Sunday, April 6, 2008
Password Your Web Server Pages with .htaccess Editor
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Running a home web server and need to lock it up? Want to set up standard hosting for multiple sub-domains? Don’t worry about tinkering with Apache server’s arcane .htaccess file, just tell the .htaccess Editor webapp what you’re looking for. The site’s interface is a good deal better than many of its ilk, meaning you can usually guess what it’s asking for and why. For budding web tinkerers and those with their own storage space, .htaccess Editor is a time-saving tool worth checking out. More »
Nerdcycle Mounted Monitor Exercise Bike
7:00AM Gina Trapani | Here’s our final winner in the reader contest to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Thanks to everyone who submitted! Reader Martin is determined to not let the exercise bike next to his computer desk just sit there and gather dust. Instead, he wants to cycle while he surfs, and decided to start building his “Nerdcycle” by mounting an extra monitor to the stationary bike. Martin writes in: More »
What’s Your Perfect Sleep Haven?
5:30AM Adam Pash | Everyone knows how hard it can be to unwind and get to sleep after a long day, so Reader’s Digest online suggests 12 steps toward creating the perfect sleep haven to de-stress after a hard day’s work. For example: Chill Before Bed. Lower the temperature of your bedroom before you climb into bed, says Becky Wang-Cheng, M.D., a medical director at Kettering Medical Centre in Ohio. Lower temperatures signal your body it’s time to sleep. If your bed partner objects, just tell him to bundle up. More »
Watch YouTube Clips Inside GNOME’s Built-In Movie Player
4:00AM Kevin Purdy | The Tombuntu blog points out something many GNOME-based Linux users may not have known—the newest version of Totem (available in the Hardy Heron beta), the default multimedia player, can search and play YouTube videos directly through the video sharing site’s API. Simply head to Edit->Plugins->Configure plugins, then check the “YouTube” plugin. Want some of the higher-res goodies web viewers are getting? Go ahead and grab a H264 plugin and activate it the same way. From my experience, search runs a little slower, but I haven’t seen the occasional syncing/freezing problems once in Totem that I often spot at the Flash-based player. More »
Remove Permanent Marker from Any Surface
2:30AM Adam Pash | Toothpaste with baking soda can do wonders when a permanent marker runs amok in your home, according to the Public Reality Blog. Your mileage will likely vary depending on the colour and type of surface you’re removing the marker from, but a quick dance with lady Google shows that the same method has worked for others as well. If baking soda toothpaste works even half as well as our favourite method for removing permanent marker from a dry erase board, we’ll be impressed. How to remove permanent marker from anything… [Public Realty Blog] More »
Childproof Your Home Theatre System
2:00AM Gina Trapani | Keep your toddler from stuffing a peanut butter sandwich into your DVD player with a few kid-proofing home theatre system tips from Wired’s How-To Wiki. They recommend using an enclosed cabinet for your gear, stowing power cords as out of reach as possible, and actually using the safety strap to anchor that big TV to the table top. If your TV or piece of furniture did not include one of these, go out and buy one. Most hardware stores carry them and they are inexpensive insurance. If a five dollar piece of nylon, two screws and five minutes of your time can prevent junior from pulling over your two thousand dollar flat screen, shattering it into a gazillion pieces and quite possibly injuring himself in the process, wouldn’t you go for it? Yes, I think you would. How do you keep the expensive home theatre system as childproof as possible? Share your secrets in the comments. Kid-Proof Your Home Theater [Wired How-To Wiki] More »
