Yes, you can! Building your own cheap notebook stand is easier than you might think!
Take some all-too-common wire grates, about 14″ x 14″, and you will notice that they’re just begging to be turned into a quick, easy DIY laptop stand.
Lifehacker will tell you how!
Building your own RAID array is easy nowadays, but you have to be ready to replace disks when the time comes.
“This guide shows how to remove a failed hard drive from a Linux RAID1 array (software RAID), and how to add a new hard disk to the RAID1 array without losing data. http://www.howtoforge.com/replacing_hard_disks_in_a_raid1_array ”
Sent by Falko Timme (ftΘfalkotimme·com).
“This tutorial shows how you can back up Linux and Windows systems with BackupPC. BackupPC acts as a server and is installed on a Linux system, and from there it can connect to all Linux and Windows systems in your local network to back them up and restore them without interfering with the user’s work on that system. On the clients minimal to no configuration is needed. BackupPC supports full and incremental backups, and it comes with a neat web frontend for the administrator and normal user so that backups and recoveries can be managed through a web browser. It should be noted, however, that BackupPC does file-based backups, not bit-wise backups like Ghost4Linux, for example, so it is not made for disk/partition imaging. http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_backuppc”
Sent by Falko Timme (ftΘfalkotimme·com).
For
less than US$100, it’s an excelent deal. The HP Photosmart C3180
All-in-One can print in full color, scan up to A4 sheets, reads most
popular memory card formats - including your PSP’s MS DUO cards… You
can print directly from your camera’s memory card, without starting
your PC! And it’s a real workhorse: up to 22 pages per minute black, 20
color. When in high-quality mode, your (borderless!) photos in sizes up
to 8.5 x 24″ panorama get printed in 25 seconds only. The scans and copies work at 1200 x 2400 dpi optical resolution and 48-bit color depth.
And what’s best: it according to LinuxPrinting.org, the HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One works perfectly on Linux. What a deal!
The Swiss Tech Micro-Pro XL 11 in 1 with micro light
is a really small and handy pocket tool. It includes a docking bay with
built in 5mm led light and a removable folding microtool which includes
#1 Flat & #2 flat screwdriver, #1 & #2 Phillips screwdriver,
precision pliers, wire cutters, wire stripper, sheet shear, 1/4″ rule
markings and keyring. The switch for the led light is both momentary
and click-on, and the led part separates completely from the multitool
part.
Overall it’s a handy multi-purpose tool set with led light to carry around attached to your key chain for quick repairs. Don’t try to carry it in your pocket into airplanes, though.
Do your home improvement tasks like the pros! Handyman In-Your-Pocket
is a pocket reference book that will teach you all the details you’ll
want to know when you need to fix the pipes, install a new stove ou
rewire something in your apartment.
Packed into 768 pages, this pocket-sized book has an incredible amount of valuable information used by contractors, builders, do-it-yourselfers, hardware specialists, and tradesmen. Seven hundred sixty-eight pages of info on carpentry, roofing, rope, pipes, pumps, bolts, lumber, welding, tools, electrical, conversion factors, and much more! And it’s small enough to fit your toolbox or case.
Wardriving is the
act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by moving vehicle. It
involves using a car or truck and a Wi-Fi-equipped computer, such as a
laptop or a PDA, to detect the networks. It is similar to using a
scanner for radio. But how about walking the next step and getting from
a GPS the exact coordinates of the networks you stumble upon, and later
convert this data to the XML format needed by Google Earth to plot it
directly?
This tutorial is about wardriving using GPS. It explains how to install Garmin Etrex on Ubuntu and how to configure it. It also shows how to use Garmin with GPSDrive and how to convert the data to an xml file which can be imported by Google Earth.
What
could be more perfect than batteries that can be recharged on any USB
port? Lots of things, come to think of it, but nonetheless these USBCELL usb-recheargeable AA batteries are very handy.
Although the AA NiMH models will be first to hit the market (about $24 for a two-pack), other batteries with built-in USB plugs are scheduled to be released in the near future, including 9V, AAA (with either a mini- or folding full-size USB attachment), C and D converter shells for the AAs, and even packs for cellphones, digital cameras, and other portable devices.
These days you can find live USB ports almost anywhere, and for $20 a pair, it’s a safe bet.
The key manly features of the Canon Powershot G7
are its 10 megapixel CCD sensor and the new 6x zoom lens with a f/2.8
to f/4.8 focal aperture, a 35mm-210mm focal length, and hardware
optical image stabilization. But you know, real men don’ t resort to
image stabilization, they do it for themselves as their grandparents
did, in the snow, uphill, both ways.
