Scott LaPlant Swell Chap that loves Linux

At last year’s South by Southwest Interactive festival, I experienced shoulder burns, a perpetually dead laptop, frantic text messages, and very little sleep. This year, I’m planning on taking Lifehacker’s own advice on travel tools and actually enjoying myself. Here’s how.

Photo by ericskiff.

Last year was my first time at SXSWi, the five-day conference that is, depending on who you ask, either a huge excuse for geeks to party and play with their iPhones or a decent chance for actual face-to-face time with smart people interested in emerging technology. It’s the kind of conference where everyone’s got a laptop, everyone’s wondering what to do next, and great opportunities, both officially planned and off-the-grid, can happen at any moment.

Here’s what I’m doing, packing, and keeping handy for this year’s trip, gleaned from Lifehacker’s own travel archives and the experiences of myself and other editors. They likely apply to any kind of work-but-also-fun conference, so here’s hoping you find something useful to work into your own itinerary, whether or not you’re heading to SXSW.

Trip Planning: TripIt & Google Calendar

Last year, I thought I was so very clever loading boarding passes, confirmation tickets, and other flight information into PDFs stored in my iPod touch with Air Sharing. This year, I’ve come to realize that I can never do a better job than TripIt can.

If using TripIt required signing up, entering email addresses, pasting in flight numbers and setting all kinds of preferences, it would be just another webapp that makes raw data look pretty. But the app (which we mentioned upon its launch) is way more useful, and far easier to use, than the average data fiend. When you get that confirmation/itinerary email from Orbitz, CheapTickets, JetBlue, or wherever you organized your flights, simply forward it to plans@tripit.com, whether you’ve got an account or not. You’ll get a confirmation back in minutes, and TripIt will have laid out your flights with status checks, online check-in links, and all your details. If you don’t have an account, TripIt will set up a link to easily sign up with your first trip locked in. Once you’re in, you can add hotels, car rental details, planned destinations, and other details, and TripIt will fill in the blanks, adding things like directions from the airport to the hotel.

One day before my initial flight out, and I’m already checked in, holding a printed boarding pass, and hooked up for SMS notifications if any of my flights are delayed. Now I can concentrate on what I’m actually doing in Austin, and what I’m bringing.

The Gear

Most of the same stuff I pack in my laptop/go bag will make its way to Austin this year. The notable upgrade is that I’m planning to eschew the laptop bag itself in favor of a Surge backpack from North Face. It was my major holiday gift, and it wins on a few levels:

• Made for cold weather: Have I ever mentioned that I live in Buffalo, NY?
• Snug laptop pocket: My ThinkPad won’t have a chance to move any which way when I’m walking.
• Tons of pockets: Cords, extra batteries, pens, business cards—they accumulate on you throughout the day.
• Even weight distribution: After a few days of walking around the very pedestrian-friendly, but spaced-out city of Austin with all my gear across one shoulder, I could feel SXSW in my upper body.

Other than that, I’m bringing a spare Nexus One battery, because the occasional misguided panel can really drain your smartphone juice. I’ve also upgraded from using the devil horns headphone wrap method—truth be told, one of my favorite Lifehacker tips of all time—to trying out this Sumajin Smartwrap widget, and seeing how it performs in a real-world field test.

The Sites and Apps

I’ve been obsessed with the idea that I missed out on good eats, and other good stuff, in Austin last year. You might have noticed if you saw two posts on finding the best spots in new cities and a Top 10 on finding cool stuff nearby. For Austin, in particular, I’m looking to use these apps to find great things and get to them, but they’d work for many other travel spots as well.

• FourWhere: During SXSW, the location-based social service Foursquare sweeps in like a locust swarm. FourWhere maps out the spots that Foursquare users are checking in at, but, more importantly, can show the tips they’ve left about certain spots—”Get the steak sandwich,” indeed.
• Near Me Now: When you’re standing at a street corner, unsure which way to turn or which spot to check out, this kind of need-to-know list on your mobile browser is pretty darned helpful.
• Google My Maps layers: As mentioned in my previous piece, searching out and saving spots to your My Maps layers is a handy trick that far too few trip planners take advantage of. With the addition of location “starring,” it’s even easier to pick out and pull up spots from an iPhone or Android phone, but any browser that can pull up Google Maps can load in My Maps layers. My Holy Grail of maps at the moment comes from SXSW Baby, which has compiled a big ol’ map layer of eats walk-able from the convention center. The sub-lesson is to seek out bloggers who know the city you’re heading to—they’re better than, dare it be said, searching on Google.

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The only aspect of this year’s journey I don’t expect to change that much? Sleep, or the lack thereof. That’s a small price to pay, though, for the chance to meet cool people and talk about exciting projects. Not every single minute is a great justification of the cost and hassle, but that’s kind of how it works with any conference.

Are you hitting SXSW or another work-related conference this year? What will you do to ensure it doesn’t stink? We’re all ears in the comments.

The Best Tools for Hacking Your Next Big Conference (Like SXSW) [Travel] from Lifehacker: top

If you use Windows 7 Media Center to record TV, you’d probably prefer skipping commercials. After all, a big reason you record programs is to avoid commercials, right? Here’s a fairly simple and free way to start skipping commercials in no time.

In Windows 7, the .wtv file format has replaced the dvr-ms file format used in previous versions of Media Center for Recorded TV. The .wtv file format, however, does not work very well with commercial skipping applications.

