A wall-hanging plant holder makes growing plants in your cramped apartment a realistic endeavour, but there's a catch. As is, the plant wall retails for a steep $250—which is why this one's labelled as a weekend project. From the little schematic included on the image from the web site (above), a fearless DIYer could tackle this one for a fraction of the asking price. Whatever you choose, this wall-hanging plant holder could be perfect for indoor or outdoor use, and is reminiscent of the previously mentioned upside-down tomato planter.

Read More »

So the week flew by so fast you're afraid you missed something good. Fear not, friend! We've got this week's best posts right here:

• Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks
  "Since the dawn of time, geeks have been playing harmless pranks on their beloved (but unsuspecting) associates, and it's up to all of us to carry the torch forward."
• Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials
  "When you're installing Windows in a virtual machine or on old, slow hardware, you want the leanest, meanest and fastest-running configuration possible."
• Five Best Instant Messengers
  "On Tuesday we asked for your favourite instant messaging applications, and over 550 comments later, we've culled it down to the most popular five."
• Seven Body Signs and Pains You Shouldn't Ignore
  "There are those who fear impending death at the slightest change in nasal congestion, and then there are those who constantly push abnormal aches and pains aside, hoping they'll just go away."
• Darken Windows to Reduce Eye Strain
  "Reader David says that staring at the glowing box all day long is hard on his peepers, so he takes matters into his own hands."
• Battle of the Human Accountant Versus TurboTax.com
  "It's that dreaded time of the year again, when that teetering pile of W-2 and 1099 forms haunt your dreams, and the perennial question gnaws at you: 'Should I do my taxes myself, or hire an accountant?'"
• Darken Gmail with Gmail Redesigned
  "Firefox with Stylish: The Gmail Redesigned user style—which requires the Stylish extension to use—skins Gmail with an attractive, well laid-out, and completely overhauled look."
• Impress Acquaintances, Get Free Drinks with These Bar Tricks
  "The Wired How-To Wiki takes on the age-old art of bar tricks, detailing several impressive and death-defying techniques for impressing and making good when you're out on the town this weekend."
• Five Best Digital Photo Organisers
  "On Thursday we asked you to tell us your favourite digital photo organising software, and hundreds of you answered with passionate testimonies extolling the virtues of your application of choice."

Read More »

Windows only: You've followed our beginner and intermediate guides to BitTorrent, and you know how to protect your privacy when downloading, but ever since you started on this wild BitTorrent journey, you've wanted to find your way to the BitTorrent promised land—a private tracker. The problem is, they're not easy to get into (trust me, I've tried). Freeware application Open Registrations Checker monitors some of the most popular private trackers for open registrations, alerting you whenever a tracker you're watching opens its registrations. It's not perfect, but it may give you just the heads up you need to get your foot in the door. Open Registrations Checker is freeware, Windows only, requires .NET 2.0.

Read More »

The Capturx is a digital pen that takes notes on real paper and transfers them to your PC with surprising accuracy. I saw a few of these types of pens in action a few years ago and wasn't impressed, but from the looks of things they're getting on track. Check out the video demo to see for yourself. The pen itself will set you back a hefty $350, but if you're a pen-and-paper type who wants to do less manual transfer of your jottings to digital documents, the price of admission might be worth it. If you have more experience with this specific tool or a similar one, let's hear about it in the comments.

Read More »

Webapp Muxtape lets you upload MP3's into a streaming playlist for anyone on the internet to hear. Register for a free Muxtape account, and start uploading MP3's (which you have permission to share), and send your Muxtape URL (youraccount.muxtape.com) to others, who can play your tunes directly from the page. Muxtape's interface is bare-bones—no album art and sparse song metadata—and there's no obvious way for listeners to download the tunes you uploaded. Check out Wired's field guide to existing Muxtape playlists for finding good listening there.

Read More »

US-centric: Send detailed directions for getting around the city from your browser directly to your cell phone with web site HopStop. This webapp has been around for a while (we even posted about it a few years back), but... Read More »

Among all the projects available at the Mozilla Foundation, one little application, Prism (formerly known as WebRunner), hasn't gotten much attention. Understandable, in a way, because Prism seems like just a stripped-down Firefox window in which to view web sites—which it is, but that can be a great thing. With the help of a few utilities, web applications in Prism can be just as convenient to launch and use as your standard-installation desktop programs. Let's take a look at where Prism really works and how to get more out of it after the jump.

Read More »

The New York Times reports that while exercising willpower in one area of your life will reduce it in others, practicing willpower improves your capacity for keeping yourself in check overall.

The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. The good news, however, is that practice increases willpower capacity, so that in the long run, buying less now may improve our ability to achieve future goals—like losing those 10 pounds we gained when we weren't out shopping.

This means that you should pursue one or two goals at a time, and let the other stuff go. Then, when you achieve them, you can move onto the next accomplishment.

Read More »

Linux only: Tag and organise documents of nearly any kind and generate complete bibliographies with Referencer, a free utility for Linux systems. PDF files, office documents, saved web pages, and whatever else you have laying around can be tagged and organised, and you can enter the metadata needed for a bibliography report by hand, or have Referencer jump onto arXiv, PubMed, or CrossRe to see if any titles match up with what you're looking at. For those with a lot of nested folders' worth of documents or anyone harnessing Tux's power for academic pursuits, Referencer can be a great tool and freak-out-preventer. Referencer is a free download, available as source and pre-compiled for many Linux distributions.

Read More »

We all know that networking can be vitally important, especially for freelancers and those with a bit of salesmanship to their jobs, but gigantic conferences like SXSW Interactive or O'Reilly Emerging Technology can seem like imposing behemoths, and even smaller gatherings can be frustrating if your crowd-working skills aren't up to snuff—which certainly holds true for your morning editor. There's always another chance to book a room and pin on a name tag coming up, though, so I turn to our more networking-savvy readers and ask: How do you set goals or keep focused on getting something worthwhile out of your time at conferences and seminars? What kind of must-have goods do you bring? Do you plan to meet certain people ahead of time, or are big gatherings a chance to play it by ear? Let's hear your advice, war stories, and suggestions in the comments.

Read More »

You might think your consumer-model Canon digital camera can't pull off the kind of fancy shots and tricks that make you stop and look on Flickr—until you unlock your camera's potential with the Canon Hacker's Development Kit. The completely reversible firmware upgrade, available for models running the DIGIC II or DIGIC III platforms, speeds up fast shutter modes (from 1/1,600th of a second to 1/60,000th!), allows for time-lapse photography and other scripted shots, unlimited interval shooting, better HDR pics, and much, much more. Wired's How-To Wiki has a handy guide and introduction to the CHDK, available at the link below. I lack a Canon to try out the CHDK, so let your fellow readers know what you think if you've taken this step already.

Read More »

Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich shares a system his friend uses to set a firm amount of discretionary spending each month and then not spend more. It's a take on the "cash in envelopes" system (represented digitally in programs like Budget, and it's just as grok-able—when the money's gone for the month, it's gone. Obviously, you'd want to ensure you don't draw serious overdraft fees, and you'd have to have a handle on your monthly budget to begin with, but it's at least as effective as deducting credit charges as you go, and possibly moreso, with the thought of having a card turned down a nice social conditioner. For those with a fuzzy grip on spending, this technique could make the numbers seem pretty firm.