Daily DIY

Mac OS X only: Send SMS messages and talk with up to 10 people simultaneously with the latest version of Skype for Mac.

In addition to the new SMS and conference-calling features, Skype 2.5 lets you leave messages for friends when they’re offline. It also displays a running tally of the funds remaining in your SkypeIn or SkypeOut account.

Well, it’s not the 3.0 upgrade bestowed upon Windows users last week, but it’s progress. Skype 2.5 Beta for Mac is free. — Rick Broida

Mac and Windows: One of the best painting apps I’ve come across recently is ArtRage 2, a desktop painting/drawing program.

ArtRage comes in both free and pay-for-it versions, but the free version is still pretty kickass. Even this non-artsy fartsy weekend editor was able to put together a few virtual masterpieces…well, at least I think so. ArtRage is a free download, Mac and Windows systems both welcome. — Wendy Boswell

Windows, Mac, and Linux: Whip together web photo albums with JAlbum, a free cross-platform tool that lets you share and publish your pix with ease.

Start by building an album with the software’s drag-and-drop, Explorer-like interface. You can modify its appearance using a variety of fancy skins, or design a skin of your own. From there you can share the album straight from your hard drive (JAlbum creates a basic web server) or publish them online using built-in FTP tools.

I haven’t tested this yet, but it looks like an amazing app for anyone looking for some flexibility in publishing their photo albums. JAlbum is free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Thanks, Jonathan! — Rick Broida

Look at you, just sitting there at your mac, all smug and happy; "I don’t have to worry about viruses… life’s good". Meanwhile, your windows buddy over there is running 3 anti-virus programs, and scans every file he downloads looking for a single trojan (and I don’t mean condom because neither of ya’ll are gettin’ any). Does that seem fair? Well, let’s try to even the playing field a bit…


By: nuclearpotato31

2 Halves make a whole.


By: Wayne Randall

Made from iMac speakers. Tear out all the guts. Stuff them with miniature christmas lights and let them hang.


By: Wayne Randall

I haven’t got tiny hands to fix the tiny electricals inside these lcd screens but i have got wood and screws


By: moooose

Mac OS X only: Freeware Dashboard widget Deep Sleep lets you put your Mac into Hibernation mode with a single click.

What’s the point of Hibernation mode when you’ve got sleep, you ask? Well, if you’ve closed the lid on your MacBook and you’ve gone into sleep mode, you’re still eating up battery, albeit in very small doses. Hibernation mode, on the other hand, still saves your system state, but it completely powers down your computer, meaning no matter how long your laptop is sitting in hibernation, it won’t run out of battery (well, within reason - any battery will die given enough time). Hibernation has generally been readily available to Windows laptoppers, but it’s never been quite as accessible on Macs. Check the documentation to make sure your Mactop is supported. — Adam Pash

by Adam Pash

You just shelled out a bucketful of clams for your new MacBook and you want to protect your investment. What if a sticky-fingered thief eyes your hot new lappie at the coffee shop? It’s easy to add a security system to your MacBook that’ll help you ID would-be robbers.

With freeware app iAlertU and some Applescript magic, your MacBook can snag a photo of the thieving scoundrel and upload it to your FTP server automatically. Here’s how.

NOTE: iAlertU requires an iSight camera and the motion sensing features built in to Apple’s MacBooks and MacBook Pros, so you’d need one of those two computers for this to work correctly. Also, keep in mind that this method is far from foolproof. This won’t necessarily save your Mac from being stolen, but hey - it’s cool, and it certainly *could* help get your stolen Mac back.

iAlertU - The car alarm for your Mac

In case you missed our original post, iAlertU is a snazzy app that works as an alarm system for your MacBook. After you arm iAlertU with the Apple remote, the alarm will go off if anyone tries to type, mouse, unplug, or power off your computer. When the alarm goes off, iAlertU also snaps a picture of (hopefully) the potential thief and saves the image in your home directory (you’d be surprised how well it actually works - the photo it saves is generally from a few seconds before the alarm goes off, so attempts to avoid being caught by the camera don’t generally work). Here’s the original video of iAlertU in action:

The problem with iAlertU is that it’s really just a noisy deterrent - the hope being that the loud, flashing alarm will scare of would-be burglars. But what happens if the thief isn’t so easily scared? Your laptop will have a picture of the thief on it, but it’s not doing you any good. So I’ve put together a couple of Applescripts that will upload iAlertU’s capture to an FTP server using Transmit. Below I’ve put together a very short video to give you an idea of what the Applescripts do:

Here’s how it works:

Set up Transmit

If you’ve got Transmit (a Mac FTP app that we simply love here at LH headquarters), open it up. If you don’t have it, well, you might want to consider getting it.

