This week at Lifehacker: Build yourself a solar-powered wifi booster for the backyard. Your mousing wrist feeling a little achy? Train yourself to mouse lefty (or righty, lefties.) PayPal your buddy your share of the dinner bill with your cell phone. Add encryption to Gmail and sync your Google calendar with your mobile phone or handheld.

This week at Lifehacker: One wire plus two computers equals 800 megabytes transfer rate. Here's how to set up a fast FireWire network to move all your disk hogging files from one machine to another. Our in-house law geek reveals what will really happen if you get caught BitTorrenting those copyrighted movies. It's not EVDO, it's just you and your cell phone. Get online on the go when you're wifi hotspotless by using your cell phone as a modem. Finally, iTunes may insist on only keeping an eye on one folder for music, but with the Library Updater software and a little arm-twisting, you too can get iTunes to sync up with any folders on your hard drive you'd like.

This week at Lifehacker: We kicked off our Coolest Workspace Contest with a DIY door-turned-tabletop, an adjustable sit or stand desk and more. Submit pictures of your tricked-out rig for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon!

Also: automatically add an image of the camera model used to shoot photos on Flickr. Blog while gaming on the Xbox 360. Finally, find out how to use metadata and dynamic search-based folders as your digital filing system.

This week at Lifehacker: Convince your boss you'll be 30% more productive if you could only have a second monitor. Save yourself 70 bucks and replace your iPod Mini's battery yourself. It's a bunch of nerds in a grassy field with circuit boards, LED's, homemade Segways and more! Check our special report from Geeks Gone Wild the first annual Maker Faire. Headed off to Circuit City determined to come home with an HDTV? Print out the short and sweet HDTV buying guide and stick it in your pocket before you go. Finally, when your hard drive starts growling at you in the midst of writing your final paper, automatically email yourself file backups to keep your work safe even if your disk platters go south.

This week at Lifehacker: De-crapify your new Dell of all the garbage software it had installed on it out of the box. See a video demonstration of iAlertU, the car alarm for the MacBook Pro. DIYers, snugly encase a wifi router inside your Xbox. And if you thought you found all your Easter Eggs this year, there's one tucked away you missed: uncover the Star Wars game hidden inside Open Office.

This week at Lifehacker: Set up your personal wikipedia. Help that feeble brain of yours and develop digital photographic memory. Remedy your memory-sucking Firefox installation. Make Mom a rotating digital photo frame that refreshes with your current Flickr photos. Finally, rig up a portable USB charger with a 9-volt battery.

You gave up Britannica for the Wikipedia a long time ago. But have you ever wished you could have your very own editable encyclopedia to build a reference to the vast swathes of knowledge you absorb every day? Check out our guide to installing the free MediaWiki on your PC and endure us invent the term "personalpedia" all at once.

Disk space is cheap and plentiful, and so are digital cameras. Use the tagging and organizing capability at photo-sharing site Flickr to keep track of your stuff. Archive digital images of business cards, wine labels, meals you've cooked, gadget serial numbers and more. Here's how to turn Flickr into your digital photographic memory.

We loves us some Firefox but the little bugger can get a little greedy with the RAM from time to time. When the memory-usage-o-meter's going through the roof thanks to the 'fox, reduce it using magic! And, um, about:config.

Mother's Day approacheth. What are you giving the woman who dealt with the shock treatment that was your childhood? Beam photos right to Mom's mantle real-time with a DIY rotating photo frame powered by a beater wifi-enabled laptop and your "formom" Flickr tag. What a good kid you are.

Finally, charge your iPod, PDA or any other USB devices on the go with a DIY USB charger made with a 9 volt battery and some basic circuitry. Package the whole thing up in an Altoids tin and you'll be rockin' out off the grid.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Decide when to trash your old PC and when to upgrade. Be a walking encyclopedia - literally - with Wikipedia on your iPod. Build yourself a booty-hiding secret hollow book. Finally, smack down that annoying Windows error report dialog that pops up whenever software crashes for good.

