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  • Windows 7 'All Programs' folders self-close on right-click

    - by Madmanguruman
    Odd issue on my Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) system. If I click on the Start 'orb' then navigate to 'All Programs', then navigate to any of the folders that appear at the bottom of the list (like Accessories) and left-click, the folder contents expand with no issue. If I right-click, the context menu appears for half-a-second or so, then the popup goes away and the entire start menu dismisses. I'm not sure how to debug this issue - I'm considering using Autoruns to try and disable things hooked into the shell one-by-one. Is there a way to use a tool like Process Explorer to narrow down the process that's actually dismissing the menus?

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  • Windows Server R2 Task Scheduler - Open Programs On Startup

    - by Markive
    I want Fiddler and some other programs to run on startup, so it's there and running every time I bring up an instance of my test server on EC2. There's a few questions about running scripts on Startup with Task Scheduler, but this needs to work slightly differently. I have set this up to run on startup but when I RDP into the server I can see Fiddler is running in Task Manager (so I can't manually run a second instance of the program), but it's not viewable on the task bar? So I can't actually see the interface? Here's my setup: General Tab Running with highest privileges Run whether user is logged on or not Configure for Windows 2008 server R2 Triggers Tab At startup Others are obvious and defaults.. What am I doing wrong?

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  • Almost all of my programs arn't recognized anymore.

    - by alaster
    I had a virus on my computer and was able to remove it, however, now almost all of my programs won't work. Even trying to open freecell pulls up the "select a software to run this in" window. I can't even install software anymore because after downloading a setup file and clicking on it, it too opens the "choose a program to run this in" window. I'm trying to find a way to fix without reinstalling the OS. Does anyone know a way to restore the file/files that are missing that are causing this problem without starting over?

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  • Smart Auto-completion in SVN (and other programs!)

    - by Jimmy
    When I type "svn add path/to/somefile..." and tab to autocomplete, the system should ONLY complete files/directories that are NOT under currently under SVN control. Likewise, when I commit, remove or resolve files, the tab completion should only complete files that are relevant to what I'm doing. This is especially important in SVN where I can waste thousands of keystrokes typing long path and file names, but it of applies to other programs. I know bash has a bash_completion file that can be used to programatically alter this behaviour but I've not found a decent example of SVN completion which actually completes file names rather than SVN command names. My question is: Does anyone have such a setup? Does anyone use a different shell or tool that does something similar? Has anyone given this any thought?

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  • Warning message during boot after installation of kernel 3.3: Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch

    - by Matus Frisik
    I have Ubuntu Server 11.10 and after installation of kernel 3.3 (I just followed instructions from site www.upbuntu.com - How To Install Linux 3.3 Kernel In Ubuntu 11.10/12.04) It shows me following message during boot: fsck from util-linux 2.19.1 fsck from util-linux 2.19.1 /dev/sda5: clean, 204099/1152816 files, 988854/4608639 blocks /dev/sda6: clean, 2345/1281120 files, 142711/5120710 blocks modem-manager[830]: ModemManager (version 0.5) starting... * Starting mDNS/DNS-SD daemon [154G[ OK ] * Starting CUPS printing spooler/server [154G[ OK ] * Starting Mount network filesystems [154G[ OK ] * Stopping Mount network filesystems [154G[ OK ] * Starting System V initialisation compatibility [154G[ OK ] * Stopping Failsafe Boot Delay [154G[ OK ] Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/bin.ping (/etc/apparmor.d/bin.ping line 28): profile /bin/ping network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/lightdm-guest-session (/etc/apparmor.d/lightdm-guest-session line 71): profile /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-guest-session-wrapper network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.dhclient (/etc/apparmor.d/sbin.dhclient line 73): profile /sbin/dhclient network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.klogd (/etc/apparmor.d/sbin.klogd line 35): profile /sbin/klogd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.syslog-ng (/etc/apparmor.d/sbin.syslog-ng line 52): profile /sbin/syslog-ng network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.syslogd (/etc/apparmor.d/sbin.syslogd line 40): profile /sbin/syslogd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser line 165): profile /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser line 165): profile browser_java network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.chromium-browser line 165): profile browser_openjdk network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince line 142): profile /usr/bin/evince network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince line 142): profile /usr/bin/evince-previewer network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince line 142): profile /usr/bin/evince-thumbnailer network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Skipping profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.bin.firefox Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.deliver (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.deliver line 24): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/deliver network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.dovecot-auth (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.dovecot-auth line 24): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/dovecot-auth network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.imap (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.imap line 23): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/imap network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.imap-login (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.imap-login line 22): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.managesieve-login (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.managesieve-login line 22): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/managesieve-login network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.pop3 (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.pop3 line 22): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.pop3-login (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.dovecot.pop3-login line 21): profile /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.telepathy (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.telepathy line 86): profile /usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5 network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.telepathy (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.lib.telepathy line 86): profile /usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-* network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.avahi-daemon (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.avahi-daemon line 30): profile /usr/sbin/avahi-daemon network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd line 170): profile /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf network rules not enforced Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd line 170): profile /usr/sbin/cupsd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.dnsmasq (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.dnsmasq line 51): profile /usr/sbin/dnsmasq network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.dovecot (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.dovecot line 37): profile /usr/sbin/dovecot network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.identd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.identd line 31): profile /usr/sbin/identd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mdnsd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mdnsd line 35): profile /usr/sbin/mdnsd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld line 44): profile /usr/sbin/mysqld network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.nmbd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.nmbd line 21): profile /usr/sbin/nmbd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.nscd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.nscd line 46): profile /usr/sbin/nscd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.smbd (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.smbd line 40): profile /usr/sbin/smbd network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.tcpdump (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.tcpdump line 64): profile /usr/sbin/tcpdump network rules not enforced Cache read/write disabled: /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/features interface file missing. (Kernel needs AppArmor 2.4 compatibility patch.) Warning from /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.traceroute (/etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.traceroute line 26): profile /usr/sbin/traceroute network rules not enforced * Starting AppArmor profiles [160G [154G[ OK ] speech-dispatcher disabled; edit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher Checking for running unattended-upgrades: What does this warnings mean and how can I fix it? Informations about my system: response@response:~$ uname -a Linux response 3.3.0-030300-generic #201203182135 SMP Mon Mar 19 01:43:18 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

