http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Eo4Wk2oitTA/the-treehaus-workspace

You won't find a law that says a workspace has to be in a gray fabric-covered box or a white-walled room. Today's workspace proves that with the beautiful, airy openness of childhood tree house.

One industrious Lifehacker reader decided his backyard, and his workflow, could use a tree-house-like escape. Built on a small addition and incorporating a beautiful tree, it's a sweet little getaway with everything—ample sunshine, a comfy and compact workstation tucked under the loft stairs, and a great look.

Our home is a small one for the Oakland / Piedmont hills. My wife, an artist and myself are avid readers - even with a transition to ebooks for myself years ago, our collection is outgrowing our home! She needed more work space, and we needed a playspace for our son. These rooms are perched up the hill behind our house, creating a serene meditative atmosphere, while allowing brief respite from home life to conquer an ever changing workload. They are reconfigurable to a significant degree, serving also as reading/theater rooms, emergency guest shelter, yoga / art studio or audio lab.

I've always loved the challenge of organizing and making use of small spaces. Extensive travel to Japan, as well as years of living in Manhattan served as influences for these minimalist, yet storage-rich structures. The cabinets and pantries are all from the IKEA kitchen series. The electrical run went a bit crazy, but I'm pleased with the result. The carbon footprint is reduced by a solar array on the roof of the main house. The "offices" are both hard wired to the home's main server array.

As we have just completed the project after 7 long months, I'm excited as to what the Treehaus' future holds...

Check out a the photos below to take a tour of the Treehaus:

If you enjoyed looking at the Treehaus workspace, you'll definitely want to check out another workspace we've featured with an outdoors and tree-house vibe, The Office on the Forest's Edge.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

It seems that we are FINALLY out of the condo!!!

I would do a triumphant dance, but Zombie Knee wants brains.

Stupid Zombie Knee. (growl)

Anyway, we are now officially moved in to the Mint Cookie!!! All my crap is in one sock!

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/qcwI1jXCIjI/celestia-brings-interstellar-exploration-to-your-desktop

If you enjoyed playing with Stellarium, the open-source planetarium software we shared with you earlier this year, but felt strangely tied to an earth-bound perspective, you'll definitely want to fly through space with Celestia.

Celestia picks up where Stellarium leaves off. With Celestia you can zoom through the known universe, flying through star clusters and swooping in to examine far off galaxies. On its own Celestia is a really fun tool to play with but on top of the expansive star map included in Celestia there is a bustling community of astronomy hobbyists creating hundreds of add-ons for the application.

You can get add-ons for everything, from detailed maps of galaxies to extremely detailed surface maps of planets which allow you to zoom down onto the surface and get a closer look. You can even find fictional star maps and objects. In other words, if you've ever wanted to fly through the space of the Star Wars universe, this is your chance. Check out the available add-ons at The Celestia Motherlode and read up on how to use add-ons with this handy guide.

Celestia is open-source and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You can find a portable version for Windows here. Have some experience with Celestia? Have a favorite add-on to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

As I can feel unconsciousness coming on, I leave you with this:

Photo: Tazlimur
Costume, Hair/make-up: Jessica Rowell
Model: Zoetica Ebb
Couch courtesy of Allan Amato

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/RA1d4TLzJLA/ask-the-commenters-roundup

• Is it worth getting Windows 7 Professional over Home Premium. I can get them as part of the student deal.
• I'm looking for a Windows application that deletes files after they are X number of days old. Suggestions?
• I have a couple Altoids tins laying around, what can I do with them?
• Anyone know of a good Firefox plugin that mimics the full screen mode of Glims for Safari—maximized windows + a hidden menu bar?
• Why is there a 15GB difference between the free space Windows and WinStatDir report as available?
• What's the best first step in learning a new language?
• I'm interested in learning about assessing a photo with a critical eye. Any suggested books or resources for honing my eye?
• I recently got an older tablet PC. Aside from note taking what else can I do with it?
• My home network is crawling lately. Help me trouble shoot the slow down?
• Is there an easy way to adjust the brightness and/or site color schemes in Firefox?

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/F4x23h5ULvM/make-a-moss-terrarium-for-low+maintenance-greenery

If you want some greenery in your home or office but you're not too keen on, or skilled at, tending a high-maintenance plant, a moss terrarium is a hassle-free bit of greenery you practically have to try to kill.

Unlike some of the previous plants we've suggested, moss isn't going to improve your air quality. It will, however, add a touch to your counter or desktop that only something living and green can provide. It also requires very, very little maintenance in the process.

