How To

DIY Glove Phone

2009-05-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

The best hacks don’t necessarily make a gadget any easier to use, or more discrete: they just make them cooler. That’s why this DIY glove phone is so awesome; it takes a Samsung A300 and a leather glove, and crafts a bizarre contraption that you dial by tapping buttons on the fingers, and use by holding your little finger to your mouth and your thumb to your ear.

It’s not entirely ridiculous: as well as making Inspector Gadget-style calls, you can also compose SMS text messages with one hand. Best of all there’s an Instructable telling you how to make your own.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ SlashGear

Set up dual-band WiFi (and juice your downloads)

2009-05-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Let's come right out with it -- you should be running a dual-band 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi network. Why? Because the 2.4GHz spectrum is cluttered with everything from other networks to Bluetooth to cordless phones and microwaves, and all that RF interference slows everything down, making file transfers interminable and HD streaming nearly impossible. On the other hand, 5GHz 802.11n is clean and incredibly fast -- we're talking almost hardwire fast. But you can't just move up to 5GHz without leaving your phones and other legacy devices behind, so you've got to keep 2.4 around as well -- which is really easy if you've got a simultaneous dual-band router like Apple's new Airport Extreme or something like the D-Link DIR-825, and only slightly harder if you don't.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Engadget

Save Time With Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-04-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

Keyboard shortcuts save time, hassle, and work in virtually every app on PCs and Macs. Here are the most popular (for Macs, use the Apple key instead of Control): 'Ctrl + a' (select all); 'Ctrl + c' (copy); 'Ctrl + v' (paste); 'Ctrl + x' (cut); 'Ctrl + z' (undo last action); 'Ctrl + y' (redo last action); 'Ctrl + w' (close window); 'Ctrl + q' (quit); 'Ctrl + p' (print).

Source : Switched

Bypass Firewalls & Get into Blocked Websites in School or at Work with FreeProxy (Windows)

2009-04-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Okay kids, you’ve been searching the web for how to get into blocked websites in school, with no luck. Face it, you’re living in a world where your parents and your teachers want to protect you from the vile and nasty evils that lurk on the Internet. Why? Are there really child predators hiding in every corner? Is it really critical that you are not allowed to check your Gmail account during your free period at school? The reality is that Internet security “experts” around the globe are taking their jobs just a “tad” too seriously.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

UV LED Double Sided PCB Exposure Box

2009-04-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

When you are making DIY printed circuit boards, one of the popular methods requires UV exposure. Many systems use lamps that can give off lots of heat and be expensive to replace. Djhamer has provided plans to make a UV LED system that is double sided so that you can expose double sided PDBs without having to flip and repeat half way through the process.

"A UV exposure box is an extremely useful piece of kit. It can be used to make proper PCB’s. It can also be used to make other things such as intricate photo etched parts (a subject for another instructable). The trouble is they can be a little pricey for the hobby enthusiast especially if you want the double side type.

This instructable outlines the construction of a double sided UV exposure box using the recent generation of high brightness UV LEDs.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HackedGadgets

Master The Power of Mac Shortcuts

2009-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

In the terms of using computer, I’m more of a keyboard guy. This doesn’t mean that I’m not using mouse, but I prefer to put my hands on the keyboard as much as possible. This also means that I use a lot of shortcut keys to get my work done.

Using shortcuts is fast. A lot faster than moving your right hand (or left of you are left-handed) back and forth from mouse to keyboard to mouse to keyboard. But, shortcuts usage has limitations: there are too many of them that memorizing every command available is next to impossible and not every command has its own respective shortcuts.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

Manage Action Center in Windows 7

2009-04-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

In Windows 7 it can get annoying seeing the Action Center icon pop up notifications every time you turn on your computer. Today we will look at changing the messages that it displays and even completely disabling it.

New in Windows 7 is the Action Center which is an activity center that allows you to control system notifications. This is definitely an improvement to previous versions so you can control the amount of annoying messages the OS pops up from the taskbar. To get to Action Center select it from Control Panel or simply type "action center" (no quotes) into the search box in the Start Menu.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HowToGeek

Boost Your Web Browsing Performance Like an IT Pro Using DNS

2009-04-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

You are reading Maximum PC because you love to build, and tweak your rig. We will gladly spend hours trying to nudge a few extra clock cycles out of our CPUs, but why do so many of us refuse to touch our network settings? The vast majority of users simply plug in their network cables, cross their fingers, and sacrifice an AOL CD to the gods who keep Conficker at bay. Truth be told, without going into too much depth up front, there is a really easy way to boost your surfing speed and it requires very little effort at all. This same tool gives you the ability to customize your internet experience further by creating URL shortcuts, or even filtering content, all without extra software.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MaximumPC

Encrypt Confidential Data In Documents With ScrambleOnClick

2009-04-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you have a document with private information that needs to stay confidential but the rest of the document needs to be seen. Today we will take a look at ScrambleOnClick which encrypts selected parts of a document.

When first setting up Scramble On Click you will need to set up a password to protect the encryption keys. When creating the password you can select to show the password and a strength meter which comes in handy for 28 character strong passwords. The way it works is simple. Just highlight and copy the text you want scrambled and right click on the ScrambleOnClick icon to choose to scramble, unscramble, or clear the clipboard. The easiest way for Keyboard Ninjas is use “Ctrl+C+C”.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HowToGeek

Make Your Own Workout Music With The Right Beats

2009-04-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been to my personal blog, you know I’m a kind of big guy. Some say I’m big-boned, but really, I’ve never seen a fat skeleton. Anyway, enough self-deprecation. The point is, I would like to get healthier and that means leaner and that means exercise.

Walking is probably the best exercise for me, but I get bored. So I tried listening to music. But I love country music and that’s generally fairly slow. So I tried to find country music that had the range of beats to keep me going. That’s how I found Best Workout Music.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

Bottle Cap Tripod

2009-04-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

I did some looking around after posting about this cool Bottle Cap Tripod and found a DIY Bottle Cap Tripod version that is right along the lines of what I would make.

Master parts list:

1 1/4-inch Stainless steel washer
1 1/4-20×1 1/2-inch stainless steel pan head machine screw
1 1/4-20 Bar Knob
1 1/4-20 stainless steel lock nut
1 lid from a 20oz bottle

Tools required:

Drill with 1/4-inch bit
Screwdriver
Wrench

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HackedGadgets

ATmega8 Data Acquisition System

2009-04-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Recording live data is something that you could use very often but most of the time we live to learn without it. What is the temperature in your attic over the day or what about the pool? Is the heat sink temperature acting as you thought it would even after operating for many hours? This ATmega8 Data Acquisition System is a powerful system that can do all of that. Firmware and computer software is available so that you can make your own.

“We can use a PC for connecting the homemade data acquisition hardware and produce the GUI for user friendly graphical presentation easily. One of the project that uses Visual Basic is the Data Acquisition & Logging System using AT89C51 made by Abbas Raza. In this project we use a PC for GUI display and the homemade data converter board using the AVR microcontroller. The circuit is built with the ATmega8.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HackedGadgets

Find Unprotected Website Directories & Get “Interesting” Files

2009-04-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

With all the risks involved in using file sharing networks, browsing unprotected website directories is probably a lot easier and safer. Only when you start doing that do you realise half the stuff that people keep in their website folders (Sports Illustrated magazines!)

Then you start to realise how silly they are for not password protecting those folders and leaving them wide open for the whole world to walk in and take a look!

