Gina Trapani Master Feed

The Mac Lover's Bedroom [Featured Workspace]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Putting your workspace in your bedroom is a gamble. Do it poorly and you invite a clutter magnet into your sleeping space. Do it well, and you can put your bedroom's extra space to stylish, productive use.

Today's featured workspace pulls off the office-as-bedroom tact without introducing clutter or bulk into the bedroom. Tucked neatly in the corner and with dual monitors to boot, reader ryopang can get work done in style in his bedroom office. You can click on the picture above for a closer look or the pictures in the gallery below.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

Colorhat Tracks Time Spent on Projects and Goals [Time Management]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

If you're not looking for a complicated project management tool, but just a simple way to track how much time you spend on projects or goal-related tasks, web service Colorhat offers simple task tracking and statistical feedback charts.

Marking your time spent on projects, or sub-projects, happens using the timeline and selecting the block of time you want to assign to the task or server, by hitting the play arrow next to the task or service you want to begin recording time for, or after the fact by entering a time range. You can use a variety of conventions like ":30" to indicate you worked on it for the last thirty minutes, "since 10" to indicate you've worked on it since 10AM, or "10:00 to 16:00" to specify a block of time.

The results of your time tracking can be viewed as weekly bar graphs, a custom timeline, or as a pie chart indicating how much time you devote to each product and task. You can play with a demo of the service before signing up for a free account, available here.

Have a favorite time tracking tool? Found a way to fit Colorhat into your productivity mix? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Ask the Commenters Roundup [Download Roundup]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

Turn a Lightbulb into a Mini-Terrarium [Plants]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Why limit your mini-terrarium output to plain old jars? You can reuse a burned out light bulb to create a smaller, desk-friendly nature space.

Earlier this year we shared a technique for turning a wine bottle into a terrarium and we followed it up by building moss terrariums in glass jars and dishes. Now an industrious Instructables user has taken the humble light bulb and turned it into a tiny terrarium.

For the project you'll need an old incandescent light bulb, some pliers, a screw driver, and safety goggles and gloves. Once you prep the light bulb you'll need some soil and some small plants like moss or clover that you want to plant inside. From there, the only care your terrarium will need is a few drops of water down inside.

Check out the tutorial at the link below for information about preparing the light bulbs and positioning the plants inside. If you have a clever plant-related project of your own, let's hear about it in the comments.

Make a Simple Holiday Decoration with a Tomato Cage [Holidays]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

If you're looking for a novel and cheap outdoor holiday decoration, these tomato-cage-turned-Christmas-tree decorations are inexpensive and fun.

You'll need some 3-tier wire tomato cages, black electrical tape, 100-bulb strands of mini lights, and some monofilament line to hang them. The basic design is simply wire wrapped around the inverted tomato cage to create a glowing Christmas tree shape. The hanging requires a little finesse with the monofilament line, but you can read more about that at the link below.

Have a crafty and inexpensive holiday decoration to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Get Built-In Bookcases Inexpensively by Using Pre-Made Parts [DIY]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

If you like the look of built-in bookcases, but not the look of the bill from the contractor who installs them, you can build them yourself with some basic carpentry skills and some modified pre-made cabinets.

Instructables user CarlS wanted the look of custom built-in bookcases without the huge expense that usually comes with getting custom work done. By using pre-built cabinet bases, topped with simple pre-drilled melamine boards designed for shelving, he was able to build huge built-in bookcase inexpensively and perfectly fit for the long wall he wanted to dress up.

Check out the tutorial at the link below to see how he turned pre-fab materials into a built-in with a very polished look. If you have any experience with built-ins or using basic materials to make things that look professionally crafted, let's hear about it in the comments.

Five Best Wishlist Tools [Hive Five]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

If you're making a list and checking it twice, it helps to have a great tool for said list making. This week we're taking a look at the five most popular tools Lifehacker readers use to make their wishlists.

Photo by plindberg.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite tool for maintaining a wishlist. We tallied up your nominations, and now we're back to share the five most popular tools for your review.

Wishpot (Web-based, Free)

Wishpot is a web-based wishlist tool. After signing up for a free account, you can add a button to your browser toolbar to quickly and easily add items to your wishlist from any web site. You can also manually add items, import your Amazon.com wishlist, or use your mobile phone to scan barcodes or take pictures of products to be added to your wishlist. Once you've built a list you can share it via email using a shared wishlist URL or by embedding a widget into your Facebook or Myspace page. When you share a wishlist with friends and family, they can reserve gifts on the wishlist they wish to purchase and the other people the list has been shared with will see their reservations—the owner of the list, however, doesn't see when gifts have been reserved. Wishlist is free and can be accessed either by using Facebook Connect or by creating a new account.

