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News: Riccitiello frustrated at lack of Wii success

2009-11-10T13:57:00Z

EA's CEO John Riccitiello has noted his frustration at the low sales of Wii software, and suggested Nintendo needs to release more first-party titles in order to generate interest in the format.

Speaking during a call to investors last night, he admitted sales on the Wii were poorer than expected – despite his belief that EA is releasing the best third-party content on the console.

"To be honest with you, I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated. And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share," Riccitiello told investors.

Orb Streams Your Media to Any Computer on Windows and Mac [Downloads]

2009-11-05T18:30:00Z

Windows/Mac only: Free application Orb lets you access music, video, and other media stored on your computer from virtually any device (Wii, PS3, cell phone, etc.). It's been around a while on Windows, but today it's also available on the Mac.

We've been fans of Orb for years now, having used it to stream music to any PC and use our Wii as a media center, and now the same sort of great functionality is available to both Windows and Mac users. Using it is dead simple: Just install the Orb application, point it toward your media, then head to http://mycast.orb.com/. Once you log in, you can access any of your media through your browser or device-specific interface. (See our guides above for finer points on different devices.)

As Macworld points out, Orb is also now available as a $10 iPhone app or a free trial app. $10 isn't cheap, but it if you're an Orb user, the easy access to all your computer's media is a pretty sweet deal.

Orb is a free download, Windows and Mac only. If you've been a die-hard Orb user all these years on Windows, share your experience with Orb in the comments.

Orb [via Macworld]

Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful [Installation]

2009-11-04T14:30:00Z

Windows/Linux: One of the most irritating things about reinstalling your operating system is installing all the non-OS applications you love. Allmyapps lets you select all your favorite apps and roll them into a bulk installer to make rebuilding easy.

At Allmyapps you can browse over a hundred popular applications in a dozen categories to build a master list of applications you want to install. You don't have to install immediately after building your list, you can save your list for later installation. Check out the video below to see how Allmyapps works:

For another great time-saving bulk installation tool, check out previously reviewed Ninite. Have a way to get your favorite apps installed quickly? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Allmyapps is a free web-based service and provides bulk-installation on both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

Allmyapps [via MakeUseOf]

Price-y pyrotechnics: Huge effigy of Katie Price to be set alight

2009-11-04T12:49:12Z

A huge effigy of Katie Price is to be set on fire as part of a Kent bonfire society's celebrations on Guy Fawkes night.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave Is a Comprehensive Book on Wave [Google Wave]

2009-11-02T22:00:00Z

Got an interest in Google Wave but have absolutely no idea where to get started? Try out The Complete Guide to Google Wave, a new (free) book written and edited by my pal and Lifehacker cohort Gina Trapani and yours truly.

Google Wave may not be available to everyone just yet, but there's still a lot to learn about it and not that many places to do that learning. That's where The Complete Guide to Google Wave steps in.

Wave is a young, complex, and frankly incomplete web application and technology. It's also an ambitious project that has the potential to change how we work, collaborate, and communicate on the web. That's why Gina and I decided to pour our time and attention into Google Wave and pull it all together into this book.

We're calling it a book, even though right now its content is only available on the web at completewaveguide.com. It features eight chapters and two appendices, but we're going to expand the book as Google continues to grow and expand Wave. (In fact, anyone can help us do just that by contributing to the guide.)

If you'd like a more permanent or convenient copy of the book, its first preview edition will be available for purchase as a PDF later this month, and the first edition print version will be available in January of 2010. Gina and I are planning to release four editions of the book throughout 2010 to keep up with the changing face of Wave, but the latest version of the book will always be available and free at completewaveguide.com.

Check out the book's About page for more details on our adventure in publishing (including why we're self-publishing), or just head to the home page to get started with your Wave education. For updates on book releases and various Wave tips, follow @gwaveguide on Twitter.

Note: Our server has had a little trouble keeping up with the traffic, so if you're having trouble accessing the site, try this mirror instead.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace [Privacy]

2009-11-02T17:30:00Z

Think that your browser's private mode keeps your browsing completely private? Not so! More often than not, you're still leaving traces of your browsing session behind, and today we'll tell you how to get rid of them for truly private browsing.

The Problem

Keeping track of where you've been doesn't end with simply clearing out your browsing history and other private data—your operating system continues to store more information about what you've been up to, like cached DNS lookups and worse, Flash cookies that don't get wiped. It's worth noting that you won't be able to erase all of your tracks all the time—if you are browsing stuff that you shouldn't at work, you can still get caught by a system admin even if the history on your PC is gone. On your own PC, however, here's how we suggest boosting your browsing privacy (complete with a couple of scripts to automate the process).

