I couldn’t believe my eyes as I wandered through IKEA’s soft toy section. There, perched among the bins was Hedwig from Harry Potter. It was then I realized I was staring at IKEA’s new SKOGSDUVA snowy owl hand puppet. The resemblance to Harry’s faithful feathered companion was uncanny. While it might not deliver Hogwarts acceptance letters, it certainly brought a touch of magic to my shopping trip. With its fluffy white feathers and expressive eyes, this soft, cuddly version of […]

The post This Must-Have IKEA Item Completes Your Kid’s Harry Potter Costume appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

As someone who practically grew up with ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” as my childhood soundtrack (thanks, Dad!), I couldn’t be more excited to share this news: IKEA launched an album! IKEA just dropped the mic with their first-ever global talent show, and let me tell you, it’s not about building furniture – it’s about building harmony. Earlier this year, they turned the spotlight on their musically gifted co-workers, and did they deliver. Picture this: 150 talented IKEA co-workers from 21 countries, […]

The post Move Over Billy, IKEA’s Got a New Greatest Hit appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

That awkward gap between your refrigerator and wall doesn’t have to be wasted space. Palestinian DIY enthusiast Qamar Derbas (@decorista_93) had the same thought – and turned it into a brilliant pantry storage solution. Her clever IKEA hack transforms the IKEA GERSBY bookshelf into a rolling pull-out pantry that slides perfectly into that refrigerator gap. This project requires no special tools or much DIY expertise and takes a mere hour or two hour to complete. What’s more, the GERSBY bookshelf […]

The post The $50 Solution to Your Kitchen’s Most Annoying Gap appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

As the year draws to a close, the holiday season is upon us once again. Although we still have two months until Christmas, studies have shown decorating early is actually good for your mood. The vibrant colors and twinkling lights simply trigger the release feel-good dopamine, which in turn, boosts happiness and energy. I must admit, Christmas decor makes me grin like a kid with ice-cream, until I look at the price tag of tinsel and garlands and baubles. Yikes! […]

The post Deck Your Halls for Less: 14 Christmas Decor Ideas Using IKEA Finds appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

My search for the perfect sideboard has been going on for like ever. Like many home decor enthusiasts, I found myself caught between my champagne taste and lemonade budget – until I came across @interiorxlifestyle‘s IKEA hack. She transformed the affordable IKEA GURSKEN nightstands into a sophisticated storage sideboard that may just be the thing I’m looking for. On its own, a single hacked GURSKEN might not amount to much. But when you place five of these hacked beauties in […]

The post The $20 IKEA Bedside Table That Became a Luxury Sideboard appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

A few years ago, I had a successful KonMari sesh that helped me tackle my closet chaos. But over time, I noticed that clutter started to creep back in. The issue was: All In, No Out. I made new purchases—thanks to an expanding waistline—but neglected to let go of ill-fitting clothes (because maybe, just maybe, I may fit into them again?) But recently, after spending a good 10 minutes digging through my wardrobe for that particular mustard cardigan, it became […]

The post 10 Things From IKEA Helped Me Tame Closet Chaos (Finally!) appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

In the IKEAHackers Facebook Group, Brianna shared how she turned basic KALLAX units into something totally unexpected — a gorgeous credenza that includes a perfect spot for her dog to lounge. Brianna took two 2×4 KALLAX units and set them up on either end of the nook. The middle section would be left open for a dog bed. But she didn’t stop at just placing the units – she snuck in a little hacking to give the credenza an upgraded […]

The post This IKEA KALLAX Hack Combines Storage and a Cozy Dog Bed in the Coolest Way appeared first on IKEA Hackers.

New Disney+ Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian premiered on Tuesday and people haven't been able to stop tweeting about "Baby Yoda." Can you blame them? He's just so goddamn cute. The catch here is that Baby Yoda isn't actually Yoda at all, but rather of the same species. Either way, people are positively freaking over him, and we don't blame them.

Here we have two hardened, wild bunnies of the north! Perfectly camouflaged to blend in with their wintery world.

