Hot Computers & Programming Posts
How To: Understand the PC BIOS and use it change your boot order
The built-in operating system (BIOS) of your PC is the first thing it runs when it starts, and if you're having problems with your OS or other issues it's usually the place to go to fix them. Watch this video to learn the basics of the BIOS and how it can be used to change your boot order to make you PC boot from a CD. Understand the PC BIOS and use it change your boot order.
How To: Install a bottom mounted power supply in a PC tower case
Most PC tower cases have the power supply mounted near the top of the case in the back. However, if you want your PSU to run a little cooler, watch this video to learn how you can mount your PSU on the bottom of a tower case, allowing it to draw cooler air from the bottom of the case rather than the hot interior of the case like a top-mounted traditional setup would.
How To: Clean up your Mac OS X icons with AppleScript and Automator
If you're tired of how cluttered your Mac OS X desktop looks, there's a pretty simple solution. You can clean up your desktop icons with AppleScript and Automator. For full instructions you can read the Lifehacker post and watch the video to make it happen on your own computer.
How To: Chrome Your Web Experience with Google's Cr-48 Notebook
Join the Pilot program and learn how to fly! But you're not going to be flying airplanes in this Pilot program, you'll be trying your hands at Google's first laptop computer.
How To: Install a 7" USB monitor on the side of a PC tower case
7" USB monitors aren't useful for that much at first glance, but as this guy who had one laying around his house for years proves they do have their uses. This video will show you how to mount a USB monitor (7" in this case) in the side of your PC tower case and use it for monitoring CPU usage or other useful information.
How To: Use Mupen 64 to make a TAS for Goldeneye
Without Goldeneye for the N64 there wouldn't be Call of Duty, plain and simple. If you still worship this classic game and want to probe it's depths by making a tool-assisted speedrun (TAS), watch this video. It will teach you the basics of making a TAS in Goldeneye and give you knowledge you can use in all of your TAS projects.
How To: Make a basic TAS in Super Mario 64
A TAS, in case you're outside too much to have heard of them before, is a tool-assisted speedrun. Basically you take a video game ROM and use some software like Mupen 64] to control the game's many parameters on a previously unattainable level. This allows for perfect manipulation of glitches and timing, and thus for much faster completions of the game than are possible unaided. This ...
How To: Make a faster Super Mario 64 TAS with four tricks
Making a fast TAS is time-consuming and mind-bending business. Fortunately, this video offers not one but four tips on how to make your TAS times faster in Super Mario 64. he covers how to go up certain slopes, do a stair blj, a quick turn, and how to a ground jump dive. All vital skills for truly masterful M64 TAS.
How To: Do a side BLJ in a Super Mario 64 TAS
The side BLJ is a Super Mario 64 move only possible in a TAS that allows you to break parts of the game you never thought possible. This video will show you how to do the side BLJ and use it in your TAS's.
How To: Change Mario's speed and make him walljump for a Super Mario World TAS
If you're going to make a really fast TAS keeping your character moving as fast as possible is crucial. This video features two Super Mario World TAS tips: how to use ZNES9 to set Mario's running speed as a high constant, and how to do walljumps impossible in the standard game.
How To: Skip the level end flagpoles in a Super Mario Bros. TAS
The flagpoles at the end of each level in Super Mario Bros are rewarding when you're playing the game, but if you're setting up a TAS they suddenly become infuriating wastes of time. This video will show you how to TAS skip the flagpoles, which should improve your time substantially.
How To: Skip Dire, Dire Docks in a Super Mario 64 TAS
Super Mario 64 is one of the most influential games of all time and a favorite of TAS aficionados the world over. This video will teach you a cool TAS trick that will allow you to skip the Dire, Dire Docks level and improve your competition time substantially.
How To: Clip through block in Super Mario Bros. 3 for a TAS
One of the most common parts of a ludicrously fast TAS, especially in a Mario game, is clipping through the many block obstacles. This video will teach you an easy way to do that involving isolating the exact frame at which Mario can penetrate a block
News: Steve Wozniak Presents 9 Revolutionary Gadgets
How did we get to the age of smartphones, ereaders, laptops, and crazy touchscreen displays? Gizmodo covers Steve Wozniak's recent presentation of nine key gadgets that have deeply influenced the tech God's work. A few highlights below; click through for the full survey.
How To: Quickly force quit any program in Windows
Programs aren't perfect. Either are operating systems. And when one or the other (possibly both) aren't working as expected, your program may freeze up and become unresponsive. If this happens to you in Windows frequently, you need to know how to force quit the application, so you can restart it and get back to work.
