Software and Technology in World Market

Windows only: Service Pack 3 for Windows XP removed the ability of that operating system's users to keep a quick-launching address box on their taskbar session after session. MuvEnum Address Bar aims to address that shortfall, but also adds a few neat conveniences to the package. There's a customizable global hot key (Ctrl + Shift + A by default), bookmarks and history pulled from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and/or Google Chrome, auto-complete convenience, and a key to clear out MuvEnum's history without wiping out your browser's. While Vista has its own address bar option on its taskbar, MuvEnum installs on Vista and adds the same conveniences. MuvEnum is a free download for Windows systems only. Check out its single, helpful options screen below.

Etherpad, a collaborative-minded text editor forged by a group of ex-Google employees, focuses on making documents live and easy to collaborate on. That means that, at this point, the interface is pretty much straight text on numbered lines, but two or more people can work on a document in real time using a single URL to share, with different colors highlighting their work, a chat function for explanation, and revision-minded saving. For JavaScript coders and teams, there's also a syntax highlighting function, and, well, that's about it. If you, like many Lifehacker readers, dig the advanced but back-to-basics style of Notepad++, Etherpad might be right up your alley. No sign-up required.

If you're manager tracks your time based on when you log in and out of your machine at work, then are you missing out on pay for the time you're waiting for your machine to boot up and shut down? That's what a series of lawsuits by employees from the likes of AT&T, UnitedHealth and Cigna demand.

Add those minutes up over a week, and hourly employees are losing some serious pay, argues plaintiffs' lawyer Mark Thierman, a Las Vegas solo practitioner who has filed a handful of computer-booting lawsuits in recent years.

In other words, does the clock start when you show up at the office or when the computer first logs you into the company network? A lawyer representing the defense on one of the cases argues that the time is generally spent doing personal activities like taking a coffee break or going out for a smoke. Are you getting stiffed time at your desk waiting for your operating system to startup? Photo by Andy Melton

It's hump day and I was looking for a quick, fun project to try out. So I figured I try something easy I found over at the Make Magazine blog earlier this week—a set of speakers made from paper cups and a pair of earbud headphones originally created by artist Dmitry Zagga (in no small amount of jest). The PaperCup speakers are based on the principle of a megaphone: Energy from sound waves from the earbuds would normally disperse in all directions. Instead, the cups focus the sound waves in a particular direction, making it louder for those in front. While pretty self-explanatory, I figured I'd whip up a how to, especially since the folks at my local coffee shop were happy to provide the materials for free.

You'll need:

• A pair of earbud headphones.
• Four paper drink cups
• Two toothpicks or skewers
• Tape
• A small knife or scissors

First poke a hole in the side of the cups that will be the "speakers" resting on the base cups. I eyeballed it about a third of the way up from the base of the cup, along the seam.

Cut a cross with one long and one short axis in the back of the speakers. Insert the earbuds all the way through the holes until only the wire is outside the cup.

Now, reach in with your finger and push the flaps of paper out a bit to create an indent where the back of your earbud can rest. Pull the earbuds back through the hole until they're nestled against the back of the cup.

I chose to tape the bases of the earbuds to the back of the cup to make sure the speaker portion is facing out towards the mouth of the cup and not dangling down or pointing to the side of the cup.

Poke the toothspick or skewer through the bottom of the base cups, and slide the speaker cups on where you made your initial cut. Tada! You've got yourself a pair of speakers.

Now these aren't very loud (for comparison, the speakers on my MacBook were much louder). And the bass response is abysmal. So I tweaked the equalizer setting in iTunes a bit. The stereo picturing is pretty good if placed equidistant from your ears and pointed toward you. If you want to listen to music quietly but don't want to put headphones on, or are concerned about ear fatigue or hearing damage, it's just the thing. I could see coming up with these in a pinch, MacGyver-style, on a camping trip. How would you improve them to make them louder? Share your ideas and pictures in the comments.

I've been streaming Netflix Watch Instantly videos to my Xbox 360 for months now using Windows Media Center and a free program called vmcNetflix, but now that the New Xbox Experience released this morning also supports Netflix streaming, users have two different options for streaming movies to their Xbox. The question is, which option is better? The obvious answer is that the official offering is the hands-down winner, but having used the alternative for the past few months, Netflix on the New Xbox Experience left me cold. Here's why.

What's Great About Netflix Streaming on the Xbox 360

Netflix streaming on the Xbox 360 has a few major pros over vmcNetflix.

• For one, the video quality is better. In fact, you can even stream the video in HD—which I don't believe is an option (yet) in vmcNetflix.
• Also, as opposed to vmcNetflix, you don't need a Vista PC to use it.
• And last but certainly not least, it's less buggy and subject to breaking, since Microsoft and Netflix are actually working together on it.

• Aside from that, the official Netflix offering has an attractive interface, which is always a draw.

