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Best VPN Tool: OpenVPN [Hive Five Followup]
Last week we asked you to share your favorite VPN tool, then we rounded up the top five contenders for a vote. Now we're back with the results. More »
How-To: Tin Can Punch Light
Punched metal is a classic technique used worldwide that transforms tin scraps and old cans into beautiful and delicate pieces of art. This project uses a recycled tomato can filled with ice to create a sturdy and safe candle holder. The standard motifs for this type of project include hearts, stars, and spirals, but I was inspired by the flickering lights of the EQ sound frequency display on my car stereo. Download the PDF of my pattern, or print your own onto photo paper to make a template to work from. Photo paper is my secret weapon because it resists the condensation and holds up to the nail and hammer.
Read this article | Comment on this articleBrookelynn1295302487655129437105246852912446950127Friendship
Friendship
When the zombies come, can I sleep on your couch?
Submitted by: Shannon K via deMotivational Builder
Yeah, my name
Yeah, my name is Precious… So what?
Picture by: jimmy Caption by: eddieandtommy via Loldog Builder
Tagged: angry, dalmatian, name, snarl, teeth
DIY PVC submarine
Jason Rollette's remotely-operated submarine packs four 500gph and two 1,250gph bilge pumps, with the bigger ones used for propulsion. Check out his incredibly detailed tutorial for instructions on how to build your own. [via Hack a Day]
More:
- Record-vying transatlantic robot submarine at sea
- Beached submarine home theater
- Chinese maker's homemade submarine
Homemade Taffy Recipe
Cindy at Skip to My Lou shares her recipe for making homemade taffy and shows the fun afternoon of making taffy with the kids. I love the photos of them trying to pull and stretch the taffy. It's hard work!
MacGyver of the Day: Mad Scientists Lenore Edman and Windell Oskay [DIY Week]
Ed. note: Senior Editor of MAKE magazine Phil Torrone joins us to celebrate a few modern-day MacGyvers as we continue DIY week at Lifehacker. Today's maker(s): Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories, the dynamic duo Lenore M. Edman and Windell H. Oskay.
Pictured above: A bar bot drink-mixing unit, made with an open source hardware gaming kit and hacked breast pumps bought off eBay. It doesn't get better than this folks...
Hi Lifehackers! MAKE is best known for sharing all the goodness of making things for yourself, learning new skills and many times, voiding warranties. Marcus Chan of the San Francisco Chronicle said we're the "The kind of magazine that would impress MacGyver", and that's what this week is about. It's a little known fact, but MAKE even has the creator of MacGyver writing at MAKE: Lee D. Zlotoff is a writer/producer/director among whose numerous credits is creator of MacGyver (you can see his articles here).
Now that's out of the way, let's talk science, evil.mad.science—the best kind of science. There isn't a more creative force on the internet than two of my favorite makers: Lenore M. Edman and Windell H. Oskay. They're the duo behind "Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories". Their motto? "Making the world a better place one evil mad scientist at a time". They're prolific, bringing us such fascinating projects as how to turn a toothbrush in to a robot!
Before I show you my favorite EMSL MacGyver-like projects you can do yourself (and some, well—good luck!), let's see what these two say about themselves.
Lenore M. Edman, a veteran bike commuter, used to live in Portland, Oregon, where her son Chris got to ride in her bike's sidecar. Abandoning wet for warm, she moved to Austin, Texas, where she designed and sewed her own wedding dress. Later, as a regular of the Boulder, Colorado weekly cruiser bike ride, she overhauled a mid-century Hawthorne ladies bicycle (named Stella) which she has only crashed once—and it wasn't her fault. Since moving to Sunnyvale, California, she has helped to popularize edible origami and has learned to make some wicked curries. Her college studies in classical Greek prepared her well for her career working with professors, librarians, engineers and scientists.
Windell H. Oskay owns only one slide rule, but plans to acquire more. A published playwright, award-winning cartoonist, and obscenely creative amateur chef, he has been variously employed as a quantum mechanic, photographer, and (atomic) clock maker. Several people have described food that he has prepared in terms more positive than "edible." He is notorious for disrupting a Shawn Colvin concert (on a first date, even) and for putting (and using) an "Ooga" horn on a bicycle. Some of the other things that he somehow ended up designing and building include an interactive dining table, a carbon-fiber electric guitar, hard-drive wind chimes, radio-controlled hovercrafts, nixie tube clocks, and magnetohydrodynamic-powered boats.
Now for a quick tour of some of their handiwork—evil handiwork—some of which could save your life, save the day or drive you mad. You've seen the "Bar bot" above, but that's a little advanced, so try these on first.
Five Minute Project: Hot Dog Bun Grilling Jig
A quick DIY Hot Dog Bun Grilling Jig, which holds your bun open at the perfect angle while it warms on the grill, forming a sturdy toasted structure with potentially good hinge integrity. Bonus: by grabbing the jig, you can use tongs to set down and pick up your bun without fear of a squished bun. You'll just need wire cutters and stainless steel welded wire cloth, McMaster-Carr part number 9322T631, described as "EASY-TO-FORM" Stainless Steel (type 304) welded wire cloth 2x2 mesh (2 lines per inch, i.e., 1/2" squares), with wire .047" in diameter, and overall size 12" square. ($9.92 for one square foot).
You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you can.
How about this one—boom, a quick hack: The $1 C-to-D adapter (which Lifehacker has featured in the past):
Here's a common problem: You want to power your gizmo that runs on D cells, but all that you have handy are C cells. In many (but not all) circumstances, you can solve this problem by using the C cell and making up the battery length difference with a few quarters— typically three or four. There is a 12 mm length difference between a C cell and a D cell, and quarters are about 2 mm thick, so if your gizmo has a really weak spring it could take up to six quarters to do the job.