-Sally Squeeps

Arctic foxes look sooooo soft. I just want to snuggle with one on a chilly day!

Momma loves showing off the new one.

This widdle rabbit is obviously a big fan of Beatrix Potter's books about Peter Rabbit.

-Sally Squeeps

Find more squeedorable moving pictures over at Animal Gifs!

When Windows tells you it's out of memory, what does it mean and what can you do about it?

How Do I Tell Which Program Is Using So Much Memory? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

Numerous people and programs can track your internet activities. But are you really that interesting?

Can My School See My Email and Other Messages? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

This is a system designed to help you recover your email account if something should go wrong... and things go wrong more often than you would like to think.

Why Do I Need Another Email Address to Access My Account? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

Here are my latest recommendations for specific security software and techniques.

What Security Software Do You Recommend? (2024 Q4 update) from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

Having your email automatically or continually signed in to can be a security risk in some situations, but very convenient in others.

Is Automatic Sign-in Safe for My Email? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

If your format happened quickly, it's unlikely your data was actually erased. I'll show you the difference.

Will Formatting a Disk Erase All Data? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

CHKDSK can't check an empty drive, and Windows considers RAW to mean empty.

What Does “CHKDSK Is Not Available for RAW Drives” Mean? from Ask Leo!.
Get the Confident Computing weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.askleo.com

Embed from Getty Images One long standing Christmas tradition at Fox news is perpetuating the mythological war on Christmas. While it is not a self-evident truth that Christmas is safe in the United States, the idea that there is such …Read more »

This book contains essays from the 2016 postings of A Philosopher’s Blog. Subjects range from the metaphysics of guardian angels to the complicated ethics of guns. There are numerous journeys into the realm of political philosophy and some forays into …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images Scottie Nell Hughes, a Trump surrogate, presented her view of truth on The Diane Rehm Show. As she sees it: Well, I think it’s also an idea of an opinion. And that’s—on one hand, I hear …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images In November of 2016, president elect Trump selected Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education. While this appointment seems to have changed her mind about Common Core, DeVos has remained committed to expanding charter schools. Charter …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images In the previous essay on charter schools I considered the monopoly argument in their favor. On this view, charter schools break the state’s harmful monopoly on education and this is a good thing. It is worth …Read more »

Embed from Getty Images In my prior essay on charter schools, I considered the quality argument. The idea is that charter schools provide a higher quality alternative to public schools and should receive public money so that poorer families can …Read more »

Client: “So you got everything you need? Take all the time you want. We really believe we understand the mind of the creative individual. We know it takes time to create a powerful ad.”

Me: “Yeah. It does. Thanks.”

Client: “But it’s urgent. Just imagine that it should have been done as of yesterday.”

Me: “But no deadline?”

Client: “Right. Well, I mean, we need it for four days, but otherwise, yeah; no deadline.”

I was made redundant from my previous job as a design engineer. As such, I look for any work just to keep the lights on. I get approached by an employer who offers competitive rates of pay and other perks. It’s a small company but I go for the interview.

When I get there it’s the grounds of a huge mansion. The interview is completed in the drawing-room and they offer to show me around. I assume we would be in an office or factory or working from home… I am wrong.

I’m taken out of the house to a small shack with no heating; inside are stacks and stacks of paper. When asked about this I am told the employer doesn’t trust computers… for a computer-aided-design based business…

Instead of running, I ask one final question regarding the perks: “Oh you get a Christmas dinner with us too and it’s compulsory and unpaid.”

I left so fast!

I got something far better three weeks later!

My boss is a seventy-something-year-old man with barely a clue on how to get a computer to boot. He gave me an old book and wanted me to convert it into an ebook to sell. And mind, this was a thick, large-format book chock-full of maps and other illustrations with tiny blackletter script.

Me: “Sure, I can do it, but I’d have to scan it in a massive resolution so the detail isn’t lost. The final file would be massive; it wouldn’t be practical to download it, and a normal ebook reader wouldn’t be able to display it correctly.”