You want a new PC. Your old one still has life left in it. What to do? A little RAM, a new hard drive and a Windows reinstall could do wonders, or it might be time to throw in the towel and invest in a newer model. With Vista looming on the horizon, decide whether or not you should be dropping a new compie in your shopping cart — or just a few new parts.

You've wasted away hours reading about Star Trek on Wikipedia while you're at your computer. Now you can do it on the go! Download the 750MB Encyclopodia onto your iPod as an ebook for research while you're waiting on line at the grocery. Just think, you could listen to the Star Trek theme at the same time...!

Got something to hide? Something that would fit inside a book? Be it porn, drugs, money or the earring your high school crush dropped in gym class, everyone needs a secret hollowed-out book in their library. Get thee out the Exacto knife and some glue, because we've got the linkage on how get your stuff into hiding the DIY way.

You know when you're working in a software application and it suddenly crashes, and you're pretty tweaked that you just lost a bunch of unsaved changes to your files? Then to make things worse, a dialog box appears, asking if you'd like to send Microsoft a bunch of data about the crash from your computer, and that just pisses you off even more? Stop letting Windows kick you when you're down and disable error reporting for good.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Unlock the power of the scroll wheel and mouse gestures and drive Firefox without taking your hand off the clicker. Fix scratched CDs with toothpaste, Pledge, Pinesol or peanut butter. Get flight status information, horoscopes and drink recipes SMS'ed directly to your phone. Make sure your laptop battery doesn't poop out during the key scene of that DVD movie you're watching. Finally, get AIM on your PSP.

This week at Lifehacker: That sound your computer's fan is making? It roughly translates to "Help! I'm being strangled by cat hair!" Get under your PC's hood and evacuate the dust bunnies partying on your video card.

Speaking of video, YouTube junkies can use a little Javascript voodoo and some free software encoding to save YouTube videos to your iPod or PSP.

So you're freaked out enough about co-workers getting into your bank account that you type in every password on the web every time, eh? Here's how to secure saved Firefox passwords - especially handy for the copy of portable Firefox you're toting around on that thumb drive. Be extra paranoid and encrypt all your thumb drive's data on the fly.

Remember when you were 15 and you bought that guitar because you wanted to be just like Van Halen? Well, Mom's still got that 6-stringer in the basement and a few free guitar tutorial vodcasts for your iPod can get you started down that road to rockstardom. Finally, iPod-lovin' runners, leave that stopwatch at home and get hoofin'. This useful Windows script generates interval running playlists set to start and end songs just when you're scheduled to switch gears.

This week at Lifehacker: Watch a video demo of an iPod running Linux. Still required to use IE at work? Have some strategies for surviving IT lockdown at the office. Build an Lego iPod dock. Turn your PSP into a universal remote capable of controlling over 1,800 devices. Automatically defrag your hard drive, reboot your PC or start up Firefox with all your favorites opened in tabs with Windows Scheduled Tasks. Finally, massage your LCD's stuck pixels right out.

This week at Lifehacker: Free your iPod from the shackles of iTunes. Witness operating system multiple personality disorder on a real live ThinkPad dual-booting Windows and Mac OS X. Scare your cat and get in shape with a sledgehammer and a sweater. Finally, master the art of portable computing with some tried and true laptop tips.

Oh, iTunes, how do I hate thee - let me count the ways. Free your iPod from iTunes' stranglehold once and for all. By installing standalone apps on your 'pod in disk mode, you can play, rip and transfer music from a PC to an iPod without iTunes or any other special software on the 'puter. Make yours a self-sustaining iPod.

There's been a lot of talk about whether or not a MacTel will be able to dual boot Windows and OS X, but friends of Lifehacker got OS X and XP dual-booting on an IBM ThinkPad just fine. A couple of video driver and wifi card wrinkles have to be ironed out, but otherwise the shiny round apple glows on a black IBM lappie.

What do you call a guy swinging a sledgehammer in his bedroom? A guy getting in shape, of course! Give a geek a rainy day that he doesn't want to go to the gym, and he'll invent home exercise equipment for "natural movements" like chopping down a tree and churning butter with a sledgehammer wrapped in a sweater. Why the sweater, you ask? So you don't hurt yourself, of course. Or the cat.

