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Lifehacker loading down your RSS reader with more noise than signal? Switch to our trimmed-down top stories feed to skip the extras and get right to the good stuff. Don't care about Mac-only downloads or politics or Google Chrome? Customize our URLs to see only the posts you want. This week's most popular posts include:

• Five Best Media Converters
  "We've all been there: you've downloaded an episode of your favorite TV show to watch on your commute or stream to your living room, but the file you downloaded isn't supported on the device you want to use it with."
• Top 10 Easy Ways to Look Sharp
  "Coming across as an unkempt schlub won't do anything good for your career, your social life, or your luck with that cute guy or gal from marketing."
• The Mac Meets Windows Dual-Desktop
  "Reader Dylan Boom shows how to mix operating systems environments with style in his Mac Meets Windows Dual-Desktop."
• The Best Keyboard You've Ever Typed On
  "Last week we asked you to tell us about the best keyboard you've ever used, and the testimonials came pouring in. Today we've compiled the most popular keyboards into a handy list for your perusal."
• Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone
  "Last month Adam showed you six Firefox extensions that enable Chrome's best features, but today reader Asian Angel takes it a few steps further and creates an almost identical-looking Chrome clone using 10 Firefox extensions and one theme."
• One Hundred DIY Skills Everyone Should Have
  "Popular Mechanics magazine runs a list of 100 do-it-yourself skills that every "competent man" should know. Our annoyance about the gender specificity aside, the list is decent, if a bit stretched out to hit that 100 total."
• Battle of the Tricked-Out Computer Desktops
  "Ever since we started the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell group on Flickr, readers have been contributing and explaining their computer desktop settings in droves."
• Clean Your Workspace—and Keep it That Way
  "Whether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other readers' (and my own)—the ability to attract clutter and make important documents and objects hard to find."
• Set Up Universal Ad Blocking Through Your Router
  "If you've turned your $60 router into a user-friendly super-router with open-source firmware Tomato, you already know that Tomato can boost your Wi-Fi signal, track bandwidth usage, and set Quality of Service rules with ease."
• First Look at Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Beta
  "The next version of Ubuntu's free Linux operating system, dubbed "Intrepid Ibex," is due out Oct. 30, but the beta release is up for grabs."

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Reader skarhead187 has submitted several desktops to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell pool, and the thing that always stands out most—aside from a great eye for minimalism—is that despite using popular dock application ObjectDock, most of his desktops don't show any icons or branding. Keep reading for a look at a few more of skarhead187's desktops and to hear why he likes "genderless, organic desktops":

Windows needs a global menu; OS X has it, Ubuntu has the option. I like Ubuntu's bookended desktop and also its warm and organic interface. I think the futuristic interfaces of Vista and OSX are cheesy and will seem even more cheesy throughout time. I also hate the branding of operating systems (of course I understand it). I want my machine to just work and communicate the information I need with me without overwhelming me. This is my attempt to make a genderless organic desktop. I understand it looks similar to my other desktops, but that is why I've named the set Desktop Evolution.

Using Windows Vista Home Premium, Rainmeter, ObjectDock, and custom Transblack theme.

Most of the rest of skarhead187's desktops follow the same philosophy, and a couple even offer tutorials of their own.

Juke Box

I'm using Desktop Media 1.7 to display any connected drives to my computer. It vanishes when I pull it out and I have it set to ignore my external HD and IPod. I really wish Windows automatically mounted drives like Ubuntu or OSX but you can't always get what you want. One thing that really annoys me about icons is icon text but there is a way of getting rid of it without using any other programs that eat up precious memory.

I'm also using Pidgin here because I cannot get Miranda to sign in or retrieve any of my buddy lists (I would prefer it because its skinnable).

Dirt-Wood Vista

TransblackBoot

Looking good, skarhead187!

