Lifehacker

Our Hackintosh Works Like a Charm with 10.6.2 Update; Atom-Based Hacks Break [Updates]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:30:00 -0800

If you followed our most recent guides to installing Snow Leopard on a PC from start to finish or the updated guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, no hacking required, you'll be happy to know that I've tested my build with today's 10.6.2 update to Snow Leopard and it's working like a charm.

That means you shouldn't have to do anything special to upgrade to the latest and greatest if you followed our guide. Just fire up Software Update like you normally would, grab the update, and let it work its magic. The only oddity to report is that when the update finished, the audio output was set to Headphones; just open the Sounds preference pane in your System Preferences and set it back to Line Out and everything should be back to normal. Keep in mind that this only applies to the build I detailed in my start to finish guide; I can't vouch for any other Hackintoshes out there.

Update: I thought we were pretty clear in the text above, but we're only talking about our Hackintosh build. It looks like Atom CPUs (like the ones in most hacked netbooks) are not supported in 10.6.2 as previously speculation suggested.

From the Tips Box: Stripped Screws, Chrome Bookmarks, and Fire Starters [From The Tips Box]

Whitson Gordon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Readers offer their best tips for fixing stripped screw holes, syncing Chrome bookmarks from the cloud, and other household emergency fire starters.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

More Fixes for Stripped Screw Holes

Photo by Samantha Scelera.

Daniel Van Koughnett lays out an alternative method for dealing with stripped screw holes:

I liked the "Golf Tee" fix a lot. I don't golf, but you can get those at a dollar store for... a dollar. If you have a hole that's too big for a golf tee, you can fix it by mixing white glue and fine sawdust together, and packing it in the hole. If the screw isn't completely stripped yet, but just about, try putting white glue in the screw hole and gently turning the screw in until the point that it is starting to strip. The glue will swell the wood fibers and then harden them in the shape of the threads, for a much firmer grip.

Making a Push Pin Holder with a Magnet

Nick shows us how he keeps his workspace neat:

I just had this old broken Neodymium magnet lying around my desk area, and stuck it to a pushpin on my bulletin board and thought nothing about it until one day I put the two together; it's like a rubber band ball but with pushpins. I'm sure you could even apply this idea to paper clips or other metal office materials, the possibilities are endless!

Chrome Bookmark Syncing

Kevin shows us a nice way to "sync" Chrome bookmarks between browsers from the cloud:

I noticed that Google was syncing the Chrome bookmarks to Google Docs. Turns out you can use that to get at your bookmarks in the cloud — perfect for when you're at a computer that doesn't or can't have Chrome. It's not a true sync, but at least it gets your bookmarks to your current browser.

Log in to Google Docs and look for your Google Chrome folder. Select the folders or subfolders you want to get at. In my case, I selected the Bookmark Bar folder, which will grab all of the contents within it. Once you've selected the folder, choose More Actions, Export. Leave all of the default settings and continue. Google will zip the contents and your computer should automatically download the compressed file called bookmarks.html. Now that you have all of your Chrome bookmarks from the cloud, simply import the bookmarks.html file in your browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and most other browsers support HTML importing of bookmarks. Of course, this is just a one-way deal - you're not actually synchronizing bookmarks back-and-forth between Chrome and another browser. But it can be handy if you're on a different device that's not running Chrome and need to get at those bookmarks.

More Emergency Fire Starters

Photo by Sung Sook.

Alex tips us off to another easy, household emergency fire starter:

I saw the post on using a t-shirt to make char cloth for an emergency fire starter. I thought I'd let you in on a much more effective fire starter, petroleum jelly coated cotton balls. It burns longer(3-4 mins) and can be easily ignited with flint and steel. Just one of these is enough to start a roaring fire.

Simply scoop up the petroleum jelly up with the cotton balls like scooping salsa up with a tortilla chip then kneed it into the cotton ball. It's as simple as that. To use just fluff up the cotton ball and ignite with flint and steel or matches. As an added perk, if your lighter runs out of fuel you can use the flint to ignite these easily.

We've actually featured this tip before, but with a slight variation (using tin foil). It always helps to keep up on your emergency fire starters, though.

Remains of the Day: Firefox in Your Back Pocket Edition [For What It's Worth]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Firefox Mobile's new icon fits in your pocket, multi-user video conferencing is on its way for Google users, and Rupert Murdoch wants to get his media out of Google's search results.

Coming Soon: Free video conferencing from Google
Multi-user video conferencing is on its way to Google. [ZDNet]
Google Docs Labs?
Google has "Labs" for most of their popular products that allow users to play with experimental features, and a recent Google Docs error message suggests Docs may be getting their own Lab. [Google Operating System]
5 years of Firefox
The folks at Mozilla offer their own road map for Firefox's birthday. I still like ours. [hacks.mozilla]
"Firefox Goes Mobile" Winner Announced, Plus a New Design Challenge!
Firefox Mobile get's a new logo. It's kind of weird, but plenty lovable. [The Mozilla Blog]
Rupert Murdoch Hates Google
Crazy NewsCorp CEO wants Google to Stop Indexing His Web Sites. [Gizmodo]
Behind the Scenes of Augmented Esquire
Augmented reality hits print in Esquire's latest edition. Now if only we could look at it without getting off our butts and walking all the way to a newsstand. [Esquire]

Brine Your Thanksgiving Turkey for Juicier Results [Food]

Sarah Rae Trover — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0800

Thanksgiving's just around the corner, which means many of us will try our hand at cooking a turkey in hopes we don't dry it out. It only takes a little know-how in combination with some science to produce the juiciest results possible.

For those new to brining, the basic idea behind the process is that by soaking a meat that is low in fat (turkey, pork, chicken) in a mixture of salt and water, you're increasing your meat's ability to retain its moisture. Over at food weblog Serious Eats, they've put together the ultimate guide to brining your turkey to score the best and juiciest results for your Thanksgiving feast. The post does side-by-side testing of turkey breasts soaked in brine, regular water, and one not treated at all. As expected, the brined turkey loses the least of its weight when cooked and turns out juiciest.

If you're a science nerd like us, you'll appreciate the Alton Brown approach to brining this post takes, and your table is sure to benefit from it. If you swear by brining, let's hear your best tips in the comments.

Apple Releases Snow Leopard 10.6.2, Fixes 40+ Bugs [Updates]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Apple today rolled out the 10.6.2 update to OS X Snow Leopard. This update fixes that nasty guest account bug we saw last month and in general tackles a whole host of bugs, stability issues, and other various improvements.

You can check out the whole changelog here, and when you're ready to update, just fire up your Software Update tool. Find a fix in this release that addresses one of your Snow Leopard annoyances? Let's hear it in the comments.

