Morning Starts Your Day Off Right with Tons of Useful Information

iPad: If your iPad is within reach when you wake, Morning turns it into a dashboard packed with useful information you need to start your day off on the right foot. The weather, your to-dos, calendar appointments, news headlines, your estimated commute time, and more, are all in a Google Now-ish display.

Once installed, you can customize the display with up to eight different topics you want displayed on the main screen: weather, to-dos, calendar appointments, stocks, news headlines, commute and travel time, the current date and time, or a countdown timer. You can mix and match them anyway you like, and the display auto-sizes to accommodate them. For example, you can start your day with the current weather conditions, an overview of your to-do list, your meetings for the day, how long it'll take you to get to work, and have a timer in the corner so you'll see when it's time to press the plunger down on the French Press and pour your morning cup.

You can even customize the background colors and the specific information each panel displays so you see what you want to see. The app looks great, and is on sale for $3 to celebrate its launch (although they don't say what the full price will eventually be). The dev also notes that he has plans to add other apps and tools to Morning in the future, like updates from Twitter or Facebook, or your current steps or status from your fitness tracker. In any event, you can hit the link below to read more about the app or grab it from the iTunes App Store.

Morning ($3) | iTunes App Store via Morning

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Portal Test Chamber Information Sign

I wrote this up as a post on my blog Apathetic Thursday a few years ago, always meaning to get around to making a tutorial for instructables, but never got around to it. Until now. 

This is a 2ft by 4ft back-lit sign, made to look like the Portal video game. (You probably already gathered that.)

The entire project came in under $200 for me. The biggest cost is going to be your sheet of glass or plastic for the front. I used white glass from a local stained glass shop. 2ft x 4ft was the largest size it came in. If I was going to do this again, I might try to use a white plexiglass or plastic, but I think that was actually more expensive at the time.

Even lighting is probably going to be the most difficult thing to achieve. In the photographs the sign looks very evenly lit, it is less so in real life. (Some of the other pictures show this better. I used two off the shelf light fixtures that had circular fluorescent tube lights. I might look for something different if I were to try again. Maybe this? ("2-D shaped" light bulb.)

One final note: I'm going to talk you through my process for making my light. If you want to make your own there are several dependency routes which you can follow. By this I mean: If you choose your size first, that will determine the panel material, which may determine the lights you can use. If you choose your lights first, that may dictate the size of the sign and therefore what panel materials will work. Finally, if you choose panel material first, that will determine your size and probably your available lights as well.

Okay, on to the materials. I'll list the main ones here quickly and go into more detail on the next pages.

Ingredients:
2 ft bx 4 ft sheet of white glass ~ $60
Clear Adhesive Film ~ $10
(I used Grafix Ink Jet Adhesive Film from Amazon.)
Adhesive backed Black Vinyl ~ $10
(Again, from Amazon I got Cricut Vinyl)

Fluorescent Light Fixture of some sort.
I used a GE circular fluorescent light fixture from Menards.

Screws
1x4 boards, of various lengths (2x 4ft, 5x ~2ft)

Wall plug and cord
Aluminium foil or other reflective material

Black Paint
Sand Paper

Tools:
Exacto Knife
Straight Edge
Cutting Board
Drill
Table Saw

Total Cost: ~$200, if you don't have to buy the tools.

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Use Windows 8 Picture Passwords to Learn Information

Windows: In the newest version of Windows, you can create a picture password that you unlock with a series of taps or drags. Try using this to drill yourself on information you want to learn.

The picture password works with a series of three motion. You can circle, tap, or drag across certain parts of the photo. To unlock your machine, you need any combination of three of these gestures. By using photos of something that you're trying to learn (like the periodic table example above), you can quiz yourself every time you unlock your computer.

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