I don’t normally bring my charger with me, I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I get about 3.5 hours of usage on battery. I haven’t always been lucky though. My old HP with its 17″ wide screen and turbo jet engine fans only got about 1.5 hours, though I never took it anywhere because it was so big and heavy. Those times are over, I have a great portable laptop that I don’t have to be constantly searching for an outlet in order to use it.

So here are a few tips I’ve found to get the most out of your battery.

Don’t leave your laptop plugged in all the time, if you do, you might as well remove the battery and store it with a half charge. This might not be true anymore with Li Ion batteries. I’m not sure… someone will know in the comments.

Turn down the monitor’s brightness.

Avoid using the CD/DVD drive.

Turn off the keyboards backlight.

Turn off Bluetooth, Airport, Sync, System Sounds. If you’re not using them, don’t turn them on.

Cut down on running applications.

Remove external devices like mice, iPods, other USB devices.

Use Safari. It may just be me but Firefox is slow with all the Add ons and memory issues.

Change your power settings to “Better Battery Life”. This will often change your processor power to enable longer battery life.

If you notice your fans are turning on more and more, they could be clogged with dust. It’s worth spraying them out with a can of air to get the debris out of the heatsink and fan housing. It was hard to believe how much dust choked my HPs fans.

If all else fails, it might be time for a new battery. That may not be a bad thing since some non-Apple batteries have higher capacity then original Apple equipment.

Hopefully these tips will help free you from your laptop’s power brick.

Let me clarify something. There isn’t Adium for Windows. The developers have made it quite clear that, “Unfortunately, Adium is written with very Mac specific code. Porting it to another platform would require rewriting the entire application.” – Adium Trac This is unfortunate, because most Windows users are still stuck with AOL Instant Messenger, which is a huge resource hog. If Adium entered the PC market they would probably take away a lot of market share from AIM and Trillian.

With Windows XP, there are a few alternatives to Adium. Pidgin, which runs the same libpurple engine, is pretty basic. It uses GTK+ themes so there are plenty of the out there. In terms of overall customization, you are kind of limited by GTK. If you’re looking for a nice simple IM client that just works; Pidgin is for you.

Next is Miranda IM. I will be the first to admit, it is not as simple Adium or Pidgin, but in terms of customization this is the one you want. This program needs more polishing in terms of usability, but it sure is skinable.

There is also Trillian, but I never really got into it.

I also found this neat program called Ahoihoi, which is built on the Open AIM. It’s TOO BAD that it isn’t FREE, but there is a trial. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a full version. It looks like it has potential. I don’t know if there are skins for it.

The bottom line is… if you want your IM client to LOOK like Adium, go with Miranda. It won’t be quite as easy to use as Adium is but at least you can have a better looking client.

You may want to check out the Comments on the original post as some of them are VERY helpful.

I run all the big three operating systems. I’ve had experience with most of the respective instant messaging clients, AIM, Trillian, Kopete, Pidgen, iChat and Adium, etc. Adium was by far the best because it offers so much customization. Unfortunately I can’t be on OS X all the time. After a few days of searching I finally found a program that is just as highly customizable with very low overhead. Meet Miranda IM.

Upon installation it resembles classic AIM but there are hundreds of plug ins and add ons that can be installed to let Miranda IM resemble almost anything you’d want it to.

There is also a large community forums with a lot of help for new comers. I’d say if you’re looking for the best Adiumish program for Windows XP, 2000 or Vista you’ll find what you need in Miranda IM.

P.S. After writing this I’ve noticed that their server has had a hard drive failure so some of the plugins may not be available. Just check the forums for the download links.

UPDATE: I revisited this article in my new post over here.

Moving sucks. I just moved. I moved from my apartment to a house. The neighborhood is nice, but there hae been some B&E’s. For years I’ve had a webcam, I’ve never used it, I figure I might as well put it to use.

I hooked it up to protect the basement, where my room and all my stuff is located. I’ll post some shots once someone inadvertently triggers the motion sensor. Right now I’m running it on XP using TinCam. I’d like to see if I couldn’t get it going on Kubuntu with live streaming but I don’t have internet yet and I also need to redo my Kubuntu box.

Never use your laptop in public.
I know what you’re thinking. “I got the thing so I could use it where ever I am.” Here’s a scenario, you’re in Starbucks, you’re feeling thirsty and you hop in line for something to drink. Upon returning you find your computer stolen. This is exactly what happened to me. The thief walked out right behind me and I was completely unaware. No one saw anything. In retrospect I should have never relied on other people’s simple presence as a deterrent. If you do have to use your laptop in public be smart about it. You’re in the library typing a paper and you have to use the restroom, it isn’t a chore to close it and carry it with you, it’s designed to be portable after all. So you look like you an idiot, who is going to look at porn in the bathroom, but its better then having no laptop.

Don’t by bags designed for computers.
Buy a sleeve and put your computer in a backpack, messenger bag, etc. A Targus backpack screams one thing; there is an expensive laptop in here. The only thing worse is the laptop attaché case. I know very few college kids use these but I do still see them. Never use these, ever.

Install laptop tracking software.
In the event that your laptop does get stolen, it’s not just your computer, its all your data on the hard drive too. In the event that the thief decides to turn it on then go online, boom, the software phones home and maybe there is a good chance that you can get your computer back. Plus, most of these programs offer money back if your laptop isn’t recovered. It’s a good 50 dollar investment. Plus there are some homebrew versions floating around that you can run on your own web server, if you have them.