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• Ask the Readers: Do You Use the Command Line?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Despite over two decades of GUI interfaces many power users still turn to the command prompt. This week we want to hear about when and how you use the command prompt on your computer. Long ago in a time before you could manipulate your computer with a mouse and a series of buttons and windows, the command line ruled all. Even after years of GUI development and refinement many people still turn to the command line to get things done. This week we want to hear all about your command line tips and tricks. Do you use the default command line for your OS? Have you enhanced it? Replaced it? What keeps you coming back to the command line when everyone happily works away in the OS’s GUI? Sound off in the comments and don’t forget to check back in on Friday to see the What You Said roundup. What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With DDNSHow To Recover After Your Email Password Is Compromised

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• Switch Gmail Icons Back to Text Labels

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If Gmail’s icon-based buttons annoy you, it’s now possible to switch them back to the old text labels with a simple settings toggle. At MakeUseOf they highlight the new option in Gmail and how you can switch back to the old button layout: So how do you make that happen? All you have to do is click on the cog button, choose “Settings”, and go to the the General tab. Scroll down to find the “Button labels” setting, and change it from icons to text. I know what I’ll be doing shortly; text-based button labels here I come. [via MakeUseOf] Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage Reader Request: How To Repair Blurry Photos HTG Explains: What Can You Find in an Email Header?

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• Ask HTG: LAN-to-LAN Messaging in Windows 7, Multi-Monitor Full Screen Video, and Alternative File Copiers

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we roundup some of the answers we’ve sent out to reader questions and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at inter-LAN messaging with Windows 7, multi-monitor full screen video, and alternative Windows file copiers. How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To HTG Explains: When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers? How to Make the Kindle Fire Silk Browser *Actually* Fast!

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• DIY Photo Rig Takes Laser-Triggered 3D Insect Photos

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  How do you catch a butterfly in flight and in 3D? You do it with this laser triggered photo rig. This it yourself monster is an absolute beauty of at-home engineering. It has dual focus planes, dual flashes, a laser trigger, and enough machined aluminum to make us wish we had a CNC out in the garage. If you’re one part photographer, one part electronics tinker, and one part machinist, this is the kind of weekend project that will cement you into neighborhood DIY lore. Hit up the link below for a full build guide and sample photos. High-Speed 3D Portable Macro Unit [via DIY Photography] How to Make the Kindle Fire Silk Browser *Actually* Fast! Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS

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• How to Use Your Android Phone as a Modem; No Rooting Required

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If your cellular provider’s mobile hotspot/tethering plans are too pricey, skip them and tether your phone to your computer without inflating your monthly bill. Read on to see how you can score free mobile internet. We recently received a letter from a How-To Geek reader, requesting help linking their Android phone to their laptop to avoid the highway robbery their cellular provider was insisting upon: Dear How-To Geek, I recently found out that my cellphone company charges $30 a month to use your smartphone as a data modem. That’s an outrageous price when I already pay an extra $15 a month charge just because they insist that because I have a smartphone I need a data plan because I’ll be using so much more data than other users. They expect me to pay what amounts to a $45 a month premium just to do some occasional surfing and email checking from the comfort of my laptop instead of the much smaller smartphone screen! Surely there is a work around? I’m running Windows 7 on my laptop and I have an Android phone running Android OS 2.2. Help! Sincerely, No Double Dipping! Well Double Dipping, this is a sentiment we can strongly related to as many of us on staff are in a similar situation. It’s absurd that so many companies charge you to use the data connection on the phone you’re already paying for. There is no difference in bandwidth usage if you stream Pandora to your phone or to your laptop, for example. Fortunately we have a solution for you. It’s not free-as-in-beer but it only costs $16 which, over the first year of use alone, will save you $344. Let’s get started! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Make Efficient Use of Tab Bar Space by Customizing Tab Width in Firefox See the Geeky Work Done Behind the Scenes to Add Sounds to Movies [Video] Use a Crayon to Enhance Engraved Lettering on Electronics Adult Swim Brings Their Programming Lineup to iOS Devices Feel the Chill of the South Atlantic with the Antarctica Theme for Windows 7 Seas0nPass Now Offers Untethered Apple TV Jailbreaking

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• That Physics of Coffee Rings [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The rings left behind by coffee cups are distinctly uniform in their distribution–the stain is always around the edge. This video from the University of Pennsylvania’s Physics Department demonstrates why. Check out the above video to see the physics behind the ring-shaped stains and how altering the shape of the particulate in the liquid completely changes the shape of the stain. The Coffee Ring Effect [via Neatorama] HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full