Boss: “So, we’d have to make it less detailed.”

Me: “How do you mean?”

Boss: “It wouldn’t be possible with the illustrations; you’ll just have to make the writing bigger on all the pages.”

Me: “…”

Boss: “As for the pages with only text on them, you will just convert them into a Word document.”

Me: “That’s not how that works.”

Boss: “Why not?”

Me: “It’s just straight-up not possible, at least not with the software we have.”

Boss: “Can you do it on the Internet?”

Me: “No.”

Boss: “How do you know?”

Me: “I know.”

Boss: “Show me.”

I showed him that it’s not possible to convert a scanned book page into a text document on some random converter found on page one on Google.

Boss: “Okay, so you will instead cut the text out in Photoshop, make it larger, and arrange it on a new Photoshop file the same size, with less of a rim around it so the number of pages doesn’t get much higher.”

I flat-out refused, telling him it would be months of absolutely pointless work. He didn’t believe any of my claims, anyway, so I just converted the whole d*** thing into an ebook, which, in the end, was like 8GB in size. Since our server had 10TB, he also didn’t believe me when I tried to tell him that it was an absurdly massive file that few people would want to buy on that account.

Ah, well. At least I didn’t have to rearrange like 300 pages of text.

I’m a year and a half into the development of a new web application for managing complex data sets. Our boss has never been able to provide proper specifications for what he needs, just a flood of vague ideas with no real detail and constantly changing scope.

My job is to try and turn this into a comprehensible list of tasks that the dev team can actually follow. Each month, I have a planning session with the boss where we hash out the next period of work. Each session, I remind him that changing the scope means adding more time.

We agree and sign off the work to be delivered by the end of the month. So far, we’ve hit every deadline.

I thought we had a pretty good system in place until:

Boss: “I can’t believe we’re so far behind and how poorly you’ve managed this project.”

Me: “What do you mean? Haven’t we met all the agreed deadlines throughout the project?”

Boss: “I’ve made a spreadsheet of all the dates I wanted each feature done by. So far, you’ve missed every single one of them.”

Me: “Excuse me? We’ve always delivered what’s been agreed on time. Where have these new dates come from?”

Boss: “This is how long I thought the work should take and I made up my own timeline.”

Me: “I’ve never seen these dates before, let alone agreed to them. At a glance, many of them seem extremely optimistic.”

That’s business talk for “f****** mad”.

Me: “We agreed at the start this would be at least a three-year project.”

Boss: “Well, I decided it should take less time and you’re late. I’m going to have to pull the plug on this project if you can’t have everything wrapped up within the next month.”

I politely remind the boss that there was at least another year and a half of work left to complete the project. I’ll probably be looking for a new job shortly.

Client: “We’re a startup game company, and we need one character with thirty different eyes, thirty different mouths, thirty different hairstyles, and thirty different bodies for our game where the character can be customized.”

Me: “Okay, that’s technically thirty characters with each element drawn separately and/or in separate layers.”

I then give my rate for thirty characters.

Client: “Your profile says you charge [amount] for only one character. Please give us that rate since it’s only one character but he has thirty different mouths, eyes, hair, and bodies. So the price should be just for one character.”

I do in-house design work for my boss. I’ve worked with her for ten years and she swings wildly back and forth from being surprisingly design-savvy (not for a literal decade of trying on my part) and being a client from Hell. Today, she swung somewhere in the middle.

I have spent the entire time I’ve known her explaining how you cannot just pull photos from Google; I’ve explained copyright, public domain, etc. She refuses to buy photos 99% of the time, so I usually use free stock photos when possible. When she absolutely needs to buy a photo, she emails our web guy and has him buy one for her and add it to her next bill.

Me: “I see you got [Web Guy] to purchase the photo for the ad and forwarded me the email with the file. Unfortunately, the file is too small. Unless he sent you a separate email with a larger file, I will just email him for the correct one.”

Boss: “Maybe it’s how I sent it. I’ll try again.”

She forwards me the same email.

