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Search found 2020 results on 81 pages for 'jason mckenna'.

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• What You Said: How You Organize a Messy Music Collection

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your tips, tricks, and tools, for managing a messy music collection. Now we’re back to share so great reader tips; read on to find ways to tame your mountain of music. Several readers were, despite having tried various techniques over the years, fans of doing things largely the manual way. Aurora900 explains: I spent a weekend sorting everything myself once. Took a while, but now I have folders sorted by artist, and within the artist folders are folders for their albums. With my collection at about 260gb, it can be a daunting task, but it’s well worth it in the end. I don’t have the tagging issue as I make sure anything I have is properly tagged to begin with… If I’m ripping a CD I use Easy CD-DA Extractor, which automatically searches a database on the internet for the tags. If I’m downloading something, if its from a reputable source its going to be properly tagged already. Bilbo Baggins would love to automate, but eclectic music tastes make it hard: How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 3 How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2

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• Ask HTG: Installing XBMC Add-Ons, Shrinking Videos for Mobile Playback, Automatically Changing the Default Printer

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  It’s that Ask HTG time of week again; this week we’re helping readers install XBMC add-ons, shrinking video for their mobile devices, and automatically changing default printers for their new location. How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2 How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows?

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• Hack an Old Hardcover Book into a Reading Light

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re looking for a clever way to conceal a reading lamp on your bedside table, this hardcover-to-book-light conversion is just the ticket. For this project you’ll be hollowing out a hardcover book and replacing the guts with a wooden frame and a strip of cool-running and efficient LED lights. You’ll need some very basic wood working and soldering skills and an afternoon or two (mostly consumed, as the author notes, by waiting for glue to dry). Check out the video below to see the full build: Hit up the link below for a full parts list and additional building tips. How To: Not Your Ordinary Book Light [Grathio via Neatorama] How To Recover After Your Email Password Is CompromisedHow to Clean Your Filthy Keyboard in the Dishwasher (Without Ruining it)Learn How to Make HDR Images in Photoshop or GIMP With a Simple Trick

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• Turn Your Browser Pane into a Game of Katamari Damacy

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re a fan of Katamari Damacy, a quirky and fun Japanese puzzle game made popular on the PlayStation, you’ll love this Javas script hack that turns your browser pane and its contents into a giant HTML-collecting game of Katamari Damacy. Katamari Damacy, for the unfamiliar, is a addictive game based on the premise that a galactic prince is on a mission to rebuild stars, constellations, and moons accidentally destroyed by his father. You roll around and collect objects (making yourself an increasingly larger ball in the process). This script hack puts a ball on your web browser pane (works best in Chrome) that you can roll around collecting elements from the web page. At first you can only grab links but as you grow you can grab increasingly large objects like photo elements off the page. It doesn’t have the sophisticated graphics of the Playstation version, of course, nor the detailed back story, but it’s a clever little hack that is sure to delight fans of Katamari Damacy. Katamari Hack [KatHack] Internet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To KnowHTG Explains: How Does Email Work?How To Make a Youtube Video Into an Animated GIF

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• Oracle as a Service in the Cloud

  - by Jason Williamson

  This should really be a Tweet, but I guess I'm writing a bit more. In theme of data migration and legacy modernization, I am seeing more and more of a push to consolidate data sources, especially from non-oracle to oracle in an effort to save dollars. From a modernization perspective, this fits in quite well. We are able to migrate things like Terradata, Sybase and DB2 and put that all into an Oracle database and then provide that as a OaaS (Oracle as a Service) Cloud offering. This seems to be a growing trend, and not unlike the cool RDS Amazon Database cloud being built on Oracle as well. We again find ourselves back in the similar theme of migration, however. The target technology sounds like a winner (COBOL to Java/SOA...DB2/Datacom/Adabas to Oracle) but the age-old problem of how to get there still persists. It it not trivial to migrate large amounts of pre-relational or "devolved" relational data. To do this, we again must revert back to a tight roadmap to migration and leverage the growing tools and services that we have. I'm working on a couple of new sections and chapters for a book that Tom and Prakash and I are writing around Database Migration and Consolidation. I'll share some snipits shortly.