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• How to Identify Stuck Pixels and Remove Them from Your Digital Photos

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’ve noticed hotspots in your digital photos, areas where a stuck pixel in the camera’s sensor has rendered very bright spots of color that don’t belong in the image, you’re not alone. It’s an incredibly common phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with it. Read on as we discuss what distinguishes stuck pixels from other sensor defects and problems, how to identify it, and how to fix it both in-camera and out.Click Here to Continue Reading

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• Repurpose a Kobo Reader as a Weather Station

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Last month we showed you a clever hack that converted an old Kindle into a weather station; this new hack uses a Kobo ebook reader (cheaper hardware) and ditches the external server (less overhead). Even better, this new hack is simpler to deploy. You’ll need a Kobo unit, a free installer bundle courtesy of Kevin Short over at the MobileRead forums, and a few minutes to toggle on telnet access to your Kobo and run the installer. Hit up the link below to read more about the self-contained mod. Kobo Wi-Fi Weather Forecast [via Hack A Day] Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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• Little Wheel Is An Atmospheric and Engaging Point-and-Click Adventure

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re a fan of the resurgence of highly stylized and atmospheric adventure games–such as Spirit, World of Goo, and the like–you’ll definitely want to check out this well executed, free, and more than a little bit charming browser-based game. Little Wheel is set in a world of robots where, 10,000 years ago, a terrible accident at the central power plant left all the robots without power. The entire robot world went into a deep sleep and now, thanks to a freak lightning strike, one little robot has woken up. Your job, as that little robot, is to navigate the world of Little Wheel and help bring it back to life. Hit up the link below to play the game for free–the quality of the visual and audio design make going full screen and turning the speakers on a must. Little Wheel [via Freeware Genuis] How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless HTG Explains: What Is Two-Factor Authentication and Should I Be Using It? HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me?

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• Homebrewed Headphone Amp Shows Off DIY Resin Casting Process

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Although the guts of this DIY build are worth checking out in their own right, what really caught our eye was the beautiful resin cast case surrounding the build as it’s something that could be adapted to a wide variety of projects. Over at the electronics blog Runaway Brainz they were looking for a slick way to encase an amp project. Rather than go with a project box or similar construction, they did a resin pour and then sanded and polished the resulting encasement. The results are stunning and turn the electronic guts of the amp into a work of art. Freeform Headphone Amp [via Make] How to Stress Test the Hard Drives in Your PC or Server How To Customize Your Android Lock Screen with WidgetLocker The Best Free Portable Apps for Your Flash Drive Toolkit

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• Flame Experiments Aboard the ISS Yield Surprising Results

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Recent flame-based experiments aboard the International Space Station yielded results scientists simply thought couldn’t happen–combustion in microgravity is a curious thing. Smithsonian magazine reports on the findings: Here on Earth, when a flame burns, it heats the surrounding atmosphere, causing the air to expand and become less dense. The pull of gravity draws colder, denser air down to the base of the flame, displacing the hot air, which rises. This convection process feeds fresh oxygen to the fire, which burns until it runs out of fuel. The upward flow of air is what gives a flame its teardrop shape and causes it to flicker. But odd things happen in space, where gravity loses its grip on solids, liquids and gases. Without gravity, hot air expands but doesn’t move upward. The flame persists because of the diffusion of oxygen, with random oxygen molecules drifting into the fire. Absent the upward flow of hot air, fires in microgravity are dome-shaped or spherical—and sluggish, thanks to meager oxygen flow. “If you ignite a piece of paper in microgravity, the fire will just slowly creep along from one end to the other,” says Dietrich. “Astronauts are all very excited to do our experiments because space fires really do look quite alien.” Hit up the link below for the full article including how NASA is applying the findings. Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows

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• Why Does Chrome Have So Many Open Processes?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’ve ever taken a peek in Task Manager while running Google Chrome, you may have been surprised to see that the number of chrome.exe entries radically exceeded the number of actual Chrome windows you had open. What’s the deal with all those processes? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It HTG Explains: How Windows Uses The Task Scheduler for System Tasks

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• Repurpose a Wire Basket as a Game Controller Organizer