This might be really old news for a lot of people but I thought I would just quickly jot down the search parameters for finding files in unprotected website directories.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

Opt-Out From Unwanted Advertisers Online & Offline

2009-04-13T14:01:00.001-07:00

As online and off-line marketing and advertising grows, marketers are becoming increasingly aggressive in obtaining information about who you are and what you do. In some cases, website visitors are finding out that information is being collected without any disclosure.

Today, there are ways to help protect your information from being seen and used without your consent. These “opt-out” lists and “do not call” registries are free to use and in most cases they can be completed online.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

Expedite Mobile Gmail Retreival In Under A Minute

2009-04-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Is your IMAP Gmail moving slower on your handset than a clogged drain? GearDiary offers a simple and common sense tweak to keep the mail moving much faster: sync only the labels or folders that you really need on your phone. Now that’s a compromise that some aren’t willing to make, and to each his or her own. However, when I thought about it and reviewed the dozens of labels that I have in Gmail, both for work and personal use, I realized that I only hit up a few on my phone. I can always get to the mail in any label in a pinch through a browser on my computer; or on my phone, for that matter.

Long story short: you can always try this method and revert back if you find it too limiting while mobile. Simply log in to Gmail on the web and click the Settings link. From there, click the Labels link and remove the “Show in IMAP” check-boxes for any labels that you don’t hit up all that often on the go. Be sure not to uncheck the standard or default labels for key items like Inbox, Sent Mail, and Trash.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ JkOnTheRun

Use Speed Fan To Remotely Monitor Computer Health

2009-04-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

In the Oil and Gas industry, our computer users are often several hundreds of miles away from a hamlet, let alone a city. The average user is also much more of a hands-on kind of person and is usually a novice computer user. The environment they work in is rife with dust and dirt and, of course, oil. One of the biggest problems I’ve experienced with my users is CPU overheating due to all the dust and dirt and lack of experience in taking care of a computer.

While looking for a solution to the problem, I came across SpeedFan from the awesomely altruistic Alfredo Milani Comparetti. I saw it on MakeUseOf, over at Monitor Your Computer Fan Speed With SpeedFan. That article covers all the neat stuff, like adjusting fan speed, graphing temperatures and so on. But what it missed is what was most important to me, and anyone else who has to monitor computers on a shoe-string budget - it can send me an e-mail when conditions cross thresholds that I set! Awesome!

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Roll Back Windows Hot Fixes & Patches

2009-04-11T15:40:00.001-07:00

Microsoft, like all other software companies, releases patches and hot fixes for its Windows operating system quite frequently.

Installing the latest patch or Hot fix is highly recommended if you want to keep your installation in tip-top shape.

These patches are mostly harmless but there are times when your current configuration, hardware or software might not be compatible with a particular patch and you find that out only when your system starts misbehaving after you’ve applied the patch.

The new patch might not be compatible with your current hardware. An ancient software that you still use and love might stop working with the new patch. In times like these, one really wishes that Microsoft had a built in patch rollback mechanism. Are you one of those wishing for such a feature ?

Well, the good news is that Microsoft already has mechanisms to roll back patches. The bad news is that the roll back procedure is just not that obvious.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Get The Most Out Of Status Updates

2009-04-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Some studies show that 11 percent of online adults are using status updates, but if you think about the history of the status message and its roots in instant messaging, that number actually seems pretty small.

Even though we predict big things to come from these short status updates, the reality is that the present day status update has the potential to make you more productive in and outside of Twitter (Twitter reviews), help you extend your reach, improve your visibility, and of course have a little fun. So, we can all look to the future for even more innovation, but we’ll show you how to do more with your status updates right now.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Mashable

Set Up VNC On Your Desktop

2009-04-10T15:52:00.001-07:00

Using VNC, you can log into your home computer from any machine in the world with web access (including your iPhone) to access files, schedule downloads, and tons more. Here’s how.

VNC (virtual network computing) is one of those tricks that never gets old, and having it set up can often save your ass–whether you left some info on your home computer that you need at work, want to check on your massive BitTorrent queue to schedule the evening’s entertainments, or help your poor parents use clip art in Microsoft Word, having remote access can be handy dandy.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Thetechlounge

Sell Your Old PC

2009-04-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

In today’s economy every dollar counts–so why not sell that not-so-old PC you don’t use anymore on Craigslist or Ebay? Odds are, a penny-pinching buyer is out there eager to save big by buying your second-hand hardware. After all, anything is better than having your recently retired PC gather dust bunnies in your closet.

To help you sell your old PC, we’ve put together a list of the four steps you need to take to make sure that your PC is ready for a second life of service. We also answer some of the common questions about selling a used PC, such as how to estimate what it’s worth, and what legal issues are involved when selling a PC loaded with expensive software (can you charge extra?).

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ PcWorld

Leverage Social Media For Career Success

2009-04-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

Social media tools are becoming mandatory for career success. They are free advertising and give you the ability to connect directly with hiring managers, entrepreneurs and recruiters, instead of applying for jobs through job boards, which are black holes. Your digital assets — blog, podcast, and social networking profiles — are your online identity and how people discover and connect with you. You have the ability to leverage one or all of these social media tools in order to present a positive image and be recruited for a position that aligns with your passion.

In this post, you’ll learn how to conduct a situational analysis, figure out exactly what your personal brand is, select the best social media tools to connect with your audience, build your online empire and finally, market your brand for career success. In light of the launch of my new book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, we’re also giving away free copies (details at the bottom of this post).

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Mashable

Analyse & Reduce Your Computer’s Power Consumption [Linux]

2009-04-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

Saving power is one of the major concerns of the modern world. You see cities observing Earth Hours, studies showing how computers consume excess power when kept running and so on. Even if you would view it from your personal perspective, saving power can make your laptop batteries last longer and provide longer battery backup.

If you use Linux, there is an excellent tool that gives you loads of information about your computer’s power consumption as well as the software that is causing your battery to drain. Its called PowerTop.

PowerTop was originally developed by Intel and it lets you measure and explain your computer’s power consumption.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Block Ads In Google Chrome With AdSweep

2009-04-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

Whenever a post goes up about Google Chrome on Download Squad, Firefox users that would like to make the switch usually have two gripes. First, the lack of extensions. Second, the lack of one extension in particular: AdBlock Plus.

Chrome users don’t have to put up with ads if they don’t want to, though. If a proxy-based blocker isn’t your thing, then why not install AdSweep - either as a Userscript or a Chrome extension. They’re essentially the same thing right now, since extensions are basically Userscripts in a wrapper. Whichever way you want to install AdSweep, here’s what to do.

Since it’s available as a Userscript, users of other browsers can take advantage of AdSweep, too - just check on the homepage for instructions. Now, let’s get it working in Chrome.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ DownloadSquad

Turn A Flashlight Into A Laser

2009-04-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

If you have an abundance of flashlights and a dearth of futuristic armaments in your house, then you’ll want to take a look at what the weaponry wizards over at TechEBlog.com and Kipkay.com have for you. Without revealing whether the blueprints came from ‘The A-Team’ or ‘MacGyver,’ the video on Kipkay.com provides step-by-step instructions for converting a “regular mini-mag flashlight into a powerful burning laser.” Requiring only the flashlight, a DVD burner, an Aixiz laser housing, a soldering iron, and a drill, the final product generates a laser, as demonstrated in the video, powerful enough to light a match or pop a balloon.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Switched

Build Your Personal Brand On Facebook

2009-04-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

With over 200 million active users, Facebook has become a personal, product and corporate branding hub. Every brand that exists on Facebook (Facebook reviews) has the same core features and benefits, such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add multimedia and much more. You have a unique opportunity to leverage this platform for career success or as a playground for you and your closest friends.