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• Add Custom Color Changing RGB LED Lighting to Your Next Project

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  While this specific project is a really neat back-lit bookcase with customizable LED lights galore, you could easily add the exact same setup to just about anything you wanted to give some LED love. The core of the project is a set of addressable LED modules, an Arduino board, and a simple bit of code. You could use it to make a 70s style mood lighting box, add color changing accents to your media room, or any other number of fun projects just by cloning this project and extending/shortening the wires where appropriate. The control module allows for solid colors, multi-colors, and animations. Hit up the link below for more information including the source code. ExpeditInvaders [via IKEAHacker] 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 HTG Explains: Why Do Hard Drives Show the Wrong Capacity in Windows?

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• How can I programmatically change the keyboard layout?

  - by Jason R. Coombs

  I want to run a shell command or script that will configure each of my Ubuntu Precise boxes to use the Dvorak keyboard layout as the default (and only) layout. With earlier versions, I was able to set the XKBVARIANT in /etc/default/keyboard but when I make this change in Precise (and reboot), the keyboard layout appears to be unaffected (both in console and in gnome). I tried also setting the XKBMODEL to pc105 and XKBLAYOUT to us, but that did not seem to help. I know I can set the layout for gnome using the 'keyboard layout' tool... but I want the change to affect the console, and I want to automate the process. How can I accomplish this? Edit: To clarify, I want to know how I can cause to change (using only a script or command-line) the keyboard layout to be Dvorak as the default and only keyboard layout for both Gnome and the console. I want this change to be persistent (survive reboots), just as it is when the change is made through the Keyboard Layout tool. Edit: Let me put it another way. If I had installed the operating system myself (which I did not because the OS was installed by the virtual machine infrastructure), I could have selected the desired keyboard layout at install time, and that layout would be applied persistently, system-wide. How can I change the layout to appear as if I had set it during the install process?

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• 9 Gigapixel Photo Captures 84 Million Stars

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The European Southern Observatory has released an absolutely enormous picture of the center of the Milky Way captured by their VISTA telescope–the image is 9 gigapixels and captures over 84 million stars. From the press release: The large mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive infrared detectors of ESO’s 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) make it by far the best tool for this job. The team of astronomers is using data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea programme (VVV), one of six public surveys carried out with VISTA. The data have been used to create a monumental 108 200 by 81 500 pixel colour image containing nearly nine billion pixels. This is one of the biggest astronomical images ever produced. The team has now used these data to compile the largest catalogue of the central concentration of stars in the Milky Way ever created. Want to check out all 9 billion glorious pixels in their uncompressed state? Be prepared to wait a bit, the uncompressed image is available for download but it weighs in at a massive 24.6GB. 84 Million Stars and Counting [via Wired] How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

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• Unshorten.it! Unpacks Shortened URLs and Provides Safety Rating

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Shortened URLs sure are convenient and compact but they hide the destination URL. Unshorten.it! is a free Chrome/Firefox extension that not only shows you the full URL but will even give you a safety rating–no need to click blindly again. Install the extension for Chrome or Firefox and then, when you come across a shortened URL, simply right click on it and click “Unshorten this link” to see both the unpacked URL and a safety rating provided by Web of Trust and HPHosts. Unshorten.it! is a free extension, available for both Chrome and Firefox. Unshorten.it! [via Gizmo's Freeware] 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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• Old Lock Retrofitted for Wireless and Key-free Entry

