Auto Shutdwon for Firefox

Auto Shutdown, a plug in for Firefox is a good idea if your using Firefox as your download manager because that way you will get an exact time for shut down as Firefox can detect when the download finished before shutting down so for example if the server slowed down a little bit you won't auto shut down your computer when it is 99.9% finished (if you programmed a shut down by time, although you should really give an extra hour to the estimated time remaining when using timed auto shut down programs).

Stupid Auto-Shutdown designers

If your planning to design an auto shut down program you've come to the right place . . . because I am going to drag on about a stupid thing many people do when programming shut down programs.

I have used a few different applications, freeware ones anyway, and all of the auto shut down programs have an insurance policy of displaying a window that says something like "You have programmed AutoShutdown to turn off this computer, are you sure you want to proceed?" and you can click Yes to shut down or no to continue working. This is designed so in case you are working at your computer and haven't saved any work you can click no and save your work and do a manual shut down when your done.

What this means is that for security purposes the software has not actually fulfilled a solution to the problem, the computer did not auto shut down because you have to click Yes for it to shut down. I like to use this type of software at night for downloads or defrags etc., when you can guess an approx finish time. The insurence policy is not a bad idea but it should have an option on to display or not to display before shut down. It is annoying in the morning to have to click no and know that half a nights of electricity has been wasted.

On a contrast side, auto shut down programs that don't give you the option and don't have a cancel button are also annoying because when your setting up the software sometimes you set it off and you can't do anything but to watch everything shut down and then have to turn it on again to set it up for later. A hot key to cancel shut down would be an idea.

**** Please note that when i say AutoShutdown I am not referring to a program but a type of program so if there is an application out there called AutoShutdown I am not referring to them nor suggesting that that program is badly designed. ****

Easier/Faster way to set home page

If your using tabbed browsing click and drag the tab to the home icon to set the web page your currently viewing as your home page, easy!

Fixing noisy PC Fans - Clicking, buzzing, motor sounds

http://www.murraymoffatt.com/hardware-problem-0004.html

Try at your own risk, you never know what oiling a fan could do, it made mine quiet but could set yours on fire :)

Password Protected Screensaver

If you leave your computer and use the screen saver to lock your screen up you will most likely find out that making shortcuts to the screen saver will not get your computer password protected and it will only be protected when the screen saver is run after idle time of X minutes.

solution1 . To over come this you can actually use the lock computer function (Windows Key + L)

solution2 . Using the shortcut keys suck. Make a shortcut the the shortcut that can be treated like the screen saver shortcuts.

• Right click an empty area of your desktop, choose New/Shortcut and enter this line as the command line:

• rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

• Click Next. Name the shortcut whatever you prefer and click Finish. That's it.

• If you'd like to change the icon, just right click the shortcut and go to Properties/Shortcut/Change Icon. If you want open up c:\windows\system32 and find the keys icon to go with your locking shortcut. As it is now a icon shortcut you can make a shortcut on your desktop and quick launch.

Additional . If you have the welcome screen on you can turn it off to make password entering easier and more corporate when you return to your computer. To do this change the setting back to classic login prompt.

Start > Control Panel > UserAccounts > Change the way users log on and off
> [Uncheck] Use Welcome Screen




some of the instructions was taken from :
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=70

From now on I will post the web site of tutorial places to save me having to reword simple tutorial steps.

24 Hour time in Windows XP

If you think 24 hour time is cooler, more useful, want to save space on the Windows system tray or for whatever reason had AM and PM time as default and want to change to 24 hours, follow these instructions:

Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language options

(Next to English) click "Customise"

click the "Time" tab

Change the value for "Time format" and change whatever foramt you are using from 'h" to 'H"

Apply and your done!

Don't throw away the mp3 player

Many people who have brought mp3 players when they first came out have most likely replaced it with one with GBs capacity. The old mp3 players are bulky and can't store enough of your favourite songs.

Some re-use it as a thumb drive as the flash chip still has many thousands of cycles to go. The problem is new thumb drives that are flashy, shiny and ever so easy to lose cause their small, thin and comfortable to carry. This makes their old mp3 player bulky uncomfortable and not prefered as a portable data travel mate.

I recently had this same problem as a 128MB and 256MB mp3 player got replaced with a 2GB player. I still wanted to use the flash chip even though 1Gb thumb drives are $10 these days because it is just bad to waste good technology no matter how the new marketing adverts make you feel about new technology.

My solution was simple, a case mod that makes the player slim. Method, break open the case and remove it. The hard part for me was my lack of knowledge for electronics and i was fearing that removing certain components from the circuit board would break the connection and operation of the drive all together (i.e. series circuit) in my scenario i was able to remove the buttons and LCD screen.

Now the hard thinking part what things will be fit for making case? many ideas on the net such as Tic-Tac box etc. won't work on my player as the shape and size of the circuit board was larger than most usb thumb drive boards. After a bit of trying i decided to just wrap it in duct tape, it is thick and strong enough for protection and feels light but thickly padded. Doesn't look cool but compared to a Tic-Tac box i would say I've made it fairly thin.

Yeah, I think I've just about covered it all, now i just have my portable apps with me on the drive. Haven't used it in public so not sure if people would say cool, what is that or wow your so cheap.....