Why I hate baking News:2026-07-30

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

The AI meetup I went to last week was a lot of fun.

We had the meeting at a church and it was a potluck.

Some of the people attending have a popular Vegan cooking channel and a good friend of mine used to be Vegan so I asked him for a recipe for something “simple” that I could bring.

He suggested a Vegan Chocolate cake and sent me pictures of 3×5 cards of the recipe.

Instead of using my AI OCR tool I just jotted the info down by hand.

Sadly, I missed, by far, the most important ingredient: Baking Soda

So instead of a fluffy chocolate cake, I made a dense (almost brownie like) flat cake.

It reminded me why, even though I love to “cook”, I do NOT like to bake!

Baking is more of a science and you need to “follow the rules” while cooking usually lets you be creative and introduce variety.

It’s also why I’m having such a blast with AI because I can be insanely creative.

I’m (via AI) able to blend together different technologies and work with new “ingredients” that I’ve never touched before with virtually no fear.

How about you ❓

Do you find yourself wanting to “dabble” or do you like to follow the recipe?

Now on with the show…

Learn how to Master VSCode Make the switch to v2 Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

should-have-hired

Schedule a call now

Call the AI Doctor

Ryan Wells mentioned that Claude has a new command /Doctor which is quite powerful.

I used it on my computer and found a lot of “unhealthy” settings & dead files.

It was like giving my AI a shot of Penicillin❗

Check out this video explaining how it works.

The Claude /Doctor Command That Trims AI Bloat ️
The Claude /doctor Command That Trims AI Bloat ️

Understanding Agents

This is one of the best / clearest explanations of what Agents are and how to create and use them I’ve seen.  If you’re new to agents I highly recommend you check it out!

If you want AI to “take actions” then this is a great place to start learning!

AI Agents Explained – What Is an AI Agent and how to build one? (Real Examples, Not Hype)
AI Agents Explained - What Is an AI Agent and how to build one? (Real Examples, Not Hype)

Generate Icons for your tools with AI

We built a simple to use AI Icon Generator which makes it really easy to create custom icons for your tools!  Check it out in this video.   Now you can let AI be creative while you sit back and watch the magic!

We Built an AI Icon Generator And It Actually Works | Hero Extract
We Built an AI Icon Generator And It Actually Works | Hero Extract

Filling out a form that is a “Picture”

Do you ever get asked “Please complete this form” only to find they sent you a picture with no-way to “electronically” enter the information❓

A lot of people still think I’m sitting by an actual printer and would fill something out with my chicken-scratch handwriting and mail it in.

Sorry, I’m way too lazy for that❗

So, in this video, I explain how I took one of these forms and used AI to convert it to a Word Document that I could complete on the computer and send in.

How I filled out a “Form” that was a picture Using AI in Minutes ️ | Hero Extract
How I filled out a

Improving People’s Lives: Story #108

On my flight home I sat next to Hila, a young woman, and we got to talking.

She had recently graduated from a nursing program and was going to have an interview for a highly-competitive position.

We talked a bit about interviewing techniques like STAR and PAR method which she was aware of.

We also discussed identifying her USP and how to differentiate herself.

I then asked her to give me the specific title of what she was interviewing for.   I then went to Chat GPT and asked

“My friend is interviewing for a nursing job doing med surg.  What are the top 10 things the panel looks for?

She looked at the results and agreed there were some real gems in there!

I also gave her some tips about using AI to hone her interview skills & writing thank-you notes.

Really great to help random people❗

What we’re reading

AI News that you Need to Know

Paste This Into Claude, Never Hit a Token Limit Again
Paste This Into Claude, Never Hit a Token Limit Again

⚡️Productivity tips:

50 Uses of NFC Tags as “hotkeys” to trigger actions

A spot of Humor: Might want to think before you speak…

Aussie “I’m good from behind”

Aussie

What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #141

I finally got FFmpeg to dual capture my webcam and screen recording (Camtasia-style) and that was just the warm-up.

I also ran 150 tests each on Opus 5, Sonnet 5, and Grok 4.3 to see who writes the cleanest V2 code, cloned my own voice to strip background noise, and showed off AHK Explorer, Phone Bridge, ClearCut, and a pile of other tools.

In this week’s video I walk you through all of them and what they actually do for me.

Clients say…

I’ve been following The Automator for years now. I’ve hired them on several occasions to build custom tools for me and my team. They always delivers more value than promised.

