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Make Something Great with PVC Pipe This Weekend

Adam Dachis — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Although not one of the DIY All Star materials, people use PVC pipe to create all sorts of awesome things because it's cheap, sturdy, and versatile. This weekend, grab some at your local hardware store and tackle one of these fun projects.

Make a Creative Tool

PVC pipe works well for all sorts of creative endeavors. Videographers can make a simple shoulder mount for their camera, a stabilizer, and even a dolly. Musicians can make a microphone stand and a shock mount. For those who get creative on their computers, make this laptop stand instead.

Get Organized

PVC pipe can help you boost your productivity, too. You can use it to wrangle your desk cables or even the stuff inside your desk by making stackable drawer organizers. If you want organizers on your desk, you can make those too. This cord extension caddy makes it easy to manage lengthy cables. You can even make a trash can to hold the things you don't need anymore. To handle the extra bags, PVC pipe makes for a good trash bag dispenser as well!

Upgrade Your Home

You can upgrade your home in several different areas with the help of PVC pipe. If watering the lawn often proves difficult, you can create an efficient sprinkler system. Thicker pipe makes for an easy wine rack. The same idea works well for shoes, and you only need half of a big pipe to make a dish drying rack. When you need to hide a key, you can do so easily with a little pipe. If you're looking to get fit, you can go all-out and build a home bodyweight gym. If you prefer to bike, you can build a bike rack, too. Need a set of speakers? You can make those out of PVC pipe, too! If you need to match a specific color, you can stain the pipes.

Have a great Friday (and Memorial Day weekend)!

Have any tips for parents dealing with temper tantrums?

Walter Glenn — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Great discussions are par for the course here on Lifehacker. Each day, we highlight a discussion that is particularly helpful or insightful, along with other great discussions and reader questions you may have missed. Check out these discussions and add your own thoughts to make them even more wonderful!

Discussion of the Day

Have any tips for parents dealing with temper tantrums?

Other Great Discussions

Get Involved

Share your best vacation hack. There's still time to join in on this week's Hacker Challenge!
What mistakes can ruin your professional reputation? Come share your thoughts with us.

Great Discussions Any Time

For great discussions any time, be sure check out our user-run blog, Hackerspace. And today being Friday, don't forget to check out this week's Open Thread.

If you've got a cool project, inspiration, or just something fun to share, send us a message at tips@lifehacker.com.

Happy Lifehacking, everybody!

Make a MacBook Dock with Sugru and a Few Cables

Adam Dachis — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Laptop docks generally don't come cheap—especially when you have a Mac. DIYer Johan Frick put together a simple docking solution with the necessary cables and a little bit of Sugru, saving a ton of money in the process.

As you can see from the video above, the process is pretty simple. Just plug in all the cables you want to connect, surround them with a healthy amount of Sugru (carefully, so as not to get any on your MacBook), smooth it out, and let it dry. When you're done, you have a dock!

Make a plug hub for your MacBook | Sugru

This Week's Most Popular Posts: May 17th to 24th

Whitson Gordon — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

This week we looked at the best Android phones around, got some career advice, and got some nice airline and hotel upgrades. Here's a look back.

Top 10 Everyday Life Hacks That Take 10 Seconds or Less

Sometimes, you can do something the fast way, or you can do it the right way. Other times, those two things are one and the same. Here are 10 everyday tasks that you can do in 10 seconds or less.

Five Best Android Phones: 2013 Edition

There are so many Android phones on the market that choosing the best one can mean a ton of research, price-checking, and waiting to see what's coming out in the next few weeks or months. Some are exclusive to specific carriers, some run stock Android, some are littered with bloatware but have powerful features. This week we wanted to know which you thought were the best of breed, not just because they round out a checklist of features or high-end hardware, but because you think they offer a great overall experience. Here's a look at the top five Android phones, based on your nominations.

This Chart Helps You Find the Right Career Based on Salary and Growth

If you haven't settled on a career yet, this interactive chart from Rasmussen College can help you find the best options. It organizes occupations into four quadrants based on salary, expected job growth, and number of opportunities available.

Why It's Always Worth Asking for a Hotel Upgrade

A lot of people are uncomfortable with haggling, but just one quick question at a hotel's front desk has a great chance of earning you a better room on your next vacation or work trip.

Get Great Deals at the Amazon Outlet Store You Never Knew Existed

Amazon often earns its reputation as the world's largest online retailer due to the fact that they offer tons of awesome discounts and services that most of us don't know about until they've been around for years. The latest? Their virtual outlet store.

Remember the "Sometimes, Always, Never" Rule When Wearing a Suit Coat

Many men's suit jackets have three buttons down the front. Leave them all unbuttoned and you look informal. Button them all and you look like a schoolboy in his first suit or a school uniform. So which should you button and which stay open? This rule is easy to remember: "Sometimes, Always, Never," from top to bottom.

How to Supercharge Your Router with DD-WRT

Few routers utilize their full potential out of the box because their firmware limits their functionality. Thanks to an open-source project called DD-WRT, you can unlock your router’s potential to broadcast a stronger signal, manage network traffic, remotely access all your home computers, and a whole lot more. Here’s how to install it, set it up, and supercharge your network.

Not Just Another Notes App: Why You Should Use Google Keep

When Google Keep launched, it never got the fanfare it deserved. The people that did review it compared it to all the wrong apps, like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. That's a shame, because a surprisingly good note taking app went under the radar, underrated for coming up short against contenders it wasn't designed to face. It's about time to give Google Keep a fair shake, see where it shines, and how it fits in with the competition.