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Jeff Ehling received this letter from American National Insurance Company to customers of Darryl Golter (see recent story):

October 10, 2008

Dear Customer:

American National Insurance Company (“ANICO”) and its subsidiary American National Property and Casualty Company (“ANPAC”) learned shortly after Hurricane Ike that insurance agent Darryl Golter had failed to forward  premiums to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (“TWIA”) on behalf of certain of his customers.  As a result of Mr. Golter’s apparent failure to transmit premiums to TWIA, TWIA did not issue windstorm policies to these customers.  You are receiving this notice because an investigation has revealed that you may have tendered a premium to Mr. Golter in order to obtain windstorm coverage through the TWIA, and that Mr. Golter may have failed to place the coverage on your behalf.

It is ANICO’s and ANPAC’s position that when you tendered a premium to Mr. Golter it was with the intent that he secure TWIA coverage on your behalf; therefore, when Mr. Golter then apparently failed to transmit that premium to TWIA, Mr. Golter was not acting on behalf of either ANICO or ANPAC.  It is important that each customer understand the nature of TWIA. TWIA is a “pool” of all property and casualty insurance companies authorized to write coverage in the state of Texas.  TWIA’s purpose is to provide Texas citizens with certain wind and hail coverage when such coverage is not otherwise available in the insurance marketplace.  Any agent holding a Texas General Lines Agent-Property & Casualty license can submit applications for coverage with TWIA on behalf of his or her customers. TWIA, however, takes the position that such agents represent the insured, not TWIA, in the insurance buying transaction for coverage placed with the TWIA. 

However, customers who may have been harmed through Mr. Golter’s actions may also be ANICO and/or ANPAC customers.  While neither ANICO nor ANPAC is legally responsible or liable for Mr. Golter’s failure to obtain windstorm coverage for you from TWIA, ANICO and ANPAC are concerned about the welfare of our customers in their time of need and wish to help you resolve the problems that Mr. Golter may have independently created.

Accordingly, in exchange for your  assignment to ANICO and/or ANPAC of any and all claims you have against Mr. Golter, TWIA, or any other party arising from Mr. Golter’s apparent failure to pay the premiums for your windstorm insurance, and  a full release of any potential claims you might have or believe you might have against  ANICO, ANPAC or its subsidiaries, arising out of Mr. Golter’s actions, ANICO and/or ANPAC will provide one of the following two forms of relief, depending on your particular situation:

1)      If you have not suffered covered windstorm damage in excess of the what would have been the applicable TWIA deductible had a TWIA policy been in effect at the time of your Hurricane Ike loss, ANICO and/or ANPAC will reimburse you for the amount of premium that we are able to confirm you paid to Mr. Golter for the 2008 policy year.  If you are such a person, please contact John Fortier, ANPAC Senior Field Claims Representative, (409) 370-9253 promptly to make the necessary arrangements to receive premium reimbursement.  Mr. Fortier may also be reached by email at the following address: John.Fortier@anpac.com.
2)      If you have suffered windstorm damage in excess of what would have been the applicable TWIA deductible had a TWIA policy been in effect at the time of your Hurricane Ike loss, ANICO and/or ANPAC will pay the claim that TWIA would have paid subject to the terms and conditions of the TWIA windstorm policy for covered damage incurred. If you are such a person, please contact John Fortier, ANPAC Senior Field Claims Representative, (409) 370-9253 promptly to make the necessary arrangements for adjustment of your windstorm damage claim. Mr. Fortier may also be reached by email at the following address: John.Fortier@anpac.com. Thank you for your understanding and continued business.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Campbell
Senior Vice President/General Counsel/Corporate Secretary
Chief Claims Officer

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YouTube is now offering 15 50-minute episodes of classic TV shows including Star Trek, MacGyver, and Beverly Hills, 90210 with "prominent new ads." Coupled with YouTube's newly-launched theater view, this looks like an easy way to wile away a Friday afternoon. [via]

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Reader Justin writes in with a clever idea for quickly launching downloads with the popular command-line download manager, wget. His method: Make wget available to Launchy, then pass the URL of the file you want to download to wget through Launchy. Here's how it works:

1. Install Launchy.
2. Download wget and copy the files from the unzipped folder to C:\Windows.
3. Create a shortcut to C:\Windows/wget.exe and rename it dl.
4. Place that shortcut in your Start menu. To configure wget to start minimized, right-click the shortcut, select Properties, and tick the checkbox next to Run minimized.
5. Finally, to set the download directory, set the working directory (Start in) to your download folder of choice.
6. Now simply rebuild your Launchy index, and voila!