The social graph is filled with CEOs, celebrities, entrepreneurs and people just like you who can be reached through Facebook’s messaging system without any boundaries or restrictions. Facebook is also a talent search engine and part of the college admission and corporate recruiting criteria. You will be searched on Facebook by potential dates, managers, and teachers, so use common sense in determining how you want to represent yourself. You are what you publish and first impressions are everything.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Mashable

Land An Airplane In An Emergency

2009-04-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve often wondered if I’d be able to land an airplane should the need ever arise. I mean back in the day I spent a lot of time playing MS Flight Simulator, what more training could I possibly need right? Well reading through this wikiHow article entitled “How to Land an Airplane in an Emergency” does make me second-guess my actual knowledge of the whole procedure. While the wiki is a bit vague at times, there’s still some pretty good information there, at least enough to keep you in the air until you get in touch with air traffic control. And it doesn’t hurt to bookmark the site on your laptop or phone, just in case you ever happen to need to reference it again.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ OhGizmo

Play Damn Birds

2009-04-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Imagine being a statue constantly being bombarded by bird droppings… now the statue gets revenge with a gun to shoot those damn birds. In this game you are a statue in a park and the goal is to shoot as many birds as possible before they fill you up with their droppings. The more you shoot the more money you get to upgrade weapons and ammunition.

After each level you will have more money points to buy better weapons and more ammunition. Here you can also can spend money to clean your statue of bird doo.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HowToGeek

Send And Receive Faxes Online For Free

2009-04-03T15:51:00.001-07:00

Are you looking to send and receive faxes for free online, even get your own free fax number? DepositDox offers you a free phone number and account where you can receive faxes. They store your faxes using secure encryption and will notify you when you receive a fax. You can store faxes in your account and even search through them. Their free account lets you store up to 1,000 pages and it provides you with a toll free fax number . There is a 250 page limit for the first month and then a document per day limit. Also you must remember to use your number at least once a month or you’ll lose your number altogether. There are premium plans with a monthly cost of $9.99 and up which of course removes these restrictions.

So that solves how to receive faxes online fro free, but how about sending them? FaxZero lets you send text, Word .DOC or PDFs for free right from its web site. However they do put an ad on the cover page. There is also a restriction of a maximum of 3 pages and a maximum of 2 free faxes per day. Otherwise they charge $1.99 per fax with no monthly subscription costs.

These two sites combined can serve as a completely free online faxing solution. However, if you’re someone who constantly sends faxes and need a seriously reliable send and receive faxing service, than you’re probably best going with a premium service like eFax.

Source : ChipChick

Light Painting Saber

2009-04-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Udi Tirosh writes in with this neat trick: use a tubular light like those found in car accessory shots as a sweeping swath light painting tool for long exposure photography. Looks way trippier than just using LEDs.

Source : Makezine

Print your own Moleskine pages

2009-04-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Moleskine is offering a new service where they let you print whatever you want on the pages of one of their notebooks. Great for keeping your address book handy without re-writing it every time you get a new notebook.

Source : Makezine

Play Mac Games Without Using Keyboard Or Mouse

2009-03-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have to admit this Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) quest has brought me much further than I expected and has resulted in these three part articles.

In the first part, we discussed a bit about the Accelerometer concept in Mac laptops and how to set up an anti-theft alarm using the principle.

In the second part, we discussed about cool SMS-based applications.

Now in this third part, we will look at several simple and fun games that utilizes SMS as the controls, and also the possibilities of using SMS to control any games - or even anything.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Recover Your Lost Video Game Keys (Windows)

2009-03-29T15:46:00.001-07:00

Every gamer knows that video game keys are immensely important.

Of course, online serials or No-CD cracks can be found quickly, but for online games, amongst other things, an authentic serial code is a simple necessity.

Now you may be the school example of tidiness, keeping an alphabetical list of games, alphabetically sorting all yours by size, but most probably not.

If you’re even somewhat like me, often losing track of something after a mere five minutes, you can get in a lot of trouble - without those tiny scribblings, your sixty-dollar game becomes a useless piece of plastic.

Turning the house upside down might present a solution, but other methods don’t require quite so much bother. After all, we’re living in the digital age now.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Survive The New, New Facebook

2009-03-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Facebook promised a number of changes to appease user concerns about the latest homepage re-design. Users have been noticing these improvements being pushed live to their homepage over the last day or so, and this morning, I finally got them enabled on my account.

After doing a bit of tweaking, I’m definitely enjoying my Facebook homepage more than I was the past couple weeks with version 1 of the redesign. I thought I’d share with you a few of these tweaks - designed primarily to reduce information overload - so you can try them on your own account, unless of course you’re happy with the new, new Facebook as-is.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Mashable

Create A Coupon Organizing System In Zoho Notebook

2009-03-28T15:42:00.001-07:00

Clipping coupons is no longer just a pastime monopolized by old ladies. Actually, smart young parents are also using coupons to keep themselves on budget.

While some coupons save shoppers nothing more than pennies, others dramatically slash prices of essential household items. Ultimately, wise shoppers save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year by using coupons, and are able to receive many items virtually free.

However, there is a cost attached to using coupons. They are time-consuming to organize. Often, one must ask themselves if using coupons is any more profitable than simply working a part-time job.

Fortunately, Zoho Notebook can serve to help you save time & money with your coupons. This free application allows you to copy coupons & to shuffle them around on the screen, so that you can arrange them as you wish.

Before getting started with Zoho, take a moment to familiarize yourself with other handy coupon tools that will make Sunday’s paper seem like yesterday’s news.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Make Your Own Trash Bag Holder

2009-03-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sean Ragan made this trash bag holder using PVC pipe, ENT conduit, and come ball chain clips to hold the bag in place. Beats the SkyMall version any day!

S ource : Makezine

Extract Text From Images (Ocr) - Windows Only

2009-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is cool - the thing that lets you analyze an image and recognize the text within the image. Something that you can do with Evernote. However what if you want to do it for some of your own images? Of course you can use Evernote or you can use JOCR.

A pretty straight forward and no fuss application. It does one thing and does it well. Download the application and install. Fire it up and you will be greeted by the main interface.

JOCR essentially allows you to take screenshots and then detect the text within the image, excellent for situations where you are copying from an image but you don’t want to type the text.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Teacup Stirling Engine

2009-03-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Gareth had asked me to check out an article from an upcoming issue of MAKE. It was the Teacup Stirling Engine from Volume 17. Recently, I made the Gakken Stirling Engine Kit from the Maker Shed, which was really cool. However, I have never made one from scratch, and this was my opportunity to give it a try.
A few weeks ago Gareth had asked me to check out an article from an upcoming issue of MAKE. It was the Teacup Stirling Engine from Volume 17. Recently, I made the Gakken Stirling Engine Kit from the Maker Shed, which was really cool. However, I have never made one from scratch, and this was my opportunity to give it a try.
It’s a fairly finicky machine, but as you can see, it really does run, and it runs well. It’s a great project to try and tackle over the weekend.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makezine

Build A Battery-Free Flashlight

2009-03-25T13:46:00.001-07:00

Mr. Rigsby shares his design for an LED flashlight using two 220 farad(!) capacitors in place of all-too-familiar disposable batteries -
Very cool. It’s worth mentioning that the lengthy operating time from one charge wouldn’t provide constant illumination. In the Instructable’s comments, the author notes that after 2-3 hours the LED’s brightness would drop to “night light” levels. Others point out that this could be remedied to some extent by using a driver circuit to keep voltage levels up. Still, imagine fully charging a portable device in about 3 minutes - I smell future!