Be good to your lappie and it will be good to you. Extend your laptop's battery life, save the screen from scrapes, foil thieves' evil plan to mine your data, and learn how to work offline in our compendium of must-have laptop tips.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Build yourself a gadget recharging station. Hack together a pen-sized wireless antenna. Revive a a soaked piece of hardware killed by spillage. Finally, download essential free software that Google Pack whiffed on.

The ball and chain's been on your back for months about doing something with the milk crates stacked up in the bedroom filled with charging gadgets. What to do with your 17 smart phones, cameras, PDA's, and MP3 players? Mod a regular old piece of furniture into a gadget recharging station that looks like it belongs in a house where humans live and earn those brownie points you so desperately need.

Your laptop's wifi card needs a little signal boost, dontcha think? Build a small antenna that fits inside a pen case and mount it to the back of your laptop screen for maximum signal reachage with the utmost hacker cred.

Your router got rained on. What to do? Give it a bath and a careful cleaning with some cotton swabs, and transform your drowned device into a useful member of electronic society again.

Google put together Google Pack, a collection of free software that "makes your computer just work." Well, it was a nice try, but no cigar. Check out Lifehacker's picks for best essential free Windows software, called Lifehacker Pack, cuz we're really original like that.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: You know you're supposed to be backing up your data, but are you? Set it and forget it - automatically backup your hard drive. If you didn't get one of those shiny new video iPods for the holidays, tweak out your ancient 'pod and make it (almost) as good as new. Speaking of upgrades, have some tips on replacing your motherboard with a younger model. Finally, convert any web page to a stripped down version fit for any mobile phone or PDA.

You've been coding the software that's going to save the world, penning your breakout novel or simply storing photos from the last 10 years of your life on your computer. Don't let all that pirated music disappear with one zap of a fried hard drive. Get your automatic backup system up and running with free software, an external drive and an FTP server. Nightly, weekly, monthly on and offsite backups are just a download away.

Your second gen iPod's sagging a bit around the scroll wheel next to the shiny new video models, but that doesn't mean you can't still put it to good use. Sure the thing still plays music well, but there are scads of other cool uses for an old iPod.

Speaking of old and saggy, that ancient machine you've got sittin' around could really use a new motherboard. Here, have some tips for installing one.

Finally, when your favorite web site doesn't offer a mobile version, check out the Google Mobilizer. Strip down any web page with or without images and turn out a version fit for browsing on your phone or PDA on the go.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Get the most out of your video iPod. Buy the best quality recordable DVDs. Cube warriors, firewall your attention at the office. Fold up a pen and stick it in your wallet. Finally, remedy LCD screen burn-in.

So you got yourself a shiny new video iPod over the holidays. Know how to use it? Subscribe to free video content, play movies and TV on the big screen with cables lying around the house, compress and save your own home movies. In short, get the most out of your new 'pod.

Ever go cheap and wind up with a spindle of DVD-Rs that don't burn or wind up unreadable? Check out this guide to high quality recordable DVDRs to avoid a stack of shiny drink coasters.

"Corporate accounts! Nina speaking! Just a moment!" When every day is a case of the Mondays at your cubicle job where constant interruptions keep you from getting a thing done, take our advice on how to firewall your attention at the office.

Need a pen? Oh, look! Here's one all folded up in my wallet. Get your brilliant ideas down on paper wherever you are with a foldable wallet pen.

When the ghost of your login screen burns into your LCD monitor and haunts you while you're working in other programs, Apple's got a little tutorial on getting rid of the little bugger and avoiding it in the future.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Build an auto-on pantry light with a Timex watch holder. Replace your iPod's hard drive. Make an RFID-blocking duct tape wallet. Finally, instantly inventory your gadget stash off-site for insurance purposes when the house blows up.

Open the door, light goes on. Close the door, light goes off. The system works in the refrigerator, and it's pretty nice in a dark pantry or closet as well. DIYers, rig up your own auto-on pantry light with some Christmas rope lights, a reverse switch and a plastic Timex watch holder.

iPod sad face? Save yourself 150 buckeroos. Buy yourself a new hard drive and crack that baby open, you bold take-things-aparter, you. Replace your fourth-gen pod's dead hard drive with a screwdriver, stick glue and a little elbow grease.