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  • How to Force Graphics Options in PC Games with NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel Graphics

    - by Chris Hoffman
    PC games usually have built-in graphics options you can change. But you’re not limited to the options built into games — the graphics control panels bundled with graphics drivers allow you to tweak options from outside PC games. For example, these tools allow you to force-enabling antialiasing to make old games look better, even if they don’t normally support it. You can also reduce graphics quality to get more performance on slow hardware. If You Don’t See These Options If you don’t have the NVIDIA Control Panel, AMD Catalyst Control Center, or Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel installed, you may need to install the appropriate graphics driver package for your hardware from the hardware manufacturer’s website. The drivers provided via Windows Update don’t include additional software like the NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Catalyst Control Center. Drivers provided via Windows Update are also more out of date. If you’re playing PC games, you’ll want to have the latest graphics drivers installed on your system. NVIDIA Control Panel The NVIDIA Control Panel allows you to change these options if your computer has NVIDIA graphics hardware. To launch it, right-click your desktop background and select NVIDIA Control Panel. You can also find this tool by performing a Start menu (or Start screen) search for NVIDIA Control Panel or by right-clicking the NVIDIA icon in your system tray and selecting Open NVIDIA Control Panel. To quickly set a system-wide preference, you could use the Adjust image settings with preview option. For example, if you have old hardware that struggles to play the games you want to play, you may want to select “Use my preference emphasizing” and move the slider all the way to “Performance.” This trades graphics quality for an increased frame rate. By default, the “Use the advanced 3D image settings” option is selected. You can select Manage 3D settings and change advanced settings for all programs on your computer or just for specific games. NVIDIA keeps a database of the optimal settings for various games, but you’re free to tweak individual settings here. Just mouse-over an option for an explanation of what it does. If you have a laptop with NVIDIA Optimus technology — that is, both NVIDIA and Intel graphics — this is the same place you can choose which applications will use the NVIDIA hardware and which will use the Intel hardware. AMD Catalyst Control Center AMD’s Catalyst Control Center allows you to change these options on AMD graphics hardware. To open it, right-click your desktop background and select Catalyst Control Center. You can also right-click the Catalyst icon in your system tray and select Catalyst Control Center or perform a Start menu (or Start screen) search for Catalyst Control Center. Click the Gaming category at the left side of the Catalyst Control Center window and select 3D Application Settings to access the graphics settings you can change. The System Settings tab allows you to configure these options globally, for all games. Mouse over any option to see an explanation of what it does. You can also set per-application 3D settings and tweak your settings on a per-game basis. Click the Add option and browse to a game’s .exe file to change its options. Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel Intel integrated graphics is nowhere near as powerful as dedicated graphics hardware from NVIDIA and AMD, but it’s improving and comes included with most computers. Intel doesn’t provide anywhere near as many options in its graphics control panel, but you can still tweak some common settings. To open the Intel graphics control panel, locate the Intel graphics icon in your system tray, right-click it, and select Graphics Properties. You can also right-click the desktop and select Graphics Properties. Select either Basic Mode or Advanced Mode. When the Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel appears, select the 3D option. You’ll be able to set your Performance or Quality setting by moving the slider around or click the Custom Settings check box and customize your Anisotropic Filtering and Vertical Sync preference. Different Intel graphics hardware may have different options here. We also wouldn’t be surprised to see more advanced options appear in the future if Intel is serious about competing in the PC graphics market, as they say they are. These options are primarily useful to PC gamers, so don’t worry about them — or bother downloading updated graphics drivers — if you’re not a PC gamer and don’t use any intensive 3D applications on your computer. Image Credit: Dave Dugdale on Flickr     

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  • Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines

    - by Eric Z Goodnight
    Want to send some Geek Love to that special someone? Why not do it with these elementary school throwback valentines, and win their heart this upcoming Valentine’s day—the geek way! Read on to see the simple method to make your own custom Valentines, as well as download a set of eleven ready-made ones any geek guy or gal should be delighted get. It’s amore! How to Make Custom Valentines A size we’ve used for all of our Valentines is a 3” x 4” at 150 dpi. This is fairly low resolution for print, but makes a great graphic to email. With your new image open, Navigate to Edit > Fill and fill your background layer with a rich, red color (or whatever appeals to you.) By setting “Use” to “Foreground color as shown above, you’ll paint whatever foreground color you have in your color picker. Press to select the text tool. Set a few text objects, using whatever fonts appeal to you. Pixel fonts, like this one, are freely downloadable, and we’ve already shared a great list of Valentines fonts. Copy an image from the internet if you’re confident your sweetie won’t mind a bit of fair use of copyrighted imagery. If they do mind, find yourself some great Creative Commons images. to do a free transform on your image, sizing it to whatever dimensions work best for your design. Right click your newly added image layer in your panel and Choose “Blending Effects” to pick a Layer Style. “Stroke” with this setting adds a black line around your image. Also turning on “Outer Glow” with this setting puts a dark black shadow around the top and bottom (and sides, although they are hidden). Add some more text. Double entendre is recommended. Click and hold down on the “Rectangle Tool” to get the “Custom Shape Tool.” The custom shape tool has useful vector shapes built into it. Find the “Shape” dropdown in the menu to find the heart image. Click and drag to create a vector heart shape in your image. Your layers panel is where you can change the color, if it happens to use the wrong one at first. Click the color swatch in your panel, highlighted in blue above. will transform your vector heart. You can also use it to rotate, if you like. Add some details, like this Power or Standby symbol, which can be found in symbol fonts, taken from images online, or drawn by hand. Your Valentine is now ready to be saved as a JPG or PNG and sent to the object of your affection! Keep reading to see a list of 11 downloadable How-To Geek Valentines, including this one and the three from the header image. Download The HTG Set of Valentines Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) When he’s not wooing ladies with Valentines cards, you can email the author at [email protected] with your Photoshop and Graphics questions. Your questions may be featured in a future How-To Geek article! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines How to Integrate Dropbox with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on iPad RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally How To Colorize Black and White Vintage Photographs in Photoshop How To Get SSH Command-Line Access to Windows 7 Using Cygwin How to Kid Proof Your Computer’s Power and Reset Buttons Microsoft’s Windows Media Player Extension Adds H.264 Support Back to Google Chrome Android Notifier Pushes Android Notices to Your Desktop Dead Space 2 Theme for Chrome and Iron Carl Sagan and Halo Reach Mashup – We Humans are Capable of Greatness [Video] Battle the Necromorphs Once Again on Your Desktop with the Dead Space 2 Theme for Windows 7

