In which you show us how to hack our A/C timers, remap our keyboards, teach our iPhones to listen, kill useless processes with one batch file, and look good after a late-night outing.
Don't like the gallery? View all the tips on one page here.
Shift the Function of the Insert Key
Photo by orangeacid
atomicrabbit gives us a neat keyboard hack to eliminate those "Insert" key mishaps:
Time Your A/C for a Cooler Home
Photo by IngaMun
Chris gives us a simple-but-useful trick that fits in with Beat the Heat week:
Leave the Headaches at Home When Traveling with a Laptop
Photo by jetalone
jthatch has some pointers on avoiding wasting time (and headaches) while traveling with a laptop:
Kill Several Unnecessary Processes with One Batch File
We've talked about creating shortcuts to kill applications, but Jon goes one step further and uses batch files to kill multiple processes at once:
Make Your iPhone Understand Alternate Pronunciations
Sometimes iPhone's just don't understand. It's Rosa Go-lee-yan. Go-lee-yan. With Kenneth's tip, you may be able to improve the IQ of your iPhone:
Look Awake the Morning After
Photo by Editor B
nolabar10der has some pointers on preventing and getting rid of one of the biggest oh-God-is-my-alarm-going-off-already-I-just-went-to-sleep-ten-minutes-ago give away.
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Don't like the gallery? View all the tips on one page here.
Shift the Function of the Insert Key
Photo by orangeacid
atomicrabbit gives us a neat keyboard hack to eliminate those "Insert" key mishaps:
Install KeyTweak and remap your Insert button to a Shift key, so if you ever accidentally hit the Insert key when aiming for delete or home, it won't activate Insert. And besides, who actually uses the Insert function anyway?
Time Your A/C for a Cooler Home
Photo by IngaMun
Chris gives us a simple-but-useful trick that fits in with Beat the Heat week:
Pretty basic hint, but if all you have is a window unit that's not hardwired, a simple light timer set to run about an hour (or two depending on the heat in the area) before you come home until the sun sets will help keep the house cool without having to worry about the cost of running one all day. Of course, this only works with manually controlled units, but in SoCal, where apartments rarely come with A/C, I bought the $100 window unit and it works wonders.
Leave the Headaches at Home When Traveling with a Laptop
Photo by jetalone
jthatch has some pointers on avoiding wasting time (and headaches) while traveling with a laptop:
From an Actual Customs Broker - Make sure your receipt is legible, a copy is fine, but you definitely need to make out that it was a laptop, the model, and the date of purchase, as well as the retailer's name, and address.
Also ensure that you do have a valid software backup (I prefer USB drives, but you can use web based like drop box as well). If you're traveling for business, it's sometimes best to have these on separate media rather than on the hard drive as technically it's not just US Customs that is looking at computers any more, it's several other countries as well.
You can also look at US Customs Know Before you Go section.
If you're going to ship your personal belongings ahead, be prepared to know that US Customs will want you to arrive in the United States prior to the goods being released. The way around that is to use an express carrier (DHL, FedEx, UPS - I have a personal preference on this, but that's not for me to publish here — and no I don't work for any of those companies).
The only other thing that can get goofy - if you purchase a piece of electronic equipment overseas, be advised that you may be required to complete a form FCC 740 if it's shipped back to the US commercially. That means you will need various pieces of information from the manufacturer - just be advised of that before you go crazy with your purchases... As always if in doubt you can contact US Customs and Border Protection directly at your closest port, or get a hold of a local customs broker - most of us are nice people and can give you the quick answer you may have.
Also ensure that you do have a valid software backup (I prefer USB drives, but you can use web based like drop box as well). If you're traveling for business, it's sometimes best to have these on separate media rather than on the hard drive as technically it's not just US Customs that is looking at computers any more, it's several other countries as well.
You can also look at US Customs Know Before you Go section.
If you're going to ship your personal belongings ahead, be prepared to know that US Customs will want you to arrive in the United States prior to the goods being released. The way around that is to use an express carrier (DHL, FedEx, UPS - I have a personal preference on this, but that's not for me to publish here — and no I don't work for any of those companies).
The only other thing that can get goofy - if you purchase a piece of electronic equipment overseas, be advised that you may be required to complete a form FCC 740 if it's shipped back to the US commercially. That means you will need various pieces of information from the manufacturer - just be advised of that before you go crazy with your purchases... As always if in doubt you can contact US Customs and Border Protection directly at your closest port, or get a hold of a local customs broker - most of us are nice people and can give you the quick answer you may have.
