AHK News 2026-01-15 Why I spent $187.89 on a bobblehead doll👀

Tag: 2025-      Subj: Why I spent $187.89 on a bobblehead doll

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

So I got an offer the other day that I just could not pass up!

You may be aware that I have my Undergrad was in Marketing and my Masters in Market Research.

I spend ~20 years working in corporate America in/around Marketing.

The one thing I learned is that the vast amount of Advertising & Marketing done by Corporate America is crap?

Around 15 years ago I happened upon a video from Dan Kennedy and, within a couple of minutes, I could tell he was different.

One major difference is that he insisted that everything was tracked!  If you could not measure it, you didn’t do it!   Period.

Over the years I’ve watched hundreds of seminars from him and read all of his books.

He teaches mostly about direct mail, and marketing, however he does also emphasize productivity.

I’ve learned so much from him that, when I saw the chance to order this Bobblehead doll I had to do it!

Bobblehead doll of a man with blond hair, glasses and a goatee riding a white goat with curved horns

Now, when I feel myself “goofing off” I just glance at him on my desk and get back to work!

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

runAprogram

Advanced Tips for Programming with AI

During last week’s Hero call, Isaias gave a tutorial on how he’s found better ways to work with AI.

He showed how, if you’re using VS Code, you can restrict its ability to edit files, and much more.

Check it out in this video.

Advanced AI Lessons using VSCode and Agents | AHK Hero Extract
Advanced AI Lessons using VSCode and Agents | AHK Hero Extract


Feeding your Data to Various AI tools

Speaking of AI, in this video I walked through some of the cool things I’ve been doing with AI.

From easily creating deployable Apps to leveraging NotebookLM to write marketing materials, AI is really becoming incredibly helpful!

Pushing Data into various AI tools | AHK Hero Extract
Pushing Data into various AI tools | AHK Hero Extract


Automating Parts of the AHK Newsletter

I’ve been writing the AHK Newsletter for over half a decade and have been, over time, streamlining the process.

In this video, I discuss some of the improvements I just made and also discuss some that I’m considering with AI

?? Automating Content Curation: My AI Newsletter Workflow Revealed | AHK Hero Extract
?? Automating Content Curation: My AI Newsletter Workflow Revealed | AHK Hero Extract


Scraping Data from an App

A hero member was asking how we can use AutoHotkey to extract data from an app.   This led to a great discussion of various ways to rip the data which you can see in this video.

?? Web Scraping Secrets: Fake Browser Authentication Like a Pro! | AHK Hero Extract
?? Web Scraping Secrets: Fake Browser Authentication Like a Pro! | AHK Hero Extract


Improving People’s Lives: Story #75

One of our clients does “official” reporting where she has very clear requirements from her employer.

Unfortunately her data was “messy” but, thankfully, she new the logic behind “the rules” really well so, a few Regular Expressions later, and we got her code that saved her hours of time!


?? What we’re reading


?? AI News that you Need to Know


??Productivity tips:  Excel Tips

  • Ctrl + Space – Select entire Column
  • Shift + Space – Select entire Row

?? A spot of Humor:  Tiny Hands

Ranking Tiny Hands Pranks ♥???
Ranking Tiny Hands Pranks ♥???


What we ??utomated this week with AutoHotkey #117

This week’s video is packed with some really cool stuff?

I walk you through an AI-powered icon finder that actually understands what you’re looking for (no more guessing keywords!), show off a Google Maps tool that geocodes customer addresses and scrapes restaurant data, and share some debugging sessions from our HERO club calls.

Plus, I reveal my favorite automation trick: using SetTimer with ExitApp to make scripts that automatically “clean up” after themselves – it’s such a simple thing but it makes life so much easier!

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #117
What we Automated with AutoHotkey #117


Clients say…

How can I pay more for this? — Kelly Coughlin


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 509 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members?

You can watch 1 hour a day for a year and not repeat content! That’s a lot of AHK Learning!

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

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • How I run Android apps on Windows
  • AHK Script Maker: Debugging Debugger
  • 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.

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

  • Work first, reward second, in order — Dan Kennedy
  • Love will always have baggage attached. Get over it. Love is essential to a full life. No matter what — John Carlton
  • I will always hire a lazy person to do a hard job, because they will always find an easy way to do it — Bill Gates

AHK Newsletter?SHARE WITH A FRIEND?

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


the-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. Yes, I really did pay that much for the Dan Kennedy Bobblehead doll.

