Hacksar

You may be paranoid about somebody else using your computer, and so to combat that, you just Switch Users and leave your computer on the log in screen. Also, you may have it set to go back to the log in screen once the screen saver kicks in, just for those times you forgot to log out. While this may be useful most of the times, it may not always cut it. What if you’re running some sort of intense process (like video encoding/conversion, for example) that you don’t necessarily need to interact with, but you just need to see how far it has progressed? Logging in every time you want to check that is a waste of time and energy, as, since the computer is busy with whatever it is processing, the login will be extremely slow and laggy.

On the other hand, if you simply don’t like the interface of the Window’s login screen (for some reason), or simply can’t access it easily, then this solution might be for you. My computer suddenly decided to stop letting me log out or even shut down the computer through regular means, so I had to resort to finding my own solutions. (It just freezes on the “Windows is shutting down” blue screen, if anybody has any idea why it may do these, leave a comment.)

I came across another AutoHotKey script that locks your computer with a password after either a certain amount of time, or if you give it the lock command. By lock, what it does is it places a white transparent cover over your whole screen and has an “Input Password” box in the middle. The AutoHotKey source is at the bottom of this post. For more information about how to use AutoHotKey, read the previous post on How to Control iTunes Remotely. Keep reading for the guide on how to use this computer locking script.

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Often times, computers get slowed down and bulky if you don’t take proper care of them. Just like anything else, computers too need the occasional maintanance. However, rather than a bath or grooming, they need things like file deletion, hard drive defragmentation, etc. No idea what that means? Luckily, you can learn how to speed up your computer in a few simple steps. Keep reading for the step-by-step guide on how to use different utility programs and how to tweak some of your computers settings to keep your baby running smoothly.

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If you have used Google’s iGoogle personalized homepage, you have probably come across the various updates that have been slowly applied to different accounts. I was just given an update where a Google Chat, or gTalk, “tab” was added to my iGoogle homepage. Gmail has had this little box for a while now, but since I do the majority of my email checking through the Gmail widget in iGoogle, I never was bothered by the gTalk box.

However, now that the gTalk chat box is on iGoogle as well, it is starting to become bothersome. It often lags behind and takes the page a very long time to load; this is especially annoying if you have iGoogle set as your home page, as I do. I looked around for ways on how to remove the gTalk box from iGoogle. True, it has an option to “hide” the chat box, but it still leaves a large “Enable Chat” link in it’s place, which can still be annoying. Here’s the solution I made after not finding any other good / working solution. (Solutions such as editing the XML file didn’t work and I wanted to avoid GreaseMonkey scripts because those can slow your browser down as well.)

Note that this solution only works with Firefox. If you do not use Firefox, change over as it’s much faster, more secure and customizable.

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Everywhere you look, new technology is emerging. Ranging from Blu-Ray disks to FiOS HDTV, the rage these days is quality, quality, quality. But, how important is it, really? Do you NEED to see Laurence Fishburne’s pockmarked face in The Matrix? I’d hope not. Thankfully, plain old DVDs are still here, and are a LOT easier to make backups (aka burn) of.

You may have a booming collection of a variety of DVDs, but may be too frightened to actually remove them from their case, lest they become riddled with fingerprints, dust, and scratches. Many DVDs come with encryption and copy-protection on them, but there are many honest people out there who simply want to make backups of their legitimately purchased DVDs, such as if they are going on vacation, etc. There exist MANY programs out there that can simply make copies of DVDs 1:1; however, that may not be good enough. Virtually all movie DVDs nowadays are dual-layer (meaning they hold 9.4 GB of data), while most DVD burners / blank DVDs you find are single layer (hold 4.7 GB of data). Your computer is your best friend; use it to make backup DVDs of your precious authentic ones without busting your wallet with extremely expensive dual layer disks. Keep reading for the guide on how to both set up and install the necessary programs (one-time) and then the short instructions for the actual copying process.

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You may be an avid fan of iTunes, using it for its MP3 indexing and playback capabilities. However, it can become cumbersome to have to switch back to the window just to skip a song in shuffle playback mode. I too have had this problem, and thankfully, came across an ingenious solution after hours of scouring the internet.

Allow me to introduce you to AutoHotKey. AutoHotKey (AHK) is a small program that let’s you create your own programs, macros, and scripts. You can record and send keystrokes, and even tap into the Windows API with AHK. (This means you can program things easily, as you will in this guide.) Keep reading for the full guide on how to get AHK set up, and get the iTunes Controller script installed.

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If you are in any sort of math or science course, chances are, you are allowed to use a graphing calculator to help you. One of the best graphing calculators out there is the TI-89, capable of doing – well… anything. Whether it’s simple computations like 2+2 or solving complex three-dimensional differential surfaces, the TI-89 can do it. Many students swear by it, and if you don’t you may want to convert and become a fellow lover of the calculator.

However, many times, it seems like more effort to reach all the way to your backpack and pull out the TI-89… but you can’t exactly solve that fourth-order, seven-variable system of equations in your head and you surely don’t want to do it on paper… that’s where an emulator comes in handy. An emulator is basically the calculator, except it runs on your computer. Keep reading for the info on how to get this incredible emulator up and running on your computer.

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Does the clutter of the taskbar below look familiar to you?

If you’re anything like me, your taskbar probably is constantly cluttered. I find that whenever I’m working on some intense project (whether it’s making a website or just some research paper), my taskbar seems to just explode with various programs. They’re all different programs, so I can’t even group them; eventually, it becomes difficult to even read what file is open where, so sometimes even just alt-tabbing to the right program becomes difficult. Many times, you don’t need all of the programs at the same time, but they still need to be running. (The classic example is iTunes, or whatever music player you use. You don’t actually look at the program if it’s on random shuffle all, but it still needs to be running.)

Thankfully, there’s an incredibly light program called TrayIt! that lets you minimize any program to the system tray. (That’s the little set of icons found next to the clock in the bottom right of Windows.) Keep reading for the step-by-step guide on how to set up and use this cool program.

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If you’ve always wanted to use torrents, but are absolutely TERRIFIED by the prospect of opening your mailbox to find a Cease & Desist, or worse yet, the FBI (they can mail anything nowadays), then you should check out PeerGuardian2.

PeerGuardian2 is a free, open-source program that runs in the background of your system and blocks IP addresses based on an IP blacklist. Generally, this IP blacklist is automatically downloaded and contains multitudes of government IPs. So, you can torrent with the safety of not accidentally connecting to a government facility and possibly incriminating yourself. It self updates, and runs with minimal system performance impact, so it’s easily the best choice for an additional layer for you security-conscious folks. Keep reading for a simple step-by-step guide on how to get PeerGuardian2 up and running.
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If you always seem to miss your favorite TV show, forget to set your DVR, or simply want to watch it on your computer rather than on TV, then here’s the solution.

This program called Torrent Episode Downloader (or TED for short, pretty straightforward name) is easily the best auto-torrent downloader out there. You just add what shows you want, and it will automatically know when the next episode is airing, and scan all the popular torrent sites that day until it finds the torrent. Upon finding it, it’ll send it straight to your BitTorrent client (see our previous post of How To Use BitTorrent if you don’t have BitTorrent set up on your computer or you don’t know what it is).

Best of all, TED has been so reliable that for the past 3 months that I’ve used it, every episode had started downloading 15 minutes after it finished airing realtime. I always get the correct episode (no fakes, etc) and it automatically updates itself to look for the next episode once it finds the current one. That way, you just put in what shows you want once, and let TED be.

Keep reading for the Step-by-step guide.
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