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makezine

Enable User Scripts In Google Chrome

2009-03-24T12:10:00.001-07:00

Windows only: The latest beta version of Google Chrome adds support for user scripts, but if you want to enable them you’ll need to follow a couple of quick steps.

The first step is to download and run the Google Chrome Channel Changer tool, which will subscribe you to updates from either the Beta or Dev channels—you get more features but potentially a less stable browser. For user scripts just choose the Beta channel, go to Help -> About and click the Upgrade button, and you’ll get the latest beta version.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Life Hacker

Set Up Multiple Gmail Filters By Editing An Xml File

2009-03-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Matt Thommes at the Paint in the Tech blog finds it tedious to create filters in Gmail the multi-click way. His solution? Export a single filter, then make a few clever tweaks to the resulting XML file.

Thommes doesn’t get too in-depth in exactly how the XML reads and can be tweaked, but shows how, if you’ve got a filter that works for silencing certain emailers or smartly labeling certain mail, you can easily add other email addresses or actions to it by firing up your editor:
If going this route might give you a little more Gmail power, you’d do well to read up on your advanced Gmail search operators, and maybe download our 10 must-have Gmail filters for a bit of inspiration. If you find a dirty/clever hack by editing your own XML filter files, let us know in the comments.

Source : Life Hacker

Setup Anti-Theft Alarm On Your Mac Laptop

2009-03-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

One of the famous features of iPhone is its accelerometer. This feature can detect whether the gadget is at horizontal or vertical position. The original purpose of this feature is to make the phone automatically change the screen orientation according to the position of the phone.
Somewhere in the path of iPhone software development, Apple opens its door and invite programmers to create applications for iPhone. People began to create applications (mostly games) using the accelerometer feature. User then can control the movements of the game character just by slightly tilting the position of the phone.

There are other Mac products with similar feature, but overshadowed by their little siblings’ popularity, the feature is less known by the general public.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Build A Rotating Shelf To Keep Canned Goods At Hand

2009-03-23T15:50:00.001-07:00

Don’t let canned goods go to waste. Use a rotating shelf to inspire recipes and keep your cans from hiding at the back of the pantry.

WikiHow details how to build a rotating canned food shelf that works in whatever cabinet space you’ve got. How does it work? The shelves are designed so that freshly purchased canned goods are loaded into slots. The cans roll down into a chute and push the oldest cans forward. This ensures that older cans are presented before the younger ones, saving them from being lost in the depths of a kitchen cabinet or pantry shelf. The tutorial covers building your own shelving unit from scratch, but the basic principle can be easily modified to work with your existing pantry shelves.

Source : LifeHacker

Speed Up Firefox By Limiting History Size

2009-03-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

Firefox is a powerful browser with extensions to do almost anything, but it’s never been accused of being light on resources—and limiting your history size can help.

Every time your browser requests a page or image from anywhere, that data is stored in your browser history for a default of 90 days—for most of us that translates to an enormous amount of data stored in the internal history database. The Mac Tips and Tricks weblog has a quick and very useful tip to make Firefox load more quickly—just visit Preferences -> Privacy -> History and turn the dial down to a more reasonable 5-10 days. You’ll need to clear your history or restart Firefox after you make this change, but in my testing the startup speed improved significantly.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ LifeHacker

Be A Budget Hero

2009-03-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

Do you think you can manage your tax dollars to cure America’s economic mess better than the politicians? Today we look at Budget Hero, a game that allows you to cut or finance areas of the federal budget to save America’s economy.

You control every aspect of the budget based on ten year time frame. When you begin you choose different badges to earn. You then select an area of the budget you select different cards that cut or raise spending in that area. You can move the slider on the year bar to see how your decisions will affect dates in the future.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HowToGeek

Change Verizon’s Hub

2009-03-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Verizon Hub. A curious beast this day and age, wouldn’t you say? For those of you who spent the better part of Super Bowl Sunday setting one of these crazy contraptions up in your domicile, we’re eager to hear of your experiences. Has it made you want to throw away your cellphone? Are you already regretting the contract you’re now locked into? Are the widgets sufficiently useful? We found ourselves a bit torn as to whether or not the Hub was even a device worth considering given the monthly fee attached, but now that it’s sat in your place for well over a month, we’re anticipating some better feedback from those who’ve used it a time or two. Spill your guts below.

Source : Engadget

Work With Character LCD Displays

2009-03-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

LCD displays come in many sizes most often named by the number of rows and then the length of the display line. For example a 1×16 LCD display will have one row of sixteen characters and a 4×20 LCD display will have four rows with twenty characters in each.

LCDs can have backlighting or be reflective (think calculator). In either case the programming that goes into working these displays is the same. LCDs with backlight normally use two pins to provide power to the backlighting.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makezine

Compress Your Images To The Last Bytes With Smush It

2009-03-21T18:46:00.001-07:00

If you have followed my posts previously, you will know that I am a fanatic in optimizing my site for the best performance. One of the thing that I do is to optimize and reduce the images to the smallest possible size without losing the visual quality.

If you are wondering why reducing the size of your images can help in the site’s performance, basically the bigger the size of your images, the slower it takes for the server to load, and the higher probability that your server will crash when you experience a traffic spike (like reach Digg front page). In addition, if you are hosting your images on a third party site, like Amazon S3, having a smaller image also mean lesser cost as the charge is based on the bandwidth and storage space used.

Smush.it is a service developed by the Yahoo Exceptional Performance team, aimed to improve the performance of your site. What SmushIt does is to strip all the metadata from the images and compress them using an optimization algorithm that will not only reduce the size, but also preserve the visual quality. When I first used it, I were surprised to see a 30% reduction in the size of the image that I have optimized in Photoshop. Most of the time that I use Smushit, it is able to shave 10-50%, occasionally 80% off the image size.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Convert Your Halogen Lamp Into A Power Efficient Led Model

2009-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Halogen lamps are nice and bright, but they do consume a lot of power. Here’s a quick DIY tutorial to help you convert one to a super eco-friendly LED version. You’ll need some basic electronic skills. Oh and make sure to use decent LED bulbs, not the cheapo fade fast variety.

How efficient is LED lighting? The LED array we are going to build for this project consumes about 2.5 watts it will run 400 hours on 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. With average use it would consume about $0.21 worth of electricity a year.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Redferret

Turn A Vintage Radio Into A WI-FI Internet Radio

2009-03-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

If modern black-box electronics don’t go well with the more timeless decor of your home, perhaps it’s time to camouflage them. In this case, that means turning a vintage radio into a modern Wi-Fi model.

Instructables user Alinke converted the shell of a vintage radio into the housing for a modern net streaming box with some elbow grease and ingenuity. By modifying the existing faceplate of the radio to accept the screen and buttons of his Wi-Fi radio and painting the buttons to match the color of the faceplate, he created a nearly seamless appearance—save for the presence of the LCD screen, the radio looks original. If you dig upgrading vintage tools for modern use, make sure to check out how to find vintage calendars for reuse, and how to repurpose an antique box into a charging station.

Source : LifeHacker

Create Laser Art With A Digital Camera

2009-03-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

Our new MAKE magazine columnist, iconic electronics guru Forrest M. Mims III (see “Country Scientist,” MAKE, Volume 17) has a piece up on the Jameco website about using a laser pointer to create cool laser-light patterns to capture with a digital camera:

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makezine

Decide If A Mabinogi Elf, Human Or Giant Character Is Best For you

2009-03-18T16:58:00.001-07:00

Want to get involved in Nexon’s free-to-play MMORPG Mabinogi? It’s a great time for it, what with the massive Pioneers of Iria expansion just added into the game and a lot of previously premium content suddenly becoming free.