Apple TV Update Stops Your Media from Disappearing [Updates]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

If you've got an Apple TV and you updated to Apple TV 3.0 a couple weeks back, it's time to update yet again to 3.0.1—if you'd prefer your content not temporarily disappear until it's re-synced, that is. It's a pretty big bug, and presumably pretty annoying, so grab the update for the fix. For our part, we'll stick with Boxee on our Apple TV. [Apple via TUAW]

FreshBooks Takes the Hassle Out of Invoicing [Invoices]

Sarah Rae Trover — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

As long as goods and services are being exchanged, invoices will always exist. They're not fun, but web application FreshBooks makes tracking your clients, expenses, taxes, and invoices a much simpler affair.

FreshBooks' main goal is to eliminate the hassle and headache that can come from other invoicing platforms such as Quicken, Excel, and Word. The work you're looking to get paid for should be the difficult part; letting your client know what they owe you for your services shouldn't be harder than the service you provided.

Like many other web-based services, FreshBooks offers a whole slew of services free to their users, with additional premium plans for some of their expanded services and features. With their free account, FreshBooks allows you to bill up to 3 clients with an unlimited number of invoices, and it also helps you in creating company logos, snail mailing out your bills (for a fee), and tracking your time spent working on a project.

FreshBooks also makes sending reminder invoices easy with a set it and forget it type feature, and it works with multiple online payment sites to help your money come in faster while still keeping track of who still owes you some dough. You can check out their pricing page for more information on which package suits your needs best.

Don't forget to check out other Essential Tools for Starting Up Your Side Business for more great resources like this one.

Replace Librarie Icons Customizes Windows 7 Library Icons [Downloads]

The How-To Geek — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Windows 7's new Libraries are one of the best underhyped features because they make it easy to manage files across multiple folders—the only problem is that all of your libraries use the same bland icon.

To explain further, if you've created a number of your own custom Libraries to store your files, you'll notice that all the icons look the same, which is especially annoying for the overly-broad "General" folder type. The solution is a simple little app called Replace Librarie Icons which allows you to easily set the icons for each Library to whatever you would prefer them to be.

Just open up the no-installation-required application, select the Library you want to change on the right, then pick an icon from a .DLL file or from an .ICO file, and the changes should be made instantly. The application also allows you to revert the icons back to what they used to be, so if your icon-changing experiment doesn't work out, you can get back to normal.

All the utility actually does is provide an easy interface to edit the XML file that represents each library—so if you are more of a hands-on type or want to understand how it works, I've also written up a quick guide on how to edit the library icons manually using Notepad (or your favorite text editor). Replace Librarie Icons is a free download for Windows only.

Google Wave Look and Feel Coming to Gmail, Other Google Apps? [Rumors]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -0800

A lot of people aren't that keen on the current look of most Google applications—hence the popularity of redesigned user skins. On the other hand, many users really like the look of Google Wave, the newest invite-only service from Google. (See our first look, or just read the book.) If you happen to be one of the people who love Wave's look, you'll like this rumor: According to gadget weblog Engadget, the Google Wave interface may become the default style across all Google Apps.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

It's only a rumor, and god knows we've seen enough fake mockups in the past to know that this rumor should be taken with a grain of salt (Chrome OS "leaks", anyone?), but we'd certainly consider it a nice improvement. Let's hear what you think in the comments. [Engadget via Gizmodo]

Assess Your Hobbies to Free Up Space [Hobbies]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Not all the hobbies we take up become life-long passions. Make a cold assessment of your hobbies to free up space, and maybe even make a little extra cash. Photo by Tim Patterson.

Maybe once upon a time you actually played tennis every week, took trips to go scuba diving, and spent your weekends doing wood work in the shed. But if we don't assess our hobbies occasionally, we end up with attics, garages, and hall closets stuffed with the often expensive castoffs of hobbies we don't actively participate in anymore.

The Unclutterer blog posts a two part series on hobbies, covering both assessing your hobbies and what to do with the stuff. Part one is a five-step guide to assessing if you're still interested in the hobby and how much time you actually spend enjoying it. Their assessment guide centers around figuring out how much time you actually spend enjoying your hobby:

Any hobby with an estimation of 10 hours or less should immediately be moved out of your home. Pack up the equipment and head to a used sports equipment store or an appropriate charity. If the hobby stuff is valuable, photograph it and list it for sale on a site like ebay or craigslist.

Part two is all about getting your stuff out of the house and into the hands of people that will actually use and enjoy it. Maybe that's by giving it to fellow hobbyists, or listing it for sale. Either way, check out the two guides below to help you decide which hobbies are ready for retirement and reclaim that space in the hall closet.

Paint.NET Releases Big Update, Still a Killer Photoshop Alternative [Downloads]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0800

Windows only: Paint.NET is a free, fast, and powerful image editor for Windows. It's a giant leap above Microsoft Paint, and a serious alternative to bigger, bloated (for most users, at least) image editors like Photoshop or GIMP.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

We've highlighted Paint.NET in the past, but it just released its first significant update in years, so we'd recommend grabbing the latest. Paint.NET handles most of the basics you'd expect from advanced image editors, and the update has added new effects (including new blurs and distortions), better performance (though Paint.NET has always been really light and fast), and a complete refresh of the user interface (enhanced for Aero/glass). Check out the release post for a more detailed changelog.

If you need to do the occasional image tweaking or heavy image editing but don't want to spend a lot of cash on Photoshop or dive into GIMP, Paint.NET is well worth the download. It may not be able to do everything Photoshop does, but it can do everything most users need. Paint.NET is a free application, Windows only. Thanks Paul!

Put on a Duvet Cover Without Losing Your Mind [Household]

Sarah Rae Trover — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Duvet covers offer versatility to your down comforter, and although they're easily removed for washing, putting them back on can be quite the conundrum. A user at video site Videojug offers a quick and simple trick.

The trick: Turn the duvet cover inside out, hold onto your comforter at the corners, and shake the duvet down over the top. Check out the video up top for a physical demonstration (we dare you to count how many times they say "duvet").

If you're not a duvet person, maybe you'd be better served with a quick guide to making crisp hospital corners. What gives you the biggest headache when it comes to making the bed? Sound off in the comments.

Grooveshark Updates Interface, Boasts Speedier Loading Time [Music]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0800

Grooveshark, the music-streaming service we shared with you last year, has an updated user interface and some new tricks under the hood.

Those of you who have been using Grooveshark all along will notice the much cleaner interface right away. It's easier to search for songs and organize them into playlists, and under the hood they've made a few unseen but much appreciated tweaks—like local caching of songs you're playing so if you listen to the same song back to back there will be no buffer time.

You don't need an account to use Grooveshark but if you want to do things like save your playlists and add things to your library, you'll need to sign up for a free account.

Google Acquires Gizmo5 VoIP Service; VoIP Coming to Google Voice? [VoIP]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Google has bought VoIP service Gizmo5, according to tech news weblog TechCrunch. If that's true, we're thinking it could mean some seriously cool things for Google Voice.