Inspired by a tutorial we shared with you about making a moss terrarium in a wine bottle, I kept the basic idea in the back of my head and on my craft list. I wasn't 100 percent sold on using a wine bottle—it seemed like it would be really difficult to place the moss—but the end effect was very novel. Still, I wanted a little bit more control over how I placed the moss into the container. Moss is a pretty forgiving medium, and you have a wide range of latitude in how you go about creating your moss terrarium. You'll need the following basic components:

Moss: Obviously you're going to need some moss. You can buy moss online—and if you want moss that grows outside of your climate, you'll have to do so—but moss is readily available around you, and at extremely little risk of every being classified as an endangered organism. If you decide to gather moss from your environment, which is the route I took, please do so responsibly.

I hiked deep into some public woodland, well off any hiking trails, and into a thicket of briers before collecting my moss samples. I only took small portions of large carpets of moss in order to allow it to regenerate. Don't go down to your local park and start ripping the moss up from the scenic walkway and other public areas where people are actually enjoying its presence.

Bring a small and flat tool like a butter knife or putty knife to help with removing the moss. Moss is attached to forest surfaces by thousands of tiny little tendrils. You can very gently slide a flat tool under a carpet of moss and slowly work a piece free by cutting through the tendrils. Done slowly and carefully, it is easy to lift up and entire piece of moss as though you'd just gently pried the top crust off a pie. It's ideal to remove the moss, if possible, by taking some of the substance that it is attach to along with it instead of damaging the tendrils. If you look for moss on fallen trees that are fairly decomposed, it is easy to put your tool under the soft bark and take the top layer with you.

Bring some gallon-sized zipper-locked bags for collecting the moss. Your moss samples will keep for quite a long time in a plastic bag, so you don't have to rush to replant them when you get home.

Glass Container: I took a trip to the local World Market and poked around for some interesting containers. You can easily use any glass container you want as long as you can place your hand inside—or for the more industrious, that you can fit some chop sticks inside to move things around with. I found two containers I liked, one open-air and the other with a closed lid. I wanted to see which would yield better results and would require less work to maintain. The photo featured above, the rock resting on the moss, is the closed container, and is shaped like a common floral vase with a simple lid on top. The second container I experimented with is more like a glass serving bowl:

A week or so into the experiment, both the open and closed containers seem to be still lush and green. The one in the closed container has stayed a little bit better moisturized, but there is occasionally condensation on the inside of the container that is quickly remedied by opening it for a few minutes.

Substrate: Moss doesn't need dirt—you can grow it on a brick if you want. I used a layer of peat-moss potting soil in both of my containers because it created a nice sense of depth and solidity to the bed of moss. You could easily use gravel or any other substrate that the moss could attach itself to. If you are going to use soil, peat-moss potting soil is a great choice because it's highly acidic and when moss isn't growing on the bark of a tree or rocks it thrives on acidic soil.

Placement: Because I opted to—and I recommend you do too—use a container I could reach my hand into it was fairly easy to place the moss. In the case of the round container I took a piece of moss and trimmed it with a pair of scissors into a suitable circle and with the square container I took two large pieces and squared them up on three sides and then overlapped the middle. In both containers I added a small stone from my garden for some visual interest. Whatever left over pieces you have can be used for another terrarium or you can go place them back out in a suitable outdoor location to continue growing—my leftovers ended up in a corner of my garden that is moist and shady.

Maintenance: Once you have your substrate and moss in the container the only thing left to do is keep the moss moist. That's it. As long as the moss isn't in harsh sunlight or left to dry out you'll have great difficult killing it off.

Have experience with terrariums, moss-filled or otherwise? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Marz was dropped off at KCI for her NY trip around 2:10pm. Kiyan was screaming about 80% of the time on the way home, don't know if he didn't like mommy going away, or if he was upset about not getting out of the car. We made it back and have been chilling for a bit before going to open gym night, where the kids get to rampage around on gymnastic equipment for $5/head. It should burn off some of their excess energy.

Yesterday we tested out the Lactaid on Kiyan, running the gauntlet at Cici's Pizza. One with the first bite of pizza, one about halfway through the meal. He did fine. So he is no longer banned from the cheese eating meals. I'm tempted to buy some pizza tonight if I don't feel like leftovers, we'll see after we get back from kid rampage time.

The weather is wet and cold, and driving to the airport and back wasn't overly difficult but was definitely annoying with the mist all the other cars kicked up. I know it's fall/winter, but I have been spoiled by the nice weather we've been having the last couple months. Long as no ice develops, I told Marz that if there's ice on Friday when I'm to pick her up, she'll have to get a hotel room and I'll see her in the spring.