That identity thief sidling up to your butt with a RFID-reading device? Foiled (literally) by your custom-made RFID-blocking duct tape wallet.

Now that you're all grownup and responsible with actual homeowner's insurance, it's up to you to keep track of what gadgets you've got. Snap a few quick pics of serial and model numbers and upload to a photo-sharing site for instant personal off-site inventory.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday (most of the time) on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Take your data home for the holidays. While you're there, crack the neighbors' wifi. Spraypaint the guts of that old computer into Christmas tree decorations. Build a photo lamp from a Mag-Lite. Bend web pages to your will with our favorite Greasemonkey scripts.

HTTP, FTP, VNC, oh my! Lifehacker's got your home server needs covered for remote access to your movies and music and other, ahem, files while you're home for the holidays.

While you're there, find nearby wifi, sniff packets and crack passwords with these essential wireless networking tools. Well ok, don't actually break into people's private networks - but you sure could help the 'rents secure their own network from clowns like you.

Short on holiday decorations? Bare tree and tons of debris laying around the house? Kill two birds with one can of spraypaint. A nice gold sheen can turn the most common household object into a festive decoration fit for hanging next to the mistletoe.

Some paper, foil, tape and a Mag-Lite's all you need to build your own photo-lamp, perfectly portable for photographing small objects up close.

Oh Javascript, is there nothing you can't do? Strip ads from Google search results, auto-link URLs on web pages, and add a Delete button and saved searches to Gmail using the Greasemonkey Firefox extension and our picks of favorite user scripts.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Build your own gingerbread house. Finetune Firefox for fast or slow connections and computers. FTP to your Gmail account. Finally, stuff stockings with a narrated Ken Burns style photo movie.

Plant spearmint leaves in the front yard, hang peppermint candy wreaths and pave your walkway with Spree: it's time to architect your gingerbread masterpiece. Of course we're lazy and we can't cook (not to mention bake) so we picked up a ten buck pre-assembled gingerbread house kit to get our iced cookie mansion on. You know you're curious - check out our step-by-step photo gallery of the building.

Fast computer but slow 'net connection? Slow computer on a fast connection? Free software Firetune tweaks Firefox for optimal performance in any computing situation.

This SO has to violate the terms of service, so enjoy it while you can: the Gmail File Space Firefox extension gives you an FTP-like interface to your 17 gigabytes of email storage. Upload entire folders or individual files, but .exe's will have to be renamed to circumvent the big G's spam filters.

You're not going to get her perfume again, are you? This ChrismaKwanzaaHanukkah, melt his or her heart with a multimedia slideshow movie of digital photos. Narrate sweet nothings as digital memories pan and zoom across the screen, or set the whole thing to the sappiest MP3 you've got in your collection. Burn it to DVD or save it to a thumbdrive and stuff it in the stocking hung with care. Trust me - you'll thank us for the holiday brownie points.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Cell phone modem connection got you twiddling your thumbs? Find out how to survive a slow Internet connection. Carry your OS on your keyring and boot Windows from a thumbdrive. Save cameraphone photos to Flickr with the press of a button. Finally, create multiple iTunes libraries on one computer and switch between them on the fly.

You don't have one of those fancy broadband anywhere connections, so here you are watching the minutes of your life slip away while you browse the web using your cell phone modem or dialup account. Your connection slow as molasses in winter? Stop limping along the service road of the information superhighway with these surfing tweaks and tricks.

PC won't boot? Wanna use your favorite apps on OPP (Other People's 'Puters)? Create a Windows boot disk with a 256MB thumbdrive. Add a copy of Ad-Aware, Firefox and the Nero DVD-burner to get stuff done on other computers with your favorite apps on the go, no installation required.

You can email or SMS cameraphone pics to photo-sharing site Flickr, but who wants to press all those buttons? Beta cameraphone app ShoZu triggers a one-click "Save to Flickr" option on compatible phones right after you snap your photo for immediate, easy Flickrization.