Of course, with that expansion came some important decisions. Now there are three different races for characters to pick from - humans, giants and elves. Each race plays differently, and depending on which you choose, you could end up an unknowing pawn in an ongoing war.

So today we’ll take a close look at Mabinogi‘s three races, to help newcomers and returning veterans better understand what each has to offer. We’ll tell you how to get your free elf and giant character cards, then go through basic information on all three races. When you’re done, you may want to look back at Gamertell’s previous Mabinogi guides.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ GamerTell

Modify Websites For Better Reading & Printing

2009-03-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

Many of us are into blogs and news these days. A lot of these sites are professionally designed and easy to read, but a majority of the sites are designed keeping in mind ‘the required exposure to advertisements’.

As a result, readability suffers at times. If you come across such a site or you would like a consistent look and feel across all the articles that you read so that you can scan them faster, here are some ways to make reading articles easier on the eyes and (thus easier to print as well)

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Reorganize Finances Using The Web

2009-03-17T16:06:00.001-07:00

The current economic climate has been draining for everyone, both economically and mentally. You have probably been trying to stick to a budget and avoiding looking at that 401k statement for some time now. But this is a very difficult task - saving receipts, tracking expenses, controlling spending urges, and meeting goals for savings can be overwhelming. However, unlike past recessions, you have the advantage of digital information to make this process a lot simpler.

When budgets, bills, and finances are all simply in a giant pile of clutter, taking a simple, digital approach to reorganization can not only work wonders on your finances, it can automate a lot of the tasks you tried to do on spreadsheets or with pen and paper. This ensures that every dollar is tracked and financial goals are actually met. Reorganizing personal finances should occur in four phases: Assessment, learning, reorganization, and tracking.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Mashable

Rip & Mount Multiple ISO’s Easily (Windows Only)

2009-03-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

I deal with lots of ISO images, for installing operating systems, service pack updates and programs. Some of my tools reside in ISO images as well. I used to burn all my disks and bring them where they had to go.

In case you’re one of the readers who don’t know what an ISO image is, it’s an archive file, a bit like ZIP or RAR, but it’s uncompressed.

Now with ISODisk I can mount my ISO’s from the network as a drive letter. I can share them out over the network or run them locally on a machine without having to burn the image.

I know you are saying to yourself that lots of programs can mount ISO’s to your Windows machine, and almost every other application can rip ISO’s now. How is this application different?

I am glad you asked!

ISODisk stands out in my book because it will let me load up multiple images on the same machine. So if I have 10 images I am going to need access to, I can load ISODisk and mount all my images and share them out. Now I have full access to all of them from any networked machine!

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Fix The Windows 7 7057 Desktop.Ini Startup Bug

2009-03-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Based on some of the things you’ve read about Windows 7, it’s sometimes not so apparent that we’re still talking about a work in progress. Not so with build 7057 - there’s a little reminder right in the middle of the desktop when Windows starts up. Notepad will be there, unabashedly displaying the contents of desktop.ini.

It’s easy enough to remedy - here’s one simple method.

Open the run dialog ( windows + r ) and type shell:startup and press enter.
Set your Explorer options to display protected operating system files - pressing alt then T then O will get you to the screen quickly. Click the view tab then uncheck hide protected operating system files.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ DownloadSquad

How To Improve The Performance Of Your Computer

2009-03-14T18:21:00.000-07:00

The economy is bad, you may be tired of how slow your computer is, and wishing you could get a faster machine. The problem for many people is that the money for buying new computers simply isn’t in the budget.

There are a few things that you can do to help improve the performance of your computer rather than having to buy a completely new system. The first thing we are going to talk about doesn’t even cost you money.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ I4UNews

Reset Any Linux Password

2009-03-13T18:20:00.001-07:00

A few days back we looked at how to password protect your GRUB boot entries so that a password is required before anyone can boot the operating system or edit the boot entry.

Let’s look at some ways you can use to reset your Linux system’s password. You might know that the root user can change the password for any other user. However what if you forget your root password? This is what we would attempt to achieve here.

So, how to reset password in Linux?

To reset your root password (or any other account’s password for that matter), there are essentially two different situations which require varying approaches.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Make Any Firefox Add-On Compatible With All Versions

2009-03-13T18:18:00.001-07:00

Sometimes trying out newer versions of Firefox, especially ones that are still in beta, comes at a cost. Since the version you’re running is so new, add-on developers haven’t had the chance to update their add-ons to work with the newer versions.

So this is when you stumble upon an add-on that conveys the following message to you: “This add-on is for older versions of Firefox”.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Syncing The iPhone 2.x With A Linux Computer

2009-03-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

Although Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone 2.0 firmware update generally killed wireless syncing with Linux, efforts have been made to resurrect the functionality. As expected hackers won, allowing all Linux fans around the world to comfortably sync their iPhones with PCs.

Before you hop over to get all the details, you should know that a jailbroken device is required and so is the OpenSSH app (available through Cydia). Once that’s on place, follow all the steps provided on the Ubuntu Forums community. From what I can tell, it’s not super easy, but then again not too hard for any die hard Linux fan. Here’s a link with all the details, step-by-step instructions and more. Good luck!

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ IntoMobile

How To Recycle Hewlett-Packard Gear

2009-03-12T17:01:00.001-07:00

What can be recycled: Both HP and non-HP products, including monitors, digital cameras, and printers.

Recycling program(s) offered: HP offers four great recycling programs. The first is the Trade-In Program for both HP and non-HP products. Second, HP Financial Services will pay your company for unwanted computer equipment through the Return for Cash program. Recycle HP inkjet and laserjet cartridges and any brand of computer hardware and rechargeable batteries through the Recycle program. Or if you’re in a giving mood, donate your products to the National Cristina Foundation.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ GoodCleanTech

How To Recycle LG Gear

2009-03-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

What can be recycled: LG, Zenith, and GoldStar brands of televisions, monitors, audio equipment, video cassette players and recorders, DVD players and recorders, combination TV/VCR and TV/DVD units, set-top boxes; non-LG products are also accepted.

Recycling program(s) offered: Through a partnership with Waste Management Inc., the LG Electronics Recycling Program provides recycling of used, unwanted, obsolete, or damaged LG products. You can drop off your products at one of the 160 designated Waste Management sites across the U.S. Consumers may drop off up to five LG-branded items at a time. Cell phones, smartphones, and GPSs are covered by a separate LG recycling program dubbed the LG Eco-Mobilization Program; you can print a postage-free mailing label to send to LG’s recycling partner or drop it off at a center nearest you.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ GoodCleanTech

How To Upload Images To Photobucket Using Firefox

2009-03-10T17:17:00.001-07:00

Within this article I’m going to show you how you can upload images to your Photobucket account without having to visit the main site. This allows you to save time and quickly host images without having to navigate away from important pages you might be working on, especially if you’re a busy blogger.

Photobucket Uploader is an extension that lets you store your images on Photobucket as soon as you’ve downloaded and installed this add-on (if you don’t have a Photobucket account yet you can snatch one up here).

With the following steps I’m going to show you how to select an image and instantly upload it to your PB account. You’ll be able to access your images from within your browser while being able to organize them to your preferences as well.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

How To Make Your Own Books From Wikipedia

2009-03-10T17:14:00.001-07:00

The Wikimedia Foundation home page says - Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

With nearly 3 million articles in the English version alone Wikipedia along with its sister wikis is an Alibaba’s treasure trove of information. Now, Wikipedia gives us a chance to take this information and use it as one of the oldest forms we have known – the humble book.