We detailed a few months back how to make free VoIP calls from Google Voice with Gizmo5, so connecting Google Voice with Gizmo5 seems like a no-brainer. Right now when you sign up for a Google Voice account, the service can only ring phones you've already got. As TechCrunch points out, Gizmo5 integration could give your Voice number its own endpoint.

That said, none of this is confirmed at this point. Let's hear your thoughts and pie-in-the-sky predictions for Gizmo5 and Google integration in the comments.

Happy Birthday: A Look Back at Five Years of Firefox [Mozilla Firefox]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Five years ago, an open-source browser called Firefox—one that didn't ship with your computer—was available as a 1.0 download. To say it's changed the world's web experience is understatement. Here's a look back at five years of the 'fox.

Read on for an overview of the life of Firefox, including its journey from from its Netscape ancestry to the modern browser we've come to know and love-and a quick peek at what's around the corner.

The Prelude: Netscape

April 22, 1993: Following five months of development, version 1.0 of Mosaic, one of the very first web browsers that can display graphics next to text, is released. It was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), by a team led by future brand-name entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. Windows and Macintosh ports are released in Dec. 1993.
April 4, 1994: Clark and Andreessen leave NCSA and found Mosaic Communications Corp., which then changes its name and flagship product to Netscape. The company gets a Godzilla-style dragon as a mascot, and the development code names their browser "Mozilla," after the creature.
Oct. 1994-Aug. 1996: Internet providers, computer makers, and geeky friends spread Netscape Navigator's market share greatly, as the browser rolls in first-time features like cookies, frames, and JavaScript support—all with their share of initial controversy.
Aug. 1996-March 1998: Navigator becomes just a part of the Netscape "Communicator" package with the 3.0 "Gold" release and 4.0, and also fairly crash-prone, bug-addled, and slow. Microsoft, meanwhile, has won over PC vendors with its custom-branded, deeply-embedded Internet Explorer installations, which, by the 5.0 release, is generally faster than Communicator's 4 versions.

Mozilla is born

Jan-March 1998: Netscape announces it will release its application suite's source code, and forms the Mozilla Organization. It was initially intended as a testing grounds for new features—much like Google's open-source Chromium and end-user Chrome projects of today.
March 1998-Aug. 2001: Netscape misses a 5.0 release entirely and dedicates its engineers to a rebuild using Mozilla's code base for 6.0. Internet Explorer continues to gain market share, and Netscape 6, rushed out in pre-beta shape by corporate parent AOL, doesn't run reliably on anything but the most powerful PCs, due to its heft. IE's market share is approaching 90 percent, and the writing, as they say, is on the wall for Netscape.
June 5, 2002: The Mozilla project releases a 1.0 version of its browser, well past original deadlines. While criticized for being overly stuffed and slow, the suite is the birthplace of things that later become Mozilla staples: the first implementation of the Gecko layout engine; versions for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris; and an extensible user interface, XUL, that can be customized with add-ons and built out for other web-facing applications.
Sept. 23, 2002: Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross break off from the main Mozilla suite to develop a stand-alone browser, first appearing as Phoenix. Between versions 0.1 and 0.9, it changes names three more times (to Firebird, then Mozilla Firebird, then, finally Firefox), and gets a whole new look. That's due in large part to a branding criticism by Steven Garrity, who then heads up Mozilla's identity team.
July 15, 2003: AOL no longer wants to manage the Mozilla Organization, so it sets up the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit that gets Mozilla's intellectual property and transition support.

Just prior to Firefox 1.0 arriving, Mozilla's Scott Collins, a veteran of Netscape and evangelist for the Mozilla team, said this to Linux.Ars:

"I have hope that we will be a mainstream browser and that people will use Mozilla. That's the thing I learned to lust after as a programmer. It's not my ability to solve one problem, to plow this field, but the ability to build a plow that every farmer uses. The ability to make something that touches not ten people, not a hundred people, not a thousand people but a hundred million people. I want Mozilla to be there again. IE is a browser with no soul. I want it to be Mozilla because I think that people who care deserve a browser with a soul."

Firefox rising: 1.0 & 1.5

Nov. 9, 2004: Firefox 1.0 is released. In about four months, WindowsITPro reports a six percent browser share. What's really new and worth noting? First off, tabbed browsing, which, at the time, was fairly unique for a mainstream browser. A password manager, extensions and a site listing approved add-ons and themes, automatic and smooth scrolling, and native support for RSS/Atom feeds. Oh, and the size: 4.5 MB.
Jan. 22, 2005: What's that French expression about things that change? During the run-up to Lifehacker's initial launch on Jan. 31, 2005, Gina writes a little ode/how-to mashup about Firefox:

If you aren't already using Mozilla's Firefox browser, drop everything immediately and make the switch. We could start listing all the reasons why it's a superior web browser - pop-up blocking, tabs, enhanced security, the plethora of custom extensions - but then we'd melt into a heap of gushy software rapture. And that would be a little creepy. Even for us.

Then again:

Here's some tweaking you can do to make your browsing even faster ... 1.Type "about:config" into the address bar ...

There you have it. Even when we thought Firefox was a heaven-sent gift from the software heavens, we wanted you to rip it open and make it faster. This dual-threaded thought is still running, of course, this very minute.
Nov. 14, 2005: Firefox 1.5 is released, originally intended as Firefox 1.1. It's a roadmap for how future .5 releases would arrive—with some new features, perhaps, but not as a major retooling. We make our first joke about what "Clear Private Data" might be best used for, while noting the tighter Mac look, better pop-up blocker, automatic updating, and drag-and-drop tab ordering. We didn't exactly dig the unresponsive script dialog, though, and offered our first look at making extensions work with a new version. (Original Firefox 1.5 post)
March 2005: Somewhere around this time, developer Aaron Boodman releases the first version of the Greasemonkey add-on, allowing for custom bits of "DHTML" called user scripts that, according to CNET, allow for secure Gmail connections, remove ads, auto-insert printable New York Times links, and other neat tweaks. The makers of the Opera browser almost immediately integrate user scripts into their next builds.
Oct. 2005: Gina details one of the little nerdy perks that makes Firefox indispensable to many serious web geeks: quick keyword searches. Adam later expands on the power of Firefox's bookmarking to jump inside structured web directories and quickly launch bookmarklets with The Art of Keyword Bookmarking.
July 2006: We take a peek at the Firefox 2.0 beta 1, and come back screaming squeeeee (okay, maybe just one of us) at built-in spell checking, an RSS preview page, and the option to re-open recently closed tabs.

Firefox 2

Oct. 24, 2006: Firefox 2.0 officially drops, with better security, as-you-type search, and a more modern-looking browser "chrome" (or interface styling). One day later, we've already got the master list of about:config tweaks, many of which still work in modern Firefox browsers.
Oct.-Nov. 2006: Internet Explorer 7 was released less than a week before Firefox 2.0, and, in a shock heard 'round the geek world, it wasn't somehow worse than 6—in fact, it had a few notable bragging points. It handles feeds better, it's better with memory, and it's not drastically worse at fighting phishing scams. That said, it's still a web designer's worst nightmare and complied to no standards but Redmond's own.

