Be Awesome at a Moment’s Notice: A Guide to Powering Up Your Brain
You’re already awesome, but sometimes you’re tired, busy, or for some other reason can’t be at your best 100% of the time. When you need to be, however, you can manipulate your brain and body to rise to the challenge. Here’s how to fool yourself into living up to your full potential in a moment’s notice.Wouldn’t it be great if you could absorb a power star or some sort of video-game-style power-up when you needed to overcome an obstacle that you just don’t have the energy for? It’s an alluring idea, and in ways, it’s more possible than you might think.
Look at it this way: your reasons for avoiding everything from work to exercise to social activity are all self-inflicted. We’re subconsciously playing tricks on our brains to avoid doing work. In this post, we’re going to look at how reverse the behaviors that cause common problems to solve them instead.
Work When You Want to Procrastinate
Because we’re so bad at predicting the future and, therefore, almost unaware of the ramifications of our current actions, we’re great at procrastinating. Even though you know you’ll regret it later, you do it anyway because you can’t (yet) feel the inevitable pain that’s a direct result of your procrastination—poor work, unfinished work, and compounded stress. Several methods help you beat procrastination , but nothing fools your mind into wanting to work like using procrastination’s greatest weapon against itself: emotion.
You procrastinate because you want immediate gratification. When pitted against a murky future that has no associated emotion, you’re inclined to choose the happiness you can achieve right now. On top of that, delaying gratification just increased your desire . In order to make work a priority, it needs to feel more gratifying than hopping on Facebook or watching television. You accomplish this by explaining why you want to do something rather than simply knowing what needs to be done.
For example, tell yourself you want to do your laundry right now because your favorite shirt is dirty and you want to look your best tomorrow. Looking good matters to you because you have an important meeting and want to feel confident. When you consider the reasons behind an action you want to take, you inevitably unleash the emotions you’ve associated with it. This is often enough to convince you to get started, and getting started is everything .
What keeps you working is curiosity. (If you need proof, visit this page and see if you can win.) While laundry isn’t going to inspire your sense of wonder, you can fool your brain when it comes to grander, less-tedious tasks. They key is providing your brain with cliffhangers or, more specifically, just don’t stop working when you’re done with a task—stop in the middle. Doing so keeps you thinking about where you’ll go next . This not only elicits and eagerness to pick up your work where you left off, but will allow your mind to solve problems when you’re not working. By turning procrastination’s greatest asset against itself and remaining endlessly curious, you’ll have little trouble working despite any distractions.
Socialize More Effectively
Nobody’s born with a magnetic personality and impeccable social skills. Sometimes you’re capable of charming the room, but sometimes you’re tired and don’t want to put in the effort. When those times come, just use a couple of simple tasks to push your brain and body to a more social place.
First, exercise is your best friend. It helps get you in the mood for a social situation because of the cognitive benefits it provides, such as am effect similar to antidepressants and lower levels of anxiety . This makes it easier to feel happy and less-inhibited when socializing. In fact, a lack of physical activity makes it harder to think , so you’re not only gaining a greater social capacity but countering negative effects as well. The good news is that these basic benefits require very little work. Just 20 pushups or a brisk walk can do the trick (although a full routine is ideal).
But socializing is easier when you feel good, and exercise boosts your happiness through the production of chemicals called endorphins . While we don’t know everything there is to know about endorphins, we do understand that they play a large role in inciting a pleasure response and blocking the transmission of pain signals. HowStuffWorks explains how physical activity causes this wonderful chemical reaction in your brain:
Exercise stimulates endorphin production as well, but for a different reason. You’re probably familiar with the term “runner’s high,” which refers to the euphoric feeling one sometimes gets when exercising. Researchers have found that light-to-moderate weight training or cardiovascular exercise doesn’t produce endorphins, only heavy weights or training that incorporates sprinting or other anaerobic exertion.
The obvious downside is that a tiny bit of exercise isn’t going to give you many happy chemicals, so you’ll need to work hard to gain that benefit. Nonetheless, exercise is good for you so you’ll be improving your health while tricking your brain into feeling like a social butterfly.
In addition to exercise, priming your brain using neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can put you in the right mindset. This involves reciting a given set of words that are designed to alter the way you’re thinking. If this sounds dubious and like something you’d find in a fantasy novel, you’re not the first person to think that. NLP is backed by Yale studies and found its way into one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, The Tipping Point. There’s no clear proof that this technique works, but I use it sparingly when I need to convince myself to do something. Perhaps it’s the placebo effect taking root in my brain, but either way I’m able to motivate myself by attempting to shift my perspective with words. It doesn’t take very much time to try, so give it a shot if you want or just stick to exercise if you don’t like it.
So how does it work? You just read a bunch of words (out loud) that are reminiscent of the way you want to feel. While the individual words have no specific value, together they have an associative value that can change your current perspective. In our case, we want a list of words you can recite to prime your brain for social activity. Here’s an example:
smile, enjoy, see, together, go, good, free, shine
This list provides positive associations, but is generic. You’ll want to expand it to include other words that have the same effect for you, personally. Priming your brain with your expanded list will help to put you in a better mindset for social activity. It’s no magic trick, and a little recitation isn’t going to instantly turn you into the life of a party, but it might alter the way you approach social situations for the better. Personally, I prefer to just talk myself into a social activity I don’t feel up to—sort of like a self-pep talk. NLC isn’t really that much different, but just fragmented and less-specific. Any type of talking to yourself may help or may feel like a waste of time. Either way, it only takes a few minutes to find out.
Make Exercise Easier
Many people are blessed with aspirations of great health and fitness, but few with the desire to actually exercise. It’s exhausting, hard work that requires a shower afterwards, making it a prime target for excuses. But just as your brain can figure out plenty of ways to keep you off of the treadmill, you can take measures to trick your brain into ignoring them.
