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• 52 Sci-Fi and Video-Game Weapons: Can You ID Them All?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Swords, blasters, shields, and more populate this visual roundup of sci-fi, comic book, video game, and pop culture weapons. Can you name them all? Hit up the link below for the full-resolution and closeup pictures. Famous Weapons [via Blastr] How To Use USB Drives With the Nexus 7 and Other Android Devices 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

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• Cleaning Up Online Games with Positive Enforcement

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Anyone who has played online multiplayer games, especially those focused on combat, can attest to how caustic other players can be. League of Legends creators are fighting that, rather successfully, with a positive-reinforcement honor system. The Mary Sue reports: Here’s the background: Six months ago, Riot established Team Player Behavior — affectionately called Team PB&J — a group of experts in psychology, neuroscience, and statistics (already, I am impressed). At the helm is Jeffrey Lin, better known as Dr. Lyte, Riot’s lead designer of social systems. As quoted in a recent article at Polygon: We want to show other companies and other games that it is possible to tackle player behavior, and with certain systems and game design tools, we can shape players to be more positive. Which brings us to the Honor system. Honor is a way for players to reward each other for good behavior. This is divvied up into four categories: Friendly, Helpful, Teamwork, and Honorable Opponent. At the end of a match, players can hand out points to those they deem worthy. These points are reflected on players’ profiles, but do not result in any in-game bonuses or rewards (though this may change in the future). All Honor does is show that you played nicely. 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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• 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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• What You Said: How You Find New Books

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your tips and tricks for finding fresh books to enjoy. Now we’re back with tips ranging from the old school to the digital. SJ highlights several of the most popular web-based tools for finding new books: Goodreads.com is quick and easy. Yournextread.com is fun and helps a lot. But I gotta be honest, Amazon’s suggestions are probably the most useful to me. TheFu suggests checking out award-winning lists and one rather quirky way to pick a good Sci-Fi book: For scifi, see Hugo winning books. Life is too short to read bad books. Sometimes that leads to an author with an entire series of books to enjoy. I really enjoy some of the scifi from the 40s and 50s. Wells stuff is always timeless too (and free). I’m less happy with Nebula winners–-different type of writers and not my personal taste. Secure Yourself by Using Two-Step Verification on These 16 Web Services How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot

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• Weekend Project: Build a Fireball Launcher

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  What’s more fun than playing with fire? Shooting it from your hands. Put on your robe and wizard hat, make a stop at the hardware store, and spend the weekend trying to convince your friends you’ve acquired supernatural powers. Over at MAKE Magazine, Joel Johnson explains the impetus for his project: A stalwart of close-quarter magicians for years, the electronic flash gun is a simple device: a battery-powered, hand-held ignitor that uses a “glo-plug” to light a bit of flash paper and cotton, shooting a fireball a few feet into the air. You can buy one from most magic shops for around $50, but if you build one on your own, you’ll not only save a few bucks, you’ll also learn how easy it is to add fire effects to almost any electronics project. (And what gadget couldn’t stand a little more spurting flame?) The parts list is minimal but the end effect is pretty fantastic. Hit up the link below for the full build guide, plenty of warnings, and a weekend project that’s sure to impress. 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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• Ad-Driven Apps Are Sucking Your Android Battery Dry

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Ads in free Android apps might be annoying but you probably never imagined they were radically draining your battery. New research from Purdue University and Microsoft highlight just how much ad-driven apps tank your battery life. What did they find? That poorly designed ad-modules in free ad-driven applications are terrible at conserving energy. In popular applications like Angry Birds and Free Chess 70% of the energy the application consumed was used to drive the ads. They also surveyed other applications and found that ad-driven apps weren’t alone in excessive battery use–the New York Times app, for example, spent 15% of its battery consumption on tracking and background tasks. Hit up the link below to read the full whitepaper for a more in depth look at the methodology and results. Fine Grained Energy Accounting on Smartphones with Eprof (PDF) [via ZDNet] 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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• What You Said: How You Sync and Organize Your Bookmarks

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite techniques for synchronizing and organizing your browser bookmarks. Now we’re back to highlight the most popular techniques, tricks, and services. By far and away, Xmarks was the most frequently mentioned service. For the unfamiliar, Xmarks is a bookmark syncing service that is packed with features. Not only does Xmarks sync bookmarks between browsers and/or computers it also supports iOS, Android, and BlackBerry (mobile integration requires an upgrade to the premium account). In addition to syncing the bookmarks it also integrates with your search results so you can see how other Xmarks users have ranked sites within your search results. Steve-O-Rama highlights one of the many benefits of Xmarks: Xmarks seems to do the job for me. I’ve got a handful of machines, each with three or four browsers; over the years, I’ve accumulated thousands of bookmarks, stretching across many areas of interest. Trying to keep them all straight had been quite a struggle until Xmarks came along. I freaked out when the company was acquired by LastPass, but was subsequently relieved when they continued the free service. Xmarks has a very nice web interface to access, export, search, organize, and do many other things with your bookmarks. In this way, even if I’m on the go, I can access every bookmark I’ve made. Even so, I still make occasional local backups, directly from the browsers to a network folder. Delicious bookmarks, another veteran of the bookmark syncing services, had a fair number of supporters among the HTG readership. 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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• Convert Your Workspace to Standing Height for $22