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  What do you do if the old key your landlord gave you is poor fit for your apartment’s lock? If you’re the geeky sort, you build a wireless unlocking module to do the work for you. Instructables user Rybitski writes: The key to my apartment never worked quite right because it is a copy of a copy of a copy. I am fairly certain that the dead bolt is original to the building and the property manager seems to have lost the original key years ago. As a result unlocking the door was always a pain. Changing the lock wasn’t an option, but eliminating the need to use a key was. To that end, he built the device seen in the video above. An Arduino Uno drives a servo which in turn opens the deadbolt. The whole thing is controlled by a simple wireless key fob. Hit up the link below for the full build guide including code. Key Fob Deadbolt [via Hack A Day] 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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• From the Tips Box: Quick File Renaming in Windows 7, Fast Access to Web Sites on Android, and GPS-based Todo Lists

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some reader tips and share them with the greater How-To Geek audience. This week we’re looking at speedy file renaming in Windows 7, fast access to bookmarks in Android, and a neat GPS-based todo list. 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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• Ask the Readers: How Do You Score Free Wi-Fi While Traveling?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The holiday season is in full swing and that means many of us will be traveling–and searching for Wi-Fi nodes in the process. Help your fellow readers out by sharing your best Wi-Fi finding tips and tricks. Internet access is a necessity for the modern traveler but finding it is a bit more difficult than simply plugging into your home Wi-Fi. This week we want to hear all about your tips, tricks, and methods for scoring free Wi-Fi service in your interstate (and even international) travels. How do you keep the bounty of the internet flowing to your laptops, netbooks, tablets, and smart phones as you traverse the world? Sound off in the comments with your best tips and then check back on Friday for the What You Said roundup. HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

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• DIY Halloween Decoration Uses Simple Silohuettes

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  While many of the Halloween decorating tricks we’ve shared over the years involve lots of wire, LEDs, and electronic guts, this one is thoroughly analog (and easy to put together). A simple set of silhouettes can cheaply and quickly transform the front of your house. Courtesy of Matt over at GeekDad, the transformation is easy to pull off. He explains: It’s really just about as simple as you could hope for. The materials needed are: black posterboard or black-painted cardboard; colored cellophane or tissue paper; and tape. The only tools needed are: measuring tape; some sort of drawing implement — chalk works really well; and scissors and/or X-Acto knife. And while you need some drawing talent, the scale is big enough and the need for precision little enough that you don’t need that much. For a more thorough rundown of the steps hit up the link below or hit up Google Images to find some monster silhouette inspiration. Window Monsters [Geek Dad] How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

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• AllSparkCube Packs 4,096 LEDs into a Giant Computer Controlled Display

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  LED matrix cubes are nothing new, but this 16x16x16 monster towers over the tiny 4x4x4 desktop variety. Check out the video to see it in action. Sound warning: the music starts off very loud and bass-filled; we’d recommend turning down the speakers if you’re watching from your cube. So what compels someone to build a giant LED cube driven by over a dozen Arduino shields? If you’re the employees at Adaptive Computing, you do it to dazzles crowds and show off your organizational skills: Every time I talk about the All Spark Cube people ask “so what does it do?” The features of the All Spark are the reason it was built and sponsored by Adaptive Computing. The Cube was built to catch peoples’ attention and to demonstrate how Adaptive can take a chaotic mess and inject order, structure and efficiency. We wrote several examples of how the All Spark Cube can demonstrate the effectiveness of a complex data center. If you’re interested in building a monster of your own, hit up the link below for more information, schematics, and videos. How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer

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• The Truth About Wi-Fi Signal Strength

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Whether it’s the structural layout of your home or just ghosts in the machine, we’re all familiar with inexplicable Wi-Fi dead spots. One extra puzzling situation, unseen in the comic here, is when the addition of another wireless node actually causes issues with your Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s nothing more frustrating than having twice the Wi-Fi node power and half the actual signal at your laptop. If you’re looking to extend your Wi-Fi network coverage headache free, check out our guides to doing so with Tomato-powered routers and DD-WRT-powered routers. Your Wireless Internet Signal Strength [via FailDesk] How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode

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• The Most Ridiculous Computer Cameos of All Time

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  For the last half century computers have played all sorts of major and minor roles in movies; check out this collection to see some of the more quirky and out-of-place appearances. Wired magazine rounds up some of the more oddball appearances of computers in film. Like, for example, the scene shown above from Soylent Green: Spoiler alert: Soylent Green is people! But that’s not the only thing we’re gonna spoil. Soylent Green is set in 2022, and at one point, you’ll notice that a government facility is still using a remote calculator that plugs into the CDC 6600, a machine that was state-of-the-art in 1971. Come to think of it, we should scratch this from the list. This is pretty close to completely accurate. Hit up the link below to check out the full gallery, including a really interesting bit about how the U.S. Government’s largest computer project–once decommissioned and sold as surplus–ended up on the sets of dozens of movies and television shows. The Most Wonderfully Ridiculous Movie Computers of All Time [Wired] 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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• Scrollbars: A Retrospective

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  It’s easy to overlook the humble scrollbar, a much used but hardly thought about user interface element. This graphic compares scrollbars over the last thirty years. Some of the more modern Windows incarnations are missing but, on account of the Vista/Windows 7 scrollbar looking pretty much like a gray version of the XP one, we’ll forgive them. A full resolution version of the image is available at the link below. Scollbars Through History [via Geeks Are Sexy] 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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• Ask the Readers: Have You Cut the Cable Cord?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The proliferation of streaming services and diverse media content has made cutting the cable cord an appetizing option for many people. Have you cut the cord, stuck with traditional services, or mixed the two together? It’s easier than ever to ditch the cable subscription and still keep watching your favorite TV shows and movies (but still tricky to catch live events and television without a cable subscription). This week we’re interested in hearing all about your media arrangements: Do you have a traditional cable bundle? Ditched it for a Netflix-only experience? Pay for both because you just can’t get enough of live TV and streaming content? Sounds off in the comments with the state of your media setup, the more detailed the better, and then check back in on Friday for the What You Said roundup. 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7 HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

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• Case convention- Why the variation between languages?

  - by Jason

  Coming from a Java background, I'm very used to camelCase. When writing C, using the underscore wasn't a big adjustment, since it was only used sparingly when writing simple Unix apps. In the meantime, I stuck with camelCase as my style, as did most of the class. However, now that I'm teaching myself C# in preparation for my upcoming Usability Design class in the fall, the PascalCase convention of the language is really tripping me up and I'm having to rely on intellisense a great deal in order to make sure the correct API method is being used. To be honest, switching to the PascalCase layout hasn't quite sunk in the muscle memory just yet, and that is frustrating from my point of view. Since C# and Java are considered to be brother languages, as both are descended from C++, why the variation in the language conventions? Was it a personal decision by the creators based on their comfort level, or was it just to play mindgames with new introductees to the language?

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• Dropbox Doubles Referral Credit; Score 500MB for Each Friend You Refer

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Dropbox is doubling the amount of free storage you get per-referral to 500MB, doubling the previous 250MB credit–better yet, the bonus is retroactive and applies to referrals you’ve already made. From the DropBox blog: How much space is that, exactly? For every friend you invite that installs Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. If you’ve got a free account, you can invite up to 32 people for a whopping total of 16 GB of extra space. Pro accounts now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Have you already invited a bunch of people? Don’t worry. Within a few days, you’ll get full credit for every referral that’s already been completed. Boom! Hit up the link below for the full announcement. Dropbox Referrals Now Twice As Nice [Dropbox] How to Sync Your Media Across Your Entire House with XBMC How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2 How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1