As with everything, the key is to take an action to get you started because that will alert your brain that you are actually going to exercise. One of the simplest starting points is to consume a little caffeine. While the substance has numerous effects on your brain and body , in small amounts (i.e. ~30-70mg) it can help you ignore muscle fatigue . On top of that, being slightly more alert can help you muster the energy you need to get through that seemingly torturous workout. Tea is an ideal option as it also contains theobromine and theophylline, which can relax your muscles . Taking this small action gives you first step towards exercise and a slight edge when you do.
While getting started is the hardest part, staying motivated can be a challenge at times as well. A study conducted at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University found that you’ll work harder when listening to uptempo music , meaning you need to get a good playlist in order. All the music you choose should have have a tempo in the range of 120 to 140 beats per minute (BPM). There are several ways to calculat the BPM of your songs , but you can save yourself the trouble by using Jog.fm . It’s a clever tool that helps you discover uptempo, energizing music that will help keep you moving. A fast-paced playlist won’t necessarily make your exercise feel easier, but it will trick your brain into pushing your body hard enough to complete your routine.
Use These Tricks Sparingly, or They’ll Stop Working
Here’s the unfortunate catch to this whole idea: If you use these tricks too frequently, they’ll start to fail you. Initially, you allow yourself to be fooled because you’re hopeful and lured in by potential , but if these techniques become too familiar, you run the risk of reducing their efficacy. Moderation is key. You can help yourself out by using these tricks when you need them, but you’ll waste a good thing if you use them too frequently. Think of these methods as a secret weapon, and not as an everyday solution.
Teen Pot Users Risk Long-Term IQ Drop, Study Says
NEW YORK â Teens who routinely smoke marijuana risk a long-term drop in their IQ, a new study suggests.The researchers didn’t find the same IQ dip for people who became frequent users of pot after 18. Although experts said the new findings are not definitive, they do fit in with earlier signs that the drug is especially harmful to the developing brain.”Parents should understand that their adolescents are particularly vulnerable,’” said lead researcher Madeline Meier of Duke University.
Study participants from New Zealand were tested for IQ at age 13, likely before any significant marijuana use, and again at age 38. The mental decline between those two ages was seen only in those who started regularly smoking pot before age 18.
Richie Poulton, a study co-author and professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the message of the research is to stay away from marijuana until adulthood if possible. “For some it’s a legal issue,” he said, “but for me it’s a health issue.”
Pot is the most popular illegal drug in the world, with somewhere between 119 million and 224 million users between the ages of 15 and 64 as of 2010, the United Nations reported. Within the United States, 23 percent of high school students said they’d recently smoked marijuana, making it more popular than cigarettes, the federal government reported in June.
Young people “don’t think it’s risky,” said Staci Gruber, a researcher at the Harvard-affiliated MacLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. Gruber, who didn’t participate in the new work, said the idea that marijuana harms the adolescent brain is “something we believe is very likely,” and the new finding of IQ declines warrants further investigation.
Experts said the new research is an advance because its methods avoid criticisms of some earlier work, which generally did not measure mental performance before marijuana use began.
“I think this is the cleanest study I’ve ever read” that looks for long-term harm from marijuana use, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which helped fund the research.
Ken Winters, a psychiatry professor at the University of Minnesota and senior scientist at the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia, said the new findings aren’t definitive, but they underscore the importance of studying how marijuana may harm young people. He had no role in the work.
Meier and colleagues reported their work online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was funded with governmental grants from the United States and Britain, and a foundation in Zurich.
The study drew on survey data from more than 1,000 people in New Zealand, everybody born in the town of Dunedin during a year-long span ending in 1973. In addition to IQ tests, they were interviewed five times between ages 18 and 38, including questions related to their marijuana use.
At age 18, 52 participants indicated they had become dependent on marijuana, meaning that they continued to use it despite its causing significant health, social or legal problems. Ninety-two others reported dependence starting at a later age.
Researchers compared their IQ scores at age 13 to the score at age 38 and found a drop only in those who had become dependent by 18.
Those deemed dependent in three or more surveys had a drop averaging 8 points. For a person of average intelligence, an 8-point drop would mean ranking higher than only 29 percent of the population rather than 50 percent, the researchers said.
Among participants who’d been dependent at 18 and in at least one later survey, quitting didn’t remove the problem. IQ declines showed up even if they’d largely or entirely quit using pot at age 38, analysis showed.
The researchers got similar overall results for IQ decline when they compared participants who reported having used marijuana at least once a week on average for the past year. The researchers had no data on how much was used on each occasion or how potent it was.
Dr. Duncan Clark, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, said he’s not convinced that mental decline is only in those who become dependent by age 18. He said the main lesson he sees in the overall study results is that to preserve one’s IQ, it’s best to avoid marijuana entirely, no matter what your age.
The researchers also surveyed people who knew the study participants well at age 38. They found that the more often participants were rated as marijuana-dependent in the surveys over their lifetimes, the more memory and attention problems were noticed by their acquaintances over the previous year.
Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
Journal: http://www.pnas.org
Lendthing Keeps Track of Who’s Borrowed What and Helps You Get It Back
iOS: We all have a few friends with whom we borrow and lend lots of stuff, but it can get hard to keep track of it all. Lendthing is a simple app that keeps track of who has what, and even lets you send SMS reminders to help get everything back.
Lendthing is easy: just hit the big plus button to add a new item, note who you lent it to (or who borrowed it from you), and it’ll keep a running list of who has what. You can tap on an item to mark it returned, or send that person a pre-written SMS reminder to give or get the item in question back. If they’re in your contacts, it’ll automatically grab their number for you.
It’s handy for those of us that lend and borrow like crazy, but we’d love to see other features come to the appâfor example, being able to set a location-based reminder would be awesome, so you can remember to get your stuff back the next time you visit. Overall, though, it’s a simple way to keep track of where all your stuff is.
Lendthing is a $1.99 download for iOS only.
