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Make a Moss Terrarium for Low-Maintenance Greenery [Plants]

2009-11-15T22:00:00Z

If you want some greenery in your home or office but you're not too keen on, or skilled at, tending a high-maintenance plant, a moss terrarium is a hassle-free bit of greenery you practically have to try to kill.

Unlike some of the previous plants we've suggested, moss isn't going to improve your air quality. It will, however, add a touch to your counter or desktop that only something living and green can provide. It also requires very, very little maintenance in the process.

Inspired by a tutorial we shared with you about making a moss terrarium in a wine bottle, I kept the basic idea in the back of my head and on my craft list. I wasn't 100 percent sold on using a wine bottle—it seemed like it would be really difficult to place the moss—but the end effect was very novel. Still, I wanted a little bit more control over how I placed the moss into the container. Moss is a pretty forgiving medium, and you have a wide range of latitude in how you go about creating your moss terrarium. You'll need the following basic components:

Moss: Obviously you're going to need some moss. You can buy moss online—and if you want moss that grows outside of your climate, you'll have to do so—but moss is readily available around you, and at extremely little risk of every being classified as an endangered organism. If you decide to gather moss from your environment, which is the route I took, please do so responsibly.

I hiked deep into some public woodland, well off any hiking trails, and into a thicket of briers before collecting my moss samples. I only took small portions of large carpets of moss in order to allow it to regenerate. Don't go down to your local park and start ripping the moss up from the scenic walkway and other public areas where people are actually enjoying its presence.

Bring a small and flat tool like a butter knife or putty knife to help with removing the moss. Moss is attached to forest surfaces by thousands of tiny little tendrils. You can very gently slide a flat tool under a carpet of moss and slowly work a piece free by cutting through the tendrils. Done slowly and carefully, it is easy to lift up an entire piece of moss as though you'd just gently pried the top crust off a pie. It's ideal to remove the moss, if possible, by taking some of the substance that it is attached to along with it instead of damaging the tendrils. If you look for moss on fallen trees that are fairly decomposed, it is easy to put your tool under the soft bark and take the top layer with you.

Bring some gallon-sized zipper-locked bags for collecting the moss. Your moss samples will keep for quite a long time in a plastic bag, so you don't have to rush to replant them when you get home.

Glass Container: I took a trip to the local World Market and poked around for some interesting containers. You can easily use any glass container you want as long as you can place your hand inside—or for the more industrious, that you can fit some chop sticks inside to move things around with. I found two containers I liked, one open-air and the other with a closed lid. I wanted to see which would yield better results and would require less work to maintain. The photo featured above, the rock resting on the moss, is the closed container, and is shaped like a common floral vase with a simple lid on top. The second container I experimented with is more like a glass serving bowl:

A week or so into the experiment, both the open and closed containers seem to be still lush and green. The one in the closed container has stayed a little bit better moisturized, but there is occasionally condensation on the inside of the container that is quickly remedied by opening it for a few minutes.

Substrate: Moss doesn't need dirt—you can grow it on a brick if you want. I used a layer of peat-moss potting soil in both of my containers because it created a nice sense of depth and solidity to the bed of moss. You could easily use gravel or any other substrate that the moss could attach itself to. If you are going to use soil, peat-moss potting soil is a great choice because it's highly acidic and when moss isn't growing on the bark of a tree or rocks it thrives on acidic soil.

Placement: Because I opted to—and I recommend you do too—use a container I could reach my hand into, it was fairly easy to place the moss. In the case of the round container I took a piece of moss and trimmed it with a pair of scissors into a suitable circle and with the square container I took two large pieces and squared them up on three sides and then overlapped the middle. In both containers I added a small stone from my garden for some visual interest. Whatever left over pieces you have can be used for another terrarium or you can go place them back out in a suitable outdoor location to continue growing—my leftovers ended up in a corner of my garden that is moist and shady.

Maintenance: Once you have your substrate and moss in the container the only thing left to do is keep the moss moist. That's it. As long as the moss isn't in harsh sunlight or left to dry out you'll have great difficult killing it off.

Have experience with terrariums, moss-filled or otherwise? Let's hear about it in the comments.

X3Studios Makes Abstract Wallpaper Creation Easy [Wallpaper]

2009-11-11T14:30:00Z

If you're a fan of the abstract and grungy vector-based wallpapers floating around, X3Studios is a free tool for creating abstract wallpaper without needing a copy of Illustrator and a pile of stock images.

X3Studio sets up a palette, element selection guide, and workspace right in your browser. You can select from background textures, dozens of abstract and grunge elements, and text you want to add to your background. The sliders on the right hand side of the screen help you adjust the color, saturation, and brightness of the elements you have selected and all elements are easily rotated and transformed in size.

Many of the navigation techniques like shifting elements forward and backward and navigating around the image using the navigator pane will be familiar to users of more formal image editing software like Photoshop and GIMP—the interface is just radically simplified. You can download your wallpaper in sizes ranging from 1024x768 up to 1600x1200.

If you're not inclined to make your own, but like the style, you can browse the gallery of work saved by other visitors. You'll find over 800 wallpapers in the visitor gallery all available for download. The wallpaper creation tool at X3Studios is free and requires no registration for use. Have another favorite online tool for generating cool wallpaper? Let's hear about it in the comments.

X3Studios [via MakeUseOf]

[Sponsored]

NEC

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Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming]

2009-11-11T17:00:12Z

You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you're curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources.

