Music library disaster? How to rip songs from your iPod

Admit it: you or someone you know has had at least one disaster in which you have lost your entire music library, didn’t have backups, and needed to rip it back off of your iPod. Here, we look at our favorite solution for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux users that let you do just that.

By Jacqui Cheng

Despite the fact that Apple constantly “encourages” users to back up their music, people still often find themselves in the awkward predicament of needing to download their entire libraries back off of their iPods. Maybe they suffered a catastrophic hard drive crash, or perhaps their laptop was stolen and they no longer have access to their home libraries. Either way, people want to get their media off of their iPods and—through Apple-provided methods, anyway—they can’t.

(Apple now allows you to transfer your purchased music from iTunes off of an iPod onto a new machine, but this only works for music you have bought from Apple. Any MP3s that you have ripped yourself or bought from other online retailers are not transferred.)

That’s why third parties have swooped in to rescue aggravated iPod users on every platform. On the Mac, Windows, and even Linux, there are tools that allow users to grab their media—and some even work with newer devices, like the iPhone and iPod touch. Since the holiday season is nearly upon us and family members are starting to ask us questions about how to get music off of their devices, we thought we would do a rundown of software to use for this purpose.

Mac OS X

There are several tools that work on the Mac (not surprising since the iPod and iPhone are so popular among Mac users), but the longtime champion has always been PodWorks by Sci-Fi Hi-Fi. The most current version, PodWorks 2.9.6, not only works with traditional iPods, it also now supports the file system that comes as part of iPhone OS 3.0 (so recent iPhones and iPod touches as well). And, not only can it copy your music back to your hard drive, it can also grab videos, and even keep your playlists intact.

The last time we used PodWorks, we came away impressed with its capabilities and swore to recommend it to anyone who would listen. That remains true, and although the price has gone up since then (it’s now a whopping $8 for a license instead of $6), we still believe in PodWorks for all of our media-related emergencies. There’s even a free trial available, but once you use it, you’ll be glad to drop the $8 and keep it around for emergency purposes.

Windows

A good option for Windows users is iRip (previously known as iPodRip) a software package that works under Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (as well as Mac OS X). Like PodWorks, iRip can rip both music and video and can save it either into iTunes or another spot of your choosing. (It does, however, require iTunes to be installed for it to work, which could be viewed as a potential downside for those of you who are iTunes-averse.)

iRip supports older iPods as well as iPhones and iPod touches, and allows you to automatically rip everything from the device or manually choose from the available media. The software is a bit more expensive than PodWorks on the Mac at $19.95 for a full license, though the free trial allows you to transfer up to 100 tracks.

Linux

Though gtkpod doesn’t officially support the iPhone or iPod touch, it’s one of the simplest solutions available for Linux users. The most recent version, V0.99.14, supports classic iPods (including the iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod mini, and iPod video models) and makes use of the shared libgpod library in order to access the iPod’s music database. (iPhone and iPod touch are experimentally supported, but only if they are jailbroken first.)

Not only does gtkpod allow you to get media off of your iPod, you can also put media onto it (since Linux distros don’t have any official version of iTunes, you have to use something). Transfer MP3, WAV, M4A, M4B, podcasts, and videos to and from your iPod and, true to the open source philosophy, gtkpod is free.

If you have had a disaster and employed other recovery tactics, let us know in the comments!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2009/11/music-library-disaster-rip-songs-from-your-ipod.ars

Homemade Green Cleaning Products That Work

From Associated Content, by Ester November

If you want to clean green but don’t trust plain baking soda to do all the heavy lifting, here are some simple recipes for homemade green cleaning products that work.

Many folks have jumped on the homemade green cleaning product wagon, only to discover that nothing cleans a bathtub like an old-fashioned can of Comet. If you want to clean green, but don’t trust plain baking soda to do all the heavy lifting, here are some simple recipes for homemade green cleaning products that work.

Disinfectant All-Purpose Spray

There are tons of recipes floating around for all-purpose sprays that claim to clean everything from your shower tile to your coffeemaker. What you should know is that unless the recipe for an all-purpose spray contains either lavender or tea tree oil, it’s not antibacterial. This may not bother you in the slightest, but if you’re especially prone to colds, you might want to put the extra oomph in your homemade cleaning products.

Lavender and tea tree oil probably won’t kill every germ that comes into your house, but they are known for their antibacterial properties. To whip up the closest thing you can get to a homemade disinfectant, squeeze a couple drops of liquid castile soap into two cups of hot water. Stir, don’t shake. Then add 30 drops of either lavender or tea tree oil, or a combination of both. Pour it into a spray bottle and use on everything but glass.

Air Freshener

Commercial air fresheners don’t really clean the air; they just cover the existing odor with a stronger smell. Use lemons combined with other household ingredients to draw odors from the air instead.

