by The Duke

Created on: March 04, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Computers are there to make your life simpler and more productive. At least, that's the theory and when I was moving from primary school to grammar school, that's exactly how I persuaded my parents to buy me a Commodore 64.

Of course, it was all complete tosh and I was upstairs playing 'Impossible Mission' before you could say "Hey, where's the word processor?"

Today, it's a different story. With the power of personal computers and the advent of the internet, why can't computers make our lives easier? That's the aim of lifehacker.com and, in its own words, "Lifehacker recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time. Don't live to geek; geek to live."

But what does that actually mean? Well, to start with, lifehacker is nothing more than a glorified blog, albeit one that's quite pretty looking. The focus of the site is to bring you hints and tips that will make your life easier and the whole mantra for the site is "getting things done" and you'll probably see the GTD acronym pop up all over the place.

For the most part, that translates into recommendations regarding handy web sites, computer programs, templates and other useful items but the site also offers links to other sites where you can find non-computer tips for use in the real world to (hopefully) make your life easier.

Even though I only discovered the web site fairly recently, I've already made use of some of the software recommendations and there are at least another half dozen that I know I'll be using before too long. The software recommendations are mainly Mac and PC-Windows orientated with PC-Linux users only really being catered for if a program is released across multiple formats. I've yet to discover a Linux-only software recommendation, but that's not to say that they don't exist on lifehacker and there are plenty of articles that cover Mac, Windows and Linux.

Some of the articles and referrals are probably not what you'd instantly consider with a geek-type site such as this, though. Some articles I've seen recently on lifehacker describe such actions as building a camera tripod from a lemonade bottle, keeping kids entertained during car trips, resurrecting a soaked mobile phone, how to survive at the airport with kids and lots of other non-computer, but still extremely handy tips. Some of the tips are really only for those living in the States, but these are in the minority and the quality and usefulness of a lot of the tips is extremely high.

Initially, I had problems with

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