Jill and Eric Penne

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You download, create, delete, and move around countless files and endless piles of data on your PC every day. While your PC would ideally handle all of this data for you, it doesn’t take long before you end up with a disorganized, cluttered computer. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite Windows maintenance tools, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Hit the jump for an overview of the five best Windows maintenance tools, then cast your vote for the best of the bunch.

CCleaner

Any application called CCleaner where the first ‘C’ stands for Crap has to be good, right? Okay, maybe not, but this one is, thoroughly cleaning out your web browser, Recycle Bin and temporary files, registry, unnecessary third-party application trash, and oh so much more. Running CCleaner on your system promises to free up space, keep your computer running smoothly, and protect your privacy. It’s also very fast and very easy to use. (Read more)

Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller is a feature-rich replacement for the Windows default Add or Remove Programs feature (or Uninstall Programs in Vista). Why use Revo Uninstaller instead? Because not only does it just uninstall a program—it also removes all traces of the program from your system where the basic uninstaller may not. Revo also boasts a Hunter Mode for uninstalling apps by dragging a cross-hair onto the app you want to uninstall, whether it’s the app’s system tray icon or just a shortcut. It even helps manage your startup applications. (Read more)

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a fast and effective disk defragmenter intended to replace the Windows default. It’s quick and easy to use, and Auslogics DD provides a nicely formatted report of the latest defrag, including a motivating “Defragmentation has increased this computer performance by X%” message.

JkDefrag

JkDefrag is an open-source disk defragmenting tool. Unlike Auslogics DD, JkDefrag boasts command line support to allow you to set up your disk defrags on a schedule. Perhaps even better, JkDefrag has an installable screensaver that will automatically start defragging your hard drive whenever the screensaver is launched—it even displays the defrag process. Out of the box JkDefrag isn't the most attractive application you'll ever use, but when teamed with the previously mentioned JkDefrag GUI, it’s just as attractive and easy to use as any defragger you’ll find.

Spybot – Search & Destroy

Even if you’re using one of the best antivirus applications available, you may still end up with some form of malware on your computer. Spybot-S&D will ensure that it isn't there for long. Apart from removing spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers, and trojans, Spyware-S&D can also cover your usage tracks—like browsing or file history—to give you enhanced privacy on your computer.

Now that you’ve seen the most popular five Windows maintenance tools as chosen by your fellow readers, it’s time to vote for the best.
Which Is the Best Windows Maintenance Tool?
( surveys)

This week’s honorable mentions pool is a big one, including start-up manager AutoRuns, system cleaner nCleaner, hard drive analyzer WinDirStat, and the FileHippo Update Checker. Whether or not your favorite made the big list, let’s hear more about why you love it in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker whose computer maintenance is so intense that he considers it the PC equivalent of a Brazilian wax. His Hive Five feature appears every Thursday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hive Five RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Sitting on my dining room table, I currently have half a dozen projects in various states of doneness. Some involve vivisected computer parts, others will eventually be wearable and a few are just cool things I’ve ran across on the internet. I like doing things myself — I think the DIY bug is one of the best communicable diseases in the lifehack community.

These eighty sites are the places I turn to when I’m trying to figure out how to accomplish any particular goal. Any time I’m facing a new project, I start searching for how-tos that will help me figure out how other people did similar things and how likely I am to finish the project with all ten fingers still intact. I’ve broken them up into a few different categories, just to help you narrow down what you might be looking for. Some are simply archives full of tutorials. Some are blogs that publish how-tos fairly regularly. Some are just great resource sites. But they all have provided me with the information necessary to carry through on a project.

Every How-To They Can Get Their Hands On

These ten sites are more than happy to host any how-to around. I’ve seen everything from computer hardware hacks to instructions for brewing beer on these sites. This is the place to start — you can narrow down your search as you get a better idea of your project.

1. Make Magazine’s Blog
2. Instructables
3. How Stuff Works
4. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
5. wikiHow
6. flickr
7. Lifehacker
8. Popular Mechanics
9. DIY Happy
10. Expert Village

Become a Technophile in Ten Easy Steps

Each of these sites focuses primarily on providing the hacks you need to make sure that you have the best hardware and software around. One word of warning: you might run across some obsolete answers to your questions in the archives. Software how-tos don’t age as well as tips on building new furniture

1. Hack A Day
2. Hack This Site
3. I Hacked
4. Gadget Hacks
5. Hacked Gadgets
6. Make Use Of
7. HacksZine
8. LifeClever
9. Web Worker Daily
10. Tipstrs

Habitat Hacks You Can Live With

If you’re ready to make your home a little more customized, these sites will walk you through projects ranging from building furniture to home theaters for beginners. Remember, when it comes to your landlord, begging forgiveness is probably easier than asking for permission.