How to Make a Zelda: Wind Walker playercard emblem in Call of Duty: Black Ops
Interested in using cartoon Link from Wind Walker as your Black Ops playercard emblem? This tutorial presents a complete, step-by-step walkthrough of how to draw it in the Black Ops Emblem Editor.
How To: Make a Real Madrid Football playercard emblem in Call of Duty: Black Ops
Interested in using the Real Madrid logo as your Black Ops playercard emblem? This tutorial presents a complete, step-by-step walkthrough of how to draw it in the Black Ops Emblem Editor, bowtie & all.
How To: Repair a 64-Bit Windows 7 PC That Installed the AVG Anti-Virus Update (3292)
Antivirus programs usually aim to prevent malicious software from crashing your system, not ARE malicious software that crashes your system. Except, that was the case with AVG Anti-Virus yesterday when they released a software update that rendered 64-Bit Windows 7 systems useless. It affected both free and paid AVG owners.
How To: Use application multitasking in Apple's iOS 4.2 mobile operating system
Learn how to multitask when running iOS 4.2 or 4.2.1! The 4.2 release of Apple's iOS 4 mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch brings with it a host of new features. While that's certainly a cause for celebration, there's also, believe it or not, a downside: learning how to take advantage of them. Happily, the web is awash in helpful video tutorials like this one which make the process a pleasure (and a simple one at that).
How To: Drag a file from a maximized window to your desktop on a Windows 7 PC
Now here's a useful trick! Ever had to make an application window smaller just to drag something to your Windows desktop? No more! In Windows 7, you can drag files directly to the Show Desktop button in the Windows taskbar.
How To: Free up disk space on your Windows PC by deleting hidden temp files
Scratching your head trying to figure out where all of your hard disk space went? Quite a lot of it might be tied up storying temporary files that you don't really need. In this home-computing how-to, the Tekzilla team will teach you how to delete those temp files and free up HD space.
How To: Batch delete files by date on a Microsoft Windows 7 PC
Ever wished there were an easy way to delete files according to when they were last opened? Well, there is. And it's called Delete Files by Date. This home-computing how-to from the team at Tekzilla has got the scoop. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look!
How To: Quick look at files in full screen on a Mac
Apple has always been better at GUI design than Microsoft, and the useful features in Mac OS are nearly limitless. Watch this video to learn how you can not only quick-view files in the Finder in a window, but also in full screen with one extra keystroke.
How To: Diagnose a hard drive problem and choose the right data recovery service
Most of the most important information in the world is stored on computers, and if your part of it gets deleted in some way you're probably in trouble. There are lots of data recovery options out there, and this video will show you how to figure out what sort you need for your hard drive / data storage problem.
How To: Shutdown and reboot with a right-click on Windows
Shut down your Windows PC from the context menu! This home-computing how-to will show you how it's done. For all of the details, including step-by-step instructions, and to get started using this time-saving shutdown trick yourself, watch this video tutorial.
How To: Clean your laptop's keyboard by removing the keys
In this video DavidDaGeek shows how to clean your keyboard by removing your keys, but to be careful when doing this. Put your finger underneath a key and just pull it off. Don't break the piece that holds the key in place though! he starts at the shift key and works to the left with the ? being next. Then remove the hair or dust with your fingers. Don't remove them all at once because you might forget what order they go in. To put the key back in, put it in its spot, and click it back in. You...
How To: Find an operating system's original install date
In this video from MegaByteTV we learn how to find your operating system's original install date and time. This is for XP Pro only. To find it, go to the Start menu, then click Run. Once there, type in cmd and click OK. A black box will come up showing that you are in cmd. Then paste the following into the cmd box: systeminfo | find /i "install date" The original install date will then come up on your screen along with the original install time as well on that date. This is a very simple proc...
How To: Speed up Ubuntu using the Preload program
This video tutorial is in the Computers & Programming category which will show you how to speed up Ubuntu using the Preload program. Preload will speed up your computer by learning the way you use your computer and preload the programs you use the most to your RAM. This will not take up too much space on your RAM. Go to the Synaptic package manager and search for preload. Download and install the program. The program may take a couple of days to learn how you use your computer. Once it does t...
How To: Keep your Windows desktop clean
In this video from MegaByteTV we learn how to keep your Windows desktop clean. He keeps only 3 icons on his desktop. Have a master folder. Put all of your most used things in there. Also use something called RockDock as he says in the video. In the dock, you can then expand and see all of your files in your master folder. This is neat and organized way to keep your desktop free from clutter. It also opens up your desktop to have a nice background image which you can select yourself. At the ma...
