makezine.com: TNT, Round 12: A New Year

TNT Newsletter for January 2, 2007

Look good in party photos, a shoe-in for best organization tip, the glue that binds, streamlining cable tips, and a disk-no party!

Well, dear readers, it's a new year, and my mind is boiling over with resolutions. Now, it would probably be easiest to recycle the ones I didn't accomplish from last year, but I feel like a fresh start. And the easiest way to accomplish that is to get organized. So: this week I've included a couple of good organization tips, two reader reviews of glue and tape to help finish all the projects you've been meaning to complete, and a tip for getting the most out of your party photos.

Good luck coming up with a fresh set of New Year's Resolutions, and if you want some new ideas, keep your eye on the MAKE blog, where we'll be posting the resolutions of our columnists and technical advisors in the next couple of days.

Have a happy, happy New Year!

Arwen O'Reilly
Staff Editor, MAKE Magazine
http://makezine.com
toolbox@makezine.com

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Look Good in Party Photos

Reviewed by terrie

My brother-in-law relayed this great tip: when the photographer comes around taking candids at the next company party, or the waiter snaps a photo of your table at a restaurant, give him your most enthusiastic "thumbs up" sign.

You'll have a better chance of looking happy and engaged in what's happening, instead of looking awkward and embarrassed (if not actually sullen).

(If you're the photographer, here's another good tip: tell your group to wave. I learned this from Derrick when he took our favorite group photo at our wedding reception ... everyone was laughing and smiling, with no frozen poses in the bunch.)

Discussion

Gadget Organizer

Reviewed by Arwen O'Reilly Griffith
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/top/macgyver-tip--shoe-holder-gadget-organizer-190149.php
$10

Gina from Lifehacker has a great tip from a reader: buy a clear plastic shoe organizer and use it to store all your gadegets. You'll be able to see everything at a glance, and each cable can have its own compartment.

Discussion

Gorilla Tape

Reviewed by tiedyepie
http://www.gorillatape.com/home.htm
$9

The best duct tape ever made. It's cheaper than gaffers tape and amazingly tougher. A friend of mine taped up his car and drove from Idaho to California in the snow, and still had trouble taking it off afterwards. If you make projects almost exclusively out of tape, you'll want to switch to this. Even comes in small rolls, so you can keep some with you at all times. Made by the fine people who bring you Gorilla Glue.

Discussion

Gorilla Glue

Reviewed by tiedyepie
http://www.gorillaglue.com/
$7

Gorilla Glue is a two-part glue that works on everything: stone, wood, metal, concrete, you name it. The strength is easily comparable to JB-Weld, but the second part is water, so you only have to keep one bottle on hand. Also needs no pre-mixing; just moisten the surface and apply. It foams up and fills gaps, then hardens but stays sandable. Just keep it away from your dog; apparently pets find it delicious. They also make an excellent tape called Gorilla Tape.

Discussion

Cable Guy

Reviewed by Arwen O'Reilly Griffith
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.208078.14

For those of you who have ever cursed while wrestling with a mess of cables under the desk, or behind the entertainment center, or under the Christmas tree (i.e. all of us), here's a nice discussion of the best ways to tame the tangle. Solutions range from splitting Cat5 cables to velcro zip ties to just adopting a zen frame of mind. Surely one of them will be an improvement!

Discussion

OmniDiskSweeper

Reviewed by terrie
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/
$15

OmniDiskSweeper helps you find out what's taking up so much disk space on your Mac. It lets you browse your folders in a way that's completely optimized for looking for large folders and files. You can use it for free in unlicensed mode; this lets you view file/folder info, but not actually delete anything from this interface. You can delete files with a $15 licensed version, or get a one-day-only free license.

In just a few seconds after OmniDiskSweeper finished "sweeping," I found an entire duplicate (huge) directory of music that must have been the result of a misguided restore from my iPod. It had been there for months, but nothing ever made it visible to me the way OmniDiskSweeper did.

Discussion