Yes, commercial battery size adapters are available. They typically cost between 1.5 and three dollars and can only be used for the one purpose— adapting battery sizes. (Well, that, and as a set of matryoshki.) Using quarters can also potentially end up costing as much as $1.50, but it can go straight back into your wallet when you're finished! Much more importantly, when you really need it, you can probably find a few quarters no further away than your pocket.
LED Garden Lights
Quick, easy, temporary, and beautiful LED garden lights—they can't stop themselves. "For a late night summer party, we wanted to deploy an array of maybe 20 or so little LED garden lights along the periphery of our back yard. And since it was for a one-time event, there wasn't much sense in buying (or building) a set of nice looking permanent solar lights. So here is an alternative: make your own ultra-low cost temporary garden lights using LEDs, lithium coin cells, and mason jars."
Ok, these are just a few great projects from the halls of Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories. They have over 304 projects on their site. If these quickies wet your palette, you might want to check out some of the more advanced projects—including a personal favorite—the CandyFab 4000. Solid freeform fabrication: DIY, on the cheap, and made of pure sugar.
Phil Torrone is Senior Editor of MAKE magazine, contributing editor to Popular Science, and creative director of Adafruit Industries, where they make educational electronics and kits like the TV-B-Gone and some "other" hacky projects that sometimes make the rounds in these parts of the web. You may have seen MAKE in bookstores, public television, online, or been to one of their Maker Faires (there will be 3 this year, they are expecting over 100k attendees!). His personal site is http://www.braincraft.com.
Assemble HDR sequences QTPFSGUI
In the world of HDR imagery, Photomatix is the leading application. However, if you only occasionally need to assemble an HDR sequence, you can save your pennies and use the open source application, qtpfsgui. In this post I’ll show you where to find the application and how to get started using it:
If you are starting out in HDR check out my earlier post to see how to capture your bracketed sequence of images to use for the HDR assembly.
Step 1Visit http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/download.php and download the appropriate version of qtpfsgui for your system. I’m using a Windows machine so I’ll download version 1.9.3 and I’ll choose the setup.exe version.
When you click the link, you’ll be taken to a download page where things rapidly go from simple to downright confusing. For the Windows install, scroll down to find All Files > qtpfsgui > 1.9.3 > Qtpfsgui-windows-SETUP-v1.9.3.exe and download and install that file.
Launch qtpfsgui and select New HDR > Load Images. Select the images in your HDR sequence. When they appear in the list you’ll see the program has guessed the exposure compensation used for each. If this isn’t correct – and it is seldom so in my experience, select each image and adjust the exposure compensation value manually by typing the value into the dialog. So, because my sequence was captured at 0.5, -1.5 and 2.5 I entered those values.
You can set the program to auto align the images by selecting Auto align images and then select the option to use – HUGI’s Align Image Stack or Medium Threshold Bitmap. My experience is that this fails spectacularly every time I try it – the program crashes and I have to start over, but your mileage may vary. If you have problems, bypass this and you can manually align them yourself shortly.
Click Next and wait as the HDR sequence is assembled. When your image appears, zoom out to see it all. Now you can fix any alignment issues. If you see white haloing around objects in your images you need to fix this. To do this, click each image in the editable images list and see if there is any haloing in that image.
If you see it, adjust the image using the arrows in the Shift Values for Editable Image area of the dialog. Move the image until the haloing disappears or is minimized. Continue to do this for all the images in the Editable list. From the Preview Mode dropdown list you can choose from various preview modes which can help you identify alignment problems. When your sequence is aligned, click Next and then Finish to assemble the HDR image.
This is the assembled image and, at this point, you can select Save HDR As and save the image as an HDR format file. Later you can open this in the program to work on it and you will not have to realign and re-render it.
Before you can actually use the image, you need to tone map it so select the Tonemap the HDR option to open the image ready for tone mapping.
?
Step 9
To view one of the tone mapping options, select Fattal as the operator and click Apply. A small version of the image appears tone mapped to the specifications shown.
Change the image size by selecting a different size from the Result Size options and click Apply to create a second version of the tonemapped image.
Each time you click Apply you get another image so the screen can start filling up very quickly. You will find larger size images take more time to render so start with small versions until you find an Operator and settings that work for you then render larger versions as you fine tune your settings. Here the larger size image is showing noise not apparent in the smaller image.
Continue to experiment with options by choosing different settings – sometimes small differences in values can result in sizeable differences in the images and you can also use other Operators if desired.
Step 11Render the images you like at a good size and close any smaller versions or any images you do not like. While qtpfsgui has a Levels adjustment option, it is best to save this adjustment and do it in your editing program later on.
To save the images, click the Save or Save All button. Make sure to specify the folder you want the images saved into – on my computer, scarily, it defaulted to one of my Windows system folders – not where you would want to save them! Once saved, you can open the image in your favorite editor and work on it further there.
Step 12To learn more about the various operators, how they impact an image and which you might use for what type of image, visit http://osp.wikidot.com/parameters-for-photographers
Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.
Assemble HDR sequences QTPFSGUI
Assemble HDR sequences QTPFSGUI
In the world of HDR imagery, Photomatix is the leading application. However, if you only occasionally need to assemble an HDR sequence, you can save your pennies and use the open source application, qtpfsgui. In this post I’ll show you where to find the application and how to get started using it:
If you are starting out in HDR check out my earlier post to see how to capture your bracketed sequence of images to use for the HDR assembly.
Step 1Visit http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/download.php and download the appropriate version of qtpfsgui for your system. I’m using a Windows machine so I’ll download version 1.9.3 and I’ll choose the setup.exe version.