Firefox 3, 3.5, and beyond

Nov. 2007: Firefox releases a beta of what, at the time, seemed like a soon-to-drop 3.0, and Adam grabs it and takes some screenshots. In some ways, it's surprisingly free of revolutionary new features, but it also refines a lot of what was already great about Firefox, including its bookmarking system and extensions.
May 2008: From the release candidate, we pull out our 10 favorite features of Firefox 3. Chief among them: "insanely improved" performance (yeah, okay, we get a little carried away at major releases).
June 17, 2008: We honor Firefox 3's release with a history in screenshots, and a power user's guide—along with a whole lot of other coverage.
Sept. 2008: Wait, what's this now? Google is releasing its own browser? But we thought they were Firefox's go-to partner for search, and that all was well, and the heavens had opened to ... ah, well. We devised our first-ever speed tests and found it a worthy race opponent, if (at the time) not quite faster on JavaScript or better with memory. Later on, we'd suggest ways to get Chrome's best features in Firefox.
Sept. 2008: The first murmurs of new features in "Firefox 3.1" bubble up, with a built-in Private Browsing Mode. There will be many more, but Firefox 3.5 doesn't actually arrive until ...
June 30, 2009: Firefox 3.5 officially drops, with quite a few new features for a .5 iteration.
July 2009: Design mock-ups for Firefox 3.7 and beyond are released on the Mozilla Wiki, and Firefox fans start dreaming up all the things their browser could do for them, some day in the future.
Oct. 2009: Firefox holds 24 percent of worldwide browser share, and (finally) surpasses Internet Explorer 6 in usage.

What are your earliest memories of Firefox? How have you worked with, switched from, or switched back to it over the years? We'd love to hear your reminiscences of the browser born from Netscape in the comments.

Find and Get Rid of Old Files with an Advanced Explorer Search [Search Techniques]

Adam Pash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:45:00 -0800

It's easy to visualize your hard drive usage by file size to get rid of big files you don't need, but if you want to hunt down the files you haven't used in ages, this quick search query can help.

Whether you've installed Windows Search in XP or you're using the built-in search tools in Vista or Windows 7, Explorer's search capabilities are better than they've ever been. Tech tips weblog AddictiveTips highlights how to use the datemodified search operator in Windows Explorer searches.

You can start building a date modified search with a few simple clicks in Explorer's search box, but if you want to find files older than a specific date, just add a < (less than) sign in front of the date you choose. It's a simple but effective search technique that can help you find files you haven't used for quite some time and that you might be able to get rid of to free up a little space. (Naturally, just because a file hasn't been modified for a while doesn't mean it's no good, so make sure you know what's going on with the files you decide to delete.)

Got a favorite Explorer search trick you like to use? Tell us about it in the comments.

Make Darned Simple Pie Dough with Just Your Hands [Video Demonstration]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

To inexperienced bakers, crafting a flaky pie crust can seem akin to walking into a nuclear reactor and pressing a few buttons. Food blogger Chez Pim demonstrates you only need butter, flour, water, and two hands to pull it off.

No bowls, fancy tools, or KitchenAid mixers are necessary for the flaky pie crust, which comes from Pim's new book, The Foodie Handbook. You will need salted butter, or dilute some salt into the butter, as explained at The Kitchn, and a dough scraper would probably help, unless you've got a long, flat knife that does just as well.

The results have been vouched for by a few corners, and the ingredients are easy enough to stash in your head. Got some fruit in need of a noble purpose? Now you know what to do with it.

Photoshop.com Mobile Fixes Photos on Smartphones [Downloads]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0800

iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile: Photoshop.com, the online home of Adobe's market-leading image editor, has released a native photo editor and photo uploader for Android phones, and it's a fairly versatile solution for fixing or offloading images while you're out and about.

On Android phones, photos can be cropped, rotated, resized, and adjusted for saturation, exposure, and tint, as well as have a soft focus or black & white effect applied. Multiple effects can be undone and re-done, and if you're concerned about making a bad choice, you can upload any pic to a Photoshop.com account first. The iPhone version has a few effects and pre-set color changes—along with multi-touch functionality, of course—and the Android version features a non-multi-touch straightening tool, but the two are basically the same app in different shells. All versions are fairly robust for mobile editing apps, and do a good job of correcting the most notable failings of mobile lenses.

Photoshop.com Mobile is a free download for iPhones, Android, or Windows Mobile devices.

YouTube XL Supersizes YouTube for Your TV [YouTube]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Many people are sporting HTPCs these days—media computers hooked up to their televisions—but some sites are designed like you're sitting at your computer desk, not on your living room couch. YouTube XL makes YouTube couch-friendly.

YouTube XL presents common YouTube options in a large display format for easy navigation without having to read a tiny font 20 feet across your living room. You can quickly navigate to spotlighted, top rated, and most viewed categories. Clicking on "More..." also gives you quick access to rising videos, most favorites, most discussed, and more.

You can also set the next video in your search results or viewing category to start playing when the current one ends and filter out content not suitable for minors. If you've been annoyed by the tiny fonts and buttons when trying to use YouTube in a living room setup, YouTube XL is a great way to access YouTube in a couch-friendly format.

Have another great site or tool for accessing streaming video from the comfort of your living room? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Update: Woops! Apologies for the duplicate post on the handy YouTube XL.

Worm Hits Jailbroken iPhones; Apple Plans Jailbreak Crackdown [Security]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

A number of jailbroken iPhone owners in Australia have found their lock screen wallpaper replaced by Rick Astley, as the first real worm spreads itself around. That's just one more reason any jailbreaker should change their root password immediately. Meanwhile, PC World points out that Apple is looking to hire either a new or replacement leader for the team working on boot-up, cryptography, partitioning, security threats, and other areas that seem to have a fairly strong anti-jailbreaking theme in common. [Sophos via Gizmodo]

Create a Simple DIY E-Commerce Site [Selling]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:30:00 -0800

Got a product or service to sell? If you're not looking for a total design and setup package, but just want to get selling, Ars Technica walks through the setup of a PayPal-based site for a small business.

As Jacqui Cheng notes, PayPal won't provide you with search-friendly, clean-looking design and expertly managed inventory system, but can take the grunt work out of simple cart-based, fixed-price commerce with credit cards. It need not be a whole side business you're setting up—even having a whole bunch of goods around your house to pass off might make it worth setting up a quick web site with a bit more cachet than eBay or Craigslist. The security and credit card processing is handled by PayPal, while you're in charge of explaining why someone would buy from you.

Hit the link for the very helpful run-through. Got an equally easy system for an e-commerce site? If your job doesn't involve sending out endless amounts of email about it, tell us in the comments.

