Howdy,
I was talking with a friend of mine that is a retired small-engine mechanic.
He mentioned that I should tell Isaias he should change the oil after the first 10 hours of run time in the generator I sent him a couple weeks back.
When you’re “breaking in” your engine, there are a lot of metal shavings and debris that can damage your engine if you leave them in there for a long time.
It’s a lot like building an AutoHotkey script.
Around 90% of your time you spend is at the very beginning. Getting it “up and running” / working out the bugs, etc. takes the vast majority of the time.
And spending more time early on (with everything fresh in your mind) will save you time in the long run.
It’s one reason why I don’t start things unless I have a decent chunk of time to commit to them.
I always make sure we do some testing with scripts we build for our clients before sharing them.
We don’t catch all of the bugs/quirks but we catch a lot of them and save our clients a lot of needless time (besides keeping their impressions of us elevated.)
How about you %Name%❓
Do you find that 90% of your time spent on a script is during the creation? Or are you running into snags later❓
Now on with the show…
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Determining the Z-Order of Windows
During an AHK Hero call I showed members a project I created using Claude 4.5.
During the call we got into a deep discussion about what is “z-Order”, how to properly calculate it and Niek, a Hero member, suggested tying in z-Level (which we did during the call.)
You can check out the extracted section here.
Developing Z order and Level of Windows
Robust Way to Automate Your Browser
A Hero member had a question about Web Scraping. We started off with UIA however Irfan mentioned it would be more stable using Rufaydium. He then proceeded to give some great instruction on how to use the Rufaydium Class.
Check it out in this video.
Rufadium Example Chrome profiles and more❗
Adding “Check for Update” to AHK Script Maker
Our editor AHK Script Maker is, finally, released and turning into a “must-have” tool.
During a Hero call I asked Isaias to add the ability to let users check for an update.
You can see how we manage this in this video.
Adding Check for Update to AHK Script Maker
Deciding how to Run your Scripts
Ever try and figure out if you should always have your script running or just put a Hotkey/HotString in your “main” script to launch it❓
That’s exactly what we discuss in this video
When to have your script running vs launch when needed
Improving People’s Lives: Story #72
I met with a friend of mine from TI yesterday. He had a question about one of my favorite AI tools: NotebookLM. What was supposed to be a 30-minute call turned into 2 hours and 47 minutes!
I explained some of the ways that I use NotebookLM but also showed my process for transcribing videos, “sandwiching” them (with Intros and Outros) and more.
You can check out the extract here.
Using NotebookLM, Transcribing, and Video Generation
📚 What we’re reading
- Your Old PC makes a better NAS than anything you can buy
- Your damaging your PC without even knowing it
- Common SSD mistake is ruining your performance
- How to disable ads in Windows 11
🤖 AI News that you Need to Know
- Gemini is set to win the AI race
- How to use NanoBanana
- Is this the End of Rag?
The AI Apocalypse: 900 Days till the end of the world as we know it❓
⚡️Productivity tips:
In Zoom you can toggle your video by hitting Alt+V .
🤣 A spot of Humor: Jimmy Carr is so funny❗
Roasting Americans!
Clients say…
“My mind is blown” — Joey Pauga
AHK Hero 🦸
Consider joining the 🦸AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. Currently we have over 493 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗
During this Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:
- Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
- The differences of using a Hash versus Encoding
- Script showcase: Transcriber
- 5 Git commands that feel like Magic
- Using a Ternary to easily apply changes based on logic (instead of using an “if“)
- Comparing strings, case sensitivity, how to handle when in map, etc.
- Using SendTo for passing multiple files to a script
They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and 3 hours a week where we help people with their AHK issues (the Saturday calls are geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- Underutilization ➡️ Lack of perceived value ➡️ Churn — Ryan Wells
- Work Hard; Be Curious; Be Honest❗— Joe Glines
- If every request is a five-alarm fire, it’s your house that’s gonna go up in flames🔥 — Amy Landino
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Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff
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P.S. If/when you get a new engine I do hope you take heed to the above warning about changing your oil early. It can add many hours to your engine!
And I hope you leave yourself ample time to debug your scripts when you create them.
Otherwise it will break when you need it most!