When you click the link, you’ll be taken to a download page where things rapidly go from simple to downright confusing. For the Windows install, scroll down to find All Files > qtpfsgui > 1.9.3 > Qtpfsgui-windows-SETUP-v1.9.3.exe and download and install that file.
Launch qtpfsgui and select New HDR > Load Images. Select the images in your HDR sequence. When they appear in the list you’ll see the program has guessed the exposure compensation used for each. If this isn’t correct – and it is seldom so in my experience, select each image and adjust the exposure compensation value manually by typing the value into the dialog. So, because my sequence was captured at 0.5, -1.5 and 2.5 I entered those values.
You can set the program to auto align the images by selecting Auto align images and then select the option to use – HUGI’s Align Image Stack or Medium Threshold Bitmap. My experience is that this fails spectacularly every time I try it – the program crashes and I have to start over, but your mileage may vary. If you have problems, bypass this and you can manually align them yourself shortly.
Click Next and wait as the HDR sequence is assembled. When your image appears, zoom out to see it all. Now you can fix any alignment issues. If you see white haloing around objects in your images you need to fix this. To do this, click each image in the editable images list and see if there is any haloing in that image.
If you see it, adjust the image using the arrows in the Shift Values for Editable Image area of the dialog. Move the image until the haloing disappears or is minimized. Continue to do this for all the images in the Editable list. From the Preview Mode dropdown list you can choose from various preview modes which can help you identify alignment problems. When your sequence is aligned, click Next and then Finish to assemble the HDR image.
This is the assembled image and, at this point, you can select Save HDR As and save the image as an HDR format file. Later you can open this in the program to work on it and you will not have to realign and re-render it.
Before you can actually use the image, you need to tone map it so select the Tonemap the HDR option to open the image ready for tone mapping.
To view one of the tone mapping options, select Fattal as the operator and click Apply. A small version of the image appears tone mapped to the specifications shown.
Change the image size by selecting a different size from the Result Size options and click Apply to create a second version of the tonemapped image.
Each time you click Apply you get another image so the screen can start filling up very quickly. You will find larger size images take more time to render so start with small versions until you find an Operator and settings that work for you then render larger versions as you fine tune your settings. Here the larger size image is showing noise not apparent in the smaller image.
Continue to experiment with options by choosing different settings – sometimes small differences in values can result in sizeable differences in the images and you can also use other Operators if desired.
Step 11Render the images you like at a good size and close any smaller versions or any images you do not like. While qtpfsgui has a Levels adjustment option, it is best to save this adjustment and do it in your editing program later on.
To save the images, click the Save or Save All button. Make sure to specify the folder you want the images saved into – on my computer, scarily, it defaulted to one of my Windows system folders – not where you would want to save them! Once saved, you can open the image in your favorite editor and work on it further there.
Step 12To learn more about the various operators, how they impact an image and which you might use for what type of image, visit http://osp.wikidot.com/parameters-for-photographers
Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.
Assemble HDR sequences QTPFSGUI
Stop Google Chat Status Messages from Displaying in Buzz and Other Buzz Tips [Social Networks]
Google continues its push to make Buzz better (and convince people to use it), today announcing five tips for making Buzz work just how you like it. First, they highlight how to post to Buzz via email (just send an email to buzz@gmail.com and it'll show up in your Buzz stream), prevent Google chat status messages from displaying in Buzz (put parenthesis around your status), and link to a Buzz post (the option's in the drop-down on the top right of buzz messages). If you're digging into Buzz despite its many early snafus, they're worthwhile tips. [Official Gmail Blog]
How to Investigate a Fake BitTorrent Tracker [File Sharing]
Ed. note: Ever go on a BitTorrent scavenger hunt but end up with bum files from a fake tracker? All-things-BitTorrent site TorrentFreak explains how to quickly determine the authenticity of a torrent tracker.
Image from BitTorrent visualization.
Seeding fake files on BitTorrent is nothing new, and the practice has been carried out by anti-piracy groups and malware spreaders for a long time. While many of them choose to use various open and public BitTorrent trackers, others are setting up their own trackers. We take a look at an easy way to find out more about them.
Back in 2007 TorrentFreak published a series of articles on various dodgy practices targeted at BitTorrent users. Many people were downloading torrents only to be told that they needed to install software like DomPlayer and 3WPlayer to get them to work. Of course, the torrents were fake.
We also reported on BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, and GetTorrent, which also caused caused a whole load of trouble for those who installed them—even uTorrent and WinZip users were in the sights of malware offloaders.
In an email yesterday to TorrentFreak, a reader pointed us to a problem torrent located here (removed). The file is clearly labeled as ‘The Wolfman DVDrip 2010 aXXo', but it is a fake, a fact which can be quickly learned by reading the comments underneath the torrent. Nevertheless, we thought it might be interesting to demonstrate how it's possible to look a little deeper.
The file is tracked by a whole range of trackers but one sticks out immediately.
http://tracker.torrentq.com/announce.php currently lists 48,416 seeds and 37,496 seeders for the supposed ‘The Wolfman' movie, a highly attractive proposition for those inexperienced in dealing with fake torrents.
Of course the stats are faked, and are run from a tracker set up especially to deliver fake torrents. Indeed, it's run on a subdomain of TorrentQ, a bad client we featured in an earlier article. Here's a quick step-by-step of the method we used to investigate the tracker. There are other ways, but this is pretty simple so anyone can try this out.
It's possible to find information about the files indexed on many trackers by using 'scrape'. In the case of the TorrentQ tracker, the scrape URL is located at http://tracker.torrentq.com/scrape.php. So first off, go to this URL and you'll get the option to download a file, in this case 'scrape.php'—download it.
In this file will be information about the files being seeded on this tracker.