The amount of time and frustration they’ve saved me is incalculable at this point.

The scripts they’ve created run in less than a minute and replace 4-5 hours of tedious, by-hand work every time they’re run.

Plus, they regularly come to me with ideas on how to make additional tools. SO much respect for The Automator — AJ Wilcox

AHK Hero membership club logo AHK Hero

Consider joining the Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.    Currently we have over 596 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to Hero members❗

During this Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:

  • Help Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • AHK Tools
    • RemoveWindowsBloat
    • Sending Errors to the screen we want
      • Sending errors to remote computer
    • Clipboard formats and ClipFormat
    • Borrowing Firefox Cookies
    • AHK tAHKbar
    • AHK Explorer
    • Dual Capture- Screen and Webcam
    • YouTuber page & other Verticals
    • A2A /Agent to Agent instead of SEO
    • Watermarker: add a watermark to your video
    • WatchFolders example
    • Help Extractor & Inspector
    • Smart File Search
    • Smart File renamer

️ Quotable quotes

  • Money can buy much, but not a single minute of time — Marcus Aurelius
  • What people think of you is irrelevant. But how you leave this world matters. Even if it’s all futile in the end, play your part as well as you can. Real courage is fear, in action. Play your hand — John Carlton
  • You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems — James Clear

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Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff

P.S. How about it ❓   

Are you a Rebel like me (and the other Hero members) or are you a rule-follower?

Using the YouTube API to upload videos is a pain❗

I Tried 3 Shortcuts to Auto-Upload Videos to YouTube. Every One Was a Trap.

I set out to build something simple: a tool that uploads videos to YouTube for you. No more dragging files into YouTube Studio, filling out the same boxes, and babysitting the progress bar. Just click a button and get back to work.

Holy cow, was there a rabbit hole waiting for me. 🕳️

Have you ever started a project that looked like a two-hour job and turned into a two-week education? That was this. And honestly, the lessons were worth more than the code. So let me walk you through the three shortcuts I chased, why each one blew up in my face, and the boring path that actually works.

Now on with the show. 🚀

The dream: automate the boring part

Every creator I know wastes real TIME on uploads. Open the browser, drag the file, type the title, paste the description, pick the thumbnail, set the privacy, wait. Do that a few times a week and it adds up fast.

That is exactly the kind of repetitive nonsense I love to AUTOMATE. YouTube even has an official way for programs to upload for you. Great. How hard could it be?

The upload part turned out to be the easy 20%. Getting permission to upload was where the fun began.

Shortcut #1: Have every user set up their own Google keys

My first idea felt clever. Instead of me asking Google for permission, what if each user gets their own set of Google keys? Everybody gets their own upload budget, and I stay out of the approval mess.

Then I actually looked at the setup. It is roughly 15 fiddly steps on Google’s developer website: create a project, turn on an API, configure a consent screen, add yourself as a test user, copy two long secret strings. I do this stuff for a living and it is annoying. Now picture handing that to a busy YouTuber who just wants to upload a video. 😬

But the setup pain was not even the killer. Here is the killer:

Any video uploaded through an unverified Google project gets locked to PRIVATE. You cannot appeal it, and you cannot flip it public. You would have to re-upload it the normal way. Ouch.

So even if a user survived the setup, their videos would come out stuck as private. Asking every single customer to also pass a Google audit? Not happening. Dead end.

Shortcut #2: Borrow the browser login (the cookie trick)

Next shortcut, and I will be honest, this one was tempting. What if the user just logs into YouTube in Firefox like normal, and my tool quietly reuses that logged-in session to upload? No developer keys, no setup, and best of all, none of Google’s stingy upload limits.

Don’t get me wrong, technically it can be done. But then I asked the question that matters for anything you plan to sell: what happens when it goes wrong?

And the answers were ugly:

  • It breaks YouTube’s rules. The risk lands on the customer’s channel, not mine. Think throttling, or in the worst case, a banned channel.
  • Google actively hunts for this kind of thing.
  • It breaks every time Google tweaks their website, which is constantly. So I would be shipping refunds and firefighting forever.

Selling a tool that can get a paying customer’s channel banned? That is not a business, that is a lawsuit and a reputation bonfire. 🔥

For my own personal channel, sure, I would risk it. As a product, absolutely not. Dead end.

