Soldering? Duct tape? Pshaw. Sometimes all you need to make something is paper and tape. The do-it-yourselfer at the E-Frank blog wanted a simple, disposable earbud cord wrap for his music player, so he folded one up out of a single piece of paper and sealed it with tape. A "deluxe edition" of the wrap involves adding a slit to the spine to run the cord through. Dead simple and useful, plus you won't feel too bad if you lose it.

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I don't often post spiritual or inspirational posts, but I just read "How to change another person's life" over at the "I will change your life" blog, and thought it might be time.

That post gives credit for the little actions or words which can be said to us, which change us in profound ways - sometimes without the speaker even intending to do so.

Years ago, a friend helped me get through a personal rut and back on track towards my career goal of being a journalist. He was just recapping a night out we'd had with a few friends, but I can still remember exactly what he wrote about me:

"If brains are knives, Sarah's running around madly brandishing a chainsaw". Might sound like a wierd compliment, but coming from one of the smartest computer geeks I know, it meant a lot to me to be reminded that I'm one smart cookie myself. That compliment boosted me so much I really credit Ben with helping me get my butt back into professional journo mode.

And I don't think I even told him. So thank you, Ben, if you're reading this.

Got any stories to share about people who've inspired you? Share in comments please, let's share the love. :)

Sci-Fi blog I09 wanders into eco-utopia today with its To-do list for Futurists. Inspired by novelist Ernest Callenbach, it lists five practical things you can do, including recycling the waste you produce, and repurposing an old machine which you were going to throw out.
It also encourages people to reach out and work together:

"Spend one day volunteering with an organization or getting together with friends to help your community produce less environment-damaging waste. Think broadly about what it means to produce less waste. It could mean everything from cleaning up garbage in natural areas, to helping someone else refurbish their old computers. The point of this item on the to-do list is to work with other people (even if it's online) to reduce polluting waste, because you can't change the future all by yourself."

It also recommends a book called "Collapse" by Jared Diamond - which is about how societies destroy themselves by misusing natural resources.

To-do List for Futurists [I09]

It's no secret that Google's building a new Sydney office since their current digs in Sussex Street were sold some months ago. Fellow building mates Fairfax already relocated across the pond next door to the casino, and Google's on the move to Workplace6 in Pyrmont.
They made the formal announcement about this today, and they released this "artist's impression" of what their new custom-built Sydney Googleplex will look like:


Sydney's Googlers will move into the new building in 2009. The press release was long on "dull but worthy" details such as "Workplace6 is NSW's first 6 Star Green Star building, going above and beyond green office standards for Australia."
We can only assume from the brevity of the press release that Google Australia has conceded that Google Zurich - which features a fireman's pole or a slide to get you down to the  ground floor in a quick and  fun fashion - reigns supreme as the "cool" Google office. Aww.
I tried to grab Google's head of engineering Alan Noble before he was whisked off at the end of the press conference but I'll ask my question here and hope that someone at Google will fill us in. Where's the fun, Google? We want to hear about the cool geek chillout areas you're building into the Sydney Googleplex!!!  What toys are the engineers getting? We want the details! :)

Australia is set to get the very first public transport mapping layer for Google Maps outside of the northern hemisphere. There's only one small catch though - it's for Perth.

Google held a press conference in Sydney today which gave a sneak preview of the Google Transit experience which Westralians will have access to.

Perth residents will be able to plan their trips by public transport using the Google Maps interface, which will also have points of interest built in, such as cafes. The live demo today looked similar to the normal Google Maps interface.

Google's head of engineering, Alan Noble, said that while the company is keen to roll out Google Transit across Australia, it will need the various state transit authorities to get involved and provide data. He said the company has held "preliminary discussions" with the NSW and Victorian authorities, but couldn't put a timeframe on when we might get our Google Transit maps. Sigh.

We weren't given a launch date but they said the service would go live "shortly". Congratulations, Perth. I guess you guys deserve to get something first, for a change. ;)

Under the cut I've put a couple of screenshots showing the Google Transit sidebar and map interface.

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Reader's Digest rounds up 10 tips to control your cravings and stay on point with your diet, including a simple and excellent craving killer: a handful of nuts and water.

Go nuts. Drink two glasses of water and eat an ounce of nuts (6 walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts). Within 20 minutes, this can extinguish your craving and dampen your appetite by changing your body chemistry, says RD's "Health IQ" columnist Michael F. Roizen, MD.

The article includes several other tips for curbing your cravings, from brushing your teeth to de-stressing. If your cravings are strong and persistent, you may also want to find out what your cravings are telling you and supplement your diet with the missing ingredients. Let's hear your favourite craving-killers in the comments.

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Windows only: Free, open source application MinimOther takes an aggressive approach to distraction by automatically minimising every window except the currently active window to give you a clutter-free workspace that allows you to focus on the task at hand. As soon as you activate one window, the last active window will minimize, so essentially MinimOther is endlessly minimizing every window but one active window. Granted, one of the great things about the personal computer is its impressive ability to multi-task, but if you ever need to get really serious about focusing on one app at a time, MinimOther might be worth a go. MinimOther is free, Windows only.