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re looking for an easy way to organize your console controllers, this simple repurposing hack turns an IKEA wire basket intended for managing cable clutter into a game controller stand. You won’t need a Dremel tool to install this hack; all you need to do to follow in the foot steps of IKEAHackers reader Leslie is to install a SIGNUM cable basket (or similar cable organizer) upside down so loom curves up instead of down. Instant wire cradle for your controllers (or possibly an open air charging station for your small electronics). Check out the link below for more details. Game Controller Management System [IKEAHackers] How To Make a Youtube Video Into an Animated GIFHTG Explains: What Are Character Encodings and How Do They Differ?How To Make Disposable Sleeves for Your In-Ear Monitors

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• LazyTruth Puts Fact Checks Email Forwards Right in Your Inbox

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you get a lot of forwards from well meaning relatives and want to instantly and effortlessly verify their content, LazyTruth is a Chrome extension that fact-checks forwarded emails in Gmail. It’s a rather novel concept: install LazyTruth and anytime you get a forwarded email you’re one click away from instant fact checking. LazyTruth checks keywords in the email against FactCheck.org and Politifiact (Snopes.com missing seems like a big oversight, hopefully they’ll be adding it soon). LazyTruth is currently Gmail/Chrome only. Hit up the link below to grab a copy. LazyTruth [via O'Reilly Radar] How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7

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• DIY Homemade Hybrid Rocket Engine [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Remember the guy with the cool DIY astronaut ice cream build? He’s back with a mini hybrid rocket engine that runs off oxygen and acrylic. I built a small rocket engine for demonstration purposes. The engine is built from a 2″ diameter acrylic rod through which I drilled a 0.5″ hole. The oxygen at 80 psi or less is passed through the hole and then is forced through a convergent-divergent nozzle at the tail end. The nozzle’s throat is about 0.25″ and expands to 0.625″. I lit the engine by inserting a burning cotton swab (with wooden stick) while a small amount of oxygen was flowing. The acrylic catches fire very easily in a pure oxygen environment. The engine can be throttled and shut off completely, which is a major benefit to hybrid engine designs. Solid-fuel rockets cannot be throttled or shut off, which makes them difficult to control. [via Make] HTG Explains: What is the Windows Page File and Should You Disable It? How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference How To Troubleshoot Internet Connection Problems

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• Repurpose Old Phones As Intercoms

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’ve got some old wired telephones laying around for want of a project, this simple hack turns two wired phones into an intercom. Over at Hack A Day, Caleb Kraft shares his simple phone hack inspired by his VW bus. He writes: In case you haven’t noticed from my many comments on the subject, I drive a VW bus. It is a 1976 Westfalia camper with sage green paint and green plaid upholstery. I absolutely love it and so does the rest of my family. We go for drives in the country as well as camping regularly. We have found that the kids have a hard time communicating with us while we’re going higher speeds. These things aren’t the quietest automobiles in the world. Pushing this bread loaf shaped hunk of steel down the road with an engine that might top out at 75hp results in wind noise, engine noise, and of course, vibration. I decided to employ a really old hack to put two functional telephones in the bus so my kids can talk to my wife (or whoever the passenger is) without screaming quite so loud. This hack is extremely easy, fairly cheap, and can be done in just a few minutes. The result is a functional intercom that you could use pretty much anywhere! For more pics of his setup (and a neat video of his rather retro ride), check out the link below. Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It? HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It

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• What You Said: Your Favorite Windows Customization Tricks

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite Windows customization tricks and now we’re back to highlight some of the tips, tricks, and tweaks you shared. Your customization tips ranged from cosmetic to behind the scenes tweaks and offered a wide variety of ways to customize the Windows experience. Ted Lilley’s favorite must-have tweak involves Windows Explorer: The most fundamental change I make to Windows 7 is to immediately add tabs to Explorer via the QTTabbar add-on. I also add the good old cut/copy/paste/delete/new folder buttons alongside the tabs by installing Classic Shell (I skip Classic Start). Robin sets up virtual desktops: How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

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• Full-Scale Star Trek Props Recreated in LEGO

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Is there a finer way to immortalize your love for one geeky thing than building it with another geeky thing? Flickr user Geeky Tom lives up to his name with these well done 1:1 Star Trek props crafted from LEGO bricks. Hit up the link below to check out the full gallery of phasers, tricorders, and more. LEGO Star Trek TOS [via Neatorama] How to Play Classic Arcade Games On Your PC How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8

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• Plastic Clamshell Packaging Voted Worse Design Ever