GetDeb.net Repository Makes Newer Ubuntu Apps Easily Available [Linux]

Kevin Purdy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

GetDeb's web site has long been the go-to spot for Ubuntu (and Debian, and Mint) users to grab the latest copies of software not yet released by their official repositories. Now GetDeb makes it even easier with a repository.

By adding GetDeb's repository to your Linux system, you'll get access to pre-compiled .deb packages as soon as they're available on GetDeb's site. That means apps like the GIMP graphics editor, Songbird, and other software that hits a major release between Ubuntu's six-month release cycle are available to you just as soon as someone's nice enough to compile the newest code.

GetDeb's repository is free to use and install. Hit the link for instructions on adding it to your 9.04 or 9.10 Ubuntu system; users of older Ubuntu systems can still grab packages at GetDeb's legacy web site.

Selling Homes and Scrapbooking: A Compact and Organized Office [Featured Workspace]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

What do you do when you've got a limited amount of space and you want to pack in work and play? You maximize your storage space and organize carefully like in today's featured workspace.

Lifehacker reader GrayDrakeFX put together a home office for his wife who—as anyone who scrapbooks or is married to a scrapbooker knows—had quite a lot of stuff to organize and store. He writes:

Built for a Realtor who is also quite the amazing artist, this workspace had to have a dual personality.

The goal here was to transform a spare bedroom into my wife's office and creative suite. As a realtor she needed a space for her business and as a creative genius she needed a space for her creativity to flow too. So we put together this dual discipline workspace that while small really works.

There are some interesting uses of IKEA items to maximize space and you will notice there is not much wall space left :)

While minimalism is all the rage in workspace design, sometimes you simply need to have the space to store all your stuff. Today's workspace makes excellent use of available space and keeps a large volume of tools stowed away and neatly organized while keeping them accessible to the person working in the space. Check out the pictures below for additional information and the link to his Flickr pool for photo notes.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

Yast Tracks and Logs Time Spent on Projects and Tasks [Time Tracking]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

If you're looking for a simple time-tracking tool with visuals that are easy to read at a glance, Yast fits the bill.

Yast can track multiple projects and tasks each with their own color code. The week-at-a-glance view is great for seeing how projects are unfolding over the week. You can generate reports and save them to your computer and invite other people to see your projects. The other notable advantage of Yast is inviting people to view and collaborate based on on the individual project, not the entire tracking calendar—your coworkers will never know that you've spent 39 hours in October organizing your Pokemon collection.

Yast is free and requires registration. Have a time-tracking tool or service you love? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks, Mark!

Ask the Commenters Roundup [Hive Mind]

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

Make a Bottle-Cap Table with a Poured Resin Surface [DIY]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

If you want to make a cool table with bottle caps—or anything small and interesting—encased forever under a layer of resin, check out this table-building tutorial.

Over at Instructables, user americangypsy has built a pretty sweet table with a clear and hard surface made of resin. The point of interest is the huge beer bottle cap collection he affixed to the surface of the table before pouring the resin. Don't limit yourself to bottle caps however. We've seen the same process done with shells, stone chips, and other things you wouldn't traditionally make the surface of a table or bar out of, but thanks to the surface-leveling power of the resin, almost anything semi-flat works.

Check out the full tutorial at the link below, including tips on how to work with tables that don't have a natural edge or lip to contain the resin mixture. Have a cool DIY project of your own? Let's hear about it in the comments, preferably with some pictures!

Libox Shares Your Music, Movies, and More on a Private Network [File Sharing]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Windows/Mac: Libox makes it easy to share music, movies, and photos with your friends in a private P2P network.

After installing the Libox media browser and importing your media, you can share with friends—they must be using the Libox browser also—as easily as if you were sharing a link to a collection of pictures online. Your data isn't stored on the Libox servers, their servers just facilitate a connection between your client and that of your friend.

You can also use Libox to sync media between your own computers. Check out the video to see it in action:

A very alpha-feature allows you to browse your collection through a web browser instead of the desktop client, but currently only works if you're not blocked by a firewall, so it's limited to local network browsing.

Have another method of easily sharing files with friends in a private network? Let's hear about it in the comments.

TwitCritics Scours Twitter to Bring You Movie Reviews [Movies]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

TwitCritics leverages the constant flow of positive and negative movie references on Twitter to give a peek at public opinion on what's playing at theaters.

By cataloging references to currently playing movies according to negative or positive wording within tweets, TwitCritics builds an index of movie popularity. Clicking on a movie gives you a view of the movie poster, the current rank, and a list of the most recent tweets related to it.

The system isn't perfect of course, if you send out a tweet that says "I love cheese. I wouldn't see 'The Box' again anytime soon." it can throw the system off. Thankfully TwitCritics has a simple feedback mechanism for reporting inaccurate rankings—although from our casual browsing of movie reviews, the system seems accurate enough to give you a solid overview of public opinion on current movies.

Have a favorite way to get a sense of what movies are worth buying a ticket for? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Five Best Antivirus Applications [Hive Five]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Computer viruses are increasingly sophisticated and pervasive. If you can't afford to run your computer without some sort of antivirus software installed, check out these five popular options to protect your PC.

Photo by Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University Archives.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite antivirus application; now we're back with the five most popular apps to help you secure your PC and keep it running virus free.

Note: For each entry, we reviewed the lowest cost option available from the company in question. Most companies offer premium packages of varying cost and with varying additional bells and whistles, save for the always-free Microsoft Security Essentials. For the purpose of this comparison, we stuck to the free/entry level options.

Avast! (Windows/Linux, Basic: Free, Premium $39.95 per year)

Having just celebrated its 21st birthday, Avast! is an old player in the antivirus market. Avast! has built up a solid following based on their philosophy of offering dependable and effective antivirus protection for free to home users. In addition to standard antivirus scanning, Avast! offers a variety of resident protection modules that cover different aspects of your computer like instant messaging, email, P2P applications, and more.

Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows, Free)

Microsoft Security Essentials is the newest addition to Microsoft's computer protection software. It replaces the Windows Live OneCare subscription service and Windows Defender by providing more comprehensive coverage than either of the two originally provided. Microsoft Security Essentials is free for all Windows users and provides protection against a variety of threats including viruses, malware, adware, and spyware.

Avira (Windows, Basic: Free, Premium: $30 per year)

Avira is another antivirus app available for free, although the free version of Avira doesn't offer as many bells and whistles as some of the other free offerings in today's Hive. Nonetheless, you still get dependable antivirus scanning and protection from malware and rootkits. In addition to the free antivirus software, Avira also offers a Linux Live CD recovery disc loaded with Avira and other free system recovery tools to help you get back on your feet if fighting the virus infection from within Windows just isn't cutting it.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus (Windows, $39.99 per year)

NOD32 has built a large based of users over the years by having a low number of false positives and a high rate of early detection thanks to their community-sourced ThreatSense detection system. As a fun bit of trivia, American users may know the application as "NOD" and pronounce the acronym as an actual word, but the name is actually an acronym that hails from the Eastern European origins of the application. From the Wikipedia entry on NOD32:

The acronym NOD stands for Nemocnica na Okraji Disk ("Hospital at the end of the disk"), a pun related to the Czechoslovakian medical drama series Nemocnica na okraji mesta (Hospital at the End of the City).

