A very simple guide to leaving here quickly so you can get back to making something awesome.

Ask yourself…

Why am I here right now instead of making something cool on my own? What’s the barrier to me starting that right now?

This is not an insult or put-down. It’s a useful question. Please, think about it, then search the site to see if we have anything that might inspire you to make something awesome today.

What Sucks?

Looking for specific answers to what sucks for you today?

• “My email sucks.”



• “My attention management sucks.”



• “My compulsive web browsing sucks.”



• “My lack of resolve to put my art first sucks.”



• “My procrastination sucks.”



• “No, seriously. My procrastination really sucks.”



• “My fiddling with ‘productivity systems’ sucks.”



• “My to-do list sucks.”



• “My blog sucks.”



• “My band’s stupid website sucks.”



• “My meetings suck.”



• “My PowerPoint presentation sucks.”



• “I suck.”

More ideas

Still sucking? No problem. Here’s more places to scratch around.

Popular now — Here are the hottest articles on our site (right this minute).

Title	Recent
"Right Now, What Are You Doing?"	69
Time & Attention Presentation: "Who Moved My Brain?"	48
What Makes for a Good Blog?	34
Procrastination hack: '(10+2)*5'	33
Introducing the Hipster PDA	24

Our Most Popular Posts — Okay, technically, it’s the most popular from Januay 2007 til now. But, you know. You get the gist.

Title	All-time
Getting started with "Getting Things Done"	666832
Introducing the Hipster PDA	523976
Writing sensible email messages	181460
How I Made My Presentations a Little Better	173436
Video for Merlin's "Inbox Zero" talk	164411

Still Lost?

Try a mental sweep, do a shitty first draft, or consider a modest change.

Maybe just get away from the computer for a while by taking a nice walk. Without your phone. We’ll still be here when you come back. Promise.

How to Know When You’re Done Here

You’re done here whenever you’ve found just enough information to get you back on track for today. If we don’t have the right fit for you, we sincerely hope it won’t take you half a day of surfing to figure that out.

We love having you visit with us here, and we hope you’ll return many times — whenever you think we might have something that might help you get over the hump. But.

The Only “Productivity” That Matters

The best advice we can offer is to just put your head down, push yourself harder, and try to figure out what you need to change today to get a little better.

“Productivity” isn’t about about making more widgets per hour or being efficient and organized for its own anal-retentive sake. Real productivity means getting faster at moving the crap off your desk so you can have room to focus on the creative work that only you can do.

Figure out how to do that every morning, and you’ll be ready to go pro.

• The relocatable KITAHAUS Pod



• Relocatable Sphere House



• Container technology for the home removals market



• Double-decker living



• MetroNap PODS - power napping for productivity



• Oxfam innovates to tackle shelter crisis in earthquake zone

The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects." It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA "rendition" flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers.

Last October, the Austin American Statesman reported the plane had previously flown to Guantanamo Bay.

Here's a Chicago Public Radio story from October 31, 2008 about the crashed CIA drug plane.

The crashed drug plane also has been linked to a Bush fundraiser.

Mad Cow Morning news has been covering stories about the CIA and drug smuggling.

Drug plane used for US rendition flights

[Jason Scott] curated a nice collection of links related to [Phil Lapsley]’s work on phone phreaking. [Lapsley]’s book, The History of Phone Phreaking, will be released in 2009. Meanwhile phone phreak enthusiasts can peruse his site and bone up on some interesting material, including documents that revealed the inner workings of the telephone switchboard(PDF), and the Youth International Party Line (YIPL)/Technological American Party (TAP) FBI files(PDF), which is really intriguing for the various doodles and conversations that were documented. If you have some spare time, we definitely recommend sifting through it.

[via Waxy]

When America was being divvied up, surveyors and cartographers were as accurate as possible drawing the boundaries between these new regions. Unfortunately, mistakes were still made. And minor map mistakes led to years of fighting—sometimes in the courts, and sometimes on the field of battle.

1. The Toledo War: Ohio vs. Michigan

The story of The Toledo War actually begins in 1787, when the U.S. government enacted the Northwest Ordinance. The Ordinance described the border between Ohio and Michigan as “an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan.” Congress used the best map available at the time, The Mitchell Map (above), to create this east-west line, putting most of the west shoreline of Lake Erie within Ohio’s borders. This would include Maumee Bay, where the Maumee River and Lake Erie meet, giving Ohio a significant economic advantage for shipping.



