End User

Easiest Hack Ever: Install All Your Essential Programs at Once with Ninite

If you've ever had to do a format and reinstall of Windows XP (and I like XP, but everyone's had to do it at least once), you're familiar with the hours spent on a fresh desktop hunting down drivers and all the essential programs you need to get back to being productive.

Ninite (formerly a project called Volery) can take one of the lengthiest steps out of the process of any new Windows install.  It's a site with a catalog of useful free software--familiar apps like Firefox, Pidgin, Skype, and VLC--that you can select for download.  Once you've selected all the software you need, simply click "Get Installer" and you'll download a sub-200K file that you can carry anywhere for future installs.  (The installer will have a huge filename, so you may want to rename it for convenience, but this is optional.)  Keep it on a flash drive, or even save it in a draft email in your Gmail like I do, and you'll always have one-click access to your most-needed apps for those dark days when there's no other way to be sure but to nuke your hard drive from orbit.

Using the installer will install each of the programs you selected without any input needed, selecting each program's default settings and automatically refusing any addons like browser toolbars.  Note that this does mean that if you need special settings, like different install paths, they won't be available; once it starts, you can cancel the process but otherwise can't affect it.

There are only a couple of catches.  First, no 64-bit apps are available, though they're reportedly coming soon.  Second, as mentioned, you only get the default settings with each install, so you'll still have to do a little configuring once everything's up and running.  Lastly, Ninite is currently free to use, but will eventually have the option of "premium accounts", with free accounts to lose some features (but not the basic purpose or functionality).  So you may want to hop on and grab your essential programs while you can. 

Ninite works for Windows XP, Vista, and 7.  Grab your own custom installer at the Ninite website.

Easiest Hack Ever: Theme Your OS X Desktop with Magnifique

OS X has many virtues, but one thing it's always lacked is a comprehensive approach to theming--you either love Aqua or you don't, but historically there wasn't much you could do about it other than change the orientation and size of your docks, or the layout in the Finder view.

But Magnifique changes all that.  A completely free download for Mac OS X, Magnifique is a theming engine that lets you change the look and feel of OS X.  After installing the program, you can use its menu-based interface to select from a list of indexed themes.  You can browse details and preview each theme before installing, and install changes take place in real time (although sometimes you have to restart any open programs before the theme fully "takes").

The Magnifique format is open-source, so you can create your own themes as well--although the Magnifique interface has a database of themes that are stored on its own servers, you can make your own themes and pack them into .mfq files that anyone can download and use.

The current version of Magnifique is 2.1 and supports the theming of the Finder, the Dock, and iTunes.  Check out the Magnifique site, and download the program for your Mac here.

--Aric A.

Taking a Shot at Extending a Wi-Fi Signal for Almost Nothing

Who wouldn't take a shot at getting something for nothing, or at least in this case something for next to nothing, when it comes to the pile high tech toys we all have strewn around our houses. With that in mind here goes...

In an age when it increasingly seems that a gadget is only as good as its embedded wireless functionality, how can one not obsess over their home network's wireless coverage? Myself, I've been stuck with a free, but sub par wireless router in the basement for a few years and so my personal brand of obsession has been going on for, well let's see now, that would be a few years. Sure, I could bite the bullet and invest in a new router, get the old one out of the basement and/or look into one of the many wireless extender options out there, but any of these would cost money now wouldn't they. Then the other day I came across the video below that looked like it might be a short-term answer. It's from a two-year-old Life Hacker post, containing a video that claims that in minutes you can dramatically boost your wireless signal by creating your own parabolic reflector antenna for your router out of paper and aluminum foil. Quite the claim. I can attest to the fact that it does only take a few minutes to make the antenna, although it only made a modest improvement in my signal, and only in a limited part of my house. True enough, more often than not you get what you paid for, which in this case was nothing, but my skills with glue sticks and construction paper are not what they used to be. If you have some time to kill and/or want to put your kid to work check out the video below. You might even get a better wireless signal. Myself, it looks like I'm extender bound.

--Tom Milnes

Easiest Hack Ever: Make Windows XP Look Like Windows 7 in Three Steps

Not quite ready to take the plunge of the free release candidate of Windows 7, but still dig on its snazzy new look?  If you're one of the millions who are sticking by the tried-and-true Windows XP until the grass is proven greener, here's an easy way to get a bit of Windows 7's spruced-up look and features with just three free downloads.

1) ViGlance--There've been several XP themes designed to mimic Windows 7's appearance, but ViGlance does that AND brings you some of the actual functionality of the new taskbar--you can group processes and even get some sliding transition effects.

2) Desk Topmost--Here's a nice substitute for the Aero Peek feature.  Instead of using the Ctrl+D shortcut to minimize all windows, Desk Topmost lets you use Ctrl+Alt+D to fade all open windows to show the desktop, and you can either click on the desktop icons as normal or right-click anywhere on the screen to return to your open windows.

3) Power Resizer--One of the hyped features of Windows 7 is Window Snap, where you drag a window to the top or side of the screen and it will automatically resize the window to take up half or all of the screen.  Power Resizer lets you do this in XP, but even takes it a step further by automatically resizing open windows in relation to a window that you actively resize.  Which means that if you resize an open window, the other open windows will resize themselves automatically in relation to it to fit the screen.

--Aric A.

A Refresher on Getting the Most out of Your Laptop Battery

I'm not here to tell anyone their business, but I know that I'm less than careful with the way I treat my laptop battery with an eye towards extending its life, and so it could be that you are too. If you think that is the case, then you might want to read on.

Here's the thing. I'm pretty sure that I know at least some of the general rules, but after coming across and reading the article linked to here, it is clear that whatever it is that I think I know, I've not been sticking to it. For example, although I have only rarely run my battery all the way down until I get a warning, when it is in use I pretty much always have my AC adapter plugged in. This means that my battery does not get to stretch its legs very often. If this is the way you use your laptop apparently you are supposed to unplug it when in use a few times a week. Ooops! And I wondered why my battery charge doesn't seem near what it was when I first got my laptop. So, there you go. I learned something new today. As I sit here on the couch typing out these last few sentences my cord is now unplugged and hopefully that will do my box some good. If you have had any similar problems with your laptop batteries, or want to avoid them in the future, take a look at the linked to article above and see if you don't get a much needed refresher as well.

--Tom Milnes

Phoenix Freeze Turns a Blue Tooth Cell into a PC Proximity Lock

So, you say that you are too busy to tap out a few hot keys to lock down your PC when you step away from your desk for a few minutes. Apparently the folks over at Phoenix Freeze feel your pain and are ready to make a few bucks off of it via their Blue Tooth "Freeze" application.

Freeze allows users to transform your cell phone into an automatic proximity lock for their PCs running XP or Vista. It does this by linking up a Blue Tooth enabled cell phone with one or multiple computers, which automatically lock up when you and your phone move more than a set distance away from your computer(s). The program automatically unlocks the computer(s) when you come back within range and also allows you to place your computer into sleep mode via this link with your phone as well. Again, "tap-tap-tap" does the same thing, but we have to justify the existence of that Blue Tooth technology, right. The Phoenix Freeze website is running a free trial offer for the app, and according to Engadget is lobbying to get itself added to that secret list of vendor software that is bundled with new PCs. If you are down with the Blue Tooth thing and are never without your phone, you can check out a demo of Phoenix Freeze in action here.

--Tom Milnes

Easiest Hack Ever: Add Virtual Desktops to Windows with Dexpot 1.4

Regardless of your stance in the OS wars, one advantage that Mac and Linux has long had over Windows users is the use of integrated virtual desktops.  Computer users these days commonly have many programs open at once--often too many to easily manage on a single screen.  Being able to switch between multiple workspaces on a single monitor is one of those things that once you've experienced it, it's hard to work without it.