SOC TOOL
Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium13.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
Building a hackintoshâthat is, installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardwareâused to require extremely restricted hardware choices and quite a bit of know-how. Now your options are vast and the installation process is fairly simple. With that in mind, here is our always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine, and installing OS X all on your own.
Currently Up-to-Date Version: Mac OS X 10.8.1 (UniBeast Method)
This guide is all about installing Mountain Lion on your hackintosh. If you’re looking to install regular old Lion, check out our archived guide instead. Also, we recently updated our sample build to offer hardware that is Mountain Lion-specific. While it may work with Lion, we’re not sure. Plan accordingly.
First Things First: What Is a Hackintosh, Exactly?
A hackintosh is simply any non-Apple hardware that has been madeâor “hacked”âto run Mac OS X. This could apply to any hardware, whether it’s a manufacturer-made or personally-built computer. For the purposes of this guide, we’re only discussing a tried-and-true method for building a hackintosh that you build.
That means you’ll need to be comfortable with the idea of building your own machine
and providing your own technical support when you run into problems. While this can be a little bit of a scary prospect if you’re new to building a hackintosh, it comes with the advantage of saving you a lot of money while still providing you with an incredibly powerful, fully customizable machine. We’ll also point you to several resources we’ve put together to help you learn everything you need to know about building a computer so you can feel confident on your first time through the entire computer building process. While it’s important to know that building a hackintosh from scratch is not a project for beginners, it is something that anyone can learn to do. We think it’s a wonderful alternative to purchasing an official Apple product and a rewarding challenge. Now that you know what to expect, let’s get to work.
How Does This Guide Work?
It may seem strange to have an always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh because the process changes based on the hardware choices you make. Although this is true, it doesn’t change that much. We’ll be discussing the process of building a hackintosh on a broad level, as it applies to most hardware. As a result, this guide will not always be able to tell you the exact boxes to tick and choices to make, but it will teach you how to figure that out for yourself. We’ll hold your hand as tightly as possible through as much of the process as we can, but there will be some decisions you’ll have to make on your own. It can be a little scary sometimes, but that’s part of the fun.
In summary, this always up-to-date guide will explain how to pick the right hardware for a great hackintosh and walk you through the standard OS X installation process, but it will also require you to be diligent and informed in regards to the variables in your specific build.
How to Choose the Best Hardware for Your Needs
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium14.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
Picking out hardware and building a computer is often the most daunting part of this process. If you’ve never done it before, it can often feel like putting together puzzle where many of the pieces seem interchangeable but truly are not. That said, we have plenty of resources to help you demystify the purchasing and building process so you’re feeling confident.
First, let’s talk about choosing hardware and what makes certain options better than others.
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium15.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
When Apple builds their official Macs, their parts are not that different from the parts we can buy online when we build our own PCs. In fact, some are often the same. Additionally, third-party manufacturers will create hardware for Apple’s Mac Pro computers to add additional options to the mix. This means that Apple, or the third parties, need to create software drivers for Mac OS X in order for the hardware to work. This means that virtually any hardware with these drivers is going to be hardware you can use in your hackintosh build. Additionally, the talented people on the internet have developed their own open source drivers for non-Mac hardware in order to provide additional options for your hackintosh. While all of these efforts only span a small percentage of the available hardware on the market, it still provides you with a lot of great choices. Many motherboards, graphics cards, and processors are compatible thanks to these combined efforts.
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium16.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
The next question is, how do you know what is and isn’t compatible? Like we’ve already discussed, if Apple has used the part before, that’s generally a good sign that you can use it, too. That said, you always want to double-check when you’re putting your hardware list together. To help you out, we’ve created a hackintosh hardware buyer’s guide so you can figure out what will and will not work. Follow that guide when choosing your hardware and you should be good to go. You can also reference our Hack Pro and Hack Mini builds, or just use the sample build provided at the end of this section.
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium17.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
Once you have your hardware you’re going to need to assemble it into a working computer. We have an entire night school course on computer building, but this specific lesson will walk you through how to build your first computer. Follow it diligently, read your motherboard and case manuals closely, and you should have a functional machine in no time.
A Sample Build
With the resources we’ve discussed, you should be all set to build your hackintosh. Before we move on, however, let’s take a look at a sample build (designed specifically for Mountain Lion) so you can get an idea of what a basic hardware shopping list looks like. This is an actual hackintosh we’ve built, based on hardware suggested by tonymacx86. It only costs a little over $600 (without all the extras), so it’s a great option for beginners. Here’s the list of parts (last updated on August 27th, 2012):
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Dual UEFI BIOS ATX Motherboard ($100)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz ($230)
- GPU (Optional): EVGA GeForce GT 640 ($105) - This is optional, as you can use the integrated graphics if you want
- RAM: G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 RAM ($55)
- Case and Power Supply: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Mid-Tower Case ($64) and Corsair 430W Power Supply ($44)
- Optical Drive: Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive ($22)
- Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Hard Drive ($100)
- Solid-State Drive (Optional): 120GB OCZ Vertex ($85) or 240GB OCZ Vertex ($180)
- Wi-Fi Card (Optional): TP-Link PCI Express Adapter
- Bluetooth (Optional): Jabra A320s USB Bluetooth Adapter (this adapter works much better than any others I’ve tried, so I recommend getting this one even though it’s larger and generally a little more expensive)
You’ll find lots of builds like this on tonymacx86’s blog, so you can build those exact machines or use them as starting points to create your own build. However you want to go about it, be sure to read our a hackintosh hardware buyer’s guide if you want help with selecting your parts.
By this point you should have purchased your parts, built your computer, and turned it on to make sure everything is functioning. If all systems are go, it’s time to move on to the installation process.
