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DIY Keychain Money Clip Lightens Your Pockets [DIY]Today

We've already shown you several ways to streamline your keys with a DIY flair, but reader Oliver writes in with his own inventive method for lightening his pockets by combining his keys with his money clip.

I've recently enjoyed having a money clip rather than a wallet for trips out of the house because it doesn't weigh down the pant pockets as much. The next biggest annoyance was definitely the keys. It occurred to me that I could rivet the keys to a plastic store card (one I don't really want anymore) and include them in the money clip!

It was really quite easy to make, simply drill two 1/8th inch holes in the card and put a 1/8th inch washer on the front and back (with the key contacting the card). Then use two 1/8th inch diameter rivets (1/4 inch long) to hold everything together.

It's a simple idea, but if you're looking to get rid of

All About the Icons [Featured Desktop]Yesterday

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
Often we think of desktop icons as the cause of a cluttered, ugly desktop, but as Windows user ryanst24 demonstrates, when laid out properly with the right skin, your icons can really spice up your desktop. Using the free Blossom icon set, he's created a beautiful-yet-streamlined desktop with 14 desktop icons dying to be clicked. If you prefer a clean desktop but still want access to your most recently used folders and programs as desktop shortcuts, this desktop exemplifies how to do so with style.

septemberdesktop2 [Flickr]

Open in Google Chrome Extension Does Just That [Featured Firefox Extension]Yesterday

Windows only (for now): The Open in Google Chrome Firefox extension opens any page in Google Chrome directly from Firefox. Based on the IE View Lite extension, this one also lets you set any page you want to open in Chrome from default so that—for example—if you love Firefox for your default browsing but Google Chrome handles Gmail or other webapps better—you can define which you want opened where. Unfortunately this extension doesn't embed Chrome windows in Firefox like other incarnations of IE View, but under the right circumstances it might be useful.

Open Websites in Google Chrome from Firefox [Digital Inspiration]

Shelf Web Pages Instantly (and Get Back to Work) with ReadItLater [Screenshot Tour]Yesterday

Surely you come across web pages during the workday that are completely unrelated to actual work, but that you'd love to save for later—and the previously mentioned (and award winning) Firefox extension ReadItLater does just that really well. Once ReadItLater is part of your everyday workflow, it's super-easy to park long articles or interesting tidbits you want to look at over lunch or at home in a "staging area" that's available as an RSS feed, in your regular bookmarks, and even on other computers. ReadItLater may appear unnecessary to power bookmarkers who keep a "later" folder or tag, but on closer inspection it does offer features that make hitting the snooze button on a link much easier.

The Killer Feature: One-click Park

Without ReadItLater, to save a web page in your bookmarks in a "read it later" folder or tag, it takes a couple of steps. (Even with Firefox 3's one-click bookmarking, you still have to tag or file the link.) With ReadItLater installed, Firefox gets a checkbox in the address bar next to the regular bookmark star icon. Click on that checkbox to automatically add the current web page to your ReadItLater list in one click. That's it. Now you can get back to work.

Alternately, if you don't even want to open the tempting link but want to save it for later, right-click on a link and choose "Read This Link Later" from the context menu.

If you're want to add a bunch of links on a single page to your reading list even more quickly, then activate "Click to Save" mode (Alt+M by default, or click the ReadItLater icon in the status bar). When you do, clicking on any link doesn't open it, it adds it to your reading list. This feature is especially good for shelfing several items of interest you might find on link-heavy pages like the Digg or Lifehacker front page.

Check Your Reading List

Once you've added a few pages to your ReadItLater list, you can click on the ReadItLater dropdown on the right of Firefox's search box to expand the list of items you've parked there. ReadItLater conveniently sorts the links by oldest added (by default, you can change this), so you see the stuff that's been hanging out there the longest at the top. You can quickly filter the list by tag, page name, site, or URL, too.

See that handy number 10 on the ReadItLater toolbar button? That's the number of unread items you have. This feature isn't turned on by default, but it's nice to instantly see how many items are in your reading queue. To turn it on, in ReadItLater's options, under Appearance, check off "Show number of unread items on the toolbar button," as shown.

Read Your Pages

Now that you've built up a reading list, you're eating lunch at your desk and want to do some personal browsing. Click on any link from that list dropdown to visit a page. All done? Simply click the ReadItLater checkbox to mark the item as read and immediately take it off your list. If you want tor permanently save it on your boomarks service of choice, hit the dropdown on that checkbox and pick your bookmark poison.

Syncing Your ReadItLater List

One of the really cool features of ReadItLater is that it automatically saves links to your Firefox bookmarks in a folder you specify. So if you're already syncing your bookmarks across computers with the likes of Foxmarks, your reading list goes to other computers even if you don't have the ReadItLater extension installed on them (but you don't get its neat interface).

ReadItLater has a syncing mechanism built in, too. You set up an RSS feed of your reading items, and then log in with your feed ID and a password to get your list on other computers with ReadItLater installed. Visit ReadItLater's Options dialog, under RSS/Syncing, to set that up.

Keyboard Shortcuts and Offline Reading

If clicking around Firefox ain't your bag, baby, ReadItLater has you covered. Customize your keyboard shortcuts for even faster access to your queue in the Options dialog.

ReadItLater also can save web pages you want to read on an airplane, for instance, to your hard drive for offline access. From the ReadItLater list dropdown, while you're online, click on the "Read Offline" link to make ReadItLater save local copies of the pages on your list.

Check out this three minute video demo to see ReadItLater in action.

Top 10 Home Automation Projects [Lifehacker Top 10]September 5

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.