HowTo: Shutdown your Mac with a text message

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.
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eHow to find water in an emergancy

How to Find Water in an Emergency
This eHow has instructions for finding water in an emergancy. Water being so valuable it’s good to know how to find it in an emergancy situation and might sav your life.
I don’t know about step four?

Drink from your toilet’s reservoir tank as a last resort (”but not from the bowl“).

Security Tip: Better passwords with a CueCat (Windows)

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.

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HowTo Tell if a DVD or CD disc is blank

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.

HowTo fix a laptop power cable with Repair4laptop.org

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

How to conserve water with a milk jug

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.

Hack your AC adapter

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.

HowTo Oil a pan with a paper towel

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.

How to make retro bottle cap magnets

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.

MacGyver Tip - Derive AAA batteries from a 9volt

www.axecollector.com has a great “MacGyver Tip” on how to obtain AAA batteries on short notice. This step by step instructional website will guide you through the process. I like this particular article because I always seem to need batteries on short notice.

Link