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If you run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels, you may have been annoyed in the past that you can't use removable volumes (like USB drives) simultaneously in OS X and your Windows virtual machine. Web site Mac OS X Hints details how to remedy this problem with a simple solution: add a shared folder in Parallels that points to /Volumes. Not only will the new shared folder give you access to USB drives, but also your DVD drive and all other mounted volumes on your Mac—and you get it all without having to hassle with individually connecting and disconnecting drives from your virtual machine. I tried to duplicate this method in VMWare Fusion but wasn't able to select the /Volumes folder. Either way, the Parallels hack is smart and saves a ton of time.

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Programmer Matt Moore says some days he cranks out work, and others he can barely get anything done—and shares some tricks he uses to make today one of the productive ones. My favourite is his suggestion to leave work with something small broken so you have an easy place to start the next day. Moore writes:

Programming effectively requires me to have a lot in my brain at one time—which I "load" when I start, and which rapidly dissipates when I get distracted or stop. That means that getting started and "into the zone" is the hardest part. What makes it easier to get started is if I have a simple task to complete that gets me in the zone. So, any time I stop (lunch, or in the evening), I intentionally break something so I can get right back and fix it—when I get back to work, I'm not only anxious to fix it, but I'm in the zone after I'm done fixing it.

Seems like this would work whether or not you're writing code. If it's not leaving purposefully broken code, it may be just writing yourself a note about the first thing you need to work on.

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Video web site Videojug details how to install "invisible" bookshelves that make your books appear to be floating on nothing. The tutorial requires one large book you're willing to sacrifice, an L-bracket, and a few other common supplies. We've covered the invisible bookshelf once before, but the video provides a much more detailed account of the process (despite the unnaturally loud narration). Like the original, it's just as good and a lot cheaper than the commercial version. Looking for other inventive ways to sacrifice books? Try the iPod carrier or secret hollow book.

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Reader Rob P. uses Firefox quick search bookmark to see if web servers aren't reachable. He says:

Add this as a Bookmark in Firefox:
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=ping&host=%s
I have its keyword as "ping" ... so all I have to do is type ping google.com in the address bar.

The advantage of pinging a server using a webapp versus from your own command line is that you can see whether or not your network connection is the problem. This looks like a good alternative to sites like DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com, though a bit more geared towards networking geeks. Thanks, Rob P.!

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Mac OS X only: Freeware application Breakaway automatically pauses and resumes your iTunes music when you unplug or plug in your headphones, perfect for using your laptop in public places. Not only will the auto-pause prevent you from blaring music to everyone around you if you accidentally unplug your headphones, but you also won't miss a beat if you step away with your headphones and then come back and plug in. Breakaway is freeware, Mac OS X only.

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Following up on last week's guide to creating a shortcut to Windows' Safely Remove Hardware dialog, the How-To Geek weblog details how to set up a shortcut or hotkey to immediately eject a specific USB drive, particularly handy if you typically only use one USB drive on your computer. The guide uses previously mentioned app USB Disk Ejector in conjunction with its command line options to create simple shortcuts for specific drive ejection. When you're finished, you should be able to instantly eject any drive with a couple of quick keystrokes without clicking through menus. These shortcuts would be perfect to index with Launchy for quick access.

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More devices in your living room have Ethernet ports than ever before, but you can't plug them into the network if your router's in the other room. When your Wi-Fi access point is in the home office but your TiVo, Xbox, and media centre are screaming for network love under your TV in the living room, you want a wireless bridge (also known as an Ethernet converter). A wireless bridge catches your home network's Wi-Fi signal and provides ports where you can plug in wired devices near it. Let's take a look at how to wire up your living room using a wireless bridge.

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Yesterday when we asked you what your favourite Windows firewall software is, we got back tons of responses, from ZoneAlarm to Sygate from free to commercial. Now we want to narrow down the choices to the best. All those who take your Windows PC out onto open networks and protect it from network baddies on the cheap, vote for your favourite free Windows firewall software after the jump.

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Dear Lifehacker,
I'm trying to make a keyword search bookmark for Lifehacker.com in Firefox, but it's not working. In the address bar, I can type http://lifehacker.com/search/myterm/ and it'll search for "myterm" but when I make a quick search bookmark for this, using http://lifehacker.com/search/%s/, I get a "Bad Request" error since Firefox doesn't replace the %s with the actual search term. All my other keyword search bookmarks work great. Am I doing something wrong?
Signed,
Desperately Seeking Quick Search

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Forgot to wear green today, little leprechaun? Dress up your computer desktop instead with a few St. Patrick's Day screensavers and games.

AU - aww, too late for those of us in the advanced southern hemisphere! ;)

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For the next two weeks, readers are submitting their best life hack for a chance to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Reader Trent writes in with his photographic take on the popular pegboard gadget mount project we posted a while back. Trent says the project took:

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