Eddie On Everything » hacks http://www.eddieoneverything.com Tips & tricks on things that interest me Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:29:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Use Custom Background Images as Screen Savers on the Kindle http://www.eddieoneverything.com/articles/use-custom-background-images-as-screen-savers-on-the-kindle.php http://www.eddieoneverything.com/articles/use-custom-background-images-as-screen-savers-on-the-kindle.php#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:32:52 +0000 eddie http://www.eddieoneverything.com/?p=791 Kindlerama pointed me to an updated version of the old Kindle Screen Saver hack that lets you replace the boring stock screen saver images with images of your own.

Not that I object to the default Kindle screen savers – I rather like them, actually. But after staring at the same cycling images for over a year now, I need a change. Plus, what better way to brighten your day than to look at your Kindle and see a photo of your loved ones?

Download the necessary files from MobileRead and follow the instructions listed there.

As far as hacks go, this is about as easy as one can get – you simply copy a file to your Kindle via the USB cable, create a directory, drop in your personal images, then select “Update firmware” from the Kindle menuing system.

Before deciding to make the change, keep in mind that all “hacking” of the Kindle is unauthorized (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), and making this change may prevent you from receiving further automatic firmware updates.

But fret not – the screen saver hack package includes an “uninstall” package as well, so when Amazon pushes out another update, you can simply revert to the boring ol’ dead authors.

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]]> http://www.eddieoneverything.com/articles/use-custom-background-images-as-screen-savers-on-the-kindle.php/feed 8 How To Fix Your Kindle 2 When It Won’t Charge http://www.eddieoneverything.com/how-to/how-to-fix-your-kindle-2-when-it-wont-charge.php http://www.eddieoneverything.com/how-to/how-to-fix-your-kindle-2-when-it-wont-charge.php#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:30:06 +0000 eddie http://www.eddieoneverything.com/?p=536 Egad! My Kindle stopped charging!

I settled in to bed the other night and grabbed my Amazon Kindle, looking to pick up where I left off in The Hades Factor. I was met with a familiar “Your battery is running low” message, so I plugged the Kindle in to the charger for the night and instead settled in with an old-fashioned, low-tech, printed-on-dead-trees style book.

The next morning, I unplugged my should-have-been-fully-charged Kindle & sat down to read the morning paper, only to be met with the “your battery is CRITICAL error!” Zoinks! For some reason, despite being plugged in all night, my Kindle had not charged!

I quickly ran to my computer & attached the Kindle. My Windows XP PC popped up that dreaded “USB Device Not Recognized” balloon. “It’s OK,” I thought. “It’ll be OK. I’ll just power the Kindle off by holding the power on/off slider for 15 seconds, and I’ll check back later.”

I returned later and … No dice! The Kindle was still not charging!

Thankfully, I was able to find a solution to this problem. (Whew!) After searching for things like “Kindle reset,” “Kindle hard reset,” and “Kindle soft reset,” I learned that while the Kindle 1 can be reset with a paper clip, or by using the Shift-Alt-R trick, these methods didn’t work on the Kindle 2.

I eventually came across a page that relayed a tip by Amazon Kindle Tech Support. I followed these steps, and within a couple of hours, I was back in action.

How to reset your Kindle when it won’t charge

1. Slide the power button and hold it for 30 sec.

2. Release and wait for 20 sec until the screen begins to flash.

3. As soon as it does, plug in the power and keep it connected for 2 hours.

Big thanks to The Epistemist for pointing me in the right direction. Now, back to my Robert Ludlum book…

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]]> http://www.eddieoneverything.com/how-to/how-to-fix-your-kindle-2-when-it-wont-charge.php/feed 50 How To Watch Flash Videos Full-Screen on Dual Monitor Setup http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-watch-flash-videos-full-screen-on-dual-monitor-setup.php http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-watch-flash-videos-full-screen-on-dual-monitor-setup.php#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:08:05 +0000 eddie http://www.eddieoneverything.com/?p=467 If you have a dual monitor setup, you’ve probably tried to watch a flash video on one screen while working on the other. As you likely know by now, it doesn’t work – as soon as you click the mouse on the other screen, the Flash video snaps back to regular size. Pretty annoying, I know.