The wife just rated Neil Diamond's "Weekend in New England" five stars in iTunes. Clearly it's time for separate libraries. Shareware Libra for Mac or PC creates and maintains multiple iTunes libraries on one computer, which includes ratings, playlists and playcounts so you and your family members can share a media center and still live in separate, musical bliss.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Drive Firefox with your keyboard. Carry around secure data backups on your iPod. Optimize your Mac's broadband connection. Learn all the right gym moves using exercise videos on your iPod.

You call yourself a geek and you didn't know that Control/Command-K will snap your cursor up to the Firefox search engine box? And that Control/Command-Down and Up will switch up engines? Click thee to our guide to mouse-less Firefox and shun that rodent while you surf faster and more efficiently.

Some people have redundant arrays of disks backing up their pirated movies, porn, and Word documents of college papers. Others just use their iPod. Stick an encrypted disk image of your personal data in your pocket along with the 10,000 MP3's you never listen to. This way when your house burns down along with the multiple replicating file servers, you'll still have off-site iPod backup.

Enlarge the data pipe that connects your Mac to the 'net. Apple's free Broadband Tuner increases buffer sizes to take full advantage of broadband connections on OS X. Remember, when it comes to buffers, size does matter.

Are you the uncoordinated fool at the gym flailing about pulling leg muscles while trying to master the art of the crunch? Download free exercise videos to your iPod to get those moves right and give you something to look at other than the gaggle of hotties pointing and giggling in the corner.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: You're home, you're eating turkey, you're fielding computer questions from Mom and Dad, Uncle Lou and Aunt Mitzy. Fix Mom and Dad's computer and add some memory to that 4-year-old Dell while you're at it. Plus: Organize and charge up your mobile devices in one place, and speed up the ol' iPod with a good disk defrag.

It's that time of year again - time to celebrate stamping out the indigenous peoples over a large roasted bird and pumpkin pie, time to get your parents' computer working again. Kill spyware and viruses, update Windows, introduce the 'rents to tabbed browsing and run a backup of their important vacation photos. Consult this checklist on how to fix Mom and Dad's computer during your munificent journey down Familial Tech Support Lane this Turkey Day.

While you're doing the Geek Squad thing, crack open that box and snap in a bit more memory so Dad can play chess and check his stock prices without slowing that old 'puter to a crawl. DIMMs or SIMMs you ask? Our guide to installing more RAM will help.

Charge up your iPod, phone and Gameboy Advance all in one handy place that stows your cords and trips a breaker during a power surge. This mobile device recharging station'll get your desk in order and score you big points with your neat freak ball and chain.

iPod slow navigating menus and moving from song to song? It's a regular old disk, isn't it? Give it a good defragging to arrange your music on the platter for faster, easier access.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Archive more episodes of The Simpsons by installing a new hard drive. Stop missing cell phone calls because of a weak signal indoors. Rebuild your Windows PC from scratch - but read this first. Build or buy your next computer? Depends. Finally, Just Say No to Microsoft... the book.

Stop juggling your movie collection, Deadwood episodes and Kleptones albums between DVD-Rs, external hard drives, CD-Rs and thumb drives. Take the plunge and buy yourself an old school internal hard drive, crack open the case and install it yourself. Several more gigs, easy as pie.

Pshaw, you say. I'm a computer-building machine. Well, ok. You may save a few bucks building a high-end machine from parts - minus the aggravation, of course. But your average 'puter? Dude, you might be better off getting a Dell.

If you're sick of yelling, "Hello? Still there? HELLO?" into your cell phone while hanging off your fire escape, it's time to invest in some signal-boosting hardware. For around 50 bucks you can get a few more bars on the old cellie at home so you don't miss or drop any more calls.

Ah, Windoze. After a year or so the registry's clogged, the disk fragmented, and mystery processes are hogging CPU and memory like there's no tomorrow. The Incredible Degrading Operating System can often only be saved with a fresh start - a reinstallation from scratch, that is. Before you begin, check out Lifehacker reader tips and tricks for talking a walk through Windows reinstallville.