It is just the Wikimedia Foundation’s attempt to make ‘human knowledge’ accessible to everyone…online and now also offline. It started off with the German Wikipedia last year and now since February 26th it has moved onto the English version too.

To capsulize the process, users can collate the article pages of their choice and create a book from this existing material through a simple link available in Wikipedia. The compilation of articles can be arranged into chapters, given a title and finally exported as a PDF or as an Open Document and even sent to be professionally printed (at a cost).

One essential caveat is that a user has to create an account and log-on to access the book features.

The Wikipedia Help page goes through a step by step process of the nitty gritty…but I will give it a spin here too.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

How To Recycle ASUS Gear

2009-03-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

What can be recycled: Any old ASUS-branded products, including laptops, displays, and PDAs, as well as other-branded tech products.

Recycling program(s) offered: ASUS works with recycling vendor GRX (Guaranteed Recycling Xperts) to offer the ASUS Takeback program. Fill out your information on the online form, and a shipping label will be mailed to you within 5 business days. Attach the shipping label to the box your ASUS product is in, and drop it off at your nearest FedEx/Kinko’s location.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ GoodCleanTech

How To Play Drums On Your Computer Keyboard

2009-03-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

If you want to know how to play drums on your computer or mess around with some drumming synthesizer, there is an easy and extremely colorful possibility available.

The Drum Keyboard by Ron Winter is one of the easiest way I have ever encountered to mess around with the drums without having to leave your computer desk. You can either use the interactive keyboard, clicking on the different colorful keys and letter for the various sounds. In addition, your can also play the drums by using you personal keyboard and pressing the keys as shown in the colorful chart.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Walyou

How To Make Your Mac Sleep More Efficiently

2009-03-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

One of the many things Mac users are proud of is the fact that we never have to turn our Macs off. Macs are built to run for days, weeks, months and even years (in some instances) on end without ever restarting. And it hardly ever feels bogged down.

If my Mac isn’t performing any tasks and if I won’t be using it, I’ll set it to sleep. That’s equivalent to Standby mode on Windows computers. Since the PowerBook G4, all portable Macs including the MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have a separate sleep mode known as Safe Sleep.

Set as the default sleep mode for portable Macs in 2005, Safe Sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernation modes. At the initiation of sleep, the contents on your main memory will be stored as a sleep image on the RAM and written on the hard disk. The memory is kept powered but if the battery is depleted, the Mac will shut down. After an adapter is plugged in and the Mac is switch on, it will load the sleep image which was saved to the hard disk and restore your workspace.

While this approach is, as they call it — safe; the whole process of initiating sleep is slower because the sleep image has to be written to the hard disk. There are 2 other sleep modes you should know about.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

How To Install Apps On Your iPhone 3G Or iPod Touch Easily And Free

2009-03-08T16:48:00.001-07:00

If you want to install cool apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch for free, easily, breaking Apple-imposed limitations without breaking your warranty or Applethingie, here is the how-to guide for Mac and Windows users.

What is a jailbreak?

Jailbreaking is the process required to install applications in your iPhone or iPod touch. It is a very easy procedure. It’s also safe: There are no risks in this operation*, as you can easily use iTunes to restore your iPhone or iPod touch to the default factory settings. When you do that, the iPhone will be like new.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Gizmodo

How To Run A Successful Linux User Group

2009-03-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

If there was one thing Linux Format magazine learned from the Readers’ Round Table event it organised, it was that us Linux folk like to get out and have a good chat. Over the several hours we were all together, we covered dozens of subjects, and the conversation was lively and opinionated. And that was with only nine of us.

Imagine what such a meeting could be like if there were more attendees, more of a schedule and a little better organisation? This is the realm of the Linux User Group – a network of Linux enthusiasts that weave a web of community across the UK, and across almost every country in the world. Many Linux fans get a great deal of camaraderie and satisfaction from attending their local meetings, as well as support, website portals, forums, mailing lists and IRC channels, all of which help to glue the local Linux community together.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ TechRadar

How To Use An Online Stopwatch To Increase Productivity

2009-03-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Time is a valuable commodity and it gets wasted easily online. Whether you’re a student, a web developer or even an Web 2.0 CEO, the internet is always ready to devour your time.

Fortunately, online stopwatches are easy to find & to use.

Gently enhance the value of your time by making intelligent use of one of these free stopwatches.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

How To Disable Startup Programs On Your Computer (Linux)

2009-03-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

You might not even realize it, but when you first log onto your PC, dozens of programs and services are starting that you most likely don’t need. Some rear their ugly heads in the system tray (that little collection of icons next to the clock in Windows), but others run quietly in the background with you none the wiser.

Now, don’t get scared, these instructions will take you to corners of your operating system (OS) you may not have seen before, but follow our instructions below and you should notice slightly quicker performance and potentially much faster boot times. Every Linux distribution is slightly different, so check the support forums for your particular flavor if this doesn’t work for you.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Switched

How To Automatically Install Required Software After A Reinstall

2009-02-26T14:58:00.001-08:00

Anyone who has been using Windows for any length of time knows reinstalling it is unavoidable. Some people call technical help and some do it themselves. If you reinstall on your own, you know it takes a little time but the most annoying part of reinstalling Windows is that you have to reinstall all your software one by one all over again. Software like Firefox, Winamp, VLC and other indispensable programs that don’t ship with Windows.
Windows Post-Install Wizard allows you to take care of such situations and automatically install all the software that you would like to install on a fresh install with a minimum of input. There are a few steps involved in getting it to work as we shall see:

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

How To Identify The Process That Locks The File Which You Are Trying To Delete

2009-02-26T14:55:00.000-08:00

When you try to delete a file, you may have encountered “Cannot delete [filename]: There has been a sharing violation. The source or destination file may be in use” or “Cannot delete [filename]: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.”? If you know the program which has locked the file, you probably will go and close it and then delete the file again. Sometimes you may able to delete the file after closing the running program but it may not always successful. If this is the case, then it could probably be due to other windows process that has locked it. Instead of rebooting the PC (which is always the simple way), now there is a utility, named as OpenedFilesView that can help you identifying all programs and processes that lock the file in simple steps.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MyDigitalLife

How To Make Printer Ink & Toner Last Longer

2009-02-26T14:54:00.001-08:00

Printer ink and toner are precious because, well, printing isn’t free and resources have a tendency to run out when you least need that to happen.
If you’re concerned with wasting material and spending too much money on ink and toner, you will certainly learn a thing or two from this article.
However, if your main problem is not having a replacement ready when you need it you’re out of luck here. The only advice I can give you is to shop for backup material in time.
You can save ink or toner on many different levels and it actually starts with the type of printer and ink you purchase. But let’s assume it’s too late for these decisions and move on to what you can do right now.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

How To Take Your iPhone Overseas

2009-02-25T16:10:00.001-08:00

Before I leave for a long-overdue vacation in Europe, I’m going to get my iPhone in travel-ready condition. Read on to find out how.

I’ve been anticipating this vacation for a long time. But in my planning, there was just one thing I wasn’t looking forward to: Doing without my iPhone, even if only for 10 days. After a year and a half of integrating the device into my lifestyle, I decided it just wasn’t worth it.

