Hacks
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Is it any wonder why we are crazy for canning jars? They are cheap, easy to find and leak-proof. They can be frozen, microwaved (minus the lids, of course) and even baked in the oven. And they make great containers for lunches prepared in bulk, individually portioned, and stored in the refrigerator or freezer, so it's easy to grab a wholesome, homemade meal on even the busiest afternoon. • Salad : It's easy to get more vegetables into your day when they are prepped in bulk on the weekend and waiting for you in the refrigerator.
Grab and Go: 5 Make-Ahead Lunches to Pack in Jars
DIY Mason Jar Speakers
These interesting and inexpensive little speakers can be decorating your desk soon. All you need are two jars, the speaker parts from Radio Shack, and the ability to use common DIY tools. Design student Sarah Pease created this "audioJar" based on MIT's David Mellis's Fab Speakers . Her take on the open-source speaker design is very simple and also flexible—you can customize the look with different types/sizes of jars and feet other than the blocks of cork. Check out the Fab Speakers page for materials needed and tools. Mellis says the hardest requirement is access to a laser cutter, but you can get the parts cut from a laser cutting service.
Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills
The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look. Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills
The 101 Most Useful Websites on the Internet is a frequently updated list of lesser-known but wonderful websites and cool web apps. Presenting the 101 most useful websites of 2012. These sites, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can memorize thus saving you a trip to Google.
The 101 Most Useful Websites on the Internet
Arduino 1.0 is now available from the download page . A long time coming, this release brings small but important changes to clean up the Arduino environment and language – as well as adding lots of additional features. Updates to the environment include a new file extension, toolbar icons, and color scheme as well as a progress bar on compilation and upload.
Blog » Blog Archive » Arduino 1.0 now available.
If you're into vinyl records and you get yours at the same places I do, at flea markets, yard sales and Goodwill, you know how frustrating those "snap, crackle and pops" can be. Trying to get the decades-old dust and crud that causes those noises out of the grooves can easily turn into an all-day affair. Here's a device you can easily make, that uses a remarkable polymer sold just about everywhere as "Removable Putty" that can deep clean your vinyl records and return them to their original state. I get my putty at our local grocery store.
Block and Bar Vinyl Record Cleaner
Build Your Own Paper-Thin, Super-Powerful HD Antenna
We've shown you more than one great HDTV antenna you can buy, and another you can build yourself , but this model looks good enough that you could hang it in a window, but is powerful enough that you'll definitely pick up over-the-air HD channels in your area. Best of all, it's super-cheap to make. Okay, you probably won't hang this in the front window, but at least it's transparent, and good looking enough that you could put it in an apartment window without blocking too much of the view or drawing too much attention to it. All you'll need to get started is some paper, aluminum foil, flexible plastic (like a document cover—available at any office supply store), a matching transformer (and the nuts and bolts needed to mount it), and some glue. The end result is a pretty powerful fractal antenna that can rival some of the commercial options we've mentioned before.
Notifying Doorbell with PushingBox
Explore our growing cookbook of DIY projects for the workshop, kitchen , garage, and backyard. Learn new skills, find family fun , build a robot or a rocket . Get started in electronics and use new platforms like Raspberry Pi and Arduino to power your inventions. Get inspired and start making something today.
DIY Citrus Salt
Specialty salts can bring a lot of flavor to foods but can be expensive—especially citrus salts that cost several dollars for a bit of salt and fruit zest. Instead make your own by combining kosher or sea salt with the zest from your citrus fruit of choice and bake in the oven. Household weblog My Own Labels recommends the ratio of ½ cup of salt to 1 tablespoon citrus zest. Mix well and spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 225 Fahrenheit for about an hour.
Top 10 Crazy Kitchen Tricks That Speed Up Your Cooking
So you've started beefing up your cooking skills , but the process is still a little tedious. Here are 10 surprising kitchen techniques that will save you a bunch of time—not to mention wow your friends. 10. Deseed a Pomegranate in Seconds Using a Wooden Spoon If you don't love pomegranates, it's either because you've never had one or you hate how much work they take to deseed.
You may have seen those pricey tablets in your local drugstore or pharmacy that you're supposed to put in the bottom of your shower while you wash up. As the tablet dissolves under the hot water, they're supposed to release fragrance and vapors to help clear your nose and throat, offering you a little allergy or sinus relief while you bathe—think of them as vapor rub, just in the shower instead of on your chest. Well, it turns out those tablets are surprisingly easy to make at home with stuff you probably already own.
Make Your Own Sinus-Clearing Shower Tablets for Cheap, Effective Allergy and Cold Relief
Top 10 Essential DIY Skills That Aren't as Hard as You Think
We feature a lot of do-it-yourself projects here at Lifehacker, but oftentimes they seem undoable because they require a skill you don't have. Thankfully, there are quite a few DIY skills out there that are much easier to learn than you think. Here are our 10 favorites. 10.Make Better Hard-Boiled Eggs By Baking Them in The Oven, Not Boiling Them
Naturally most of us think hard-boiled eggs should be boiled, but a better way to get that perfect hard-"boiled" egg may be to actually bake it, according to Alton Brown. You can bake dozens of creamier eggs at once. Tanya at the Greetings from the Asylum blog says that the baked eggs are also less sulfurous or smelly, and reproduces Alton Brown's recipe posted on Food.com .If you have a neighbor that's playing their music too loudly, you can get them back by hijacking their speakers with a little DIY project. Some people are more than a little inconsiderate, and when a friendly note or call to your landlord doesn't solve the problem, sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands. Evil genius and electrical guru junkyardmessiah over at Reddit came up with this DIY solution:
Silence Noisy Neighbors by Transmitting Your Music to Their Speakers
Recipe: Make Your Own Color & Smell Combinations With These Easy Air Freshener Recipes 2 cups water 4 packages Gelatin (plain) 15 to 20 drops Essential Oil (adjust to personal preference) 1 to 2 TBS salt Food Coloring Directions :