Instead of going through all that, you could just show Windows the door. No Starch Press' new book, Just Say No to Microsoft, will school you on how to dump Gates for good with full explanations of alternate operating systems and software applications that can replace the Micro$oft products.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Crack open your PC and install a PCI card. Resuscitate the backlight on your dying LCD monitor. Find bomb tripwire with Silly String. Keep snoopers from undeleting the data on your hard drive. Finally, have your say about assy software design.

Yeah, I know - you're a hardware badass who can assemble a server farm from spare parts in your sleep. In fact, you install hardware so often you don't even use a case for your PC. You've just got a rack with an exposed motherboard, fan and a spinning disk on your desk. But if you happen to have a friend who could use some help installing that TV tuner card? We've got a basic primer on how to install a PCI card you can, ahem, pass on.

Your LCD monitor looking a litte dim these days? Don't sell it and get a new one. Twenty bucks and some elbow grease'll replace the backlight and your face can sport that healthy monitor burn glow again.

There's a reason why God created Silly String - and it's not to cover your little brother in it while he naps. Some advice from U.S. Marines: next time you're tiptoeing into a dark room rigged with bomb tripwire, spray a bit of Silly String ahead of you to see where they're at. Silly String saves lives. Don't forget it.

Keep the 8-year-old who bought your old hard drive on Ebay from resurrecting your deleted pr0n collection. Wipe the data from your old drive clean with a delete program so secure the Department of Defense uses it. Try to undelete that, sucka.

Is it Microsoft Office's annoying little animated help guy, Clippy? Focus-stealing apps that demand your attention? Ineffective pop-up blockers? Word's auto-capitalize? Misery loves company: tell us your biggest computing pet peeves. It'll make you feel better.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Get in shape with your Xbox or PS2. Automatically clean out temporary files on your PC. Filter out the RSS fluff on your mobile device. Get 10 free digital photo prints. Tweak out your 'pod with the best iPod freeware.

Your face is pasty, your eyes glazed, your thumbs sore and your butt soft from sitting inert in front of your console for hours on end. It's time to play a new game. Yourself Fitness is a diet and fitness program with a predictably creepy yet kinda cute cybergal "virtual personal trainer" who prescribes an exercise program and calls you a naughty boy if you skip a day. Yourself Fitness is available for the Xbox, PS2 or PC.

Never thought you'd see the day when a Windows VB script would do more good than harm, hmmm? Meet Janitor.vbs, a script that sweeps up X day-old garbage from a temporary holding pen for downloaded files you set up in Windows. Recover much-needed disk space and make sure your pirated movies expire after a week: set up Janitor.vbs to sweep up after you every night.

You're an RSS freak. Thousands of unread items mock you from your desktop newsreader every day. But you just want to see new posts on that blog by the girl you're stalking when you're on the go. Filter out the less important feeds and view only the good stuff on your mobile phone with Bloglines.

Photo-sharing app Flickr launched photo printing this week. To hook you on the Flickr crack even more, they're giving away 10 free 4x6 prints. This way Mom can get a hit without having to understand what "tag" or "Ajax" means.

Make video files, back up songs to your computer, create e-books or install Linux - all on your iPod. All that and a bag of chips over at the best iPod freeware list.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Send a text message and win a free Nokia 6682 cameraphone. Hack your house to help you get things done. Build your own monitor riser out of spare parts for when you're at work, and a DIY beer cooler for when you're at play. Finally, repurpose that old PC into a VNC, FTP or HTTP server.

The Nokia 6682 smartphone is 1.3 megapixels of Bluetooth cameraphone goodness with 6x zoom, flash, night mode, video capabilities, email with attachments, a built-in MP3 player, alarm clock, SMS and MMS messaging. It'll even put on your pants for you in the morning. Want to get one without spending 500 bucks? Text 4INFO (44636) the word lifehacker to enter for a chance to win.

You may have all your virtual bits and bytes in line, but how's your real world organized? Specifically, your house? If you find yourself routinely trying to dig a path to the door, or surrounded by gadget detritus with drained batteries, or unable to find the tools you need to get stuff done (like call Mom or boil some water), it's time to get your crap in order. Have a few tips on how to hack your house into the usable home.

