Industrial look-lover Todd Lappin turned the most unlikely object—a trucker's aluminium step—into a soap dish for his new home. While flipping through a tow truck parts catalog, Lappin spotted the step. He writes:

We bought one and installed it in the shower I now use daily. This is by far the best-designed soap dish I've ever used. The open front allows water to drain away easily, while the diamond-plate surface secures and elevates the soap so that it dries without creating a lot of yucky soap-gunk. And of course, the aluminium doesn't rust or corrode.

Definitely one of the niftiest and unexpected repurposing we've seen in awhile. If you want your own truck step soap dish, the part will set you back $US35. (Oz editor adds: does anyone use cakes of soap anymore? Really?)

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Windows only: Wizmo, a free tweak and hack utility for Windows systems, is a tiny but powerful little stand-alone app that lets you create shortcuts for all kinds of things you might want to do in Windows. If you're looking for a way to quickly turn off a laptop monitor to save juice, for instance, create a shortcut to Wizmo and add the -monoff option for instant screen darkening. You can restart your wireless reception, blank out your background image, pop out a CD, and do much more—just run the program by itself to get a list of command switches. If you've already got a lot of little apps that accomplish these tasks, you might think about consolidating for easier reformats and portability. Wizmo is a free download for Windows systems only. Thanks, billspaced!

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The ideal of the one-page resume is a bit of age-old wisdom most of us hear during our very first job search. But does it still hold true, with more workers changing careers more quickly and taking on titles that are harder to explain? Brian McCullough of The Job Bored blog calls shenanigans:

So, let me say it once and for all: a resume does not have to be one page. There's nothing wrong with a one page resume, of course. If that's what you've got, then that's what you've got. But don't even worry if it's mostly one page, with only a paragraph or two spilling out into the second page. Go ahead and keep that second page. It's better than leaving something off your resume that might be helpful.

I know how our lead editor feels, but what say you, job-seekers and applicant-screeners? Is a single-page summation always going to impress the eye and appeal to efficiency, or does a longer reader on credentials serve one better in the long run? Let's hear your take, or your experiences, in the comments. Photo by phil schatz.

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Sync your iPhone calendar to multiple Google Calendar listings with NemusSync, a free application for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches. While other sync utilities have been floating around for a bit, NemusSync doesn't require GooSync or another go-between app to function, and you choose whether the sync is one- or two-way, and which calendar serves as your default. A six-calendar sync took a noticeable amount of time, but I haven't seen any duplicates or other annoying sync problems so far (Edit: But you might want to stick with download-only at first, especially if you're already syncing through iTunes). The developer plans to implement alerts and reminders in future versions; for now, you can use GCal's email reminders or something like IntelliScreen. NemusSync is a free download for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches, and is available in Installer.app's pre-configured repositories.

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Over two years ago in an article on how to automate your hard drive backups, we recommended FTP'ing your files to a cheap, roomy web hosting plan's server for off-site backup. But weblog Digital Inspiration reports that many web hosts don't include file backup in their terms of service, and could delete your data if you use the space (you paid for to host a web site) for backup purposes. You'd think that if you pay for 500GB you should get to use 500GB the way you want—but be sure to read your host's terms before you assume. Since those salad days of hacking together off-site backup, I've since signed up for Mozy—which isn't perfect, but its whole purpose is personal file backup, and it does a pretty good job at a low price. How do you get your off-site backup going on? Let us know in the comments.

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The news that Telstra's Trading Post site is adding online auctions with no listing fees and a choice of payment methods has been widely welcomed, not least because it provides the possibility of an alternative to eBay, which has been shedding users ever since it decided to make PayPal compulsory , thereby increasing its profits while allegedly improving security. The Trading Post has been working on its site for 18 months, and while that's a decent development period, it still means a few useful features are missing. Here's the main changes we'd like to see added to the site to make it really useful in the short term:

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3's latest mobile broadband offering, the prosaically named Broadband Internet Key, is pretty much a standard 3G modem but adds one really useful feature: no cable. Plugging directly into a USB port means you can effectively use the Internet on the go (think trains) without stuff dangling in the wrong place. The pricing is nice ($15 for 1GB a month on a 24-month plan) and the device works on both Windows and Macs (and Linux, though it isn't officially supported). There's only one major catch . . .

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It may have been less stable over the last week or so than a Pamela Anderson marriage, but when it's working, posting on Twitter is an addictive habit. Is it actually a useful one? US fundraiser and Web 2.0 trainer Beth Kanter has a simple but remarkably sensible strategy for making Twitter productive.

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Yes, it's all change here at Lifehacker Towers. Sarah Stokely has headed off to do strange things on web sites with Stephen Mayne, so it's time for a new editor. Who am I and what the heck do I think I'm doing here?

