Textbooks are ridiculously expensive, and publishers love to pull tricks to force the purchase of new editions whenever possible. This school year, save loads of cash using these textbook-buying methods.
More »
Blog Archives
The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Textbooks [Back To School]
Posted on August 16, 2010
DIY Pipe Shelving Fits Any Wall or Taste [Weekend Project]
Posted on February 2, 2010
There are a lot of nice bookcases out there, but many of them don’t fit your exact walls, and most can’t be installed in an apartment. That can be worked around in crafty style with plumbing pipes and some weekend time.
Using actual plumbing pipes and wood boards of their choice, a couple with really high walls but not a lot of leeway for in-unit construction built a perfect set of shelves for their stuff. Using a previous Apartment Therapy how-to, Elizabeth and Mike, with the help of handy friend Roger, bought and designed custom shelves for a price that’s not all that shocking:
In order to keep costs down, Roger designed a unit using standard measurements, so that no pipe or pine boards would need custom cuts. They found everything they needed at Home Depot for $250 (including all basic supplies, like tarps, tools, and brushes). The black matte finish of the pipes wasn’t exactly what they had envisioned, but they loved the result.
Hit the link for a full photo walkthrough. What have you used to make your own shelves in your own apartment or home before? Tell us—or, better yet, show us—in the comments.
Elizabeth and Mike’s DIY Pipe Shelving [Apartment Therapy]
Barnes & Noble Saves Students Money with New Textbook Rental Service [Saving Money]
Posted on January 11, 2010
Tuition may be steep, but things only get worse when you factor in the cost of textbooks. When we highlighted the best places to save money on textbooks, we included Chegg, an online textbook rental service. Now the popular bookstore Barnes & Noble has joined in the fray with a rental program integrated with 25 colleges in the U.S.—allowing students to rent textbooks from participating college bookstores, online, or from B&N stores on campus. You can see if your college is participating here. [Barnes & Noble College via TechCrunch]
Buy Ketchup in May Offers More Well-Timed Buying Tips [Stuff We Like]
Posted on January 6, 2010
After finishing (for now) our guide to the best times to buy anything, we were pointed toward a book that tackles the topic in greater detail. Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon looks like a true money-saver’s tipsheet.
Written by former investigative journalist Mark Di Vincenzo, Buy Ketchup doesn’t take all of its time-saving tips seriously, because nobody expects you to rearrange a European vacation to arrive at The Louvre on the mid-week day with the shortest lines. But other tips in the book, which sports a meticulous list of sources, could save you real money, or at least some major headaches and wait times.
Di Vincenzo’s book page includes a few spare tips not found in his book, including this bit about the best time to take your pet to the veterinarian:
9 a.m. Tuesday. By this time, vets are digging out from the weekend’s emergency calls.
The worst time? 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. Pet owners who have just returned home from work discover pet emergencies, some of which don’t get resolved until Monday.
Cool stuff, even if only for the lunchtime discussion topics. And at an Amazon price of about $10, worth an exploratory purchase. Thanks Phil!
Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That and Go There [Amazon.com]
More Best Times [Buy Ketchup in May]
More Best Times [Buy Ketchup in May]
Most Popular DIY Projects of 2009 [Best Of 2009]
Posted on December 11, 2009
We love DIY projects here at Lifehacker. Whether we’re building computers, backyard projects, or turning office supplies into artillery, we’re always tinkering. Today we’re taking a peek at the most popular DIY projects of 2009.
Create Your Own Sun Jar: Lifehacker Edition
Inspired by a tutorial we posted last year, we decided to make our own DIY sun jars. The trendy summer time lighting accessory retails for $30+ but we were able to make ours for around $10 each. The sun jars proved to be our most popular non-computer DIY of the entire year and readers shared their own creations with us.
The First-Timer’s Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch
Building your own computer is a great way to get exactly what you want, the way you want it, without being constrained by the limits and high-prices of mass produced computers. We showed you how to build a computer from start to finish and have fun doing it.
Turn a Sharpie into a Liquid Fueled Rocket
What’s standing between you and some office mayhem? Certainly not a lack of Sharpie markers and keyboard dusting spray. Combine the two with this fun DIY project and you’ve got one of the most awesome pieces of office-machinery we’ve ever featured.
Properly Erase Your Physical Media
You need to be properly erasing your physical media: all the time, every time. Our guide will show you how to get the job done and done right whether you use software to scrub your disks or you send them to the great data mine in the sky with a 21-gun salute.
Turn an Old Laptop into a Wall-Mounted Computer
Why settle for a digital picture frame when, in the same wall space, you could mount an entirely functional computer/slideshow player/TV tuner? One Lifehacker reader turned an old laptop into a super-charged digital frame.
$8 DIY Aluminum Laptop Stand
We’ve always been keen on DIY laptop stands, but reader Aaron Kravitz—inspired by an attractive $50 stand—went above and beyond, creating one of the most attractive DIY laptop stands we've featured to date.