Next use DeHackEd's nice little online tool called DumpTorrentCGI. Browse to the 'scrape' file on your hard drive, change output type to ‘/scrape' and click the ‘decode' button. You should get this report;
Immediately you can see that all the files are apparently hugely popular, but of course, all of these stats are faked. To prove that, one can use a site like Torrentz.com, which creates its torrent URLs by using a torrent's hash value. Simply test each torrent by using http://www.torrentz.com/ followed by the hash value, as shown below, and check the comments.
http://www.torrentz.com/0366eb6bdbab88f2ccd9397a0b421b3947c82e06
The torrents TorrentQ tracks are for Wolfman, Legion, My Name is Khan, The Book of Eli, From Paris With Love, Ninja Assassin, Edge of Darkness, Shutter Island and Dear John.
Every single one is flagged as a fake by commenters on Torrentz.com.
How To Quickly Investigate A Fake BitTorrent Tracker [TorrentFreak] TorrentFreak is a weblog devoted to all-things BitTorrent and file sharing. To get all of the latest from TorrentFreak, be sure to subscribe to the TorrentFreak RSS feed.
How to Investigate a Fake BitTorrent Tracker [File Sharing]
Ed. note: Ever go on a BitTorrent scavenger hunt but end up with bum files from a fake tracker? All-things-BitTorrent site TorrentFreak explains how to quickly determine the authenticity of a torrent tracker.
Image from BitTorrent visualization.
Seeding fake files on BitTorrent is nothing new, and the practice has been carried out by anti-piracy groups and malware spreaders for a long time. While many of them choose to use various open and public BitTorrent trackers, others are setting up their own trackers. We take a look at an easy way to find out more about them.
Back in 2007 TorrentFreak published a series of articles on various dodgy practices targeted at BitTorrent users. Many people were downloading torrents only to be told that they needed to install software like DomPlayer and 3WPlayer to get them to work. Of course, the torrents were fake.
We also reported on BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, and GetTorrent, which also caused a whole load of trouble for those who installed them—even uTorrent and WinZip users were in the sights of malware offloaders.
In an email yesterday to TorrentFreak, a reader pointed us to a problem torrent located here (removed). The file is clearly labeled as ‘The Wolfman DVDrip 2010 aXXo', but it is a fake—a fact which can be quickly learned by reading the comments underneath the torrent. Nevertheless, we thought it might be interesting to demonstrate how it's possible to look a little deeper.
The file is tracked by a whole range of trackers but one sticks out immediately.
http://tracker.torrentq.com/announce.php currently lists 48,416 seeds and 37,496 seeders for the supposed ‘The Wolfman' movie, a highly attractive proposition for those inexperienced in dealing with fake torrents.
Of course the stats are faked, and are run from a tracker set up especially to deliver fake torrents. Indeed, it's run on a subdomain of TorrentQ, a bad client we featured in an earlier article. Here's a quick step-by-step of the method we used to investigate the tracker. There are other ways, but this is pretty simple so anyone can try this out.
It's possible to find information about the files indexed on many trackers by using 'scrape'. In the case of the TorrentQ tracker, the scrape URL is located at http://tracker.torrentq.com/scrape.php. So first off, go to this URL and you'll get the option to download a file, in this case 'scrape.php'—download it.
In this file will be information about the files being seeded on this tracker.
Next use DeHackEd's nice little online tool called DumpTorrentCGI. Browse to the 'scrape' file on your hard drive, change output type to ‘/scrape' and click the ‘decode' button. You should get this report;
Immediately you can see that all the files are apparently hugely popular, but of course, all of these stats are faked. To prove that, one can use a site like Torrentz.com, which creates its torrent URLs by using a torrent's hash value. Simply test each torrent by using http://www.torrentz.com/ followed by the hash value, as shown below, and check the comments.
http://www.torrentz.com/0366eb6bdbab88f2ccd9397a0b421b3947c82e06
The torrents TorrentQ tracks are for Wolfman, Legion, My Name is Khan, The Book of Eli, From Paris With Love, Ninja Assassin, Edge of Darkness, Shutter Island and Dear John.
Every single one is flagged as a fake by commenters on Torrentz.com.
How To Quickly Investigate A Fake BitTorrent Tracker [TorrentFreak] TorrentFreak is a weblog devoted to all things BitTorrent and file sharing. To get all of the latest from TorrentFreak, be sure to subscribe to the TorrentFreak RSS feed.
Top 10 Windows Media Center Plug-Ins and Boosters [Lifehacker Top 10]
Microsoft's powerful home theater centerpiece, Windows Media Center, is easily one of the best applications that ships for free with Windows. But you can still make it better—and take it into new realms—with these plug-ins, helper apps, and tweaks.
Photo by ryaninc.
We've previously covered a couple of these as part of our feature of top 10 apps that boost your media center, but we thought that Windows Media Center (WMC from here on) deserved its own special loving list. It also fills out the capabilities and powers of WMC, as many commenters felt our media center comparison chart didn't give the big picture when it came to their Windows boxes. Fair enough—here's an extended list of powers that the little blue-green app can pull off.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, most of these apps and plug-ins are intended for use with Windows 7's Media Center. Many keep older versions, compatible with Vista's WMC and the "Media Center Edition" XP systems, available at their sites, but some may not. Similarly, one or two apps may only work with an older WMC edition, and that's been noted in the text as well.