1. Ikea Hacker
2. DIY Ideas
3. Home Doctor
4. Acme How To
5. Hints N Tips
6. Ready Made
7. FlyLady
8. Real Simple
9. This Old House
10. Home Tips

Dining on a DIY Diet

Frugality gurus and health nuts alike advocate making your own food. Very few of us have access to either Grandma or a professional chef willing to walk us through the steps of homemade food, though. It’s time to turn to a few how-tos and recipes that can help us out.

1. Cooking for Engineers
2. Bakers Banter
3. The Pioneer Woman Cooks
4. Epicurious
5. The Amateur Gourmet
6. Culinary Media Network
7. 101 Cookbooks
8. Gourmet Magazine
9. Simply Recipes
10. Open Source Food

Sewing and Other ‘Feminine Arts’

It seems like most crafters are have two X chromosomes, but there’s no reason to count out knitting just because you have a Y chromosome. Heck, even Rosey Grier, defensive linebacker for the LA Rams, knitted some nice scarves.

1. TipNut
2. Craft Magazine’s Blog
3. Craft Stylish
4. Craftster
5. Craftform
6. WiseNeedle
7. GetCrafty
8. Crafttown
9. Design Your Life
10. Geek Crafts

Doing Business Your Way

Looking for some instructions on getting your business going a little faster? These sites have all sorts of tips, how-tos and ideas for getting your business up to speed. Keep in mind, though, that not every business is the same. Different businesses have different needs when if comes to growing.

1. Productivity101
2. 43Folders
3. Business Hackers
4. LifeDev
5. Biz Plan Hacks
6. Freelance Switch
7. Anywired
8. Young Entrepreneur
9. Bootstrapping
10. Copyblogger

Hack Your Wallet and What’s In It

No matter how you earn your money, keeping those dollars in your hands can be a struggle. Plenty of sites offer tips, tricks and tutorials to help you do just that — beyond improving your earning power, these sites can help you keep what you already have.

1. Frugal Hacks
2. WiseBread
3. Get Rich Slowly
4. The Simple Dollar
5. The Motley Fool
6. Five Cent Nickel
7. Mighty Bargain Hunter
8. Money Hacks
9. Dividend Money
10. Tax Tips Blog

Get Your Brain to the Optimal Level

Not all projects have a clear end result. There are plenty of opportunities to improve how you approach new tasks, study for tests and generally use your brain. Personally, these projects are often my favorites: I don’t need lots of tools to carry them out and I can often use them to help my approach to other projects entirely.

1. Dumb Little Man
2. Zen Habits
3. Mind Hacks
   
4. Hack College
   
5. Study Hacks
6. The Growing Life
   
7. Life Optimizer
   
8. Cultivate Greatness
9. Lesson in Life
10. GTD Times

There are millions of sites out on the web with tutorials, instructions and tips for just about every project you dream up — not necessarily a site that can tell you how to do what you have planned, but definitely one that can give you a starting point. These eighty sites are just that — a starting point. These are places worth looking when you have a specific project in mind, sites that can get you started on your plans. Oh, and there’s one more that’s worth checking: LifeHack. I’d be horribly remiss if I didn’t mention this site: it’s an amazing resource when you’re trying to decide how to tackle a new project.

Thursday Bram is a freelance journalist of over five years experience. She studied Communications at the University of Tulsa and is currently working on her MA in Communication Design. Her work has focused primarily on entrepreneurial topics. More information about Thursday is available at thursdaybram.com.

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This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Home Automation is anything that your home does for you automatically to make living there more enjoyable or productive. It covers many areas, including remote and timed control of lights and electrical home appliances, distributed media services, and communication. Over the last 10 years, many hardware manufacturers have presented their own proprietary solutions to these problems. Unbeknownst to them, a groundswell of developers from around the world has been providing similar solutions to the free and open source community.

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This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Corn Starch and water at the right consistency will allow you to run on it but if you stop you sink. This video on Ellen has a demo. Very sweet.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Summer is a season to kick back, take things a easier, and indulge in pastimes and projects you couldn’t enjoy while hunkered down for the winter. If you’ve got the DIY bug, that means trips to the hardware store, planning cheaper and better solutions to the heat and other summer challenges, and just generally geeking out while the weather’s warm and the days are longer. From home-brew air conditioners to giant bubbles, cheap underwater camera containers to sun tea, we’ve got 10 clever ideas to tackle, and a long Independence Day weekend is a great time to get started. Get the full list after the jump.

