Seriously, it's posts like this one that emphasize how US centric Lifehacker is. This is standard operating procedure for people visiting the US, and many countries have no charge for incoming calls and sms (amazing!). Get an unlocked GSM phone and join the 20th century ;)

They won't skip Monday since they have most Mondays off anyway ;)

And in related news, US providers discover that users like to send text messages and increase the prices. e.g ATT going to 20c per message.

AVIDemux does a nice job converting PAL AVIs to NTSC DVD format amongst many other uses - [fixounet.free.fr]

Thanks! I had forgotten this tip in the SEVEN YEARS since it was first noted.

Sigg Sigg Sigg. So popular they've expanded their (Swiss) factory since US launch. And look at this one...

Picasa for Windows XP, except on some PC's it absolutely refuses to burn a CD - search their help and you'll see many people have the issue. I don't suppose anyone here solved it?

For Windows XP you can save mixer settings as qmx files with this handy app, then use task scheduler to run them - [www.ptpart.co.uk]

For most people buying a US$50 player that handles them all is by far the easiest option. The aforementioned Philips models are cheap and readily remote hackable.

@SNOWMOON

Is this really necessary?

Oddly enough most people will only ever need this to fix corrupt Microsoft installations. That said, it's a lifesaver in that situation - people who don't know about it will often reinstall Windows to try and fix the problem.

@SNOWMOON

@HEYDANNO

Wow, like others above I heard about this over 20 years ago. Of course back then it wasn't in an online video so probably didn't work. I'm sure it does now ;)

Er, Start, Run, Magnify anyone?

Hmm, chunk of my post went missing. See

@Dmitri:

Hmm, isn't joining someone else's open wifi illegal? There's several open networks in my building but I thought connecting to them leaves you open to prosecution, at least in the land of the free.