Monday, December 5, 2011

Calif. residents grapple with windstorm cleanup (AP)

TEMPLE CITY, Calif. ? As the hurricane-force winds that pummeled the West eased Friday, Diane Johnson stood knee high in leaves and branches, surveying a fallen tree trunk at eye level and trying to decide just how to begin the big cleanup.

A near century-old eucalyptus tree toppled over in the middle of the night, crushing all three of the family's cars, landing at the doorstep of their Southern California home and blocking any view from their windows.

Trapped inside for hours, they were able to get out when the fire department cut them a small pathway.

"I have no idea what to do," she said. "I don't know. I don't know."

Like hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California on Friday, Johnson was without electricity. And just like Johnson, residents and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways.

Several cities in the region, the hardest hit from Wednesday night's windstorms, were still in a state of emergency.

Schools in Pasadena and more than a dozen others in the Los Angeles Unified School District remained closed Friday.

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement Friday that schools closed because of wind damage would still receive state funding.

"I want to assure school districts that they will not lose funding if their facilities are closed or used as emergency shelters during this disaster," Torlakson said.

In Temple City, the Los Angeles suburb where Johnson lives, a row of toppled power poles with wires attached blocked a street. The city's main street remained a shuttered ghost town as cars inched past darkened stop lights and shop signs in Chinese.

Seventy-five percent of the city remained without power. As residents in some parts were being advised to boil water or use bottled water, others began tossing out the food in their increasingly pungent refrigerators. As many as 200 trees fell in the storms.

As the night loomed, police increased patrols and the city handed out free flashlights.

During the day, residents began cleaning up, filling trash bags with leaves and branches. Streets with older, larger trees suffered the worst damage as top-heavy trunks fell over. But many homes were spared, including that of Johnson's next-door neighbor, Margaret Mushinskie.

The trimmed lawn at Mushinskie's house was pristine because her husband won a years-long battle with the city to cut down the two eucalyptus trees in front of their home.

"They need to come down," she said, expressing concern for Johnson's son who worked two jobs for his red sports car that now sat crushed under a pile of leaves. "Those poor people. He was so proud of his car. Bless his heart."

In the adjacent city of Arcadia, Aubreann Loving stood in the front yard of her home, watching one car after another turn onto her tiny cul-de-sac, unable to continue down a major cross street that had been blocked by a gigantic fallen tree.

Another tree crashed into her backyard, demolishing the yard's back wall.

The 15-year-old high school sophomore was at home with her family in a house with no heat or light and a refrigerator filled with spoiling food after the city's school district canceled classes at all 10 of its campuses for a second day.

Loving, who passed time Friday watching videos on a portable DVD player she had recharged at a friend's home, is no stranger to school furloughs, having taken her share of snow days off in her native Iowa.

But this, she complained, was far more monotonous.

"If the power would go off, it would come back on within a few hours," she said of elementary school days in Iowa. "But the power isn't coming back on right away here, so it's like there's nothing to do."

About 150,000 people in Southern California, more than 18,000 along California's Central Coast and thousands more in Utah ? where Thursday winds topped 100 mph ? remained without electricity. Authorities said some areas might not have power restored until Sunday.

In Pasadena, among the hardest hit cities in the region, inspectors were checking more than 100 damaged buildings to see if they should be red-tagged as being too dangerous to inhabit.

One 42-unit apartment building and other structures were red-tagged Thursday and 13 more were yellow-tagged, allowing only limited access, said Lisa Derderian, the city's emergency management coordinator.

"Every street in Pasadena was impacted in one way or another," she said, adding that the city's cleanup would be expeditious. "We have the (Tournament of Roses) parade every year here so we are experts in cleanup and debris removal."

In Northern California, authorities said a wildlife biologist working in a Big Sur redwood forest was killed when a tree fell in heavy winds. Monterey County Coroner Detective Diana Schumacher told KSBW-TV that California condor biologist Michael Tyner died after the tree fell on him Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, crews Friday battled wildfires that were sparked by power lines blown down by the wind. The winds were blamed for the destruction of at least four homes.

Aiding firefighters and those involved in the cleanup was the fact that the high winds, which had been expected to return Thursday night, never materialized. Around the state, the 60- to 80-mph gusts of the previous day had become mere breezes.

The low-pressure system that had spawned the winds was moving eastward so quickly that the National Weather Service canceled red flag warnings that predicted extreme fire danger from the gusty, dry weather.

A new system was expected to move into Arizona on Friday night, bringing a chance of more winds over the weekend, but the gusts will not be as strong, weather service meteorologist Eric Boldt said.

