If you've got a drawer full of photographs you'd love to preserve digitally but don't feel like going through the work of scanning every one yourself, send them to web site ScanCafe for cheap and professional scanning. The service charges $0.19 for each negative and $0.24 for each slide you accept (you can reject up to 50% for whatever reason, whether you don't like the quality or you just don't want the image). The door-to-door round trip will take approximately seven to eight weeks, but the quality is excellent and price is very competitive. If you've ever used ScanCafe, let us know how it worked out for you in the comments. If you've got another preferred digitizing method, we'd love to hear about that, too

Archiving: Digitize Your Analog Images at ScanCafe - Lifehacker

Windows only: Free, open source application SmartCam turns your Symbian Series 60 smartphone into a wireless Bluetooth webcam. Just install the program in Windows (works in XP and Vista) and install the client to your smartphone (be sure to follow the readme in the \win\installer directory). When it's all set up, your SmartCam works with Skype and most other video chat services, meaning that if your computer doesn't have a webcam but you've got Bluetooth and a Symbian smartphone, you're in luck. SmartCam is a free download, Windows only

Featured Windows Download: Turn Your Smartphone into a Webcam with SmartCam - Lifehacker

Create and collaborate using instant online whiteboards with web application Scriblink. To get started, head to their homepage for an instant whiteboard space. From there you can invite friends by grabbing your whiteboard's URL or sending an email. Once they join you, you can chat or phone conference (phone conferencing doesn't seem to be complete) with your fellow collaborators. Scriblink is a very simple implementation of the online whiteboard, but its screen sharing seems fairly real-time, which is always a plus. If you're looking for a more robust online whiteboard, check out previously mentioned Skrbl.

Whiteboard: Collaborate with an Instant Online Whiteboard at Scriblink - Lifehacker

If you are trying to track down why your computer is running so slooowwwly, try using this simple DOS command from Digital Inspiration to uncover a possible problem:

• Type cmd in your Windows Run box. Note: in Vista, you may need to run CMD as Administrator.
• Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter.
• After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.
• Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

This .txt file will have a record of everything that has made an Internet connection in the last couple of minutes; you can then check your task manager to find out where it is and take care of it.

Windows: Find Out If Your Computer Is Secretly Connecting to the Web - Lifehacker

Convert documents, images, audio and video files, or even units of measure to virtually any format with web site You Convert It. Similar to previously mentioned Zamzar, all you need to do is upload the file and provide the site with your email address so it knows where to send the download link for the new file once the conversion is complete.

Unlike Zamzar, You Convert It doesn't currently appear to have a filesize limit (Zamzar caps filesizes at 100MB)—I uploaded a 300+MB file in testing. It also works as a file sharing service like YouSendIt and its contemporaries, meaning you can enter a friend's email address and just upload the file without converting it. Last, You Convert It has the kitchen-sink addition of unit conversions, which isn't that useful since you can already use Google for currency conversions and just about any other quick conversions.

You Convert It is the perfect web application for anyone who's got a device—like an iPod—that requires specific filetypes. There are desktop options for these kind of conversions (like iSquint or Videora), but it really doesn't get any easier than these web-based conversion tools

You convert it

Windows XP and Vista only: Dual monitor utility DisplayFusion can set different wallpaper images for each of your desktops or stretch an image across desktops. Choose one of your own images or search and browse Flickr photos for new wallpaper images right inside DisplayFusion. (I recommend searching for "panoramic" images and setting one to stretch across both monitors.) DisplayFusion was a little crabby on my PowerBook Bootcamp'ing Windows XP, but the concept is spot-on and much-needed. Can't understand why Windows doesn't have better built-in dual monitor support like this. DisplayFusion is a free download (donations requested) which requires the .NET 2.0 runtime to run.

Featured Windows Download: Customize Your Dual Monitor Wallpaper with DisplayFusion - Lifehacker

Webapp TransferBigFiles sends huge files—up to 2GB—to any recipient at any time. This service, like previously mentioned offerings MailBigFile and YouSendIt, makes transfers easier without FTP or adhering to strict mail server storage requirements. Simply upload a file, send it to a recipient, and they'll get a download link where they can retrieve those files. Files are stored on the TransferBigFiles server for at least 5 days or up to 30 days if you're a registered user. Of the three services, this one allows the most upload space for the least amount of money (they're all free).

File-sharing: Send 2GB Files Easily with TransferBigFiles - Lifehacker

Now you can post to your blog or Twitter account, schedule an appointment or post to a Yahoo Group with previously mentioned voice-to-text phone service Jott. Jott can now transcribe voice notes and post them to WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal and Blogger; for social updates, Jott now integrates with Twitter and Jaiku; and for scheduling, there's 30 Boxes support (please to add Gcal?). Somewhat less exciting, you can also post to Yahoo Groups and get real estate estimates from Zillow. We've heard both positive and negative feedback from readers about the accuracy of Jott transcriptions, but with all of the new web integration, there's no question that Jott's making huge strides in innovation

Voice Recognition: Blog, Twitter and Schedule with Your Voice Using Jott - Lifehacker