First Things First: Don't Get Hung Up on Choosing a Language

A common pitfall for beginners is getting stuck figuring out which programming language is best to learn first. There are a lot of opinions out there, but there's no one "best" language. Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. In classes I took to get my degree in Computer Science, I programmed in Pascal, Assembly, and C—languages I never actually got paid to program in professionally. I taught myself every language I've used in my career, reusing concepts I already knew, and referring to documentation and books to learn its syntax. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

There are several different kinds of software development you can do for various platforms, from the web to your desktop to your smartphone to a command line. In this article, we'll outline some of our favorite starter tutorials and resources for teaching yourself how to program for each major platform. We're going to assume you're a savvy user, but a newb when it comes to wrangling code snippets, so we'll keep things at the beginner level. Even just following through a beginner programming tutorial, you'll be happy to see how far you can get.

Desktop Scripting

The easiest way to try your hand at programming for your Windows or Mac desktop is to start with a scripting or macro program like AutoHotkey (for Windows) or Automator (for Mac). Right now hardcore coders throughout the Lifehacker readership are yelling at their monitors, saying that AHK or AppleScript are not "real" programming. That may be true—technically these types of tools just do high-level scripting. But for those new to programming who just want to get their feet wet, automating actions on their desktop, these free tools are a fantastic way to start—and you'd be surprised at how much you can do with them.

For example, Adam developed the standalone Windows application we all know and love, Texter, using AutoHotkey, so this scripting language is capable of far more than just small-scale automation projects. To get started with AutoHotkey, check out Adam's tutorial on how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut using AutoHotkey. (Then, check out the source code for Texter to see the innards of a full-fledged AHK-based Windows application.)

Web Development

Instead of being bound to specific programming languages and the look and feel of a particular operating system, you can put your killer application in the browser and run it in the cloud, as a webapp. Welcome to the wonderful world of web development.

HTML and CSS: The first thing you need to know to build any web site is HTML (the page markup that makes up web pages) and CSS (the style information that makes that markup look pretty). HTML and CSS are not true programming languages—they're just page structure and style information. However, you should be able to author simple HTML and CSS by hand before you begin building web applications, because a web page is the frontend to every webapp. This HTML tutorial is a good place to start.

JavaScript: Now that you can lay out a static web page with HTML and CSS, things get fun—because it's time to learn JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language of the web browser, the magic that makes dynamic in-page effects go. JavaScript is also the stuff of bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Ajax, so it's the key to making all sorts of web goodies. Start learning JavaScript here.

Server-side scripting: Once you're good at making things happen inside a web page, you're going to need to put some dynamic server action behind it—and for that, you'll need to move into a server-side scripting language, like PHP, Python, Perl, or Ruby. For example, to make a web-based contact form that sends an email somewhere based on what a user entered, a server-side script is required. Scripting languages like PHP can talk to a database on your web server as well, so if you want to make a site where users can log in and store information, that's the way to go. Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you're ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database in WebMonkey's PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP's online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)

Web frameworks: Over the years, web developers have had to solve and resolve the same problems and rewrite similar code to build dynamic web sites. To avoid making everyone reinvent the wheel for every new web development project, some programmers have come up with development frameworks that do some repetitive work for you. The popular Ruby on Rails framework, for example, takes the Ruby programming language and offers a web-specific structure for getting common web application tasks done. In fact, Adam used Rails to build his first serious (and impressive!) web application, MixTape.me. Here's his take on how to build a web site from scratch with no experience. Other popular web development frameworks include CakePHP (for PHP programmers), Django (for Python programmers), and jQuery (for JavaScript).

Web APIs: An API (Application programming interface) is a programmatic way for different pieces of software to talk to one another. For example, if you want to put a dynamic map on your web site, you want to use a Google Map instead of building your own custom map. The Google Maps API makes it easy to programmatically include a map in a page with JavaScript. Almost every modern web service you know and love has an API that lets you include data and widgets from it in your application, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Maps, and the list goes on. Integrating other webapps into your web application via API's is the final frontier of rich web development. Every good, major web service API offers thorough documentation and some sort of quick start guide to try it out (here's Twitter's, for example). Go crazy.

Command Line Scripting

If you want to write a program that takes textual or file input and outputs something useful, the command line is the right place to do it. While the command line isn't as sexy or good-looking as a webapp or desktop app, for rapid development of quick scripts that automate processes, you can't beat it.

Several scripting languages that work on a Linux-based web server also work at the command line, like Perl, Python, and PHP—so learning one of those baddies makes you conversant in two contexts. My path never took me too far down the Perl road, but I taught myself Python using the excellent and free online book, Dive into Python.

If becoming a Unix ninja is one of your programmer goals, you absolutely must get good at shell scripting with bash. Bash is the command line scripting language of a *nix environment, and it can do everything from help you set up automated backups of your database and files to building out a full-fledged application with user interaction. Without any experience writing bash scripts beyond a dozen lines, I wound up developing a full-on personal to-do list manager in bash, Todo.txt CLI.

Add-ons

Nowadays, modern webapps and browsers are extensible with with bits of software that bolt onto them and add features. Add-on development is gaining in popularity as more developers look at existing software, like Firefox or WordPress, and think "But if only it could do THIS..."

You can do a whole lot in any web browser with just a mastery of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Stylish user styles are created with the same bits of code that make regular web pages, so they're worth learning even if you just want to tweak an existing site with a small snippet of code.

More advanced browser add-ons, like Firefox extensions, let you do more. Developing Firefox extensions, for example, requires that you're conversant in JavaScript and XML (markup that's similar to HTML, but way more strict in format). Back in 2007 I ran down how to build a Firefox extension, a skill I picked up after I stumbled upon a free tutorial.

