Did a friend come over and you need the wifi password – but forgot it? If you have a windows system that has ever connected to the wifi, you can extract it from your history. Simply open an admin-privledged command prompt and use this line to display the passwords in cleartext:
netsh wlan show profile * key=clearThings are moving fast. Create your UI in Figma and now let Claude have at it via the Figma MCP hookup. Or maybe just use Google’s own ‘vibe design’ tool Stitch.
I bet like a lot of folks, you have a set or two of airpods. I have an older set I use for running since the sound in them after a year or so was starting to get quieter and duller. Then, it got to the point I could barely even hear out of the right one.
Before I tossed them, I decided to see if cleaning them out would help. There wasn’t any obvious ear wax in them. So I looked online and sure enough Apple itself now has a video and procedure on how to do this.
I tried the method out. The first go seemed to improve things, but I wasn’t sure. The next day I tried it again, and the right airpod suddenly had a lot more volume. I tried it a 3rd time on the 3rd day, and low and behold – they were practically like new (well – except the battery life was still only good enough for a 60 minute run – but that’s another story).
I had tried this method before, but using isopropanol alcohol. It largely gave poor results. It seems the key is to use micellar water – usually for removing makeup and dirt on sensitive skin. I use Bioderma – Sensibio – H2O Micellar Water and it seems to be what they use in the video (it has a distinctive translucent red cap).
Windows Sandbox is a great little completely isolated environment in which to test out software you’re not sure is safe or for experiments that might corrupt your environment/installations. It pops up a virtual machine running Windows 10/11, is completely isolated, and then deletes everything when shut down.
However, it’s not always easy to get started. Even after installing the latest Windows 10 updates and turning all on virtualization features in bios, I still could not see the Windows Sandbox feature in the Turn Windows Features On and Off program.
It turns out you may need to do some extra setup, and the entire process is here in tenforums. They have a script (below) that helps, but there may even be other steps to follow and they’re all outlined on the post.
@echo off
echo Checking for permissions
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"
echo Permission check result: %errorlevel%
REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
echo Requesting administrative privileges...
goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )
:UACPrompt
echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
echo Running created temporary "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
timeout /T 2
"%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
exit /B
:gotAdmin
if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" )
pushd "%CD%"
CD /D "%~dp0"
echo Batch was successfully started with admin privileges
echo .
cls
Title Sandbox Installer
pushd "%~dp0"
dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\*Containers*.mum >sandbox.txt
for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . sandbox.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i"
del sandbox.txt
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Containers-DisposableClientVM /LimitAccess /ALL
pause
adf
To self-test a Roland MT-32, turn the unit on while holding down the 3 button, Volume and turn on the unit to enter test mode. You can check all the keys and play some test tones. To test the midi, you need to have the midi cables plugged in. To play a demo song, just hold just Master Volume. The “MIDI Message” light should flicker if it receives data.
Here’s a great guide for setting up an MT-32
Once your car gets about 10 years old, one of the most annoying things is that headlights dim and yellow. This is due to a number of reasons – but primarily due to the degradation of the UV coating. You can buff it off, but it often quickly returns and you’re stuck with an annoying chore almost every year.
Another option is to buy replacement headlights. In the old days, you simply unscrewed the old bulbs and put in the new ones. Now you need to remove the assemblies – which often involves removing the bumper and surrounding shrouds – as is the case with mid 2010 Subarus.
The Crosstrek/Impreza’s in the 2015 era were actually not that bad to replace. TRQ does a great job showing you how to do the job yourself – including how to re-aim the headlights. It’s a great video.
Being required to connect to the internet while installing Windows 11 has been one, in a long line of reasons, why many users refuse to update to the new OS, even though it has been out for 4 years (since Nov 2021). After finally reaching an adoption rate of just over 50%, it has since dropped to 49.08%
The most popular bypass to having to log in with an internet connected Microsoft account was to use “oobe\bypassnro” which, when typed into the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup experience, would enable a button that let you skip connecting to the internet
Unfortunately, Microsoft is removing that trick, but user @witherornot1337 on X found that typing “start ms-cxh:localonly” into the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup experience will allow you to create a local account directly without needing to skip connecting to the internet first.
Or you could, you know, actually give customers what they want instead of the kind of backwards thinking that gave us the universally hated Windows 8.
Links:
https://youtu.be/RCInsJ6BLjY?si=1a2wUVjed_kpSpm0
TipsNNTricks shows how to bypass the login password without a recovery CD or without any software. It does require physical access to the system (or a way to trigger a recovery boot); but this really helps if you found an old hard drive or system and can’t remember the password from eons ago.
You first boot in recovery mode. You then gain access to the drive by opening a debug message which opens notepad. This allows you to do File…Open and look at all the files on the C drive. You rename the ‘c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe’ to something else (bak or whatever), then make a copy of cmd.exe and name it sethc.exe in the same directory as the original sethc.exe.
When windows reboots, you can then press the shift key 5 times to trigger hotkeys (sethc.exe), and it will open a cmd prompt instead. Then use net use to reset the password for your accounts and you can log in. Clever!
Hate that Windows 11 requires an internet connection and registering a Microsoft Account?
The most popular bypass was “oobe\bypassnro” which, when typed into the command prompt (opened with Shift + F10) during the Windows 11 setup experience, would enable a button that let you skip connecting to the internet and the Microsoft account requirement.
@witherornot1337 on X, used “start ms-cxh:localonly” into the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup experience will allow you to create a local account directly without needing to skip connecting to the internet first.
It was the year 1960 and a brainteaser was formulated as “The Secretary Problem”. You need to hire a secretary; there are n applicants to be interviewed. You meet each of them in a random order. You can rank them according to suitability, but once rejected an applicant they cannot be recalled. How can you maximize the probability of picking the best person for the job?
Other versions of this include the “fiancé problem” (same idea, but you’re looking for a fiancé instead of a secretary) and the “googol game” – in which you are flipping slips of paper to reveal numbers until you decide you’ve probably found the largest of all.
The answer is… surprisingly predictable, it turns out.
“This basic problem has a remarkably simple solution,” wrote mathematician and statistician Thomas S Ferguson in 1989. “First, one shows that attention can be restricted to the class of rules that for some integer r > 1 rejects the first r – 1 applicants, and then chooses the next applicant who is best in the relative ranking of the observed applicants.”
So, when faced with a stream of random choices and wanting to pick the best, the first thing you do is reject everyone. That is, up to a point. Once you reach that point, just accept the next applicant, suitor, or slip of paper, that beats everything you’ve seen so far.
The statistics are fascinating; and it says that you reject the first 37% of applicants and then take the next one that’s better than what you’ve seen in the rejected pool.
This works if it’s apartments, job candidates, or potential life partners.
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