How To Find And Get Involved With A Hackerspace 
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What Do You Do With Your Gadgets When You Move Overseas? 
The Lifehacker Total Security Guide 
Spotify And Its Rivals: Subscription Music Services In Australia Compared 
The Stupid Things You Do On Facebook (And How To Fix Them) Time for a quick break from the life hackin’ to get your opinion, dear readers. Do we post too many items here per day? Too few? Is it just right? After the jump, please indulge us with your thoughts on the matter.
If you’ve spent hours ripping a DVD or downloading a video just to find—when all’s said and done—that the audio and video aren’t matching up, reader Will suggests using video-Swiss-Army-knife VLC’s desynchronisation feature to sync up the audio.
In the VLC Preferences, click on Audio and then tick the Advanced options checkbox; there is an Audio desynchronization compensation setting that allows you to set a positive or negative time delay between the video and audio tracks in milliseconds. I find unsynchronized video/audio unbearable, and have been known to delete files without watching them for it. It never occurred to me that there would be such a simple solution!
Will points out that you need to stop and start the movie each time you make an adjustment, but if you’ve been banging your head against the wall over poorly synced audio, VLC can make quick work of it. Thanks Will!
Commercial shipping scales can cost a mint, so do-it-yourselfer arcticpenguin modified an electronic bathroom scale purchased at a thrift shop to do the job. A bathroom scale can weigh packages out of the box, but seeing the readout is almost impossible with any large box; so this modification involves dismounting the LED screen, extending the wires connecting it to the scale, and mounting it on the wall. Arcticpenguin completed this project with materials that cost under a buck, and the result can weigh packages up to 330 pounds. Convert an Electronic Bathroom Scale Into A Shipping Scale for < $1: There You Have It [Instructables via Make]
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Freeware Firefox theme Littlefox replaces buttons and adjusts spacing on your Firefox chrome to optimise your screen space and focus on the browsing. The Littlefox chrome is unquestionably tiny, and it identifies bookmarklets and such in fun ways, but overall the design could be a little cleaner. If you like the idea of taking Firefox minimal but aren’t keen on the looks of Littlefox, check out how to roll your own consolidated chrome in Firefox. Littlefox [Firefox Add-ons via Killer Tech Tips]
Just because hard drives are cheap doesn’t mean you should keep every file you ever come across. The Unclutterer weblog, which usually focuses on your home and office, turns its organising eye to your hard drive and runs down ways to herd all the bits and pieces we collect on our computers all day. They suggest deleting everything you don’t need, creating folders that mirror your life, using descriptive file names, and making liberal use of a temporary folder. There’s lots of similarity here to my six-folder system for organizing “My Documents.” Also, remember you can use automated tools like Belvedere for Windows and Hazel for Mac to automatically clear out files from a temporary folder after a certain amount of time. What’s your preferred way to stow files away on your desktop? Let us know in the comments. Managing Computer File Clutter [Unclutterer]
US-centric: March Madness is just a week away, and this year you’ve got more ways than ever to catch the action no matter where you are. First, the freeware TV-over-the-internet app Joost (remember our full tour and review of Joost) has partnered with CBS to stream all of the games live to the Joost client. It’s Joost’s first major experiment for live video, so if bugginess is too much to bear, you can also head to the official March Madness on-demand web site, which will stream nearly every game online for free. Looks like online video is making life better every day for the sports fanatic. Joost [via NewTeeVee]
NCA March Madness on Demand [NCAA]
We were impressed with part one, part two blew us away, and today we’re back for an incredible third and final installment of the 2008 Coolest Cubicle Contest, with $500 at Amazon up for grabs. Today’s submissions feature some over-the-top cubicles—like race tracks and bunkers—and some incredibly clever and subtle cubicle decor that anyone could pull off with a minimum of effort. Hit the jump to take a look at the last group of cubicles.
Macworld’s running a fantastic “Leopard Survival Guide” series, covering little-known Mac tips of all sorts, like how to customise the welcome text in a new Terminal window: Open Terminal and enter cd /etc, press return, and then type sudo pico motd. That second command launches a text editor and loads a new file called motd (Message Of The Day). Type whatever you like for a message (for instance, “Welcome to the land where text is king”), press control-X (for Exit), press Y (for Yes, to save changes), and then press return (to accept the file name, which will be shown as motd). From now on, new Terminal windows will display your new greeting, right below the date and time of the last login.
Don’t miss the rest of the series, which also covers the Dock and Stacks to Spaces, Expose and the Dashboard. Leopard Survival Guide: System Preferences, Terminal [Macworld]
Windows and Mac OS X: Free data-syncing utility FolderShare has released an updated Windows client with better Windows Vista support and performance, as well as a redesign of the website where you can easily share and grab files from another computer, whether it’s Mac or PC. As with the first time we mentioned it, FolderShare only limits individual file sizes (up to 2 GB) and the number of files per shared library (10,000)—other than that, it’s whatever you want to share. If you’ve got a different OS at home and work, or you just want an easy synchronisation tool for an always-on box, FolderShare fits the bill, and can help you keep Firefox profiles and Greasemonkey scripts in sync. FolderShare is a free download for Windows and Mac OS X systems (with an updated Mac client in the works, according to developers).