To make a general air freshener, squeeze the juice from a fresh lemon into a dish with baking soda. Leave the dish uncovered. If you want to get fancy (or miss the decorative look of a plug-in), stick a dried flower sprig in it, or mix some pretty pebbles into the powder.

You can squeeze lemon juice into vinegar for a similar deodorizing effect. Use vinegar with a squeeze of lemon to clean kitchen utensils and pans after cooking fish or garlic.

Lemons are also great for killing mold. When you’re done squeezing the juice into homemade cleaning products, grind up lemon leftovers in the garbage disposal to clean it out and get rid of lingering food smells in your kitchen.

Degreaser

Degreasing is one of the toughest sells for homemade green cleaning products. If your grease is too tough for an all-purpose spray, get your kitchen shining again with white vinegar. Mix a pinch of washing soda, a couple drops of castile soap, and two tablespoons of vinegar into two cups of boiling water for a general degreaser. Or use plain white vinegar diluted with water in proportion to the toughness of the spot.

The inside of your oven can get pretty gross if you’re not paying attention. For a good deep clean, mix baking soda and water to form a thick paste. Coat the inside of your oven with the goop before you go to bed and scrape it off in the morning. Then clean as you normally would with some water and castile soap, or with your all-purpose spray.

For a greasy kitchen spill, dump salt directly on top of the oil or grease. Let it sit for a few minutes to absorb. Then wipe up the mess and clean as normal.

Plant Cleaner

If you’re like most people who are concerned with air quality in the home, you’ve probably got some foliage that needs occasional dusting. Put a little bit of mayonnaise on a rag and use it to polish your plants’ leaves. For some mysterious reason, mayonnaise makes houseplants look wonderful and leaves no smell behind.

Sources:

“Non-Toxic Home Cleaning”: Eartheasy

“25 Safe, Non-Toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies”: Tree Hugging Family

“Antibacterial activity of essential oils and their major constituents against respiratory tract pathogens by gaseous contact”: The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

“Homemade Green Cleaning Products”: Go Green & Save the World

“Alternative Cleaning Recipes”: Ecology Center

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/homemade-green-cleaning-p_n_343878.html

Lego pop up building

Andrew—from The Brothers Brick—says that this Lego Kinkaku-ji Buddhist temple leaves him speechless. I have to admit that I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the whole building popping up from a closed box. Magic.

Built with 4,500 bricks and weighing almost nine pounds, the Lego Kinkaku-ji Buddhist pop-up temple is truly a marvel of Lego engineering. That’s why these bricks will never cease to fill me with absolute wonderment. [Talapz via Brothers Brick]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

http://gizmodo.com/5386002/lego-pop+up-building-makes-my-head-pop-up-too

DIY fiber optic star ceiling rocks

Over at Instructables a guy has offered up instructions on how to turn your ceiling into your own star field, and it looks cool.

The installation seems to be time consuming, but really doesn’t appear to be overly difficult. It involves getting your own fiber optic strands, and a Dremel tool. You drill many holes in your ceiling, cram the fiber optics through, and glue the stuff in place.

The install requires you to buy some parts like the illuminator and the fiber optic strands. I will say that the finished product complete with galaxies and other stars looks cool. The stars even twinkle, this might be the coolest ceiling for a kids room ever.

http://www.slashgear.com/diy-fiber-optic-star-ceiling-rocks-1260009/

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-create-a-fiber-optic-starfield-ceiling/

Lego devotees flock to Seattle

SEATTLE–In one corner of the exhibition hall, hands sift through bins searching for rare pieces missing from vast collections. In another area, a giant Lego person rides in circles atop a brick rendition of the Segway scooter. In between are myriad Lego creations large and small.

It was all part of BrickCon 2009–a four-day festival devoted to Lego, the Danish creation that celebrated its 50th birthday last year.

On display were pieces of Lego art, replicas of real cities and even visions of an apocalyptic future crafted from the signature blocks. For those seeking to build on expansive collections, vendors offered rare and discontinued Lego sets as well as bulk bins where enthusiasts could hunt for plastic treasure.

Also for sale were all manner of trinkets, including T-shirts with sayings like “Got bricks?” along with jewelry and working lamps crafted from Legos.

Among those displaying their projects was Micah Berkoff, a 15-year-old who has already amassed more than 200,000 pieces in his collection. “After it overtook my regular room, I had to move it to a special Lego room,” Berkoff said.

Berkoff brought a steampunk vehicle he created back in January to show at the convention, but was a little worried that he would be overlooked because he wasn’t an adult like most of those who attended the main part of the conference. “I thought I would have been ignored,” Berkoff said. “I thought this would be a conference for AFOLs.”

