Autohotkey is useful. But I wouldn’t describe it as “awesome.”

Being a regular reader of Lifehacker, Autohotkey has been reviewed and featured over and over again in a lot of its articles which gradually created curiosity in me. At first, I was like, “eh, another tool on the PC.” Followed by, “Oh, maybe I could find a use for this.” and then, “I should try this once.”

And try, I did.

Autohotkey is a small scripting tool that creates keyboard shortcuts for different tasks and keystrokes you would normally do. It is made for your convenience such that you would hardly need to reach for that mouse and navigate your entire workspace with your keyboard, specially repetitive tasks that require you to input a lot of keystrokes.

But for the average user, it’s a pretty nice tool that doesn’t take up much system memory and makes working with a keyboard a little more convenient. I really didn’t need more keyboard shortcuts (since I’ve got most of the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V down pat :P) at work so I actually tried this more for the ‘scripting’ part. And so far, it sits quietly in the background everyday but I don’t put it on my Startup folder.

So, how do I use it?

7-zip fix to “Incorrect command line”

Been getting that irritating error (which shouldn’t exist in the first place if you ask me)? Here’s the quick fix:

Right click on the file you want. (No, we’re not going through the old way of 7-zip > Open archive technique.)

Choose ‘Open with…’

Select ‘Choose default program…’

Look for 7-Zip File Manager. If it’s not in the lists of recommended programs, search for it (click ‘Browse…’. Typically it’s under your C:\Program Files\7-Zip folder. Choose the 7zFM.exe program as default program.

Notice that 7-zip GUI is different from 7-zip File Manager. (Aha!)

Click ‘OK’ and try double-clicking your compressed files.

You’re welcome. 🙂

Codeacademy: getting you started with JavaScript

Programming is an essential part of learning computers. You won’t be learning just about computer hardware — that’s what technicians are for. To be a computer “scientist”, you have to learn software and how to code. Though not in exactly in the “scientific research” category, JavaScript is one language you can use to learn about how to communicate to your computer. Codeacademy.com gives 8 easy interactive lessons for you to get started with the basics of programming using JavaScript.

Having had only a college degree and some basics of computer programming, I must say that codeacademy.com has a good interface for the user. Instructions are on the left side of the website with a big console in the middle. I don’t think it’s meant to be customizable so you can’t change it into your own console theme (green on black ala-The Matrix or plain white on black) but it serves its purpose. You can “Run” and “Save” and edit your code. However, I’m not sure if you need a compiler for JavaScript or it’s built in. Do you really just “Run” a program straight from code? Well, the console shows you errors so I guess it’s pre-compiled. But I’m just an amateur so I don’t think the person who’s trying to learn to code shouldn’t be thinking about that yet. And that’s a good thing.

In about an hour, I finished the “tutorial”. I was hoping for more lessons but alas, there were none. Codeacademy was hoping for more lessons as well and gave me a notification about writing lessons for other computer languages! I sure hope the community would grow and be of help to those who, just like me, want to discover or re-discover the joys of programming.

The 3M MPro 110 MicroProjector

It’s amazing how technology is going through so much micro-miniaturization that now, even a portable projector is now available!!!

research assistant needed

Well, not exactly a person. But rather software!

I’ll soon be starting my masters thesis. Actually, I should be starting next semester but I still don’t know where to start. Even this post is suffering from my disorganized thoughts and anxiety.

I have MS OneNote already on my PC but it seem to be looking for something more simple. As I mentioned in a previous post, it sometimes gets too distracting. EverNote is also helpful with categories and tags on the left pane but I still love the free-form writing of OneNote. I started Google-ing and found Zotero and EndNote. But they didn’t seem to catch my fancy.

So, I’m making an appeal to people out there who could share their experiences doing research and their theses and dissertations if PC-based note-taking and organizing is the way to go. Help please?

eneloop

OK, so now i have new digital camera. And expenses on batteries are summing up to a hefty price tag. And that’s a bad thing.

I initially thought of having ordinary Alkaline batteries for use with the camera well, since i wasn’t going to use it often. I thought that I’d just be using it occasionally — during birthdays, during special events, during swimming parties, etc. But in the end, I ended up using it every day! I took pictures on the bus, I took pictures of my room, I took pictures of the garden, I want to take pictures of the house, I took pictures of the road, I took pictures of the office grounds, I even took a picture of my coffee mug! And I’m officially a snap-happy individual! I’m a shutter-click-aholic. I’m not a cam whore. I just lurve taking pictures!

So now, I was resolved in buying rechargeable batteries. And, after Google-ing stuff and doing a little research, I finally decided to get Sanyo eneloop rechargeable batteries. Well, they claim to last longer in storage than your conventional rechargeables. You lose 25% of your battery charge in 6 months in ordinary ones but you lose just 5% on eneloops. How convenient for the ‘occasional’ photographer!