10. Start WMC in live TV mode
It's a small little hack, but this tip for starting Windows Media Center in live TV mode is really helpful for those who see their WMC setup as more of a DVR box first, picture/movie/music player second. By starting up in live TV mode, you can instantly start recording something you were watching and wanted to capture, or just instantly start your channel surfing with the ability to pause. (Original post)
Vista only: Windows 7 sports built-in Netflix streaming, but if you're rocking a Vista Media Center and haven't made the jump to 7 yet, you can still manage your Watch Now queue and stream content whenever you'd like with MyNetflix. The free plug-in looks pretty darned good for a work-around, and covers all the functions you'd want out of a Netflix box. (Original post)
The Xbox 360 makes for a pretty killer Windows Media Center extender, allowing televisions not directly hooked to a computer to still deliver the Media Center experience. While the Xbox by itself can play XviD and DivX files, an Xbox working as an extender can't work that magic—unless you're up and running with an app like Transcode 360, which runs from your computer and converts movies to an Xbox-extender-friendly format as they stream to the Xbox. It's not an app that sees frequent, regular updates, so if you're having trouble working Transcode 360 from Windows 7, try this guide to getting it running. (Original post)
The nation's television entities have spent a lot of time and money making sure you recognize their corporate branding. You may as well put that subconscious recognition to use when browsing your TV listings from afar. My Channel Logos does just what it sounds like, adding familiar icons to the left-hand channel column, making it easier to recognize and sort through what's on. (Original post)
If you were to ask us what's missing from Windows Media Center, we'd say, mainly, streaming media like Hulu and YouTube, and killer local file handling. One smart and generous hacker has solved those deficiencies by making it easy to switch over to Hulu, Boxee, and XBMC right from WMC's main menu, and then switch back when you've closed those apps. That creates a nearly seamless media experience, controlled entirely from the couch by remote. Between these four apps, you've got pretty much the entirety of TV and the web available whenever you want them. (Original post: Hulu Desktop Integration, Boxee, XBMC)
If you wanted commercials, you'd watch live TV. If you want them gone from your media center experience, and you don't mind the subtle karmic shift in doing so, there's apps to tackle that, both inside and outside WMC. Lifextender does a great job of automating commercial stripping, but hasn't been updated to run all that well in Windows 7 yet—or so our commenters have noted (it should work fine for Vista and earlier Windows editions). On the other hand, DVRMSToolbox is a stand-alone program, so those with Windows Media Center setups where getting outside the main media window isn't hard can bulk-strip their commercials. (Original posts: Lifextender, DVRMSToolbox).
We're really glad DVRMSToolbox has gotten updates and attention, because that means it can feed our other favorite non-plug-in WMC tool: iPodifier. Used together, they can strip WMC's video files of their copy protection, kill commercials, and, most helpfully, convert those files to a format friendly to iPods and iPhones and patch them right into iTunes for syncing. For a quick walk-through of the process, at least as it ran on an older WMC, check out Rick's guide. (Original post)
If all you're looking for is a way to see metadata and fancy graphics around your movies, Media Browser does the job beautifully, and it's oh-so-free. (See more details at the number one slot below.) My Movies 3 also organizes and info-tizes your downloaded and ripped files, but offers a host of other unlock-able features to those who donate a bit of cash. Rip DVDs or Blu-Ray discs directly from inside WMC, skip those ultra-annoying mandatory previews and advertisements at a disc's beginning, customize your menus and backdrops, and do a whole lot more as your rack up points. (Original post)
Windows Media Center is built for the at-home experience, but why shouldn't you be able to tell it what to record, watch what it's already recorded, and otherwise manage your media from anywhere? WebGuide does that, providing you with the ability to decide at work that you want to record something you're going to miss at home. Want to watch live, streaming TV? WebGuide can push it to you through your browser. It's a must-have add-on for any Windows Media Center setup hooked up to a TV signal. (Original post)
As Lisa put it, this is pretty much a required add-on. Media Browser somewhat evens the playing field between Windows Media Center and its open-source XBMC/Boxee competition by providing movies, TV shows, video podcasts, and other ripped or downloaded files with a rich look, web-provided data, and a general sense of shine and polish. For the winning bonus, this plug-in itself is also open-source, so expect further updates and improvements as more people take up the cause. (Original post)
Turn Yarn Into a Modern Lampshade [DIY]
If you're impressed with "string shades" that have been appearing in trendy décor magazines of late—but not impressed enough to spend $$$$ on one!—this simple DIY project will help you make your own lampshade with a modern flair.
You won't need to buy any fancy tools or chemicals for this project. All you'll need is a balloon—the rounder the better if you want a nice spherical shade—some yarn, glue, vaseline, and a place to mix things together.
Coat the balloon with a light covering of vaseline, soak the yarn in the glue mixture, and then wrap the balloon to create what will eventually dry into your crazy shadow-casting light fixture. Check out the link below for step-by-step details with photos and tips. If you have a crafty tutorial to share—trendy or not!—let's hear about it in the comments.
Whirl-it Lampshade [via Re-Nest]
Set Up a Fully Automated Media Center [Automation]
Ed. note: We love a good media center almost as much as we love automation, so self-confessed media geek Alex Ward's fully automated media center caught our eye. It's all the benefits of an awesome media center without all the hassle.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how to use EventGhost to begin to automate your PC. Now we are going to take things a step forward and use EventGhost alongside a few other free programs to set up an amazing and fully automated Home Theatre PC.
If you have not read my previous EventGhost article I advise you to go and read it now as I am going to skip past the basics here.
Step One: Getting all the applicationsTo truly get this working properly you are going to need a few programs; they are all free and fairly straightforward to use (but I'm going to show you how anyway), so get to work on the list below and let me know when you have it all downloaded and installed.
- XBMC – The excellent free to use media centre application
- Torrent Episode Downloader – This does a similar thing to uTorrent's RSS downloader but I personally feel it does a better job and is easier to use.
- uTorrent – You can actually use any torrent application provided it has the ability to move files to a separate location when finished.
