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Chapter 7
Automate Repetitive Tasks
Thirty years ago, we thought that by the 21st century we'd all have personal robots doing our laundry, cooking meals, and cleaning our houses — like the Jetsons' robot maid, Rosie. Although that scenario hasn't become reality yet, your personal computer can perform certain menial tasks, automatically and unsupervised, on a schedule you set. Your PC isn't as advanced or charming as Rosie, but it can clean up after itself and take the work out of repetitive computing jobs.
Hack 60
Set Up an Automated, Bulletproof File Back Up Solution
Level: MediumPlatform: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
Backing up your data could possibly be the dullest — yet most indispensable — thing you do on your computer. But who remembers to do it? You don't have to.
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Hack 61
Automatically Back Up Your Files to an External Hard Drive (Mac)
Level: EasyPlatform: Mac OS X
Mac users who thumb through Hack 59, which details how to back up your PC's files on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, have a right to a smug laugh. The most recent version of Mac OS X ships with a comprehensive backup application called Time Machine that requires only two steps to set up.
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Hack 62
Automatically Clean Up Your PC
Level: AdvancedPlatform: Windows
During the course of a work day, you save all sorts of disposable files on your computer: video, images, and songs meant for a single viewing or listen, PDF files you have to print, software installers and zip files you extract and do whatever you need with the contents. The end result is a lot of digital detritus clogging your hard drive for no good reason. But you don't want to clean up after yourself every time you work with a set of files you don't need to keep.
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Hack 63
Automatically Clean Up Your Mac
Level: MediumPlatform: Mac OS X
Just as in the physical world, it's easy to let digital clutter accumulate on your Mac. Chances are, your Downloads folder contains no-longer relevant files, or your Desktop is covered in documents, images, and songs you finished with last week.
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Hack 64
Automatically Reboot and Launch Applications
Level: EasyPlatform: Windows
A PC that's on continuously 24 hours a day—especially when it's hard at work at night, running automated tasks outlined in this chapter—can benefit from a regular reboot to clear out memory and end any hanging software processes.
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Hack 65
Make Google Search Results Automatically Come to You
Level: EasyPlatform: Web
Keeping up with any news published online about a certain topic used to mean searching the web for it every so often, or checking various online news sites. But not any more. Google now offers free email alerts when certain search terms appear on web pages, as they are published.
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Hack 66
Automatically Download Music, Movies, and More
Level: AdvancedPlatform: All
Your web browser does a good job of fetching web documents and displaying them, but there are times when you need an extra-strength program to get those tougher download jobs done.
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