With just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice, you can go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. That's the message from Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours. In the video above, he reveals the four steps to learning any new skill, fast.

The Air Travel Rights You Aren't Aware of (and How to Get Them)

If you've ever sat in a plane on the tarmac only to have the flight cancelled, been bumped just before boarding, or landed at your destination only to be told your luggage will arrive sometime in the next 12 hours, you know how air travel can suck. In all of those cases, the airline owes you for your trouble. Sometimes it's good customer service, and other times it's the law. Here are some of the legal rights you may not know you have, and how to go about filing your claims or getting what's due to you if you've been wronged.

How I Tricked Myself Into Loving My Workout

I used to hate my workouts. Sure, I did them, but I was frustrated, grumbling, and upset the entire time. I dreaded going to the gym, and did almost anything I could think of to get out of it. At the slightest hint of a cold, I was so relieved to have a good excuse not to work out that I milked it for all I could. Then, something changed.

Nine Things You Should and Shouldn't Do If You Lose Your Job

Most of us wouldn’t think to associate the words "joblessness" and "fun," but unemployment coach Katie DeVito says she wouldn’t have it any other way: "The best thing that ever happened to me was getting laid off."

How Can I Play My Old PC Games on a Modern Computer?

Dear Lifehacker,
I have a couple old PC games from the Windows 95 days that I'd like to keep playing. However, I use Windows 7, which creates an obvious problem. Is there a way to play it on my current machine? More importantly, will I just have to give it up some day?

Cork or Twist: What's the Best Way to Stop Up a Wine Bottle?

Tessa Miller — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

Cork, synthetic cork, or screw cap? Each medium has its perks, it seems. But which one keeps wine aging the right way? The experts at Stack Exchange attempt to put the controversy to rest.

Although I am by no means a connoisseur (I don't really even drink it), I've been investigating the various means by which wine bottles are stopped up. This was prompted by a negative reaction by a more dipsomanic friend to a screw top wine that I had purchased. The impression I got from him was that a bottle with a cork was less tacky, and that somehow a bottle with a screw top gave the impression of teens in parks drinking Lambrini through straws. I've read a few articles online here and here, which seem to show some benefits to screw top bottles (namely that they aren't affected by TCA and are easier to open). But I haven't been able to find any resources which show an actual benefit to the wine that comes from using cork. The usual pros listed include the fact that it supports natural cork plantations (an ethical consideration) or that it just seems to be more sophisticated. So, is there any reason (when only considering taste) that cork should be used over a screw top?

See the original question.

TFD answers:

If a wine maker loves their wine and their customers, they will use screw caps. All the studies have come back positive for screw caps. (See screw cap initiative for starters.) Some main points are:

Corks taint the wine.
Corks, real or synthetic, have a very high failure rate. Screw caps are basically 100% effective (maybe too effective).
Wine ages better with a screw cap, as there is no chance of seal failure or tainting - Screw caps have been physically tested for over 30 years, and are designed to last longer than that.
You can cellar wine bottles at any angle.
The energy used in making a recyclable (aluminium) screw cap is significantly less than used in making a cork.
Most corks aren't made in ethical plantations.
No special tools are required to open and recap a bottle (cork knives can be a serious health hazard later in the evening).
Wines age more safely. Corks do not breathe, but they may shrink and let wine out (bottles stored on side). Good vineyards will re-cork cellared wine every 20 to 25 years, or when corks start failing. The wine is topped up to the correct level, and often the wine/cork gap is flooded with nitrogen to avoid oxygen contamination which will "soften" the wine. All in all, some pretty convincing reasons to go with screw caps.

BaffledCook answers:

An oenologist once told me that for young wines, artificial corks (and probably screw caps) are perfectly alright. Young wines should be consumed within a year or two. However, for aged wines, he'd stick with natural cork, because cork lets the wine breathe, letting the wine mature further inside the bottle.

The debate around synthetic is due to the fact that synthetic cork completely blocks the air. Some wine experts believe that some air is beneficial to the maturation of the wine. (Source: CellaRaiders.) The cork-bottled wine benefits from a process called "reductive aging." According to WineMaker Magazine, some wines need a little extra oxygen that seeps through the cork over a long period of time. Although cork-stoppered wines intentionally allow for miniscule amounts of oxygen to seep in over a long period of time, amounts beyond this can prevent the proper development of bottle bouquet, and proper varietal aromas can also be obscured or destroyed.

Some wines are more affected by oxygen than others (i.e., wines that are low in acidity, body, tannins, etc.—those traits that allow a wine to age extensively). A key factor influencing the potential oxidation of a given wine is its pH level. As pH rises (or as acidity falls), the potential for a wine's oxidation increases. When pH rises, the wine's phenols are in a state that fosters their reacting to each other and falling out as sediment and increasing the wine's potential for oxidation. Therefore, wines with a higher pH have lower potential for aging than wines with a lower pH.

According to Wikipedia, the benefits of screw caps in this aspect have yet to be proven. The advent of alternative wine closures to cork, such as screw caps and synthetic corks, have opened up recent discussions on the aging potential of wines sealed with these alternative closures. Currently there are no conclusive results and the topic is the subject of ongoing research.

Scivitri answers:

This is an awkward question, because food is about so much more than chemical interplay on the tongue, and how molecules decay over time. If all we cared about was getting proper nutrition, we would swallow a handful of pills each day which contained the nutrients we need, washed down with a shake containing bulkier elements like proteins and carbs. If all we cared about was taste, we would construct artificial foods with perfectly synthesized flavor profiles. (I'm guessing we'd wrap our perfect mix of nutrients into beverages, if flavor was the goal. After all, we already do have a host of artificial flavored sodas and such out there.)But food is about so much more than that. Presentation makes food look engaging. Textures and smells have a huge impact on whether you find a food enjoyable. Wine glasses clink (particularly when toasting) to engage your hearing. The ceremony around uncorking a bottle creates a definite atmosphere which will color your perception of a meal, even down to how dishes taste.