The first thing you want to do is set up a favorite in Transmit. To do so, go to the Favorites tab and hit the plus sign (+) to add a new favorite. Enter your FTP info and you’re good to go.

Next, go to the Transfers tab of the Transmit preferences. Where it says “When an item already exists…”, change the Uploading files option to “Replace the existing file”. This isn’t necessary, so if you don’t want to overwrite files by default, don’t change this setting. You just want to make sure that when it matters, your image capture will be uploaded to the FTP server.

Folder monitors and auto-FTP

So, now that you’ve got your favorite all set up in Transmit, it’s time to set up the first Applescript, which uses a handy Mac OS X feature called Folder Actions. In our case, we’re setting a monitor that watches your home directory and activates a script to upload the iAlertU picture if it appears in the folder. Here’s how:

1. Download the iAlertU FTP script, open the file, and edit the settings to match your settings. It’s simple enough - where it says your_name, put your username, and where it says Your Transmit Favorite, enter the favorite we set up above. There is probably a much better way to do this, but I don’t know it. Place the script in this directory: /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts.
2. Turn on Folder actions (if they’re not already enabled). To do so, go to Applications -> Applescript -> Folder Actions Setup, and click the checkbox labeled Enable Folder Actions.
3. Next, click on the plus sign (+) to add the to-be-monitored folder, in this case your home folder.
4. Now click the plus sign (+) on the script side. You should see a menu listing several Folder Actions scripts, including the script you just downloaded. Double click the iAlertU FTP script.
5. The last thing you need to do is create a folder in your home directory called alert. This will come in handy for the next section.

You’re all set. Now, as soon as iAlertU’s alarm goes off, it’ll snap a picture. The picture will go into your home folder, which will fire off the Applescript, uploading the image to your FTP server. When the image is uploaded, it is moved to the alert folder so that we know it was uploaded successfully. To give you an idea of the amount of time this takes, from alarm to completed upload normally takes about 15 seconds (in the video it only took around 12), which is pretty good.

However, if the thief gets you computer turned off before the upload can complete, this script won’t work. That’s why we head to the second tier of the iAlert FTP upload.

Upload iAlertU image on startup

The next Applescript will check the home folder for the iAlertU picture on startup, and, if it’s there, upload it to the server. This way, even if the thief gets your computer home, you’ve still got a good chance of getting the iAlertU picture as long as he connects to the internet eventually.

1. Download the Upload image on startup script.
2. Again, open the Applescript file and edit the config section to match your settings.



3. After you’ve set up the Applescript, you need to save it as an application. Go to File -> Save as…, change the File Format to application, and uncheck the Startup Screen option. Click save.
4. Finally, go to your Accounts settings in the preferences. In the Login Items tab, add your new upload image on startup.app to the list of startup items.

Now, if the iAlertU image was not uploaded the first (or subsequent times), it will continue to try and upload the image every time the computer starts up until it’s successful. When it is successful, the image will be moved to the alert folder and the Applescript will no longer attempt to upload it to the server.

This method could definitely be tweaked if anyone out there knows more than me and feels like putting in the time, but as-is it’s a pretty good method for bolstering, if not your theft protection, your vigilante justice prospects.

Got any good theft-proofing ideas/methods of your own (even if they’re, “don’t leave your computer alone”)? Let’s hear them in the comments.

Related:

• How to set up a home FTP server
• TMO Quick Tip - Monitor Your Mac with Folder Actions [Mac Observer]
• Use your webcam as a security camera (Windows)
• Gawker time lapse file maker
Remotely delete files from a stolen Mac

Adam Pash is an associate editor for Lifehacker who works hard to get a glimpse at the face of evil. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

I saw this article : http://swannman.wordpress.com/2006/10/01/howto-read-wikipedia-on-an-ipod/



and thought…. As simple as this is… I think I know a way of making it simpler!



The WikiPod name is very clever. I am calling this solution WikiPodia.



WikiPodia is a stand-alone application that uploads the wikipedia article of your choice to you iPod in the form of a note.



You will need:



1) Any iPod



2) iTunes



3) A mac with OSX and the ‘Automator’ application.



I garantee you can make this Application in less than 2 minutes.




By: rcran