Many free and well-loved web applications offer an extension framework as well, like WordPress and MediaWiki. Both of those apps are written in PHP, so comfort with PHP is a prerequisite for getting started. Here's how to write a plug-in for WordPress. Developers who want to ride the cutting edge of Google Wave can get started writing gadgets and bots in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python. I wrote my first Wave bot following this quick start tutorial in one afternoon.

Web Development for the Desktop

The best part about getting started programming in one context is when you can take those skills and apply them elsewhere. Learning web development first is a great way to start because now there are ways to put those skills to work on desktop applications, too. For example, Adobe AIR is a cross-platform run-time environment that lets you build your app once and release it to run on the desktop for every operating system AIR runs on. AIR apps are written in HTML, Flash, or Flex, so it lets you apply your web development skills in a desktop context. AIR is a great option for deploying desktop apps like one of our top 10 apps worth installing Adobe AIR for.

Mobile App Development

Mobile applications like the ones you run on your iPhone or Android smartphone are all the rage right now, so you may have dreams of striking it rich in the iTunes App Store with the next killer app. However, for the new coder, diving headfirst into mobile development can be a rough learning curve, since it requires comfort with advanced programming languages like Java and Objective C. However, it's worth checking out what iPhone and Android development looks like. Check out this simple iPhone application development example to get a taste of what iPhone developers do. Android apps are written in Java, and here's a friendly video tutorial of what building a "Hello Android" application workflow looks like.

Patience, Elbow Grease, Trial and Error

Good coders are a special breed of persistent problem-solvers who are addicted to the small victories that come along a long path of trial and error. Learning how to program is very rewarding, but it can also be a frustrating and solitary experience. If you can, get a buddy to work with you along the way. Getting really good at programming, like anything else, is a matter of sticking with it, trying things out, and getting experience as you go.

This article is just one self-taught programmer's top-of-mind recommendations for beginners. Experienced programmers: What did I miss? No matter your skill level, add your thoughts and recommendations for beginners to the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, thinks the best programmers are self-taught. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

[Sponsored]

NEC

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What to Expect When Working With a Startup

2009-11-06T17:00:35Z

As a freelancer, I get the chance to work with startup companies that are still too new or too small to have a lot of in-house staff. Because of this, I’ve become familiar with the common characteristics that many startups share. As I come to expect these characteristics with new clients, I become more efficient at avoiding problems and maximizing opportunities.

But first, a definition: What exactly is a startup? Although the term “startup” is usually associated with tech companies, it’s not necessarily that specific. As long as the business is young, usually still in development, then it can be considered a startup.

The first common trait that most startups have is their tight or unpredictable income. Usually they are bootstrapping (working without external funding) which leads them to minimize their expenses. Even if they have the benefit of external funding, startup founders still tend to keep a close eye at their cashflow. Some of them might be looking for low freelancer rates, or perhaps some prep work to justify your cost. You shouldn’t be selling your services as an added expense: talk about your fees as an investment.

To minimize any negative effects a startup client may have on my own finances, I tend to bill early and send reminders before the due date indicated on the invoice. This sometimes isn’t necessary, but it can be useful, especially if the people in charge of paying you are wearing too many hats or paying attention to several other aspects of the business – a common situation in startups.

Also, if you’re working with a startup, you’ll be dealing with their growing pains firsthand. This means you’ll be part of an exciting and interesting stage in the development of their business. While this stage is typically filled with new ideas and innovation, there will also be a lot of mistakes, which will often affect your work. They might even be a bit disorganized, since they don’t have standard processes in place.

There might even be major changes when the founders get a better (or simply different) idea of what they want to do. One of my earliest freelancing jobs was writing web site copy for a tech startup. When they hired me they were developing a simple chat application. By the time I left them six months later, they had plans to turn their app into a full-featured social networking tool. Because of possible changes like this, it’s important to keep communication lines open so that you’re updated with the latest developments. Startups are flexible organizations, and you should also be equally flexible as you work for them — as long as you are treated and paid fairly.

There may be some exceptions, but I usually find that working with a startup is also like working with a small, close-knit family. They often don’t have a large staff since they’re just starting out. With few, if any, bureaucratic hoops and hierarchies to deal with, getting feedback and disseminating information is usually faster. In fact, you may be working directly with the founders.

Although working closely with the big bosses has its advantages, there are a few challenges you should expect. Sometimes, founders can be micromanagers. They tend to think of their startup as a baby whose every tiny step they should monitor and approve. While I appreciate this devotion to one’s business, too much of it can prevent growth through other people’s ideas, experience and perspective.

Working with a startup certainly has its own opportunities and disadvantages. We need to be expect both these things if we want the working relationship to go as smoothly as possible.

Have you ever worked with startups? What was your experience like?

Image by cobrasoft from sxc.hu

Jelly, Casual Coworking in a City Near You

2009-11-06T19:00:58Z

Yesterday I took part in my first Jelly session — and I’ve got to say it was a fun and productive experience that I will be repeating in the future. Jellies are informal, free coworking events that are open to anyone. There were 10 participants at the Jelly I attended, from a range of different backgrounds although they were mainly freelancers, as you might expect. At times, particularly in the morning, the atmosphere was studious and productive, but there was also some interesting chat and opportunities to make new connections.

I always find that a change of scenery does me good, but considering that I was working in a room with 10 other people, sitting around a conference table, and occasionally getting stuck into conversation, I was surprised at the amount of work I got through (and that’s despite the speed of the Wi-Fi connection getting a little slow with 10 people working away).