So, as easy as it may be to find links to articles about bottle seals and preventing air exchange, that is by no means the sum of the flavor in a bottle of wine. And anyone with experience of different dining environments, who enjoys uncorking a bottle, will find much changed in the flavor by the change from a cork to a screw-top. Yes, it's psychological. But really "flavor" is about how chemical impulses from your senses are interpreted by the brain—all flavor is psychological. And all of your senses work together—it's never about a simple signal from one sense. Now, all that said, if you are not steeped in wine tradition, you likely will enjoy a glass of wine from a screw-top bottle perfectly fine. The fluid will be preserved at least as well, and if the only thing which changed in your meal was the un-corking became an un-screwing, a non-connoisseur probably wouldn't even notice. (Except all your "wine snob" friends will have a new topic for the next 20 minutes.) In wines produced to be consumed within 5-10 years, I highly doubt there is any worthwhile difference between any sealing method. And I doubt any of the wine collectors have allowed screw-top bottles into their collections yet, so we're still hundreds of years shy of long-term storage data.

I'll add that I had heard the common idea that cork is a depleting resource. This is often mentioned as a reason for the shift from corks to other closures in wine. I tried to Google this, and found several discussions (on semi-public forums, so I'll leave research to the reader rather than provide links) about this being a myth, and the shift being caused by a desire to prevent contaminants from getting into wine. So, it seems bottlers feel cork is a poor choice for wine.

Find more answers or leave your own at the original post. See more questions like this at Seasoned Advice, the cooking site at Stack Exchange. And of course, feel free to ask a question yourself. Image via Stack Exchange.

Gawker Real Lesbians React to Fake Lesbian Porn Made for Straight Men | Deadspin Leroy's Revenge: Tw

Lauren Bertolini — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:29:19 GMT

Gawker Real Lesbians React to Fake Lesbian Porn Made for Straight Men | Deadspin Leroy's Revenge: Two Dogs, Father And Son, Fight To The Death | Kotaku The Xbox One Uncertainty Principle | io9 The World's Most Awkward Taxidermy

What Mistakes Can Ruin Your Professional Reputation?

Adam Dachis — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Finding a job is a challenge these days, but keeping one can be a challenge as well. US News describes eight simple mistakes you can make to ruin your professional reputation, from leaving a job to early to failing to keep your commitments. What mistakes have you made, or seen others made, that hurt their reputation and made it more difficult to get another job?

Most of the time you'll get by just fine if you treat your employer with the respect you expect from them, avoid rash decisions, and keep your temper under control. Everybody makes mistakes, but how do you recover from them? If you've made a huge error and hurt your professional reputation, let us know how you fixed the problem, too.

How to Ruin Your Professional Reputation | US News

Photo by Lass Kristensen (Shutterstock).

Where Are You Looking? Right Here! At This Week's Open Thread

huh989 — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:22:00 GMT

It's Friday. That means it's time to share what you know, ask what you don't, and generally partake in some conversation. Right here, right now!

Same drill as always but with a new twist, open-threaders! Ask questions, offer advice, discuss productivity tips, or just chat about whatever's on your mind. This week, we're coming to you from Hackerspace, the commenter-run playground for Lifehackers. Drop by Hackerspace any time you want to share your tips, how-tos, or just talk it out with your fellow readers.

Want to be an author here on Hackerspace? Also, why don't you subscribe to our RSS feed?

As we like to do here, here's some music with which you may rock out today.

life's too short to even care at all from neontrees on 8tracks Radio.

Image:Flickr Commons

Stop Windows from Restarting Your Computer After Updates

Whitson Gordon — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Sometimes, Windows downloads important updates and decides it's going to restart your computer whether you like it or not. Here's how to disable that behavior.

This has been part of Windows for a long time, and while Microsoft tried to fix it in Windows 8, the annoyance still remains. When you see that screen that says your computer's going to restart in 15 minutes, you just grit your teeth and accept it.

But, there's actually an easy way to fix this—and it works in Windows 7, too. You just need to make a small tweak to the registry:

Head to the Start menu or screen and type "regedit" (no quotes). Start the Registry Editor that pops up.
Navigate to:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
```
On many computers, you won't see the "WindowsUpdate" key. To create it, right-click on the "Windows" key in the sidebar and go to New > Key. Name the key WindowsUpdate, then right-click on that key and create a new one called AU.
Click on the AU key and, in the right pane, right-click on the empty space and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name the new DWORD:
```
NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
```
Double-click on the new DWORD and give it a value of 1.
Reboot your machine and from now on, Windows will not force you to reboot after installing updates. Of course, when you install updates, you should still reboot your computer—and that responsibility is now on you—but this makes sure Windows doesn't catch you by surprise.

Again, this registry key has been around for a long time, and should work in Windows 7 as well (but we thought it was worth revisiting for Windows 8). You can also perform the same task with the Group Policy Editor if you're on Windows 8 Pro. Hit the link below to see how.

Prevent Windows From Restarting Your PC After Windows Updates | How-To Geek

Defuse Temper Tantrums with Empathy

Melanie Pinola — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT

Children—and even adults—can have short fuses. Whether the person is 5 or 45, Real Simple offers advice for how to quickly deal with meltdowns and fits of rage.

The solution for all situations is to first acknowledge what's bothering the other person and then suggest a better way to deal with the issue:

One reason people throw tantrums is that they want to be heard, says Susan Orenstein, a psychologist in Cary, North Carolina, who focuses on marriage and relationships. “They grow louder and more animated as a way to get attention and show you that this issue is important to them.” So let the tantrum thrower know you feel his pain. This doesn’t mean you have to agree. A simple “I understand you’re angry” will suffice. With kids, it’s also important to let them know that it’s OK to express emotion, but in an appropriate way. You might say to a toddler, “I understand that you’re frustrated that you can’t get the refrigerator open,” and then explain a better way to react: “If you would ask me to please help you, I’d love to.”

Dr. Harvey Karp also recommends a similar strategy in his Happiest Toddler on the Block book, where essentially you repeat or state exactly how the child is feeling. It takes patience, no doubt, but it's better than screaming back at the person who's in the midst of a meltdown.

Check out Real Simple's article for strategies for every age.

How to Handle Temper Tantrums | Real Simple

Photo by mdanys.

When (and If) You Should Ever Work For Free

Tessa Miller — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT

I lose count of my “jobs” these days: my literary writing (that theoretically pays, or had better one day or else), a nonprofit board on which I serve as president, and the magazine I started last summer. While I certainly put the same intensity into everything, I can definitely say that I work more hours for free than I do for pay.

So when I got the advice from a well-meaning friend, "You shouldn’t let them work you like that for free!" I had to shake my head a little to see his perspective. I’m so committed to these projects (and I know the money simply isn’t there unless I raise it myself) that I don’t mind the work:pay ratio. My general agreement with myself is that as long as I’m making enough money to pay bills, buy good coffee and local meats and veggies, and save a little, I can do whatever I want with my (ahem) "spare" time as long as it’s for a genuinely good cause.

I heard the same phrase again a few days later, directed at someone else. "You shouldn’t do that for free."

Well, maybe you should do it for free?

I honor and pay fealty to your right to maintain your own sets of career principles and your own agreements with yourselves. But I’d like to point out that doing a thing for free might often be in your best interests and, if you have your basic financial bases covered like bills, food, and savings, doing things for free could be good for your financial and your emotional bottom lines. Actually, there are many times doing a thing for free could be… well, profitable.

(Disclaimer: Many commission-based sales positions have enormous appetite for people working for free, and I cannot quite envision the time when such commission-based sales would qualify for any of my below categories. I’d love to hear your experiences if you believe differently!)

Consider doing the thing for free if it meets with one or more of these possibilities:

You Can Have Access to the Very Best in Your Industry

A lot of academic and nonprofit work ends up this way. At many local writing and creative non-profits, volunteers hobnob with established writers and artists whose reputations are truly luminous by taking them out for drinks, designing newsletters, or staffing events where you may not be paid for the drink you just handed to Tom Brokaw. But come on—Tom Brokaw!

It’s the “layer” of superstars just under the Tom Brokaw level who can potentially be the most helpful to your career and to whom you wouldn’t have access if you were doing similar work for pay (say, as a cocktail waitress or caterer or managing the customer newsletter for a small business). These are the people who will be the "who" in the old famous phrase, "it’s not what you know, it’s who you know."

As the representative of the nonprofit on whose board I serve (and which has me up late many nights working for free), I took it upon myself at a small writers conference I attended to show a good time to the agent who had been brought in to give us talks on the publishing process. We’re now great friends, and though I have my own agent, I will look to her for advice and connections to her favorite editors. It was free, and it could be the relationship that makes all the difference in my career.

You Can Learn Skills You Couldn't Learn (or Not So Quickly) in a For-Pay Job

A lot of grant writers and public relations professionals begin their careers like this: the PTA or the neighborhood board or the church outreach group sees an opportunity to apply for a grant. Or a small startup need to get some PR and can’t pay. "I’ve always wanted to learn that," the parent or neighborhood board member or friend-of-a-startup says. "I’ll try!"

A couple of turgid books and dozens or hundreds of hours of free work later, and the grant is submitted or the public is related-to. Once you’ve accomplished that and had quantifiable successes, those can be easily translated into for-pay work (and the good kind, that pays handsomely by the hour), and those you’ve helped will be eager to write you references.

You Can Have a Title You Couldn't Qualify for Otherwise

I run a magazine, and we always need more help. "I would love to have an editorial position on my resume," said one volunteer. While the volunteer's are bountiful, her experience is in other fields; we’re not going to split hairs and we happily offered up a title that gave both the gravitas she required and also filled the functional hole we needed filled.

While it’s even more work for free, starting your own thing is another way to get a title for which you may not be able to be hired. A small nonprofit organization you started could use an executive director! How about you? Next time you want to apply for a position whose screeners won’t accept anyone without [fill in blank] years of experience in [fill in blank] management, you’ll fill in all the blanks.

Your Free Work Will Give You Leverage for a For-Pay Position

A board member came to the board with an offer: “I work as executive director free for six months, while I work to raise money for a salary for myself.” Once six months had arrived and the volunteer had raised the requisite money in grants and donations we might never have attempted without him, it was an easy sell.

If you’re going this route, it’s good to get the agreements in writing, and even worth hiring a labor attorney to draft a contract with specific benchmarks. "If Jane Jones raises $x thousand in grants and $x thousand in individual donations by December 31, the salary will be $y effective January 1."

You Just Really, Really Love What Your Work is Doing

If you can afford to work for free, and you’re slaving away for some tiny nonprofit staffed by homeless youth, and there is no future in this work, and you’re far too old to get any sort of “community service” credit for this, and all you’re doing is washing dishes but you are having amazing conversations with the people you serve and you feel you’re making a difference in the world? GO FOR IT. Be prepared to look your well-meaning advisers in the eyes when you complain about your wrinkled hands or the stinky neighborhood where you work, when they say, "You shouldn’t work for free." You can say, "Thanks for caring about me," and show up again tomorrow because you are awesome and the world needs more people like you.

Should you ever work for free? | GetRichSlowly

Sarah Gilbert is a blogger by trade and a finance geek at heart. She cut her teeth on her first Excel spreadsheet full of financials at the tender age of 21, when she began her investment banking career in First Union’s Loan Syndications group. She went on to get her MBA from Wharton, work at Merrill Lynch, and fall in love with analyzing company strategy and endless rows of numbers. She got into blogging as a marketing strategy; the blogging took. She now is a freelance financial and (award-winning!) literary writer, working in between baking bread and finding socks for her three little boys in her beloved 1912 Portland, Oregon, home. Sarah's even-more-personal blogging about being an Army wife, parenting, food, biking, and life can be found at urbanMamas and Cafe Mama. Follow Sarah Gilbert on Google Plus.

Image remixed from rangizzz (Shutterstock).

Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.

"When Life Gets Messy, Shine Your Sink"

Melanie Pinola — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:30:00 GMT

When life gets hectic or crazy (and we've all been there), take some of the stress off by finding comfort in the mundane—even in routine chores like shining your kitchen sink.

"When life gets messy, shine your sink" comes from a blog post by Courtney Carver on Be More With Less. It reminds us that no matter how scrambled you might feel, you can still do just one small thing to center yourself.

If you get lost, do the laundry. You know how to do that. You don’t need input or direction. Just do it.
If you feel scattered, wash the dishes. Turn off your dishwasher and wash each dish as if it’s the most important thing you have to do.
If your mind is racing, hang out by the spin cycle. Let the background noise quiet your mind.
If you are anxious, sweep the floor. Sweep up your worry along with the dust (and dog hair in my case).
When things get messy, shine your sink. If your to-do list is out of control or your mind is full of idea and you don’t know where to start, clean your sink.

The link to the FlyLady's instructions for shining your sink is very appropriate, since the foundation of the FlyLady's philosophy of chaos-busting is baby steps, starting with a shiny sink.

Simplify Your Life and Quiet Your Mind on The Spin Cycle | Be More With Less

Photo remixed from an original by Nomadic Lass.

The Farm Table Workspace

Melanie Pinola — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

A long desk made with cedar planks and recycled wood. A sun-filled window. And plenty of plants. Today's featured workspace is warm, rustic, and unique.

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors takes salvage items and turns them into inspiring items. That's certainly the case with this 12-foot long, 3-foot deep desk. Besides the loose cedar planks for the top, 4x4 pallet oak posts serve as the legs and chunky reclaimed 2x4's make up the sturdy framing. Black accents, including rolling file carts, a built-in computer pad, and, yes, that cat in the window, round out the rest of the space. Hit up the link below for more shots of this nature-inspired workspace.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, share them with us by: a) posting it in the discussion below, attaching your image to the post, b) posting it to your personal Kinja blog using the tag featured workspace, or c) adding it to our Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Flickr pool. Make sure any photos you include are at least 640x360. Keeping them to 16:9 helps, too! Include a little text about the stuff you used, how you came up with the design, and any other relevant details. If your clever organization and good design sense catches our eye, you might be the next featured workspace.

Pallet Farm Table Desk - Part 3, The Reveal | Funky Junk Interiors

The Best Ways to Avoid Scars

Thorin Klosowski — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:30:00 GMT

Nobody likes getting cut up and dealing with a potential scar. While you'll find countless supposed remedies out there to avoid scars, The Wall Street Journal takes a look at which of these treatments really work.

As it turns out, according to Dr. Whitney Bower, the best way to avoid scars is good old Vaseline:

She recommends plain old Vaseline and a Band-Aid. Some patients prefer the texture of Aquaphor, an ointment which Dr. Bowe says also works well. The more ingredients in a moisturizer, she says, the greater the chance it can cause an allergic reaction. It is also very important to keep a healing wound out of the sun to prevent discoloration.

As far as those drug store remedies like Vitamin E or onion extract? Dr. Bowe says they're not really worth it. The same goes for most home cures like lemon juice, although she does suggest that honey is an excellent alternative if Vaseline isn't around.

Treating Scars: Which Remedies Work Best? | The Wall Street Journal

Photo by a turkus.

Pidora Is a Fedora-Based Operating System for the Raspberry Pi

Thorin Klosowski — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

For the most part, Raspberry Pi users have only had one or two really strong operating systems to work with. If you're looking to try something different, Pidora is an OS built on the Linux system Fedora.

Pidora is slightly different than something like Rasbian in a few ways. It comes with a handful of different software than Raspbian, including a ton of text editors, programming languages, and more. You also get a "headless mode" to operate your Pi without a monitor attached (and with the clever feature to say your IP address out loud when speakers are attached). As you'd expect, you can also download a ton of additional software from the Fedora repository. Pidora has a slightly different look and feel than Raspbian, but if you're looking to try out a new OS on your Raspberry Pi it's worth checking out. You'll find everything you need over on the Pidora page.

Pidora

Infuse Beer with Flavor Using a French Press

Alan Henry — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:30:00 GMT

A good beer is a good beer, but if you're interested in pushing the envelope a little bit and expanding your beer's flavor, it turns out you don't have to do a complicated soak or extract a bunch of oils. All you need is a French press, that little gadget most of us use to make coffee.

The French press is your favorite coffee maker, but it's useful for more than just your morning cup. Some people make tea, some people reconsitute dried mushrooms, and over at Serious Eats, Luis Tovar uses one to add even more flavor to his beer. All it takes is a few extra ingredients, three minutes of infusion time, and a press. You could even do the whole thing in the fridge if you're worried about losing carbonation or warming your beer.

You can say that if you're drinking a beer that you think needs more flavor infused into it, you should try another beer, but we have to applaud Luis' creativity here. He goes through six different already-great beers and infuses each one with additional flavor by adding ingredients like ginger, grapefruit, hops, coffee, lime, and mint. Hit the link below to check out some of the combinations, and get instructions on how to do it at home.

Use A French Press to Add Flavor to Your Beer | Serious Eats

Build an All-In-One Arcade Stick that Works on Multiple Consoles

Thorin Klosowski — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Arcade sticks are a great way to play games, but swapping out different sticks for systems is a pain. To solve this problem, DIYer Dave Nunez made a single arcade stick that works on NES, SNES, and an Atari 2600.

The process is by no means for amateurs, but Nunez's guide walks you through the process of picking components, soldering, and building the case with a CNC mill. The end result is a single arcade stick with outlets that plug into a SNES, NES, or Atari 2600. You could certainly add different systems as well with a bit of tinkering. Head over to Nunez's site for the full guide to make it for yourself.

Creating the Multicon_Retro | Dave Nunez's Blog via Hack a Day

The Weber Spirit E-210 Is the Grill You Want for Memorial Day Weekend

Alan Henry — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, our friends over at The Wirecutter have weighed in on the topic of gas grills. They say the Weber Spirit E-210 is the one for your backyard, and praise it for its build quality, wide availability, and most importantly, how well it grills a nice steak.

The Weber Spirit E-210 isn't a cheap grill, it averages about $400 in most places, and The Wirecutter acknowledges that—they still think it's worth the money though, and point out that Weber's name and track record count for a lot, you'll never have to worry about finding parts or someone who can repair the thing (because it's an incredibly popular grill), and it doesn't hurt that the grill's twin burners pack a huge punch when it's time to start cooking. It's easy to clean and maintain, and it's small enough to fit in tiny backyards or on urban patios. It also doesn't hurt that the E-210's large cooking grate is made of enamelled cast-iron, so you know what that means—great heat retention, easy clean up, and deliciously seared meats.

It's not a perfect grill by any means, and aside from the price, they go into some of its drawbacks at the link below, including the fact that it's a little slow by gas grill standards to warm up. If you're thinking "of course it has problems, it's gas and not charcoal," they have a pick for the best charcoal grill for you too, and it shouldn't come as a surprise: the affordable, ubiquitious Weber One-Touch Gold. Hit the link below to read the full review.

The Best Gas Grill is the Weber Spirit E-210 | The Wirecutter

Build an Instagram-Powered Wallpaper Rotator with Dropbox and IFTTT

Alan Henry — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Changing up your wallpaper on a regular basis is a fun way to personalize your desktop, and there's no way to make it more personal than to use your own photos. You could download your photos manually and set up a rotating wallpaper based on those photos, but why do it manually when you can automate it? Here's how.

We stumbled on this trick thanks to Hacker News reader alex_doom, who mentioned it in this great thread full of creative IFTTT recipes. Check it out for even more useful recipes (some of which we've shared before).

First, we need to back up all of your Instagram photos to Dropbox for safe keeping—both in the cloud and locally on your desktop. Then, since the photos are on your desktop too, you can quickly point Windows or OS X at the folder and tell it to rotate through the photos inside every time it switches your wallpaper. Here's how to set it all up:

Back Up Your Instagram Photos to Dropbox

Thankfully, there are close to a dozen IFTTT recipes already shared that back up Instagram photos to Dropbox, so we don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Log in to IFTTT (or sign up for it if you're not using it, which you really should be).
Visit this IFTTT recipe (or any of the myriad others that auto-save Instagram phtoos to Dropbox) and enable the Instagram and Dropbox channels if they're not active already. You'll be prompted to log in and connect to each service if you haven't done so.
Customize the folder path (if you want) where your Instagram photos will be stored in Dropbox.
Click "Use Recipe" at the bottom of the page to activate it.

Once the recipe is active, it'll act every time you post a new photo to Instagram. It won't grab your old photos, so you'll still have to do that manually if you want a good collection to get started. Once you do post a new Instagram photo though, IFTTT will create the folder and dump the photo inside. Congratulations, you're now backing up all of your Instagram photos to Dropbox!

Set Up Your Instagram-Powered Wallpaper Rotation (or Slideshow Screensaver)

From here, you have to configure your OS to use that folder for wallpapers. You'll want at least one photo inside, so make sure to take an Instagram photo before you start. Here's how to do is in Windows and OS X:

Windows:

Right-click on the desktop and choose "Personalize."
Click "Desktop Background" at the bottom of the window.
Next to "Picture Location," click Browse, and navigate to your Dropbox folder, the IFTTT folder inside, and the Instagram folder inside that. Select the Instagram folder and click OK.
If you haven't set your photos to rotate periodically, you can do that at the bottom of the Desktop Background window. Under "Change picture every:" choose how frequently you want to see a new wallpaper. Checking "Shuffle" makes sure you don't see them all in order of filename.
Click "Save changes."

If you'd prefer to use your Instagram photos as a screen saver instead of as wallpaper, click "Screen Saver" after the first step above. Pull down the screen saver menu and select "Photos." Navigate to your Instagram folder, select how fast Windows should change photos in the slide show (and click Shuffle unless you want to see them in order), and click Save.

OS X:

Right-Click the Desktop and Choose "Change Desktop Background" (or go open System Preferences and select "Desktop.")
You'll see a list of folders you can choose from on the left. At the bottom of the left sidebar, click the Plus sign (+).
Navigate to your Dropbox folder, the IFTTT folder inside, and the Instagram folder. Select that folder and click "Choose."
At the bottom of the Desktop & Screen Saver window, check "Change picture:" and choose how frequently you want the wallpaper to change. You can check "Random order" if you want them shuffled.
Close System Preferences.

If you'd prefer your Mac uses the new photos as a screen saver, Click the "Screen Saver" tab after step one above. Choose the style of photo screensaver you'd like from the sidebar on the left—there are tons of options, so you can click one to see a preview of it on the right. Once you find one you like, click the drop-down next to Source, select "Choose folder," and navigate to your Instafram folder (and click "Shuffle slide order" if you don't want them in order.

That's all there is to it. There are other tools that can handle things like this, but the beauty of using IFTTT is that you can tweak and customize it to work just the way you want, using whatever photo sources you prefer. If you scoff at Instagram and wouldn't sully your wallpapers with heavily-filtered photos, you can use Flickr instead, for example. Just point IFTTT to your Flickr account, or to a public Flickr group that you're a member of. If you want to back up your photos to a cloud service that's not Dropbox, like Box.net or Google Drive, you can do that too. The possibilities are endless, and that's what makes IFTTT so great: If you don't like what we've done with it here, you can very easily tweak it to work the way you want.

Google, Google, and More Google!

Adam Dachis — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This week on the podcast we're talking about Google, Google, and more Google. Also, your questions about keeping to a budget, cold-emailing your dream job's company, and freeing up space on your iPhone.

How to Listen to This Week's Episode

Here's how you can listen to our episode:

Download the MP3 directly.
Subscribe on iTunes.
Subscribe to the RSS feed.
Just listen to it in the Souncloud player below.

News and Top Stories

Google I/O Roundup: We attended Google I/O last week and learned about what’s next for the company.
Gmail Users Can Now Try the New Hangouts: Gmail users can now try the new Hangouts right from Gmail, though it removes the ability to call phones with Google Voice. Luckily, you can revert back to the old chat if you want and Gmail calling will be officially restored in the near future.
Google Chrome 27 Out of Beta, Loads Pages 5% Faster: Chrome 27 is out of beta and available for download now. The biggest benefit: It'll load pages 5% faster. And voice search. Google Now in Google!
Google Unveils Play Music All Access, a Subscription Music Service: Google took the wraps off of Google Play Music All Access, a new subscription music service, that offers playlists and music suggestions based on songs you already own and love. The service is already packed with music from Google Play Music, and any songs you see you can play or turn into a streaming radio station.
Google Music All Access: Should It Be Your New Streaming Service? Google unveiled Google Play Music All Access, a subscription music and internet radio service that opens the door to millions of tracks, all intermingled with the music you already own. Sounds great, and the price is competitive, but should you ditch your current streaming service for it? Let's take a look.
Yahoo! Acquires Tumblr: Yahoo has acquired blogging service Tumblr to the tune of $1.1 billion, news that CEO Marissa Mayer posted to her own Tumblr (and subsequently, Yahoo's corporate Tumblr). They promise to keep it independent and "not screw it up."
Flickr Offers 1TB of Free Space for Your Photos, $50 Yearly for No Ads: Yahoo, in an attempt to make its photo-hosting service Flickr relevant again, decided to offer 1TB of free space to all users. The downside? Everyone who doesn't pay $50 per year gets ads.
Twitter Gets Two-Factor Authentication: Twitter finally added two-factor authentication and you should enable it right now. We probably don't need to tell you why, but just in case you forgot about social engineering hacks you want to enable this feature to protect yourself.

Questions and Answers

Is it appropriate to send my dream job a cold-call email asking about employment opportunities and, if so, how do I go about asking? Be clear you really want to work for them, not that you just really want the job. Try to get to know someone at the company by offering to buy them lunch or just stopping by to meet the receptionist, then ask for advice about how to approach the company. If sending them a cold email, be concise and ask what one has to do to get a job and when you should look for the next opportunity. Just asking for a job might get ignored unless your timing is perfect.
How can I digitally catalog my mom’s belongings so the entire family of both Android and iPhone users can easily look up what box they’re in? The caller suggested Evernote and we think that's the way to go, too. Springpad might be one other alternative, or even a spreadsheet if you want something really simple (although Google Docs isn't fantastic on smartphones).
I'm 20 and financially irresponsible, mostly because I eat out too much. How can I balance my budget and start cooking more? Budget with Mint or get a bank account that automatically saves money for you. To cook more, plan your meals. These simple recipes are a good place to start.
Is there one good way to convert iPhone videos (quicktime,.mov) to a Windows Media Player format? Nope, not without spending some money on robust video conversion software. MP4 works pretty much everywhere so we suggest converting to that using Handbrake (free).