Nevada could get 35-mph sustained winds with gusts to 70 mph, while Wyoming and Utah could see light snow, and New Mexico was warned to expect heavier snow and freezing drizzle.

___

Associated Press writers John Rogers and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_us/us_western_winds

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Team of astronomers finds 18 new planets

Friday, December 2, 2011

Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. Take, for instance, the 18 recently found by a team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

"It's the largest single announcement of planets aside from the discoveries made by the Kepler mission," says John Johnson, assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech and the first author on the team's paper, which was published in the December issue of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The Kepler mission is a space telescope that has so far identified more than 1,200 possible planets, though the majority of those have not yet been confirmed.

Using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii?with follow-up observations using the McDonald and Fairborn Observatories in Texas and Arizona, respectively?the researchers surveyed about 300 stars. They focused on those dubbed "retired" A-type stars that are more than one and a half times more massive than the sun. These stars are just past the main stage of their life?hence, "retired"?and are now puffing up into what's called a subgiant star.

To look for planets, the astronomers searched for stars of this type that wobble, which could be caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet. By searching the wobbly stars' spectra for Doppler shifts?the lengthening and contracting of wavelengths due to motion away from and toward the observer?the team found 18 planets with masses similar to Jupiter's.

This new bounty marks a 50 percent increase in the number of known planets orbiting massive stars and, according to Johnson, provides an invaluable population of planetary systems for understanding how planets?and our own solar system?might form. The researchers say that the findings also lend further support to the theory that planets grow from seed particles that accumulate gas and dust in a disk surrounding a newborn star.

According to this theory, tiny particles start to clump together, eventually snowballing into a planet. If this is the true sequence of events, the characteristics of the resulting planetary system?such as the number and size of the planets, or their orbital shapes?will depend on the mass of the star. For instance, a more massive star would mean a bigger disk, which in turn would mean more material to produce a greater number of giant planets.

In another theory, planets form when large amounts of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into big, dense clumps that then become planets. But in this picture, it turns out that the mass of the star doesn't affect the kinds of planets that are produced.

So far, as the number of discovered planets has grown, astronomers are finding that stellar mass does seem to be important in determining the prevalence of giant planets. The newly discovered planets further support this pattern?and are therefore consistent with the first theory, the one stating that planets are born from seed particles.

"It's nice to see all these converging lines of evidence pointing toward one class of formation mechanisms," Johnson says.

There's another interesting twist, he adds: "Not only do we find Jupiter-like planets more frequently around massive stars, but we find them in wider orbits." If you took a sample of 18 planets around sunlike stars, he explains, half of them would orbit close to their stars. But in the cases of the new planets, all are farther away, at least 0.7 astronomical units from their stars. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the sun.)

In systems with sunlike stars, gas giants like Jupiter acquire close orbits when they migrate toward their stars. According to theories of planet formation, gas giants could only have formed far from their stars, where it's cold enough for their constituent gases and ices to exist. So for gas giants to orbit nearer to their stars, certain gravitational interactions have to take place to pull these planets in. Then, some other mechanism?perhaps the star's magnetic field?has to kick in to stop them from spiraling into a fiery death.

The question, Johnson says, is why this doesn't seem to happen with so-called hot Jupiters orbiting massive stars, and whether that dearth is due to nature or nurture. In the nature explanation, Jupiter-like planets that orbit massive stars just wouldn't ever migrate inward. In the nurture interpretation, the planets would move in, but there would be nothing to prevent them from plunging into their stars. Or perhaps the stars evolve and swell up, consuming their planets. Which is the case? According to Johnson, subgiants like the A stars they were looking at in this paper simply don't expand enough to gobble up hot Jupiters. So unless A stars have some unique characteristic that would prevent them from stopping migrating planets?such as a lack of a magnetic field early in their lives?it looks like the nature explanation is the more plausible one.

The new batch of planets have yet another interesting pattern: their orbits are mainly circular, while planets around sunlike stars span a wide range of circular to elliptical paths. Johnson says he's now trying to find an explanation.

For Johnson, these discoveries have been a long time coming. This latest find, for instance, comes from an astronomical survey that he started while a graduate student; because these planets have wide orbits, they can take a couple of years to make a single revolution, meaning that it can also take quite a few years before their stars' periodic wobbles become apparent to an observer. Now, the discoveries are finally coming in. "I liken it to a garden?you plant the seeds and put a lot of work into it," he says. "Then, a decade in, your garden is big and flourishing. That's where I am right now. My garden is full of these big, bright, juicy tomatoes?these Jupiter-sized planets."