Cached DNS Entries

Every time you browse to a web page, your PC has to request the IP Address for that web site from your default DNS server, and then caches them locally on your machine for a while to speed up future access to that web site—even in a private browsing session.

You can see these for yourself by opening up a command prompt and typing in ipconfig /displaydns to see the full list of cached DNS entries, then open up a new private browsing session and go to a site you don't normally access. If you re-run the command again, you'll see that it's been added to the DNS caching, telling anybody with access to your machine that you've been watching the PowerPuff Girls. Cleaning the cache is easy, just type in ipconfig /flushdns to wipe everything.

Worse: Flash Cookies

The secret tracking information doesn't stop with simple DNS entries, which don't really tell anybody much about what exactly you were looking at—but the hidden Flash cookies will tell a whole different story.
You can see these entries by heading into the %appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects directory, and once you are done panicking, you can simply delete them all to get rid of them—for now.

Clear Flash Cookies in Firefox

Luckily Firefox's great extension support makes it really simple to get rid of those awful Flash cookies with the previously mentioned Objection extension. You'll have to download the development release and use an about:config hack to make it compatible with the latest versions of Firefox, but once you've done that, installed the extension, and rebooted Firefox, you should be able to head into the settings to make short work of those Flash cookies.

The Settings tab gives you an option to automatically remove the Local Shared Objects on browser open or close, the File details tab will allow you to take a look through all of the local cookies already stored, and the Flash player settings tab gives you access to a bunch of options, including telling Flash to never store information.

Run CCleaner After Browsing

When it comes to cleaning up all of the extra traces that applications leave behind, nothing quite equals using CCleaner to get rid of all those little bits that really shouldn't be there anymore, regardless of which browser you are using. Just make sure to open up CCleaner and look for Adobe Flash Player in the Applications tab, and keep that box checked.

Once you've made sure that your CCleaner settings are perfect, you can create a shortcut to run CCleaner silently with a simple double-click on an icon, or even assign a hotkey for quick junk removal. If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, you'll probably notice that there's a UAC prompt every time you run the shortcut-you can create shortcuts that bypass UAC, or just disable it entirely instead. If you are even more paranoid, you can set up CCleaner to run on a schedule, automatically.

Create a Batch File to Clean Everything

Your best bet is to create a simple batch file to run after your browsing session, to make sure your browser cache, Flash cookie cache, and DNS entries are cleaned out. You could get fancy and create an AutoHotkey script to do the same thing, but a batch file should do the trick for regular people. Just create a new plain text file and save it as a .bat file (e.g., browserclean.bat), then add the following to the file, noting that the /AUTO switch tells CCleaner to run silently.

"C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe" /AUTO
ipconfig /flushdns

Once you've created the file and saved it into some useful location, you can create a shortcut on your desktop, quick launch bar, or pin it to your start menu.

Create an AutoHotkey Script to Automatically Clean Everything

If your geek skills are a little more advanced, you can simply create a script that opens up your browser in private browsing mode, and then waits until you've closed the last window to run CCleaner and flush the DNS cache. Just create a new AutoHotkey script and paste in the following script, modifying the paths for your own install locations.

Run, C:\path\to\chrome.exe –incognito
WinWait, – Google Chrome
WinWaitClose ; Wait for Google Chrome to close
Run, C:\path\to\ccleaner.exe /AUTO
Run, cmd /c "ipconfig /flushdns"
MsgBox, Browsing Session is Cleaned.

The first line in the script will launch Google Chrome using incognito mode—you could use Firefox instead, but you'll need to install the Private Browsing Command Line Flag extension and use the -private argument. The WinWait lines tell AutoHotkey to wait until the browser session has closed (you can change out "Google Chrome" for "Mozilla Firefox" if you need to), and then the script continues by running your cleaner utilities.

So what's your take? Will you take the extra steps to keep your privacy intact, or is wiping the history enough for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The How-To Geek uses Google Chrome incognito mode as an excellent cache-free web development tool. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

News: Savvy consumers pick up Modern Warfare 2 for £24.99

2009-11-02T16:54:00Z

Smart consumers are taking advantage of various offers at retail to buy Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for less than half the recommended retail price.