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  • Smart Help with UPK

    - by [email protected]
    A short lesson on how awesome Smart Help is. In Oracle UPK speak, there are targeted and non-targeted applications. Targeted applications are Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards, SAP and a few others. Non-targeted applications are either custom built or other third party off the shelf applications. For most targeted applications you'll see better object recognition (during recording) and also Help Integration for that application. Help integration means that someone technical modifies the help link in your application to call up the UPK content that has been created. If you have seen this presented before, this is usually where the term context sensitive help is mentioned and the Do It mode shows off. The fact that UPK builds context sensitive help for its targeted applications automatically is awesome enough, but there is a whole new world out there and it's called "custom and\or third party apps." For the purposes of Smart Help and this discussion, I'm talking about the browser based applications. How does UPK support these apps? It used to be that you had to have your vendor try to modify the Help link to point to UPK or if your company had control over the applications configuration menus, then you get someone on your team to modify this for you. But as you start to use UPK for more than one, two or three applications, the administration of this starts to become daunting. Multiple administrators, multiple player packages, multiple call points, multiple break points, help doesn't always work the same way for every application (picture the black white infomercial with an IT person trying to configure a bunch of wires or something funny like that). Introducing Smart Help! (in color of course, new IT person, probably wearing a blue shirt and smiling). Smart help eliminates the need to configure multiple browser help integration points, and adds a icon to the users browser itself. You're using your browser to read this now correct? Look up at the icons on your browser, you have the home link icon, print icon, maybe an RSS feed icon. Smart Help is icon that gets added to the users browser just like the others. When you click it, it first recognizes which application you're in and then finds the UPK created material for you and returns the best possible match, for (hold on to your seat now) both targeted and non-targeted applications (browser based applications). But wait, there's more. It does this automatically! You don't have to do anything! All you have to do is record content, UPK and Smart Help do the rest! This technology is not new. There are customers out there today that use this for as many as six applications! The real hero here is SMART MATCH. Smart match is the technology that's used to determine which application you're in and where you are when you click on Smart Help. We'll save that for a one-on-one conversation. Like most other awesome features of UPK, it ships with the product. All you have to do is turn it on. To learn more about Smart Help, Smart Match, Targeted and Non-Targeted applications, contact your UPK Sales Consultant or me directly at [email protected]

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  • How to Sync Any Browser’s Bookmarks With Your iPad or iPhone

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Apple makes it easy to synchronize bookmarks between the Safari browser on a Mac and the Safari browser on iOS, but you don’t have to use Safari — or a Mac — to sync your bookmarks back and forth. You can do this with any browser. Whether you’re using Chrome, Firefox, or even Internet Explorer, there’s a way to sync your browser bookmarks so you can access your same bookmarks on your iPad. Safari on a Mac Apple’s iCloud service is the officially supported way to sync data with your iPad or iPhone. It’s included on Macs, but Apple also offers similar iCloud bookmark syncing features for Windows. On a Mac, this should be enabled by default. To check whether it’s enabled, you can launch the System Preferences panel on your Mac, open the iCloud preferences panel, and ensure the Safari option is checked. If you’re using Safari on Windows — well, you shouldn’t be. Apple is no longer updating Safari for Windows. iCloud allows you to synchronize bookmarks between other browsers on your Windows system and Safari on your iOS device, so Safari isn’t necessary. Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome via iCloud To get started, download Apple’s iCloud Control Panel application for Windows and install it. Launch the iCloud Control Panel and log in with the same iCloud account (Apple ID) you use on your iPad or iPhone. You’ll be able to enable Bookmark syncing with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome. Click the Options button to select the browser you want to synchronize bookmarks with. (Note that bookmarks are called “favorites” in Internet Explorer.) You’ll be able to access your synced bookmarks in the Safari browser on your iPad or iPhone, and they’ll sync back and forth automatically over the Internet. Google Chrome Sync Google Chrome also has its own built-in sync feature and Google provides an official Chrome app for iPad and iPhone. If you’re a Chrome user, you can set up Chrome Sync on your desktop version of Chrome — you should already have this enabled if you have logged into your Chrome browser. You can check if this Chrome Sync is enabled by opening Chrome’s settings screen and seeing whether you’re signed in. Click the Advanced sync settings button and ensure bookmark syncing is enabled. Once you have Chrome Sync set up, you can install the Chrome app from the App Store and sign in with the same Google account. Your bookmarks, as well as other data like your open browser tabs, will automatically sync. This can be a better solution because the Chrome browser is available for so many platforms and you gain the ability to synchronize other browser data, such as your open browser tabs, between your devices. Unfortunately, the Chrome browser is slower than Apple’s own Safari browser on iPad and iPhone because of the way Apple limits third-party browsers, so using it involves a trade-off. Manual Bookmark Sync in iTunes iTunes also allows you to sync bookmarks between your computer and your iPad or iPhone. It does this the old-fashioned way, by initiating a manual sync when your device is plugged in via USB. To access this option, connect your device to your computer, select the device in iTunes, and click the Info tab. This is the more outdated way of synchronizing your bookmarks. This feature may be useful if you want to create a one-time copy of your bookmarks from your PC, but it’s nowhere near ideal for regular syncing. You don’t have to use this feature, just as you really don’t have to use iTunes anymore. In fact, this option is unavailable if you’ve set up iCloud syncing in iTunes. After you set up bookmark syncing via iCloud or Chrome Sync, bookmarks will sync immediately after you save, remove, or edit them.     