However, it was discovered in 1803 that The Mitchell Map was incorrect—the tip of Lake Michigan was actually farther south. A straight line from the correct southern point would have cost Ohio almost all of Lake Erie. Hoping to avoid this loss, Ohio changed the description of the border so that it now ran northeast from the tip of Lake Michigan to Maumee Bay. This new description wasn’t an issue until 1833, when Michigan asked for statehood. Michigan kept the old Northwest Ordinance line description, but drew it from the correct tip of Lake Michigan. The overlap between Ohio and Michigan’s descriptions created the “Toledo Strip,” a ribbon of land five to eight miles wide, encompassing present-day Toledo.

In an effort to make Michigan concede the Strip, Ohio’s governor, Robert Lucas, used his political connections to convince Congress to deny Michigan statehood. Upset by Lucas’ scheme, Michigan governor Stevens Mason enacted the Pains and Penalties Act in February 1835. This law said that anyone caught in the Strip supporting the state of Ohio could be jailed for up to five years and fined $1,000 (about $24,000 in today’s money). To enforce his act, Mason raised a militia of 1,000 men and stationed them inside Toledo. In response, Governor Lucas sent 600 men. It was a fight just waiting to happen.

For the next five months, a series of skirmishes, arrests, lawsuits, and general chest thumping occurred in the Toledo Strip. But no one was killed or seriously injured until July, when Michigan sheriff Joseph Wood attempted to arrest Major Benjamin Stickney for voting in an Ohio election. Stickney and his sons, named—I kid you not—One Stickney and Two Stickney, resisted. In the melee, Two stabbed Sheriff Wood with a pocketknife.

Though the sheriff’s wound was not life threatening, this scuffle was enough to instigate peace talks, and troops were withdrawn. Still, the political dispute raged on until December 1836 when Congress offered Michigan a compromise—give up the Toledo Strip, but gain statehood and a large portion of the Upper Peninsula instead. Michigan had spent so much maintaining the militia’s presence in the Strip that they were quickly running out of money. They weren’t happy about it, but they had no choice but to accept the compromise.

Even after the deal, legal battles between the states occurred periodically until 1973, when it took a Supreme Court ruling to resolve claims to the waters of Lake Erie. Now Ohio and Michigan citizens channel their border war tensions onto the college football gridiron. Ohio State vs. Michigan is one of the great sports rivalries. And lately, bragging rights have gone to the Buckeyes—Ohio State has won the last four meetings.

2. The Pig War: United States vs. Great Britain

On June 15, 1846, the British and U.S. governments signed The Oregon Treaty, establishing the border between Oregon Country and the Columbia District in Canada. The border would reside from the 49th parallel, down through the middle of the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, and then out to the Pacific Ocean. The only maps available at the time were a little fuzzy on details, though, so neither government knew there were actually two channels that separated Vancouver Island from the mainland—the Haro Strait to the west and the Rosario Strait to the east. Stuck in the middle of those two straits were the San Juan Islands.

Both Britain and the United States claimed the islands, but the dispute was dormant for many years. Then, on June 15, 1859—exactly 13 years after the Oregon Treaty was signed—Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer, noticed a large, black boar rooting in his garden. On the other side of Cutlar’s fence was Charles Griffin, an Irishman, who sat laughing as the pig destroyed Cutlar’s crops. Annoyed, Cutlar took out his rifle and shot the boar dead.

After cooling down, Cutlar offered to pay $10 for the pig, but Griffin refused, demanding $100 instead. Cutlar countered by saying he shouldn’t have to pay anything since the animal was trespassing on his land. Tensions mounted and British authorities threatened to arrest the American, who then called the United States for protection. Both governments responded to the situation by sending troops to the San Juan Islands.

The dispute escalated for the next two years. At its peak, Britain had amassed five warships carrying 167 guns and manned with 2,140 soldiers. The Americans had a still-respectable 461 troops with 14 cannons in reinforced positions. Wisely, the commanding officers saw how silly the whole thing was and demanded that neither side fire unless fired upon; they knew it wasn’t worth dying over a pig.