###

California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu

Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115688/Team_of_astronomers_finds____new_planets

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Next moves unclear on payroll tax cut extension

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks to reporters about extending the payroll tax cut, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks to reporters about extending the payroll tax cut, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

House Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(AP) ? Senate defeat of competing Democratic and Republican plans to extend a cut in the Social Security payroll tax has punted the issue to the House, where GOP leaders are facing ideological divisions within the party over whether to pass the tax holiday.

The focus is on the GOP-controlled House after Senate votes Thursday exposed wide reluctance by Republicans to go along with the costly proposal ? a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's jobs agenda.

As expected, Senate Republicans defeated Obama's plan to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of next year while also making it more generous for workers.

But in a vote that exposed rare divisions among Senate Republicans, more than two dozen of the GOP's 47 lawmakers also voted to kill an alternative plan backed by their leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to renew an existing 2 percentage point payroll tax cut.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans weren't planning on negotiating with Democrats before unveiling a payroll tax cut plan ? and the spending cuts to pay for it ? next week. But the Senate vote would seem to indicate that House Republicans will be hard-pressed to muscle a payroll tax cut through without Democratic support. And those votes could be hard to come by if the GOP plan contains spending cuts Democrats dislike.

Many Republicans and even some Democrats say the payroll tax cut hasn't worked to boost jobs and is too costly with the deficit requiring the government to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spends.

"I can't find many people who even know that they're getting it, OK?" said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who opposed both plans. "So with that being said, we're going to double down on something that we thought should have worked that didn't work."

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said after Thursday night's vote that previous tax rebates "stimulated little and increased the debt a lot" and that it would be better to simply cut spending than turn around and use spending cuts on stimulus-style tax cuts.

The defeat of the competing Senate plans came as Boehner said for the first time that renewing the payroll tax cut would boost the lagging economy. Boehner also promised compromise on a renewal of long-term jobless benefits through the end of 2012.

The payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits are at the center of a costly, politically-charged year-end agenda in which Democrats seem poised to prevail in renewing a tax cut that many Republicans back only reluctantly. But Republicans are insisting ? in a switch from last year ? that the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits be paid for by cutting spending.

Both parties are seeking the political high ground as next year's elections loom, with Democrats accusing Republicans of siding with the rich, and Republicans countering that Democrats were taxing small business owners who create jobs.

The first payroll tax plan to fall was a Democratic measure that was at the heart of the jobs package Obama announced in September. It would cut the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 3.1 percent next year and also extend the cut to employers, with its hefty $265 billion cost paid for by slapping a 3.25 percent surtax on income exceeding $1 million.

Republicans and a handful of Democrats combined to kill the measure on a 51-49 tally that fell well short of the 60 votes required under Senate rules. For the first time, a Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, voted to support the millionaires' surcharge.

In a surprising result, Democrats and more than two dozen Republicans then voted 78-20 to kill the $120 billion GOP alternative that would have simply extended the existing 2 percentage point payroll tax cut, financed by freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 and reducing the government bureaucracy.

Republicans offered a simple one-year continuation of the existing law, jettisoning Obama's call to deepen the cut to 3.1 percentage point on workers' first $106,800 in earnings, while expanding it to cut in half employers' Social Security contributions for their $5 million in payroll.

To pay for the measure, Senate Republicans proposed freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 ? extending a two-year-freeze recommended by Obama ? and reducing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs through attrition.

The Democratic plan would give a worker earning $50,000 a more than $1,500 tax cut; the GOP plan would provide a $1,000 tax cut for such an earner. A two-income family making $200,000 would reap a $6,000-plus tax cut under the Democratic plan and a $4,000 tax cut under the GOP version.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-02-Congress-Payroll%20Tax/id-82f0eb8f867f4a8886c22c9b13c4d911

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The Only Drill Bit You Need to Own

There are at least two drill bits on the market that claim to be effective with all materials. Bosch calls its version "multi-construction," and Artu?which says its bits will even bore through glass?uses the label "multipurpose." Both manufacturers say the products can be used in rotary or percussion mode, though you obviously wouldn't want to put a hammer drill to glass! For either brand, a five-bit set costs $18 to $25, depending on your point of purchase.

I lug around a lot of tools, so I understand why you'd want to simplify your kit with a universal bit. In fact, I get a lot of use out of my multipurpose tools and accessories. But I do employ dedicated bits and blades depending upon whether a job demands precision, speed or cleanliness. When drilling large holes in lumber, for instance, I reach for a razor-sharp auger bit.