- EventGhost – Of course you already have this as you have hopefully gone through the previous tutorial.
- The Renamer – A superb and easily automated tool for finding and renaming your TV shows, it can also be made to work with movies but there is a better tool for that.
- Ember Media Manager – Automatically finds and downloads information for your movies.
The biggest difficulty a lot of people seem to face when they first set XBMC up is getting the library mode to work; this is because XBMC needs to have a specific file structure in order to scrape (download information about) your media files.
Note: I'm going to work on the assumption that you have a hard drive set up just for your media, if you do not then create a folder on one of your drives and do all this in the root of that folder.
Firstly create the following folders:TV Shows, Music, Photos, Movies, Unsorted Media
There are some things that XBMC does not scrape all that well or simply things you would like to be able to access in XBMC but don't really want it to be categorised as a TV show or movie, in this instance you should also create a folder for that (E.g., Documentaries, Children's TV shows, etc…)
Prepare your moviesThe Movies folder should not directly contain any files; each movie should be in a folder which has the movie's name and year as its title. The movie file itself should be the movie's title, if it is a HD movie then you can also add that information to the file name:
E.g. /Movies/The Shawshank Redemption [1994]/The.Shawshank.Redemption.720p.BluRay.mkv
Setting up your TV Shows folderThe TV Shows folder follows a similar format; each show should have a folder with its name and year as the title and each series of a show should go inside a ‘series x' folder. The name of each file should be the name of the show followed by the series number and episode number, if you wish you can also add the title of the episode:
E.g. /TV Shows/Life on Mars [2008]/Series 1/Life on Mars – s01e01 – The Crash.avi
Make sure you format the series and episode numbers using the above example, this method always works for the main scrapers. The year is not essential for movies or TV shows, it just makes it simpler for the scraper to make sure it's downloading the information for the correct title.
Setting up your music folderThe music folder should contain a folder for the artist and then a folder for each album inside it.:
E.g. /Music/Fleetwood Mac/Rumours/
The year should not be needed for albums as it's rare that an artist will use the same album name more than once.
Setting up the other foldersPhotos are simple to categorise as they do not get scraped—therefore you can put any pictures you like in there without worrying about file structure.
The unsorted media folder should be empty.
Copying your mediaAt this stage you are ready to copy your media to the folders. If you have thumbnail or fanart files already you don't need to copy them over (unless you know the scraper will have trouble finding them) as this will be taken care of later.
Step Three: Using Ember Media Manager to pre-scrape your movies
XBMC has a great scraping tool; however it is quite slow and if you re-install your media centre for any reason you will have to re-scrape all your files again from scratch. Ember Media Manager is faster and even better, it downloads all the needed files to the movies folder, so if you do need to reinstall, no re-scrape is required (plus it downloads trailers – which is just awesome).
To set it up, go to ‘edit > settings', click ‘Files and Sources' then ‘add source' and browse to the root of your movies folder. (This can be done during setup as well, so you may not need to do it now). I won't tell you which boxes need ticking as it is all about personal preference really.
Once that's done, return to the main menu and click ‘update library' (although I think this happens automatically the first time anyway). Once your list appears, select ‘Scrape Media > New Movies > Automatic > All items' and watch it find everything for you (Note: If you did not add the year to the folder names then you may get odd results on some movies using ‘automatic', use ‘ask' instead).
If you use the ‘automatic' mode then this should be the last time you ever see this screen as we will automate it in a later step.
Step Four: Using Torrent Episode Downloader (TED) to find and download your TV shows.
Before we start this please make sure you have your torrent program set up to send all completed downloads to your ‘unsorted media' folder. (Note: You can use your existing downloads folder if you wish, just make sure that it's only updated when the download has completed)
TED is a simple Java application which automatically finds your favourite TV shows and starts downloading them. It's fairly simple to set up, but here is a little tutorial anyway.
Once the program is installed, click on ‘add show'. You will then be presented with the ‘Add show' window. Simply select the show you want to download and choose the episode you want to download from (this doesn't work that well for older episodes). Once this is done, select the episode and click ‘Edit show'.
The default settings are ok for the most part, however, I find that I get better results if I make a few tweaks. Firstly in ‘Feeds' click on ‘+' and add IsoHunt, select ‘yes' when the dialog box pops up and then click on ‘filters', change the top number to 300mb and the maximum size to 1200mb (this means you won't get low quality files and you might get the odd HD one—if you don't want HD, then set the max to about 750mb). Don't bother with ‘download in HD quality' as it's not perfect and usually results in no torrents being found for a lot of shows.
Once you have done that, just rinse and repeat until you've added all the shows you want.
Note: If you do not want TED to automatically open your torrent application (like if you download on a schedule) then you can change the options in Extra > Preferences.
Step Five: Use The Renamer to automatically sort and move your TV shows.
Sadly many files on BitTorrent have not been named with media centres in mind and most scrapers are rubbish unless the file names and folders follow their rules. Thankfully a fantastic application called ‘The Renamer' exists to solve this problem.
This program is very easy to set up and even easier to use. Firstly, click on ‘settings' then change your fetch folder to your ‘unsorted media' folder and the TV shows archive to your ‘TV Shows' folder.
Make sure the following boxes are ticked
- s1e01
- add "0" for Season (only the first time it appears)
- include sub folders
- Auto move after renaming,
- Showname
- Season
- Episode titles
- To TV Show Folder
- To Season folder
And that's it!
Ed. note: If you routinely download subtitles for your television shows or movies, make sure to grab the subtitles before renaming. Subtitles packages are timing-based—down to the millisecond specific!—and one subtitle package for a TV show is not the same as any other package.