For those not up to speed on Lego lingo, that means an Adult Fan of Lego. Indeed, while the public convention hall was open to all ages for several hours on Saturday and Sunday, the four-day private convention was geared primarily to adults (though teens could participate if a parent did as well).

And there were plenty of AFOLs. One of them was Thomas Mueller, a 33-year-old German native who created a moving Segway scooter out of Legos topped with a giant re-creation of the Lego person. Mueller had a remote-control version of his Segway at last year’s BrickCon, but that required his constant attention. This year, he decided instead to have the Segway follow a lined track so that he would have more time to socialize with other convention-goers. With a fresh set of batteries, Mueller said the scooter can now run for four hours unattended.

Mueller actually didn’t set out to build a Segway at all. He was building a weapons platform, but when he showed the partially built creation to friends, they all thought it resembled the pricey scooter. Rather than fight it, he decided to tweak his creation to work like the scooter.

When the doors finally opened to the public on Saturday, the line stretched for more than three blocks.

Among those who toured the event during the public time on Saturday was M3 Sweatt, who works in Microsoft’s Windows unit, along with his two boys, CJ and Max. Sweatt said it took 45 minutes to get inside the event, but added that it was worth the wait.

Among the things that attendees could try out was a new version of software from Lego that lets people design their own Lego creation online. If people like their creation enough, they can order the real pieces required to build it direct from Lego. The latest version of the Lego Digital Designer software, due out soon, also lets users create a custom-designed box for their project.

BrickCon began in 2002 in just a small room at Seattle Center but has grown almost every year and now fills the giant 35,000-square-foot exhibition hall.

While BrickCon was probably the most interesting event in Seattle Center for the geek set (aside from the year-round science fiction museum), for me it was a trifecta on Saturday as I also got to enjoy the Northwest Tea Festival, as well as the opening day of the Sesame Street Presents The Body exhibit at The Children’s Museum, Seattle. That last exhibit, which I particularly enjoyed, is in Seattle through January and then travels to Buffalo, N.Y., as part of its ongoing tour.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10368541-56.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Make Your Own USB Powered Gadget

Maximum PC has published 9 awesome DIY projects, one of them being the steps to turn different gadgets into USB powered ones. They teach you how to make a USB powered fan or book light.

http://gizmodo.com/5367637/make-your-own-usb-powered-gadget

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/get_your_hack_on?page=0%2C0

DIY mini-fridge is just big enough for a can of soda, just odd enough to scare the FBI

Full-sized refrigerators are awfully easy to come by. Your average yard sale has one keg-sized example sitting in the corner (probably with the door removed), but what if you need something smaller? That’s when you turn to instructables and learn how to put together this peltier-powered mini fridge. It has a trio of coolers (under)powered by a 55 watt, 5 volt power supply sprouting enough exposed transistors, wires, and fans to make it all look like something the Department of Homeland Security warned you about. It’ll drop a can of soda down to a perfectly frosty 46F, but sadly nobody bothered to mention exactly how long that process takes — hopefully a little less time than was required to stick the thing together with expanding foam.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/27/diy-mini-fridge-is-just-big-enough-for-a-can-of-soda-just-odd-e/

Crestron’s Prodigy Home Control System gets prices, specs

Home automation fanatics: It seems that the CEDIA folks have got the inside scoop on Crestron’s new Prodigy Home Control System — and have been kind enough to share their hard won knowledge with us. A lower-cost system aimed at the mass market, this guy features a ZigBee-compatible controller with remote, a SideShow-combatible in-wall touch panel for all of your fave widgets, and the usual control switches, dimmers, and thermostats. The system starts at around $825 for the PMC2 controller (up to 100 wireless devices), PLX2 remote, and P-MNETGW wireless gateway. Or you can just bite the bullet and go for the sample system which includes the above, four zones of audio, one thermostat, 15 wireless light dimmers/switches, and the in-wall touchscreen for about $5,500. Or, if none of the above appeal to you, you can just turn off your own lights. Be sure to check out those glamor shots in the gallery below.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/03/crestrons-prodigy-home-control-system-gets-prices-specs/

Slide Show – http://www.engadget.com/photos/crestrons-prodigy-home-control-system-gets-prices-specs/2183131/

DIY home surveillance with a Webcam

We’re on the tail end of the summer vacation season, which according to the FBI is one of the peak periods of home burglaries. Chances are good you’re about to head out of town, leaving your dwelling to fend for itself against intruders.

Got a house sitter or an alarm system? Good for you. If not, there are a handful of ways to turn a computer into a tool that will alert you if someone’s there who shouldn’t be.

For the sake of this guide we’re keeping things simple and limiting our list to free apps that work on PCs, Macs, or both. A few simply use your browser. Later on we also have a section on specialty hardware that can take you beyond what most Webcams are capable of.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10301349-248.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1