Me: “No, no, it’s not you. The file he sent you is labelled “thumbnail,” which is a preview file. He probably just sent the wrong one by accident. I have emailed him.”

Boss: “What about this one?”

She sends an email with the same photo attached.

Me: “That’s the same one. I have emailed [Web Guy]. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have the correct file.”

She forwards the same original email from [Web Guy].

Boss: “What about now?”

Me: “No, boss, I’ll get it from [Web Guy].”

She forwards the individual email she sent me.

Boss: “How about now?”

Me: “Boss, no.”

Closure: She now has a stock photo account that I have access to.

I’m designing a photographic history exhibit for a prestigious university. The project requires a series of panels that each depict a different decade, from the 1930s to the present.

Client: “You know, this is all great, but it could use a little more diversity. Right now, there are a lot of photos of all white men, and we don’t want to send the wrong message.”

Me: “Okay, that’s a reasonable request. I could pull some photos of your black student organizations and women’s center and add those to the panels showing the school’s more recent history.”

Client: “Actually, we’d love more diversity in the early panels too.”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Client: “Like this panel depicting the university in the 30s. All the photos are of white men!”

The school did not admit black students until the 1970s.

I work as dispatch for a trucking company. One of my duties is to provide the closest truck driver for shipment. I get a call from a customer.

Customer: We can pay [generous amount] for this shipment, can you please check with your driver if that will be enough for him?”

I ask the driver:

Driver: “Yes, lock it down!”

Customer: “Alright, send your driver to the address.”

When the driver arrives at the address, he needs to wait for a couple of hours because they “made a mistake” with the paperwork. After asking them when they will be ready, only at the end do they tell him they sent their shipment with another courier for less money, and they didn’t even contact us. The driver tells me this and I call them asking for an explanation. They only said “sorry “and hung up.

Related:
Absolutely Trucking Mad, Part 4
Absolutely Trucking Mad, Part 3
Absolutely Trucking Mad, Part 2
Absolutely Trucking Mad

Client: “I need the number for Jack. Can you give me his number, please?”

Me: “Jack? Jack who?”

Client: “The manual for the modem said that I need to connect to Jack, so if you could give me his number, then I can connect with him.”

Where modern design, affordable living and sustainability meet, there is CABN. The first home of this project has just been created and soon, CABN's design will be the basis of a 67-home, net-zero community. If this is what the future looks like, there is hope that humans will actually have a healthy, happy future on this planet.[...]

Have you heard about Mississippi? It's a construction project brought to life by Waechter Architecture after more than 10 years of planning and investigation. This building isn't just your ordinary structure; it's a game-changer in terms of sustainability and creativity.[...]

The ways buildings are constructed has to change. It has become something else instead, something more sustainable, something newer. And it doesn't get much more modern than buildings that can actually move and adapt at will.[...]

The spirit of sustainability and being eco-friendly is all about using what's already there. Use a piece of land the way it is, without hanging it to suit the needs of a building. In the spirit of reclaiming wood, repurposing furniture and making use of everything the Tesseract was created. This home is a beautiful reboot of a former bachelor pad turned beautiful multi-person home. It's warm, inviting and modern.[...]

Gomi has revolutionized the electronics industry by tackling the persistent problem of proper disposal at the end of a product's life. Unlike many other speaker companies, Gomi adopts a circular approach that enhances product longevity and significantly reduces pre and post-consumer waste.[...]

Fargo is a house located in Louisville, Colorado and is designed for a former high-level design engineer at Apple. Despite the project's modern aesthetic, it blends into the historical neighborhood and meets multiple spatial criteria set by the client. These include a detached studio garage, an indoor-outdoor kitchen and easy access to the outdoors. The overall goal for DAJ Design was to incorporate these design elements while achieving net-zero energy consumption.[...]

Sotheby's is an iconic name in auctions, a decades-old seller of fine goods. Some of the world's most expensive jewels and rarest works of art have been sold here. Now, Sotheby's has put an entire island for sale. It's carbon neutral and already has some incredible buildings standing on it.[...]