Google Docs (Web-based, Free)

Google Docs is a popular option for recording gift wishes despite not being specifically focused on wishlist creation. Lifehacker readers use various Google Docs tools like Google Spreadsheet to list and track their wanted items—the above image is a screenshot of a Google Spreadsheet wishlist that's available here. Whether you want to simply record items in a cloud-based document or you want to sort and analyze in a spreadsheet, Google Docs has something to offer for nearly every level of wishlist intensity.

Amazon.com Universal Wishlist (Web-based, Free)

Amazon's wishlist system used to only support items that Amazon or affiliates carried—which, while limited, still gave you access to a large stable of items. When they rolled out the Universal Wishlist and its accompanying Wishlist Button, however, you got the ease of use of the Amazon wishlist system plus the ability to add items to your list that Amazon.com doesn't carry. Anything from any web site can now be added to your Amazon wishlists, both private and public, using the Wishlist Button. Creating and managing your Amazon wishlist is free.

Evernote (Windows/Mac OS X/Web-based/Phone, Basic: Free, Premium: $45 per year)

If Amazon scores points for being able to import gifts from all over the web, Evernote wins points for being able to import gift ideas from everywhere. Although Evernote isn't specifically a wishlist-keeping tool, it is an excellent capture tool. Between the Windows and Mac desktop clients, the phone-based clients, and the web-based client, it's nearly impossible to be in a place you can't capture a picture or snippet of text, which you can then tag and add to your virtual wishlist.

Wishlistr (Web-based, Free)

Wishlistr is a simple but effective wishlist tool. You can start from scratch or import items from your Amazon.com wishlist or Delicious bookmarks. Like most of the entrants in the Hive Five, Wishlistr also has a bookmarklet tool for quickly adding items to your wishlist when you're away from the site and browsing the web. Wishlistr supports drag and drop rearrangement of your list and has a template gallery if you would like to theme your wishlist before sharing it with friends and family.

Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders for the most popular wishlist tool (as voted by Lifehacker readers), it's time to cast your vote:

An honorable mention goes out this week to the original wishlist tool: pen and paper. If you have your own tips or tricks for creating, maintaining, and organizing a wishlist, let's hear about it in the comments.

Roll Your Own TV Guide With FreeGuide [Downloads]

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

There are plenty of online TV listing services that detail what programs are showing in your area. Then again, you probably don't care what's on every single channel. Create a personalized TV guide with FreeGuide and skip The Flossing Network.

Photo by daveynin.

FreeGuide grabs data on only the channels you're interested in and displays them in a list or grid format. You enter your region, ZIP code, and time zone while setting up the software, as well as whether you'll be using a free or paid channel listing guide, and FreeGuide sets up your personalized listing window. You can search for shows by channel, time, title, or sub-title, and highlight favorites so you can find them quickly in listings in the future.

FreeGuide is available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It requires at least the Java 2 Runtime Environment v1.6 or higher to work, and Mac users will also need to grab XMLTV

How do you track your favorite TV shows? Let us know in the comments.

Google Wave user survey results

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:29:59 -0800

What users like most about Wave: one central place to communicate, integrating messages/documents into one place. What they like least: Invitations (or lack thereof), lack of integration with other tools (like email)

This Week's Top Downloads [Hive Mind]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For (Windows/Mac/Linux)
As we prepare to stuff our faces with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, we turn our Thanksgiving spirit to the gobs of free software we love to say thank you to the developers, and to give our computers a feast of their own.
HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support (Windows/Mac/Linux)
If you ever have to rip DVDs to your desktop or convert video, you know how awesome open-source encoder HandBrake is. Well, it's just been updated with over 1,000 changes since the last release, including 64-bit support.
Device Doctor is a Free Driver Update Scanner with Promise (Windows)
Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.
My Movies 3 Is a Beautiful Movie Add-on for Windows Media Center (Windows)
My Movies is a free plug-in for Windows Media Center designed to manage and play all of your movies within Windows Media Center, pulling in rich metadata for your movie collection, including cast, trailers, DVD art, and more.
Fishbowl Brings Facebook to Your Desktop (Windows)
Fishbowl, the Facebook client demoed at Microsoft's introduction to Silverlight 4, is now available for download—and it adds quite a few new desktop features to the Facebook experience, including badges, a mini news feed, and more.
Dell Offers Customized Chrome OS Build for Mini 10V Netbooks (Chrome OS)
If a Dell Mini 10V netbook was on your Black Friday shopping list, you're in luck—at least if you're the hacking type. A Dell technologist posted instructions on running Google's Chrome OS on the 10V.
MouseExtender Launches Programs With Two Clicks (Windows)
The Windows 7 taskbar is pretty convenient, but if you are running an older version of Windows (or are just looking for a cool mouse-based launcher), MouseExtender is a sleek program that launches with one click of the mouse.
Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 Available with Many Fixes (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Nobody told Mozilla's developers it's a day off. They've just pushed out a fourth beta of Firefox 3.6, with more than 100 fixes from the last beta and more add-on security and compatibility.
Opera 10.10 with Unite Media Server Released (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Opera's out with a 10.10 final release, and this one includes the Opera Unite personal media server we've previously toured in beta. A few other features, like built-in BitTorrent, make Opera 10.10 worth a look.
Docky Separates from GNOME Do, Still a Clever Linux App Dock (Linux)
Application launcher GNOME Do has a "theme" called Docky that we dubbed an intelligent Linux interface. Now Docky is its own (alpha-level) application, bringing many of its best features over and setting the stage for many more.