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  • Refreshing Your PC Won’t Help: Why Bloatware is Still a Problem on Windows 8

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Bloatware is still a big problem on new Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs. Some websites will tell you that you can easily get rid of manufacturer-installed bloatware with Windows 8′s Reset feature, but they’re generally wrong. This junk software often turns the process of powering on your new PC from what could be a delightful experience into a tedious slog, forcing you to spend hours cleaning up your new PC before you can enjoy it. Why Refreshing Your PC (Probably) Won’t Help Manufacturers install software along with Windows on their new PCs. In addition to hardware drivers that allow the PC’s hardware to work properly, they install more questionable things like trial antivirus software and other nagware. Much of this software runs at boot, cluttering the system tray and slowing down boot times, often dramatically. Software companies pay computer manufacturers to include this stuff. It’s installed to make the PC manufacturer money at the cost of making the Windows computer worse for actual users. Windows 8 includes “Refresh Your PC” and “Reset Your PC” features that allow Windows users to quickly get their computers back to a fresh state. It’s essentially a quick, streamlined way of reinstalling Windows.  If you install Windows 8 or 8.1 yourself, the Refresh operation will give your PC a clean Windows system without any additional third-party software. However, Microsoft allows computer manufacturers to customize their Refresh images. In other words, most computer manufacturers will build their drivers, bloatware, and other system customizations into the Refresh image. When you Refresh your computer, you’ll just get back to the factory-provided system complete with bloatware. It’s possible that some computer manufacturers aren’t building bloatware into their refresh images in this way. It’s also possible that, when Windows 8 came out, some computer manufacturer didn’t realize they could do this and that refreshing a new PC would strip the bloatware. However, on most Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs, you’ll probably see bloatware come back when you refresh your PC. It’s easy to understand how PC manufacturers do this. You can create your own Refresh images on Windows 8 and 8.1 with just a simple command, replacing Microsoft’s image with a customized one. Manufacturers can install their own refresh images in the same way. Microsoft doesn’t lock down the Refresh feature. Desktop Bloatware is Still Around, Even on Tablets! Not only is typical Windows desktop bloatware not gone, it has tagged along with Windows as it moves to new form factors. Every Windows tablet currently on the market — aside from Microsoft’s own Surface and Surface 2 tablets — runs on a standard Intel x86 chip. This means that every Windows 8 and 8.1 tablet you see in stores has a full desktop with the capability to run desktop software. Even if that tablet doesn’t come with a keyboard, it’s likely that the manufacturer has preinstalled bloatware on the tablet’s desktop. Yes, that means that your Windows tablet will be slower to boot and have less memory because junk and nagging software will be on its desktop and in its system tray. Microsoft considers tablets to be PCs, and PC manufacturers love installing their bloatware. If you pick up a Windows tablet, don’t be surprised if you have to deal with desktop bloatware on it. Microsoft Surfaces and Signature PCs Microsoft is now selling their own Surface PCs that they built themselves — they’re now a “devices and services” company after all, not a software company. One of the nice things about Microsoft’s Surface PCs is that they’re free of the typical bloatware. Microsoft won’t take money from Norton to include nagging software that worsens the experience. If you pick up a Surface device that provides Windows 8.1 and 8 as Microsoft intended it — or install a fresh Windows 8.1 or 8 system — you won’t see any bloatware. Microsoft is also continuing their Signature program. New PCs purchased from Microsoft’s official stores are considered “Signature PCs” and don’t have the typical bloatware. For example, the same laptop could be full of bloatware in a traditional computer store and clean, without the nasty bloatware when purchased from a Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also continue to charge you $99 if you want them to remove your computer’s bloatware for you — that’s the more questionable part of the Signature program. Windows 8 App Bloatware is an Improvement There’s a new type of bloatware on new Windows 8 systems, which is thankfully less harmful. This is bloatware in the form of included “Windows 8-style”, “Store-style”, or “Modern” apps in the new, tiled interface. For example, Amazon may pay a computer manufacturer to include the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store. (The manufacturer may also just receive a cut of book sales for including it. We’re not sure how the revenue sharing works — but it’s clear PC manufacturers are getting money from Amazon.) The manufacturer will then install the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store by default. This included software is technically some amount of clutter, but it doesn’t cause the problems older types of bloatware does. It won’t automatically load and delay your computer’s startup process, clutter your system tray, or take up memory while you’re using your computer. For this reason, a shift to including new-style apps as bloatware is a definite improvement over older styles of bloatware. Unfortunately, this type of bloatware has not replaced traditional desktop bloatware, and new Windows PCs will generally have both. Windows RT is Immune to Typical Bloatware, But… Microsoft’s Windows RT can’t run Microsoft desktop software, so it’s immune to traditional bloatware. Just as you can’t install your own desktop programs on it, the Windows RT device’s manufacturer can’t install their own desktop bloatware. While Windows RT could be an antidote to bloatware, this advantage comes at the cost of being able to install any type of desktop software at all. Windows RT has also seemingly failed — while a variety of manufacturers came out with their own Windows RT devices when Windows 8 was first released, they’ve all since been withdrawn from the market. Manufacturers who created Windows RT devices have criticized it in the media and stated they have no plans to produce any future Windows RT devices. The only Windows RT devices still on the market are Microsoft’s Surface (originally named Surface RT) and Surface 2. Nokia is also coming out with their own Windows RT tablet, but they’re in the process of being purchased by Microsoft. In other words, Windows RT just isn’t a factor when it comes to bloatware — you wouldn’t get a Windows RT device unless you purchased a Surface, but those wouldn’t come with bloatware anyway. Removing Bloatware or Reinstalling Windows 8.1 While bloatware is still a problem on new Windows systems and the Refresh option probably won’t help you, you can still eliminate bloatware in the traditional way. Bloatware can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or with a dedicated removal tool like PC Decrapifier, which tries to automatically uninstall the junk for you. You can also do what Windows geeks have always tended to do with new computers — reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 from scratch with installation media from Microsoft. You’ll get a clean Windows system and you can install only the hardware drivers and other software you need. Unfortunately, bloatware is still a big problem for Windows PCs. Windows 8 tries to do some things to address bloatware, but it ultimately comes up short. Most Windows PCs sold in most stores to most people will still have the typical bloatware slowing down the boot process, wasting memory, and adding clutter. Image Credit: LG on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Wilson Hui on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Vernon Chan on Flickr     

