On Saturday you learned how to control hobbyist hardware using the Arduino microcontroller, and today we've got another neat Arduino project: a Gmail notifier lamp. Blogger Jamie Matthews connected a cube lamp to his Mac, and using the Arduino, configures it to light when he gets new messages to his Gmail account. Hit the link to get the details on the Gmail notifier hardware and software setup. Have you seen or done any other nifty Arduino projects? Do tell us about them in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

read more »

Macworld contributor Brian Jepson isn't content with just connecting external drives, mice, scanners, and printers to his Mac—he wants to control custom hardware. He explains how to do just that with a microcontroller. Jepson writes:

To show you what's possible with microcontrollers and the Mac, I came up with a demonstration project that I call BreakTimer. This system enables your Mac to detect whether you're sitting in your chair and, if you've been sitting too long, to tell you it's time to get up and take a break.

Jepson uses the Arduino microcontroller board, which plays nice with the Mac and comes with software that lets you program it. Hit the link to see how he hooked up a seat sensor and the microcontroller to his Mac to issue break reminders.

read more »

Web site Linux.com offers a few tips for taking advantage of the second Ethernet port on the back of your computer. For example, in Linux you can bond your two ports for load balancing and fault tolerance.

...bonding [combines] both of the computer's interfaces into a single interface.... The OS can alternate which interface it uses to send traffic, or it can gracefully fail over between them in the event of a problem. You can even use it to balance your traffic between multiple wide area network (WAN) connections, such as DSL and cable, or dialup and your next door neighbor's unsecured Wi-Fi.

read more »

If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware.

read more »

A new UK study shows that keyboards swabbed from an ordinary London office had more harmful bacteria than—you know what's coming—a toilet seat. Yeeks! The accompanying survey showed that most users clean their keyboard infrequently (if at all), and clean their mouse even less often. Here's what you do: shut down your PC, unplug your keyboard and mouse, shake out any dust, lint and other crap, and wipe 'em down with disinfectant alcohol wipes. Right this very minute. For a more thorough cleaning which involves disassembly and compressed air, see this step by step guide. Or if there's just one or two rogue crumbs you'd like to fish out from between the G and H keys, use a piece of sticky tape. Photo by basibanget.

read more »

Gizmodo editor Brian Lam takes his MacBook with him everywhere, but he's not a big fan of the bulky power cord that accompanies his laptop. Instead, he opts for a slimmer, ungrounded PlayStation power cord.

Where the Mac power cord is too thick to easily coil or toss in a bag — and has a ground prong so it's limited to those types of AC outlets — the PlayStation cord is ostensibly perfect. It fits into the Mac power brick, coils up nice and small and has two prongs. Plus, you can leave your giant Mac cord at your desk back home and don't have to deal with dust bunnies every time you get ready to go out the door.

You're not limited to a PlayStation power cord, as any similar cord would fit the bill. Be warned: We're not electricians, but we generally don't recommend circumventing the safety of a ground if you can help it. Use this tip at your own risk.

read more »

Few families made it through the 1980s without collecting one or more Nintendo Entertainment Systems, but many of them sit unusable today, no matter how hard you blow into them. Wired's Chris Kohler and his brother Dan show in the above video that given a screwdriver, a 72-pin connector available for a few dollars online, and a wee bit of patience, the garage-bound game system can be revived and made ready for duck hunting, Koopa-stomping, or whatever lies inside the cartridges you haven't sold off.

read more »

Dock any internal SATA hard drive in this USB dock to turn any internal drive into an external drive on-the-quick. If you've got a few old hard drives hanging around that you'd like to put to good use but they aren't really worth installing in your computer's innards and you don't feel like taking the time to convert that old drive into an external hard drive, this simple dock, which appears to have taken swappable inspiration from your SNES, seems like a brilliant idea. The dock will set you back $42, but I couldn't actually find a store where they're in stock, so if you have better luck, please share in the comments. UPDATE: You can find it cheaper and in stock from good old, reliable Newegg for $32. Thanks pinion!

read more »

Yesterday we pointed you to Gizmodo US's take on how to handle the death of HD-DVD (their tip: sell off your player on eBay before the rest of the world realises it's a dead format). But Nick over at Giz AU has come up with a pretty good alternative - he says there's around 1,000 movies out there on HD-DVD, and you'll be able to scoop them up pretty cheaply, so why not hang onto your player and get your money's worth. Makes sense to me.
He's also got some tips on how to best get into Blu-ray (PS3!) - remembering that you need an HD TV and surround sound to get the most out of it.

So Blu-ray won the format war - now what? [Gizmodo AU]