AVG (Windows, Basic: Free, Premium: $54.99 per year)

The free offering from AVG is one of the lightest, feature-wise, among the nominations in this Hive Five. That said, if you're looking for a basic antivirus application that will scan your computer, keep an eye out for spyware, and keep you from visiting malware and virus laden websites (via their LinkScanner protection), AVG is a solid free offering.

Now that you've had a chance to look over the contender's in the Hive Five it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:

Can't believe your favorite didn't make it? Have a strong opinion about antivirus software? Let's hear it in the comments.

TubeRadio Turns YouTube Into a Jukebox [Radio]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

YouTube's a quick source for hearing the occasional music track here and there. With TubeRadio, you can hunt down music on YouTube more efficiently, and even find entire albums, through a helpful search interface.

Unlike the hunt-and-peck searching you get when you use YouTube's own search for music that interests you, with TubeRadio you can easily select a whole album and listen to all the tracks. In our test we selected a half dozen albums and only a single song was missing from the entire playlist. Check out the video below to see TubeRadio in action:

Have a favorite site or tool for listening to music online? Let's hear about it in the comments.

This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Officially Available for Download (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Mozilla just released the first official beta of Firefox 3.6, featuring built-in support for themes (Personas), improved performance, and more. Early adopters, your download is ready.
Rainmeter 1.1 Makes the Enigma Desktop Even Easier to Use (Windows)
The latest version of the popular Rainmeter desktop adds an excellent new tool that makes it easy to manage your library of skins, with previews, detailed setup instructions, and more.
Five Great Add-Ins to Power Up Your Windows Home Server Console (Windows Home Server)
Last week we highlighted the benefits of having a Windows Home Server, including seamless backups and system restoration. Now let's take a closer look at five great add-ins for making the most of your home server.
Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful (Windows/Linux)
One of the most irritating things about reinstalling your operating system is installing all the non-OS applications you love. Allmyapps lets you select all your favorite apps and roll them into a bulk installer to make rebuilding easy.
Dislike 0.2 Adds a Disapproving Dislike Button to Facebook (Firefox)
Since the dawn of the Like button on Facebook, people have rallied for it's counterpart, the Dislike button. Although Facebook hasn't stepped up to the plate with their own Dislike button, French developer Thomas Moquet has made it possible for Firefox users.
Tabberwocky Supercharges Your Firefox Tabs (Firefox)
If you love tabbed browsing in Firefox but want more control over the appearance and functionality of the tabs, you'll definitely want to check out Tabberwocky to supercharge your tabbed browsing.
Connectify Restores Wi-Fi Hotspot Powers to Windows 7 (Windows)
Windows 7 was supposed to have rather cool wireless sharing tools, basically turning any computer into a Wi-Fi hotspot with any connection. They disappeared in the final release, but a free Connectify beta brings that helpful feature back.
XBMC 9.11 Alpha Improves Playback and Skinning Powers (Windows/Mac/Linux)
XBMC media center has dropped a 9.11 alpha release for all platforms, with quality fixes on all three computer platforms and more powerful skinning abilities. If you're not afraid of a bug or two, it's yours to grab.
Orb Streams Your Media to Any Computer on Windows and Mac (Windows/Mac)
Free application Orb lets you access music, video, and other media stored on your computer from virtually any device (Wii, PS3, cell phone, etc.). It's been around a while on Windows, but today it's also available on the Mac.
7 Taskbar Tweaker Brings Fine-Grained Control to Windows 7's Taskbar (Windows 7)
Love Windows 7's new and improved taskbar (we know you do) but wish you could fine-tune a few aspects of its functionality—like middle-click to close and other mouse behavior? Small utility 7 Taskbar Tweaker does just that.

Grab the MacHeist nanoBundle for Free [Dealhacker]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

If you're a fan of the free OS X software offered at MacHeist, you'll want to scoot over there to grab some free software before their software giveaway expires.

MacHeist is offering a bundle of six applications: ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, Tinygrab, Hordes of Orcs, and Mariner Write. The first five are free right from the start and the final application Mariner Write—a Word alternative for Macs—will be free once they give away 500,000 of the nanoBundles.

Visit the link below to grab a free copy of the bundle. The software, if purchased individually, would cost $154. If you know of any other current software giveaway deals, let's hear about them in the comments.

Turn a Sunny Window into a Hydroponic Garden [Gardening]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Just because you don't have a backyard garden doesn't mean you can't enjoy fresh greens. Put together a hydroponic system in a sunny spot based on the designs of WindowFarms.org, and you'll have fresh greens all year long.

WindowFarms is an initiative devoted to turning urban windows into useful micro-farming space. They've put together a detailed PDF to help budding window farmers get started, including charts to help you select and build the right number of hydroponic pods, what kind of pumps to use, and how to link your pods together.

The guide also covers how to make a nutrient solution and what kinds of plants are suitable for window-based hydroponic systems—herbs, cherry tomatoes, peppers, okra, and strawberries do well in hydroponic setups. A nice touch is the large vendor list at the end of the PDF that includes the name of the items, links to find them online or at least see an example of them, and sources in your local environment for each component.

Have experience with urban or hydroponic farming? Let's hear about it in the comments.

XP Quick Fix Plus Repairs Common Windows XP Errors [Downloads]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Windows XP: If your Windows XP installation is acting up, sometimes a fix is as simple as tweaking a registry key. Rather than muck about in your registry looking for it, use XP Quick Fix Plus to patch things up.

XP Quick Fix Plus is a tiny portable application that presents 40 quick fixes arranged in a push-button chart. Press the button for the problem you're having like CDs not autoplaying, file associations grayed out, the boot.ini tab missing in MSCONFIG, or any of the other 40 common problems, and XP Quick Fix Plus will patch the registry key for the problem you're having and get things back in working order.

Not sure if the button covers the problem you're having? Mousing over the buttons gives you a detailed description of the problem. Have a favorite quick-fix tool to share? Let's hear about it in the comments. XP Quick Fix Plus is freeware, Windows only.

Maggwire Offers Hundreds of Magazines for Free Online Reading [Magazines]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

If you missed out on the free periodical fun with the now-defunct Mygazines, you can get your fill of free magazine reading online with Maggwire.

Unlike Mygazines, which ran into trouble by being the host of hundreds of magazines, Maggwire decides to take the road that involves fewer legal beatings by serving as a nice index to legitimate web presences of hundreds of magazines. Frankly this seems like a much better situation to be in, since it was novel, but not exactly efficient, to read scanned magazines online in the method employed by Mygazines.