Regardless, I still believe in general-purpose bits. A 13-piece set of M2 high-speed steel bits ($10 to $12) can be an asset to anyone who's handy with a drill. With a tip geometry of 118 degrees, they'll readily bore through wood and even steel. Incidentally, when drilling steel, use cutting fluid; if you're using the tool at an angle or drilling upward, use a gel or cream lubricant to make sure that it stays put as you make your hole.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/power-tools/the-only-drill-bit-you-need-to-own?src=rss

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

BC-FBN--Colts-Manning,3rd Ld-Writethru, FBN

BC-FBN--Colts-Manning, 3rd Ld-Writethru,1112Colts' Manning hopes to start throwing soonAP Photo INMC107, INMC104, INMC105, INMC106, INMC101Eds: Updates with Polian comments. With AP Photos.By MICHAEL MAROTAP Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Peyton Manning could soon be throwing footballs to his teammates, the best news Colts fans have heard since this miserable season began.

While the Colts and the four-time league MVP are still trying to find out what the next part of his rehabilitation program entails, lifting weights and throwing balls are apparently going to be part of it.

"Throwing will be part of the next progression," Manning said Friday before heading back to the team's weight room. "I will be doing some throwing and I have been doing some throwing. But now we're going to ramp it up a little more."

Manning called the news encouraging and said he would like to practice or even play this season if he's cleared.

Vice chairman Bill Polian said he is pleased with Manning's progress

"It's great news that the fusion has healed," Polian said after speaking at the Big Ten Football Awards Gala. "It's on schedule, so we just keep going from here."

It was welcome news in a winless season that began with Manning underdoing his third neck surgery in 19 months back on Sept. 8. He has not practiced since having a single-level spinal fusion that doctors hope will not only alleviate pressure on a damaged nerve that had caused weakness in Manning's throwing arm but allow the 35-year-old quarterback to return to his perennial Pro Bowl status.

Indy (0-11) has kept Manning on the active roster all season with the hope that he may start throwing at practice before the Jan. 1 season-finale at Jacksonville. He just might.

On Thursday night, the team issued a statement from Dr. Robert Watkins who said the fusion had healed firmly enough for Manning to increase the intensity of his workouts.

Those at the team complex are still trying to figure out what Manning can do.

"I don't know. I really don't know," coach Jim Caldwell said when asked about Manning's rehab program. "I just know they've been pretty cautious with what they've allowed him to do. I just know he's not practicing today. I know that."

The Manning story was newsy on a busy day in Indianapolis, where the inaugural Big Ten football championship is being played Saturday night and basketball fans are celebrating the return of the Pacers and the resurgence of the Indiana Hoosiers (7-0).

Even before Manning walked into the room, his locker was surrounded by so many reporters that teammates started joking about the entourage. Some simply laughed. Pro Bowl defensive end Robert Mathis climbed a cameraman's unoccupied stool to get a view from above. One player asked whether President Obama was expected in the locker room and when another asked what was going on, Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne quipped: "He's retiring."

Manning was not amused by the media horde, which had anticipated a medical update Wednesday.

"There is no schedule, there never has been. I think we have checkpoints here, and I don't know when the next one is," he said during a 12?-minute question-and-answer session. "But I hope they don't announce it, so y'all won't be here on decision day like Wednesday supposedly was.'

At times, Manning was self-deprecating.

At others, he brushed off questions by acknowledging he didn't have all the answers.

And yet he wanted to avoid adding to the speculation about the hottest topics in Indy sports ? do this week's results suggest he'll get back to 100 percent, will the Colts exercise a $28 million option to keep him in Indy, might he ponder retirement or would he have a problem if the Colts drafted Stanford's Andrew Luck or some other standout quarterback with the No. 1 pick?

Indy is the clear front-runner in the chase for the top pick and many people believe the Colts should take Luck as Manning's successor. Luck has attended the Manning Passing Academy as both a pupil and a counselor, and Luck's father, Oliver, and Manning's father, Archie, were teammates with the Houston Oilers in the 1980s.

Manning insists he can't answer those questions now and has called the speculation about Luck disrespectful to his teammates, who are still trying to win games.

"He (Bill Polian) and I have not had a conversation about the 2012 draft," Manning said, referring to the Colts' vice chairman. "Bill keeps the players informed on a lot of things, but I've never been informed about who we're going to draft and I think that would be inappropriate."

Polian said about Luck is premature, and that the topic of Luck has not come up in conversations with Manning.

"We haven't talked specifics," Polian said. "We don't know where we're headed specifically. There's a long way to go 'till April."

Still, Manning's slow recovery has touched off talk of the Colts' future and even his possible retirement. Polian said the plan for now is for Manning to be with the team in the future.