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’d love to try out a standing workstation but you don’t want to shell out $$$ to buy or build one, this simple $22 project will raise up your workspace surface on the cheap. All you need is a LACK side table, some shelf brackets, a shelf, and some screws. The side table goes on your desk, the monitors go on the side table, and the keyboard and mouse go on the shelf (mounted to the brackets that have been positioned at the perfect height for your forearms). Hit up the link below for more pictures, tips, and a downloadable build guide. IKEA Standing Desk for $22 [via Unpluggd] How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic 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?

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• From the Tips Box: Xbox Output on Two Screens, High Tech Halloween Props, and Old Flash Drives as Password Reset Disks

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some great reader tips and share them with everyone, this week we’re looking at outputting your Xbox 360 to two screens, spooky high-tech Halloween props, and recycling old flash drives as password reset disks. 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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• WouldISurviveANuke Assesses Your Distance From Nuclear War Strike Sites

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  WouldISurviveANuke is a morbid Google Maps mashup that plots out the effective radius of nuclear weapons on major metropolitan areas, your distance from them, and your chances of survival. Visit the site, plug in your zipcode, and set the parameters (how big of a nuclear weapon and how large the nearest target city needs to be) to find out if you’re in the blast radius. We plugged in a downtown address in Detroit, MI. The verdict? Neither we nor the cockroaches will be coming out alive. If you plug in a location far enough away from the direct blast radius you’ll also get a quality of life report that spells out the effects of a local nuclear strike. As far as startling anti-nuclear proliferation arguments go, WouldISurviveANuke is an effective and interactive demonstration. Hit up the link below to try it out. WouldISurviveANuke [via Y! Tech] How to Run Android Apps on Your Desktop the Easy Way HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC? Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone

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• Unity Player Controls Streaming Music Services From Chrome Toolbar

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Chrome: If you’re a frequent Pandora, Grooveshark, or other popular streaming music station listener, Unity Player puts play control and song info on the Chrome Toolbar. Rather than sending you digging through your tabs to find the window with Pandora–or Google Music, Grooveshark, 8Tracks, Hypemachine, or any of the other dozen supported services–Unity Player pulls up a one-click control panel for easy pause/play, skip, and access to other service features like thumbs up/down flagging. Unity Player is free, works wherever Chrome does. Unity Player [via Addictive Tips] 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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• The Birth and Life of a Disk Galaxy [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  In this video, rendered over a million CPU hours by the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA’s Ames Research Center, we see the birth and life of a massive disk galaxy. Computer Model Shows a Disk Galaxy’s Life History [via Geeks Are Sexy] HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8 How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

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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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• Chart Chooser Helps You Pick the Right Chart for the Job

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re not sure what kind of chart would best showcase the data you’re presenting, Chart Chooser makes short work of narrowing it down. Are you trying to showcase trends? Compare the composition of sets? Show distributions and trends together? By selecting what you’re trying to highlight, Chart Chooser automatically narrows the pool of chart types to show which would effectively achieve your end. Once you’ve narrowed it down to the chart type you want, you can even download an Excel template for that chart type and populate it with your own data. Hit up the link below to take it for a spin and grab some free templates. Chart Chooser [via Flowing Data] How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic 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?

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• Tornado Tracks Highlights 61 Years of Tornado Activity [Wallpaper]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  This eye catching image maps 61 years worth of storm data over the continental United States. It’s neat way to see the frequency and intensity of tornadoes and is available in wallpaper-friendly resolutions. John Nelson took 61 years of data from government sources like the NOAA and compiled the data into a visualization. You can read more about the methodology behind the image at the link below or jump right to Flickr to grab a high-res image for your desktop. Tornado Tracks [via Neatorama] 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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• The Dangers of Vertical Video; A Public Service Announcement [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  According to the puppets in this tongue-in-cheek PSA, you’d better start shooting your video in the right orientation or very bad things–potentially involving George Lucas–will come to pass. [via Mashable] HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization

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• Upgrade a Retro Corded Mouse with Wireless Bluetooth Connectivity

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If there’s a beloved retro mouse gathering dust in your office closet for want of wireless connectivity, this detailed tutorial will guide you through upgrading the guts to turn your corded mouse into a Bluetooth model. If you’re handy with a soldering iron and not afraid to hack apart the guts of a modern but inexpensive Bluetooth mouse, you should have no trouble digging right into this project. The end result is a modern mouse packed inside the casing of your old mouse–same old look and feel, brand new engine inside. Hit up the link below to check out the full tutorial. Retro Wireless Apple Mouse [via Lifehacker] 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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• How Security Products Are Made; An Interview with BitDefender