Shortcut #3: Just use OBS, everybody has it

Third idea. A ton of creators already run OBS, and OBS connects to YouTube. So maybe I could lean on OBS to do the upload and skip the whole permission headache. I was even fine telling users “you need OBS installed.”

It turns out OBS does not upload recorded files at all. Its YouTube connection is for going live, streaming, not for pushing an .mp4 up to your channel. OBS records to your hard drive, and then you upload that file the normal way, by hand.

And no, I could not borrow OBS’s Google approval either. Requiring OBS would just add a dependency that solves nothing. Dead end. Three for three. 😅

The wall I kept crashing into

By this point the pattern was obvious. Every shortcut ran into the same wall: Google will not let an unverified app post public videos. Period.

That is not a bug or a loophole to route around. It is Google’s anti-spam brake, and it is on purpose. Which meant the only real path was the one I had been trying to avoid.

The boring answer that actually works

The right way is the one every serious tool uses. I get my own app officially approved by Google. My customers just click “Sign in with Google,” click “Allow,” and they are done. No setup, no scary steps.

Sound familiar? It is exactly how DaVinci Resolve uploads to YouTube. You sign in once, grant permission, and Resolve handles the rest. TubeBuddy and VidIQ do the same thing. There is a reason they all landed here.

The catch: getting approved takes a Google review that runs weeks to a couple of months, with some back and forth. That is the whole price of admission. It is annoying, but it is a one-time gate, not a per-customer headache.

Here is the reframe that made me feel better about it. Those review weeks are not dead time. The hard technical piece, the actual uploader engine, is already built and tested. So while Google reviews the app, I can finish the product, write the docs, and start a waitlist. The wait is also a moat. It is just annoying enough to keep the shortcut crowd out of the legitimate market.

Once it clears, uploads can go public and the daily limit jumps from a tiny handful to hundreds or thousands, with room to ask for more. A real, safe, durable product instead of a clever hack that dies on the next Google update.

What I actually learned

One thing I have learned over and over: chasing the shortcut usually costs more than the “long” way. I burned a good chunk of time proving three clever ideas were traps. But that is not wasted time, that is how you find the real path. Life is an experiment. The only real failure is not learning anything. 🤖

And the biggest lesson? When you build something to sell, “does it technically work?” is the wrong question. The right question is “what happens to my customer when it breaks?” That one question killed two of my three shortcuts on the spot.

How about you? Ever chase a shortcut that ended up being the long way around? I would love to hear about it.

Want to follow the build?

I am putting the finishing touches on the uploader while the approval clock runs. If a “click once and it uploads for you” tool sounds handy, keep an eye on the-Automator.com and come learn how to automate the boring stuff with us.

P.S. The upload engine was the easy part. The real project was learning which door Google actually leaves open. Automate the boring stuff, but do it the way that lasts. 😊

Amazing tools to help YouTubers save tons of time and create better videos

The AutoHotkey Toolkit That Runs My Whole YouTube Channel 🚀

A while back I sat down to record what I thought was a quick 5 minute video.

Two hours later I was STILL fighting my computer. My mic was recording out of one ear only. Notifications kept popping up mid-take. I forgot my webcam was on (you do NOT want to know). And when I finally had the footage, the file was so huge YouTube practically groaned when I hit upload.

Sound familiar? ❓

Here is the thing I keep coming back to: the actual talking is the easy part. It is everything AROUND the recording that eats your TIME. And time is the one thing none of us get more of.

So over the years I did what I always do. I automated the annoying parts. One little tool at a time. Now I have a whole kit that handles the boring stuff so I can focus on making something worth watching.

Below is that kit, organized the way you actually make a video: record it, edit it, fix the audio, caption it, publish it. Every one of these is a real tool I use. Click Learn more on any of them for the full rundown.

Now on with the show… 😃

Step 1: Record It (without the drama) 🎥

Before you hit record, get your desk out of your own way. These make your screen easier to follow AND keep you from embarrassing yourself.