Download Google Chrome OS and Run it from a USB Drive

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:06:03 -0800

Haven't had a chance to try this yet, but looks saucy

New Gmail Labs Feature: Send attachments while offline

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:03:01 -0800

This week's tip

Google Reader adds feed favicons

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:02:13 -0800

Toggle them on/off in the Subscriptions menu.

DIY Mood-Lighting Wine Bottle [Decorating]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Two things that always seem to be in surplus around the holidays are empty wine bottles and strands of Christmas lights. Turn the two into a novel lamp with this simple hack.

You'll need a wine bottle, a short strand of Christmas lights—they used a 50 bulb strand for the bottle pictured above—and some basic shop tools like a a drill with a glass drill bit, masking tape, and safety goggles and gloves.

You drill a hole in the side of the bottle near the bottom and feed your lights in through the hole. Plug it in and you've got yourself a rather novel little bit of mood lighting. Check out the full tutorial at the link below for tips and tricks on drilling glass.

Have a novel holiday decoration or mood lighting idea? Let's hear it in the comments.

Build a Cheap Free-Standing Bike Repair Stand with Pipes [Bicycle]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

If you checked out the bike repair stand we shared with you earlier this month and were disappointed because you don't have a sturdy enough ceiling to attach it to, you'll want to check out this free-standing design.

Whether you're living in an apartment or you just don't want to permanently attach anything to your garage rafters, this design lets you work on your bike anywhere you want without having to screw it into a support structure.

Using basic off the shelf parts from your local hardware store and its plumbing aisle, you can make a sturdy bike repair stand. Check out the video below to see the construction process and the stand in action:

For a guide a little easier to follow when you're working on the stand, you can download the PDF instruction from Make Magazine here. Have a DIY bike-related hack or project to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

SPlayer Media Player for Windows Handles Multiple Formats [Downloads]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Windows: The Windows Media playback field is a crowded one, and it's tough to find a tool that can handle multiple playback formats. SPlayer is a gem of an app that manages just about everything audio and video.

SPlayer gets the job done thanks to binary codecs, and even plays Blu-Ray and DVDs. It has most of the bells and whistles you'd expect to find in a media player, including fullscreen mode, basic audio controllers, continuous playback options, and subtitles. SPlayer even sports a screengrab button so you can capture still shots from video.

One of the only drawbacks to SPlayer is that its web site is in Chinese, but it's easily translated via Google Translate. The app's controls and user interface, however, are available in English. If you're looking for something with a different interface, and maybe some unique features, over house favorite VLC Media Player, SPlayer is a free, open source download that runs on Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Turn Cold-Cathode Tubes into Cheap Under-Cabinet Lighting [Lighting]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

In a quest for cheap under-cabinet lighting, the owner of the kitchen pictured above turned to cold-cathode tubes intended for the inside of a PC case.

The result of his experimenting is a kitchen well lit by under-cabinet lights. The entire affair is powered by an old laptop power supply brick and toggled with a small power switch which all tuck neatly out of sight for a clutter-free lighting arrangement.

For other lighting ideas you can check out how to set up cheap ambient lighting using rope lights and LED puck-lighting—visible in past featured workspaces like The Lightsaber and LEDs Workspace, The Monolithic Office, and The Well-Planned Dorm Room. Have a lighting trick of your own? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Use a 20-Year Plan to Build a Stable of Quality Furniture [Decorating]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Most people start adult life in their first apartment populated with IKEA furniture and Salvation Army offerings. They end up with a retirement home filled with heirloom quality furniture. Use a 20-year plan to end up with quality furniture.

Photo by CodyR.