Build an IKEA NAS On the Cheap
If the Hive Five on best home server software got you excited about setting up a home server but you’re not keen on another unsightly PC in your home, check out this DIY IKEA NAS.
Build a DIY Portable Air Conditioner
We’ve shown you how to make an air conditioner (even for as low as $30), but what if you wanted something you can put in your car and take with you? While it’s no substitute for a fully-charged and factory-fresh AC system, it’ll keep you cool.
Turn a Bookshelf into a Secret Passage
Who hasn’t dreamed of having a mystery-story-style secret passageway? While a trick bookshelf is pretty awesome in itself, this secret passage hides a home office with clever style. One industrious Lifehacker reader and his girlfriend had grown tired of seeing their office from their living space, so they hid it behind a wall of books.
Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable
You’ve ripped a movie on your laptop, and now want it on that fancy new home theater PC next to your TV. If you’ve got the time, wiring your house with Cat-5e cable could make transfer times a distant memory.
Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools
We’re all about creative cable management here at Lifehacker, so we were instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010‘s rain-gutter cable management setup. He was awesome enough to send detailed photos and step by step instructions to help other readers recreate his setup.
Build Your Own DTV Antenna
The lights went out on analog television this year and we were there with a guide to help you build a great DIY antenna for boosting your reception and getting that crisp digital picture you crave.
DIY Laptop Rack Hack Turns Your Monitor into an iMac
Lifehacker reader Matt Lumpkin saw our monitor stand from door stoppers post and thought we might like his laptop rack hack as another space-saving desktop solution for laptop-lovers. He was right.
Build Your Own Pizza Oven
Suppose you were inspired by the cheap DIY home pizza oven—but weren't so sure your home insurance would cover oven modifications. It's time to build a safer, more eye-pleasing oven, and we've got a thorough guide.
Crack a Master Combination Padlock Redux
Two years ago we highlighted how to crack a Master combination padlock for those of you who may have lost the combination to your bulletproof lock; now designer Mark Campos has turned the tried-and-true instructions into an easier-to-follow visual guide.
DIY Invisible Floating Bookshelves
We’ve covered the invisible floating bookshelf once or twice before, but if you liked the idea but weren’t keen on ruining a book in the process, weblog May December Home’s got you covered.
DIY Inverted Bookshelf
Instead of storing your books upright on top of the shelf, the inverted bookshelf holds all of your books in place using elastic webbing so you can hang them below the shelf—all the while allowing you to still take them out and put them back on as needed.
Build an Under-the-Cabinet Kitchen PC from an Old Laptop
Inspired by our guide to giving an old laptop new life with cheap or free projects, Lifehacker reader Brian turned his aging Dell laptop into an incredible under-the-cabinet kitchen PC.
Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Tomato Planters
If you’d like to have delicious home-grown tomatoes but lack a garden to grow them in, you’ll definitely want to check out this ingenious and inexpensive self-watering system.
Deter Thieves by Uglifying Your Camera
A few years ago, blogger Jimmie Rodgers’s camera was stolen while volunteering in an impoverished Brazilian community, so he did what any sane person would do: He bought a new camera and made it ugly. With his uglified camera, Rodgers was able to snap pictures freely during the rest of his trip without worrying too much that his ostensibly crappy camera would end up stolen.
DIY TV or Monitor Stand from Door Stoppers
Nothing adds space to a desk or home theater setup like a simple monitor or TV stand, and weblog IKEA Hacker details how to build your own stand on-the-cheap with a few inexpensive items from IKEA.
Repurpose Your Analog Television
You don’t need to run out and buy a new TV because of the DTV switchover. If you did anyways, Make Magazine has put together quite a guide to giving old TVs new life.
Use Ping-Pong Balls to Create Diffused Party Lights
If you need some cheap and novel ambient lighting for your next party, you’re only a box of ping-pong balls and a string of lights away from solving your lighting worries.
Build a Custom-Made BoxeeBox
DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum, inspired by the cheaper set-top boxes, made his own higher-powered “BoxeeBox” for the free, open-source media center. He posted all the parts, the how-to details, and lots of pictures.
Build a Sturdy Cardboard Laptop Stand
You already shelled out your hard earned cash for a swanky laptop, why drop more cash on an overpriced laptop stand? Cardboard alone can do the trick, as detailed in this step-by-step tutorial.
Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required
Earlier this year we put together a wildly popular guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, and then followed it up with an even easier guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required. Computers + DIY is all sorts of geeky fun waiting to happen.
Which Is Your Favorite Lifehacker DIY Project of 2009?(polls)
Have a favorite DIY from 2009 that wasn’t highlighted here? Sound off in the comments with a link to your favorite project. Want to see more popular DIY guides courtesy of the ghost of Lifehacker past? Check out our huge DIY guide roundup from 2008.