  How Could vmcNetflix Possibly Be Better?

  Okay, so at this point choosing the official Netflix channel seems like a no-brainer. To a large extent it is, but vmcNetflix is actually way better than the official Netflix-on-Xbox streaming in a few very important ways.

  • vmcNetflix can browse the entire Netflix Watch Instantly library, and when you find something you want, you can play it. The app organizes movies by genre, popularity, and new releases, so it's not only a destination when you want to watch a movie you've added to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue—it's also a destination when you're just looking for a movie to watch. The New Xbox Experience currently only lets you stream movies you've already added to your Watch Instantly queue.
  • vmcNetflix can do way more, including search the Netflix library and add to or remove movies from your Instant Queue or your DVD queue.
  • vmcNetflix allows you to save movies to your hard drive. It's not necessarily copacetic with the Netflix ToS, but it can come in handy if you have a slower connection.

  The extreme limitation placed on the New Xbox Experience version of Netflix streaming really cripples what should be an excellent addition to the Xbox. Maybe in time an update will fix all of my complaints, but for now the new offering is sort of a lame duck compared to an enthusiast-built alternative already available. (Learn more about using vmcNetflix to stream videos to your Xbox 360 here.)

  Then again, maybe I'm being too hard on it. If you've used both, let's hear what you think in the comments.

If you feel shoppping for clothes is a chore and an expensive waste of time, think about using a personal shopper. Get rid of the mistaken idea you may have that personal shoppers are people employed by rich celebrities to dress them (those are called "stylists"). Most large department stores offer a shopping service. Simply call and ask for a personal shopper, provide measurements and a list of items you're looking for and make an appointment. They'll help you select items based on your budget and needs, and will offer an objective perspective on questions of fit and fashion.

The personal shoppers and clerks know the latest trends much better than I do, and they always seem to find things that flatter my body better than I find when I’m left to search a store on my own.

It will save you the time of having to wander around the sales floor looking for what you want. And right now, it's a buyers market at retailers, so don't be shy about bringing your list to other clothing retailers and asking for help. Anybody have experiences with a personal shopper? Share them in the comments. Photo by Phil Whitehouse

Windows only: If you are looking for ways to merge a bunch of MP3 files into one larger file, and don't like the command line solution I wrote about earlier this week, try Merge MP3. The application is tiny, the interface familiar, and it will allow you to drag-and-drop MP3 files onto a playlist, change the order, preview the audio, and then mix them all down to a single MP3 files along with APIC images and ID3 meta-data. Perfect for creating a mix or joining files from an audiobook you've ripped from multiple CDs. Merge MP3 is a free download for Windows.

In its third reincarnation since its debute in 1996 and redesign in 1998, web site Kvetch now harnesses the time-wasting powers of Twitter to call a farshtinken tokhis leker a schmuck behind their back. Users have to follow the service's account on Twitter in order to send it direct messages, which are then reposted at kvetch.com without any personal information. Granted, it's still "mostly" anonymous, but you will be listed on Twitter alongside other Kvetch users. Warning: Reading the disembodied complaints of others is strangely compelling, so indulge at your own risk. However, if you're verklempt with resentment and can't focus on that fehkahkta project your boss assigned, it could provide the emotional release you need. [via]

Google's beloved web-based email client has always been ripe for third-party design customization (we've always been partial to the Gmail Redesigned skin in Better Gmail, for example), but now Gmail is officially riding the interface customization train by offering 30-some new themes to spice up your inbox. Keep reading for a screenshot tour of the cool new offerings.

Ninja

Graffiti

Planets

Candy

Shiny

Mountains

Terminal

You can check out some of the other new options in the preview grid below.

Unfortunately I still don't see the Themes tab in my Gmail settings, but Google is an expert of the slow rollout, so we can all expect them sometime in the next few days. I'm partial to the ascii/Terminal theme, though it's probably a touch on the impractical side. Other than that, a lot of the offerings actually look really nice—especially compared with some of the lame duck skins Google offers in iGoogle. Let's hear which themes you like best—and whether or not they're actually enabled in your accounts yet—in the comments. Thanks Mark!

If you're a power searcher, or other people think you are, and you're getting tired of constant requests for answers to questions that a quick Google search would provide, try Let me google that for you. Enter a search term, click the Google Search button, and a link appears that you can copy, paste and send to your friend. When they click the link, an animation displays the complicated process of searching Google for information, and then directs the user to the actual search results page from Google. Snarky? Yes. However, the time the user is forced to study the search term you used, they might pick up a trick or two in keyword syntax, search operators, literal strings and the like. After all, give a man an answer, and he'll come back tomorrow asking for more. Teach a man to search Google, and you'll have to offer tech support when he ends up downloading malware while cruising shadier purveyors of adult entertainment and file sharing software.