If you’re feeling a bit isolated at home (or perhaps you just want to brainstorm some ideas) and would like to try out the coworking experience, but perhaps aren’t quite ready to commit to membership of a coworking space, attending a Jelly would be a good first step.

The first Jelly was started in New York back in 2006 by roommates Amit Gupta and Luke Crawford, who originally wanted to recreate some of the benefits of working from an office (without having to work from an office): brainstorming, sharing and camaraderie. So they started inviting people over to work from their house occasionally, and thus Jelly was born. It’s an idea that has spread worldwide.

The Jelly I attended was organized by CoWorkingWest and held in the nice office space of The Office, Bristol, UK, but Jellies are held in over 100 cities all over the world. (Some of them are even held weekly.) If there isn’t one near you, you can always start your own — you just need to pick a venue and get some people involved. They are often held in people’s houses, but also take place in other locations, like coffee shops and offices. As long as there is space for everyone, power and Wi-Fi, you can have a Jelly.

Have you tried working at Jelly?

Make a Gift Bow Out of Any Paper [Gift Wrap]

2009-11-07T16:00:00Z

Sure, you can just go to the store and buy a bow. But why not make your gift show a bit more thought, and style? Recycle old maps, glossy ads, and other paper into creative bows with this guide.

Design blog How about orange... put together a tutorial for turning a glossy magazine page into a gift bow. They talk about using it in a gift-wrapping emergency, but we'd be equally as impressed if someone used paper related to the gift in some way—paper from a travel brochure for a travel-related gift, a cover of a sports magazine for piece of sports equipment, and so on.

Check out the full guide at the link below, and if you have you own crafty wrapping tricks, let's hear them in the comments.

Make a Gift Bow from a Magazine Page [via Re-Nest]

Rainmeter 1.1 Makes the Enigma Desktop Even Easier to Use [Downloads]

2009-11-05T21:00:00Z

Windows only: The latest version of the popular Rainmeter desktop adds an excellent new tool that makes it easy to manage your library of skins, with previews, detailed setup instructions, and more.

Once you've run through the simple installation process and launched Rainmeter, you'll be presented with the latest Enigma 2.6 desktop, and a quick-start panel that gives you access to all of the option panels easily.

The great new addition is the RainBrowser interface, which makes it easy to preview all of your installed skins, read the installation instructions, access skin settings, and even restart Rainmeter right from the interface.

The full list of changes, as explained by the Rainmeter team:

A new utility called RainBrowser helps users manage their library of skins through a GUI interface. RainBrowser lets you preview skins, read detailed setup instructions, and even search by tag. Thanks to the addition of skin metadata, this is something other apps can take advantage of, as well.

Taking a cue from HTML5, skins may now use local fonts. This means you can design and download skins with gorgeous fonts without having to fully install them in Windows.

Instead of a lot of tedious and repetitive coding, new stylesheets let you customize appearance and settings for many skins at once.

Enigma now supports Google Calendar, Yahoo! Weather, Winamp and Foobar right out of the box. New skins also let you monitor your WiFi signal, world clocks, and even the current moon phase (which has been requested surprisingly often).

Rainmeter's improved interface lets you middle-click to cycle through a family of skins and launch useful addons from the context menu.

Last time, many readers were frustrated by having to add skins to their desktops one-by-one. With the new pre-made Preview Theme, you can make your desktop match the arrangement in the preview screenshot with one click.

The instructions have been expanded into a full-sized PDF manual.

The latest changes make Rainmeter not just a powerful desktop customization tool for system themers, but something useful for just about anybody that wants to customize their desktop without a lot of tweaking. Rainmeter is a free download for Windows only.

Rainmeter

Happy Saganseve, Everybody

2009-11-06T15:00:44Z

November 9 would have been Carl Sagan's 75th birthday. To celebrate the man, his work and the awesome wonderment of science, Broward College in Davie, Florida is hosting the first ever Carl Sagan Day tomorrow (Saturday the 7th). If you're in that area, they've got a whole day's worth of activities going on---from planetarium shows and stargazing, to a "Cosmos" marathon, to appearances by Bad Astronomy blogger Phil Plait and James "The Amazing" Randi (who was a personal friend of Sagan's).

The majority of us not conveniently located in southern Florida, however, will have to find other ways to celebrate. Perhaps you've already got a Beethoven's Birthday-style public march planned, but, if not, you can at least enjoy some fine video tributes. BoingBoing already linked to the soothing memorial techno remix of Sagan's "Cosmos" PBS show, so I'm going to go in a different direction and offer you one of his last interviews, from May of 1996, on Charlie Rose. Among other things, Sagan talks about his (then) new book (and one of my favorites), "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark". Enjoy.

Thanks to the Bad Astronomy blog for the holiday tip-off!

CompareMyDocs Helps You Compare Document Revisions [Productivity]

2009-11-04T21:30:00Z

Free web service CompareMyDocs is an easy-to-use tool that compares up to seven revisions of a Word document or rich text file to help you put together a final draft based on revisions you choose.

After choosing the documents you want to compare, CompareMyDocs will choose one and highlight areas that have been changed in other versions of the document. You can accept or reject those changes by hovering over and clicking one of the buttons that pops up. The app also has a very basic text editor built-in, so you can add, delete, or do minor formatting on text within the document. After you're happy with all the changes, you can save the final version as a document for further work in your desktop word processor.

At the moment, the web app is a bit basic—which is a problem if you have more complicated documents. If, for example, it contains things like tables, images, or footnotes, they may be lost or reformatted in in the process. However, for simpler documents, the program is an easy, intuitive way to edit your way through a mass of revisions, and an interesting alternative to Word's built-in revision tracking.