Now, before you judge me as a tech-dependent freak, allow me to explain: I’m going to Paris and London — two cities where an iPhone could certainly be useful just to find my way around (as opposed to lugging around travel books). If I were going somewhere like India, where an iPhone would disturb my spiritual journey toward self-discovery, then yes, I would more than happily leave the Jesus phone at home. But given the circumstances, my iPhone’s coming with me.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Blog wired

How To Save New Brain Cells

2009-02-25T16:08:00.001-08:00

Thousands of new cells are generated in the adult brain every day, particularly in the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory.
Within a couple of weeks, most of those newborn neurons will die, unless the animal is challenged to learn something new. Learning—especially that involving a great deal of effort—can keep these new neurons alive.
Although the neurons do not seem to be necessary for most types of learning, they may play a role in predicting the future based on past experience. Enhancing neurogenesis might therefore help slow cognitive decline and keep healthy brains fit.

If you watch TV, read magazines or surf the Web, you have probably encountered advertisements urging you to exercise your mind. Various brain fitness programs encourage people to stay mentally limber by giving their brain a daily workout—doing everything from memorizing lists and solving puzzles to estimating the number of trees in Central Park.

It sounds a bit gimmicky, but such programs may have a real basis in neurobiology. Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of new neurons in the adult brain. And the more engaging and challenging the problem, the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These neurons are then presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It seems, then, that a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise builds up the body.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Sciam

How To Use The Trackpad On Unibody Macbooks

2009-02-24T15:33:00.001-08:00

Using the glass trackpad on the new MacBook family may seem easy for some, but not everyone has used a Mac before. For those people, Apple has posted a new knowledge base article detailing the proper use of the trackpad on new MacBook models.

The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008) and MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009) gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than before, according to Apple. This makes it easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch, rotate and swipe.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ SoftPedia

Tweak Utorrent’s Settings For Faster Downloads

2009-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

Aside from having a really fast, non-filtered broadband connection, there are a few ways you can speed up your BitTorrent downloads through simple tweaks. The MakeUseOf blog runs down a few of them.

The MakeUseOf poster prefers Windows client uTorrent for its manageability and efficiencty—as do we, and our readers—but most of their tricks can be tackled in any torrent grabber.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ LifeHacker

How To Password Protect GRUB Entries

2009-02-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

GRUB or the GRand Unified Bootloader is the bootloader commonly installed by Linux distributions on your hard disk. GRUB is responsible for showing you the menu that allows you to choose the operating system you want to boot into and also lets you tweak and control the booting options.

Awesome powers in good hands but as you probably know “with great powers come great responsibilities”, so GRUB allows you to lock down some features and boot entries to allow only the intended users to go through.When talking of security in computer systems one often needs to analyse the situation one is in and choose the appropriate options. If you have hackers getting physical access to your computer system the GRUB security measures won’t last a second (pretty much nothing would do). Your best bet in such a situation is to keep the hard drive encrypted, or if your hard drive can be password protected, use that option.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOF

How To Extract Audio From FLV Files

2009-02-23T15:01:00.000-08:00

I’m not an advocate of piracy but here’s a cool idea to grab songs off YouTube. As you may know, YouTube has a huge collection of music videos. Sometimes, I’d watch a music video over and over again just to listen to the song. I’ve just found a nifty application which will extract the audio from YouTube videos. Most sites serve their videos as FLV (Flash Video) files. I’ll just be using YouTube as an example. Video files from YouTube are generally in 2 formats: FLV and MP4. Normal quality videos are formatted in FLV and high quality videos are formatted in MP4.

Contained within a flash video are the video and audio tracks. Using iExtractMP3, the audio track can be split from any FLV file. The perk of using this particular application is: no transcoding is performed when extracting the audio - meaning that there is no loss in quality.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOF

How To: Hackintosh A Dell Mini 9 Into The Ultimate OS X Netbook

2009-02-22T11:47:00.001-08:00

I am typing this on a 9-inch, 3G-equipped, almost-pocketable computer, running the best consumer OS money can currently buy. It costs around $400. Do you want one too? Here’s how to get yours.

There are a lot of netbooks on which you can install and run OS X, but if you’re mindful of the handy comparison chart those lads at Boing Boing Gadgets have compiled, you’ll know that the Mini 9 is about as ideal a platform as you’ll find for a Hackintosh ultraportable: Everything from wi-fi, sound and the function keys down to the optional integrated mobile broadband card and the SD card reader are supported and work as they should. No hardware compromises at all. It’s awesome.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Gizmodo

How To Make Beer At Home

2009-02-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Maybe you got tired of the same brands of beer and you want to try something new, or maybe those small bottles in which they serve it are simply not enough. Whatever your reasons, you should know that making beer at home is fairly easy, and requires no prior experience. In fact, because you would be the owner of your own brewery, you will be able to fine tune the product to fit your exact demands. And who knows? Maybe your recipe will be so good that it will land a production deal, making you a millionaire over night.

Let’s start off with the equipment. There are some basic tools each home brewery needs, and they include one 10-gallon “food grade” plastic pail with lid, which at most hardware stores costs about $12, a 74 inch (188 centimeter)-long siphon hose, which costs about $2, a $1-hose clamp for siphon, a large pot, or turkey roaster, a thermometer and a hydrometer, which cost about $8 each, and about a dozen 2-liter plastic pop bottles with lids. These are the basic tools required.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ SoftPedia

How To Create Hidden User Account (Hide User Account From Welcome Screen) In Windows

2009-02-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Windows operating system including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP allows multiple user accounts to be created on the computer, be it administrators or standard users. When there is more than one user accounts been defined and created on the PC, Windows will display Welcome Screen, with all available user accounts listed so that user can click and login.

However, showing and displaying of user accounts on the Welcome Screen is probably a weakness in the security point of view, more so if the user account is intended to be a hidden or backup user account. In fact, there is trick to make user account or administrator account that normally been listed on the Welcome Screen to be hidden from view.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MYDigitalLife

How To Run Skype From A USB Flash Drive

2009-02-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

Skype lets you make cheap or free voice or video calls on computers running Windows, OS X, or Linux. There are even mobile clients available that let you make calls using your smartphone from a WiFi hotspot. But there’s no official portable version of Skype that you can run from a USB stick.
It turns out though, that it’s pretty trivial to convince Skype for Windows to run properly from a USB stick, which means you can save the program to a flash drive and carry it with you in your pocket. All of your settings and preferences will be saved to the USB stick, so your username, password, and other data won’t be stored on your work computer, friend’s computer, or other unsecure computer where you use the program.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ DownloadSquad

Build A Monster Windows 7 Start Menu To Dwarf Vista’s

2009-02-18T13:20:00.001-08:00

Along with the evolution of the Aero graphical user interface in Windows 7, one of the aspects of the operating system that suffered a consistent revamping process is the Start Menu. Users running Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 and later, including the leaked Windows 7 Build 7022 from the Release Candidate branch, will be able to notice a variety of changes from functionality to visual style. If the new Start orb animation and the search box usage tweaks manage to immediately stand out, the ability of the new Start Menu to grow to nothing short of monstrous proportions is less evident in the evolution of the component. With the additional flexibility and control delivered to end users in Windows 7, Microsoft allows the them to build a monster Windows 7 Start Menu, that dwarfs Windows Vista’s.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ SoftPedia

How To Cheat With Your BitTorrent Ratio

2009-02-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

There are many great advantages to using private torrent trackers. For instance, the reliability and speed of the downloads exceeds those of free trackers, mainly because of the ratio systems. These ratio systems oblige everyone to upload about at least as much as they download.