The publisher has been heavily criticised for pushing up the console RRP of the latest from Infinity Ward to £54.99, but a cut-throat retail market is providing consumers with a number of options to avoid paying the inflated price.

UK retailer Gamestation is currently offered the game for £4.99 if a consumer trades in two games from a list that includes WET, Overlord II and Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. With Play.com selling Overlord II for just £9.99, users on website hotukdeals have already begun buying two copies of the Codemasters' title and trading it in for a pre-ordered copy Modern Warfare 2.

Turbo Charge Your New XBMC Installation [Winter Upgrades]

2009-10-30T19:00:00Z

We give a lot of attention to XBMC here, and with just cause. It's an open-source, cross-platform, highly-customizable media center solution that outperforms just about every commercial option out there. Here's how you can make it even better.

If you've played around with any commercial media centers or extenders, you've probably quickly realized how clunky and inelegant the user interface and experience is. Sure once the movie is playing and you're no longer staring down the interface all is well, but prior to getting to the actual showtime the menus are ugly and the navigation is kludgy.

Yesterday Adam detailed how to set up a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap—and that's a good starting point. The "out of box" experience with XBMC is fantastic, but even better than that, it's extremely customizable. You can alter menus, vary the display method, and completely swap out the skin for a fresh new look. We've reviewed some great XBMC skins and shown you how to install them. For this article we've selected the excellent AEON skin to showcase some of the advanced features of XBMC.

Getting Started

Before we delve too far into tweaking and customization, you'll need a media center running XBMC. It all began with XBMC running on the original Xbox, and you can still turn an old Xbox into an XBMC platform. Check out our original guide to installing XBMC on your Xbox and XBMC Installer Deluxe. One thing to keep in mind regarding using the classic Xbox for XBMC: it's just a Pentium III in there with 64MB of RAM. You can, under exceptional circumstances and with a hard to find Microsoft AV pack, squeeze out some better than standard-def images, but it's pushing it; if you want HD playback you simply won't be happy with the classic Xbox.

Thankfully XBMC has been ported from the classic Xbox and can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux-based machines as well as off a USB drive. Our most recent guide to building an XBMC is a fantastic one: For around $200, you'll have a silent and HD-capable media center. If you'd like to use existing hardware, you can always run XBMC off a USB drive or visit the XBMC wiki to read up on other installation techniques.

If all you do is install the stock version and add your media shares, you'll be a happy camper and you'll get frequent compliments on your rocking media center. If you want to get frequent compliments and have people express complete disbelief that you got such awesome media center software for the outrageous price of free, then keep reading.

Taking XBMC Beyond the Basics

Installing XBMC is easy, and so is performing the basic setup, but because XBMC is a work in progress and new innovations and features are constantly being added, customization can get a bit confusing. Take it from a guy who has loved XBMC for years and runs it on the classic Xbox and on a custom-built HTPC—I frequently find myself reading over the user forums and saying "What? It can do that? Oh man!" If you've looked at screenshots of XBMC and wondered how they made it look so cool or got such and such custom icon to appear, this is where you'll want to pay close attention.

XBMC is equipped with a variety of "scrapers"—scripts that scan your media and pull information from the folder structure and file names—to help you get things like thumbnails, fan art, and movie and show information. These scrapers can access a variety of databases like TheTVDB.com for television show art and information and IMDB for movie posters and info. This entire process, once you tell XBMC what kind of content a folder contains, is totally automated. For most entries you can select from multiple movie posters, thumbnails, and so on—check out this entry in TheTVDB for the show Heroes to get a feel for it.

The automated process is awesome and for the most part hassle free. You can increase the effectiveness of the scrapers by properly formatting your directories and file names. One thing that merits particular emphasis: You must keep your movies and TV shows separate. XBMC can't scrape a folder for both television and film and if you attempt to scrape it twice all sorts of weird things can happen. Store your movies completely separate from your television shows and you'll save yourself quite a bit of frustration.

When you set the content type for the folder you can specify "Use Folder Names for Lookups" and it goes a long way towards accurate file identification. It also saves you from having to cleanup files names and if you're using direct DVD-rips you must use folder name lookup or the scrapers won't function. Here's an example folder structure:

\Movies\
—-\Army of Darkness\
—— AofD.DTS.x264.mkv
—- \Blades of Glory\
—— Blades.CON.x264.mkv

When XBMC scrapes the folder names it will easily find a match. In the rare cases where a movie has a title that has been used before or is a remake of a prior movie you can include the year in the folder name, such as Halloween (2007) and Halloween (1978).

As awesome as scraping is for saving you tons of time, it does have a few down sides. It takes a long, long, time on a moderate to large size library. Have a thousand movies and dozens of TV shows saved? You'll be leaving it to run for hours. Any time you make changes, move things, reinstall XBMC, etc., you'll end up scraping all over again which can get a bit tedious. The other down side is the limitations of scrapers. For most genres they are fine, but sometimes you'll find that they don't have the artwork you want or even any info at all about your media. When this happens it's up to you to fill in the blanks.

Fortunately XBMC follows a specific structure for checking information. It checks the local directory first, then the XBMC library, and then if necessary it will scrape for the data. The following directory structure will show you where support files go

\Movies\
—-\MovieTitle\
—— MovieTitle.mkv
—— folder.jpg
—— fanart.jpg
—— movie-trailer.flv
—— title.nfo

\TV Shows\
—- \Show\
—— folder.jpg
—— fanart.jpg
——- \Season\
——— folder.jpg

In the above format the folder.jpg is the source for the small thumbnail assigned to the folder and fanart.jpg is the large image placed in the background during showcase mode. See the image below to see what showcase mode looks like. For more examples of folder structure with some excellent and informative info-graphics, check out this post on the XBMC forums.

NFO files provide additional information about media. If you don't want to mess around with NFO files, having the thumbnails and fan art saved to disk will speed up the scraping process enormously. You can read about NFO files and how XBMC center uses them here. You can also greatly automate the process of manually inserting fanart, thumbnails, and managing NFO files by using helper applications like Ember Media Manager.

The area at the bottom of the screenshot above, highlighted with the red box, is where your media flags will show up. The media flags are a really nice touch and indicate things like the studio that produced the film, what quality the video is in, and other media information like what kind of audio it has. All media flag information is pulled, oddly enough, from the file name. If you want the Blu-ray or HD-DVD icon to appear you need to add that information to the file name within the /Movie/Title/ folder. The following file name for example would enable the Blu-ray, 1080, and 264 encoding flags in skins, like Aeon, that support it.

/Move/Title/Title.bluray.1080p.x264.mkv

It should be noted that while the general release of XBMC doesn't presently support pulling media information directly from the files that the functionality is available in the beta builds for power users—and it looks stunning! You can read more about that here. If you'd prefer to use the current stable release, then grab the AEON skin and read the readme.txt for additional information about enabling media flags. You can greatly speed up the flagging process by using a helper application like Media Renamer.

At this point in the tutorial, if you've formatted your folders properly, let the scrapers do their thing, and filled with your own pictures and fan art where you wanted to improve on the scraper or fill in some missing information, you've got a library whipped into shape and ready to show off.

Two resources you'll definitely want to check out—because we simply can't cover all the awesomeness that is XBMC in a single article—are the XBMC official wiki and the XBMC forums. You'll especially want to check out any sub-forums for the skin you decide to use, the discussions and resources you'll find in them are invaluable.

Have a favorite helper app for XBMC? A skin you can't rave enough about? A trick that took you a week of digging in the XBMC forums to find out about? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Oolite: a brilliant remake of Elite, the classic game of space trade and exploration

2009-10-30T06:51:56Z

Oolite is an open source remake of the classic space simulator Elite. This non-linear title puts the player in control of their own experience. Trading, piracy, and mining are just a fraction of what you can do in this expansive universe.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his new blog here].

Captain Jensen had traveled three systems to make this run. His cargo hold full of radioactives would fetch a hefty sum on this rich industrial planet. But the swarm of blips fast approaching on radar didn’t look like innocent freighters. The only policed sector surrounding the station was on the far side of the planet. This is what you get for trading with a lawless system…

Oolite takes something old and makes it new again. This open source remake of one of gaming’s great classics Elite is solid gaming gold. In this incredibly non-linear space simulator players can fly around the galaxy trading, fighting off pirates, pirating, or taking intergalactic taxi missions. With no story except the one you make for yourself, Oolite is a member of a dying type of game.

Gameplay: This is one of the least linear games I’ve ever played. From the very start you are in charge of your own experience. Do you trade in your standard Mark III for something cheaper, letting you afford the much desired upgrades? Or do you struggle through the first few runs without a docking computer, fuel injector, or effective weaponry? The decision is yours. It’s almost intimidating to strike out into the vast game world without a mission. This trend continues for as long as you play. Your profession and actions are entirely up to you. You can prey on weaker ships, collect space debris for credits, and engage in both legal and illegal trade. Just keep an eye peeled for the GalCops.

Sound: The audio in Oolite leans toward the retro. The sound is inspired by the space simulators of yesteryear. Laser effects are clean without fizzles and pops, events are marked by conservative alert beeps, and your engine hums contentedly. It almost sounds like a cut and dry military simulation.

Lasting Appeal: Oolite is the sort of game you keep on your hard drive. Once you’ve gotten into the groove of things, it’s hard to not keep upgrading your ship, finding new trade routes, and fighting anyone who dares cross you. But for those who tire of the simple graphics and gameplay of Oolite vanilla, the game’s community has created an enormous amount of expansion packs. These addons, called OXP’s, drastically enhance the game. The modding community has created additional HUD displays, more detailed ship and space station models, mission types and ship upgrades. More than enough to keep even flighty players playing.

Graphics: The Original Elite was one of the first fully 3D games. Sporting rudimentary wire-frame graphics, players had to fill in the details for themselves. The vanilla version of Oolite comes with simply textured models, keeping this tradition alive. It’s not that this graphics engine isn’t capable of handling more impressive visuals, it’s that it doesn’t need to. This universe is full of activity, with traders zipping around dodging raiders, and galactic cops trying to keep the peace. It may take spoiled gamers time to adjust to the simple graphics. That’s fine, because it’s not the visuals that make Oolite great.

Controls: Oolite supports playing with both the keyboard and joystick. While it’s not strictly necessary to hook up your dusty peripheral, you’ll be short changing yourself if you don’t. Keyboard controls are workable, but in combat their is no substitute for the finesse a good joystick allows. The keyboard commands for non-combat functions are intuitive an easy to pick up.

The verdict: If you’re starving for a good space simulator, Oolite will satisfy. With a more rewarding trade system than it’s contemporaries, fast paced combat, and a healthy dose of retro appeal, this is worth checking out.

Compatibility: Windows, Linux, and Mac OS 10.3.9 and up.

Go to the game home page to download the latest version (approx 20.63 megs).

LongBar is a Slick, Open-Source Sidebar for Windows [Downloads]

2009-10-29T20:00:00Z

Windows only: Desktop sidebar LongBar hosts mini-applications as "tiles", giving you application launchers, system stats, Facebook updates, sticky notes, and more on the side of your screen.

Once you've installed and launched LongBar, you can use the tiny arrow at the top of the bar to access the settings menu, where you can move the sidebar to the right-hand side of the screen, and change between a couple of available skins. Unlike most sidebars, this one doesn't come bundled with any widgets—you'll have to choose between the 30+ widgets on their website, drag them over to the sidebar to install them, and then configure them with the context menu. LongBar is free and open source, the latest version works on Windows 7 or Vista only, requires the .NET framework 3.0.

LongBar [CodePlex via BlogsDNA]

From the Tips Box: Windows 7 Screencasting, Quicksilver, and Recipes [From The Tips Box]

2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

Readers offer their best tips for screencasting in Windows 7, using Quicksilver to launch applications in VMware, and organizing your personal recipes using a blog.

Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Built-In Screencasting in Windows 7

Mark shows us a nice built-in feature of Windows 7:

I found if you just type "PSR" in the run box, the problem solution recorder pops up. It looks similar to the sound recorder, and when you press record, it captures key actions and saves them as an MHT in a zip file (I assume MHT is Media HyperText Markup Language, because it is all in one file).

Launching Windows Applications in VMware with Quicksilver

Photo by Ben Becker .

Joe shares a convenient tip on how to further Quicksilver's usefulness:

If you add

~/Documents/Virtual Machines/[name of the vm].vmwarevm/Applications

to the Quicksilver catalog you can index all of the apps in your VMWare virtual machine and use Quicksilver from within the PC Virtual Machine or even launch PC apps from your Mac desktop even when the VM is not powered on (it will start VMware automatically)... Its faster than using the start menu!

Quick Log Off and Hibernate

David tells us how he closes down his computer quickly (without shutting down completely):

I came up with a very simple solution to a problem I've had, and I thought it might be something others would like to do as well. I've been looking for a way to easily log off of my account _and_ hibernate my Vista system in one step (I have work acct and a home acct, and I'd like to be able to hibernate at the end of the work day, but not still be logged on to my work acct...) I wrote (of all things) a two line batch file:

shutdown /l shutdown /h

I named it LogoffHib.bat and saved it to a convenient place, then made a shortcut to it on my desktop, complete with Ctrl+Alt+End shortcut key, and Boom! I've searched for something like this for ages and never found anything, but I thought someone else in a similar situation might like it too.

Use a Blog to Keep Up with Recipes

Photo by Jennifer Dickert .

Sara-Elizabeth shares her favorite tool for recipe logging:

I know you've had lots of people suggesting ways to keep up with recipes, but I'd like to add my two cents. Borrowing on the idea of saving the recipes in Delicious, I then created a Blogspot account and posted the individual recipes as entries (with photos uploaded to my personal web space and source noted). I can quickly find recipes based on certain criteria and I'm even able to link within recipes to other
recipes needed for the whole project.

Use Wax or Crayons to Keep Wood From Splitting

Photo by Chris Metcalf.

Stephen shares another way to keep wood from splitting:

Surprised that no one has mentioned wax, even a crayon, get it onto the nail and the nail drives about five times easier and much less chance of splitting, to boot.

And absolutely put wax onto a long screw that you're running into hard wood — you'll be amazed at the difference. Soap works also, wax is better IMO.

Unity Indie: Now Free

2009-10-28T21:46:00Z

Unity is a middle-range game engine (cheaper than the million-dollar ones but more expensive than things like Game Maker) which has been used for indie games like Dock’s Tumbledrop, Derek Yu’s Diabolika for iPhone, Tale of Tales’ Fatale, and many more.

Unity Indie, previously around $200, has been renamed to just “Unity” and is now free. You can read more information on the whys on Gamasutra. Apparently Xbox 360 support is also in the works. To quote David Helgason from the Gamasutra interview:

“The thinking was that Unity Indie isn’t generating a significant portion of our revenue, and we’ve always had this vision of democratizing our tools. We have over 13,000 customers using our product, so we figured, let’s take Indie and just give it to everyone. Whether that becomes a cash flow positive or a cash flow negative – and some people will upgrade – is not really important. What’s important is to get this in the hands of as many people as possible.”

Set Up Windows Home Server to Automate Your Backups and Corral Your Media [Winter Upgrades]

2009-10-28T19:00:00Z

It's that time of year, when colder weather and dreary conditions keep us inside more often than not. That also makes it a perfect time to set up a home backup and media server to streamline your digital life.

We're at an interesting point in the expansion of digital media. For the first time, thanks to more advanced still and video cameras and a proliferation of digital music and movies, non-power users are finding themselves needing a home server to store all their digital stuff and to backup all their data.

While a variety of options have been available to computer hobbyists and power users for years—I can recall friends running Linux-based home servers well over a decade before the average person would have even entertained the notion—none of them are particularly practical or easy to use for a person who hasn't made tinkering with computers a daily part of their lives and an enjoyable hobby. We appreciate the variety of options that are available, but for off-the-shelf ease of use for the millions of Windows-only households out there, it's nearly impossible to beat Windows Home Server.

Getting Your Hands on a Windows Home Server

The easiest way to get your hands on a Windows Home Server is to buy a commercial model. They run around $400'ish, generally have a small and sleek form factor, and include 2-3 expansion bays for more hard drives—check out the HP MediaVault and the Acer Aspire easyStore if you're interested in grabbing a pre-built model. With the off the shelf models, setup is as simple as plugging it into your home network and configuring it with a web browser from another machine—but if you really want to know where servers come from, you'll have to check out Gizmodo's coverage of Microsoft's odd but entertaining Windows Home Server PR stunt.

If you want to take a more hands on approach and build your own, we shared a truly excellent guide from MaximumPC on how to build and configure your own Windows Home Server. You'll definitely want to check it out if you're going to be building your own. I built mine because I wanted a lot of hard drive bays, I already had a case and motherboard/CPU laying around, and because I enjoy building my own computers. You can purchase a copy of Windows Home Server for $92.

(Click the images below for a closer look.)

Taking Advantage of Windows Home Server

Once you've got Windows Home Server hooked up to your network, you'll want to make sure to take full advantage of the available features. Install the Home Server Connector Software on every machine you want to back up—you can back up a maximum of 10 machines. The installation kit should have a separate disc for the software, but if not you can simply browse to the /Software/Home Server Connector Software/ share on your Windows Home Server and grab a copy. Once installed, you can specify which folders you want backed up and with what frequency. In addition to backup, the Connector software also allows you to remotely monitor the server and access the console for remote management—although once configured you'll rarely if ever need to connect back into the server.

When you add a drive to Windows Home Server it becomes part of a seamless pool of storage. This is a huge deal to people with a lot of media. If you've ever had to configure XBMC or another media extender and plug in the five different shares you had stuffed with music and movies, you'll appreciate the simplicity of all your movies and music simply residing in //WHS/Movies/ and //WHS//Music, respectively. The simplicity of the pooled storage was worth the entire cost of admission as far as I'm concerned.

You can easily configure Windows Home Server to allow remote access and set up guest accounts with limited access for friends and family. It's a handy feature if you want to be able to access your files when you're away from home or share files like family pictures and video with your relatives. The configuration process is extremely clear cut, so you won't accidentally end up sharing your personal documents and pictures along with the family reunion videos.

Enhancing the Console with Add-Ons

Windows Home Server handles things pretty well right out of the box—do any reading about it and you'll find more than a few people joking about how WHS is the "one thing Microsoft finally got right." Still, what computer system can't benefit from a little tweaking? You can find dozens of add-ons for Windows Home Server. Windows Home Server Disk Management, for example—seen in the screenshot above—monitors your disk usage; Lights Out, on the other hand, is a power management tool that makes it simple to schedule shut down times.

Learning More

The Windows Home Server official site is a bit on the dry side. Since Windows Home Server was largely designed to be installed, configured, and forgotten about—literally set and forget—the official site focuses mainly on that and doesn't provide a whole lot of additional information about add-ons and advanced use. Thankfully you'll find a ton of WHS-focused sites populated by people who really love Windows Home Server. Check out some of the following resources to learn more about everything from useful add-ons to how to use Windows Home Server to recover your laptop's now defunct hard drive:

Whether you want an easy to manage storage pool or an automated-backup system to keep your work and family photos safe, Windows Home Server is a simple solution that you can set and forget without having to invest the spare time you don't have into some of the more advanced and archaic server solutions available.

Have a WHS? An add-on you love? Some great tips for deals on hardware or fantastic server cases? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Learn to Compile Software from Source Code [Terminal Tips]

2009-10-28T21:00:00Z

Normally, installing a new application is no more difficult than double-clicking an installer and hitting Next a few times. For those very rare occasions when an app's source code is all that's available, Wired details how to compile it yourself.

Photo by artonice.

As the post acknowledges, it's not a comprehensive guide, since some apps are built using very different tools, and they don't all work the same (particularly on Windows). That said, it's a good starting point, and worth a read even if you're just interested in how some apps go from hand-written code to compiled binary executables. (I said interesting, not necessarily exciting.)

Do you ever compile from source? When and why do you do it? Share your experience in the comments.

Compile Software from Source Code [Wired How-To Wiki]

AccidentSketch Helps You Create Detailed Accident Reports [Driving]

2009-10-28T13:30:00Z

Accidents happen to even the most cautious drivers. If you find yourself in one, AccidentSketch is a simple web-based tool that can help you draw up a picture and generate a report to give to your insurance company.

AccidentSketch uses a simple template system. Cars, road segments, signs, pedestrians, and more all snap to the grid and in the case of small objects like signs can be moved from there. You can change the colors of things, zoom in and out to get as close or wide as you need, and even assign information to parties involved like the license plate numbers of the cars in the accident.

Once you create a diagram you can also generate a text-based report to fill in details that can't be easily conveyed by the picture. When you're done you've got a tidy accident sketch and report to submit to the interested parties. The service is free and requires no registration.

Have a handy tool and tidbit for dealing with insurance companies and life after a fender-bender? Let's hear about it in the comments.

AccidentSketch [via MakeUseOf]

News: ASDA admits to selling games below cost price

2009-10-28T08:00:00Z

ASDA has admitted to selling key videogame titles at below cost price in order to deliver "good value for money" to its consumers.

In response to a GamesIndustry.biz story earlier this month, in which Chips MD Don McCabe accused supermarkets of "bully boy pricing" following their discounting of FIFA 10 by more than 50 per cent of its RRP, Duncan Cross, ASDA's games buying manager commented: "It might surprise Don and others, but we aren’t making any money on FIFA 10 because the price we have had to pay to the supplier is more than we are charging our customers.

"I am sure the other supermarkets are in a similar boat, so to criticise them as 'bully boys' doesn’t make sense to me – how can you be a bully if you are selling something for less than you buy it at?"