Kill Several Unnecessary Processes with One Batch File
We've talked about creating shortcuts to kill applications, but Jon goes one step further and uses batch files to kill multiple processes at once:
Here's a tip that might be good. I've found .bat files to be pretty handy. They can be used to quickly kill and start any combination of processes you choose. For example, when I want the best performance out of my (slightly old) computer, I will run a batch file which kills all the unnecessary processes, launched by a utility very similar to Launchy. It looks like this:
tskill InetCntrl
tskill iTunesHelper
tskill AutoHotkey
tskill Everything
tskill dcolor
tskill chrome
tskill ctfmon
tskill GoogleUpdate
It's made by picking the processes you want to kill out of task manager, omitting the ".exe", listing them in notepad in this format, and saving it with ".bat" in the name. Double-clicking it will run it (or you can use Launchy).
When I want my computer to go back to normal functioning I run another batch file that looks like this
start "" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\InetCntrl\InetCntrl.exe"
start "" "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
start "" "C:\AutoHotKey\AutoHotKey.ahk"
This is made by listing the full path of the process you want to start in the shown format, and saving it as a ".bat". You can kill some processes and start others in the same batch file.
tskill InetCntrl
tskill iTunesHelper
tskill AutoHotkey
tskill Everything
tskill dcolor
tskill chrome
tskill ctfmon
tskill GoogleUpdate
It's made by picking the processes you want to kill out of task manager, omitting the ".exe", listing them in notepad in this format, and saving it with ".bat" in the name. Double-clicking it will run it (or you can use Launchy).
When I want my computer to go back to normal functioning I run another batch file that looks like this
start "" "C:\WINDOWS\system32\InetCntrl\InetCntrl.exe"
start "" "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
start "" "C:\AutoHotKey\AutoHotKey.ahk"
This is made by listing the full path of the process you want to start in the shown format, and saving it as a ".bat". You can kill some processes and start others in the same batch file.
Make Your iPhone Understand Alternate Pronunciations
Sometimes iPhone's just don't understand. It's Rosa Go-lee-yan. Go-lee-yan. With Kenneth's tip, you may be able to improve the IQ of your iPhone:
Maybe someone has already figured it out, but for the names the iPhone 3GS can't seem to figure out (or for my Friends with alternate pronunciations...yes you anDREuh). I just figured out that you can add a new field in the iPhone for phonetic first name or last name or nickname and it seems to help the voice dialer! I've pretty much stopped using the favorites now that I've figured that little trick out!
Look Awake the Morning After
Photo by Editor B
nolabar10der has some pointers on preventing and getting rid of one of the biggest oh-God-is-my-alarm-going-off-already-I-just-went-to-sleep-ten-minutes-ago give away.
Veteran late-nighter, here. I've tried everything with varying degrees of success. The most noticeable improvement comes from the most obvious source: ice cubes. Keep them placed on your eyes even as it starts to 'burn' your skin. It's not magic; it mitigates puffiness in the same way that it treats any other swelling. Seems to lessen the coloration as well. Failing this, just have a bloody mary. It won't help, but you won't care anymore.
I can definitely vouch for the salt bit — a margarita or bloody mary binge will most definitely cause your body to stockpile salts (whatever you do, never look at the nutritional info for cocktails). Depending on how your body reacts, you will most definitely have nastier bags than, say, I will have after a night of straight scotch and ice water. Rather, you have the greater *odds* of looking like sh!t. Everyone is different.
Don't forget to use a good, abrasive scrub to help get that hangover off your face. Doesn't do anything about the actual bags, but it lets some of that vibrant flesh through, which is presently under a splotchy film of last night's toxins.
I can definitely vouch for the salt bit — a margarita or bloody mary binge will most definitely cause your body to stockpile salts (whatever you do, never look at the nutritional info for cocktails). Depending on how your body reacts, you will most definitely have nastier bags than, say, I will have after a night of straight scotch and ice water. Rather, you have the greater *odds* of looking like sh!t. Everyone is different.
Don't forget to use a good, abrasive scrub to help get that hangover off your face. Doesn't do anything about the actual bags, but it lets some of that vibrant flesh through, which is presently under a splotchy film of last night's toxins.