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  • Beginner Geek: How to Use Bookmarklets on Any Device

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Web browser bookmarklets allow you to perform actions on the current page with just a click or tap. They’re a lightweight alternative to browser extensions. They even work on mobile browsers that don’t support traditional extensions. To use bookmarklets, all you need is a web browser that supports bookmarks — that’s it! Bookmarklets Explained Web pages you view in your browser use JavaScript code. That’s why web pages aren’t just static documents anymore — they’re dynamic. A bookmarklet is a normal bookmark with a piece of JavaScript code instead of a web address. When you click or tap the bookmarklet, it will execute the JavaScript code on the current page instead of loading a different page, as most bookmarks do. Bookmarklets can be used to do something to a web page with a single click. For example, you’ll find bookmarklets associated with web services like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pocket, and LastPass. When you click the bookmarklet, it will run code that lets you easily share the current page with that service. Bookmarklets don’t just have to be  associated with web services. A bookmarklet you click could modify the appearance of the page, stripping away most of the junk and giving you a clean “reading mode.” It could alter fonts, remove images, or insert other content. It can access anything the web page could access. For example, you could use a bookmarklet to reveal a password that just appears as ******* on the page. Unlike browser extensions, bookmarklets don’t run in the background and bog down your browser. They don’t do anything at all until you click them. Because they just use the standard bookmark system, they can also be used in mobile browsers where you couldn’t run extensions. For example, you could install the Pocket bookmarklet in Safari on an iPad and get an “Add to Pocket” option in Safari. Safari doesn’t offer browsing extensions and Apple’s iOS doesn’t offer a “Share” feature like Android and Windows 8 do, so this is the only way to get this direct integration. You could even use the LastPass bookmarklets in Safari on an iPad to integrate LastPass with the Safari web browser. Where to Find Bookmarklets If you’re looking for a bookmarklet for a particular service, you’ll generally find the bookmarklet on that service’s site. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pocket host pages where they provide bookmarklets along with browser extensions. Bookmarklets aren’t like programs. They’re really just a piece of text that you can put in a bookmarklet, so you don’t have to download them a specific site. You can get them from practically anywhere — installing them just involves copying a bit of text off of a web page. For example, you can just search the web for “reveal password bookmarklet” if you wanted a bookmarklet that will reveal passwords. We’ve covered many of the must-have bookmarklets — and our readers have chimed in too — so take a look at our lists for more examples. How to Install a Bookmarklet Bookmarklets are simple to install. When you hover over a bookmarklet on a web page, you’ll see its address begins with “javascript:”. If you have your web browser’s bookmark or favorites toolbar visible, the easiest way to install a bookmarklet is with drag-and-drop. Press Ctrl+Shift+B to show your bookmarks toolbar if you’re using Chrome or Internet Explorer. In Firefox, right-click the toolbar and click Bookmarks Toolbar. Just drag and drop this link to your bookmark toolbar. The bookmarklet is now installed. You can also install bookmarklets manually. Select the bookmarklet’s code and copy it to your clipboard. If the bookmarklet is a link, right-click or long-press the link and copy its address to your clipboard. Open your browser’s bookmarks manager, add a bookmark, and paste the JavaScript code directly into the address box. Give your bookmarklet a name and save it. How to Use a Bookmarklet Bookmarklets are easiest to use if you have your browser’s bookmarks toolbar enabled. Just click the bookmarklet and your browser will run it on the current page. If you don’t have a bookmarks toolbar — such as on Safari on an iPad or another mobile browser — just open your browser’s bookmarks pane and tap or click the bookmark. In mobile Chrome, you’ll need to launch the bookmarklet from the location bar. Open the web page you want to run the bookmarklet on, tap your location bar, and start searching for the name of the bookmarklet. Tap the bookmarklet’s name to run it on the current page. Note that the bookmarklet only appears here because we have it saved as a bookmark in Chrome. You’ll need to add the bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmarks before you can use it in this way. The location bar approach may also be necessary in other browsers. The trick is loading the bookmark so that it will be associated with your current tab. You can’t just open your bookmarks in a separate browser tab and run the bookmarklet from there — it will run on that other browser tab. Bookmarklets are powerful and flexible. While they’re not as flashy as browser extensions, they’re much more lightweight and allow you to get extension-like features in more limited mobile browsers.

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  • How to Tell a Hardware Problem From a Software Problem

