Lets Fucking Automate our Lives ~ Part 1

One of my new years resolutions this year was to get up earlier, in the interest of doing so I have begun to set up a ghetto smart-house, or smart-dorm as the case may be.

What I have thus-far is

• A Lamp Timer, which controls the light, and my espresso machine
• My computer wakes up automatically at 6:30 and displays the news and my gmail

The Lamp Timer is a neat little gadget that plugs into an electrical outlet and automatically allows power to flow at programmed times, in my case, at 6:25, 5 minutes before my alarm clock

My computer, which is close to my bed, automatically turns on at 6:25, and loads the NY times home page and my email (gmail).  I did this using Windows XP's scheduled tasks utility.  Windows XP Scheduled tasks is a little utility that automatically runs a program at a specified time.

The Scheduled tasks utility is located at
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled tasks

In this case, I will show how to make a link to this blog, so that every morning, it will be automatically opened for you.  Although you should definitely follow along, feel free to tweak the instructions to your fancy.

First, open the add new task dialog box

Name the task, and then double-click it

If you are using Google Chrome:

• In the first box (Run), type in the path to the Google Chrome launcher in quotations and then --app=.  For example

"C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --app=http://letsfuckindoit.blogspot.com/

• In the second box (Start in), type the path of the folder that contains the chrome application.  For example.

 C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application

If you are using Firefox

• In the first box (Run), type in the path to the Google Chrome launcher in quotations and then

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" http://letsfuckindoit.blogspot.com/

• In the second box (Start in), type the path of the folder that contains the chrome application.  For example.

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"

 Setting up the schedule

Click on the schedule tab on the top of the window

By default it will run every day at 9 AM, however, if only want it to run Monday through Friday, in the Drop Down box, select Weekly

Select the days you want it to run, see example below

If your computer typically goes to sleep overnight, make sure to check "Wake the computer to run this task" in the Settings tab

Click Apply, enter your username and password in the dialog box that appears and rest assured that your mornings will be that much easier