The Process

Our first step will be to convert the recorded .wtv files to the previously used dvr-ms file format. This conversion will be done automatically by WtvWatcher. It’s important to note that this process deletes the original .wtv file after successfully converting to .dvr-ms. Next, we will use DVRMSToolBox with the DTB Addin to handle commercial skipping. This process does not “cut” or remove the commercials from the file. It merely skips the commercials during playback.

WtvWatcher

Download and install the WtvWatcher (link below). To install WtvWatcher, you’ll need to have Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

If you get the “Publisher cannot be verified” warning you can go ahead and click Install. We’ve completely tested this app and it contains no malware and runs successfully.

After installing, the WtvWatcher will pop up in the lower right corner of your screen.

You will need to set the path to your Recorded TV directory. Click on the button for “Click here to set your recorded TV path…”

The WtvWatcher Preferences window will open…

…and you’ll be prompted to browse for your Recorded TV folder. If you did not change the default location at setup, it will be found at C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV. Click “OK” when finished.

Click the “X” to close the Preferences screen.

You should now see WtvWatcher begin to convert any existing WTV files.

The process should only take a few minutes per file. Note: If WtvWatcher detects an error during the conversion process, it will not delete the original WTV file.

You will probably want to run WtvWatcher on startup. This will allow WtvWatcher to constantly scan for new .wtv files to convert. There is no setting in the application to run on startup, so you’ll need to copy the WTV icon from your desktop into your Windows start menu “Startup” directory. To do so, click on Start > All Programs, right-click on Startup and click on Open all users.

Drag and drop, or cut and paste, the WtvWatcher desktop shortcut into the Startup folder.

DVRMSToolBox and DTB AddIn

Next, we need to download and install the DVRMSToolBox and the DTB AddIn. These two pieces of software will do the actual commercial skipping. After downloading the DVRMSToolBox zip file, extract it and double-click the setup.exe file. Click “Next” to begin the installation.

Unless DVRMSToolBox will only be used by Administrator accounts, check the “Modify File Permissions” box. Click “Next.”

When you get to the Optional Components window, uncheck Download/Install ShowAnalyzer. We will not be using that application.

When the installation is complete, click “Close.”

Next we need to install the DTB Addin. Unzip the download folder and run the appropriate .msi file for your system. It is available in 32 & 64 bit versions.

Just double click on the file and take the default options. Click “Finish” when the install is completed. You will then be prompted to restart your computer.

After your computer has restarted, open DVRMSToolBox settings by going to Start > All Programs, DVRMSToolBox, and click on DVRMStoMPEGSettings.

On the MC Addin tab, make sure that Skip Commercials is checked. It should be by default.

On the Commercial Skip tab, make sure the Auto Skip option is selected. Click “Save.”

If you try to watch recorded TV before the file conversion and commercial indexing process is complete you’ll get the following message pop up in Media Center. If you click Yes, it will start indexing the commercials if WtvWatcher has already converted it to dvr-ms.

Now you’re ready to kick back and watch your recorded tv without having to wait through those long commercial breaks.

Conclusion

The DVRMSToolBox is a powerful and complex application with a multitude of features and utilities. We’ve showed you a quick and easy way to get your Windows Media Center setup to skip commercials. This setup, like virtually all commercial skipping setups, is not perfect. You will occasionally find a commercial that doesn’t get skipped.

Need help getting your Windows 7 PC configured for TV? Check out our previous tutorial on setting up live TV in Windows Media Center.

Resources

Download WTV Watcher

Download DVRMSToolBox

Download DTB Addin

The How-To Geek‘s articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

How to Skip Commercials in Windows 7 Media Center [Windows Media Center] from Lifehacker: top

Firefox/Chrome: Small netbook screens make you really appreciate every last pixel on your device. The Mini Wide userscript for Gmail adds a “netbook mode” shortcut to Gmail that removes navigation and ads for a streamlined, netbook-friendly, message-focused view of your inbox.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

Once installed, just tap ‘w’ to toggle between the default Gmail view and netbook mode. That’s all there is to it. Assuming you’ve mastered Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts, the lack of navigation isn’t all that big of a deal—plus you can easily bring back the default view with a quick press of the ‘w’ key. The tweak is a little rough around the edges at times (I couldn’t use ‘g’ + ‘l’ label navigation unless I toggled out of mini mode, for example), but it’s a nice start, and could be really useful for netbook users.

You’ll need the Greasemonkey extension to install it in Firefox; Chrome supports installing userscripts as extensions, so just head to the homepage and click Install.

Mini Wide Fullscreens Gmail, Is Very Netbook Friendly [Downloads] from Lifehacker: top

One of Google Wave’s more powerful features is its extensions—small gadgets and doodads you can embed or include in waves to add great functionality. They used to be particularly difficult to hunt down and install, but no more.

The new Extensions gallery (found by clicking Extensions in the navigation panel) takes a lot of pain out of finding and installing a new Wave extension. It doesn’t have all of our favorite gadgets, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately there’s still no easy way to install a gadget that isn’t included in the gallery, but this method should still work if you want to install such a gadget. In the meantime, it’s good to see Wave making it easier for regular users to find and enjoy new gadgets.

Looking to learn about Wave inside and out? Check our The Complete Guide to Google Wave, Gina and Adam’s in-depth Wave book.

Google Wave Extensions Gallery: A Single Place to Find Great Wave Extensions [Google Wave] from Lifehacker: top