Eventually it was agreed the armies should leave 100 men each and send the rest home. This small military occupation lasted for another 12 years without a single shot being fired. In fact, the occupying troops became friendly with one another, celebrating holidays and even playing games during their stay.

The dispute was finally resolved in October of 1872. Canada suggested a compromise boundary running through the islands, but the final border ran through the Haro Strait to the west, making all the islands part of the United States. In November, the British pulled their troops; in July, the Americans left as well. The only casualty of this “war” was a hungry farm animal.

3. The Honey War: Missouri vs. Iowa

Aside from incorrect maps, surveying mistakes have also been a major factor in American border disputes. In 1816, renowned surveyor John Sullivan was hired to map out the northern border of Missouri. In his description of the boundary, fittingly called “The Sullivan Line,” he referenced a latitude line passing through “the rapids of the River Des Moines.” Little did he know this simple phrase would come to complicate the state’s history for years to come.

Twenty years later, the Sullivan Line was resurveyed after Missouri annexed land to the west. Sullivan had died, so Joseph Brown was hired. Going by the somewhat vague description of the rapids, Brown searched on the banks of the Des Moines River until he found what he thought was the correct location. In fact, he was 9.5 miles north of Sullivan’s designation, accidentally carving out a large strip of new land for Missouri.

The discrepancy in Brown’s Line was not noticed until two years later, when Congress was establishing the Iowa Territory. Congress decided that Iowa’s southern border would simply be where it met Missouri’s northern border. This required yet another survey, this time done by Major Albert Lea. Looking at Brown and Sullivan’s descriptions of “the rapids,” Lea decided there were a handful of possible spots for this landmark: the first was at Brown’s Line; the second was at Sullivan’s Line; and the third possibility was south of Sullivan’s Line, 15 miles into Missouri. This new location was where the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers met, a place referred to as “The Des Moines Rapids.” As one might guess, Missouri preferred the Brown Line, while Iowa preferred the new line at The Des Moines Rapids.

Without waiting for Congress to decide on the survey, Lilburn Boggs, Missouri’s governor, ordered his officials to enforce Missouri law up to the Brown Line. In response, Iowa’s governor, Robert Lucas (yes, the same Governor Lucas involved in The Toledo War went on to become the governor of Iowa), demanded that Missouri keep out of the disputed area. Tensions rose until a Missouri sheriff attempted to collect taxes in November 1839. The Iowans ran him off, but not before he decided to collect his due in another way—by chopping down three trees filled with honey, an important local commodity, as partial payment.

The loss of the honey trees set off a political firestorm. Lucas sent 300 militiamen to defend the border; Boggs sent 800 men of his own. Cooler heads prevailed by late December, and both governors agreed to withdraw their troops. Not a single shot was fired. A temporary boundary was drawn until 1851, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the border should be placed down the middle of the strip of disputed land, along the original Sullivan Line of 1816.

See also…

• 3 Controversial Maps

• The Confederacy’s Plan to Conquer Latin America

Rob Lammle is probably the only cartographer you’ll ever meet who has an English degree. Read more on his own site, spacemonkeyx.com.

Windows/Mac: Free application Docstoc Sync automatically synchronizes files between your desktop computer and previously mentioned document sharing web site Docstoc. Once installed, the application monitors your documents folders and automatically syncs any changes you make. Documents can be uploaded as either public or private (any file in your My Documents folder defaults to private), which means you can use the app to either share docs on the web or back them up privately. Docstop Sync is freeware, Windows and Mac only.

You've got a computer that backs up vital documents, launches applications at the tap of a key, and effortlessly pulls down the information you need from the web—and yet you spend precious weekend time doing menial tasks like watering the lawn and getting rice ready for dinner. You can apply the same geeky spirit to your home as you do your computer desktop, and we've got a host of projects that take a short time to tackle and free you up for the fun stuff. Check out our favorite home automation projects then tell us how you make your household self-maintaining.

10. Make your money handle itself.

It seems obvious, but a surprising number of geeks still manually shuffle their money around each month, paying bills as they come (or forgetting them) and saving when they think of it (and forgetting to). Your options may vary depending on your bank, but almost anybody can benefit from automating your finances. Think of it in GTD terms—the less time you spend worrying about where your dollars go, the more time and energy you have to spend them the way you want.

