This one is a pretty simple and “obvious” hack. Last week Cool Tools posted a link to a simple and very ingenous device for holding those extra cords behind your desk, the Keep-a-Cable cord organizer.

While I could have just bought a pack for $5 and be done with it (and I encourage you to do so if you’re so inclined rather than rather blatantly ripping off their idea like I did), I’m just not that kind of guy. I can’t look at a flat 5-cent piece of stamped plastic and not want to make my own.

So I did. Details below the fold.

I used a lid from a plastic Sterilite storage box I had repurposed for something else. In reality you could probably make it out of a discarded milk jug or any similar source of flat plastic, but I liked the thicker plastic of the lid.

Using a ruler and a circular lid from a spice jar, I sketched out a series of half-circles with a rectangular mounting strip about an inch wide. Then I cut it out.

Then (rather crudely if you look at the pictures) I used a drill to hack out some wire-sized holes in the semi-circles and cut through to make a slot.

I used some inch-side double-stick tape to stick it to the underside of my desk. The final result turned out quite well. I hung a couple of MacBook power supply cables (yes I’ve had up to 3 Apple laptops on my desk at a time) and some Cat-6 Ethernet cables back there, and I still have a couple of spots left over. You can’t see the strip from the front side of the desk, and it hides the cables nicely.

See, told you it was easy.

Update: As suggested by some commenters, I ended up securing it to the underside of my desk with three small half-inch screws. The tape really wasn’t holding up as well as I’d hoped.

If so, pick up a can of this stuff. “Wind Jammer” removable caulk. Its made by the same company as Loctite, and I found it at Home Depot. Comes in a convenient can so you don’t even need a caulking gun (because you live in an apartment and unlike me you probably don’t have one). Caulk up your windows in the winter so they’re not drafty, and peel it off in the spring. Your building manager will never be the wiser, and you’ll be much happier.

I’ve had it on my windows for the past month or so and my apartment is toasty warm now. I definitely recommend it. And I’m not being paid to say this (yet).

Little did I know what I was getting myself into…

Of course I followed the instructions. I filled the sink with water, covered the backup drain with a wet rag, and pushed downwards on the can as if it were a plunger to force my pesky plug out of my plumbing.

And then my world exploded.

I live in an older apartment building. Older as in probably about 60-70 years old. Which means I have about 50-60 years of crud built up in my plumbing. All that crud, with the exception of the crud actually clogging the sink, chose exactly that moment to leave my plumbing. And exit promptly all over my bathroom.

As it seems, the extra large backup drain of my sink also provided an extra large exit for said crud, all of which promptly forced its way out past my carefully placed rag, and all over my bathroom. Covering my sink, my shower, my walls, and even myself. No innocent bystanders were spared.

The results? I was left with:

• A bathroom covered in crap that was older than me
• A sink fully of lemony fresh fizzy water
• A drain that is still completely plugged

And, while wiser for the experience, I’m still $9 poorer, and I still don’t have a completely working sink.

So I finally figured out how to write AppleScripts that hook directly into Quicksilver’s “text clipping” interface. For the longest time I’ve wanted to be able to set away messages from Quicksilver… and now I can:

using terms from application "Quicksilver"
    on process text ThisClipping

    tell application "Adium"
        set my status message to ThisClipping
        set my status type to away
    end tell

end process text

end using terms from It may not look like much, but I’m a happy boy. Put that into an AppleScript using Script Editor and save it to ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions. Restart Quicksilver, and you’ll be able to set any text you type in Quicksilver after the “.” command as your Adium away message.

The on process text terms has lots of other uses too. I’m sure I’ll come up with more.

But one thing I do spend some time reading each day is my blog RSS feeds. I use Bloglines, a free online feed reader. Recently I discovered a great feature in Bloglines where you can get a custom email address to turn periodic email lists into feeds in your bloglines account.

Instructions below the jump…

1. Click the “Add” link under the “My Feeds” tab in the sidebar to open up the “Subscribe” page in the main frame.
2. Click the “Email Groups” link to add a new email group.
3. From here you can add Yahoo or Google Groups lists directly, or you can click the “Create an Email Subscription” link to add a custom list. For Scuttlebutt, click this link.
4. Bloglines will create a new subscription based on a custom email address. From here you can also change the name of the subscription and the folder it shows up in. Save that email address for later and click the “Create Email Subscription” button.
5. You’re supposed to just be able to subscribe to the email list using the custom email address directly, but that didn’t work for me with Scuttlebutt. So I ended up setting up GMail to automatically forward Scuttlebutt mails to the Bloglines email address. You should be able to do the same with other mail clients.

Enjoy!

Update: If you didn’t know it already, Scuttlebutt also has a more “casual” blog called the Scuttleblog.

The IVR Cheat Sheet: This “QuickBase” from Intuit has instructions for how to cut through to a real person when you call a company and get an IVR system — Interactive (or Integrated) Voice Response. You know, the computer system that tries to solve your problem using stacked menu systems so they don’t have to pay a real person to talk to you? Even though you know what you want can’t be solved by the machine and you have to talk to a human? This site will tell you what you need to do to get the human on the phone.

The Intuit IVR Cheat Sheet.

Since I was backpacking and trying to travel as inexpensively as possible, most of these tips are directed at younger people like myself. But I hope everyone else will find them helpful as well.

• London is expensive! Don’t plan on eating or drinking out a lot if you don’t want to end up broke.
• If you’re doing the hostel thing, stay at The Generator. Only 12.50£ a night for a dorm bed, free linens, and a pretty friendly staff. They also have their own bar with 1£ beer specials every night and huge cafeteria-style meals for 3.50£. They also put on a damn good party…
• Definitely go to the British Museum and the National Gallery. I thought the National Gallery was actually more fun than The Lourve in Paris. Smaller and more densely packed with good art, they have tons of more contemporary works by artists like Monet.
• Probably the best way to see the city is to take one of those open-top tour busses. I went with the “Original Tour” and was glad I did. Its kind of pricey at 16£, but you can hop on and off as much as you want for 24 hours, they have great guides that tell stories about the city, and it also includes a river boat tour down to Grenwich. I know I know, its extremely touristy but it really is worth it.
• Marks & Spencer. You’ll invaribly find that you didn’t pack enough underwear, shirts, etc. Marks & Spencer is a great place to pick up some cheap store-brand clothes that are actually quite nice. And the Marks & Spencer “Food Court” (in the basement of most stores) sells a ton of cheap M&S-brand food that is a great value.
• If you’re looking for cheap Internet access, there’s a place on Charing Cross right near the Leister Square tube station that is 1£ for as long as you can sit in one place. Not exactly the nicest, cleanest, or safest Internet cafe, but its cheap and you can usually find an open station.