On my older Windows boxes I always just replaced the entire default shell with Blackbox or something similar, which came with virtual desktops out of the box, but that's not a solution for casual users.  For XP there was the Windows XP VDM PowerToy, but I found it incredibly clunky and, oddly, it refused to uninstall.

Enter Dexpot 1.4.  These days there are actually quite a few desktop window managers for the Windows platform, but having tried most of them I've found Dexpot to be the easiest to use and configure, and it plays well with every flavor of Windows, including the Windows 7 beta which I have it currently installed on.  It handles the video compositing of Vista and 7 nicely, and for such a large number of configuration options it's got a very lean memory footprint.

You can simply use Dexpot to add virtual copies of your current workspace and easily switch between them, or you can personalize each workspace--including changing the background, icons, and screen resolution.  You can configure the hotkeys you use to switch between virtual windows and even set your desktop to automatically switch workspaces on a preset interval.

Dexpot 1.4 is free, and you can get your copy here.

--Aric A.

Eyeborg Project: An Exciting and Creepy Hack I Hope You Never Try

It goes without saying that experimenting with your eyesight is neither the easiest hack in the world or the safest, but apparently a few brave souls out there are driven to take it on regardless. The Eyeborg Project is the brainchild of one of those.

Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence is blind in one eye from a firearms accident when a child. You may have seen him featured in Wired late last year. With some colleagues he has taken on the challenge of implanting wireless video camera inside his prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies wherever he is just by looking around; all pretty much on no budget. Sounds like the perfect fit, so to speak, for a filmmaker. Unlike others pursuing similar goals, Spence is not hoping to regain his sight in that eye by connection the camera to his brain, just -- and this by no means is meant to minimize the goals of the project -- to implant a camera. Yeah it worked for Steve Austin so no big deal, right? So far he has been unsuccessful both in getting it to safely work, or to get sufficient funding. This is interesting and of course a little creepy, stuff though. If he ever does get it to work though, how fast do you think the offers will pour in for funding, a complete buyout of the technology and movie offers for he to consult on a high tech version of "Eyes of Laura Mars?" Can you say "instantly?" Good luck to him on all that. In the meantime check out the video he recently put out regarding the project. It is chock full of Six-Million Dollar man references and a few to the family Skywalker and Neo. It also has some fairly graphic eye surgery footage. Enjoy, but don't try this one at home.

--Tom Milnes

The Ultimate Media Center Remote By Way of the PS2

Truth be told, the cheapskate I am has made me less than an expert on high-end media remotes. So does that cast some doubt on my proclamation of the one below as "ultimate?" Probably, yet it is doubtless both the largest I've ever seen and can only be created by someone with the right parts and the willingness to tinker, so I guess I do stand corrected. It is not the ultimate Media Center remote, just the most awesomest ever.

Coming to us by way of a post at hackedgadgets.com, this 'pedo-remote' is made from two DanceDanceRevoultion (DDR) mats for PS2. And all these years I've been dumping on those DDR dorks who double up on their mats for super-duper dance difficulty level. To them my humblest of apologies. I guess I know who to go to now when I want to upgrade my current channel changer thingy.

Check out the video below:

--Tom Milnes

A VCR Hack That Nobody Could Have Possibly Expected

Let's see now, it being 2009 now it has got to be 10 years or more since I last turned on the VCR that a recent scavenger hunt down to my basement revealed. Why on earth do I still have the thing? Well for one there are those old Tae Bo tapes I've been lugging around, but more on topic, for some reason I've always thought that at some point when I have all the time in the world, that I would set up shop down there, tear the guts out of all the outdated hardware I have and let the creative juices and a soldering iron do what they will. We'll today I came across this awesome VCR hack that only proves that I was right. If only I had made time to take that old box apart sooner the last 10 years would have been very different indeed. I think I might have held on to my Dad's old BetaMax as well. While I go look for that take a look at the video below and see what treasures your own old VCR might contain.

--Tom Milnes