CompareMyDocs is a free web service.

CompareMyDocs [via ReadWriteWeb]

5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library

2009-10-30T13:00:00Z

Filed under: How-tos, iTunes, TUAW Tips

Smart playlists have been a feature of iTunes since version 3.0 (circa 2002), and they provide a means for you to create automatically-updated playlists that fit a certain criteria. For me, they serve as a hands-off way to stay up-to-date on my latest music and Podcasts, as well as a repository for a certain genre of music. To create a smart playlist, click on "File" and select "New Smart Playlist" (or you can use the command-option-n keyboard shortcut).

If you want a playlist that contains only holiday music, you could specify that the playlist include all songs with either the "Christmas" or "Chanukah" genre tag on it. Because smart playlists auto-update, you needn't worry about adding songs to it: as long as the track's tags meet the criteria, it is automatically included in the playlist -- unless, of course, you choose the "limit to" option, which limits the the tracks in the playlist based on your choosing.

Read more for five of my favorite smart playlists, as well as criteria for how to create them.

Continue reading 5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library

TUAW 5 Smart Playlists to help you manage your iTunes library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Book Review: “97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know”

2009-11-03T00:00:41Z

I think project management books should be on every web worker’s reading list because — like it or not — even if your job title isn’t “project manager,” you still have to manage your own portion of the projects you participate in. Even some informal grounding in project management can be helpful for those “rare” times you are pulled into help bring a failing project back to life.

“97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know,” edited by Barbee Davis, pulls together useful project management tips and insights from working project managers without the dry academic style found in many project management books, making it a great instructional read for web workers seeking to hone their PM skills.

The format of the book includes 97 tips; here are some takeaways the book has for web workers:

“Use a Wiki” reinforces the need to centralize access to project information. While this is pretty standard for many web workers, there are employers and clients who still need reinforcement on this point. This tip provides two solid pages of wiki advice and tips that should even be digestable and and understandable to even a non-technical decision maker.
“We Have Met the Enemy…and He Is Us” should ring true to readers who have been on projects fraught with too many meetings, multicultural/multilingual project teams, conflicting work styles, and methodologies. The advice to keep an open mind in these situations is simple yet speaks volumes as to how a web worker can survive and even thrive in these situations.
“Aggressively Promote Communication in Distributed Projects” boils down the reality of communications challenges that may present themselves in geographically dispersed project teams including time overlap management, communications strategy and logistics.
“Every Project Manager is a Contract Administrator,” while directed at working project managers also provides useful advice to web workers for mitigating such contractual issues like undocumented changes and the need to control changes within the specifications of the contract.
“9.7 Reasons I Hate Your Website” made me chuckle but reminded me of how some companies don’t understand the differences between software development and web development.

These are just a few of the standout tips in the book. While it is directed more towards a software development audience, I recommend it to any web worker who wants to be more conversant in project management and its challenges.

The book is available directly from O’Reilly Media or from Amazon.com.

Share your favorite project management tips below.

OmniDiskSweeper Helps You Easily Reclaim Disk Space [Downloads]

2009-11-03T23:00:00Z

Mac only: We've all experienced full hard drives, but divining where all your hard drive space has gone is never easy. Freeware program OmniDiskSweeper easily shows you which files and folders are taking up space so you can free it up.

We've featured a few disk space utilities for Mac already, most notably previously mentioned GrandPerspective and Disk Inventory X, but OmniDiskSweeper is different. There are no graphical representations, no multiple windows to sort through, just an organized list of the biggest folders on your hard drive.

When you first start it up, you choose which disk you want it to scan, and when it's done it shows you a column view of every accessible folder and file on that drive, organized and color coded by size. You can delete the space-eating files and folders right from inside the app, and it will recalculate the sizes right then and there for you. (Note: If you delete from the program, the files do not go into the trash—they are immediately deleted.) The app will also let you know if something is a system file or folder, so you don't delete anything important.

It's a bit simpler than the aforementioned utilities, but it's also a bit faster. In the end, choosing the best tool for the job all depends on what you need; if you want things organized by file type, perhaps Disk Inventory X is for you. If you need a more in-depth and graphical presentation, GrandPerspective is a better choice. But if you want something that is fast and simple, you can't go wrong with OmniDiskSweeper. And, along with many other utilities offered by The Omni Group, OmniDiskSweeper is now free, so there's no reason not to give it a whirl.

OmniDiskSweeper is a free download, Mac OS X only.

OmniDiskSweeper [via A Whole Lotta Nothing]

Turn IKEA Cabinets Into a Cordless Desktop Stand [Workspace]

2009-10-30T13:00:00Z

The new iMacs, and similar all-in-one LCD desktop systems, make for a mostly cordless computing experience. Using two pieces of IKEA furniture meant for laptops and modems, you can hide the remaining wires and up the elegance.

Gérard writes into the IKEA Hacker blog with a different use for two different LUDVIG products from the Swedish furniture giant: a laptop shelf/charging station and a router/modem wall cabinet. He used the wall cabinet to hide his wired keyboard and mouse cables beyond its edge, along with a surge protector, headphones for when he needs them, and other gear. The laptop shelf makes for a nice slide-out keyboard and mouse rest, and the desktop stand sits neatly on top of the router shelf at eye level. Being white, you could easily paint either piece if your dwelling space doesn't quite match up with Apple and IKEA's primary design aesthetic.

