You've heard of an emergency fund, and they're a must for setbacks and financial pitfalls. In case of larger financial emergencies, Financial Samurai suggests what he calls the "Armageddon Fund".

Even if you haven't bought a CD or DVD in years, you probably still have hundreds of them around the house. When it comes time to move them, if you're short a few jewel cases, a large book can get the job done in a pinch.

The need for CD cases is dwindling, but for that same reason it's less likely you have an old jewel case laying around when you need one. Geeky blog Nerd Paradise devised a simple way to make CD case out of a sheet of paper for those rare instances when you need one.

Ashampoo's paid version of their Burning Studio program rated highly in our recent app directory series for best disc burning app for Windows. It wasn't the first choice, as it normally costs a cool $US50, but is available as a free download from The Download Crew's Giveaway site for the next 26 hours (at time of writing).

Linux has a few disc burning apps available, but our favourite is undoubtedly the powerful K3b.

Windows has more disc-burning apps than we can count, but a few notable programs stand out from the pack. Our favourite is CDBurnerXP for its long list of features and easy-to-use interface.

Ever since Apple introduced disc burning into Mac OS X, third-party software stopped seeing much development. While there aren't a ton of disc-burning apps still in the running, Burn still stands strong as our top choice thanks to its simplicity, powerful feature set and $0 price tag.

We've featured more than one design for an IKEA standing desk in the past, which is no surprise given the ease with which cheap IKEA gear can be hacked. Here's another take on the IKEA standing desk concept, with an added recycling bonus: using CDs to get the perfect height.

Playing off an idea we highlighted a couple weeks back that involved using a CD and suction cup as a dirty dish indicator, DIYer Sean Ragan put together this simple printable status dial project.

Yes, the times are changing. Yes, we've cut back on purchasing CDs, DVDs and BDs lately. Yes, we still have plenty of discs lying around in jewel cases on dusty shelves or in enormous three-ring binders. And yes — most definitely yes — we want to be able to access all these movies and songs from our PC, television and our shiny new smartphone.

We're paying less for recorded music than we were two decades ago, but we're still inclined to complain about it. Is there any truly rational basis for saying that music is too expensive in Australia?

If you have a long, winding driveway, it can be pretty difficult (and dangerous) for you and others to drive through it at night. To make it safer, nail a few old CDs to posts or trees as light reflectors.

Windows/Linux: For those who back up to DVD, multiple USB drives or just have a lot of storage devices around, there probably aren't enough labels or markers to keep everything in order. That's where storage tracker Basenji comes in.

You can get a world of entertainment streamed through your Internet connection, but most of us still have DVDs and CDs and console games to store. What are the best approaches to keeping that stuff organised?

Windows: BurnAware Free has one of the most simple interfaces you can find for making a CD or DVD from a computer. A free beta of its upcoming third release converts many formats to usable discs and won't tax your system's resources.

Moving, needing cash, running out of storage space—they're all great reasons to consider backing up and ditching your physical. Here are our recommended methods of saving, selling and trading your CDs, DVDs and video games.

If you prefer Nero for your simple CD/DVD burning tasks but the price throws you for a loop, Nero introduces a stripped-down, freeware version of the popular dvd burning software.

Windows/Linux: ImgBurn is the most popular CD and DVD burning tool among Lifehacker readers, and with the newly released version 2.5, it's even better.

Got a pile of old, scratched-up coasters that you don't really need anymore? You can repurpose them into a dock for your iPod, iPhone or other audio player.