What is a 20-year plan? In About.com's Interior Decoration section, Glenna Morton elaborates on the essence of planning your interior décor with an eye for the long term:

We've been told that things should be "perfect" from the moment we move in. As a result, we may purchase the first thing we see that we can afford, just to fill a space. But if we continue on that road, in 20 years we'll most likely end up with a mish-mash of furniture and accessories that no longer work, with cheaply made items that must be discarded, and some trendy items that don't seem to fit anywhere anymore.

How to avoid this? As with many things, planning and goals will go a long way toward accumulating furnishings of value. Unless you have money to burn, planning will help focus your decisions and provide goals for all of your home purchases (I like to call them "adoptions" since you are in essence bringing something into your home that you'll need to provide space for, clean, repair, and dust for its lifetime with you.)

To avoid ending up with an apartment or house packed with random and unloved furniture she suggests sitting down and taking inventory of your needs and your personal style. Once you've established the kind of space you need for the work and play you do, and the style you would like that space to be represented by, you can commit to buying at least one piece of high quality furniture per year to build towards a household of solidly-constructed furniture that fits with your personal style. Nearly 20 years ago my parents encouraged this kind of long term planning when I was picking out some bedroom furniture. I picked out some rock solid Shaker-style furniture and it's seen me through my teenage years, three apartments, and a house, and is still in service today.

Check out the full article for more tips and if you have a tip or two of your own for furnishing a home, let's hear them in the comments.

Top 10 Cross-Platform Apps that Run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and More [Lifehacker Top 10]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Whether your important data lives in the cloud, on your laptop, or on a different operating system, you shouldn't have to use sub-par tools to get at it. These downloads work with every major operating system, along with some not-so-major (mobile) ones.

Photo by Mykl Roventine.

All of these applications run on all three major operating systems—Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux—and most can be loaded onto a thumb drive and run as a portable app on any Windows system. Some can also be accessed from the web, and a few have dedicated mobile apps for most phone platforms. We've distinguished which apps work where at the front of each item. If we've missed any platforms, please tell us so (politely!) in the comments.

10. Buddi

Computers: Buddi is a financial management application developed with financial non-experts in mind. Sure, it can import your CSV file from a bank or financial firm, and it does all the standard financial calculations and projections. But the way it switches between money figures, and walks you through the importing and setting up of your accounts, makes it a real open-source find, and you can easily swap profiles between your laptop and desktop systems, if needed. Looking for something with a bit more mathematical oomph? Money management alternative GnuCash has you covered.

9. KeePass

Computers, portable, cellphones: You use a multitude of applications and web sites that require passwords, license keys, and administrator codes. On one computer alone, that makes it worth having a central vault for all that stuff. If you use more than one computer, having a consistent KeePass database is really, really helpful. Encrypt your master password database with a file only you have access to, and/or a truly secure single password, and you can take that list just about anywhere—on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhones, Android, BlackBerry, Palms, on a USB drive, or pretty much anywhere. Open-source coders love to write KeePass apps, so there's a very good chance you'll always have this clever password management system at your side. For help getting started with KeePass, check out Gina's guide to securely tracking passwords. (It also works great in conjunction with Dropbox.

8. TrueCrypt

Computers: TrueCrypt is a multi-platform security tool for encrypting and protecting files, folders, or entire drives. The software behind it is open source, and so likely to be supported and developed beyond its current version and platforms. It's only on Windows, Mac, and Linux at the moment (though that's no small feat), but it can be made to run as a portable app, and its encryption standards—AES, Serpent, and Twofish—are supported by many other encryption apps that can work with it. In other words, TrueCrypt makes you feel better about taking all the revealing information about yourself or your work on the road. Check our guide to encrypting your data for more.

7. Thunderbird

Computers, portable: Mozilla's desktop email client is an excellent tool for reading, sending, and archiving email, even if it doesn't get a ton of love these days—seeing as how seemingly everyone's doing their email thing on the web. But even if you don't use it as your main email client, Thunderbird remains the most reliable way to back up your email from any service and, in most cases, still access it when the web interface goes down. With the imminent release of Thunderbird 3, and the portable version to follow right after, Thunderbird might just turn a few more folks back to the idea of desktop email.

6. Pidgin and Adium

Computers, portable: They're not the same program, but they come from the same open-source roots. These instant messaging clients do the yeoman's work of connecting to all the major chat protocols and helping you maintain a universal buddy list. Pidgin does the job adequately, if without a ton of pizazz, on Windows and Linux clients (you can spice it up a bit with these snazzy plug-ins), while Adium, compiled from the same libpurple code library, is written with OS X's glassy looks in mind. Both are crucial if you don't want to run multiple memory-sucking IM clients on all your machines.