ToolWhat it does for you
Quick Record
Learn more →		Hit record and go. Screen capture with FPS, audio and a countdown, no bloated software to boot up first.
Webcam Reminder
Learn more →		A clear on screen reminder that your camera is LIVE, so you are never caught by surprise. It can even hide itself from the recording.
Mouse Highlighter
Learn more →		Puts a colored ring around your cursor so viewers can actually follow where you are clicking.
Mouse Spotlight
Learn more →		Dims everything except a spotlight around your pointer. Perfect for saying “look right HERE.”
Simple Blur
Learn more →		Drop a blur box over passwords, emails or anything private BEFORE it ends up on the internet forever.
Do Not Disturb
Learn more →		One toggle to silence pop ups and notifications so nothing crashes your take.
Zoom Glance Bar
Learn more →		Recording a Zoom call? An always on top bar shows your mute, camera, share and record status at a glance.
Tip: Webcam Reminder plus Do Not Disturb running together has saved me more embarrassing moments than I care to admit. 😊

Step 2: Edit It (fast) ✂️

Editing is where most people lose HOURS. Here is where automation really earns its keep.

ToolWhat it does for you
Clear Cut
Learn more →		The star of the show. It transcribes your talking head video, then automatically cuts the filler words, repeats and awkward silences. You show up sounding tighter than you actually talked. 🤖
Quick Raw Edit
Learn more →		Set your in and out points and trim a raw clip in seconds. No heavy editor needed for a quick cut.
Segmenter
Learn more →		Splits a long recording into logical segments and chapters. Great for turning one long video into a pile of Shorts.
Video Sandwich
Learn more →		Wraps your main footage with an intro and outro. Same branded bumpers on every video, automatically.
Water Marker
Learn more →		Stamps your logo onto the video so your brand rides along everywhere it gets shared.
Video Progress Bar
Learn more →		Burns a progress bar onto your video. A small touch that keeps viewers watching to the end.
Effortless Video Reducer
Learn more →		Drag, drop, done. Shrinks a huge recording down to a sane file size before you upload. Your hard drive will thank you.

Step 3: Fix the Audio 🔊

Here is a truth people learn the hard way: viewers forgive shaky video. They do NOT forgive bad audio. They click away.

ToolWhat it does for you
Noise Removal
Learn more →		Strips background hum, fans and hiss out of your voiceover for a clean, pro sounding track.
Mono To Stereo
Learn more →		That classic “sound only in one ear” problem? Fixed. Copies your mono audio to both channels.
MP3 Ripper
Learn more →		Pull the audio out of any video, with a mono option. Handy for podcasts and repurposing content.
Transcriber
Learn more →		Turns your recording into text. Instant captions, show notes, blog posts and descriptions from words you already said.
Note: Transcriber pulls double duty. One recording becomes your captions AND your video description AND a blog post. That is the kind of leverage I love.

Step 4: Publish and Promote 📢

ToolWhat it does for you
YT Downloader
Learn more →		Grab video, audio or the transcript from any YouTube video. Perfect for research and reference clips.
Score My Copy
Learn more →		Feeds your title and description to AI and scores them, so your thumbnail text and hooks actually pull clicks.
QR Actions
Learn more →		Make QR codes that DO something: subscribe, open a link, save a contact. Great for end screens and events.

Bonus: The Desk Setup Helpers ⚡

These are not video tools exactly, but every creator juggling multiple monitors and a mess of files will feel these save real time.

ToolWhat it does for you
Active DPI Adjuster
Learn more →		Instantly change the display scaling on whichever monitor is active. A lifesaver for mismatched screens on camera.
Toggle Between Monitors
Learn more →		One hotkey flings the active window to your other screen. Set up your shot in a snap.
URL Memory
Learn more →		Save and reopen whole sets of browser tabs. Line up all your demo pages before you record.
Create Drive
Learn more →		Map a folder to its own drive letter. Your footage folder becomes one quick click away.
Simple File Renamer
Learn more →		Batch rename a whole folder of clips with rules and patterns. No more “Untitled_final_FINAL_2.mp4.” 😃

Pick One and Start 🚀

Here is the one thing I have learned after years of this: you do not need ALL of these on day one. You need the ONE that fixes the thing driving you nuts right now.

Hate cleaning up your “ums”? Start with Clear Cut. Files too big to upload? Effortless Video Reducer. Audio only in one ear? Mono To Stereo.

Automate that ONE headache. Then the next. Before long you are spending your time on the part that matters, the content, and letting the computer handle the rest.

That is the whole idea. More freedom, less busywork. 😊

P.S. Every tool here started because I got annoyed doing something by hand one too many times. That is the secret. Notice what bugs you, then automate it. Your future self gets the time back. ⚡