Tim Matheson Blog - Productive Tips and More

Ever went on a trip and thought oh shit I forgot to turn of my Mac? Well you could turn around and go back, you could call a friend or you could just send a text message to your email address that Mail downloads and shut it down yourself. I’ve already showed you how to shutdown windows with a text message and a batch script. Now it’s time to do it Mac style. To complete this tutorial you will need the following.

1. A Mac (duh) Ive only tried this on Leopard, if you get it running on Tiger please let me know.
2. Mail which if you have a Mac you should have installed.
3. ScriptEditor also included with Mac
4. A cellular phone with sms text messaging capabilities and sms service.
(more…)

Johnny Lee, and his WIImote hacking tips has created a way to make 3D games (for the WII) a reality using DIY IR glasses. This is a really cool concept, the software tracks the movement of your head and adjusts the current display accordingly. I am definitely going to experiment with this technology.

You can also check out Johnny Lee’s website here.

Microsoft has a great article on how to conserve your laptops battery supply using hibernate features available in “most” windows installations. I really think this is an overlooked feature available to Microsoft customers. Read the full article

1. Open Power Options in Control Panel. (Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Power Options.)
2. Click the Hibernate tab, select the Enable hibernate support check box, and then click Apply.
3. If the Hibernate tab is unavailable, your computer does not support this feature.

I spoke with Gina Trapani on Wednesday about my concerns on this issue. The problem is that many online shops are using hidden fields in forms to pass information such as pricing, shipping, and quantity to their online checkout systems. Now I love Google Checkout for its sheer simple integration methods, but there is also an option to auto approve the payment and this concerns me. So I am writing to you today to illustrate some of the methods I have came up with which will hopefully prevent this sort of attack. Here are three ways you can circumvent this little flaw in many online stores.
(more…)

OK for most people the solution to this is obvious but for some making a spare key hasn’t made their top priority list of things todo. If you find yourself locked out of your vehicle try these tips for retrieving your keys from a locked vehicle. The most common method and for me the most successful is the wire coat hanger. The trick to the coat hanger method is getting it in the door at the correct angle so you can maneuver it to either pull the door handle or push the unlock button.

Link Via eHow.com

If you’re used to navigating application menus by hitting the Alt key, this won’t be a hard system to adopt. Traditionally, when you hit Alt on a normal Windows app, the focus goes to the application’s File menu. From there, you can navigate the menus by hitting the underlined letter. Office 2007 has taken this a step further.
Via [LifeHacker.com]

CueCats are barcode scanners that were given away by Digital Convergence in the late 1990s. They were designed as a way for consumers to scan barcodes from magazines and other media and be directed to a website with more information on the product or service they scanned. The scans were encrypted to prevent law suits based on the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) of 1998. However they are still useful today as a low cost barcode scanning solution with a little hardware modification and or some free software known as CatNip which bypasses the encryption. The nice thing about these devices is that they type any scan into any field and press enter which makes them perfect for passwords. In this article I am going to show you how to take your modified or unmodified CueCat and use it to login to your computer via passwords encoded into barcode format.

What you will need.

1. A CueCat USB or PS2 will work.
2. A barcode (You can use one from an existing rewards card or make your own here)
3. An account to test it on before using this as your form of authentication.

(more…)

I made a quick video to demonstrate how you can tell if a CD or DVD is blank. If you look on a disc that is not blank you will notice a ring indicating the disc’s contents. The further the ring is to the “outer” edge the more data the disc contains. Pretty simple but useful.

The thought of repairing your own laptop can be painful. There are lots of little screws, springs, prongs, nuts etc. However some PC shops will not even fix laptops and recommend you contact the manufacture for repairs. So what is one to do when their laptop power supply breaks? Should you contact your laptop manufacture and see about a warranty? Or do you try to mend it yourself and save time and possibly some money? Repair4laptop.org has a great guide that covers in detail, with pictures how to repair your laptop power supply cables. The guide features Apple and PC models and the list is quite extensive.

LINK - Via Repair4Laptop.org

If you own a car you should also own an auto accident kit. An auto accident kit can mean the difference between getting you much deserved settlement and getting screwed by an insurance company. For the most part accident kits are easy to put together and you may already have some of the items around your home or office. I have put together a list of items you should have on hand in the invent of an accident.