Ironically, the biggest disadvantages lie also with the ratio system. Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone should upload as much as they can, but sometimes your ratio obligations can put you in some pretty nasty situations.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

How To Remove Old Versions Of Java From Your Windows PC

2009-02-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

Most of us have the Java Run time Environment on our Windows computers. Not because we like Java or Sun Micro systems but JRE allows us to play some on-line games and run specific small applications also referred to as applets. I won’t go into the nitty gritty because you probably don’t care but if you want to learn more about JRE and the Java Machine it launches check out this wikipedia article.

My company has JRE on all its machines because it is how our employees clock in and out of our Etime system. Because of this we are constantly updating the JRE on client machines. One thing that baffles me about JRE is that it does not remove older versions when upgrading.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

How To Keep Your Facebook Activities Private

2009-02-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

If you’ll recall, we’ve already held court on Facebook, helping the uninitiated to get acquainted with the Internet’s most popular social networking site.

But the good folks at AllFacebook have now posted a 200-level course in how to keep your Facebook activities safe and secure. With all the horror stories of bosses, swindlers and admissions officers snooping around folks’ Facebook profiles, we’d suggest you give these tips a glance.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Switched

Recycle Your Old Ink Cartridges

2009-02-09T15:35:00.001-08:00

The next time you buy printer ink, check to see if the store will accept your old cartridge for recycling; doing so will not only keep it out of a landfill, but can also save a half-gallon of oil that would be used in manufacturing a new one. Staples offers a $3 discount on replacement cartridges from popular brands like HP, Dell and Lexmark.

Source : Switched

20 Ways To Increase The Life Of Your Laptop’s Battery

2009-02-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

Mobile computing has got better with lighter components, better chips and faster processors. But the Achilles heel of a laptop has remained its battery. Modern graphic intensive operating systems and resource hungry applications are cutting down the life of your laptop’s battery every day. The average battery life per continuous use still stands at a maximum of three to four hours. So, a fast depleting battery could very swiftly put the crutches on your ‘mobile’ road trip.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

How To Take Super Snow Snaps: Five Camera Tips To Make The Most Of Britain’s Freak Weather

2009-02-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

OK, we’ve now discovered the world DOESN’T end when it snows. Yes, a day at home was a wonderful experience, but I’d say the majority of the workforce is back at their computer screens now. The snow however, looks like it may be here to stay for while, and now the initial shock has been overcome, you’ll want to work out how to capture this winter wonderland.
Taking pictures of snow differs from your usual snapping of friends in drunken poses as the whiteness is so bright, the auto setting can leave you looking rather washed out.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ ShinyShiny

How To Find Out Who’s Watching Your Online Activity

2009-02-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

The answer is also a new term to include in your Web vocabulary: Web Bugs. No, these aren’t viruses and they aren’t even malicious. Companies do use them, though, to track your online activity so that they can serve up ads that more effectively target you as a user and as a consumer.
Ghostery is a Web plug-in that alerts you whenever a Web Bug is monitoring your online activity. A Web Bug is slightly different from a cookie, which — as many of our readers know — is also a bit of information that Web sites use to track you as a user. Cookies are the small pieces of code that help a Web site remember who you are. For example, if you sign into sites such as Delta.com to check your Frequent Flyer account, or if you sign in to Amazon.com and check the box that allows the site to remember your login information, a cookie is placed on your computer.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Switched

How To Use Scripts & Plugins In Gimp To Extend Its Functionality

2009-02-05T15:55:00.001-08:00

Actions? Aren’t all the menus, dialog boxes and commands enough, why would you want actions?
Well if you do any kind of task repeatedly inside GIMP - like resizing images to a particular size, adding your site’s watermark or the “friendly admin” to the images like Karl does, or you want to add some functionality that is not already or directly provided by GIMP, you should consider using actions to simplify and reduce the number of steps involved.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MakeUseOf

Definitive Linux Remote System Access Guide

2009-02-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

We’re sure that many of you have been away from our home computers at a time when we needed access to a certain file or desktop program. Many companies have proprietary solutions (like GoToMyPC) that allow you to remotely access files on your home computer while you are away from it. While this service has a $19.95/month licensing fee (per computer, no less), there are alternatives that provide similar functionality on the Linux platform for free. Many of these free solutions are very versatile and are useful in a wide variety of situations. We show you how to master remote system access on your open-source machine.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ MaximumPC

How To Conserve Your LCD’s Lifespan

2009-01-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

LCD monitors have a lifespan, and, while they likely won’t die completely until they’re 20 years old or so, their backlights can begin to dim appreciably within just a couple years of use, leaving you squinting. To greatly slow their fade, turn down brightness and contrast levels to a tolerable level.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Switched

Win 7 Tip: Registry Tweak Fixes Window Gadgets And UAC Incompatibility

2009-01-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

When I first tested the newly-integrated Windows 7 gadgets, I discovered that the gadgets disappeared every time I turned UAC off. Well, now you can keep UAC turned off and have your gadgets. Huzzah!
I must warn you, this fix is not for those who don’t like to go into their registry. You should probably set a System Restore point or backup your registry before you attempt it.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Gizmodo

Build Your Own 400 Megapixel Camera

2009-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

The concept is fairly simple, and variations of it have been done before. Take a flatbed scanner, build a box for it, find a lens, and create the modern day equivalent of a pin-hole camera. One photographer decided to take this in a slightly different direction. Dan Newton combined a scanner he picked up on eBay with a 8×10 view camera that he had lying around. While there are still a few bugs in the set up, the results are pretty amazing.
Portability isn’t really there. You’ll need power for the scanner, and at least a laptop. So don’t expect to trek to Yosemite and be able to use the camera. The scanner also has problems with motion, since it’s designed to work with static subjects.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ CrunchGear

Saving Flash Videos In Linux

2009-01-30T11:44:00.001-08:00

This guest article was written by Nate from The Geeky Life blog, who is also one of our most prolific forum members. Thanks!
Have you ever watched a video on Youtube or some other site that lets you view flash videos and then wanted to save a copy of the video to your hard drive so that you can watch it later,out but you then cannot because there is no download link? This can be done very easily because when you watch a video on any of those sites they save a temporary file on your computer of the video. So from there you will need to just find the file and rename it.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ HowToGeek

13 Plugins To Make Gedit A More Useful Text Editor

2009-01-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Few days back we looked at how to customize Nautilus to get most out of the context menus and write custom menu entries as per your requirement. Today let’s pay some attention to the good old text editor - Gedit. Gedit is the default text editor for most of the Linux distributions using Gnome as the desktop environment. As it turns out and as we shall see shortly Gedit supports plugins and there are some very useful plugins for Gedit.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ Makeuseof

Build Your Own MP3 Grenade For Free Cavity Searches

2009-01-22T06:12:00.000-08:00

Using a (and I can’t stress this enough) inert hand grenade, a 1GB Sansa MP3 player and a hacksaw, you too can make this lethal-looking portable player. It doesn’t look like too much effort is needed, but a basic description of the build can be found in the following link if you are interested in a little DIY project. The bonus is that it is also a sure-fire way to get cavity searched at the airport—if you are into that sort of thing.

Source: GizmoDo

Make Your Own 3D Camera For $15 Or Less

2009-01-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

Photojojo shows you how to make your own 3D camera for less than $15 and enter the fabulous world of the 3rd Dimension, all need just two disposable cameras and some duct tape.

Step 1: Turn one of the cameras upside down to get the two lenses as close together as possible (lenses aren’t usually located in the center of the camera). Line the cameras up so the lenses are on the same level.

Step 2: Tape the cameras together with duct tape. Don’t cover up the shutter buttons or winding mechanisms.

Step 3: Go out and shoot! To take a picture, press both shutter buttons at the same time.

Click Here To Read The Full Article @ LikeCool