkyDrive isn’t enough for you simply sign-up for multiple Windows Live IDs and set your primary Windows Live ID up as an Editor to those other SkyDrives. Voila. Effectively infinite storage, just make sure that all your accounts stay active.
5	Live Writer makes it easy to advertise your blog to the world by letting you add tags that automatically tell blog search engines what your posts are about.
6	Even better, you can tell Windows Live Writer to tell all the blog search engines about your post as soon as you publish it using the “Ping Servers” feature. Go to Tools–>Options–>Ping Servers to configure.
7	Using Windows Live Photo Gallery you can stitch multiple photos together to make a great multi-megapixal panoramic image like the one I’ve done here looking northwards from the top of the Empire State Building (click on the image for a larger version).
8	You can see all of the comments on someone’s Live Spaces blog in one place by going to the blog summary and clicking on the comments link for each blog. For example see all comments on my blog by going here.
9	You can search the web using Live Search, preview the results, and share the search results with your friends all from within Windows Live Messenger. Just select ‘Search’ from the activities menu.
10	Writing a blog entry? Why not see what the blog entry will look like BEFORE you publish it. All from within Windows Live Writer. Just hit the F12 button for a web preview.

How many of those did you know about? Let me know in the comments (but be honest now).

Do you have any tips to share of your own? Again, put ‘em in the comments. Better still, do you have 10 of them? If so blog about them on your Space and tag it 10 secrets. And don’t forget to check my follow-up post 10 more secrets of Windows Live.

The idea of this post comes from Steven’s recent post on freelance blogging. Freelance writing certainly has many advantages and can be rewarding too.

It goes without saying that in order to become a freelance writer, you gotta love writing. But you should also consistently work on sharpening your skills. And how do you do that? Reading well-written articles and blogs is a very good start! This can help you write innovative and appealing content.

Reading blogs with good writing is a must if you want to improve your skills as a writer/blogger. Keeping this in mind, I decided to list 20 blogs which should be on every freelance blogger’s RSS feed reading list. This is not a definitive list as there are many more good blogs and I can’t possibly name all of them. But still it’s a useful list which I hope you will enjoy.

Note: these blogs are not all about freelance writing or writing for the web. What they have in common is they’re all really well-written.

Here’s the list in no specific order (It’s not a top 20 list!)

• 1. Zen Habits & Write To Done Zen Habits and Write To Done are written by Leo Babauta, an experienced writer and a prolific blogger. Not only does he write great content he has an amazing writing style which is simple yet captivating.
• 2. Problogger I’d be very surprised if you haven’t heard of this blog. Problogger is written by Darren Rowse and teaches the art of blogging and making money through it. In spite of being one of the most famous blogs on the planet, Darren still maintains the same old way of writing articles which are useful, impressive and easily understandable.
• 3. Dumb Little Man One of the best productivity blogs around, Dumb Little Man is edited by Jay White and written by an impressive group of writers who produce useful articles on how to increase your everyday productivity and manage time in a better manner.
• 4. Copyblogger Brian Clark is an authority when it comes to blog writing and you cannot afford to miss any of his articles if you want to become a good writer. Seriously.
• 5. Freelance Switch Written by the best freelance writers and edited by Skellie, this blog presents insightful articles which include tips and tricks for freelancers and web workers. Thanks to it’s great content, the blog has achieved huge growth in the past one year and should be on your reading list too.
• 6. Dosh Dosh Maki’s writing style and his in-depth analysis of topics has gained him admiration and respect in the blogosphere, not to mention a huge reader base. One of the most well-written blogs around and certainly a writer’s paradise.
• 7. Seth Godin Seth’s unique and candid style of writing makes his blog a must read for all writers and bloggers.
• 8. 43 Folders Although Merlin doesn’t write much these days, his blog still remains one of the most useful productivity blogs with some very nicely written articles.
• 9. Skelliewag Skellie’s proficiency as a writer and blogger is well known and she has been producing great web content for years. Skelliewag is her flagship blog which boasts of some brilliant articles which are quite useful for bloggers.
• 10. Men With Pens This blog is written by James and Harry, both of them being professional and without a doubt, amazing writers. A must read blog if you aim to improve your writing skills and write impressive content.
• 11. Chris Pearson For those who don’t know, Chris is probably the best and the most sought after freelance WordPress designer (am not sure if he is doing freelance work any more). He doesn’t write much but when he does, the articles are too good to miss. He also created an immensely popular WordPress called Cutline.
• 12. Daily Blog Tips One of the top blogs in the blogging niche, Daily Blog Tips is written by Daniel and has some great advice for bloggers and writers who aim to make it big in the blogosphere.
• 13. Life Hacker Unmissable and a must-read everyday, no matter who you are and what you do.
• 14. Entrepreneurs Journey Yaro Starak aims to help bloggers and online entrepreneurs through his candid and thought provoking articles, which make his blog one of the most important in it’s niche.
• 15. Chris Garrett Chris is an internet marketing consultant and an experienced writer. He has also co-authored the Problogger book with Darren. Hence, it goes without saying that his blog is an important one, especially from a writer or freelance blogger’s perspective.
• 16. The Simple Dollar One of the best finance blogs around, Trent writes top quality articles which have made his site a huge success.
• 17. Steve Pavlina Steve’s 4000 word essays are quite well known and apart from including impressive content, they also feature an impeccable writing style.
• 18. Life Hack Like Dumb Little Man, this blog focuses on personal development and productivity and employs guest writers who consistently produce excellent content.
• 19. Chris Brogan Chris is a social media marketing consultant who writes some direct-from-heart articles on his blog which are nicely written and well presented.
• 20. Freelance Folder It’s not that I am biased towards this blog because I write for it but I believe it’s certainly a must-read blog for all the freelance bloggers out there and I have been enjoying the well written articles on this blog by influential writers, long before I started writing for it.

