Posted February 9th, 2010
by MyLifeHacked
Readers offer their best tips for making effective sink mats, rearranging your Windows taskbar for quick program switching, and writing important information on dried foot containers.
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About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, share it here, or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.
Build a Backyard Igloo
ReknapS shows us how to beat the snowpocalypse:
This is a time-lapse video I made with all the snow we got this weekend. I was inspired by another Igloo how-to using Ikea storage bins that was circling the blogs a month or two back. This turned out wayyy better than I could've imagined.
Use Silicone Baking Mats in Your Sink
Karen shares another piece of kitchen equipment with multiple uses:
I was tried of clear plastic sink mats yellowing and curling and generally looking gross after only a couple of months, so several years ago I sprang for 2 silicone baking sheets, cut out holes for the drains, and have used them as sink mats ever since.
They come in so many colors now that it should be easy to find some that match or coordinate with your kitchen colors, and they can be cut down for smaller sinks with a pair of scissors (as I did for the right one in this photo).
They still need to be scrubbed just like your sink does, or put in the dishwasher, but they have the added benefit of doubling as a safe place to put hot pans.
Rearrange Taskbar Icons For Quick Program Switching
rpjrugby shows us his alternative to alt-tabbing between many applications:
Don't be hesitant to reorder your Windows 7 taskbar icons when working on tasks. I've found that simply moving around the 3-4 applications I'm using to complete a task to positions 1-4, and learning where they are, allows me to quickly switch between windows by using Win+(1-4) without alt-tabbing through several windows and hoping I don't pass the window I want and having to cycle through them all again (or using the awkwardly positioned shift key to go back one). For instance, if I'm studying notes I've made in OneNote, using Firefox for research, and chatting on Skype all at once, I'll just drag each of those icons to positions 1, 2, and 3 on the taskbar, respectively. I know where each one is now on the taskbar, and can just hit the win+# combo to switch to the window (or hit it again to choose which of the open multiple open windows I want). The best part is that when you're all done, its just as easy to move the icons back to where you keep them normally!
Label Food Containers with Cooking Information to Save Time
Photo by Katherine Raz.
Sean Walker tells us how he keeps his food fresh and properly cooked:
Write the ratios of dry:liquid on the outside of dried grain/rice/bean containers to avoid having to look them up. I hate having to search how much water I need every time I want to cook a batch of oatmeal. Throw the cooking time on there while you're at it!
Take Pictures of Moving Boxes Instead of Lengthy Indexes
Photo by Katie Tegtmeyer.
CalsualSubversive comes up with another great use for Evernote, when moving:
I'm packing to move right now. It's especially important for me to know what's in each box, because I'll be in a small space for six months or so. I'll leave most of my stuff behind and send for it later, as needed.
Instead of writing out an inventory of each item, I'm taking photos of what's in each box and putting them in Evernote. This works really well for my large library-Evernotes OCR picks up most of the text on the books, so I can do a text search to find out what box a specific book is in.
Posted in Internet and Technology
Posted February 9th, 2010
by AJ Glasser
Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from GamePro.com. For more gaming news, visit GamePro’s news page.
Hudson’s turn-based military strategy game, Military Madness, hits the App Store today in the form of Military Madness: Neo Nectaris. The game appears to be based on the 3D Military Madness: Nectaris that came to Xbox Live Arcade last year.
For those of you that didn’t own a TurboGrafx-16 back in the day, the original Military Madness stood out among other strategy games for having a hexagonal grid instead of a square grid. The remake for Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and WiiWare features fancy 3D graphics in addition to the same hardcore tactics gameplay emphasized in the original.
Military Madness: Neo Nectaris runs on either an iPhone or an iPod touch. Get it for $5 from the App Store.
Posted in Gadgets
Posted February 9th, 2010
by Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles
Photo: Wikipedia, CC What Can We Learn From The Highways in the Sky
Science recently published a study titled "
Flight Orienta...Read the full story on TreeHugger 
Posted in Life and Fashion
Posted February 9th, 2010
by Philip Michaels
If you’re outside Moscone Center for this week’s Macworld Expo, and someone hands you a “Lost iPhone” sticker, don’t toss it away. It could help you track down your phone, should it ever go missing.
Using the iHound Website, you can send push notifications to any iPhone or iPod touch you've misplaced.
The stickers, from iHound Software, go on the back of the iPhone or the phone’s case. They feature a unique ID number so that anyone who finds a misplaced phone can go to iHound’s Website and punch in the nine-digit number along with a message to the phone’s doubtlessly frantic owner.
“We believe most phones are lost, not stolen,” Gary Moskoff, one of the founders of iHound Software told me Monday, as we talked about his company’s mobile security offering.
Of course, to take advantage of that lost sticker, you’ve got to use the iHound app for the iPhone. But iHound has an Expo-timed special there too: for the month of February, the app—normally a $3 download—is available for free. (After the 10-day trial period, you’ll still have to pay a recurring service charge, which Moskoff says costs less than $1 a month.)
iHound takes advantage of the iPhone OS’s support for push notifications to help you track down a missing phone. When you lose your iPhone or iPod touch, you can send it a notification via iHound’s Website. The notification can feature a message as well as a customized sound that plays for a full 30 seconds at maximum volume. Activating an idle phone after such a notification launches iHound, which ten transmits your phone’s location to the iHound server.
“More people are getting smartphones,” Moskoff said. “It’s our responsibility to remind people that as you put more data on your phone and integrate it into your lifestyle, you want to protect your phone and your data.”
These are busy times at iHound, which just hired a full-time customer service rep in response to user requests for more prompt service. iHound is also working on a Website redesign and has a second product coming out in a few months. It’s also planning to bring the iHound service to more smartphone platforms.
Posted in Gadgets
Posted February 9th, 2010
by MyLifeHacked
A 1080p streaming upgrade is on its way for Netflix users later this year, Adobe is promising faster Flash for Macs, and boredom can kill you.
- ANI 'Boredom can kill you'
According to a study at University College London, extremely bored people are 37% more likely to have died a year after their boredom was measured for the study. So, um, find something exciting to do! [Yahoo News]
- Netflix Streaming Getting a 1080p Upgrade
1080p HD coming to Netflix instant streaming—we just don't know much about what devices it's going to support, but Gizmodo guesses it's coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3. [Gizmodo]
- 2010 Super Bowl: Some search touchdowns
Google shares most searched-for terms during yesterday's Super Bowl, including team, player, coach, party-planning term, and so on. Pretty interesting. [Official Google Blog]
- Google Translate Integrated In Google Chrome 5
Pretty snazzy if you're on the bleeding edge. [gHacks]
- Moto Droid's 2.1 Update Coming Soon
Droid users should soon get an update introducing many of the features introduced in the recent Nexus One update, including lots of multi-touch.
- Adobe promises faster Flash on Macs
Who doesn't like faster everything? [CNET]
- Universal sues Grooveshark music service
It must be Monday! [Download Squad]
- Is it possible to opt out of social networking?
Mozilla employee Jono DiCarlo explains his efforts to avoid social networking, and the long arm of Facebook. [Not The User's Fault]
Posted in Internet and Technology
Posted February 8th, 2010
by Green Living - Building, Home, Auto & Lifestyles
Image credit: Lollie-Pop/Flickr With
Tesla officially filing their IPO papers, it seems like renewable energy is entering a new era of marketability. Such small successes, however, may not be representative of trends. ...
Read the full story on TreeHugger 
Posted in Life and Fashion