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Your computer seems to be malfunctioning — it’s slow, programs are crashing or Windows may be blue-screening. Is your computer’s hardware failing, or does it have a software problem that you can fix on your own? This can actually be a bit tricky to figure out. Hardware problems and software problems can lead to the same symptoms — for example, frequent blue screens of death may be caused by either software or hardware problems. Computer is Slow We’ve all heard the stories — someone’s computer slows down over time because they install too much software that runs at startup or it becomes infected with malware. The person concludes that their computer is slowing down because it’s old, so they replace it. But they’re wrong. If a computer is slowing down, it has a software problem that can be fixed. Hardware problems shouldn’t cause your computer to slow down. There are some rare exceptions to this — perhaps your CPU is overheating and it’s downclocking itself, running slower to stay cooler — but most slowness is caused by software issues. Blue Screens Modern versions of Windows are much more stable than older versions of Windows. When used with reliable hardware with well-programmed drivers, a typical Windows computer shouldn’t blue-screen at all. If you are encountering frequent blue screens of death, there’s a good chance your computer’s hardware is failing. Blue screens could also be caused by badly programmed hardware drivers, however. If you just installed or upgraded hardware drivers and blue screens start, try uninstalling the drivers or using system restore — there may be something wrong with the drivers. If you haven’t done anything with your drivers recently and blue screens start, there’s a very good chance you have a hardware problem. Computer Won’t Boot If your computer won’t boot, you could have either a software problem or a hardware problem. Is Windows attempting to boot and failing part-way through the boot process, or does the computer no longer recognize its hard drive or not power on at all? Consult our guide to troubleshooting boot problems for more information. When Hardware Starts to Fail… Here are some common components that can fail and the problems their failures may cause: Hard Drive: If your hard drive starts failing, files on your hard drive may become corrupted. You may see long delays when you attempt to access files or save to the hard drive. Windows may stop booting entirely. CPU: A failing CPU may result in your computer not booting at all. If the CPU is overheating, your computer may blue-screen when it’s under load — for example, when you’re playing a demanding game or encoding video. RAM: Applications write data to your RAM and use it for short-term storage. If your RAM starts failing, an application may write data to part of the RAM, then later read it back and get an incorrect value. This can result in application crashes, blue screens, and file corruption. Graphics Card: Graphics card problems may result in graphical errors while rendering 3D content or even just while displaying your desktop. If the graphics card is overheating, it may crash your graphics driver or cause your computer to freeze while under load — for example, when playing demanding 3D games. Fans: If any of the fans fail in your computer, components may overheat and you may see the above CPU or graphics card problems. Your computer may also shut itself down abruptly so it doesn’t overheat any further and damage itself. Motherboard: Motherboard problems can be extremely tough to diagnose. You may see occasional blue screens or similar problems. Power Supply: A malfunctioning power supply is also tough to diagnose — it may deliver too much power to a component, damaging it and causing it to malfunction. If the power supply dies completely, your computer won’t power on and nothing will happen when you press the power button. Other common problems — for example, a computer slowing down — are likely to be software problems. It’s also possible that software problems can cause many of the above symptoms — malware that hooks deep into the Windows kernel can cause your computer to blue-screen, for example. The Only Way to Know For Sure We’ve tried to give you some idea of the difference between common software problems and hardware problems with the above examples. But it’s often tough to know for sure, and troubleshooting is usually a trial-and-error process. This is especially true if you have an intermittent problem, such as your computer blue-screening a few times a week. You can try scanning your computer for malware and running System Restore to restore your computer’s system software back to its previous working state, but these aren’t  guaranteed ways to fix software problems. The best way to determine whether the problem you have is a software or hardware one is to bite the bullet and restore your computer’s software back to its default state. That means reinstalling Windows or using the Refresh or reset feature on Windows 8. See whether the problem still persists after you restore its operating system to its default state. If you still see the same problem – for example, if your computer is blue-screening and continues to blue-screen after reinstalling Windows — you know you have a hardware problem and need to have your computer fixed or replaced. If the computer crashes or freezes while reinstalling Windows, you definitely have a hardware problem. Even this isn’t a completely perfect method — for example, you may reinstall Windows and install the same hardware drivers afterwards. If the hardware drivers are badly programmed, the blue-screens may continue. Blue screens of death aren’t as common on Windows these days — if you’re encountering them frequently, you likely have a hardware problem. Most blue screens you encounter will likely be caused by hardware issues. On the other hand, other common complaints like “my computer has slowed down” are easily fixable software problems. When in doubt, back up your files and reinstall Windows. Image Credit: Anders Sandberg on Flickr, comedy_nose on Flickr     

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  • HTG Explains: Should You Build Your Own PC?

    - by Chris Hoffman
    There was a time when every geek seemed to build their own PC. While the masses bought eMachines and Compaqs, geeks built their own more powerful and reliable desktop machines for cheaper. But does this still make sense? Building your own PC still offers as much flexibility in component choice as it ever did, but prebuilt computers are available at extremely competitive prices. Building your own PC will no longer save you money in most cases. The Rise of Laptops It’s impossible to look at the decline of geeks building their own PCs without considering the rise of laptops. There was a time when everyone seemed to use desktops — laptops were more expensive and significantly slower in day-to-day tasks. With the diminishing importance of computing power — nearly every modern computer has more than enough power to surf the web and use typical programs like Microsoft Office without any trouble — and the rise of laptop availability at nearly every price point, most people are buying laptops instead of desktops. And, if you’re buying a laptop, you can’t really build your own. You can’t just buy a laptop case and start plugging components into it — even if you could, you would end up with an extremely bulky device. Ultimately, to consider building your own desktop PC, you have to actually want a desktop PC. Most people are better served by laptops. Benefits to PC Building The two main reasons to build your own PC have been component choice and saving money. Building your own PC allows you to choose all the specific components you want rather than have them chosen for you. You get to choose everything, including the PC’s case and cooling system. Want a huge case with room for a fancy water-cooling system? You probably want to build your own PC. In the past, this often allowed you to save money — you could get better deals by buying the components yourself and combining them, avoiding the PC manufacturer markup. You’d often even end up with better components — you could pick up a more powerful CPU that was easier to overclock and choose more reliable components so you wouldn’t have to put up with an unstable eMachine that crashed every day. PCs you build yourself are also likely more upgradable — a prebuilt PC may have a sealed case and be constructed in such a way to discourage you from tampering with the insides, while swapping components in and out is generally easier with a computer you’ve built on your own. If you want to upgrade your CPU or replace your graphics card, it’s a definite benefit. Downsides to Building Your Own PC It’s important to remember there are downsides to building your own PC, too. For one thing, it’s just more work — sure, if you know what you’re doing, building your own PC isn’t that hard. Even for a geek, researching the best components, price-matching, waiting for them all to arrive, and building the PC just takes longer. Warranty is a more pernicious problem. If you buy a prebuilt PC and it starts malfunctioning, you can contact the computer’s manufacturer and have them deal with it. You don’t need to worry about what’s wrong. If you build your own PC and it starts malfunctioning, you have to diagnose the problem yourself. What’s malfunctioning, the motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card, or power supply? Each component has a separate warranty through its manufacturer, so you’ll have to determine which component is malfunctioning before you can send it off for replacement. Should You Still Build Your Own PC? Let’s say you do want a desktop and are willing to consider building your own PC. First, bear in mind that PC manufacturers are buying in bulk and getting a better deal on each component. They also have to pay much less for a Windows license than the $120 or so it would cost you to to buy your own Windows license. This is all going to wipe out the cost savings you’ll see — with everything all told, you’ll probably spend more money building your own average desktop PC than you would picking one up from Amazon or the local electronics store. If you’re an average PC user that uses your desktop for the typical things, there’s no money to be saved from building your own PC. But maybe you’re looking for something higher end. Perhaps you want a high-end gaming PC with the fastest graphics card and CPU available. Perhaps you want to pick out each individual component and choose the exact components for your gaming rig. In this case, building your own PC may be a good option. As you start to look at more expensive, high-end PCs, you may start to see a price gap — but you may not. Let’s say you wanted to blow thousands of dollars on a gaming PC. If you’re looking at spending this kind of money, it would be worth comparing the cost of individual components versus a prebuilt gaming system. Still, the actual prices may surprise you. For example, if you wanted to upgrade Dell’s $2293 Alienware Aurora to include a second NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 graphics card, you’d pay an additional $600 on Alienware’s website. The same graphics card costs $650 on Amazon or Newegg, so you’d be spending more money building the system yourself. Why? Dell’s Alienware gets bulk discounts you can’t get — and this is Alienware, which was once regarded as selling ridiculously overpriced gaming PCs to people who wouldn’t build their own. Building your own PC still allows you to get the most freedom when choosing and combining components, but this is only valuable to a small niche of gamers and professional users — most people, even average gamers, would be fine going with a prebuilt system. If you’re an average person or even an average gamer, you’ll likely find that it’s cheaper to purchase a prebuilt PC rather than assemble your own. Even at the very high end, components may be more expensive separately than they are in a prebuilt PC. Enthusiasts who want to choose all the individual components for their dream gaming PC and want maximum flexibility may want to build their own PCs. Even then, building your own PC these days is more about flexibility and component choice than it is about saving money. In summary, you probably shouldn’t build your own PC. If you’re an enthusiast, you may want to — but only a small minority of people would actually benefit from building their own systems. Feel free to compare prices, but you may be surprised which is cheaper. Image Credit: Richard Jones on Flickr, elPadawan on Flickr, Richard Jones on Flickr     