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• Can Dungeons & Dragons Make You More Successful? [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Dungeons & Dragons gets a bit of a bad rap in popular culture, but in this video treatise from Idea Channel, they propose that Dungeons & Dragons wires players for success. There are some deeply ingrained stereotypes about Dungeons & Dragons, and those stereotypes usually begin and end with people shouting “NERD!!!” But the reality of the D&D universe is a whole lot more complex. Rather than being an escape from reality, D&D is actually a way to enhance some important real life skillz! It’s a chance to learn problem solving, visualization, interaction, organization, people management… the list could go on and on. Plus, there are some very famous non-nerds who have declared an affinity for D&D, so best stop criticizing and join in if you want to be a successful at the game of life. While we’re trying not to let our love of all things gaming cloud our judgement, we’re finding it difficult to disagree with the premise that open-ended play fosters creative and adaptive thinking. Can Dungeons & Dragons Make You A Confident & Successful Person? [via Boing Boing] 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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• What You Said: How You Share Your Photos

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite tips, tricks, and tools for sharing photos with friends and family. Now we’re back to highlight the ways HTG readers share their pics. Image available as wallpaper here. By far the most popular method of photo sharing was to upload the pictures to cloud-based storage. Many readers took advantage of sizable SkyDrive accounts. Dragonbite writes: I used to use PicasaWeb (uploaded from Shotwell) until I got the SkyDrive w/25 GB available. My imported pictures are automatically synchronized with SkyDrive and I then send out a link to whomever I want. I have another (desktop) computer where all of the pictures are stored from mine and my wife’s camera’s imports so if I need to free up some space on SkyDrive or my Windows 7 laptop, I double-check they are in the desktop computer before deleting them from my laptop (and thus from SkyDrive as well). I wish SkyDrive enabled some features like rotate, or searching by Tagged person. 8 Deadly Commands You Should Never Run on Linux 14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates

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• Happy Tau Day! (Or: How Some Mathematicians Think We Should Retire Pi) [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  When you were in school you learned all about Pi and its relationship to circles and turn-based geometry. Some mathematicians are rallying for a new lesson, on about Tau. Michael Hartl is a mathematician on a mission, a mission to get people away from using Pi and to start using Tau. His manifesto opens: Welcome to The Tau Manifesto. This manifesto is dedicated to one of the most important numbers in mathematics, perhaps the most important: the circle constant relating the circumference of a circle to its linear dimension. For millennia, the circle has been considered the most perfect of shapes, and the circle constant captures the geometry of the circle in a single number. Of course, the traditional choice of circle constant is p—but, as mathematician Bob Palais notes in his delightful article “p Is Wrong!”,1 p is wrong. It’s time to set things right. Why is Pi wrong? Among the arguments is that Tau is the ration of a circumference to the radius of a circle and defining circles by their radius is more natural and that Pi is a 2-factor number but with Tau everything is based of a single unit–three quarters of a turn around a Tau-defined circle is simply three quarters of a Tau radian. Watch the video above to see the Tau sequence (which begins 6.2831853071…) turned into a musical composition. For more information about Tau hit up the link below to read the manifesto. The Tau Manifesto [TauDay] HTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?

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• This Week in Geek History: YouTube goes Public, Blu-ray vs. HD DVD, and All Your Base Are Belong To Us

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Every week we bring you a snapshot of the current week in the history of technological and geeky endeavors. This week we’re taking a look at the birth of YouTube, the death of the HD DVD format, and the first mega meme. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC 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 Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

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• Cutting the Cable: The State of Internet-based TV [Infographic]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’ve been turning your cable box on less and watching more shows online, you’re certainly not alone. Check out this infographic look at the state of TV distribution in the digital age to see how everyone is getting their TV fix. People are watching more media online, less from traditional distribution channels, and in a more mobile and selective way than ever before. Hit up the link below to check out the full infographic with a shake down of how media consumption has shifted and who is jockeying for a slice of the consumers’ attention. Cutting the Cable: The State of Internet-based TV [Daily Infographic] How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHow to Create an Easy Pixel Art Avatar in Photoshop or GIMPInternet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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