Once a week, we have Fancy burger.Night. We take a pound of lean ground beef and try to make it the unleanest thing we’ll eat all week. And that right there, that was my husband’s latest contribution, The Eggs Benedict Burger.

It’s part breakfast, part dinner, and part 75% arterial blockage. Okay maybe it isn’t that terrible for you…

Crispy bacon, a poached egg, and a spoonful of dreamy hollandaise sauce top a plain burger. Okay, it’s definitely that terrible for you.

Okay, so maybe you can’t afford a Batmobile with a flashing red beacon and rocket exhaust flamethrower, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rock out your love for the superhero with other material goods.

The  Batman Money Clip is shaped exactly like the Batman symbol. It’s die-cast and sheathed in matte black rubberized coating, and has a magnetized grip to hold your cash in place. True, it’s stealthy and cool (in a geeked-out sort of way), but leave this one at home when you take the ladies out for dinner.

Take the advice, you’ll thank us later.

In 2005, programmer Henrik Warne developed RSI—repetitive stress injury. Over the course of six months, the condition progressed so severely that he considered a career change. Fortunately, through a combination of actions, he managed to get rid of the pain and fully recover.

Early in 2005 the muscles in my forearms started to hurt. In the beginning it was only a slight irritation, but over the course of six months it gradually got worse, until it was so bad I actually thought I would have to switch careers and stop programming altogether. I realized fairly quickly that I had RSI—Repetitive Stress Injury.

After about a month of pain I went to see a doctor. He thought my joints were inflamed, and gave me anti-inflammatory pills (which did not help). A little later I went to see a specialist, and after some tests he concluded that there was nothing wrong with the nerves in my arm. However, he could not answer how I could get rid of the pain.

I also went to a number of physical therapists, and tried many different exercises (e.g. weight training), as well as acupunture and heat treatment. Nothing helped. It was also pretty clear to me that my problem was something they had not previously encountered.

So I started doing my own research on the web, and tried different things. I read the book “It’s Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! RSI Theory & Therapy for computer Professionals” by Jack Bellis and Suparna Damany, which I thought was pretty good.

I also experimented with many different kinds of mice and keyboards. I found that theGoldtouch split keyboard and a gel-filled wrist rest works well for me. The split (and angled) keyboard allows my hands to stay at a more natural angle when typing. The mouse I use is anUllman Penclic Mouse. You hold it like a pen and move it like you move a normal mouse. Since I hold it like I hold a normal pen, I don’t have to turn my hand like I have to when gripping a regular mouse, and this helps a lot.

I also did 10 sessions of rolfing (yes, that’s rolfing, not golfing), which I feel also helped in relieving my muscle pains.

But the biggest part of the solution for me was starting to use a break program that forced me to take regular breaks from typing—before I would program for hours without breaks. At the time I was using Linux, and it was not easy to find a program that worked for Linux. Eventually I found a really great one called WorkPace. I set it up to force me to take micro-pauses for ten seconds every five minutes, and longer breaks (with exercises) every 45 minutes.

A few years ago, when changing jobs, I switched from Linux to Windows, but I kept usingWorkPace. Recently (without changing jobs) I switched to using a Mac, and unfortunately WorkPace is not available for Macs. After some testing I switched to using RSI Guard instead, which is comparable to WorkPace.

I believe that the break-program together with the ergonomic keyboard and mouse really saved me. Over a period of about six months, my problems gradually disappeared, and I can now work without problems.

In the hindsight, it feels pretty obvious that you should treat the cause and not the symptom (just like when fixing bugs). However, none of the doctors and physical therapists I saw realized this. Instead, they were all in one way or another treating the symptoms. This was six and a half years ago, so there may be more awareness today about RSI and computer-related injuries, but you never know.

So my advice is that if you feel any pain when typing, do something about it right away. Don’t ignore it and hope that it will go away by itself, because it most probably won’t. Most people have no problems, and therefore do not pay much attention to ergonomics (why should they—they have no problems). But I was programming for more than ten years without problems, and then it started to happen. It’s called Repetitive Stress Injury for good reason—it is the many repetitions of the same movement over many years that cause the problems.

In my case, the combination of a break program, an ergonomic keyboard and mouse made all the difference—without that, I would probably not be programming today.

If you’ve never done it before, the idea of building a computer from the ground up can seem very intimidating—but it’s one of the most satisfying projects a Tech enthusiast can take on.

Being more of a software gal than a hardware geek myself, I was the only Lifehacker editor who had never built a PC from scratch. So when I needed a new PC late last year, I took the plunge and built my custom system. I’m so glad I did—the project turned out to be one of my proudest accomplishments of 2008. If you’ve cracked open your PC before to install a new hard drive or TV capture card, but you’ve never built a whole new system from the ground up, it’s not as difficult as you might think. Here are my notes for first-timers who want to build instead of buy their next computer.

Why Build Instead of Buy

“But computers are so cheap these days,” you say. “Why waste the time and energy building your own system when you can get a great machine fully assembled and shipped to your door?” that’s a great question. Building your own PC will not save you time. It might save you money, but that’s not even the best reason to do it. For me, it was a fantastic hands-on educational experience. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction every single day when I press the power button on my tower, watch it light up, and know that I plugged in the wire that goes from that light to the motherboard. Building your PC takes the mystery out of what’s going on inside that black box you spend hours on per day.

There are other good reasons to build instead of buy, too. With your own build you can customize your system just how you like and make your perfect media center or gaming machine. You can save money if you already have some parts (though see my warnings on the dangers of a “Frankenbuild” below). Upgrading your PC in the future becomes easier and cheaper since your parts aren’t tied to a particular manufacturer. With a custom build you can do fun stuff like overclock your CPU and get more bang for your buck, or install OS X where it was never intended to run.