Get more views of Gérard's clever workspace at the link.

iMac computer desk [IKEA Hacker via Lifehacker Australia]

Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation [Winter Upgrades]

2009-10-30T19:00:00Z

We give a lot of attention to XBMC here, and with just cause. It's an open-source, cross-platform, highly-customizable media center solution that outperforms just about every commercial option out there. Here's how you can make it even better.

If you've played around with any commercial media centers or extenders, you've probably quickly realized how clunky and inelegant the user interface and experience is. Sure once the movie is playing and you're no longer staring down the interface all is well, but prior to getting to the actual showtime the menus are ugly and the navigation is kludgy.

Yesterday Adam detailed how to set up a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap—and that's a good starting point. The "out of box" experience with XBMC is fantastic, but even better than that, it's extremely customizable. You can alter menus, vary the display method, and completely swap out the skin for a fresh new look. We've reviewed some great XBMC skins and shown you how to install them. For this article we've selected the excellent AEON skin to showcase some of the advanced features of XBMC.

Getting Started

Before we delve too far into tweaking and customization, you'll need a media center running XBMC. It all began with XBMC running on the original Xbox, and you can still turn an old Xbox into an XBMC platform. Check out our original guide to installing XBMC on your Xbox and XBMC Installer Deluxe. One thing to keep in mind regarding using the classic Xbox for XBMC: it's just a Pentium III in there with 64MB of RAM. You can, under exceptional circumstances and with a hard to find Microsoft AV pack, squeeze out some better than standard-def images, but it's pushing it; if you want HD playback you simply won't be happy with the classic Xbox.

Thankfully XBMC has been ported from the classic Xbox and can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux-based machines as well as off a USB drive. Our most recent guide to building an XBMC is a fantastic one: For around $200, you'll have a silent and HD-capable media center. If you'd like to use existing hardware, you can always run XBMC off a USB drive or visit the XBMC wiki to read up on other installation techniques.

If all you do is install the stock version and add your media shares, you'll be a happy camper and you'll get frequent compliments on your rocking media center. If you want to get frequent compliments and have people express complete disbelief that you got such awesome media center software for the outrageous price of free, then keep reading.

Taking XBMC Beyond the Basics

Installing XBMC is easy, and so is performing the basic setup, but because XBMC is a work in progress and new innovations and features are constantly being added, customization can get a bit confusing. Take it from a guy who has loved XBMC for years and runs it on the classic Xbox and on a custom-built HTPC—I frequently find myself reading over the user forums and saying "What? It can do that? Oh man!" If you've looked at screenshots of XBMC and wondered how they made it look so cool or got such and such custom icon to appear, this is where you'll want to pay close attention.

XBMC is equipped with a variety of "scrapers"—scripts that scan your media and pull information from the folder structure and file names—to help you get things like thumbnails, fan art, and movie and show information. These scrapers can access a variety of databases like TheTVDB.com for television show art and information and IMDB for movie posters and info. This entire process, once you tell XBMC what kind of content a folder contains, is totally automated. For most entries you can select from multiple movie posters, thumbnails, and so on—check out this entry in TheTVDB for the show Heroes to get a feel for it.

The automated process is awesome and for the most part hassle free. You can increase the effectiveness of the scrapers by properly formatting your directories and file names. One thing that merits particular emphasis: You must keep your movies and TV shows separate. XBMC can't scrape a folder for both television and film and if you attempt to scrape it twice all sorts of weird things can happen. Store your movies completely separate from your television shows and you'll save yourself quite a bit of frustration.

When you set the content type for the folder you can specify "Use Folder Names for Lookups" and it goes a long way towards accurate file identification. It also saves you from having to cleanup files names and if you're using direct DVD-rips you must use folder name lookup or the scrapers won't function. Here's an example folder structure:

\Movies\
—-\Army of Darkness\
—— AofD.DTS.x264.mkv
—- \Blades of Glory\
—— Blades.CON.x264.mkv

When XBMC scrapes the folder names it will easily find a match. In the rare cases where a movie has a title that has been used before or is a remake of a prior movie you can include the year in the folder name, such as Halloween (2007) and Halloween (1978).

As awesome as scraping is for saving you tons of time, it does have a few down sides. It takes a long, long, time on a moderate to large size library. Have a thousand movies and dozens of TV shows saved? You'll be leaving it to run for hours. Any time you make changes, move things, reinstall XBMC, etc., you'll end up scraping all over again which can get a bit tedious. The other down side is the limitations of scrapers. For most genres they are fine, but sometimes you'll find that they don't have the artwork you want or even any info at all about your media. When this happens it's up to you to fill in the blanks.

Fortunately XBMC follows a specific structure for checking information. It checks the local directory first, then the XBMC library, and then if necessary it will scrape for the data. The following directory structure will show you where support files go

\Movies\
—-\MovieTitle\
—— MovieTitle.mkv
—— folder.jpg
—— fanart.jpg
—— movie-trailer.flv
—— title.nfo

\TV Shows\
—- \Show\
—— folder.jpg
—— fanart.jpg
——- \Season\
——— folder.jpg

In the above format the folder.jpg is the source for the small thumbnail assigned to the folder and fanart.jpg is the large image placed in the background during showcase mode. See the image below to see what showcase mode looks like. For more examples of folder structure with some excellent and informative info-graphics, check out this post on the XBMC forums.

NFO files provide additional information about media. If you don't want to mess around with NFO files, having the thumbnails and fan art saved to disk will speed up the scraping process enormously. You can read about NFO files and how XBMC center uses them here. You can also greatly automate the process of manually inserting fanart, thumbnails, and managing NFO files by using helper applications like Ember Media Manager.

