zerØSign: articles

How To Never Lose the Remote

2005-10-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Apparently today is LifeHacker appreciation day as two of my posts (back-to-back no less) come from the ocean of life-tips that the site consists of. So without further ado ...

from LifeHakcer, "If you have trouble keeping track of your remote controls, today’s MacGyver-worthy tip should keep your remotes anchored in this reality. Attaching a duct-tape tail to your remotes increases their visibility and makes them almost impossible to lose."
ok, so maybe this isn't the most aesthetically pleasing of the life hacks, but I think this is great. This type of ingenuity is just the thing my life needs now. By this weekend I imagine many of my easily lost personal items will wind up with tails: my cell-phone, my carkeys, my wallet, my mouse ...

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Ways You Can Make Money From Credit Cards

2005-10-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

A guide to making those debt inducing monsters, known as credit card companies, reward you with income. The plan is apparently three-fold: rewards, loans and purchase protection. Nice tips for the credit shoppers out there. You should be careful however. Those companies have many tricks to turn the tables in their favor. Via LifeHacker

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"...But My Lips Hurt Real Bad!"

2005-10-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Skills.wav!!!!!
Once in a while, you come across something that you know will forever change your life. The following is an account told to me by a friend of mine when just such a thing happened earlier today. For narrative purposes the account will be told in the third-person.

He entered Wal-Mart, totally ignorant of the dramatic happenings awaiting him. He began his numblingly boring task of searching for something of overwhelming unimportance when it happened. He saw a bright light coming down from the heavens upon this ... treasure. Maybe it was chance, but I believe it was fate that led him down this particular aisle on this particular day. Stunned by the magnificence of the object he froze right in the middle of the aisle, blocking all traffic. As he began to come to, he remembered his trusty camera phone in his pocket. "The world must see!" he stated poignantly as his quivering hands snapped the picture. "Now, they will see."

Above is the picture that was captured of possibly the worlds greatest plush doll of all time. Its Napolean Dynamite baby!!! The king of nerds, now in doll form. He also quotes several lines form the movie. I couldn't find any links to purchase one so you will have to take my word for it - apparently this is pretty new. Enjoy.

Hack The Cracker Barrel Peg Game

2005-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe its much less of a hack and more of a tutorial of how to cheat at this game. Nevertheless, it would still be fun to hustle your friends the next time you sit down at Cracker Barrel.

For an insanely thorough analysis of this game:
http://www.danobrien.ws/PegBoard.html

And then for a practice session:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/danceguy/PegGame.html

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How to Throw Cards With Skill

2005-09-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Throwing cards as deadly weapons seems impossible. Little bits of cut-out cardboard suddenly becoming capable of piercing hard fruit, drywall, or even a brown paper lawn bag is beyond the believable unless you are open to anything you've seen on TV-or anything, period

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Poop Suit: a new patent for human waste management

2005-09-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Do you hate going to the toilet? Have you ever wanted to poop into a plastic bag attached to your body? Then this is for you.

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USB Mouse Hack

2005-09-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting mod I found at i-hacked.com. This guy hacked a USB hub and his mouse to have an extra USB port at his fingertips. The idea is pretty creative and simple. Also, it got me thinking. Where else could one use an extra USB port?

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Real Life Batmobile for the US Military

2005-09-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

From Georgia Tech Research News, "A concept vehicle designed to illustrate potential technology options for improving survivability and mobility in future military combat vehicles will be shown publicly for the first time Sept. 13-15 at a military technology meeting in Virginia. The concept vehicle, known as the ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol), was built to help the U.S. military evaluate multiple science and technology options – including ballistic and mine protection – that could benefit future vehicle design. The concept vehicle combines proven vehicle technologies with advanced materials and engineering concepts."

Looks like the military is finally starting to listen to Hollywood. The movie industry is always a great resource in terms of concept and design. Just imagine what we could do with an army of those mechs from Matrix.

Google in the 90's

2005-07-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Google @ 1999

Oh to have been there when it was all started - or even to have invested when they first went public. To look back and see where the Internet monster Google was a mere 6 years ago is impressive and somewhat daunting. Above, is the entire Google system in 1999. And here is the original Google homepage. I just wonder what another 6 years will bring for the Google Empire.

More on the history of Google.

Modify the color of your Command Prompt

2005-07-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

For some, this may be one of the first mods you ever did on your Win95 machine, but for others, it could be a cool new trick that really changes the feel of your Command Prompt window. I spend hours a day at work using the Command Prompt and I just couldn't stand the boring grey and black color scheme anymore. So one day, I went exploring into the depths of the Command tool and here are the tips I pulled out.

You can actually change the color of your command window many different ways, but this way is by far the best. It is the most direct and ultimate way that works everytime, no matter what other settings you may already have set. To get started, you will first need to experiment with some style choices. From the Command Prompt (I'm assuming you know how to get there or you probably wouldn't have kept reading this far), type 'color help'. This will bring up the manual entry on the color command. From the entry, we see a list of digit to color representations and we see that to change the color, all you need to type is the word 'color' followed by two hex digits. For example, to get the prompt looking the way I have it now, you would type 'color 0c'. You should play around with these values until you get a color scheme that you like. Once you have a background and text color that you like, you need to enter it into the registry for it to be the new default color. Write down or memorize the two hex digits that you want to make your new default color and type 'regedit' in the command prompt. This should bring up the Regsitry Editor (NOTE: the Registry contains some vary base level data about your operating system - do not alter or delete any values you do not understand, you just may kill your windows installation). Now, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor. Right-click on the default color variable and click modify. In the ValueData field enter the two digit hex number you want to represent your new color scheme (ex. mine is '0c'). Make sure the Hexadecimal radio button is chekced and hit 'Ok'. Close the Registry Editor and enjoy.

There are lots of other things you can play around with to alter the functionality of your command prompt. For instance, when the command prompt is open, right-click on the title bar of the window and go to 'Properties'. Within this window, their are several more modifications you can make. However, changing options through this window are not as definative as changing them through the Registry. For example, if you have already changed the default color of the command prompt through the registry (as described above) and then modify the colors through the properties tab, the colors will go back to your previously set default color as soon as you close the command prompt. As with anything, play around with the settings on your own to gather a full understanding of your system.
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