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Most of us use anti-virus and malware scanners, without giving the processes behind their construction and deployment much of a thought. Get an inside look at security product development with this BitDefender interview. Over at 7Tutorials they took a trip to the home offices of BitDefender for an interview with Catalin Co?oi–seen here–BitDefender’s Chief Security Researcher. While it’s notably BitDefender-centric, it’s also an interesting look at the methodology employed by a company specializing in virus/malware protection. Here’s an excerpt from the discussion about data gathering techniques: Honeypots are systems we distributed across our network, that act as victims. Their role is to look like vulnerable targets, which have valuable data on them. We monitor these honeypots continuously and collect all kinds of malware and information about black hat activities. Another thing we do, is broadcast fake e-mail addresses that are automatically collected by spammers from the Internet. Then, they use these addresses to distribute spam, malware or phishing e-mails. We collect all the messages we receive on these addresses, analyze them and extract the required data to update our products and keep our users secure and spam free. Hit up the link below for the full interview. How To Properly Scan a Photograph (And Get An Even Better Image) The HTG Guide to Hiding Your Data in a TrueCrypt Hidden Volume Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage

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• From the Tips Box: iPhone Sleep Monitors, Testing IR Remotes with a Camera, and Glowing Easter Eggs Redux

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some great reader tips and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at using your iPhone as a sleep monitor that wakes you at an optimum time, how to test your remote with a digital camera, and a clever way to craft glowing Easter eggs. 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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• The Future According to Films [Infographic]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Curious what the future will look like? According to movie directors, casting their lens towards the future of humanity, it’s quite a mixed bag. Check out this infographic timeline to check out the next 300,000 years of human evolution. A quick glance over the timeline shows a series of future where things can quickly go from the fun times to the end-of-the-world times. We’d like to, for example, live it up in the Futurama future of 3000 AD and not the Earth-gets-destroyed future of Titan A.E’s 3028. Hit up the link below for a high-res copy of the infographic. The Future According to Films [Tremulant Design via Geeks Are Sexy] HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed How to Run Android Apps on Your Desktop the Easy Way

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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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• What You Said: Your Favorite Remote Desktop Access Tools and Tips

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite remote desktop access tools and tips; now we’re back to highlight your favorite tools and how you use them. The two prevailing themes among all the tools suggested were pricing and ease of deployment. On that front, LogMeIn had a strong following. Mtech writes: I use Logmein and am amazed the free version can be used even for business purposes. I also felt so bad and wanted to pay for the Pro version just out of gratitude but they called me personally from the USA and said why pay when the free version does all you need! What a company. 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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• 50 Years of Space Exploration [Infographic]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  We’ve sent over 200 missions out into space to check out the Moon, the Sun, planets, and more. Curious where they all went? Check out this awesome infographic to trace the launches to their destination. The infographic includes all international missions including visits to the Sun, observation orbits around the Earth, the Moon, other planets in our solar system, visits to asteroids, and the adventures of deep space probes like Voyager 1. The official image at National Geographic is trapped inside a clunky viewfinder style image viewer. If you want to look at the whole thing more comfortably or use it for desktop wallpaper, make sure to visit the full size image at Simple Complexity here. 50 Years of Exploration [National Geographic via Simple Complexity] How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHTG Explains: What’s the Difference Between the Windows 7 HomeGroups and XP-style Networking?Internet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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• Super Secret Door Top Stash Hides Your Flash Drive and Cash [DIY]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Everyone needs a bit of spy-guy fun in their lives (or at least a way to hide your Sailor Moon photo collection from everyone). This clever and extremely well hidden DIY stash puts your contraband inside a door. At Make Projects, the user-contributed project blog at Make magazine, Sean Michael Ragan shares a really stealthy way to hide stuff–stashing it inside the top of the door stop. You’ll need some power tools like a drill, files, and a countersink, as well as a cigar tube for the body of your hidden drop. When you’re done you’ll have an extremely well hidden stash in a place that next to nobody would think to look–inside the top of a door. Hit up the link for a picture-filled step-by-step guide to building your own stash. Door Top Stash [Make Projects] 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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• How Fiber Optic Cables Are Made and Laid Across the Sea [Science]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  We don’t know about you but yesterday’s video about how fiber optic cables work just made us more curious. Check out how the cables are made and laid across the sea. In the above video we see how fiber optic strands are manufactured, including how the draw tower mentioned in yesterday’s video works. Once the strands are manufactured, where do they go and how are they used? In the video below we see Alcatel-Lucent’s Ile de Sein, one of the largest and most powerful cable laying ships in the world. Check out the video to see cable storage wells that look like small stadiums. Finding out how the cables are made and what kind of planning and machinery it takes to lay them across the ocean is just as interesting as how they work. How It’s Made: Fiber Optics [YouTube] Undersea Cable [YouTube] 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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