How To: Password protect a file or folder on Microsoft Vista
Various ways to password protect a file or folder using Microsoft Vista are shown in this video. The first step is to choose a file you want to add a password to. After you decide on the file you wish to protect you must right click and select add to archive using Win Rar. After the file has been opened using Win Rar you can then select the add password option to begin encrypting the folder. After you type in the password of your choice you must select ok to finish attaching the password. Onc...
How To: Clean your Mac computer keyboard
In this video, we learn how to clean your Mac computer keyboard. You will need to have iKlear and iClean to do this, along with a microfiber cloth. To start, you will take off the tops to each of the keys one by one. After you remove one, you will place the cloth over the top of it and then spray it. From here, you will clean the key off and then replace it back on the keyboard. After this, repeat for each of the keys until you have cleaned the entire keyboard. Give it one final wipe and then...
How To: Use the copy and paste functions on a Mac or PC
In this video 2 people show you copy and paste functions on a Mac and a PC. On the PC, the girl copies a paragraph of text on a web page by highlighting it, right clicking, and selecting copy. Then she opens up a TextEdit program and pastes it into there and saves it. On a Mac, just like the PC, he highlights the paragraph, but this time he drags the highlighted portion right to the desktop. This will automatically create a file right on your desktop. If you open it up, it will open up in a t...
How To: Set up & connect an external hard drive to your Mac
In this video from AppleGenius0921 he shows us how to connect and set up a Rocport 9CX external hard drive to your Mac. You can connect with 800 or 400 firewire. Take the 800 firewire cord and connect it from the hard drive to the Mac firewire port. Now the Rokport will power up with a blue light and will pop up on the screen. To format it or change any settings, open disk utility, select your hard drive, go to Rocport, click partition, and click apply to settings.
How To: Create a fax through email using 2003 server & Outlook
The first step to create a fax using Outlook 2003 and 2003 server. Using add/remove windows component make sure your fax equipment is properly installed. Under the start menu select the printers and fax option and select the share option. Then under administrator tools/users/new/users/fax to enter your password to turn our fax information transfer on. You must now select fax user and select advanced settings and double check to make sure the fax is able to see the object it needs to send the ...
How To: Fix the VAIO SZ spacebar
In this video, we learn how to fix the VAIO SZ space bar. First, gently lift up on the space bar until the top is removed from the bottom of the board. After this, take a scrap piece of paper and place it underneath the middle of the metal that's on the space bar. After this, click the bar back into place on the keyboard. Now, test out the space bar to see if it works! It should be working without any problems now. If you do experience more problems, just repeat this same procedure and you wi...
How To: Fix a computer that has no sound
This video explains how to diagnose and fix issues involving having no sound on your computer. How to figure out if you have on board sound or a sound board is shown based on how the audio plugs are positioned on the back of the computer. The narrator explains the importance of checking your speakers using an iPod to make sure the speakers are in working condition. The next trouble shooting technique shown is to go into control panel/device manager. Using device manager make sure your audio d...
How To: Clean dust & dirt from your desktop computer
In this tutorial, we learn how to clean dust & dirt from your desktop computer. First, take the front panel off of the tower and then clean the area around the fan off as well. Use a vacuum cleaner to suck the dirt out but make sure not to touch the surface on the system. On the inside you can use cotton swabs and wash cloths that are slightly damp. You can also use a small straw and remove the dirt and dust from the fan and the areas around it. When finished, your computer should be running ...
How To: Import unsupported video into iMovie with MacMost
In this video from macmostvideo we learn how to import unsupported video in iMovie. This happens sometimes when you buy a camera that is not compatible with iMovie. You can add certain video formats to your Mac to make your Mac understand these video formats that don't work with your iMovie. A common one is called mpeg2. You can get this trough Apple. In other cases you get the software with the camera. If you need to convert a video file, try to open it through QuickTime first. If that works...
How To: Wash your keyboard
In this video from Defcon Computers we learn how to clean your computer keyboard. You can use cans of air, or take off your keys. But in this video we learn how to actually clean the keys themselves. With the computer off, put Windex on a paper towel, and rub the key. Put more Windex on your paper towel and continue to rub the keys. Rub them individually and also clean the spaces in between the keys with the paper towel. Again, make sure your computer is off or else you'll get all sorts of er...
How To: Identify your system specifications in Windows XP
In this video from exosploit we learn how to find your system specs in Windows XP. If someone is trying to help your computer, you might need this information. Right click My Computer, and click Properties. Here you'll see your operating system, service pack, and how much RAM you have. Also google cpuz. Go to the first link and download it. Extract it and click the main file. Here it will tell you your processor, mother board, what bios version you have, how much RAM you have, and it will tel...