"We've had discussions about it," Polian said. "He knows what our plans are going forward. He understands what the situation is. We've got a lot of work to do to rebuild our team, and all of that is part and parcel of a larger plan. He's well aware of where we're going. I'm sure he's anxious to be part of it."

Now the latest results have again raised hopes of a return.

"This is a good sign," Manning said. "A lot of people have had fusions, and I know of some cases where it doesn't take, so it's comforting."

Indy's biggest problem this season has been the unsettled quarterback spot.

Manning, who had started all 227 regular-season and playoff games since being drafted No. 1 overall in 1998, hasn't played a down.

Kerry Collins, who was signed in August, started the first three games before a season-ending concussion. Curtis Painter got the next shot and played well initially, then threw eight interceptions and one touchdown in the last five games. The team has benched Painter in favor of Dan Orlovsky for Sunday's game at New England (8-3).

But regardless of who is starting this week or the rest of this season, Colts fans continue to focus on No. 18.

"It's nice to have the reins cut off a little bit and do things that are a little more normal. It's nice that we've done what we were supposed to do over the last three months and that it allows you to go into that next phase," Manning said.

"But I think a lot of the questions will answer themselves in the next three months," he added. "I have to put a lot of energy and time into my rehab."

___

AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-02-Colts-Manning/id-0015bfefb65a4d2fb4bde326a85aef75

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Friday, December 2, 2011

In New Hampshire, Herman Cain vows 'it ain't over yet' (Los Angeles Times)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/168373054?client_source=feed&format=rss

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The Best System Tweaker for Windows [Windows App Directory]

The Best System Tweaker for WindowsWindows users have a ton of system tweakers to choose from, but we love the Ultimate Windows Tweaker the most. It has a ton of different tweaks you can perform, it's portable, super lightweight, and completely free.

The Best System Tweaker for Windows

  • Customize the look and usability of Windows Explorer, the Start menu, and the taskbar appearance
  • Tweak the welcome screen's behavior and change User Account Control settings
  • Change how long unresponsive applications will wait before Windows kills them
  • Disable advanced features like the Registry editor, Command Prompt, Task Manager, and more (useful for businesses or schools)
  • Change network settings, hide your computer from the network, and optimize bandwidth usage
  • Tweak Internet Explorer's appearance and behavior
  • Much, much more

The Best System Tweaker for Windows

The Ultimate Windows Tweaker has more options than you can shake a stick at. You can change everything from how Windows looks and acts to other hidden settings like changing how long applications wait before Windows kills them. What really separates the Ultimate Windows Tweaker from other tweaking apps, though, is its size, portability, and resource usage. It's a very small app, clocking in at only 385kb, is super lightweight, and doesn't require any kind of installation. Just run it, enable your tweaks, and throw it away if you want to. It's perfect for those little tweaks that just make Windows better.

The Best System Tweaker for Windows

We don't see very many downsides with the Ultimate Windows Tweaker. It could potentially be overwhelming for newer users (who might prefer something with fewer options), but other than that, it's just about perfect. Its interface is simple and pain-free to navigate, which is more than many other tweaking apps can say. Some might also note that it doesn't have any maintenance abilities, which other tweaking apps do?however, we don't really see that as a downside since we already have our favorite maintenance apps for that. When it comes to tweaking, we like an app specifically designed for tweaking.

The Best System Tweaker for Windows

If you're looking for something with fewer options (perhaps so it's a little less overwhelming), try XdN Tweaker. It's a bit less feature-filled, but it's very simple to use.

There are a ton of other alternatives out there, but most cost money. If you're willing to drop some cash, you might like Windows 7 Manager, which lets you tweak even more settings like boot routines, as well as perform actions like retrieving software keys, deleting duplicate files, and so on. Win7Zilla and Tweak7 also offer a ton of other features, but you can usually perform the same actions with a careful combination of free software (and again, we don't mind using other software for doing non "tweak"-related things like finding duplicate files).

For example, you can tweak just about anything with the Windows Registry. It won't lay it out for you in a way that you can understand, but by searching the net, you can usually find a registry tweak that'll do what you want it to. Check out our top 10 favorite registry tweaks to get started.

Lastly, while it won't give you options you didn't already have, God Mode is a pretty easy way to get quick access to every configuration option available in the Control Panel. Again, unlike the above tweakers, it can only show you options you already have?but laid out in that way, you might catch a few options you would have otherwise missed (since the Control Panel is a disorganized cluster-you-know-what).

Again, there are a ton of tweakers out there, and we couldn't possibly feature them all, but you should be able to do just about anything with the above options. Got a favorite we didn't mention? Share it in the comments.


Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.


You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/s0NP-DvsFwo/the-best-system-tweaker-for-windows

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