Firefox only (Win/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Yip adds notification support for web applications, even adding native Growl support for Mac users.

Adding the notifications to your browser is easy enough—just install Yip and you can test them out with the web-based Meebo instant messenger or Filttr for interacting with Twitter. Mac users will see a Growl popup, and Windows or Linux users should see the standard Firefox notifications dialog.

The really exciting feature, however, is the ability to create your own Greasemonkey scripts that enable notifications for your favorite website—you can already find scripts for Gmail, Facebook, Friendfeed and more—we tested the Meebo notifications that work right out of the box, but your results may vary on the user-contributed scripts. The author has written instructions on how to use the API, so if your favorite web application doesn’t work yet, it might in the future.

Yip is free and open source, requires Firefox. For more, check out how to get Growl notifications for your downloads on your Mac or check out the FirefoxNotify extension for Ubuntu’s new notifications system.

Introducing Yip: A Unified Notification System for the Web [abi's blog]

For many, investing hard-earned cash seems like a lot of work (despite the potential rewards). If you’re too tired at the end of the day to do all that much research, weblog Get Rich Slowly’s lazy guide to investment success is worth a look.

Photo by Adri’.

The post rounds up five different “lazy” portfolios from several respected personal finance writers, like, for example, this guide to Couch Potato Investing:

What?
Put 50% of your money in long-term Treasury bonds and 50% of your money in a stock index fund.

Why?
Over the last 70 years, US Treasury bonds have yielded about 2 percent a year after inflation with a low variance of returns. Stocks have yielded about 7.1 percent a year after inflation with a higher variance of returns. The 50/50 combination of the two gives you an expected after inflation return of roughly 5 percent and relatively low risk. This easily beats the couch potato’s next best friend (CD’s which have barely beaten inflation over time).

The Couch Potato Portfolio is the most simplified investing guide of the bunch rounded up by Get Rich Slowly, but the none of the highlighted portfolios are all that intimidating. And while “lazy” is a bit of a misnomer (a truly lazy investment plan involves the space between your mattress and box spring), the simplicity of these investment plans can hopefully provide a less intimidating starting point for easily intimidated investors. If you’ve got your own “lazy” investment strategy, let’s hear more about it in the comments.

The Lazy Way to Investment Success [Get Rich Slowly]

Windows only: Nomad.NET is a powerful alternative file manager complete with breadcrumbs, thumbnails, integration with explorer plugins—and even support for multiple tabs.

Using Nomad.NET requires very little explanation—just download, extract, launch the executable, and start browsing through your file system. Where Nomad really shines is the level of customization you can do—you can tweak almost any of the UI elements, create bookmarks to common folders, open multiple tabs, or even add in your own custom tools to the menu. Unlike some of the other alternative file managers, when you right-click on a file or folder you’ll actually see the system context menu, complete with any extra menu items—like Dropbox, for instance.

Nomad.NET is a free download for Windows only. For more, check out our list of the five best alternative file managers or learn how to automate your file maintenance with Belvedere.

Nomad.NET [via Addictive Tips]

If you’ve gone on more than one job interview, you know you can count on hearing many of the same questions at each. Make sure you’ve got these 10 answers down pat before you head out the door to your next interview.

Photo by Aidan Jones.

Weblog Dumb Little Man rounds up the 10 interview questions you should be ready for, including:

Tell me about yourself.
Chances are the employer doesn’t want to know how much you weighed when you were born, when you learned to tie your shoes, or how much you had to drink last night. He or she wants to know how you would fit into the company and what your relevant job experience is. You might answer by asking the interviewer what he’d like to know. Or you might talk about your education, the fact that you’re a team player, or whatever you think might be important to this particular company.

Why did you leave your last job?
Never put your former employer or your co-workers in a negative light. Don’t blame them for your departure. Give a positive reason, such as you left to take advantage of another opportunity that was better suited to your skills.

If none of these sound terribly new, that’s because they aren’t. The post aims to narrow down the 10 most common questions, so you can refresh yourself on how you’re going to answer each cliché without tripping up. In fact, the idea is that you can take the opportunity to wow the interviewer with your well prepared response.

If you want to go really in depth, check out 50 more common questions or try previously mentioned GlassDoor let’s you view common questions for specific job types.

10 Answers You Should Know Before Your Job Interview [Dumb Little Man]

Last week we shared a great hack to let you back up and play your Wii games from an external hard drive. That hack has been made easier by eliminating the need for a Wii downgrade.

Why would you want to play your games off a hard disk? Wii games cost anywhere from $20-50, while an external hard drive that can hold all your Wii games—assuming you don’t already have one on hand—costs $100 or less. Backing up your games to an external hard drive attached to your Wii costs less than the replacing two premium games, and has the added benefit of loading your games radically faster.

Last week we shared a Wii backup tutorial, put together by Lifehacker reader Mike (different Mike). With a newer Wii or an upgraded your dashboard, the process involved quite a bit of tinkering and downgrading your dashboard. Mike sent us an updated guide that’s easy to follow and has very detailed step-by-step instructions for enabling the hack on Wii consoles sporting the new 4.0 dashboard. All you need for the hack is a Wii you don’t mind mucking around in, a blank SD card, an external USB 2.0 hard drive that will be totally dedicated for the project, and a handful of software tools freely available online. Check out Mike’s excellent and updated tutorial at the link below for more details. Thanks Mike!

How to Store/Load Wii Games via USB Hard Drive on System Menu 4.0