Computers & Programming Features

How To: Change your IP or MAC address

The video is about how to change the IP address. MAC address is the unique identifier a site of the most network adapters. MAC address is used to determine what IP address the computer will have and one way to change the IP address is by changing the MAC address. The method is only applicable for the windows systems and for the MAC systems you need to look at the link provided. In Windows in the start menu, type cmd in the run/search box, which will launch the command window. Type ipconfig/al...

How To: Remove the top case from a 15" MacBook Pro

Accidents will happen. This brief how-to will guide you through the process of removing your 15" MacBook Pro's top case (which contains both the keyboard and trackpad) quickly and efficiently without damaging any of the components, the first necessary step of any successful repair. This tutorial will also be of use to those who wish to learn more about the guts of their MacBooks without actually disassembling their computers.

How To: Format a memory card using a card reader and a Windows PC

Sometimes it's necessary to format your memory card in your mobile phone or digital camera, just like you need to format a hard drive, because of virus problems or slower speeds. This video will show you the steps to formatting (or reformatting) the SD memory card for a cell phone, using a memory card reader. You'll also get details about a write protect error that could happen.

HowTo: Properly Benchmark Your PC

Maximum PC posts a thorough guide on properly benchmarking your PC. For those not in the know, benchmarking is the process of "running a computer program, a set of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials against it." (Wikipedia)

How To: Launch applications with AppleScript

This is a short video tutorial on how to launch applications with AppleScript (Script Editor) for the Mac, and there's also a little bit about what to do with the applications after they're launched. You can instantaneously launch different Safari pages on Tiger and Leopard. There's no limit to what you can do, just watch and learn.

How To: See who is connected to a computer with netstat

Want to see whether your PC is being accessed by hackers? Netstat (network statistics) is a command-line tool that displays network connections (both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics. It is available on Unix, Unix-like, and Windows NT-based operating systems. This video tutorial presents a basic introduction to working with the netstat tool. Determine whether you've been hacked with this how-to.

How To: Recycle gold from old computer parts

Electronic waste is becoming more and more of a problem for the industrialized world, especially since most electronics are full of precious and rare-earth metals that should be recycled. Even gold! Enter this video. It will show you how you can use chemistry to strip the gold from your old computer and other electronic parts and, well, have more gold! Who doesn't want gold?

How To: Activate Windows 7 forever

In this video the instructor shows how to activate Windows 7 forever. There is a program called 7Loader that will activate your Windows forever without having to pay for anything. Download the program from the internet or from the link given in this video. After downloading it, scan it with your antivirus program to make sure that it is free of any virus. Now run the tool and on the screen pick your computer make. If you don't know your computer make, look for it in the control panel, as show...

How To: Set your mouse cursor to leave a trail on screen

See how you can make your mouse cursor leave a trail behind it. First, go to "Start" and then "Control Panel". Then go to "Printers" and "Other Hardware" and then "Mouse". A new window should pop up and you should go click on the "Pointer Options" and then select the length of the trail you want your cursor to leave behind. It's easy to set your mouse cursor to leave a trail on your computer screen.

How To: Find the IP address of a computer in Command Prompt

Now you can find your IP address if you need it and you don't know it, it very easy. Or if you have problem with a person on the internet, now you can discover who that person is. You can find her/his IP address and after that you can find her/his real name. But after you find the IP that you were looking for, you have to check if the person who own this computer is in your network, because if you want to find his/her name, the program works only if the owner is on your network. So if you are...

How To: Add a background to a CSS image container div

See how to add a background image to an CSS image container div with this handy hand-coder's guide. Whether you're using a fancy WYSIWYG (or what-you-see-is-what-you-get) page editor like Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 or a barebones text editor like Notepad, if you want to build websites, you'll need to have some understanding of HTML (for the structure of your web pages) and CSS (for their style). And this free coder's guide will get you started along that path.

How To: Restore desktop icons in Windows XP

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to restore the desktop icons in Windows XP. Begin by right-clicking on the desktop and select Properties. Then click on the Desktop tab and click on the Customize Desktop button. In the General tab, under Desktop Icons, users are able to check the 3 desktop icons to place onto the desktop. These 3 desktop icons are: My Documents, My Computer and My Network Places. Users are also able to change the icon or restore to default. When finished, click on OK...

How To: Create and call a simple web service in ASP.Net

In this video tutorial, Chris Pels will show how to create a web service in ASP.NET and then call the service from another ASP.NET web site. First, learn how to create an .asmx component which represents a web service in an ASP.NET web site. When creating the web service learn how to control several aspects of the web service functionality with web service attributes. Next, see how to test the web service in the Visual Studio web service test page. Then learn how ASP.NET allows many .NET data...