There’s also a fixed 2.5-inch screen (fold-out screens are for sissies, you know). And the internal image processor enables better noise reduction, improved color rendering, snappier response times and most importantly, ISO 1600 sensitivity. There are also 25 different shooting modes — including a manual mode, which of course is the choice of real men, and a VERY impressive 1024 x 768, 15fps video capture mode along with support for SDHC cards as well as the usual MMC and SD cards. Comes at around $600.
The
mother of all blankets: the Slanket is a big polar-fleece blanket that
includes very large and loose sleeves that let you work the remote,
type at the laptop, turn the pages of your book, hold your phone or
play video games without exposing nothing beyond the limits of your
wrists.
Priced around US$50, the Slanket is a great bed or sofa enhancer, and also a good present for frequent travelers.
The Handydrive
is not very pretty, but I can see how it could be useful, and naow that
I know it exists, I won’t rest until I can lay my hands on one of these.
Obviously it’s a flash drive sturdy enough to be taken in (or as) your keychain. But it goes far beyond that: the handydrive encloses a small pen and a led flashlight, turning itself into a product far beyond my most adventurous expectations.
Get me one of those,yesterday! The line goes all the range from 128MB to 4GB, and prices start at around $20.
You can never have enough space to store your pictures, movies and
music inside those little gadgets. PDAs, smartphones, cameras and other
small beasts seem to devour all available space faster than you can
spell beetlejuice. And there’s no end in sight, because you haven’t
already took all the pictures you want, nor listened to all the music
or watched all the movies.
That’s why the nice people at good old Ohio’s Ultra Products are now offering you this fantastic 8GB SDHC card, compatible with SDHC devices - plain vanilla SD devices are no-no. It pushes 2MB/second, and goes for around US$ 150,00.
Never again you’ll have to pull a McGyver when you need to open a package, fix a screw or sign a card!
The Victorinox Escort swiss army knife is one of the smallest options in Victorinox’s gigantic multitools and blades portfolio. At a mere 6cm (2 1/4″) and 16.3 grams (a little more than 1/2 ounce), it weights a little less than five pennies - I barely notice it in my pocket.
Mine is a recent model that includes a small retractable pen. The
pen itself is a nice feature - it’s a pressurized ballpoint blue pen,
that resists to water and writes in any position - and you’ll have it
always with you. Surely it’s not the most comfortable pen in the
universe - it really feels like writing with a pen knife 
- but it *works*, and if you carry your Victorinox always on your
pocket, your bag or your keychain, you’ll never will be caught without
a pen again.
The Victorinox Escort includes also a small blade, a nail file with small screwdriver tip, plastic toothpick, metal tweezers and keychain.
A great gift for both genders and most ages, and something you cannot live without, once you find about it.
The Samsung Syncmaster 740N
is one of the best 17in LCD flat panel computer monitors available
today. It’s cheap too, and at 1280×1024 native resolution you’ll have
plenty of pixels to look at. It works well with Mac, Linux and Windows
and, unlike many other offers, can be viewed from a large 160 degree
arc, making it a perfect choice for meeting rooms, classrooms or home
users. The screen response time is just 8ms, ideal for games and far
more than you need for movies.
I bought one 2 weeks ago, and the feature that I like the most is the tilt-able screen. I use the Syncmaster 740N as the second viewport of my notebook when I’m at my desk, and usually it’s tilted 90 degrees to the right, operating at 1024×1280px (portrait mode), so as to be able to see an entire page of a document or a lot more of most websites at once.
It also features MagicTune, MagicBright II, MagicColor and built-in
power (auto 100-240V), for more ease of use. No flickers, and no dead
pixels - at least on mine! And it’s so cheap you won’t find a reason to
buy a generic brand instead. Perfect for gaming, blogging and even for
working
“The ML-1610 is ideal for letters, reports and memos.” (as seen on the UK PCPro review)
It’s small, it’s quiet and it’s remarkably cheap. The Samsung ML-1610 laser printer
is the best laser printing device I’ve had in years in my home office,
and it can handle the loads of most small offices too. It’s fast (up to
17 pages per minute in letter), it prints at a great 600×600DPI BW
quality, has 2MB pre-installed RAM for page caching and processing, and
includes a nice toner saving button - in fact, that’s the only button
on this printer, except for the on-off switch on it’s back.
You can stack up to 150 sheets of paper (sized 3×5 - great for organizer cards - to legal, including A4, letter and most standard paper sizes) in its folding input tray, and the output bin can handle up to 50 sheets at a time. Of course you can also print on laser-capable special media, like transparencies, labels, post cards, envelopes.
The interface is the universal USB 1.1 with standard connectors (USB 2.0-compatible, of course. Could be 2.0, but even 1.1 is faster than the printing engine, so I see no real loss here). As a bonus, it works perfectly with Linux (it’s even advertised in the box, alongside many flavours of Windows), using the open source splix driver. Buy it today!