How to Install Mac OS X on Your Hackintosh
Installing Mac OS X on hackintosh hardware involves a bit more than just popping in a DVD, choosing a boot volume, and clicking a button. You’ll have to do all of that, too, but there’s a bit of prep work involved. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Configure the BIOS
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17mq0og1saxd4jpg/original.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
When you turn your machine on, it should display its BIOS welcome screen. This is generally an image with the name of your motherboard and indicators for a few keys you can press to edit your BIOS. Before we can install OS X, we first have to make a few changes to the BIOS (your motherboard’s settings), so you’re going to need to press the key that corresponds to the BIOS Settings when you power on your machine. This is almost always a function key (like F12) or the delete key, but reference your BIOS image to be sure. (Click the image to the left to see an example.) Press and hold down that magic BIOS settings key and wait for the BIOS settings to load.
The BIOS settings for every motherboard is going to be somewhat similar but never exactly the same. For that reason we can’t tell you, command-by-command, where to go to find and make certain adjustments. That said, we can tell you what to look for. Here are the settings you will need to adjust (or at least verify) in your BIOS to make your hardware hackintosh-friendly:
- Disable Quick Boot. You may have to look around for this, but we’ve often found this in a section titled Advanced BIOS Settings. Just look for a Quick Boot or Fast Boot option and ensure it is set to disabled.
- Configure SATA as AHCI. By default, your motherboard will configure SATA as IDE and you’ll need to change this to AHCI. In some cases you’ll be asked if you want to do this when you boot up for the first time. If so, choose yes. If not, go into your BIOS and look for this setting as you’ll need to make the change for everything to work smoothly.
- Change the Boot Device Order. Your BIOS will default to a specific boot order, which means it’ll look for a startup volume (where the operating system lives) in various places until it finds one. The boot order is the order in which it checks each location. In general, you want to set your optical drive to first boot device so you can easily boot to a disc by simply putting it in the drive and turning on your machine. The second item in the order should be the hard drive or SSD where you’re going to install OS X. The order beyond that isn’t terribly important and entirely up to you.
- Adjust the Hard Disk Boot Priority. Some BIOS settings pages will also have a setting called Hard Disk Boot Priority, which is used to identify which hard drive to try and boot from first if there are multiple drives in the machine. If you install more than one drive in your hackintosh, be sure to set the Hard Disk Boot Priority to the drive where OS X will be installed.
Once you’ve made these changes, you’ll need to save them. In most cases you’ll only need to press the escape key a few times to get back to the main screen, and then F10 to save and exit. Your BIOS settings page will tell you which keys save, exit, and so on, so you should have no trouble figuring out the right keys to press.
Step 2: Install Mac OS X Mountain Lion
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/0800-install-os-x.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
Now we’re ready to actually install OS X, but this is going to be a fairly in-depth process that requires a number of tools. Before getting started, be sure you have the following:
- A copy of Mac OS X Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store or on a thumb drive.
- An 8GB thumb drive (or larger).
- UniBeast, available from tonymacx86.
- MultiBeast, also available from tonymacx86. You want the version for Mountain Lion (as opposed to Snow Leopard).
- The DSDT file for your motherboard of choice. If you followed our hackintosh hardware guide in the previous section, you may already have a pre-edited DSDT file for your motherboard. If not, visit tonymacx86’s DSDT database, choose your motherboard from the listâmaking sure you choose the version that matches your motherboard’s firmwareâand download it to your hard drive. (Note: You can generally discover the firmware version of your motherboard by looking at its BIOS boot image.)
Once you have everything, you’ll need to prepare your 8GB+ thumb drive to be bootable and capable of installing Mac OS X Mountain Lion. To do so, follow these steps:
- Connect your USB drive to an existing Mac (ask a friend if you don’t have one) and open Disk Utility (in your Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities folder).
- Click on your thumb drive in Disk Utility and then click the Partition tab.
- Click on the drop-down menu that reads “Current” and choose “1 Partition.”
- Click on the “Options…” button and select the partition scheme labeled “Master Boot Record.” Click “OK” to accept your choice.
- Give the thumb drive the name USB (which you can change later).
- Set the drive’s format to “Mac OS X Extended Journaled.”
- Click the “Apply” button and then the “Partition” button.
- When Disk Utility has finished partitioning your disk, make sure the “Install Mac OS X Mountain Lion” application you purchased from the Mac App Store is in your Applications folder. If you purchased a Mountain Lion thumb drive, just make sure it’s plugged in to your computer.
- Open UniBeast and click “Continue” three times, then agree. This should bring you to a drive selection screen. Choose the USB thumb drive you just partitioned and click “Continue.”
- You’ll now be presented with the option of Laptop support and Legacy USB support. If you’re planning to install Mountain Lion on a motherboard with an 1156 chipset, you’ll likely need the legacy USB support. It won’t break anything if you don’t need it, so if you’re updating multiple Hackintoshes and not all require it, there’s no reason to worry. If legacy USB support isn’t working for you, just add your motherboard’s patched DSDT file to the hidden /Extra folder on your installer drive and that should fix the problem. Phew! When you’re ready, click “Continue” and enter your admin password.
- Wait about 15-45 minutes (it can vary) for UniBeast to do it’s thing. DO NOT unplug the drive or stop the installation while it’s in process.
When UniBeast finishes, you’ll have a hackintosh-bootable USB thumb drive. Plug it into your hackintosh, boot up, and press the key on your keyboard that will take you to the boot selection menu. (If you don’t know what it is, just look on your BIOS boot screen. It is commonly ESC, F10, or F12.) If the thumb drive boots successfully you’ll see a thumb drive with the tonymacx86 logo appear on your screen along with a single boot option: USB. Choose it and boot into the installer.
Note: In some cases you may need additional boot flags to get to the installer. If you have an unsupported graphics card, you’ll need to add GraphicsEnabler=No. If you have an ATI Radeon 6670 installed you’ll need to add PCIRootUID=0. You can just type these in at the boot option screen before you press enter to choose “USB” and boot into the installer.
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/medium19.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
When the Mac OS X Mountain Lion Installer finishes booting, you’ll be presented with a welcome screen and can choose your language. Do that, but before you can continue you’ll need to format your disk. Go to the Utilities menu and choose Disk Utility. Select the disk you want to use for installation and format it. To format it properly, follow these steps:
- Choose the disk in Disk Utility and click the Partition tab.