To download a file with wget, just invoke Launchy, type 'dl' (though I actually stuck with wget), hit Tab, then paste the link. It works great, and it's a really handy shortcut if you want to start a quick download. Not terribly familiar with wget but like this idea? Check out our previous guide to mastering wget. If the command line isn't your cup of tea but you wouldn't mind a little more flexibility with your downloads, take a quick look at the Hive Five Best Download Managers. Thanks Justin!

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Enjoy your weekend, and mind your pockets when you're out and about.

"I Am Going To Be Small" by Jeffrey Brown, via Neatorama

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Got a Linens ’n Things gift card? Use it now. Bankrupt retailer Linens ’n Things is just days away from auctioning off the company, possibly to a bidder that could close and liquidate the company’s remaining stores. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the Linens ’n Things Web site, which continues to market the store’s gift cards with values as high as $200. You might expect that the company, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May, would alert gift card buyers of its precarious financial situation so that they could decide whether to take a chance on getting stuck with a worthless or near-worthless card if the company shuts down operations. That's what defunct Sharper Image did earlier this year. Such an alert might even be more warranted now that Linens ’n Things has abandoned its reorganization plan and scheduled an Oct. 14 auction, with the approval Friday of the federal bankruptcy court. Rich Tauberman, a Linens ’n Things spokesman, says the company as late as Friday remained in discussions with potential bidders that would operate the stores. But he said he believed gift cards would continue to be honored whether a new owner operates the stores or liquidates them.“We have every expectation that gift cards will be honored in our stores with whatever happens,” Tauberman says. But based on what happened with Sharper Image, we recommend caution. In that case, the chain first stopped accepting its cards, then resumed accepting them under certain circumstances, and then closed its store altogether, stranding gift card holders. So if you have a Linens ’n Things gift card, we advise you to use it immediately, preferably this weekend. If you’re thinking of buying a Linens ’n Things gift card, think again. —Anthony Giorgianni Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Man, cigarettes were awesome in the past, if these old ads collected by Stanford University are to be believed. They calmed your nerves so you'd stop humming nervously! They soothed your throat! They made you a movie star and helped you capture animals on your big game hunt! We don't know what tobacco was made of before the mid-80s, but no wonder everyone smoked.

Or maybe it was just ridiculous advertising. Check out Stanford's full collection for more stunners like the ones below.

"Not a Cough in a Carload" [Stanford University via WeirdNewsFiles via Neatorama]

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Reader Pays Off $14,330 In 20 Months With Our Tips
Lehman Brothers CEO Got Punched In The Face
The Economist Sums Up Financial Crisis: "Oh Fuck!"
The Idiot-Proof Way To Securely Use Public Wi-Fi
5 Expenses To Cut Right Now If You're In Debt
GMail's Achilles Heel: Terrible Customer Service

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Windows only: Microsoft Office Labs has released an open source multi-touch application framework called Touchless that uses your webcam as the input. Right now the Touchless Demo lets you play with four proof-of-concept ideas: Draw, Image, Snake, and Defend. The first is a free-form drawing application, while Image is an image manipulation utility that allows you to zoom in or out and move around on a map with marker gestures. The other two are games (Snake is exactly like the classic, and Defend is up to four-person Pong). To set up a marker that Touchless tracks, just grab something colorful, click Add A New Marker, then draw a circle around the object. From there on out, Touchless will monitor that marker wherever it is in the shot. Right now the application is a little clunky, but as a proof-of-concept it's not bad (and it's fun to play with). Before long multi-touch may not be limited to people who can afford several thousand dollar equipment, after all.

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Tester invites started going out to the dramatically-overhauled new Yahoo Calendar beta, and we were one of the lucky ones to give it a spin. The new look and feel brings YCal into 2008 (finally!) with a dynamic interface including drag and drop events, Flickr integration, multiple calendar subscriptions and—gasp!—a built-in to-do list. For too long, YCal has looked like it was stuck in 1998, even though it launched way earlier than Google Calendar or other flashy web-based calendar tools, so we're thrilled to see it get back in the game. Let's take a look at the new YCal beta in action; a full screenshot and a quick screencast are yours below.