The area at the bottom of the screenshot above, highlighted with the red box, is where your media flags will show up. The media flags are a really nice touch and indicate things like the studio that produced the film, what quality the video is in, and other media information like what kind of audio it has. All media flag information is pulled, oddly enough, from the file name. If you want the Blu-ray or HD-DVD icon to appear you need to add that information to the file name within the /Movie/Title/ folder. The following file name for example would enable the Blu-ray, 1080, and 264 encoding flags in skins, like Aeon, that support it.

/Move/Title/Title.bluray.1080p.x264.mkv

It should be noted that while the general release of XBMC doesn't presently support pulling media information directly from the files that the functionality is available in the beta builds for power users—and it looks stunning! You can read more about that here. If you'd prefer to use the current stable release, then grab the AEON skin and read the readme.txt for additional information about enabling media flags. You can greatly speed up the flagging process by using a helper application like Media Renamer.

At this point in the tutorial, if you've formatted your folders properly, let the scrapers do their thing, and filled with your own pictures and fan art where you wanted to improve on the scraper or fill in some missing information, you've got a library whipped into shape and ready to show off.

Two resources you'll definitely want to check out—because we simply can't cover all the awesomeness that is XBMC in a single article—are the XBMC official wiki and the XBMC forums. You'll especially want to check out any sub-forums for the skin you decide to use, the discussions and resources you'll find in them are invaluable.

Have a favorite helper app for XBMC? A skin you can't rave enough about? A trick that took you a week of digging in the XBMC forums to find out about? Let's hear about it in the comments.

The Ultimate Halloween Desktop [Featured Desktop]

2009-10-30T20:00:00Z

Reader The Royal Rebel's Windows desktop is ready for Halloween—complete with spooky wallpaper, a Halloween countdown, and a to-do list written on a tombstone. The only thing more frightening is that it could bluescreen anytime.

The desktop is a combination of:

Rainmeter with Enigma by Kaelri

Century Gothic2 by TaipanSnake

Launchy

HUD.vision by Mepu

RocketDock with Black Leopard Icon Set by DecompositionBeauty

TransBar

TrueTransparency with Haru the Suite by Aaron-A-Arts

Start Killer

Desktop Coral

Styler

Erie - The Dictionary Image by Jason Swain

This desktop not your style? Why waste time complaining? Instead, get started creating your own killer desktop with the easy-install Rainmeter 1.0 package and show the world what you can do. If you get stuck and need some help, join up with the Lifehacker Desktop Customization Google Group to collaborate on new ideas for desktop configurations.

Once you've created your own beautifully tweaked (and hopefully productive) desktop, post it over in the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group complete with a description of the programs and tweaks you used (and preferably links as well!), and we just might feature it here.

The Ultimate Halloween Desktop [Flickr]

12 Spooktacular DIY Projects For Crazy Halloween Fun [Halloween]

2009-10-31T01:00:00Z

Vampire lollipops? Arcing electricity? Animatronic ghouls? We've got that and more in today's roundup of Halloween DIY projects. Come for the pumpkin with laser-beam eyes and stick around for the melon brains.

If you're feeling extremely industrious, you might crank out a few of these props and goodies in time for Halloween tomorrow. Even if you don't have that kind of time, you can make a splash with them next year.

We pored over some of the fantastic tutorials at Instructables to find some interesting, bizarre, and downright ingenious ways to really have a showy Halloween party. We selected the best picture from the tutorial to show it off here, included a summary, and a link back to the project.

If you have a project you want to share or find one in the course of browsing the tutorials at Instructables, share a link to it in the comments!

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

Laser Pumpkin by Nova Lasers

Never has a a simple Jack 'O Lantern had such great potential to be awesome and dangerous—not counting of course the time Uncle Eddie put a quarter stick of dynamite in his.

Make Rheopectic Slime in Less Than 15 Minutes by Syribia

Goo is right up there with blood as a quintessential Halloween prop. Whip up some home-made slime and live out all the slime-centered fantasies from your Nickelodeon-filled childhood.

Goldie's Bubbling Halloween Cauldron by woodhegm

It's a variation on an old trick magician's trick, the ol' "hide the perfectly fine and unmolested by fire/axes/swords person" behind the false panel gig. Nonetheless the build is pretty cool and a great way to lounge around while you hand out candy.

Halloween Melon Brain by scoochmaroo

Brains you can eat. What more could one ask for on Halloween? You'll need some watermelon and a bit of patience but when you're done you'll be able to say in casual conversation "You have no idea how hard it is to carve cortical folds."

Make a "Life Size" U.F.O. by susanfromhauntspace

Monsters not your thing? You can build a UFO. Some mood lighting, a little dry ice, and you've got all the makings of a B-movie on your hands.

Talking Arduino Halloween Skeleton by samseide

Skeleton? Glowing eyes? Microprocessor for a brain? Combine all these things with some soldering chops and your own creepy voice over and you've got yourself a pretty awesome animatronic friend to sit out on the porch and greet guests and candy grubbers.

Low Cost Jacob's Ladder Made From A Salvaged Oil Transformer by bloomautomatic

This tutorial is awesome even outside of planning a Mad Scientist's Laboratory for your next Halloween party. We highly recommend not undertaking this build without a healthy respect for electricity and the knowledge that you could give yourself a fatal heart attack if you're not careful. That said, have fun! Science is awesome!

Spooky Glowing Water by French Crawler

If you've ever set foot in a frat house or college dorm you've likely seen the effects of this simple but effective prop. Bust open a few highlighters, soak the foam wicks in hot water, and then set the resulting bright mixture under a black light. Bam—instant glowing potion prop for your haunted house.

