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How To Kill Time Productively On Your Phone Most “Make X Look Like a Mac” hacks for any system end up merely putting a new skin on the same basic window and menu layouts. Not so with Global Menu, an Ubuntu project that’s seen a lot of community input and has matured along with it. After installing more than a dozen packages and crossing your fingers, your top menu bar should emulate the OS X style, moving your program dialogs up there and keeping the application window relatively clean. At this point, the trick doesn’t work with Firefox and some Java-based apps (hello OpenOffice), but add it to one previously-mentioned modification tutorial and a new Thunderbird theme, and you’re getting much closer to the look and feel of a Mac, if that’s your preference. Hit the link for the detailed installation instructions. Global Menu [Ubuntu Wiki via Download Squad]
The Zakka Life Crafts blog suggests a frugal, DIY way to keep kids (and maybe driving adults) stocked up with non-spill “sippy” cups. Wash out yogurt containers with plastic lids, then cut a fast-food-style “X” in the lid, big enough for a straw to go through but not much bigger. You’ve got a cheap, reusable sippy cup for tykes or travelers, and one you won’t necessarily mind losing. For a similar trick while traveling, try the same thing with store-bought drink bottles. Photo by {just jennifer}. Sippy-ki-ay! [Zakka Life via TipNut.com]
Adding a handwritten signature to letters or even email can add a distinguising, memorable mark to your messages—and in cases like mine, that distinct memory is, “Boy, his handwriting is awful.” MyLiveSignature, a free web app that produces stylized signatures for use in emails, blog posts, or other writing, is a fitting solution to that problem. After typing in your name, you get your choice of 10 fonts, and then many more choices for size, color, and tilt. The site then generates HTML and BB code to embed that signature wherever you’d like, and let people know it’s really you writing—even if it’s not quite you. For a similar paper-based signature hack, check out this tip on creating a scan-and-send signature. MyLiveSignature [via Digital Inspiration]