- Set the partitions to one (or however many you want) and their format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Click the options button and set the partition scheme to GUID Partition Table
- Click Apply and wait for the disk to finish formatting.
With your destination disk ready to go, you can now run the Mountain Lion installer just like you would on any other Mac. When it completes you might be met with an “Installation Failed” message at the end (or not), but that’s nothing to worry about. When the installation is complete just restart your machine. When you do, access your boot menu and choose the USB drive. You still need it to boot up. When you see the familiar boot options screen again you’ll now be able to choose the drive you installed Mountain Lion on. Pick that and press enter, also entering any boot flags you used when booting into the installer previously.
Step 3: Install Your Drivers
Now that you’ve got Mountain Lion installed, it’s time to make all your hardware work properly. For that, you need to install some drivers. Copy MultiBeast to your hackintosh’s hard drive and open it up. Click through the install windows and get to the options page. What you choose is going to vary based on your build, but here’s a look at all your choices and what they do, using our sample build as a guide:
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17mq0oi0nn93ujpg/original.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
- EasyBeast Install - Just ignored this.
- UserDSDT Install (or No DSDT Install) - This is the option that applies your custom DSDT. You downloaded it earlier, so put a copy on your desktop and check this option so it will be applied. If your motherboard doesn’t require a DSDT file, just check the box anyway and don’t include a DSDT file.
- System Utilities - It’s always a good idea to check System Utilities as it repairs permissions, runs maintenance scripts, and other helpful stuff like that. (Note: Newer versions of MultiBeast don’t offer this option, so don’t worry about it if you don’t see it.)
- Drivers & Bootloaders - This is the section where you’ll be making most of your decisions. You’ll have your pick from an array of hardware drivers that will allow everything from audio to Ethernet to function on your hackintosh. All you really need to do is go through this list and select the relevant hardware in your build. If you have Azalia Audio on your motherboard, that generally means selecting ALC8xxHDA and the AppleHDA rollback options. Most graphics cards you use won’t require drivers, and so you can often skip the Graphics subsection, but just turning on GraphicsEnabler, which you’ll do in the next section. Enabling any of the drivers in the Disk subsection will help provide support for SATA and eSATA hard disks, but they won’t be necessary for most users. The miscellaneous sections has a lot of goodies. If your board supports any of them (like USB 3.0, for example), you should check them off for installation. One kext that always seems to make things work better is NullCPUPowerManagement. We recommend installing this as it tends to make a significant difference in performance on some machines. Lastly you have the Bootloaders subsection, which you can skip as the UserDSDT Install process took care of installing the Chimera bootloader earlier. (Note: Some newer motherboards, such as the one in our sample build, don’t require a DSDT file or many drivers at all. Most everything should work out of the box. If you have a motherboard like this, you most likely need to install the relevant audio driver and nothing else.)
- Customization - If you’re following our guide you’re using a pre-edited/patched DSDT file, so the only thing you’re going to want to do in this subsection is check off 64-bit Apple Boot Screen (unless your hackintosh has 32-bit hardware) to enable your video card in full force. You probably won’t need the other options unless you have a special situation or are troubleshooting an issue.
- OSx86 Software - You don’t really need to choose anything in this department, but if you’d like some handy OSx86 tools installed to your Applications folder you can choose them from this section.
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://myparticularutterance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/style-favorite-star.png "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]"){kind=small}
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re building a Sandy Bridge-based hackintosh with a motherboard using Realtek ethernet, be sure to check out Lnx2Mac’s ethernet driver. It’s released separately from MultiBeast and sometimes the version it provides is not the latest. That is currently the case and the latest version supports newer socket 1155 (meaning Sandy Bridge-compatible) motherboards. If you’re having trouble with your ethernet, download it directly.
Once you’ve made all of your choices, go ahead and run MultiBeast. When it’s finished, this generally means you’re done and can restart to your brand new hackintosh. In some cases you may need to find additional drivers that MultiBeast didn’t provide. This may be a driver for a Wi-Fi adapter you purchased or some third-party PCI card. If the driver wasn’t provided by the manufacturer or downloadable on their web site, use popular hackintosh forums (like InsanelyMac and tonymacx86) for help. Either way, once you’re done with MultiBeast you can install those drivers as well to finish up the job. Congratulations on all your hard work. You now have a functional hackintosh!
Step 4: Updating Your Hackintosh
![The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17u1dse6oswhkjpg/original.jpg "The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Building a Hackintosh [OS X 10.8.1]")
Mountain Lion doesn’t have any updates, so this isn’t an issue yet. That said, you’re going to need to update at some point so here’s the relevant information.
For the most part, updating is pretty straightforward and you won’t run into issues, but it’s good to check tonymacx86’s blog when updates are released to see what you’ll need to do. In most cases you’ll just download the latest update from Apple directly (rather than running Software Update), remove Sleepenabler.kext (provided you’re using it), and then re-install it and any overwritten drivers using MultiBeast.
So how do you know what drivers were overwritten? In most cases, the only driver you’ll have to reinstall is the AppleHDA Rollback, because that driver needs to be installed directly into your System Library where OS X makes changes. If you made any edits to graphics drivers, the update may overwrite them so you’ll need to make those edits to the new, updated drivers as well. Whenever possible, MultiBeast installs special to a folder called Extra on your hard drive and then injects them into the boot process during startup. This method is used to prevent them from being overwritten by system updates, but if you have any drivers/kexts that aren’t installed to Extra you may have to re-install them each time.
When a new update does roll around, don’t update through Software Update. Download the updater directly from Apple. You can usually find it on their support site or by searching for the name of the update (e.g. “Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.7.x Update”). Re-install anything necessary when you’re done and test everything to make sure it works. Most updates should go very smoothly, but you should always back up your boot volume beforehand (we like Carbon Copy Cloner for this process) in case something goes wrong. You never know what can happen, and restoring from a backup is considerably less time-consuming than going through this entire process again from scratch.