Stop propping up your monitor on that Yellow Pages. Head on down to Home Depot for some plastic pipe and plywood to construct your very own monitor stand, especially helpful for ergonomics-concerned giants and midgets who need non-standard screen heights.

When you're done, celebrate with a cold one stored in your very own DIY single beer cooler. Come on, you know you want your Guinness in one of these on a hot day.

Lastly, put that old computer box sitting in the corner of your office to good use. Turn it into a FTP, web, or VNC server. Host a personal wiki or your blog or music and movie collection using free software and a dynamic DNS service. Our roundup of home server tutorials will lead you down the merry path.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Don't pay for video at the iTunes Music Store - subscribe to free, del.icio.us video in iTunes. Create your own own iPod videos. Or forget the White Status Symbol of Apple Cult Membership, and watch your video to go on a big screen PocketPC. Of course, if you do decide to pay the man, be sure to give an iTune as a gift. Also: power texting tips for the SMS-happy, and how to make the four biggest search engines bend to your will with the top 20 search helpers.

Now that iTunes supports "vodcasting" - video podcasting - and social bookmarks manager del.icio.us supports filetypes, you can subscribe to movie files bookmarked in del.icio.us right in iTunes. With a little URL hacking with custom tags (want .mov's tagged "funny"? "movie trailer"? "girls," you pervert?) you can get free video surprises downloaded right into iTunes every day.

If Steve Jobs the Snake Charmer got you to run out and pick up your very own video iPod, check out this tutorial on creating your own iPod videos. No doubt a home video of your kitten batting at some yarn'll score some points on a first date.

Of course you could always resist the temptation of the Great White Music and Video player watch video on the go with a less sexy but more functional PocketPC.

However, if the draw of the iTunes Music Store does break you down, be sure to suck your friends and family in as well. Give an iTune or an iTMS video as a gift right inside iTunes.

Did the gagillion text messages in your mobile phone plan go unused last month? Point your clicker at a few power texting tips for the newbie and experienced thumber alike.

Finally, the search engine operators that will make Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves return exactly what it is you're looking for. Demand only the finest-crafted queries: dig up exactly the information you need from the darkest, loneliest corners of the Web with our top 20 search helpers.

Lifehacker’s Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

This week at Lifehacker: Turn that old Windows PC into a free, personal home web server. Load maps and driving directions onto your iPod. Back up your DVD collection. Turn your Firefox address bar into a web search command line. Mod your mouse to work in clickless silence.

You've got tunes, you've got broadband, and you've got friends. You've also got a beater PC sitting around doing nothing. Get a web server up and running with a personalized static domain name, using the free Apache HTTP server and DynDNS. Publish your MP3 directory, home videos, photo library, pirated televison and movie collection - just kidding about those last two, Officer - then invite friends and family to partake. A password-protected home web server is a great way to make personal read-only files available for download using only a web browser - no FTP or file-sharing client required.

You're driving somewhere new today. Instead of littering the backseat of your car with another set of Mapquest inkjet print-outs, navigate by the friendly glow of your iPod screen. New service iWay saves a Yahoo! map to your iPod for handy, back-lit, non-tree-killing in-your-pocket reference.

You've just purchased the Deluxe Trekkie Golden Anniversary Super Duper special edition DVD set, and your six-year-old's grimy fingers are just itchin' to use 'em as as frisbees. Back up your DVD collection and let the young'uns go nuts with the copies. In 20 years your kid'll thank you for the collector's item.

Hey, command-line lover! Yeah you, the one with 89 keyboard combinations burned into muscle memory. I heard you got carpal tunnel arguing on IRC about whether vim is better than Emacs. Anyway, try this: in Firefox, Cntl-L to the address bar and type dict leet. Then watch the fox beam you directly to the Dictionary.com word definition. This is the wonder of Firefox Quick Searches. Turn your address bar into a web search command line with keyword access to 15 pre-configured Quick searches - from Wikipedia to Flickr to Urban Dictionary to Acronym Finder to Ebay to Google Image Search. Plus more. Download 'em here.

Does the sound of your constantly clicking mouse make you wanna stick hot pins in your eyes? Crack open your clicker, solder some switches, ground a few pins and Voila! Stealth silent mousing nirvana is yours.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.