Step Six – Tie it all together with EventGhost
Ok, so far we've managed to get a series of systems together to download and catalogue our TV Shows and organise our movies to be imported into XBMC. Now it's time to make it automatic using EventGhost.
Firstly we need to install two plugins to EventGhost. ‘Directory Watcher' and ‘XBMC', you can find these in the ‘Plugins' menu (see the small image to the left). To ensure that your movies are scraped automatically as well, install two copies of ‘Directory Watcher'
Set the first Directory Watcher Plugin to look in your ‘unsorted media' folder and the second to look in your ‘Movies' folder. Then create a new macro called ‘move new shows'
Inside this macro set it to automatically launch the renamer (System > Start Application), in the command line box type ‘–fetch' and set the window options to ‘minimised' (this never seems to work for me but you may have more luck. Then – still inside the same macro – add another action below it, ‘Update Video Library' from the XBMC folder.
Now create a new macro called ‘scrape new movies', set it to open ember media manager and in the command line box enter ‘–newauto –all' (remember this is only foolproof if you add years to your movie directories). Then – still inside the same macro – add another action below it, ‘Update Video Library' from the XBMC folder.
Finally add an event called ‘DirectoryWatcher.Updated' to the top of the first macro and one called ‘DirectoryWatcher2.Updated' to the top of the second and save your configuration.
The last step to make sure everything is automated is to create shortcuts to uTorrent and TED in your Windows start-up folder.
Final Step – Set up XBMC
Note: This step assumes you are using at least version 9.11 of XBMC and are using the default skin
Firstly let's add our media files. Go to ‘video's and select Add Source, browse to your ‘Movies' folder and press enter, the source should automatically be called ‘movies'.
Then click on ‘Set content', under ‘This directory contains', select ‘movies' and set the scraper to the one of your choosing (the default themoviedb.org is pretty good as it is), under scanning options only select ‘use folder names for lookups' Under ‘settings' you are presented with a number of options, these are completely up to you, for the most part Ember Media Manager will have taken care of them anyway.
Once this is done, do the same things again for TV shows, obviously this time select ‘TV shows' instead of ‘Movies'. I recommend thetvdb.org as your scraper. Don't tick any of the boxes and once again the options in the ‘settings' panel are up to you (although I find ‘use DVD' order to be more chronological than the ‘Absolute order' setting).
Note: If you created directories for video media you do not want to be catalogued, add them in the same way, but under ‘this directory contains' set it to ‘none'.
Adding sources to the music and pictures menus is a similar procedure, however, you do not need to specify any settings.
Now we need to tweak some settings to make sure everything works ok, so from the home screen go to ‘System', in the system menu select ‘Video' and check all the options under ‘Library'; then do exactly the same for ‘Music'. Then go back to the main ‘System' page and select ‘Skin' under the ‘home window options' menu, the top four options should be checked and the rest are optional, just make sure to deselect the ‘hide movies' and ‘hide tv show' options.
Once this is done, restart XBMC and watch all your media pour in. Your TV shows will now automatically download as soon as they are released and they will be automatically catalogued and added to your media centre. All downloaded movies will remain in your ‘Unsorted Media' Folder but as soon as you move them to ‘Movies' they will be found and catalogued by Ember and XBMC, You can use the ‘recently' added box on XBMC to see what new media you have to watch.
CAVEATSYou knew that nothing this amazing was going to come without problems, didn't you? The main issue this method has is that it's terrible for seeding torrents. So far the only foolproof method around this I have found is that instead of setting your torrent program to move downloaded torrents to the ‘unsorted media' folder, it's better to copy them there instead. That way you can keep your ratios up without having to wait for the torrent to reach 1:1 before watching your media. Obviously, this removes some of the automation and you have copies of files on your hard drive until you delete the seeded copy so it's not perfect.
The other issue is that whilst TED is brilliant, it's not without its flaws—sometimes it cannot find some episodes for shows. So far the only way around this is to tell TED to skip to the next episode and download it manually (fiddling with the filters can sometimes work but often it's a problem with the program and you'll have to wait for an update to fix it).
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.
The Fully Automated Media Centre (Windows Only) [Clockwork City via Productive Geek]Alex Ward is a Yorkshire based web developer and self-confessed 'media geek'; he has an obsession with automation and home cinema systems and when he isn't messing around with computers, he enjoys cooking for his friends.
Make Perfectly Cooked Sous Vide Steaks On the Cheap [Food Hacks]
Tech-savvy chefs pull off amazing dishes with sous vide, or cooking vacuum-sealed food in temperature-controlled water tanks. If you've got an instant-read thermometer and a vacuum sealer, you can produce similarly paradigm-shifting steaks with a DIY sous vide setup.
The Savvy Housekeeping blog suggests that all you really need are those two main components—and there's a good chance you could just borrow your parents' or neighbors' vacuum sealer for a set of steaks, if you can't find one on Craigslist or eBay—to pull off a sous vide technique that doesn't require a $400-plus piece of equipment. There's a few other items required to keep the steaks in the water, but it's stuff you probably have. Savvy Housekeeping also gave their steaks a post-bath pan searing with just salt, pepper, and olive oil, but you can feel free to get nuts with your uncle's secret seasoning or whatnot.
It's not a set-and-forget method, though—you'll need to really watch your sealed-off steaks in their immersion bath:
We wanted to keep the meat between 134-135 degrees. To do this, we set the stovetop on the lowest temperature and the alarm on the thermometer at 136 degrees. When the temperature got that high, the alarm went off and we added 1 cup cold water to the pot. This brought the temperature down to 134 degrees. It took the water 10 minutes to raise the two degrees again, the alarm went off at 136 degrees, and we added another cup of cold water. We did this every ten minutes and it kept the steaks right around 135 degrees.