How to Troubleshoot
Things go wrong with hackintoshes all the time. It’s unlikely you’ll create one without running into, at least, a minor dilemma. A lot of troubleshooting involves trial and error, unfortunately, and you’ll just have to tinker around until you get the problem fixed. You will be able to find help on the InsanelyMac and tonymacx86 forums if you get stuck. You can also use tonymacx86’s rBoot rescue CD to help you boot when you’re having trouble doing so. You’ll also want to spend some time disabling potentially problematic options and kexts in your /Extra folder (which you can get to by pressing Command+Shift+G, choosing Go to Folder, typing /Extra, and see if removing anything can help. Sometimes you’ll need to add things, too, to get the proper hardware support without any glitches so just be diligent and you’ll get there.
Finally, once you do get things working you should clone your hard drive so you have a boot-able copy available should things go awry. This way you can restore back to that copy or at least compare the things that changed since it was all working nicely. No matter what you think, you’re going to screw something up at some point. Keep a backup. You won’t regret it.
For more troubleshooting tips, check out our hackintosh troubleshooting guide.
Are You a Go Getter or a Frequency Holder?
You’re aware of traditional and mainstream achievement go-getters; we’ll call them Group 1. And there are the adventurous avant-garde and iconoclastic go-getters (Group 2). My many attempts over my lifetime to try these on, because surely one of them had to fit, tended to cause me to get metaphysical splinters; and I figured there was something “wrong” with me when actually there was something right with me… just as it may be with you.
When you know you don’t really fit in among Groups 1 or 2 that the majority of people around you fit into, and the various aspects of society (familial, social, professional, political, educational, religious… ) tell you that you should or must, you can fall into the trap of feeling not so good about yourself and wonder, “What’s up with this?!”, which is something they may wonder as well. This feeling and questioning, theirs and yours, happens because none of those types or groups, and possibly you, recognizes the fact there is a Group 3 that has its proper place in the grand scheme of life in the evolving world and universe.
Frankly, I didn’t know about Group 3 until fairly recently; and discovering it was like a warm, cozy spot in front of a crackling fireplace on a cold night or the welcome calm after a storm… evidence that I’m always learning something new about myself, or can. Actually, I figured this out about myself quite a while back; I just didn’t know it had a label or was considered valid by anyone on Planet Earth, which has allowed to me feel, and mean, “You’re okay, and now I know I’m okay, whether you understand it or not.” So, let me tell you what the heck I’m talking about.
Eckhart Tolle had this to say about the third group (the Others he mentions here): The outward movement into form does not express itself with equal intensity in all people. Some feel a strong urge to build, create, become involved, achieve, make an impact upon the world… Others, after the natural expansion that comes with growing up has run its course, lead an outwardly unremarkable, seemingly more passive and relatively uneventful existence. They are more inward looking by nature, and for them the outward movement into form is minimal… [some] eventually become healers or spiritual teachers, that is to say, teachers of Being. In past ages, they would probably have been called contemplatives. There is no place for them, it seems, in our contemporary civilization. On the arising new earth, however, their role is just as vital as that of the creators, the doers, the reformers. Their function is to anchor the frequency of the new consciousness on this planet. I call them the frequency-holders. They are here to generate consciousness through the activities of daily life, through their interactions with others as well as through “just being”… As each human being is an integral part of the collective human consciousness, they affect the world much more deeply than is visible on the surface of their lives.
If you’re of a certain age (maybe younger) it’s likely self-evident that you’re a frequency-holder, if what Tolle wrote about them really resonates with and for you. Or, maybe you know someone like this. Either way, my hope is that once you finish reading this, you stop judging yourself for not fitting into Groups 1 or 2, or stop judging those who fit into Group 3. If you’re still not sure you fit in Group 3, here are additional bits to consider.
Frequency-holders may appear uninvolved in or with the outer world, but that’s not exactly accurate. Their involvement with the outer world is primarily at the inner level; and they understand how this inner involvement affects outer experiences, or at least suspect it does, if they haven’t turned to a more spiritual or metaphysical path as yet.
They feel displaced in this goal-driven, status-symbol model of society. It isn’t that they don’t want comforts and abundance and purpose, but their motivation about this is different, so different that neither they nor those in the other groups tend to understand it enough to offer proper guidance about making their way in the world, in their own natural way.
They may feel obligated to follow traditional goals models even though their very nature resists it. So they may push or force themselves to hop onto the “goals” train when it’s actually more natural for them to follow to completion what inspires them in a meaningful way. They also know what go-getters from any group would have to say about this or them, and may also self-judge about this, even though they know the models in existence just don’t fit them but there doesn’t seem to be anything in place for them that does. While Groups 1 and 2 say aiming at achievement or outcomes is a black-or-white matter, frequency-holders ask or ponder, “But what about all these shades of gray?” They and others may tend to perceive them as just average or lazy or failures. They may feel lost or confused about how to succeed or feel fulfilled, or even to know what success or fulfillment means to them, because most systems and methods and models are designed for (and by) go-getters, not frequency-holders.
They know that creation or co-creation of what they experience happens at the inner level, but may continue to butt their heads against the go-getter wall that says they’re supposed to take massive action to create a bigger life at the outer level. They do know which of these approaches actually works best for them and feels natural - because it is for them. While others may stay active from dawn till dark, frequency-holders know that inner alignment will lead them to inspired action or inspired inaction; and they know they can trust both. They aren’t lazy, just differently-motivated (just watch them focus and take action when they’re truly inspired!). Making money a primary or sole goal never works for them. Never. And this type of focus gives them metaphysical splinters, or bruises. Having enough and then some isn’t a problem when they follow what inspires them in a way that’s fulfilling and/or serves others, and they have their energy in alignment with Universal flow.