Some other blogs which feature impressive writing are A List Apart, The Writers Manifesto and Success Soul.

Which blogs do you read to improve your skills as a writer / blogger? I’d love to know your resources.

Cyborgs, stem cells, glowing mice, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about biology. Here are some of our favorite clips from the life sciences.

10. Immune Cell Chasing a Bacterium
It may look like the predecessor to Pac Man, but this vintage clip shows a neutrophil wending its way through a crowd of red blood cells to destroy its bacterial nemesis.

9. How High Speed Gene Sequencing Works
Within the next few years, Helicos BioSciences may be able to read an entire human genome for under one thousand dollars. This video explains the science behind their amazing technology.

8. Shrimp Jogging on a Treadmill
While comparing the stamina of sick shrimp to their healthy brethren, David Scholnick filmed this video of a cute little crustacean running on a treadmill. He had no idea that it would be come an internet sensation.

7. El Corazón
An unusual music video about the heart, in Spanish, with English subtitles.

6. The PCR Song
Biochemists often use the polymerase chain reaction to copy DNA molecules. This hilarious music video, tells the history of that technology and makes some jokes about its many uses, including paternity testing.

5. Glowing Mice Shed Some Light on Stem Cells
This year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three scientists who studied a fluorescent protein from jellyfish. It has become a tremendously important tool for scientific research, because biologists can use it to understand what is going on inside of cells. An experiment with glowing mice led to a major discovery about stem cells.

4. DNA Origami
Using a mix of chemistry, biology, and computer tricks, Paul Rothemund can design DNA molecules that fold up into complicated two-dimensional shapes. In this TED talk, he explains some of the logic behind his work, and how living things operate.

3. Cyborg Monkey Controls Robot Arm
By implanting an array of electrodes directly into the motor area of a monkey’s brain, researchers can read some of its thoughts. Their interface is so good that the animal can take control of a robot arm and use it to feed itself. Someday, these brain-computer interfaces could be used to help paralyzed people live normal lives.

2. Evolution and Human Ancestry
Genetic tests are becoming an important part of medicine, but can also tell us about our ancestry. This charming cartoon, made by 23andMe, offers a fantastic overview of how humans evolved.

1. Building Body Parts from Scratch
Last week, regenerative medicine researchers announced that they have grown a new windpipe for a woman who was crippled by tuberculosis. Years ago, other scientists were able to make bladders, from scratch, and implant them in children with malformed urinary tracts. This video shows some amazing footage from two tissue engineering labs.

from Lifehacker

Almost two years in, our weekly listicle, the Lifehacker Top 10, still proves to be one of the most popular posts on-site. Since our top-10-making bot is off this weekend, take a gander at 20 of the most popular Top 10’s that have published in 2008 so far.

1. Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks
   “Dozens of Google search guides detail the tips you already know, but today we’re skipping the obvious and highlighting our favorite obscure Google web search tricks.”
2. Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks
   “Since the dawn of time, geeks have been playing harmless pranks on their beloved (but unsuspecting) associates, and it’s up to all of us to carry the torch forward.”
3. Top 10 Ways to Stay Energized
   “You can overcome a late night of net surfing, a rough morning, or just the post-lunch stupor without becoming an over-wired mess.”
4. Top 10 Software Easter Eggs
   “The best easter eggs aren’t painted pink and stuffed with jelly beans—they’re the undocumented and unexpected fun features hidden deep inside various software apps.”
5. Top 10 BitTorrent Tools and Tricks
   “BitTorrent is the go-to resource for downloading everything from music and movies to software and operating systems, but as its popularity continues to grow, so do the number of tools available for making the most of it.”
6. Top 10 Firefox 3 Features
   “The newest version of our favorite open source web browser, Mozilla Firefox 3, offers dozens of new features and fixes, but only a handful will make the most dramatic difference in your everyday browsing.”
7. Top 10 How To Videos
   “Your crafty older relatives used to have to mail-order their video tutorials or wait for “This Old House” reruns to get their DIY on, but the age of streaming video has been good to those who like to tinker and try out neat tricks.”
8. Top 10 Things You Forgot Your Mac Can Do
   “From pure eye candy to outright productivity-boosters, read on to get reminded of some of the more obscure things you can do with your Mac, fresh out of the box.”
9. Top 10 Telephone Tricks
   “When getting things done involves making phone calls, you want to spend the least amount of time and money on the horn as possible—and several tricks and services can help you do just that.”
10. Top 10 Computer Annoyances and How to Fix Them
    “Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but too much of the time they can be frustrating, time-wasting, stubborn machines.”
11. Top 10 Ways to Get Cables Under Control
    “When you finally decide it’s time to do something about that rat’s nest of cables that’s spreading like kudzu, you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money to get it under control.”
12. Top 10 Modern Life Survival Skills
    “Avoid everyday problems and modern mini-calamities by arming yourself with the right know-how before you head out into the world.”
13. Top 10 Ways to Trick Out Your Desktop
    “For something that you look at every day of your working life, your computer desktop doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves.”
14. Top 10 Conversation Hacks
    “A whole lot more than just words passes between people who are talking, so a few simple conversational skills can help you recognize what’s really being said and help you lead the discussion your way.”
15. Top 10 YouTube Hacks
    “Summer’s ending, and with it goes a certain sense of taking it easier, relaxing a bit at the office—you know, caching up on all that YouTube browsing you skip when there’s real work to be done.”
16. Top 10 Office Supply Hacks
    “Given some spare time and a few neglected items in the office supply closet, anyone can make their workspace more functional, create a cool tools for their home and office, and even rescue seemingly ruined stuff.”
17. Top 10 Easy Ways to Look Sharp
    “In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter what a genius JavaScript programmer or top-flight professional looked like. In this world, though, coming across as an unkempt schlub won’t do anything good for your career, your social life, or your luck with that cute guy or gal from marketing.”
18. Top 10 Apps Worth Installing Adobe AIR For
    “While many of them are simply desktop translations of web interfaces that were easy to use already, a handful of AIR apps truly make work and play easier, or just more interesting.”
19. Top 10 Underhyped Webapps
    “Even in this golden age of Big Internet Companies Acquiring Everything In Sight, there are still a few independent, small webapps out there that don’t get the attention they should for their useful functionality.”
20. Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7
    “While the next iteration of the ubiquitous Microsoft desktop operating system, Windows 7, isn’t a dramatic overhaul of its predecessor Windows Vista, it does fix several sore spots and add a few welcome features.”

Nostalgic types can go back and check out twenty of the most popular Top 10’s of 2007, too.

Good evening everyone here! The first thing to write about is “PC Gamer” magazine. Now all little dirty secrets are unmasked! We contacted them and now are waiting for official response. However, editor published such post on magazine’s official forum: “Rockstar didn’t announce official release date, but as a real Rockstar’s fan you should know when it always happens”. Anyway, the official news is that GTA 4 definitely will be released on PC. But even that’s not the only damn great news today! These are the most official news ever published about GTA 4. Are you ready? Here it comes – visit ESRB’s website and type “Grand” in search. Results are just awesome – “Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3” That’s all! Let’s celebrate!