Daily DIY

New music recommender iLike suggests songs you might enjoy based on your listening habits and other users with similar tastes.

Their free iTunes plugin uploads your library info to the iLike.com site and adds a recommendation panel to the iTunes interface. (Other media player support still to come.) As you listen, your iLike profile automatically updates and the iLike panel makes song recommendations, both free MP3 downloads and iTunes store purchases. Much like Last.fm, iLike’s rec’s are spot-on, but the fact that they’re displayed right inside iTunes rates very high on the convenience meter. Check out a screengrab of the iLike iTunes plugin in action after the jump.

Once you register for iLike and enable the iTunes plugin, by default all your music info is public, so be sure to dig through the Account Settings area to stop broadcasting your Justin Timberlake crush to the world. — Gina Trapani

Mac OS X only: Freeware app DRM Dumpster plugs into your iTunes music library, burns protected tracks to CD-RW, then re-imports them to your hard drive.

This method of turning DRMed iTunes music into free and easy MP3s probably sounds familiar, since it’s sort of always been the unofficial-but-accepted way to unDRM your iTunes tracks. The thing that’s cool about DRM Dumpster is that, using a rewritable disc, it can automate the process of burning and ripping your entire protected library… all you have to do is insert the disc and start the app. When it fills up a CD, it rips the music, then erases the CD and starts again where it left off.

DRM Dumpster is Mac OS X only freeware (donations are accepted). If you’re looking to strip DRM in Windows, other options are available. — Adam Pash

Telemarketers/annoying co-worker/pesky relative won’t stop yapping on the phone? Try the free downloadable sounds at SorryGottaGo.com.

We’ve written up this site before, but they’ve added a TON more sounds (over 700 total as of this writing). Here’s a sampling of the myriad excuses you can use:

• I’ve got to feed the cat
• I can’t stop coughing
• My ride is here (honking horn)

A truly useful site; obviously, not something to be used everytime your Aunt Beulah calls in describing her new bunions, but something to keep in mind nonetheless.— Wendy Boswell

Windows only: MediaMonkey manages your music collection like no other program. It helps you organize your audio files, edit tags, and easily retrieve missing album art. It can rip CDs to any number of formats (including cult faves like FLAC and OGG), convert existing audio files to any number of formats, normalize volume levels across all your tracks, and much more.

It even lets you sync with portable players like the iPod and Creative Zen Vision. In short, this is one of my all-time favorite programs, and it’s free! (The $19.95 Gold version adds a few desirable features, like automatic library updating.) Its only Achilles’ heel is lack of support for protected AAC files and WMA DRM 10 (though it does support up to version 9). But it’s still a killer freebie for anyone looking to get their music library in order. — Rick Broida

The Internet Archive has a ginormous collection of free, downloadable music in their NetLabels category:

This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’. These ‘netlabels’ are non-profit, community-built entities dedicated to providing high quality, non-commercial, freely distributable MP3/OGG-format music for online download in a multitude of genres.

There are over 500 sub-collections available here; you can search by mediatype, keyword, collection, etc. A good (free) way to add to your music collection. — Wendy Boswell

Yesterday we asked for your tips on putting together a spookifying DIY haunted house, and a couple of you were looking for some free, scary music and sounds on MP3.

What luck! Over at About.com, I’ve posted a brief roundup of three great resources for free Halloween songs and spooky sounds for your Halloweening pleasure, including my personal favorite, the original source loops from Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. Remember - you’ll never scare the bejesus out of anyone this Halloween without a good soundtrack. Got your own favorite source for free Halloween sounds? Let’s hear it in the comments. — Adam Pash

I made a protective case to keep my new Creative Zen V Plus safe from hostile elements in a weld shop environment. The three elements I was most concerned with are:welding sparks, grinding shrapnel and metallic dust.

Welding sparks can be hot enough to melt into plastic they land on, but I have yet to see one melt through. The exterior lens protectors on welding hoods are .03" thick polycarbonate, and my welding hood gets much closer to the action then my player.

Grinding shrapnel can be both hot and dirty. Some grinding/cutting results in melted metal shrapnel flying in any direction. We use plastic weld curtains in the shop to keep from spraying our neighbors. The fiberglass and zirconium oxide used in the grinder consumables is very dirty and tends to stick to whatever it lands on.

Metallic dust is created when the 10,000 degree F arc from the welder turns metal to liquid, some metal is vaporized along with any oils or oxidization and this gets into everything. We have lost more than one computer motherboard to this dust. Also nearly everything plastic builds up a static charge that grabs this dust. Somehow the dust tends to etch into the plastic and is very difficult to remove.

I purchased a $2 plano tackle box and had some very low density foam from an old RC car to make my case.




By: workhurts

How to connect an mp3 player, or other stereo source, to a tape player in order to listen to the music.


By: pfmia

Yes, we went on about the release of iTunes 7 yesterday, but now that I’ve had my grimy paws on it for a day and a chance to test drive some of the new features, I thought it warranted its very own download of the day. After the jump, some mentionable iTunes 7 features:

• Backup your iTunes library to disk (in the File menu). This nice feature lets you only backup songs since your last backup (incremental backup rocks) or only back up iTunes Store purchases. The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a detailed iTunes 7 backup tutorial. Thanks, Josh!
• Cover art auto dowload and CoverFlow view. Confession: I didn’t have an iTunes Store account till yesterday because I don’t do DRM and it annoyed me you needed to enter your credit card number before you ever bought anything. Well, today I broke down and found out you can now register for an account using PayPal (which is great). Then the automatic album cover download began, which was an all afternoon affair. Still worth it though, it’s amazing what pretty pictures can do.
• Haven’t had a chance to try this out, but iPod firmware updates now happen within iTunes. Reader Jessica says, “I’m really bummed that the current 5G iPods and nanos are not getting a firmware update that gives us the search functionality like the newer 5G models.” Being a 2nd gen iPod owner, I know this feeling.
• The new interface overall is pretty slick, but interestingly that helpful “unlistened to” number next to podcasts makes it feel a bit like an email client. (More unconsumed things to pile up and crush you!)
• Sync your iPod to multiple computers when they’re signed into the same iTunes Store account. Commenter RLH points out “music and media not purchased from the iTunes store only syncs one way, from your computer to your iPod.” Bah.
• Lifehacker commenter Potrod says: “iTunes 7 is apparently incompatible with other versions of iTunes for sharing. I just tried sharing my library over Hamachi with my brother in college and he got a message saying that his version of iTunes is incompatable. Kinda sucks… “

Your thoughts on iTunes 7? Tell us about ‘em in the comments. — Gina Trapani

In this instructable, learn how you never will have to pay for music… and yet there is no spyware and no viruses. This is perfectly legal. A basic knowlege of computer and internet workings is required for this article.


By: Ouch