Back on June 9th of this year I wrote an article detailing the steps for importing an audio book from CD into iTunes and making it appear in the audio book section. In those instructions I describe how to use the “Recently Added” playlist as a quick way to find the imported audio files. A recent reader unfortunately removed that default playlist and now needs to know how to complete my instructions without that playlist. The easiest way is to simply recreate the missing playlist, and here is how.

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

Do you routinely need to ship an item and wish you could quickly comparison shop for the best shipping rates? If so, then ShipTool is for you.

Filed under: Friday Finds

Dying to hook your iPod into your car stereo but don’t want to use one of those FM transmitters? Well, according to the August 2007 issue of Wired magazine all you need is a small adapter cable that converts two RCA jacks (two raised plugs – one red and one white) down to a single 3.5-mm stereo jack. Connect one end to your car stereo and one end to your iPod and you’re in business. If it were only that easy. In nearly all cases the instructions from Wired simply won’t work, here’s why.

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

If you’ve ever worked as, with, or for a typical system administrator, then at one point in time you’ve received the panic phone call, email, or instant message that “something” is down. It could be that the “network is down,” “the printer is down,” or even worse “the website is down.” If you’re nodding your head and smiling (or perhaps cringing), then you’ll simply love this video clip.

Filed under: Friday Finds

I was trying to rip a DVD the other day using HandBrake as documented in a previous TechTraction article. Each time I stepped through my process, all HandBrake could find was a single 45 second clip. What happened to the rest of the DVD’s contents? Could it be that this disc had some unknown or unbreakable form of encryption, or was HandBrake failing me?

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

If you’re lucky enough to have earned the title of “Computer Expert” in your home (and for your extended family and friends), then you’ve been called more than once to solve someone’s bizarre computer problem. Success with such problems was determined by your base computer knowledge, experience with similar problems, and sheer luck. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt to have access to some useful utilities, and you can find a nice list of such tools at KillerTechTips.com. The list might seem obvious to some, but I’m confident there is at least one item on this list you don’t have in your arsenal of troubleshooting tools. I recommend all “Computer Experts” take a look at this list.

Filed under: Friday Finds

I’ve wanted to try Pandora for a long time but just never got around to it. Fortunately, my nephew was over for a visit this weekend and I gave me a guided of Pandora (streaming radio from the Music Genome Project). Once I saw all that Pandora could do, I finally signed up, logged in, but was stopped cold on my way to new musical discovery when Pandora refused to work with Firefox 3. The Pandora site looked great, I just couldn’t hear anything. Mildly discouraged I said to myself, “If Pandora worked for my nephew in Internet Explorer, then I was going to make it work with Firefox 3!”

Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips

Ever wanted to send a note to someone that would self-destruct once it was read? You can do just that with Privnote.

Filed under: Friday Finds