While browsing Maggwire you can see article summaries, ratings, and whether or not anyone has commented on the article. When it comes time to actually read the article, you'll be sent to the actual publisher's website. Maggwire makes it easy to quickly find interesting articles from major publishers and magazines without the hassle of visiting individual sites—which many of us never quite get around to doing.

Check out Maggwire at the link below and if you have a favorite way for keeping an eye on your reading list of magazines, let's hear it in the comments.

Turn an IKEA Shelving Unit Into a Window Seat [DIY]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

If you have a window in need of some accompanying book-friendly furniture, this tutorial will show you how to turn an IKEA bookcase into a sturdy window seat with lots of book storage built in.

Instructables user randofo brought two Gorm shelving units home from IKEA, one of them was a little crooked. Rather than go through the hassle of taking it back he make some quick modifications to it and turned it into a sturdy window seat with a bunch of book storage space underneath.

Check out the full tutorial at Instructables for additional information and pictures. Have a furniture hack—IKEA-related or otherwise—to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Top 10 Clever Fixes for Your Broken Stuff [Clever Uses]

Kevin Purdy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Buying a replacement at Target isn't always the necessary solution when your stuff goes on the fritz. Fix common problems or altogether broken gear with these clever repair methods.

Photo by jeremyfoo.

10. Stripped screw holes

I've moved a wall-mounted magnetic knife block between four different homes in the last three years, and now its screws just spin endlessly in place. This weekend, I'll be gluing a golf tee inside the holes, then re-mounting that sucker on the kitchen wall. It's a trick that will only work with screws that are, of course, at least close to a golf tee's width, but it's a handy one for those of us who put a bit too much push into our drills. (Original post)

9. Booze-addled brains

A night out for drinks resulting in a rough morning is nobody's fault but your own, though persuasive friends and the weekend can be a volatile combination. Get a good night's sleep if you can, drink plenty of water, but while the night is still happening, try a booze-conscious diet. Not entirely easy to pull off, and it lends a less care-free attitude to the night, but it's far less inconvenient than waking up feeling like a truck tire. The next morning, try a little ginseng, and consider taking up Lifehacker readers on their best hangover cures. Photo by cutglassdecanter.

8. Shattered light bulbs

If it was a completely clean break between glass and metal socket, you could simply kill a circuit breaker and twist out a light bulb with pliers. But how often does anything ever break clean? If you've got a bulb to pull out with glass still hanging, or you can't get at your circuit box, try a potato cut in half to embed the sharp bulb and socket in, then simply turn it left to unscrew the bulb. Now you're ready to replace the bulb, and you've got a reason to have hash browns with your next breakfast—using the non-bulb-removing potato half, of course. (Original post)

7. Constantly loose glasses

The screw that holds your glasses tight against your head? It's gone the way of seemingly everything on expensive and hard to fix items. When you finally get a miniature screwdriver and restore your snug fit, grab some clear nail polish and dab it over the top of the screws. It's enough of a bond to keep the screws from coming loose again, but you could still get them out if you needed to. (Original post)

6. Splinter-stuffed hands

A simple tweezer session might free your hands of wood slivers, but sometimes they're just too tiny, or too many, to try and remove with micro-surgery. If you're fiending for a fix, try applying some glue to the afflicted skin, then peel it off to take the splinters with it. That's one of the more powerful splinter fixes, but you might be able to get away with a banana peel or bath and pumice stone to pull out those ugly little remainders of your latest wood project. Photo by furryscaly.

5. Shiny but scratched gadget bezels

Gadgets with shiny chrome finishes look great out of the box. A few days of actual use, however, can give you that Why I Can't Have Nice Things feeling. Smooth out your iPhone or any other gadget with a polished chrome-like finish by brushing the bezel evenly with a rough sponge. It's a bug that becomes a feature on your newly-unique phone. (Original post)

4. Failing hard drive

When your computer suddenly fails to boot up or starts randomly deciding it can't find certain files, the first thing you'll do is hope for, or confirm, a recent backup. If it looks like mechanical failure is the cause, and you need just a bit more data off that drive before it's gone for good, try sticking it in the freezer until it's good and cold, then let it reach room temperature again and give it another try. This passed-around tech geek tip works, as a last resort, because when worn-out mechanical parts fail to connect and align properly, contracting them with cold, then allowing them to expand again, can sometimes restore things to barely-working order just long enough to give you a little more time before the funeral. (Original post)

3. Wet cellphones and other gadgets

If cellular companies were nice, they'd realize that running water, beverages, and rain are a part of everyday life. As it is, most cellphones these days have paper inside that change color when a little liquid completely voids your warranty. If your cellphone is on the fritz after an unexpected bath, we've recommended a bowl of rice, a bit of kitty litter, and, for certain phones in certain dire situations, even rubbing alcohol. They can't save your soaked gadget every single time, but when they do, you'll feel like celebrating—just keep the phone away from the table next time. (Original post)

2. Cables run amok

The cables may still work, but they make your workspace look and feel like an utter mess. We've often featured our IKEA-assisted de-tangling technique, but for those unable to locate one of those custom wire baskets, or facing a serious amount of cord length, reader Seandavid010 has illustrated the conversion of rain gutters into cord catchers, using cheap hardware bits and a little time with a cordless screwdriver or drill. Paint the gutters any color you'd like to match your walls or desk, and buy just the right amount to fit your needs.

1. Ugly, in-your-face web ads and annoyances

Pop-up ads, jittery Flash come-ons, auto-playing sound—they don't mean the whole web is broken, just a small, ugly part of it. Using Firefox and its strongest add-ons and settings, you can mostly eliminate the most unpleasant aspects of the web and regain some measure of control over what you see.

What's the cheapest fix you've found for a seemingly impossible problem? Share your uncommon methods in the comments.

Make a Gift Bow Out of Any Paper [Gift Wrap]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Sure, you can just go to the store and buy a bow. But why not make your gift show a bit more thought, and style? Recycle old maps, glossy ads, and other paper into creative bows with this guide.

Design blog How about orange... put together a tutorial for turning a glossy magazine page into a gift bow. They talk about using it in a gift-wrapping emergency, but we'd be equally as impressed if someone used paper related to the gift in some way—paper from a travel brochure for a travel-related gift, a cover of a sports magazine for piece of sports equipment, and so on.

Check out the full guide at the link below, and if you have you own crafty wrapping tricks, let's hear them in the comments.

From the Tips Box: Multiple Dropbox Accounts, Twitter Notes, and Cloud Billing [From The Tips Box]

Whitson Gordon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Readers offer their best tips for running multiple instances of Dropbox at once, using Twitter to jot down notes and ideas for yourself, and using Google Docs to manage money between friends.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

Running Multiple Dropbox Instances

Photo by Jean-Baptiste M.