And, with how much time it saves me it was worth every penny!

I’m sure it’s exactly how our customers feel after having us automate something for them!

AHK News 2025-12-18: It’s Called WindowS, not Window❗

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

Around 27 years ago, to get my undergraduate degree, I had to take an “Intro to Computers” class.

We had a lab assignment that involved navigating to a few web pages, gathering information, and then writing a “paper” to turn in.

I was working away when I happened to notice the guy next to me had a pad of paper out and was looking at a website and writing things down.

Out of curiosity I asked him what he was doing.   His reply left me speechless:

I’m writing this down so I can then open MS word and type it up.

Not only had the kid never heard of “cut and paste” but, for some reason, also didn’t realize you could have more than one program open at a time❗

In the following 5 minutes I taught him copy, paste, and Alt+tab for switching between windows.

I realized then that we all have various levels of knowledge.   And that a few minutes of time could really help change people’s lives!

The other day Isaias was tutoring Irfan on adding the Debugger to AHK Script Maker.

We all agreed, Irfan learned in minutes what would have taken hours (more likely days) on his own❗

It’s what all our AHK Hero members get to experience every week❗

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

FeelBetterNow


How I Stream Content

During an AHK Hero call a few weeks back we got to talking about how I easily watch movies, play podcasts, etc. on any TV in our house, or on my phone.  

I use Plex on my main computer to make it accessible…

Using Plex to share Media to TVs and Phones
Using Plex to share Media to TVs and Phones


Don’t make this Mistake with AI

If you’re using AI to process tasks, keep in mind that not all file formats are equal!

In this video I walk through how a client had set up AI to accept PDF and then he uses AI to extract information.   The interesting thing is I think, with a little work, he could avoid using AI entirely!

Don’t Create the Problem
Don't Create the Problem


Are you running the Current version of AHK❓

Years ago I used to go months without checking for an update to AutoHotkey.

It occurred to me: Why not have our AHK Editor inform people when there are new versions available❓

In this video we show you how we achieved this (and dive into web scraping).

Updates to AHK Script Maker

Speaking of our AHK editor, in this video we walk through the below updates:

  • Improved search behavior across included files with the ability to jump to specific line numbers.
  • Planned enhancement to search all open tabs/files regardless of the active tab
  • Tab system reworked using a single Scintilla control
  • Fixed DPI scaling issues in tab controls by correcting height calculations.
  • Added user-configurable icon sizes (16, 24, and 32 pixels).
  • Integrated Windows context-menu support (“Edit with Script Maker”),

AHK Script Maker Updates
AHK Script Maker Updates


Improving People’s Lives: Story #73

This week I (somewhat) killed my computer so I’ve been using a laptop I haven’t used in ~5 years.  Thankfully all the important files were under DropBox and I was able to create our “fake drives”

Thankfully I even had my “desktop” stored under DropBox so it’s easy to see what I was working on!  😁


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:  

Windows+I will open Windows settings


🤣 A spot of Humor:

Over Thanksgiving I watched Parenthood with my Father & son.   This is still one of my most favorite clips of all time

Parenthood – Grandma’s rollercoaster story

Parenthood - Grandma's rollercoaster story


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #113

This week we dove into 23 different AutoHotkey tools and showed how we’re using them to automate everything from media players to Excel workflows.

In this week’s video I walk you through some of our favorite enhancements like the ActiveDPIAdjuster, our custom media player controls, and how we’re integrating AutoHotkey with various applications to eliminate those mind-numbing repetitive tasks.

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #113
What we Automated with AutoHotkey #113


Clients say…

With The-Automator, I learned to use AutoHotkey, in order to automate otherwise tedious and repetitive tasks. Thanks to Joe Glines and all his guests, I am now able to automate boring tasks, “if only my mower could respond to AutoHotkey”. — Claude Paga


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 500 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

You can watch 1 hour a day for a year and not repeat content! That’s a lot of AHK Learning!

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

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • Comparing Cloned objects verse Copied Objects / Strings
  • Script Review: Adding Debugger in AHK Script Maker
  • 5 Git commandsthat 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

  • Don’t tell them how great you are; Tell them how great you will make them feel❗
  • The best way to predict the future is to create it . — Peter Drucker
  • Learn a HotKey a day to keep inefficiency away! — Joe Glines

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. It’s truly amazing how much we can improve ourselves if we try.   I have the mindset of “ABL” Always Be Learning.   It’s one thing I think all of use in the AHK Hero club strive for❗