10. Eliminate ants with home-brewed solutions.

Warm weather can often bring about a recurring invasion by a legion of food-infesting, wall-crawling miscreants, but that’s no reason to turn to toxic traps and poisons or pricey exterminators. A fix as safe and simple as strategic baby powder can turn the tide, or you can bring out bigger guns with a homemade killer. Note that the baby powder also kills off the little buggers, but through confusion and disorientation rather than, well, killing. (Original posts: baby powder, homebrew killer).

9. Make a beach tote from plastic bags.

It's not exactly a beginner project for newcomer to the world of crochet, but creating a beach-friendly shoulder tote bag—sand falls right through the mesh, while the material is waterproof—both reuses that ball of grocery bags in your broom closet and is a guaranteed brag, err, conversation piece on the sand. Here's some help with making the “fabric” (thanks, KCBlueGal), and here’s an overview of how it’s done. (Original post)

8. Keep flying bugs at bay the non-toxic way.

Nothing ruins a summer picnic quicker than an attack of flying insects. If you’ve got a nest near your yard, or a camping site to defend, a yellow jacket lure and trap both distracts and defeats the little guys with a piece of raw fish and some simple assembly, and a non-toxic spray bottle mixture makes you feel a lot better than unloading a can of the multi-warning stuff around the little ones.
(Original posts: Yellow jackets, DIY insecticide).

7. Blow kid-astounding bubbles with a DIY wand.

Kids (and kids at heart) get a carefree kick out of blowing bubbles, but you can skip the chintzy plastic wands and bottles for some serious head-sized spheres. Using a homemade solution and a DIY version of the 1980s staple Bubble Thing, you’ll likely find yourself competing with the tykes for a turn. Photo by Limbo Poet (Original post).

6. Make some easy-going summer treats.

These are the kind of things you think about wistfully when the warmest season's finally over—a relaxing glass of sun tea, a cooling-yet-energizing batch of iced coffee (and its cold-brewed versionyour own BBQ sauce. The sun tea post generated a little healthy back-and-forth on the merits of food safety versus slow-steeped enjoyment, but most anyone who’s tried a little will have a hard time turning it down in favor of CDC-approved precaution. (Original posts: Sun tea, iced coffee, BBQ sauce).

5. Cook outside with solar heat.

Turning on the oven in the summer is nobody’s idea of a cool, relaxing evening, and not everybody’s got access to, or the time to work, a grill. Why not harness the power of that bright burning sphere out there to do a little eco-friendly cooking? You won’t want to slow-roast pork shoulder, but you can get some real cooking done with a parabolic skillet heater, or go super-simple with a cardboard box oven. Either way, it’s a guaranteed guest-impresser, and a pretty simple backyard/rooftop project (Original posts: Parabolic cooker, solar box oven).

4. Hang heat-blocking curtains.

Direct sunlight can make any room into an oven and contribute to your home’s overall heat in the summer. To keep unused rooms dark or avoid monstrous A/C bills, use the same foam-and-foil stuff they make windshield blockers out of and hang it as a removable curtain. You can either buy the stuff and hang it, or make it yourself for super-cheap blocking. As blogger Emily Gertz proves, you don’t have to block out the sun entirely to make a cooling difference, just eliminate unneeded heat (Original post).

3. Build your own air conditioner (three ways).

If money or logistics prevents you from keeping a space cool with a commercial air conditioner, take a tip from some over-heated and super-inspired hackers. Cool off your garage, attic, shed, or summer school dorm room with the $30 DIY air conditioner, which uses a tall bucket to circulate ice-chilled water through the back of a fan. Its upgrade puts a water pump to work and uses a smaller, less messy water source, and the advanced-level integrated bucket/fan melding creates a solid unit that throws chilly air at you. At the very least placing a shallow bowl of ice in front of your fan can help cool you down. Any one of these DIY air conditioners is worth the time if you’re sick of feeling like you’re peeling Saran Wrap when you get up from your seat this season (Original posts: $30 version, upgrade, advanced).

2. Build your own underwater camera housing.

This is not an original post by Eric and may not contain all the text. Click here for the full article.

Robert Bruce Thompson, author of MAKE:Books’ Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, spoke at the 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire on the demise of the chemistry set. He traces the history from the good old days when chemistry sets were full of possibilities to the present day where they are very hard to obtain. Check out the book to learn how to roll your own home chemistry lab! Video link

More:

Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. For students, DIY hobbyists, and science buffs, who can no longer get real chemistry sets, this one-of-a-kind guide explains how to set up and use a home chemistry lab, with step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments in basic chemistry. Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. The book includes lessons on how to equip your home chemistry lab, master laboratory skills, and work safely in your lab, along with 17 hands-on chapters that include multiple laboratory sessions.

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