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  • How to Never Use iTunes With Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

    - by Chris Hoffman
    iTunes isn’t an amazing program on Windows. There was a time when Apple device users had to plug their devices into their PCs or Macs and use iTunes for device activation, updates, and syncing, but iTunes is no longer necessary. Apple still allows you to use iTunes for these things, but you don’t have to. Your iOS device can function independently from iTunes, so you should never be forced to plug it into a PC or Mac. Device Activation When the iPad first came out, it was touted as a device that could replace full PCs and Macs for people who only needed to perform light computing tasks. Yet, to set up a new iPad, users had to plug it into a PC or Mac running iTunes and use iTunes to activate the device. This is no longer necessary. With new iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches, you can simply go through the setup process after turning on your new device without ever having to plug it into iTunes. Just connect to a Wi-Fi or cellular data network and log in with your Apple ID when prompted. You’ll still see an option that allows you to activate the device via iTunes, but this should only be necessary if you don’t have a wireless Internet connection available for your device. Operating System Updates You no longer have to use Apple’s iTunes software to update to a new version of Apple’s iOS operating system, either. Just open the Settings app on your device, select the General category, and tap Software Update. You’ll be able to update right from your device without ever opening iTunes. Purchased iTunes Media Apple allows you to easily access content you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store on any device. You don’t have to connect your device to your computer and sync via iTunes. For example, you can purchase a movie from the iTunes Store. Then, without any syncing, you can open the iTunes Store app on any of your iOS devices, tap the Purchased section, and see stuff you’ve downloaded. You can download the content right from the store to your device. This also works for apps — apps you purchase from the App Store can be accessed in the Purchased section on the App Store on your device later. You don’t have to sync apps from iTunes to your device, although iTunes still allows you to. You can even set up automatic downloads from the iTunes & App Store settings screen. This would allow you to purchase content on one device and have it automatically download to your other devices without any hassle. Music Apple allows you to re-download purchased music from the iTunes Store in the same way. However, there’s a good chance you have your own music you didn’t purchase from iTunes. Maybe you spent time ripping it all from your old CDs and you’ve been syncing it to your devices via iTunes ever since. Apple’s solution for this is named iTunes Match. This feature isn’t free, but it’s not a bad deal at all. For $25 per year, Apple allows you to upload all your music to your iCloud account. You can then access all your music from any iPhone, IPad, or iPod Touch. You can stream all your music — perfect if you have a huge library and little storage on your device — and choose which songs you want to download to your device for offline use. When you add additional music to your computer, iTunes will notice it and upload it using iTunes Match, making it available for streaming and downloading directly from your iOS devices without any syncing. This feature is named iTunes Match because it doesn’t just upload music — if Apple already has a song you upload, it will “match” your song with Apple’s copy. This means you may get higher-quality versions of your songs if you ripped them from CD at a lower bitrate. Podcasts You don’t have to use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts and sync them to your devices. Even if you have a lowly iPod Touch, you can install APple’s Podcasts app from the app store. Use it to subscribe to podcasts and configure them to automatically download directly to your device. You can use other podcast apps for this, too. Backups You can continue backing up your device’s data through iTunes, generating local backups that are stored on your computer. However, new iOS devices are configured to automatically back up their data to iCloud. This happens automatically in the background without you even having to think about it, and you can restore such backups when setting up a device simply by logging in with your Apple ID. Personal Data In the days of PalmPilots, people would use desktop programs like iTunes to sync their email, contacts, and calendar events with their mobile devices. You probably shouldn’t have to sync this data form your computer. Just sign into your email account — for example, a Gmail account — on your device and iOS will automatically pull your email, contacts, and calendar events from your associated account. Photos Rather than connecting your iOS device to your computer and syncing photos from it, you can use an app that automatically uploads your photos to a web service. Dropbox, Google+, and even Flickr all have this feature in their apps. You’ll be able to access your photos from any computer and have a backup copy without any syncing required. You may still need to use iTunes if you want to sync local music without paying for iTunes Match or copy local video files to your device. Copying large local files over is the only real scenario where you’d need iTunes. If you don’t need to copy such files over, you can go ahead and uninstall iTunes from your Windows PC if you like. You shouldn’t need it.     