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The hard-working developers over at Mozilla issue a status update on which popular Firefox extensions still need to get updated for Firefox 3. Here's 20 add-ons that are Firefox 3-compatible, and seven that aren't yet. If you're testing the Firefox 3 Release Candidate, you can force Firefox to use incompatible extensions with a configuration tweak, but to avoid possible wonkiness, it's better to wait for officially-compatible releases. In other Firefox 3 news, a second release candidate is slated for early June.

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Dear Lifehacker,
I want to run Windows on my new Intel Mac, and I know I can either dual boot Windows with Boot Camp, or run Windows on my desktop with virtualization software like VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. Which is the best method?
Signed,
Can't Let Go of Windows

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Windows only: Freeware application CloseWin is a single-use app that instantly closes either every window on your desktop or any window matching specific criteria. That makes CloseWin a perfect tool for setting up a Boss Key or something similar; just create a list of apps you'd want to get rid of at the click of a button, add them to CloseWin's profile, then choose the Close all windows in list option when you want to quickly close everything. On the other hand, the Close All Windows button is a perfect last-ditch tool for not just hiding, but getting rid of all of your open windows at once. CloseWin is freeware, Windows only.

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Photography web site Photojojo details how to get crisp, beautiful prints from your digital photos with Photoshop's Unsharp Mask. What's the point of sharpening, you ask?

Digital cameras have a fixed grid of pixels, each of which can only capture one colour or shade at a time. Say you take a picture that has a sharp edge between black and white... The single pixel that records that hairline edge can only record one colour, so it renders it as grey. What we think of as sharpness is actually the contrast we see between different colours. A quick transition from black to white looks sharp. A gradual transition from black to grey to white looks blurry.

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We've already shown you how to turn your point-and-shoot into a super camera with the open-source CHDK software, but if you followed our instructions and hit a "Now what?" wall, the Hack a Day blog offers an excellent guide to finding and using CHDK's best features. It includes details for taking long exposures, ultra-fast exposures, running time-lapse and other scripts, taking HDR photos, and even how to write your own scripts. Hit the jump for a look at a great time-lapse taken with CHDK and to head to the Hack a Day post.

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If you bought a new computer with Windows pre-installed but prefer living the Linux life, Linux.com details how to get a refund of the "Windows tax". It's not always easy, but the author saw a $US52 refund from Dell for his effort. If you've done the same, let's hear about it in the comments.

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Mac OS X only: Donationware application Status Screen Saver adds status notification badges for popular Mac apps like Mail, NetNewsWire, and Twitteriffic, to the bottom of your monitor while your screensaver is playing. Considering the number of times we shake our mouse to exit screensavers just to see if we've received a new email, Status Screen Saver is a brilliant idea. Your screensaver continues running while you stay abreast of those updates. Status Screen Saver is donationware, Mac OS X only, works with any already-installed screensaver.

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The webcam that came packaged with your computer system can do a whole lot more than just let you video chat. With the right tools, you can turn your webcam into a watchful surveillance tool, a face recognition-enabled computer login utility, a time-lapse movie-maker, and more. Let's take a look at some ways you can get more out of your underutilised webcam.

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All platforms with Firefox: Just published an update to the Better GReader Firefox extension, which now includes the excellent Show Feed Favicons user script. Make your feed subscription list more colorful and fun to look at with the user script or the full-on extension. Also added support for our friends in the Great White North hitting Reader at the google.ca address. Download it from the homepage or existing users can grab the update from Firefox's Add-ons dialog.

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Linux only: Organise your music, videos, podcasts, and other media through a slick-looking portal with Banshee, a free download for Linux systems. Looking more than a little like Lifehacker favourite Amarok, Banshee's 1.0 beta 2 release adds a lot of great features, including integrated audio and video podcast support with play-as-it-downloads capability, a video organiser and player that uses the same backend as GNOME's built-in Totem media player, extensive Last.fm tools, and an overall interface overhaul. Banshee 1.0 beta 2 is a free download for Linux systems only; installation guides are provided for Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE distributions.

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You've synced your email, address book, and calendar to your fancy smartphone, which has internet access, photos, and videos on it, too—but how do you keep a thief from ringing up your bill, or worse, stealing your identity using your phone? Tutorial site WikiHow runs down several steps you can take to protect your phone and disable it if it's stolen, like locking the handset with a PIN code. Register your phone with your carrier so that you can disable it the moment you realise it's stolen, wikiHow recommends, and mark the phone with ultra-violet pen so you can prove it's yours.

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ICONlook offers a pretty handy interface for searching and downloading icon files, whether for replacing out-of-place icons on your system or adding some graphical polish to a site. The engine's reach is somewhat limited at this point, but it helpfully provides a link to the licence type for each result, when known, and seems to lean toward free and Creative Commons sources to begin with. Until Google adds icon files to their filetype:x capabilities, ICONlook is a good bet for designing your desktop.

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