In short, building your own PC makes you feel like a badass.

What You’re Getting Into

Don’t get me wrong, though: building a PC (for the first time especially) takes research, time, gumption, patience, and a willingness to deal with several WTF moments. If you’ve never cracked a PC’s case and installed parts, like a new hard drive or a video card, start there first. If you’ve got that experience under your belt, you might think that building a new PC is just a matter of snapping together a few parts. It is, but building from the ground up takes much more than an hour or two. My build took two full days, one online order, one returned motherboard, two trips to Fry’s, one condescending sneer from a sales associate when I asked a newb question, and one trip to Radio Shack. If that sounds like a lot, well, it was, and there were moments in the process when I wished I’d just bought a Dell. But when it finally all came together, all the sweat makes the results even sweeter.

Where to Start: Researching and buying Your Parts

You scared off yet? No? Good. Let’s get down to it. There are a gadzillion articles on the internet about building your own PC, but many are way out of date, or just don’t get specific about what exactly you should buy. When I had to start researching what parts to purchase, of course I turned to savvy Lifehacker readers to help me out. Several readers mentioned Ars Technica’s excellent system buyer’s guide, which breaks down exactly what parts you’d want for one of three levels of computer: a “budget box,” a “hot rod,” or a “God box.” The 2008 guidepublished last fall; make sure you use the most recent one when you start your research. I started by plugging parts from Ars’ “hot rod” system list into Newegg to get a sense of price and see if there were any deals, coupons or upgrades. In the end I didn’t use Ars’ exact recommendations, but it was an awesome, up-to-date, jumping-off point.

Your research into parts is the most important stage of the process. For first-timers it can be bewildering, and you will have questions. Just keep reading, take notes, consult with forums or sales associates, and remember that if you make the wrong purchase you can always return it for the right one. In the photo to the left you’ll see my build’s case, motherboard, power supply, CPU, and RAM. (I had a video card, DVD drive, and a hard drive from an old machine I planned to use in my new build.)

See this entire comment thread for more resources on deciding what parts to buy for your budget.

Get Down and Dirty

Once you’ve got your hot little hands on all the parts you need, the real fun begins. There are two stages to your build: the hardware stage, and the software stage. Adam’s already covered how to install each individual hardware component. Here’s the list:

• Install the motherboard and CPU
• Install your RAM
• Install the video card
• Install the hard drive and DVD drive

Once you’ve got everything plugged in and mounted inside your case, leave the case sides off and plug in your keyboard, mouse, monitor, and power, and press the On button. This is the moment of truth. The first time you see the lights come on and the system setup appear on-screen, you’ll feel like you’ve just arrived at the top of Mount Everest.

If the machine doesn’t power on, or there’s no video signal, or the keyboard doesn’t work—just unplug everything and check your connections. It took me a few hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing attempts to get my new build to boot properly. If it doesn’t work the first time, take a breath, unplug it all, and try again. Don’t cry; that won’t help.

Once you’re into the machine’s BIOS setup, key around and make sure the motherboard recognizes your DVD or CD drive and your hard drive. You’ll need those working in order to install your operating system. Everything there? Now set your boot sequence to check your optical drive first. Insert your operating system’s disc into your CD or DVD drive, and restart the machine. Now your operating system’s setup will launch on boot, and you can install away.

In the meantime, blast very loud rock music, strut about the vicinity, arms upraised, and revel in your greatness.

Mistakes I Made That You Can Avoid

When you build your first PC, keep a few things in mind I wished I’d realized before I started.

• Beware of the “Frankenbuild.” A great way to save money on your new PC is using parts that you’ve already got around. But I was overly optimistic about what items from my very old Dell tower would work in my new system. I assumed my hard drive would work (it did, but it was an IDE drive, which I wound up replacing with a faster SATA model), I hoped my video card would work (it didn’t), and I thought my DVD drive would work (it did). In the end I wound up buying parts I thought I’d be able to reuse, so my total price wasn’t as low as my initial estimate.
• Expect mishaps. I bought the wrong motherboard. Well, not the wrong one, but one that didn’t have a FireWire port, which I wanted. Well, I had a FireWire card, but it didn’t fit into the motherboard. Anyway, I figured all this out after I installed the CPU, which meant I had to remove it from the board, break the thermal compound seal, and ship the motherboard back. When I got the new motherboard and reinstalled the CPU, because the thermal compound left there didn’t work anymore, the machine would start and within 10 seconds overheat and shut itself off. Next thing you know I’m scraping hardened thermal compound off the CPU with Goof Off and a credit card, and reapplying fresh from a tube I had to pick up from Radio Shack. Lesson: there will be mishaps. Expect crap to go wrong. Be confident in your ability to fix it after you Google the solution to the problem hundreds of people have had before you did.
• Read the frakkin’ manual. With years of tinkering in my PC’s case under my belt, I went into my build eager to start working and only skimmed the user guides and online howto’s before I started. Don’t do that. Open and read the full-on manual that comes in the box with every single one of your parts. If you’re not sure about something said manual includes, do your research before you plug anything in.
• Buy locally if you can. My initial parts order was from Newegg, which was great price-wise, but really sucked when I had to return my motherboard, because I had to pay shipping fees and a restocking fee. With a Fry’s down the road, I regretted not just buying everything at the store itself from the get-go to to make returns easier.
• Give yourself lots of time. I wrongly assumed I’d be able to finish my build in a day, but it took two whole days and stressed me out because they were work days. Don’t build a new PC when you’re on deadline or otherwise pinched for time. Give yourself a whole weekend and a clean and spacious work area that you can leave filled with packing debris and electronic parts strewn about for a few days.

Have you built your own PC? Are you considering taking the leap? Let us know how it went or what you’re thinking in the comments.