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  • Can someone clarify what this Joel On Software quote means: (functional programs have no side effect

    - by Bob
    I was reading Joel On Software today and ran across this quote: Without understanding functional programming, you can't invent MapReduce, the algorithm that makes Google so massively scalable. The terms Map and Reduce come from Lisp and functional programming. MapReduce is, in retrospect, obvious to anyone who remembers from their 6.001-equivalent programming class that purely functional programs have no side effects and are thus trivially parallelizable. What does he mean when he says functional programs have no side effects? And how does this make parallelizing trivial?

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  • Benchmarks for Single and MultiThreaded programs

    - by user280848
    Hi I am trying to compare the performance of Single and Multithreaded Java programs. Are there any single thread benchmarks which are available which I could then use and convert to their multithreaded version and compare the performance. Could anybody guide me as to what kind of programs(not very small) are suitable for this empirical comparison. Thanks in advance

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  • Chatbox/shoutbox/forum with the following features.

    - by Mick
    I would like to set up a simple forum for a small number of users. The features I would like are the following, in order of priority: logging on not compulsory for posting. A single thread. All the messages are immediately visible - no need to "open" them. most recent message at the top by default. The ability to give selected users the power to delete spam messages. The ability to upload photos. Avatars. Configurable skins/size/shape. So far the closest I have come is www.tag-world.com but there are no avatars and no photos.

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  • Web Farm Framework - Missing IIS features

    - by Buginator
    I'm trying to install a web farm using Microsoft's Web Farm Framework 2.2. The server is Windows 2008 R2 with IIS 7.5. I followed a tutorial. Installed WFF from Web Platform Installer. However, I'm missing some key features in the "Server Farm" panel in IIS. This is how my setup looks like However, just like in the tutorial, I want it like this How can I enable ALL the things, like Load Balancer, Health Test, Server Affinity etc? Thanks. The tutorial I used was this: weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/09/08/introducing-the-microsoft-web-farm-framework.aspx

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  • Is drupal going to improve these small features ?

    - by Patrick
    Is drupal going to improve the following features ? 1) multi-line description for CCK fields such as images (at the moment I can only write in a line but a text-area would be better 2) thumbnails upload for CCK Video fields (so I can upload a thumbnails for each video if I cannot install ffmpeg on the server) 3) merge CCK Images and Videos in a single group. So my customer can order them in the same list by dragging and dropping them, and in my front-end I have them ordered in the same list. This would be very useful for me. Do you know if I can get some of theme with some modules maybe ? thanks

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  • Please explain some of the features of URL Rewrite module for a newbie [closed]

    - by kunjaan
    I am learning to use the IIS Rewrite module and some of the "features" listed in the page is confusing me. It would be great if somebody could explain them to me and give a first hand account of when you would use the feature. Thanks a lot! Rewriting within the content of specific HTML tags Access to server variables and HTTP headers Rewriting of server variables and HTTP request headers What are the "server variables" and when would you redefine or define them? Rewriting of HTTP response headers HtmlEncode function Why would you use an HTMLEncode in the server? Reverse proxy rule template Support for IIS kernel-mode and user-mode output caching Failed Request Tracing support

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  • Is it correct to fix bugs without adding new features when releasing software for system testing?

    - by Pratik
    This question is to experienced testers or test leads. This is a scenario from a software project: Say the dev team have completed the first iteration of 10 features and released it to system testing. The test team has created test cases for these 10 features and estimated 5 days for testing. The dev team of course cannot sit idle for 5 days and they start creating 10 new features for next iteration. During this time the test team found defects and raised some bugs. The bugs are prioritised and some of them have to be fixed before next iteration. The catch is that they would not accept the new release with any new features or changes to existing features until all those bugs fixed. The test team says that's how can we guarantee a stable release for testing if we also introduce new features along with the bug fix. They also cannot do regression tests of all their test cases each iteration. Apparently this is proper testing process according to ISQTB. This means the dev team has to create a branch of code solely for bug fixing and another branch where they continue development. There is more merging overhead specially with refactoring and architectural changes. Can you agree if this is a common testing principle. Is the test team's concern valid. Have you encountered this in practice in your project.

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  • Determining which JavaScript/CSS browser features are required

    - by Alan Neal
    My website uses a variety of technologies, such as JQuery, new CSS definitions (e.g., moz-selection, -webkit-user-select), etc. The site works perfectly with Google Chrome and Safari, but has some quirkiness in Firefox, IE, and some of the other browsers. I want to write a script to check for necessary browser features but, with several thousand lines of code and CSS definitions, I'm not certain which features I should be looking for. Is there some sort of online analysis (similar to how JSLint operates) that would tell me which features my script and CSS files need? Are there tools (like FireBug) that provide this info?

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  • GIS: Converting multi polygons to multiple features

    - by Kangkan
    Hi, I am involved in a GIS project. I have a base map file (shape file) that contains the road layer for a large portion of a town. The problem is that the shape file contains only two features each containing around 500000 points each. The features are multipolygons containing a large no of polygons inside. I wish to convert it to numerous features each containing not more than one polygon. Is it possible? If yes, how?

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  • How to engineer features for machine learning

    - by Ivo Danihelka
    Do you have some advices or reading how to engineer features for a machine learning task? Good input features are important even for a neural network. The chosen features will affect the needed number of hidden neurons and the needed number of training examples. The following is an example problem, but I'm interested in feature engineering in general. A motivation example: What would be a good input when looking at a puzzle (e.g., 15-puzzle or Sokoban)? Would it be possible to recognize which of two states is closer to the goal?

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