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  We’ve all been there: frustrated and trying free a new purchase from it’s plastic clamshell jail. You’re not alone, the packaging design has been voted the worst in history. In a poll at Quora, users voted on the absolute worst piece of design work they’d encountered. Overwhelmingly, they voted the annoying-to-open clamshell design to the top. The author of the top comment/entry, Anita Shillhorn writes: “Design should help solve problems” — clamshells are supposed to make it harder to steal small products and easier for employees to arrange on display — but this packaging, she says, makes new ones, such as time wasted, frustration, and the little nicks and scrapes people incur as they just try to get their damn lightbulb out. This is a product designed for the manufacturers and the retailers, not the end users. There is even a Wikipedia page devoted to “wrap rage,” “the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging.” Hit up the link below for more entries in their worst-design poll. Before you go, if you’ve got a great tip for getting goods out of the plastic shell they ship in, make sure to share it in the comments. What Is The Worst Piece of Design Ever Done? [via The Atlantic] HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It? HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It HTG Explains: Learn How Websites Are Tracking You Online

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• What You Said: Tools and Tricks for Scoring Great Deals Online

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite tools and tips for scoring great deals online. Now we’re back to showcase your money-saving techniques. Our Ask the Readers series gives you, the awesome How-To Geek reader, a chance to share your tips, trick, and technological know-how with your fellow readers right on the front page. Every week we ask a question and every week we round up your tips to share. This week we’re taking a look at your tips and tricks from What Tools Do You Use to Score Great Deals Online.HTG Explains: What Are Character Encodings and How Do They Differ?How To Make Disposable Sleeves for Your In-Ear MonitorsMacs Don’t Make You Creative! So Why Do Artists Really Love Apple?

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• From the Tips Box: iPad Interface Emulation for Windows, Easy Access iPhone Flashlight, and Kindle Collection Management

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some of the great reader tips to share. Today we’re looking at an iPad interface emulator for Windows, a fast-access flashlight app for the iPhone, and a Windows-based way to organize Kindle collections. Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive Follow How-To Geek on Google+

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• Your Brain by the Numbers [Infographic]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Your brain is a rather impressive piece of hardware; check out this infographic to see its specs laid out including power consumption, calculation speed, and more. Hit up the link below for the full resolution image. Your Brain by the Numbers [Scientific America] Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary

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• Dropbox Doubling the Storage of Their Pro Accounts Tonight Free of Charge

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re a Dropbox Pro user (or have been contemplating getting a Dropbox Pro account) today is your lucky day. Dropbox has overhauled their pricing structure, effectively doubling the storage capacity of their Pro account with nary a price increase in sight. Starting later today (keep an eye on the Dropbox Plans page for the change) the Pro 50GB and 100GB plans will shift to Pro 100GB and 200GB plans, doubling the amount of storage users enjoy without an increase in price. Hit up the link below for more info. New Dropbox Plans! [The Dropbox Blog] How to Play Classic Arcade Games On Your PC How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller On Your Windows PC Download the Official How-To Geek Trivia App for Windows 8

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• Play Updated Retro Arcade Games for Free Courtesy of Microsoft

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  As part of a promotion for Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft comissioned Atari to update several classic retro games from the arcade and the Atari consoles. Fortunately for those of us looking for a retro gaming fix, you can play the games in any HTML5-enabled browser. While game play is really smooth on most games there are a few little quirks that using Internet Explorer 10 does take care of. First, if you’re not on IE10, you’ll see a little advertisement before you begin playing each game. Second, some games call on some of the new touch/motion variable functionality built into IE10 for the Windows 8 tablet experience and they’ll stall out when they reach the point in the game they need to call that variable. That said, we played quite a few games without any hiccups at all. Hit up the link below to play classics like Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Pong, Super Breakout, and more. Atari IE10 Promo Gallery [Atari] HTG Explains: Why Do Hard Drives Show the Wrong Capacity in Windows? Java is Insecure and Awful, It’s Time to Disable It, and Here’s How What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For?

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• Why Are Dial-up Modems so Noisy?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Throughout the 1990s the majority of internet users began their session with the noisy handshake of a dial-up modem, but what exactly was all that electronic chatter about? Read on as we investigate one of the more iconic sounds of the burgeoning Internet age. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. While dial-up modem use might be down from the nearly 100% market saturation in the 1990s to only 10% of current US internet users, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting lives on in the memories of geeks everywhere. This week we’re taking a look at the technology behind the noisy process and what exactly was going on when you dialed in for your internet session. Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked HTG Explains: What is the Windows Page File and Should You Disable It? How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference

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