Fortunately, there’s a way around this. Polish blogger D.I.Z. has created a patch that will allow you to watch a full screen video on one monitor while working on another. The patch, a single DLL file, is available at his blog.

To install the patch, you simply download a single DLL file & replace the version on your system.

This hack should work in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.  And of course, if you upgrade your flash player, you will lose the changes.  Bookmark this page so you check back for new versions of the DLL file needed for future releases.

Link to D.I.Z.’s blog.

Found at  Lifehacker.

A Reddit thread on the matter.

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]]> http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-watch-flash-videos-full-screen-on-dual-monitor-setup.php/feed 1 How To Reveal Stored Passwords in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-reveal-stored-passwords-in-firefox-chrome-safari-and-ie.php http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-reveal-stored-passwords-in-firefox-chrome-safari-and-ie.php#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:56:02 +0000 eddie http://www.eddieoneverything.com/?p=457 Nowadays browsers store passwords then auto-populate forms, hiding that stored password behind little dots or asterisks.  Guess what? There is a way to reveal the password hidden behind there.  This is very handy for when you forget your password but have it stored in the browser.

Reveal Stored Passwords in Mozilla Firefox and Chrome

Navigate to the page where the passwords are stored.  Paste this code into the location bar and hit enter.  The passwords will be revealed.

javascript: var p=r(); function r(){var g=0;var x=false;var x=z(document.forms);g=g+1;var w=window.frames;for(var k=0;k<w.length;k++) {var x = ((x) || (z(w[k].document.forms)));g=g+1;}if (!x) alert('Password not found in ' + g + ' forms');}function z(f){var b=false;for(var i=0;i<f.length;i++) {var e=f[i].elements;for(var j=0;j<e.length;j++) {if (h(e[j])) {b=true}}}return b;}function h(ej){var s='';if (ej.type=='password'){s=ej.value;if (s!=''){prompt('Password found ', s)}else{alert('Password is blank')}return true;}}

Note that the flip-side of this trick is that you probably shouldn’t be storing your password for sensitive websites – anyone with access to your computer could use this trick to reveal your password, write it down, then check your email/bank/cheating-on-your-spouse account from anywhere.

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]]> http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-reveal-stored-passwords-in-firefox-chrome-safari-and-ie.php/feed 2 How to use your Netgear (or Linksys, or D-Link) wireless router as a Hub http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-use-your-netgear-or-linksys-or-d-link-wireless-router-as-a-hub.php http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-use-your-netgear-or-linksys-or-d-link-wireless-router-as-a-hub.php#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:52:56 +0000 eddie http://www.eddieoneverything.com/internet/how-to-use-your-netgear-or-linksys-or-d-link-wireless-router-as-a-hub.php Ok, here’s the deal:

I have 2 wireless routers, a Cisco and a Netgear.

The house’s primary router, a DD-WRT-based Cisco, is in my first-floor office. Unfortunately, the signal isn’t strong enough to make it to the third floor of my house.

I wanted to run a wire to the third floor of my home & use the Netgear router as a hub (both wired and wireless) on the third floor, letting the DD-WRT router continue to handle the firewall, DHCP, etc., for the entire house.

The problem was – there’s no setting in the Netgear WRT-642g configuration page for “hub mode.”

Searching yielded little helpful information. A few nuggets led me to do a bit of experimentation, and I discovered a working solution.

The trick: Connect the second router (the one you want to use as a hub) to the first using one of the second’s LAN ports, not it’s WAN port. That is, don’t use the port you would use to connect this router to your cable modem. Instead, use one of the other ports, usually labeled 1-4.

Doing this allowed me to use my Netgear router as a hub, even though it’s not officially supported.

Happy surfing!

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