9. Back up your computer automatically.

Maybe you're an avid enough reader of this site to have gotten the religion of Hard Drives Always Fail, so you've set up your Windows or Mac system to automatically back up. You might use a nifty GUI tool like IdleBackup (which we walked through), or implemented a rock-solid tool like rsync. If that's the case, we're still going to suggest you make a weekend project of setting up your spouse, parents, siblings, or friends' computers to do the same. It's one less frantic call you'll receive, and it's one of the few guaranteed ways to feel no worries about the inevitable.

8. Skip unnecessary store runs with Amazon Subscribe & Save.

Not everyone needs or wants to have their paper towels, baby needs, or other dry goods delivered to them on a regular schedule, but for those of us who end up making last-minute drives to the store for something as simple as a cleaning sponge, Amazon's Subscribe & Save program could be a true blessing. It has free shipping, a pretty smart schedule creator, and saves you a bit of cash over buying the items per diem—or at drugstore markup rates.

7. Make your computer get back to work (or play) when you sit down.

Those who work from home, or in frenetic office environments, know that it's almost impossible to actually sit in one place and type for 8 hours—you get up to check the mail, use the bathroom, grab more coffee, chat with co-workers, and so forth. Even if you're just an easily-distracted user at home, Adam's guide to proximity and location-based computer actions can turn your computer into an eerily sentient device. If you're carrying your cell phone with you, the Home Zone software can make your computer wake up, turn down the music, unlock the screensaver, and do other tasks once you return to your system, and go back into security or media center modes when you leave. HAL is here, and he'd like to fire up your Work Music iTunes playlist for you

6. Document your parties without carrying a camera.

Senior Editor Adam Pash throws some mean parties, but he doesn't have the types of friends who bring their DSLR rigs and send him back great shots of the festivities. So he fired up his computer, and imagination, and found a host of ways to effortlessly document his party with simple photo projects, which anyone can implement. Give friends photo-booth-style strips, show pictures from the party as it happens, and forget having to bug everyone to pose every 10 minutes.

5. Turn a webcam into a security camera.

Webcams are a great way to keep track of tempted kids (and their babysitter) or otherwise monitor what's going on back at home. They're a lot cheaper than installing a video surveillance camera, they're so commonplace and small as not to be noticed, and you can access them over the net. Check out Adam's guide to turning a Mac into a FTP-backed-up security camera, or try Windows software like HomeCamera or the motion-sensing Yawcam.

4. Pre-load breakfast and dinner with a fuzzy-logic rice cooker.

A good, timer-driven rice cooker is like a Ultimate Edition of that trusty hot pot that saw you through college, with way more convenience. As readers of Cool Tools point out, a fuzzy-logic model like the Zojirushi 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker can be loaded at night to wake you up with hot breakfast, and filled before leaving for work with rice, beans, soup, or another warm side for dinner. There are cheaper and smaller models than the $165 Zojirushi make that can get the job done—anything with a start and shutoff timer will make daily cooking much easier.

3. Find your food easily with a DIY pantry auto-light.

When you catch a late-night cookie craving, nothing's more frustrating than spending precious munching time looking for the goodies in a dimly-lit pantry. Gina's father-in-law refused to stumble about his dry goods in the dark, so he built a DIY pantry light out of a Timex watch holder and some rope lights. It's super convenient, and looks a lot cooler than a bulb and hanging switch.

2. Control any plugged-in device from your computer

Have you ever dreamed of opening a terminal, typing in start coffee, and smelling the hot stuff brewing minutes later? The geeky magic of X10 makes it possible, along with scripts that open your curtains based on the sunrise time, turn off the lights when you leave the room, and much more. Wired's How-To Wiki runs down the basics of X10 in handy fashion. Change a few plugs, learn the software, and soon enough, you're saving time and money with things like a remote-controlled deadbolt.

1. Keep a perfect lawn with automatic sprinklers

Like your garden, your lawn likes to get a deep dose of water before the sun comes out to bake it. You can spend a lot of money or manually drag your sprinkler around the yard, or you can do what contributor Jason did and make your own DIY automatic sprinkler. His total cost was $100; your mileage will vary with your lawn size and sprinkler needs, and you can knock at least $30 out of it if you feel like building your own timer.

We know our readers apply the same DIY, make-it-work-for-you spirit to their homes as they do their computers. Let's hear about your favorite and most convenient home automation projects in the comments.