5. Miro

Computers, portable: Miro doesn't get enough love (here or elsewhere) for being a pretty great all-in-one aggregator for all the video on the web. The open-source video player handles video podcast feeds, Hulu streams (which you can subscribe to, show-by-show, TiVo-style), live streams, local files, and anything else with moving pictures with ease and grace, and you can take it wherever you go to ensure you can watch your favorite web-accessible or desktop videos.

4. 7-Zip

Computers, portable: 7-Zip doesn't have the sexiest job on a computer, but since no two operating systems accept all the same compressed file formats, it's an essential download. It tackles the RAR files that file sharers are so fond of, makes sense of .tar and .gz files on Windows systems, and has its own compression format (.7z) that's space-saving and quick.

3. Firefox

Computer, portable, and (coming soon on non-Maemo devices) mobile: Even if you don't think it's the absolute fastest or most cutting-edge browser, Firefox is safer than the well-known standard on most Windows systems, and it's customizable in every last detail. That makes it worth keeping on your USB drive as a go-to option for browsing at the in-laws or at home. With add-ons like Xmarks or Weave, it's also easy to keep your bookmarks—and keyword bookmark searches—within reach on any system. And when Firefox Mobile, a.k.a. Fennec, makes its debut on mobile phones, we might see some rather awesome synchronization of everything, right down to the last tab you had open at home.

2. Dropbox

Computers, web, mobile: Dropbox creates a single folder that you'll always be able to access, no matter where you are. That folder can actually sync files and folders from anywhere on your system, but the concept remains the same—instant backup for anything you drop in one location, across multiple computers, through Dropbox's web site, on the iPhone, and on mobile browsers. That makes it perfect for music you love to listen to, documents you need to work on, and photos you pick up at a relative's house. In other words, feel free to stop emailing yourself.

1. VLC Media Player

Computer, portable: Managing the multitude of codecs, formats, and restrictions on media files, from one system to another, is a pain you don't need. VLC Media player, installed on any system, just works. It's built with the goods to process, convert, resize, and stream just about any file you can find with audio or video, and its presence on a USB drive ensures nobody ever comes up embarrassed when their nephew's soccer video just won't play, even though, they swear, it worked just yesterday. For a guide on making the most of VLC's cross-codec powers, read Adam's tips on mastering your digital media with VLC.

What apps are always with you, or always downloaded, when you're switching between systems, traveling, or otherwise away from your preferred setup? Do tell us in the comments.

How To Paint Laminate Furniture [DIY]

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Don't give up on painting your laminate furniture just because it seems nothing could stick to the glossy laminate surface. Use this simple guide to change it to the color you want.

Laminate furniture is created with wood, almost always a particle board, that is covered with a thin laminate veneer. If you've ever dinged the side of a cheap desk or file cabinet with "wood" grain and seen a different kind of wood underneath you've seen a piece with a laminate finish.

You can't just take a gallon of latex paint to it, the adhesion is poor and the surface won't look right when you're done. At the craft and design blog Living with Lindsay, they turned an armoire from fake wood laminate to a nice bright white with some elbow grease, 220 grit sand paper, and a liberal application of primer and paint. Check out the link below for photos of the process and some more tips for working with laminate surfaces.

Have a painting trick of your own? Let's hear it in the comments.

London double-decker bus

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:59:19 -0800

ginatrapani posted a video:

a short from the top level

Thanksgiving in London

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:09:27 -0800

ginatrapani posted a photo:

Thanksgiving in London

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:09:21 -0800

ginatrapani posted a photo:

A "Bap"

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:09:17 -0800

The Tube

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:05:22 -0800

ginatrapani posted a photo:

The Tube

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:05:12 -0800

ginatrapani posted a photo:

The Tube

nobody@flickr.com (ginatrapani) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:05:02 -0800

ginatrapani posted a photo:

Wallpaper Roundup: Abstract Ice and Snowy Scenes [Wallpaper Roundup]

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

Thanksgiving has come and gone and in many locales the frost and snow are settling in. It's that winter wonderland time of year again and we've rounded up some pictures to help celebrate it.

We've gathered up a mix of winter-themed wallpapers for you, photographs, abstractions, winter scenes, and more. If you have a favorite winter background, make sure to share a link to the source in the comments below.

Note: The "Full Size" link directly under the picture only shows you the full size of the sample image we uploaded for this gallery. You need to click on the name of the particular wallpaper in the right hand column to access the full range of sizes at the source site.

Not keen on the gallery layout? See all the larger images on one page here.