I am a teacher and want to move to paperless classroom. Is there an easy way for lots of people to scan documents quickly? Looking to buy stuff for the classroom next year. Any products ideas? Doxie works really well, and you can move them around the class really easily. It integrates with Evernote so you can put all the scans into one notebook and share that notebook with the entire class. If you don't like Doxie, check out these alternatives.
What do you recommend for freeing up space on iPhone? Transfer pics and video to a flash drive? Is that just drag and drop? Yes, you answered your own question. :) Plug in the phone on a Mac and open Image Capture to drag and drop files wherever you want. On a Windows PC, just access the phone like a drive and find your pictures and images in the DCIM folder like any camera. If you want to try and free up more space, you can see what apps are using the most space in the General section of the Settings apps. If something is using most of your iPhone's storage, you can go into that app and delete what you don't need.

Tips of the Week

Alan’s Tip: Avoid Dealer Advertising and Delivery Fees to Save Big Buying a Car
Whitson’s Tip: Find Free Wi-Fi Passwords on FourSquare
Dachis’ Tip: Get Great Deals at the Amazon Outlet Store You Never Knew Existed

Downloads of the Week

Alan’s Pick: CupCloud (Windows/OS X) and Minbox (OS X)
Whitson’s Pick: ObjectDock (Windows)
Dachis’ Pick: GText (Chrome)

How Do I Submit a Question?

There are two ways to send in your question:

Call (347) 687-8109 and record a question. Calls are awesome! We like them!
Email your question to tips+asklhshow@lifehacker.com.

Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!

Newspaper, Computer, Clock (by Brandon Hopkins), and Alert (by Dima Yagnyuk) provided by the Noun Project.

GText Syncs Your Android's Text Messages Directly with Gmail

Adam Dachis — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Chrome: Although Gmail can already send and receive text messages, it doesn't sync with your Android smartphone. Gtext, an extension from previously mentioned MightyText, sends and receives texts directly in Gmail using your mobile phone number. Since DeskSMS might not be taking new users, this is a great alternative just in time.

Just like MightyText—rightfully billed as the iMessage of Android—every SMS (and MMS) you send from Gmail syncs up with your smartphone (presuming you have the Android app installed, too). The interface works just like chat in Gmail, only you're actually sending text messages. You also get a handy "Compose SMS" button right beneath the standard email compose button you're used to. If you already have MightyText installed, you'll get up and running in about 10 seconds. If not, installing the app won't take much longer. For those of you who spend a lot of time in Gmail and hate switching to your phone to text, this Chrome extension is a must-install.

Gtext (Free) | Chrome Web Store

How to get Free Official High-Res Icons

GMapper14 — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:16:00 GMT

I found this out a little while ago, and I have always thought it was pretty awesome. You know when you save a web shortcut to the desktop, via chrome "apps" or just a regular ol' link? The icons automatically chosen are normally really blurry and jagged. Not very eye friendly. Well, there is a super simple way to fix this dilemma. Here is what you're gonna do.

1. Create the Shortcut, let's say for GMail. In chrome, select the three bar menu icon, then go to tools, then create application shortcut. Then select desktop only. Or if it is a chrome we app, open the new tab, right click the app and select make shortcut.

2. Now you have your amazing shortcut, but the icon is a wee bit blurry and distorted. No problem. Go to the Google play store and search for GMail (or any other app you need for the icon) Once you find it. Right click the icon/ logo and select save image as. Then save it wherever.

3. Go to http://convertico.com/ and upload the the png image you downloaded from the play store in step 2. Now, go ahead and convert it and save it to an icon folder or really anywhere you want.

4. Now, go to your desktop and right click on the shortcut we made in step 1. Then select properties. The options should be general and shortcut, plus a few others. We only need shortcut. Go to the menu and click change icon. No select browse. No navigate to where you saved the .ico file from step 3 and select that. Then select ok, then ok again. Now there you go!

A high quality, official icon for almost any web app! :D Hope this helped. I have a video walk-through for visual guidance.

Deadspin Bicycle Pumps Are The Worst | Lifehacker Nine Things You Should and Shouldn't Do If You Los

Lauren Bertolini — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:35:00 GMT

Deadspin Bicycle Pumps Are The Worst | Lifehacker Nine Things You Should and Shouldn't Do If You Lose Your Job | io9 12 Underrated or Overlooked TV Shows to Marathon This Weekend | Jalopnik This Is Why People Think Ford Truck Drivers Are Asshats | Valleywag Sean Parker's Wizard Wedding Escapes Government Crackdown

Will getting an advanced degree limit your career options?

Walter Glenn — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:00:00 GMT

Discussion of the Day

Will getting an advanced degree limit your career options?

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Happy Lifehacking, everybody!

Will getting an advanced degree limit your career options?

Best External Battery Pack/Phone Charger?

Alan Henry — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:30:00 GMT

If you've ever watched your phone's battery die before you could charge it again, you know a good, portable battery pack is a lifesaver. However, they're not all made equally—some are definitely more useful (and more functional) than others. This week, we want to know which ones you think make the grade.

It's happened to the best of us: We're out and about and our battery is dying. The indicator goes red and we're nowhere near a USB port or outlet, and even worse, you still need to use your phone before you get back. If you're lucky, you can get somewhere to charge it quickly, but if you're out in the middle of nowhere and need it for GPS, or you're expecting an important call, you need some juice, fast. There's a huge market for mobile battery packs—some of them are portable, charge your phone quickly, and come with tips and attachments to juice up all of your devices. Others are gimmicky and not-so-useful, and come with solar charging panels or hand-cranks. This week, let us know which ones you think are the best. Sound off in the discussions below!

Hive Five nominations take place in the discussions, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of nominations, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your post like so: VOTE: BEST MOBILE BATTERY PACK. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another person. Nominations emailed to us will not be counted. Instead, make your vote and reply separate discussions. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's five best Android phones (2013 Edition).

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!