lifehacker.com is blog of the week in the Irish Times

copacetic

In the Irish Times business section today John Collins column blog of the week is on www.lifehacker.com. He reproduces the text here:

http://taggingtech.typepad.com/blog/2007/05/blog_of_the_wee.html

John Collins wrote:

Blog of the week: The tagline "don't live to geek, geek to live" might suggest that Lifehacker will only appeal to the hardcore techie. While many of its tips and tricks fall into the geek category, it's a great source of productivity enhancements - to use both at your PC and in the real world.

This week Lifehacker featured links to articles on maintaining your bicycle, learning a foreign language via podcasts, the pros and cons of web-based e-mail, and how to quickly navigate Google search results using only your keyboard.

Editor Gina Trapani and her growing staff also pen their own advice primarily on how to get the most out of useful software and web services. They don't just champion technology for technology's sake, though. Lifehacker has been one of the champions of the hipster PDA - a personal organiser - which consists of a stack of index cards and a pen. It seems there are still some things - like keeping your life organised - where the old methods are best.

The blog also carries a daily roundup of technology stories from around the web.

Lifehacker is part of Nick Denton's Gawker Media stable of professional blogs which also include Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag, Washington DC political blog Wonkette, shoppers advocate The Consumerist and the eponymous Gawker, a New York news site which modestly claims to be "reporting live from the centre of the universe".

Denton was a Financial Times journalist and co-founded tech networking event First Tuesday, but he has proved to be a controversial figure in the blogosphere primarily for his hardline editorial stances.

Given the subject matter Lifehacker is probably the least controversial of Denton's blogs. Given that Lifehacker can have 14 or 15 posts a day the biggest challenge can be staying on top of the nuggets that are most relevant to you. A useful feature of the blog is a link on the home page to the most popular sites of the last 24 hours.

It is also possible to subscribe only to posts that are tagged with keywords that interest you such as downloads, Windows or Firefox. Lifehacker may wear its geekiness proudly on its sleeve but it would be a shame if a wider audience was put off benefiting from its time-saving advice as a result.

www.lifehacker.com