Tino shows us a workaround to have multiple Dropbox accounts running at once:

Dropbox client does not allow you to run multiple instances concurrently but you can get around with this issue by running it as different Windows User Accounts. With a little help of Dropboxen by Dale H, you can easily run multiple instances of Dropbox client concurrently.

Get a copy of Dropboxen here if you haven't. You need to unzip the files into your Dropbox installation folder. The default installation folder is C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin\ or C:\Program Files\Dropbox\ depending on your OS.

You will need to edit the file Dropboxen.xml but before doing that, you need to create a Windows User Account for each Dropbox account that you will be using (it has to be an Administrator account, not Standard User). For Windows XP, go to Control Panel > User Account > Create a new account, remember to set a password for your account. For Windows Vista or 7, go to Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > Add or remove user accounts, remember to set a password for your account. You will need to login to your new account and install Dropbox client, do this for every single User account. After you're done with creating User Accounts and installations, log off and switch back to your main account. Let's edit Dropboxen.xml, you can open it with any text-editor:

Dropboxen.xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <root> <accounts> <account username="(windows user account name)" password="(windows user account password)" /> <account username="(windows user account name 2)" password="(windows user account password 2)" /> </accounts> </root>
Now you need to fill in your user accounts and passwords. This is what my Dropboxen.xml looks like:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <root> <accounts> <account username="TinoTK" password="somepassword" /> <account username="Dropbox1" password="pass1" /> <account username="Dropbox2" password="pass2" /> </accounts> </root>
Now go ahead and click on Dropboxen.exe to start Dropbox client again, there should be multiple instances of Dropbox client according to how many accounts you put in Dropboxen.xml. Now you can use multiple Dropbox accounts at the same time. The last thing you need to do is create a shortcut for Dropboxen.exe in your Startup folder.

Using Twitter as a Personal List

Drew gives us a clever use for Twitter:

Use a private twitter account and its RSS feed to easily add personal notes to your RSS reader, particularly useful for those who have a RSS reader on the go. Can be used for to-do, reminders, or maybe hearing yourself think.

I can see this being really useful for "hearing yourself think"—ideas that you don't want cluttering up your workspace or to-do lists, but ideas that you think of on-the-go and want to come back to later on. rfrye had a similar tip that recommended Wordpress instead of Twitter, if you prefer.

A Tab System for Google Docs

Michael shows us how he keeps track of expenses with multiple people involved:

I'm one for efficiency and productivity tools, and I prefer the lifehacker mindset: spend a long time on solutions that will save time. Even if I end up using more time than I saved, I've learned something and created a product as well.

I know that there are many web- and iPhone-based solutions that look pretty cool for this type of thing, but I wanted to make one using Google Docs. The version I came up with has four people in it and allows you to enter up to 100 transactions per person. Under a transaction, enter the amount spent and a 1 under the column of every person who the amount should be shared with. You can use it to share something four ways or for 2- or 3-person splits or loans. Now that we have it, we will regularly pick up dinner for each other and "bill" each other on the tab system. This version also calculates how to settle the tab.

Try it out here, and if you like it, open the read-only version and go to File -> Make a Copy to copy it to your own Google Docs. And please, let me know if you end up using it or making any improvements!

Michael also mentioned that this is all Creative Commons material, and encourages other people to use and build upon it.

Deleting Exchange Calendars from the iPhone

swsboarder366 gives us a workaround for deleting calendars off the iPhone:

When I started using the push support of Google calendars on my phone (via Exchange) I was disappointed to find out that I could not delete calendars on my iPhone. Deleting local calendars from iCal, and even unchecking "Sync iCal Calendars" in iTunes still did not remove my old calendars. A quick Google search and I found a working solution in an Apple support forum. The solution was originally for Mobile Me, but works just the same for syncing Google Calendars over the air:

This assumes there is no calendar information that lives only on your iPhone that you want to keep.

On your iPhone, in Settings-Mail, Contacts, Calendars, find your Mobile Me account (or Exchange account), turn off "Calendars". Exit the settings application (hit the button to go back to the home screen), or the next sync will fail.

Temporarily create a calendar in iCal called "Temp" or something. In iTunes under your phone-Info, "Sync iCal calendars", select just that calendar (unchecking the option to sync iCal calendars won't clear out the stranded ones).

Under "Advanced" on the same screen (you might have to scroll down to see it), check "Calendar" under "Replace information on this iPhone"

Sync.

On iTunes, uncheck "Sync iCal calendars"

Sync.

On your Mac, delete the temporary "Temp" calendar you created

If you are using Mobile Me (or Exchange):

On your iPhone, go back to Settings-Mail, Contacts, Calendars, find your Mobile Me account, turn "Calendars" back on.

This should leave you only with the Mobile Me (or Exchange) calendars on your iPhone.

This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]

Adam Pash — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

This week we showed you how to really browse without leaving a trace, rounded up a handful of media-center-boosting apps, uncorked a bottle of wine with nothing but a shoe, and oh so much more.

How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace
Think that your browser's private mode keeps your browsing completely private? Not so! More often than not, you're still leaving traces of your browsing session behind, and today we'll tell you how to get rid of them for truly private browsing.
Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center
Streaming video, digital DVD backups, DVR recording—it's all possible from your TV-connected media center, and you don't need a system administrator to pull it off.
Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap
You won't find a better media center than the open-source XBMC, but most people don't have the space or desire to plug a noisy PC into their TV. Instead, I converted a cheap nettop into a standalone XBMC set-top box.
Five Best Application Docks
Remember the days of digging through folders of shortcuts and menus to launch applications? These days many users prefer customizable, attractive docks for launching and keeping track of their favorite apps.
Browser Speed Tests: The Windows 7 Results
Firefox 3.6 Beta 1, like every other browser, makes a claim to being "faster." We took Firefox and all the other latest browsers, put them on Windows 7, and ran them through our human-measured speed tests to vet the bragging.
Eat a Chicken Wing with Little to No Mess
For some folks, gnawing between tiny bones for hard-to-get meat and getting sauce all over your face are a crucial part of the chicken wing experience.
Open a Bottle of Wine with Your Shoe
Got a bottle of wine on hand but no corkscrew to get it open? You can argue all you want about whether or not the guy in this video really needs more wine, but you can't argue with the results.
Handcrafted and Free Floating: The Wraparound Workspace
We'll simply never get tired of diving into the Lifehacker Workspace pool and finding hand-crafted gems like today's featured workspace.
What's Your Main Operating System?
Windows 7 has only been out for about two weeks now, but statistics web site StatCounter reports that Windows 7's OS market share reached roughly three percent by the end of October.
The Illustrated Guide to the New Firefox 3.6 Windows 7 Integration
The latest Firefox beta integrates much more fully into Windows 7, adding support for Aero Peek-enabled tabs, an enhanced Ctrl+Tab, and more. We'll show you how they work, and how to enable or disable them.