After your steak gets to that perfect temperature, you give them a little sear on the pan, and, well, the photograph results speak for themselves. You've cooked a steak to a healthy temperature at a slow pace, without oxidizing your meat, and without succumbing to your oven's inconsistency.
Update: Commenter thinkerer posts two helpful notes and links on sous vide cooking in the comments. Douglas Baldwin at the University of Colorado at Boulder has A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking that provides far more depth on the techniques, science, and safety considerations involved. He also points out the Wikipedia entry for sous vide, which suggests that, when cooking sous vide, you should ensure you hit the right temperatures and use meat that's had minimal exposure to bacteria and other contaminants, as you trade open-air exposure concerns for botulism-related contaminants. Then again, the author herself comments that those fears seem lessened for meat you're searing and eating immediately.
Pulled off your own submersion cooking stunts before? Do tell, and link or post pictures, in the comments!
DIY Sous Vide [Savvy Housekeeping via Serious Eats]
SeatGeek Indexes Stadium and Venue Seats to Bring You Best Values [Tickets]
If you're looking to buy tickets to a sporting or music event, pay a visit to SeatGeek before you hit Buy at your regular vendor.
At SeatGeek you can search by your favorite team, performing artist, or venue/city if you're open to taking in anything. SeatGeek renders a map of the venue, charts out where the seats are located, and dishes the dirt on the overall state of pricing at the venue as well as individual tickets. The price forecast tells you if you should buy now or wait based on prior data for the team/artist and the venue in question. In our example above—purchasing Houston Rockets tickets—SeatGeek suggested that we buy now because it projected a moderate price increase between now and the event.
In addition to simply searching for events and comparing immediate prices, SeatGeek publishes TicketPulse. TicketPulse massages the data across the board at SeatGeek and highlights interesting facts based on ticket prices, number of tickets purchased, and other factors. For example if you consider part of the value of a ticket to be seeing the team win, the New Orleans Hornets provide the best value—the win average compared to their average ticket price makes for the cheapest "they're gonna win!" ticket purchase in the NBA.
For other tools to help you find great seats, check out previously covered SeatQuest and SeatKarma.
SeatGeek
SeatGeek Indexs Stadium and Venue Seats to Bring You Best Values [Tickets]
If you're looking to buy tickets to a sporting or music event, you'll want to pay a visit to SeatGeek to find the best value for your money.
At SeatGeek you can search for your favorite team, performing artist, or even by venue or city if you're open to taking in anything. SeatGeek renders a map of the venue, charts out where the seats are located, and dishes the dirt on the overall state of pricing at the venue as well as individual tickets. The price forecast tells you if you should buy now or wait based on prior data for the team/artist and the venue in question. In our example above—purchasing Houston Rockets tickets—SeatGeek suggested that we buy now because it projected a moderate price increase between now and the event.
In addition to simply searching for events and comparing immediate prices, SeatGeek publishes TicketPulse. TicketPulse massages the data across the board at SeatGeek and highlights interesting facts based on ticket prices, number of tickets purchased, and other factors. For example if you consider part of the value of a ticket to be seeing the team win, the New Orleans Hornets provide the best value—the win average compared to their average ticket price makes for the cheapest "they're gonna win!" ticket purchase in the NBA.
For other tools to help you find great seats, check out previously reviewed SeatQuest and SeatKarma.
SeatGeek
SeatGeek Indexs Stadium and Venue Seats to Bring You Best Values [Tickets]
If you're looking to buy tickets to a sporting or music event, you'll want to pay a visit to SeatGeek to find the best value for your money.
At SeatGeek you can search for your favorite team, performing artist, or even by venue or city if you're open to taking in anything. SeatGeek renders a map of the venue, charts out where the seats are located, and dishes the dirt on the overall state of pricing at the venue as well as individual tickets. The price forecast tells you if you should buy now or wait based on prior data for the team/artist and the venue in question. In our example above—purchasing Houston Rockets tickets—SeatGeek suggested that we buy now because it projected a moderate price increase between now and the event.
In addition to simply searching for events and comparing immediate prices, SeatGeek publishes TicketPulse. TicketPulse massages the data across the board at SeatGeek and highlights interesting facts based on ticket prices, number of tickets purchased, and other factors. For example if you consider part of the value of a ticket to be seeing the team win, the New Orleans Hornets provide the best value—the win average compared to their average ticket price makes for the cheapest "they're gonna win!" ticket purchase in the NBA.
For other tools to help you find great seats, check out previously reviewed SeatQuest and SeatKarma.
SeatGeek
Sweet Home 3D Models Your Home, Rearranges Your Furniture Without Breaking a Sweat [Downloads]
Windows/Mac/Linux: Next time you get the urge to rearrange your furniture, don't strain your back randomly shoving your sofa around the room. Download Sweet Home 3D and do the heavy lifting on your computer screen before moving a stick of furniture.
This slick free interior design app recreates the dimensions of a room, and displays the furniture you add in 3D. Drag and drop tables, chairs, and plants around the room until you find an arrangement you like. Drop in windows, doors, and even change the color of the walls to replicate your room as closely as possible.
If you happen to have a blueprint available of the room you're redecorating, Sweet Home 3D will accept an import of the file in BMP, JPEG, GIF or PNG formats. Sorting through the furniture is easy—it's arranged in a tree view, just select the room you're decorating and drag what you like onto the 2D room grid. The app displays a 3D representation in real-time in a pane directly underneath. Check out an overhead view, or walk through the room as a virtual vistior for another perspective.
If you want to try out Sweet Home 3D before you download, there's an online version you can try out for free. Register to save any plans you create, or play with the app without signing up. Check out the video below to see Sweet Home 3D in action.
Sweet Home 3D [via Download Squad]