Frequency-holders may join groups they really don’t want to, but think they should (and drop out or feel uncomfortable if they stay), or don’t join or stop joining because they know from experience it just doesn’t feel right for them after the first blush of exuberance at the possibility of at last fitting in somewhere passes. This don’t-join-itis is a tendency; it’s not etched in stone, as frequency-holders, just like everyone else, have individual personalities. Some do find groups they’re happy to be a part of, especially if they can be themselves while also being members, in a way that works for them.
They may appear or seem to do or be nothing particularly special (in the opinion of a number of people in the other groups), but find they are the person those others turn to for their thoughts or guidance… or even truth, based on observed facts. They tend to keep a good deal of their thoughts and awareness to themselves, unless they’re with someone they really, really trust (meaning the person or people have demonstrated true non-judgment in their regard), or are asked for their thoughts.
Frequency-holders GENUINELY NEED quiet, contemplative and/or meditative time in order to feel like they can function fully and mindfully in their day-to-day life. They know they’re going to interact with others who don’t understand them or judge them, are negative, or have no desire to awaken their consciousness, all of which can feel draining to a frequency-holder. And they know that sometimes the only thing they can offer to or do around these others is to maintain their own energy silently, like a low-level white-noise hum in the room. They have some level of or true awareness that their presence helps anchor or soothe energy, but only if and when they have their inner stillness in place.
I’m not saying if someone isn’t a go-getter that makes them a frequency-holder, just as it would be inaccurate to say that go-getters are not metaphysical or spiritual. Each group (1, 2, and 3) has its more- and less-active members, who are either side of that equation or somewhere in the middle or back and forth, for their own reasons. Though, it’s possible that some who feel uninspired may feel this way because trying to be a go-getter when they’re a frequency-holder may have exhausted them, and they feel like giving up or have. This reminds me of Leo Buscaglia’s story about how some people are peaches and some people are bananas, and how much energy it would take for a peach to become a banana, in order to get the approval of those who only like bananas.
There are more aspects, of course; but if these I’ve described had you nodding your head as you read them because they describe you (or someone you know), it’s time you honor your purpose (or theirs): Continue to expand your conscious awareness so you expand your ability to work with energy and fulfill your role as a frequency-holder. It’s time you understand and honor who and how you are; time to remove the blocks created by believing you’re supposed to be a go-getter type, which forces you to try to be someone and something other than you are. You will either continue to do whatever work you do, while attending to frequency-holding in a sacred (and likely silent) way, or you’ll become, as Tolle wrote, someone who offers spiritual or healing services, which come in many forms of outer expression, from counseling to humor (Swami Beyondananda, for example).
If you release these blocks and allow yourself to BE, this will open different doors far easier than your attempts to open any you aren’t meant to walk through. You’ll look for ways to be on purpose and to honor the sacredness of moments and individuals and life rather than how to be successful in go-getter fashion; though, that’s not to say you won’t or can’t experience success. You can, but you can do it in ways and measures appropriate for you. You can love and appreciate and honor who you are more than you previously imagined you could or would or should.
You can give up trying to color inside the lines, when you are meant to be a rainbow in the sky, its colors tinted, of course, by your unique personality. Note: keep your energy about this sacred, and ego’s need for any identity as “special” out of it to avoid having the energy bite you on the bum to get you back on purpose (see my article, “Does Ego or Conscious Awareness Drive You?”).
Practice makes progress.
Military Terror Plot: Murder Case Uncovers Terror Plot By ‘Militia’ Within U.S. Military
LUDOWICI, Ga. — Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group composed of active duty and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components and was serious enough to kill two people – former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York – by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.
[callout title=Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans]”This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk,” prosecutor Isabel Pauley told a Superior Court judge. “Prior to the murders in this case, the group took action. Evidence shows the group possessed the knowledge, means and motive to carry out their plans.”[/callout]
One of the Fort Stewart soldiers charged in the case, Army Pfc. Michael Burnett, also gave testimony that backed up many of the assertions made by prosecutors. The 26-year-old soldier pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter, illegal gang activity and other charges. He made a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against the three other soldiers.
Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said authorities don’t know how many members the militia had.
Burnett, 26, said he knew the group’s leaders from serving with them at Fort Stewart. He agreed to testify against fellow soldiers Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, identified by prosecutors as the militia’s founder and leader, Sgt. Anthony Peden and Pvt. Christopher Salmon.
All are charged by state authorities with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault and using a firearm while committing a felony. A hearing for the three soldiers was scheduled Thursday.
Prosecutors say Roark, 19, served with the four defendants in the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and became involved with the militia. Pauley said the group believed it had been betrayed by Roark, who left the Army two days before he was killed, and decided the ex-soldier and his girlfriend needed to be silenced.
Burnett testified that on the night of Dec. 4, he and the three other soldiers lured Roark and York to some woods a short distance from the Army post under the guise that they were going target shooting. He said Peden shot Roark’s girlfriend in the head while she was trying to get out of her car. Salmon, he said, made Roark get on his knees and shot him twice in the head. Burnett said Aguigui ordered the killings.
“A loose end is the way Isaac put it,” Burnett said.
Aguigui’s attorney, Daveniya Fisher, did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. Attorneys for Peden and Salmon both declined to comment Monday.
Also charged in the killings is Salmon’s wife, Heather Salmon. Her attorney, Charles Nester, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Pauley said Aguigui funded the militia using $500,000 in insurance and benefit payments from the death of his pregnant wife a year ago. Aguigui was not charged in his wife’s death, but Pauley told the judge her death was “highly suspicious.”
She said Aguigui used the money to buy $87,000 worth of semiautomatic assault rifles, other guns and bomb components that were recovered from the accused soldiers’ homes and from a storage locker. He also used the insurance payments to buy land for his militia group in Washington state, Pauley said.
In a videotaped interview with military investigators, Pauley said, Aguigui called himself “the nicest cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet.” He used the Army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an anarchy symbol, she said. Prosecutors say they have no idea how many members belong to the group.