(more…)

Water conservation is alway a good practice. Here is a tip on how to use less water on your next stop to the shitter.

Items needed

• 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon milk jug or other container
• 1 gallon of h20 (actually sand or anything to fill the jug works.)

Start by filling up the jug with sand, water or whatever you want just make sure its heavy enough to stay submerged with the toilet back removed. Flush the toilet to allow the water to drain from the basin and place the jug down into the basin. The water will rise but will have less volume to fill this time resulting in less water used for each flush.

I made a quick video tutorial on how to use any AC adapter to power low voltage electronics. NOTE: I am not responsible for any damage to your electronics. This video is for informational purposes only.

If you are a gambler and frequent the local casinos or take an occasional trip to Las Vegas you may be missing out on the big pay out. (more…)

Ok this is a tip I have used for years to reduce my cell phone bill. Actually I haven’t had to put it into practice much since I left a certain unnamed PCS provider.

In short you just waste their time on the phone untill it costs them money then reap the benifits.

(more…)

Scott has a great tip for oiling up a cooking surface using a paper towel to evenly spread the oil. Start by pouring the desired amount of oil into the center of your pan and spread it around with a paper towel. “it’s that simple” Says Scott.

So you have a huge collection of bottle caps and your significant other is pressuring you to use em or loose em. The solution is obvious, make cool retro bottle cap magnets and display your bottle cap collection with pride.

To complete this project you will need the following supplies. I did not include any photos for this project as they are not needed due to the simplicity of the project.

1. 1 or more bottle caps any brand will do.
2. A “hot” glue gun (Be Careful). Super glue or any other adhesive can alternatively be used.
3. Some craft magnets pick em up online or Hobby Lobby or anywhere you like.

To begin place a bottle cap face down on a level surface and begin filling the cap with hot glue or equivalent. Allow the glue to fill the cap creating a flat surface of “dry” hot glue. This will ensure your caps do not damage your fridge, car, bike or whatever metal surface you are applying the magnets. Once the glue is hard or dry apply another small amount onto the newly formed surface and place the magnet on the glue. Allow the glue to once again dry 4 - 5 minutes and that’s all there is to it.

Have you ever seen those neat little rings made out of dollar bills? Sherwood Clay Randall Jr. has a creative talent for turning money into more interesting objects. His website shows you not only how to make a ring but other objects such as t-shirts, eye glasses, gift boxes, Christmas trees and more. Clay says

“My best original designs include spiders, eyeglasses, sailboats, and framed portraits.”

Link

Skype has turned out to be a pretty useful tool. With more and more uses becoming evident with each day. A friend of mine Nick Saramandich recently showed me how to easily check your cellular voice mail using skype. The advantage to this method as opposed to traditional methods is the comfort factor. Listening to your messages with skype allows you to relax in your favorite chair, sofa etc. and thoroughly absorb the real content contained within the messages. The latter method just leaves your ear ringing and sweaty and leaves much to be desired on the comfort side of things.

Effective Tuesday, September 26, 2006 TSA Is Adjusting The Ban On Liquids, Aerosols And Gels according to the TSA Website. The new restrictions will allow some items which were previously banned. TSA states that by allowing some items to board planes they can focus on real threats. There are detailed videos of people placing items into plastic bags and even include music lol.

From the TSA Website

1. Travelers may now carry through security checkpoints travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top bag.
2. After clearing security, travelers can now bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area on-board aircraft.

If you ask me this is sort of a waste of time because you could just as easily buy these items when you land with less restrictions. The TSA has been very clear in reference to the guidelines of this and are available in full on the TSA website.

While the batch menu is often overlooked by many Photoshop users the batch tool is a powerfull image tool. Batch processing photos in Photoshop is easy. The most favorable method is to use the batch menu found under the file menu flyout in Adobe photoshop. From the batch menu window you can select a folder and any actions you have created to be preformed on an entire folder. The most common use for the batch menu by far is cropping images and thumbnail generation. However it can be used for other things such as watermarks and red eye reduction the choice is yours. Be carefull when working on slower machines as batch processing lots of images will slow or even lock up ram starved machines and may cause errors in your images. A good practice when working with the batch tools is to make a copy of the directory before batching it. This way if you have an unexpected power failure you wont loose any of your images.