As Webware reports, the YCal beta is based on Zimbra, the open source email, contacts, and calendaring solution Yahoo acquired last year. Here's a full-sized screenshot a monthly view, with the default Flickr calendar enabled, which right now shows you random photos on certain days (but will eventually integrate your photos by date):

Here's what the beta looks like in action as I click around it a bit:

As you can see, you can subscribe to multiple calendars in YCal, and you can also share calendars with other users, set reminders for events via IM, SMS, or email, and set up repeating events (like weekly meetings and yearly birthdays). The beta isn't complete yet; if you do get chosen to check it out you'll get a list of what you'll give up by using the beta (including syncing capabilities, Yahoo Groups calendar access, event search, and prefab time guides, all of which are "coming soon.")

Here's a narrated screencast of the new overhaul by a Yahoo employee.

To opt into the YCal beta, hit up this page to throw your hat in the ring.

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This week in safety Babies and kids received attention in safety news this week with stories about the dangers of giving children certain cold medications, an interesting new study about sudden infant death syndrome and a report on the dangers of young children getting scalded while removing hot liquids from microwaves. Yesterday we wrote about a Nerf gun recall and a popular amusement park ride was recalled on Wednesday. YO-YO amusement park rides recalled by CPSC and manufacturer for repairs Consumer Product Safety Commission In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Chance Rides Manufacturing voluntarily recalled to inspect and repair about 85 YO-YO amusement rides across the country. The CPSC has received reports of two incidents involving the YO-YO ride resulting in injuries to children and adults, including scraped knees and back strains. On May 16, 2008, 23 riders of a YO-YO ride in Angels Camp, Calif. fell to the ground when the sweep arms suspending the circular swinging chairs they were riding in broke free from the ride’s center cylinder rod. Read more ... Read more on amusement park safety: Child warning added to cold remedies The New York Times Manufacturers of pediatric cough and cold medicines announced Tuesday that they would voluntarily change their products’ labels to say that they should not be used in children under age four. In addition, products with certain antihistamines will get new language warning parents not to use them to sedate or make a child sleepy.  Read more ... Fans reduce infants’ sudden death risk Time A new study by researchers with Kaiser Permanente Northern California suggests a simple strategy for reducing the risk of sudden death of infants in their sleep: turning on a fan at night. The study's findings, based on data collected from nearly 500 mother-and-child pairs in California between 1997 and 2000, indicate that the use of a fan in an infant's room may reduce the likelihood of sudden death by 72 percent. Read more ... Microwaves a menace for young kids The Washington Post Every year, young children suffer burns when they remove hot liquids from microwave ovens, a new study finds. Children as young as 18 months can open a microwave, remove the hot substance, and scald themselves. These burns can result in serious injuries that often required skin grafting and intensive care. Read more ... How safe is your drinking water? Consumer Reports Home blog Nine states recently filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a rule the federal agency published in June that, according to an October 2, 2008, report from the Associated Press, "exempts the discharge of pollutants in 'transfer waters' from permitting requirements." The states say the ruling could contaminate supplies of drinking water and harm fisheries. Read more ... Raking leaves: A cautionary tale Consumer Reports Health blog While winter may be the season most people consider risky for slips and falls, autumn can be equally dangerous.  Accidents sustained in autumn clean-up work keep emergency rooms hopping and orthopedists busy until spring. If you're not careful, injuries can occur from cleaning the gutters, operating lawn mowers, raking leaves, and hoisting them into bags. Falls off ladders, foot injuries from mowers, and low back pain from strenuous twisting and lifting can happen to just about anyone. Read more ... Don’t miss these recalls Various flavored drinks and candy (melamine contamination) 12,000 Tween Brands children’s necklaces, CD & MP3 players (lead paint) 11,000 Kids Feet girl’s sandals (choking hazard) 13,000 Coby rechargeable batteries sold with portable DVD/CD/MP3 players (fire hazard) 45,000 Effikal gas vent dampers (carbon monoxide hazard) Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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