I now own 2 pairs of eneloops for backup power while keeping another pair of ordinary but 2700mAh rechargeables. eneloops are 2000mAh by the way. That’ll keep me clicking happily for a long time without charging I guess. 🙂

My Favorite Yahoo! Widgets

Eversince I discovered Yahoo! Widgets, I’ve always been on the prowl for useful widgets for myself in the office. Not necessarily for productivity but for the FYI stuff — general information.

My fave Y! Widget would be the World Clock widget. You get to run multiple copies of the widget and set them at different major cities in the world and get a view of the times in those cities simultaneously. Arrange them in any way you like! Diagonal, across the top of the desktop, at the bottom, like a flower, it’s up to you. And then the face of the clock shows you the ‘lighting’ at that area at the time. so if it’s 3 AM, it’s going to be dark. At 6 AM, it’ll be reddish or orange to indicate it’s dawn in the area… neat huh? (yeah, in a geeky kind of way).

how to “print screen” a DOS app at full screen in XP

Ever had this problem? You have a DOS-based utility or program that runs at full screen. You can’t have it windowed. It just minimizes itself. Pressing the “F12” button or PrintScreen button doesn’t work. Pressed almost everything, (yeah, Ctrl +, Alt +, Shift +, even Ctrl + Shift + right?) and still nothing!

You try another bunch of screen capture apps like SnagIt, Print Screen Deluxe, etc. NOTHING…

And since I was needing an immediate solution to getting this ‘image’ from the screen, I was almost about to grab a digital camera and take a picture of my monitor!!! Imagine how that would look like in a presentation.

Don’t despair! Looks like you just haven’t Googled enough yet. 😀 heehee… Good thing I found this DOS-based program. Yeah, yeah… I didn’t check if it’s spyware or virus. Just like most of the things I mention here (like that AquaDock which is supposed to be malware thing),  I don’t really mind because as long as it serves its purpose, in this case printing the full screen of a DOS program, I’m fine with it. Besides, my PC isn’t slowing down because of anything, by my last SpybotS&D scan. It’s because I’m filling up my HDD with stuff! hahaha…

My advice right now, before we go any further, download at your own risk.

speaker dilemma

Right now, I’m quite in a bit of a dilemma. Because my mouse’s roller/middle button broke, I had to buy a new one immediately so I can go back to work. I didn’t want to buy one of those cheaper ones again so I bought myself this:

It’s basically what I need (and like) in a mouse. Comfortable, cheaper than a Laser mouse (it uses what a4tech calls GLaser “Run on Shine” technology), and has little nice additional buttons. 🙂 Now I can use it on my $0.50 mouse pad which I couldn’t use before with my optical mouse. I always had to put a sheet of paper over it so it won’t see the pattern design on the mouse pad.

So it cost me about $12.00 for the mouse.  But what I was saving up for was actually a new desktop hard disk drive! So now, having less money for the HDD, I’m thinking what could I buy. I could buy stuff I wanted but less priority over the HDD. I’m now thinking of buying speakers for my PC at home. The candidates:

2.0 speakers

Creative Inspire T10

Nice looks,  separate tweeters from the main drivers but a tad bit too pricey for me. Creative are known for their clarity of sound produced and say that the drivers are good enough to substitute a woofer. hmmm…

Altec Lansing VS2420

Also looks nice in matte black (I think) but with a driver and a passive radiator in each box. So expect bass to come out fine, but I dunno if the full-range driver will be enough for clarity. Also, price is about $25.00 cheaper! And it comes with a built-in microphone, too.

2.1 speakers

Creative has a wider range of 2.1 speakers. But what would best suit me? I don’t know! Altec Lansing has a few of ’em but the styling is what gets to me. Altec Lansing VS2421 has a great looking 2.1 system for show-off. And the front-firing woofer seems, to me, a great center of attraction. It’s this purplish red ring around the middle that looks so well with the woofer bouncing. The satellites have tweeters which will produce great high frequency sounds.

Creative’s SBS350 is a basic cube-structured 2.1 system. Simple and does a good job. SBS A300 looks nice but the woofer just gets to me, with that gray cover on it. The satellites look very nice and stylish, displaying the whole driver for you to admire. The Inspire M2600 and T3100 have the same look but the T3100 has tweeters on its satellites which makes it more expensive than the M2600.

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!! I would like to be objective about this but I don’t know if I could live with the decision I will be making if I selected the wrong set of speakers.  Anybody willing to lend me a hand?

happy holidays!

Geeks love christmas. Why? Because it’s when we wish for new gadgets, BUY new gear at a cheaper price since some new model or series is coming out next year, and we look forward to what we can buy next Christmas — like the stuff that’ll come out next year! (That was confusing.)

To celebrate the holidays, you have to decorate your office, house, room… For the artsy-fartsy people, this might be a joy to do. For myself, at least, this might be a chore (well, sometimes). Here’s a solution I found somewhere… TADA!!!!!!

It actually lights up when you put the 9V battery at the base, which serves as the tree’s trunk. It looks good, don’t you think? Know more about it here. Maybe get your girl one, too.

Happy Holidays!