Monday, May 26, 2008

Get Started with Composting

9:15AM Kevin Purdy | Wired’s How-To Wiki guides newcomers gently into the soft terrain of composting, a great way to recycle biodegradable goods and create some of the best growing soil around. You can get started with something as simple and low-cost as a trash bag, the authors note: Just fill it up with a good mixture of browns (paper and plant pieces) and greens (kitchen scraps), soak it down, punch a few air holes and wait three months. Viola! Compost. The wiki has more detailed advice for those who want to keep a tidier pile, or learn more about what makes for great material—one easy-to-find example, as previously posted, is non-glossy, low-colour junk mail. Are you composting? What’s your setup? Let us know in the comments. Photo by normanack. Compost [Wired How-To Wiki] More »

AjaxDaddy Adds Slick Applets to Your Web Site

8:45AM Kevin Purdy | Need to give your blog or personal site a more modern look? AjaxBuddy, a free repository of Web 2.0-style site tools, is great for site owners who don’t have time to learn an entire programming language, or just need a starter block of code to get building. Grab free, easy-to-modify code for Flickr-like editing fields, quick-loading slideshows and tabbed galleries, instant graphs, date-choosing calendars, and dozens more examples. Many require replacing just a few values to get working, but even the more complex tools are great learning tools. AjaxDaddy [via Online Tech Tips] More »

Desk Drive Creates Desktop Shortcuts to Your Removable Media

8:30AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application Desk Drive monitors your computer for new media—like a new CD, DVD, or thumb drive—then automatically creates a desktop shortcut pointing to your newly mounted media. Disabling autoplay is safer and less annoying than leaving it enabled, but that means you have to open up My Computer every time you plug in a thumb drive or insert a new disc. Desk Drive gives you quick and easy access to that media from your desktop as soon as you plug it in, similar to the default (and arguably better) behaviour found on Macs. The downside: Desk Drive takes up way too much memory (around 17MB in my test), so it may not be worth it unless you’ve got boatloads of RAM. Desk Drive [Blue Onion via FreewareGenius] More »

Starve Yourself to Fend Off Jet Lag

8:15AM Adam Pash | Starving yourself prior to a long flight may be the key to preventing jet lag, according to Yahoo Health. Normally, the body’s natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones More »

Fix a Stripped Screw Hole with a Golf Tee

8:00AM Adam Pash | Got a screw that’s stripped the wood around it and won’t stay put, but a longer or larger screw won’t solve the problem? How-to blog DIY Life says a wooden golf tee and some wood glue is all you need to make that hole as good as new. Just slather the tee with glue and tap it into the offending hole until it’s secure, let it dry, then cut off what’s sticking out. If the stripped hole is too small, the post recommends flat toothpicks can do the trick, too. Photo by pogwebsite. Fix a stripped screw hole with a golf tee [DIY Life] More »