Multi-Color LED Fog Spreader by marc92

Off the shelf fog machines are old hat. This model will spread fog in a nice even rolling-across-your-boots display and includes a color changing light show.

Cool Cloud Lamp by Babblin5

Lava lamps are great and all but they just don't have that spook factor. Creepy ghost-in-a-bottle cloud effect? Much better.

Vampire Blood Lollipops by lancmaltby

Was the Melon Brain too tame for you? Fair enough. How about serving up some bloody lollipops at your next party?

Make Foam Look Like Carved Granite! by Creativeman

Carving actual stone signs might be a bit out of your Halloween budget, but don't let that hold you back. This tutorial will show you how to turn foam insulation sheets into faux-stone signs.

October 2009's Most Popular Posts [[this Is Good]]

2009-11-01T01:00:00Z

October, you were one happening month. You brought us Windows 7, some serious Google Wave insights, and tasty media center upgrades. Here's a quick look back at the most popular posts of October, 2009.

Top 10 Windows 7 Booster Apps
Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, and a pretty convenient OS in general—but it's by no means perfect. These 10 downloads improve Windows 7's looks, functions, and make it easier, safer, and more convenient to upgrade to.
Lifehacker's Complete Guide to Windows 7
Windows 7 officially launches today, but we've been testing, tweaking, customizing, fixing, and writing about this OS for a year now. We present here a guide to everything we've learned about the OS, from first install to final settings change.
Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required
Two weeks ago I detailed how to build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, with a little Terminal work. If you're not comfortable with command-line hacking, you can now install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh with just a few point-and-clicks.
Google Wave First Look
If you're not one of the 100,000 lucky users who gets an invitation to Google Wave today, don't fret. You can check out Google Wave right here.But first, ground rules.
Wallpaper Roundup: Color Splashes and Cooler Days
Fall is a colorful time of year and the vibrant hues of fall foliage and holidays lend well to livening up your desktop. Take a stroll through our collection of fall-themed wallpaper to find a new look for your workstation.
Google Wave's Best Use Cases
Last week we asked a simple question: How will you use Google Wave? Over 600 responses later, we're sending Wave nominations to the people who had the best use cases.
The Master List of New Windows 7 Shortcuts
Windows 7 adds loads of great shortcuts for switching between apps, moving windows around your screen, moving them to another monitor altogether, and much more.
First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta
The beta release of Karmic Koala, the next version of Ubuntu Linux, just arrived on the net. Wondering what's new inside the open-source operating system?
Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap
You won't find a better media center than the open-source XBMC, but most people don't have the space or desire to plug a noisy PC into their TV. Instead, I converted a cheap nettop into a standalone XBMC set-top box. Here's how.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave Is a Comprehensive Book on Wave [Google Wave]

2009-11-02T22:00:00Z

Got an interest in Google Wave but have absolutely no idea where to get started? Try out The Complete Guide to Google Wave, a new (free) book written and edited by my pal and Lifehacker cohort Gina Trapani and yours truly.

Google Wave may not be available to everyone just yet, but there's still a lot to learn about it and not that many places to do that learning. That's where The Complete Guide to Google Wave steps in.

Wave is a young, complex, and frankly incomplete web application and technology. It's also an ambitious project that has the potential to change how we work, collaborate, and communicate on the web. That's why Gina and I decided to pour our time and attention into Google Wave and pull it all together into this book.

We're calling it a book, even though right now its content is only available on the web at completewaveguide.com. It features eight chapters and two appendices, but we're going to expand the book as Google continues to grow and expand Wave. (In fact, anyone can help us do just that by contributing to the guide.)

If you'd like a more permanent or convenient copy of the book, its first preview edition will be available for purchase as a PDF later this month, and the first edition print version will be available in January of 2010. Gina and I are planning to release four editions of the book throughout 2010 to keep up with the changing face of Wave, but the latest version of the book will always be available and free at completewaveguide.com.

Check out the book's About page for more details on our adventure in publishing (including why we're self-publishing), or just head to the home page to get started with your Wave education. For updates on book releases and various Wave tips, follow @gwaveguide on Twitter.

Note: Our server has had a little trouble keeping up with the traffic, so if you're having trouble accessing the site, try this mirror instead.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

Old song about emasculating Castro by giving him a crew cut

2009-11-02T21:06:18Z

I remember reading a book years ago that mentioned a CIA plan in the early 1960s to sprinkle thallium salts into Castro's boots, which "would cause his beard, eyebrows, and pubic hair to fall out... like a follicle deprived Samson."

Today, I listened to this catchy Tin Pan Alley song called "If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro." Why did people in the 1960s think Castro's hair was so magical?

"If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro" Thanks to WFMU's Bob Purse for finding this 45 and converting it to an MP3!

Homebrew backyard railroad recreates Disneyland

2009-10-30T14:47:17Z

Kirby sez, "The December 2009 copy of Garden Railways magazine features an article about the Castle Peak & Thunder Railroad, a Disneyland Park themed, 1370 sq. foot, 1:24 scale model backyard railroad. The CPTRR, like its inspiration, is located in Anaheim, CA. It was built by Dave Sheegog, an architect who was a former Cast Member on the Canoes at Disneyland. He built replicas of all 5 Disneyland Steam locomotives and purchased a Casey Jr. locomotive. He scratch built all scenery to match Disneyland including replicas of the Main Street Train Station, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Sleeping Beauty Castle. Parts of Storybook Land, Big Thunder Mountain, Primeval World and the old Skull Rock are also included."

Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad (Thanks, Kirby!)

Previously: