DIY Life

There truly is something for everyone in this world. I would never have thought to combine kitchen storage with geeky computer stuff, but this idea is well worth crossing the two. After thinking it over, it makes perfect sense to store your server in your extra bread bin.

The tutorial for this project is quite clever -- and clear enough for even the most challenged of DIYers. A bread bin is just about the perfect size for a server, and the material is easily cut to fit cords and the like. Once the server is safely tucked in its new home it can live there relatively dust free and out of harm's way.

There are more reasons than ever to learn how to burn a CD: to create your own CD wedding favors or to make a story CD for your child, for example.

Are you technically savvy enough to do it? I, for one, am happy to have a husband who is, but in the interest of being a strong, independent woman and a good example to my child, I set out to learn how to do burn a CD myself.

The first thing I learned is that there is this thing called a "Wizard" that pretty much does everything for you; simply drag and drop the files you want to write to the CD and surf the internet during your wait time.

OK, it isn't quite that simple (but it's close), but Worldstart has a tips and tricks page with:

• CD-R versus CD-RW tips
• step-by-step instructions
• a separate tutorial for Microsoft Windows XP, which has its own CD burning software

and more -- everything you will need to know to burn your own CD, in fact. Independence is just a click away!

My husband is a self-proclaimed computer geek. We don't just have a home computer; we have a downstairs server through which all of our incoming and outgoing email is processed. We have an upstairs computer which is the hub we can connect to remotely.

Add two laptops, a wireless router, a docking station, and infinitely many things that I cannot begin to tell you what they are used for, and you have our state-of-the-art wired household.

Did I say wired? You betcha. With technology comes wires, cables, and a mis-mash of mess -- everywhere! -- and that's where Creatrope's Card Cable Organizer comes in.

Sometimes it seems that we never grow up. Or, to put it more correctly, some toys -- er, motor skills and cognitive ability development tools -- are destined to be played with -- er, used -- by all ages! Case in point: LEGOs!

Don't you just hate it when you're building your current masterpiece and lacking one crucial piece? You've got to buy a whole new set, just for one stinkin' pièce de résistance. But no more! The new LEGO digital designer lets you create a virtual sculpture and submit it on-line. Then you can order exactly the pieces that you need, based on your submission.

The program can be downloaded for both Windows and Mac. Besides the usual requirements, it only needs a decent graphics card (for obvious reasons).

Finally, a way to build whatever you want without accumulating all those extraneous pieces... like that goofy little hat that no self-respecting firetruck-driving LEGO troll would be caught dead in!

[via Lifehacker.]

You're standing there staring at the ruins of your hard drive. What used to be a fully-functional piece of technological goodness is now, thanks to that bowl of applesauce your toddler just dumped in there, a very expensive paperweight.

You can take it in to some data-retrieval experts, of course, but if you find that the thing is truly irretrievable, all is not lost! Apartment Therapy's tech site, Unpluggd, has a simple way to put your old friend to new use.

Remove the hard drive, scoop out its guts, pop off the casing. Attach a couple of hinges on one side, and you now have a storage compartment... the secret book for the 21st Century!

The other day, Make:blog mentioned the new 5.0 release of Eagle. Cadsoft Eagle is the most popular circuit design and layout software among DIY'ers, and the program I use in all my projects. Today I designed a project with Eagle 5 and journaled my favorite updates. I also tested compatibility with the current and beta versions of Eagle3D, a 3D circuit board rendering program.

Cadsoft Eagle 5

Eagle 5 installs to dedicated version 5 directory -- the new version won't overwrite a previous install. You still have full access to your original stuff if anything goes wrong.

When I start Eagle 5 it attempts network access; this might be an auto updater or license checker. It didn't complain when I permanently blocked access.



All my old schematics and circuit board files from Eagle 4.16r2 load in the new version. The board layout editor got a minor makeover with "web 2.0" pastel color shades.

Say goodbye to the awkward ALT+Backspace undo, because Cadsoft joined the rest of the world and standardized on CTRL+Z!!! Need I say more? Oh happy day!



Eagle now has right-click context menus in the schematic editor and the board layout editor. While context menus are ubiquitous (does your browser have it?), previous versions of Eagle pretend the right mouse button doesn't exist.

Another great feature is the properties editor. Component or connection properties can be configured in one place. These features were previously scattered over dozens of menus and icons.

Eagle3D 1.05 compatibility

Like a Firefox upgrade, it's important that all your favorite Eagle add-ons are compatible with the new version. For me, that's the ultra-cool 3D rendering script, Eagle3D. The 3D renderings that accompany my projects are made with Eagle3D 1.05, but I'll also test a new 1.1 beta version with Eagle 5.

First, I installed Eagle3D 1.05 in the same folder as Eagle 5 (C:\Program Files\EAGLE-5.0.0\Eagle3D). I also installed POVray (try MacMegaPOV for Mac) to render the files created by Eagle3D. If you're not familiar with how to use Eagle3D, or run .ulp files with Eagle, see the Eagle3D documentation and this illustrated tutorial.

I loaded a circuit board file and rendered it using the Eagle3D .ulp file intended for Eagle version 4.1. It worked normally, and generated a POVray compatible file.

New users often run into this error when rendering the their first Eagle3D .pov file with POVray:
Parse Error: Cannot open include file tools.inc.
File: C:\ ... DIYLife.com - MSP430 voice recorder - vc.pov Line: 117
Parse Warning: Check that the file is in a directory specified with a +L switch or 'Library_Path=' .INI item.

This means that POVray can't find the Eagle3D component libraries. You need to add Eagle3D to the POVray search path:

1. Open POVray and make sure you have a .pov file open.
2. Go to tools->edit master povray.ini. Povray.ini opens in a text editor.
3. Add the path to your Eagle3D files at the very bottom of povray.ini. This is the folder where Eagle3D was installed earlier. I added this line to the end of my poyray.ini, but use your own install location: Library_Path="C:\Program Files\EAGLE-5.0.0\Eagle3D\povray"

My board rendered perfectly after this minor configuration change.