Alestorm - Nancy The Tavern Wench

Sardonios drove the silver Nissan Sentra into the Goblin Market at about five miles per hour. Everyone sat silent and still, allowing their eyes to do all the talking. Once they passed the bus on the left and right, their eyes widened to the sights now visible. Off to their right sat many tents and tepees and other structures that could be built up and taken down quickly. Cars were parked behind the structures, many of the trunks were open to expose cardboard and plastic boxes full of items to be sold. People jammed the makeshift streets, which seemed to cram into one another in a labyrinth-like pattern.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Originally published at Shades of Maybe. You can comment here or there.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Wk-ebQCYDcs/replace-your-mac-minis-ir-receiver-for-non+apple-remotes

If you're using a Mac Mini as a media center and want to use a non-Apple remote control with it, this tutorial can help you keep your Mini's sleek form factor and avoid ugly IR receiver dongles.

This hack involves a tiny bit of soldering and a very small modification to the metal shielding on the inside of your Mini. Other than that, it's extremely simple to perform this tweak, and well within the realm of an electronics beginner.

When you're done with the mod, you'll be able to use remotes besides the Apple remote—the modder who created the tutorial preferred using a Microsoft Media Center remote. Have a media center hack to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Day In Review:

• 23:21 note to self: 40 rounds of .30-30 kinda hurts in rapid succession with no padding. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Tonight, 8 PM-ish, at Fat Daddy's Pub in Paddington Square. It's supposed to rain, so be careful out there.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/My1YGcmBXzQ/vitamin-d-turns-your-web-cam-into-a-security-camera

If you've been thinking about setting up a web surveillance camera but were put off by the expense or hassle, Vitamin D makes it easy to turn your web or networked camera into an easy-to-use monitoring tool.

One of the downsides to many camera monitoring applications available in the same price range as Vitamin D—free!—is that their detection algorithms are too primitive and overly sensitive. You don't need a notification image sent to your cellphone every time the wind blows or a squirrel runs across your front lawn.

Vitamin D allows you to specify the size of objects that will trigger events and set up detection windows to only monitor activity in specified areas of the video frame. Using a simple wizard-style selection process, you can give a set of instructions to Vitamin D, like wanting a door to be monitored for people leaving, or a parking lot to be monitored for vehicles arriving. Check out the demonstration video below for a closer look:

It's been a while since I've done this, and I'm getting ready for a LARP in a few minutes, so let's get to this.

• 30 Rock: I admit, when I first caught a couple of episodes of this show, I didn't find it all that funny. But we kept hearing lots of good things about the show, so on a lark we started watching season 2 through Netflix Streaming. We got so hooked that we went back and watching the first season, and now we're catching up on the latest season on Hulu. It's a surprisingly entertaining show with a dose of weirdness that keeps it entertaining.
• Uncharted 2: I wasn't a big fan of Uncharted, so I wasn't all that excited about Uncharted 2. But David picked it up and started playing it, and one night after getting frustrated with Brutal Legend, I decided to give it a try. The best summary I can give is that this game reminded me of the excitement I had when I first watched the Indiana Jones movies. It's more Indiana Jones than any Indiana Jones game I've played.
• Star Guard: On the completely opposite end of graphics quality and price, Star Guard is a free Flash run and gun platformer that just shouldn't be as much fun as it is. The way the story unfolds adds an interesting layer to "green guy kills all the red guys." There's also a checkpoint system and infinite lives, but the corpses of your previous incarnations litter the battlefield as you work through the game.

More as I get a chance.

I love Moon Wiring Club. And not just because I got their new record this weekend, which I am going to play tonight because I’ve been sick and/or unconscious with some weird bug since Friday morning. Oh no. (What if it cured me?) No, I love them because they do things like this, too:

In 1982, Gelographic RadioTelevision co-broadcast a test transmission for the tentative BBC5 channel.

Although the station idents were deemed a massive success, sadly the only known survivors of this viewing were unable to be traced, due to radiation issues. This archive footage has been recently unearthed, and provides a tempting glimpse into what those who watched through the smoked glass were able to see.

The musical accompaniment, acclaimed in some quarters, features on the new Moon Wiring Club album ’Striped Paint for the Last Post’, due ’sometime’ November. Certainly before the feast of Syllabub in any case.

Remember: confusing electronic music is a great British tradition.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

I haven't watched "The Waters of Mars" yet, but some kind soul put up the trailer for "The End of Time" (which, as far as I can tell, doesn't spoil anything to "The Waters of Mars"):