“All members of the group were on active-duty or were former members of the military,” Pauley said. “He targeted soldiers who were in trouble or disillusioned.”
The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state’s apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia’s goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
The Army brought charges against the four accused soldiers in connection with the slayings of Roark and York in March, but has yet to act on them. Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said he could not comment immediately on the militia accusations that emerged in civilian court Monday.
District Attorney Tom Durden said his office has been sharing information with federal authorities, but no charges have been filed in federal court. Jim Durham, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, would not comment on whether a case is pending.
Todd Akin: The world’s biggest moron
Could there be a bigger idiot than this guy? Cindy McCaine said it best: Rape is rape, Mr. Akin
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) released an ad Tuesday apologizing for his comments about “legitimate rape,” but still giving no indication he plans to drop his bid for Senate.
Akin faced a barrage of criticism on Monday from within his party after saying in a Sunday interview that during rape, women’s bodies can “shut that whole thing down” to avoid pregnancy, citing unnamed doctors.
“Rape is an evil act. I used the wrong words in the wrong way, and for that I apologize,” he says in the ad, which was first posted by Politico. “As the father of two daughters, I want tough justice for predators. I have a compassionate heart for the victims of sexual assault. I pray for them.”
“The fact is, rape can lead to pregnancy,” he continues. “The truth is, rape has many victims. The mistake I made was in the words I said, not in the heart I hold. I ask for your forgiveness.”
Akin said Monday his statement about pregnancy was incorrect and that he meant “forcible rape” instead of “legitimate rape” — a statement many view as just as offensive because it diminishes date rape, which is extremely prevalent. He made the comments in defense of his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape, and stood behind that view despite the controversy.
The ad out Tuesday isn’t likely to stop calls for him to leave the race, though, and Akin has only until 5 p.m. Tuesday to drop out without a court order. Reports that he plans to quit remain premature, but Republicans may be amping up the pressure: presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan called Akin to ask him to drop out of the race, according to CBS News’ Chris Licht.
10 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less
It usually takes us much longer to change our moods than weâd like it to take. Here are ten things you can do in ten minutes or less that will have a positive emotional effect on you and those you love.
1.   Watch “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. See it online at Oprah.com. This is a deeply moving segment that may be the best ten minutes you’ve ever invested in front of a computer.
2.   Spend a little while watching the sunset with your mate. Nothing extra is necessary. Just sit and take in the natural beauty of the sky and appreciate being able to share it with the one you love.
3.   Sit quietly by yourself. It doesn’t really matter where or when. Just let your feelings bubble up and then experience the thoughts flowing out of your mind. Clearing your head and heart will give you extra energy to get through the rest of the day.
4.   Write a thank you note to your mate. When was the last time you thanked your partner for just being who he or she is and being with you? Doing this in writing will give your partner something to cherish for the rest of his or her life.
5.   Take out your oldest family photo album and look through it. The experience will fill you with fond memories and perhaps make you a bit wistful for days gone by.
6.   Play with a child. Most kids have short attention spans; ten minutes of quality time from a loving adult can make their day. It will also help you stay in touch with the child inside of you.
7.   Visualize or imagine a positive outcome for any issue. Medical doctors recommend visualization to patients with chronic and potentially fatal illnesses. If it can help them, it can do the same for you.
8.   Go to bed with the one you love ten minutes earlier than usual. Then spend that time just holding each other. Let the feeling of warmth from your mate move through you.
9.   Hang out by some water. Studies show that hospital patients who can see a natural body of water from their beds get better at a 30 percent faster rate. If you’re not near the coast or a lake, try taking a bath. Doing so is also healing.
10. Â Get your body moving. Shake, twist, and jump around. Let yourself feel the joy of moving to your favorite music, or just the sounds in your head. Run, walk, and bike to your hearts content. You will live longer and love it more.
Sadly, many people measure happiness by how long the experience lasts. The truth is that a few minutes of joy here and there can make a big difference in what you get out of life.
Are organic foods really better?
In a word:  absolutely!  I’ve attached a chart from the current issue of Psychology Today, and I think you’ll agree that we should be buying organic food as much as we can.  While I’m always out for a bargin, when it comes to food, I always buy the very best I can find, regardless of price.  And, if what I want is just too expensive, I’ll forgo buying it instead of settling for the cheaper version until it goes on sale or its price is reduced.  A good example of this is purchasing “wild caught” fish instead of “farm raised.”  Yes, the “wild caught” is much more expensive, but it really is worth it.
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Check out the PDF version organicfoods.
Glary System Utilities is the best computer optimizer out there
While there’s quite a lot of computer software utilities out there that promise to get your computer squeaky clean, it’s been my experience that most of them end up deleting important files or registry items such that the only fix is a reversion, and/or they slow my computer way down as if it were on a heavy dose of Benadryl. However, after using the full 30-day trial of Glary Utilities, my computer hums along without so much as a cough or a sneeze.
I run Norton 360, MalwareBytes, and Glary Utilities. While the Norton 360 is supposed to perform system maintainance, it doesn’t - at least, I can’t tell; my computer was just as slow and “junked up” after I’d installed Norton 360 as it was before. So, I began my quest to find the best system utility. My criteria was
- all-in-one: I didn’t want to have to download (or buy) additional plugins,
- easy on system resources: one of the most common issue I’ve had with system utilities is that they slow down my system, which is, for me, a deal breaker,
- an “honest clean:” I wanted a program sophisticated enough to know what was truly junk from what wasn’t. You’d be surprised by how many of these so-called “smart optimizers” need to get back to college!
- good support: I hate it when a developer relies only on FAQs and forums for support services,
- and, of course, price: I have no problem paying for good software, but I before I do, I insist on some kind of free trial or a full money-back guarentee.
Glary Utilities definitely beats the hell out of the other optimizer programs. Check it out for yourself, and let me know what you think.
[box] Free Version
