Friday, December 13, 2013

Boost Your Productivity by Working Near Other People

Boost Your Productivity by Working Near Other People

You may think spending time alone makes you more productive because you have the opportunity to concentrate, but that's not necessarily true. Productivity and ideas blog the 99u points to an old study that illustrates why proximity to other humans can help you work more efficiently.

One the earliest findings in social psychology was the “social facilitation” effect – the way the mere presence of other people engaged in the same task as us can boost our motivation. In 1920, social psychologist Floyd Allport showed that a group of people working individually at the same table performed better on a whole range of tasks even though they weren’t cooperating or competing. Allport’s research illustrates how the energy of other people can act as a substitute team even if we’re working solo (this is why many creatives enjoy working at their local café surrounded by industrious strangers).

Of course, working at a coffee shop (or in any public place) comes with its own set of challenges as well. Before you set out to work near others, learn how to overcome those potential problems.

9 Facts Every Creative Needs to Know About Collaborative Teams | The 99u

Photo by Alper Çugun.

YippieMove Migrates Your Email and Attachments to a New Account

YippieMove Migrates Your Email and Attachments to a New Account

You probably don't need to migrate your email accounts very often, but every once in a while, a good reason might come up. In that case, YippieMove is here to help.

The service automatically transfers all of your old emails—attachments and all—to a new account. This can be particularly handy, for example, if you have an old Yahoo! account you don't use anymore that you'd like to make a backup of in case your address is ever reset and given away. We've previously covered Backupify Migrator for getting data out of a Gmail account, but YippieMove allows you to transfer between any combination of a long list of email providers, so most people should be covered.

YippieMove

Aluminum Can Flower Jewelry

1783.JPGMake bright, eye-catching jewelry using recycled aluminum cans!1764.JPGStart collecting Drink Cans! I like the tea and energy drink cans because they are colorful and non-returnable.
Find Flower-shaped Paper Punches in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Eyelets/Grommets come in many different colors, shapes and sizes.
Make sure that Hole Punch sizes correspond with eyelet/grommet sizes.
Choose an Eyelet/Grommet Setter such as a grommet setter kit or a hand-held setter.
Jewelry Pliers are for shaping the flowers.
You may also want a pair of Scissors, a Permanent Marker, a small Hammer, various Jewelry Findings and Beads.

Everything (except the cans) can be found at your local craft store.


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Maraschino Is a Simple Web Interface to Manage Your XBMC Home Theater

Linux: If you've built the home theater of your dreams and it's powered by XBMC, Maraschino is a simple, open-source front-end that's web-accessible and makes managing your media and downloads super easy.

Your HTPC probably pulls double duty as a media library and possibly even a downloading machine. If it does, Maraschino gives you a simple web interface you can use whether you're on your tablet in front of the TV or at a computer far away from your home to play media, organize your library, anbd start/stop/control your downloads. Maraschino can control your XBMC machine, other XBMC servers, Usenet downloads via SABnzbd+, and it can search Usenet for new downloads and start them while you're not around. It also features uTorrent and Transmission modules to control those applications, a Sickbeard module so you can browse upcoming TV episodes and manage those downloads, and more.

You'll need XBMC Eden installed for Maraschino to work, and it's remarkably similar feature-wise to previously mentioned HTPC Manager, although Maraschino seems a little more lightweight and easier on the eyes (if not a touch feature-poorer). Either way, it's free, customizable, and easy to install. Hit the link below to give it a try.

Maraschino

BEGINNER'S MINI JEWEL-BOX LYRE

BeginnersLyre 6-28-13 019.JPGIntro-
This Instrument was constructed to be simple to do in only 40 hours by students in grade and high-schools as a project.
Earlier Instructables could also  be reviewed to help in constructing the simple Lyre of  13 string notes.[1.5 octave].
Ref. Aug 5,2009 Mini-Zither  and Portable mini-lyre  dated Mar.6,2011 by Mistic..BeginnersLyre 6-28-13 002 - Copy.JPGGeneral details
Following  the construction is straight forward.You can use all dimensions as approximately =-1/16 inch tolerance.
The wood used here is white pine but you can use any you have on hand. The hand rests are 1/8 in 3-ply plywood  used here.
The resonator box is any box you can make or buy on the Craft market. The jewel-box with side clasp is  under 6 dollars. You have to use sand paper and stains you like. We use water based acrillic and finish with Poly-urethane finish.
To make sure the box is sufficiently strong we have injected a bead of E6000 glue in side on all corners.Do this before lacquering .
Box size is to be as close  to this size as possible -7 x 7 x3 in.  but if it is wider then extend the length of the tuning 3/4 in dia. rod and hand rests but keep the location of the tuners as shown with a spacing of 1/2 inch. The 3 inch  height  can be variable also since the lid is 1 in. high and the other half is 2. as an approximation. The resonator surface must be thin though. It is usually 3ply  1/8 in . thick. We used the bottom of the box as the resonator surface as a result.That is, we reversed the box so the lid  is under the  resonator surface as shown here.A v-shaped hole ws cut in lower box section for sound out.

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K'NEX RBLTR V.1 (Red's Breach Loading Tactical Rifle) (Build)

DSC08528.JPGThis is my "Toy Rods and Connecters Contest" entry #1, the RBLTR (Red's Breach Loading Tactical Rifle). This is probably the most powerful K'NEX gun I have ever build, with range that reaches over 70 ft. It was a fun build, and is not at all piece consuming. It uses internals that closely resemble gtrain's G36C mech.

Some features of the gun are:
- Great range: 70 ft.
- Permanent fore-grip
- Nice sights
- Great pin pull
- Nice attachment bar
- Breach loading
- Shoots yellow rods

Now, lets move on to step #1...

DSC08541.JPGIn this first step you will be working on the right side of the main body, and part the internals. If you have any questions, please do ask. Keep in mind that you will want to read all of the image notes, they will help you.

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