Sky Player on Xbox 360 off to a shaky start [UK]

2009-10-27T17:57:20Z

British firm BSkyB has joined forces with Microsoft to give Xbox 360 owners the chance to watch live television and on demand content on their consoles. The two firms launched the new Sky Player service on Xbox 360 today but in a u-turn the service has been switched off for new users until tomorrow due to an "unforeseen technical issue". According to many who were able to use the service today there has been a mixed reaction to the service. Some were able to use it perfectly whilst others struggled getting content streaming correctly.

Read full story...

Forza 3 Car Crash, It Lives! [Clips]

2009-10-27T02:00:00Z

The best part? There's a payoff.

Forza 3 was released in PAL territories on October 23 and in Japan on October 22. It will be out in North America on October 27. Tomorrow!

Xbox360『Forza3』で起きた凄い事故動画 [オレ的ゲーム速報＠刃]

The Master List of New Windows 7 Shortcuts [Windows 7]

2009-10-26T16:05:00Z

Windows 7 adds loads of great shortcuts for switching between apps, moving windows around your screen, moving them to another monitor altogether, and much more. Here's a quick-reference master list of the best new Windows 7 shortcuts.

We're nuts for keyboard shortcuts here at Lifehacker, and Windows 7 brings a handful of great new ones to add to your muscle memory. It's also got a few handy mouse-based shortcuts you'd do well to add to your repertoire. So let's get shortcuttin'.

Window Management Shortcuts

One of the best changes in Windows 7 is the ability to "snap" windows to the side of the screen, maximize them by dragging to the top of the screen, or even move them to another monitor with a shortcut key. Check out the video for a demonstration of how some of the keys work.

The full list of keyboard shortcuts includes:

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window.
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window.
Shift+Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window vertically.
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized.
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor.
Shift+Win+Left/Right arrows: Move the window to the monitor on the left or right.

You can also interact with windows by dragging them with the mouse:

Drag window to the top: Maximize
Drag window left/right: Dock the window to fill half of the screen.
Shake window back/forth: Minimize everything but the current window.
Double-Click Top Window Border (edge): Maximize window vertically.

Taskbar Shortcuts

In Windows 7, using the Windows key along with the numbers 1-9 will let you interact with the applications pinned to the taskbar in those positions – for example, the Windows key + 4 combination would launch Outlook in this example, or Win+Alt+4 can be used to get quick access to the Outlook Jump List from the keyboard.

You can use any of these shortcut combinations to launch the applications in their respective position on the taskbar, or more:

Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons

In addition, you can interact with the taskbar using your mouse and a modifier key:

Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.

More Useful Hotkeys You Should Know

The new hotkey goodness didn't stop with the taskbar and moving windows around—one of the best new hotkeys in Windows 7 is the fact that you can create a new folder with a hotkey. Just open up any Windows Explorer window, hit the Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut key sequence, and you'll be rewarded with a shiny "New Folder" ready for you to rename.

Here's a few more interesting hotkeys for you:

Ctrl+Shift+N: Creates a new folder in Windows Explorer.
Alt+Up: Goes up a folder level in Windows Explorer.
Alt+P: Toggles the preview pane in Windows Explorer.
Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds Copy as Path, which copies the path of a file to the clipboard.
Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds extra hidden items to the Send To menu.
Shift+Right-Click on a folder: Adds Command Prompt Here, which lets you easily open a command prompt in that folder.
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display.
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out.
Win+G: Cycle between the Windows Gadgets on your screen.

Windows 7 definitely makes it a lot easier to interact with your PC from your keyboard—so what are your favorite shortcuts, and how do they save you time? Share your experience in the comments.

The How-To Geek is quickly wearing out the keyboard on his new Windows 7 laptop. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

Imo.im Provides a Web-Based Portal to Messaging and Social Networks [Instant Messaging]

2009-10-26T13:30:00Z

When you're away from your home terminal and without your favorite portable cross-service IM application, imo.im can help you get all your messages back into one window again.

Imo.im is a web-based tool to help you log in to multiple messaging and social networks. It currently supports MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Skype, MySpace, and Facebook. You can log in to one or all of the supported services and access your contact lists. Messaging windows are all displayed within the imo.im site and denoted by service type and the user name of your contact.

In addition to the spartan but effective chat interface, imo.im also has a photo sharing tool and a whiteboard system. Using imo.im requires no special login, you access each account with the login you're already using. Have a web-based chat solution you love? Just tried out imo.im and want to share your opinion? Let's hear about it in the comments.

imo.im [via TechCrunch]