The Complete Guide to Google Wave Preview Edition PDF Available for Download [Announcements]
Posted on November 20, 2009
The preview edition of Gina and Adam’s new book, The Complete Guide to Google Wave, is now available in PDF form for your offline, ebook-reading pleasure.
Google Wave is a young tool that’s not terribly easy to understand for a lot of folks, but at least a couple of your Lifehacker editors are completely nuts for Wave and its potential. The DRM-free, 102-page personalized PDF of The Complete Guide to Google Wave is available for six bucks, but keep in mind that the content of our book will always be available for free at any time at completewaveguide.com/.
The preview edition is just the start. We plan to release the first edition of the guide in early 2010 as both a PDF and a softcover print book, with new editions to follow throughout the year as Wave evolves.
For a quick look at why we’re so excited about Wave, check out Gina’s keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo this week in NYC, and follow @gwaveguide on Twitter for a regular stream of useful Wave tips and for updates on the book. If you do decide to purchase the PDF, you have our sincerest thanks for supporting our little project, but as I said, it’s always freely available on the web site. Beyond that, we’re all ears for suggestions on how we can improve the guide in the comments.
Google Book Downloader Downloads Books to PDF [Downloads]
Posted on September 18, 2009
Windows: Thanks to Google’s drive to add more and more books to the Google Books project, including thousands of public domain volumes, you’ll find quite a nice selection to choose from. Google Book Downloader helps you download them to PDF.
Update: It’s come to our attention that use of this application is locking some users out of Google Books because downloading full books from the service is a violation of their terms of service. As such, we’ve redacted the link. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Let’s get one thing out of the way from the start. Google Book Downloader will not let you pirate books. Apparently this app attempts to download more than the allotted preview of limited-preview books—hence the removal of the link and the lockout by Google. It will however let you download books that are flagged as full-access, such as books in the public domain and books with limited-preview—although you'll only get the preview parts, not the entire book.
While using the application isn't as simple as say, right clicking on a file and saving it, the difficulty level isn't high. Once you've installed the application, fire it up, and feed it some books you want to download. Although the instructions for the Add dialogue box indicate you can use ISBN numbers, we didn't have much luck with that. Since you're already searching Google Books to find the books you want, you might as well cut and paste the URL for the book at Google Books—that method never failed.
Once you’ve added your books they’ll appear in the download queue. From there start the downloads and let it go. Occasionally as the application pulls down data you’ll need to enter a captcha to keep the pipeline open, but other than that it’s an unattended process.
Google Book Downloader is freeware, Windows only and requires .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 or above.
Google Books Offers Free ePub Downloads [Ebooks]
Posted on August 27, 2009
Owners of Sony eReaders, users of the Stanza iPhone book reader, and anyone else with a device that reads the ePub format can now grab more than 1 million works from Google Books’ archives. The books may contain some mistakes, as most were simply scanned and run through an OCR image-to-text process, but it’s free content in a free format, which is hard to beat. [Inside Google Books via ReadWriteWeb]
Repeat “A-E-I-O-U” to Read Faster [Back To School]
Posted on August 10, 2009
School work involves a fair amount of tedious reading, which is why knowing how to get through and comprehend text quickly is a useful skill to have. Looking to learn? Try incorporating the A-E-I-O-U method.
In the above video demo (warning: 15 second ad) posted on instructional web site 5min, speed reading guide Chris offers his advice on how to plow through your words. According to Chris, you can do so by choosing a passage and voicing “A-E-I-O-U” or “one, two, three, four” as you read the text. He goes on to say that the average person reads between 125-250 words per minute because they’re still reading with their larynx (even if not out loud). To read above this level, you need to read just with your eyes, not your larynx. Chris suggests that repeating the above phrase will help train you to stop voicing the word using your larynx, which will apparently help you to better visualize the text in its entirety and thus get through your required (or other reading) faster.
We’re not promising you’ll get through ten books a day, but the idea makes sense and certainly seems like it could speed up your reading a bit. Looking for an alternative way to get through Geology 101? Check out a few more previously mentioned speed-reading techniques.
How to Speed Read [Boing Boing]
Free Book Helps You Stand Up to an IRS Audit [Tax Time]
Posted on March 6, 2009
Fred Daily, tax attorney and author of Stand Up to the IRS, has put the book’s entire content up online, and it’s a great read if you and the tax collectors are having some disagreements.
Photo by mjmalone.
Daily’s book runs topic-by-topic through the common audit points and taxpayer confusion, covering family and inheritance, self-employed and small business income, penalties and interest, and a lot of other ground. It’s also full of wisdom on what you should and shouldn’t worry about, which anyone who’s gotten the stark white envelope with the distinctive logo can benefit from. Get Rich Slowly likes, in particular, the 25 most frequently asked questions, and so do we. Free to read and print.
Stand Up to the IRS (chapters) [The Tax Law Offices of Fred Daily via Get Rich Slowly]