Lifehacker readers offer their best tips for getting around paywalls and other blocks, eliminating speaker buzz, and printing when you’re out of black ink.
Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.
Bypass Paywalls with a Browser Keyword
After reading our post on bypassing paywalls with Google, Matthew Lucas finds a way to make it even easier:
I set Google’s web cache up as a custom search engine for super-quick paywall skirting.
For Chrome: Right-click on the address bar, and hit “Edit Search Engines”
Title: “Google Proxy”
Keyword: proxy
URL: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…Then when I want to access a blocked URL, I just type “proxy,” hit space, paste in the URL, then press Enter.
Firefox users just need to add that URL as a bookmark and give it a keyword of their choice. You can then launch it the same way. While you’re at it, check out the best custom searches you should enable right now. We’ve actually featured this particular trick before — in fact, if you check out our version, you can do it without even pasting in the URL.
Eliminate Speaker Buzz with a BIOS Tweak
Jeff fixes his buzzing speakers:
I just got a new pair of speakers, but they had a horrible buzz that I could hear when I wasn’t playing anything. After some searching, I found that oftentimes, this is because of the CPU in your computer. By booting into your BIOS and turning off the C1E power-saving feature, you can stop the buzzing. Your computer might use a bit more power, but it’s a decent fix in the meantime.
A quick Google search reveals that this is actually a popular fix. What settings you disable may depend on your particular setup, so try the other C states if disabling just C1E doesn’t work.
Change a Web Page’s Font to Dark Blue with a Bookmarklet
Greg shares a tip for when you run out of black ink:
Do you ever need to print something but your printer has stopped printing black ink?
In a pinch, this bookmarklet will let you change all the black to dark blue and pull up the print option.
javascript:var%20innerStyle%20=%20″html%20*%20{color:%20#000080%20!important;}”;%20var%20css%20=%20document.createElement(“style”);%20css.type%20=%20″text/css”;%20css.innerHTML%20=%20innerStyle;%20document.body.appendChild(css);%20window.print();
I wrote it for my granddad who’s printer stopped printing black even with the cartridge replaced.
I tested this and it worked in Chrome but not Firefox. If anyone knows how to edit the bookmarklet for Firefox, let us know in the comments!
Comments
2 responses to “From The Tips Box: Bypassing Paywalls, Speaker Buzz”
the quickest way i’ve found to bypass a paywall is to first open the website, then right click on a link & select ‘browse in incognito mode’ (for chrome) or “browse in private mode” in firefox.. then when the page opens in new window all links are open!
Just for the record – bypassing paywalls, though seemingly innocent enough, is actually piracy – and is illegal. Not saying don’t do it, just probably a bad thing to suggest people do, from your own liabilities point of view..
What law are you actually breaking? The US people probably have DMCA etc to worry about, but not sure there is an equivalent law in Australia.
Rather than getting around paywalls and letting Murdick et. al. see that this system works in terms of audited readers… when you see one, go to another source.
Don’t feed these dicks.
Which particular law do I break when I bypass a paywall?