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• What to Do When Windows Won’t Boot

  - by Chris Hoffman

  You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot — what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting. Modern versions of Windows are better at recovering from this sort of thing. Where Windows XP might have stopped in its tracks when faced with this problem, modern versions of Windows will try to automatically run Startup Repair. First Things First Be sure to think about changes you’ve made recently — did you recently install a new hardware driver, connect a new hardware component to your computer, or open your computer’s case and do something? It’s possible the hardware driver is buggy, the new hardware is incompatible, or that you accidentally unplugged something while working inside your computer. The Computer Won’t Power On At All If your computer won’t power on at all, ensure it’s plugged into a power outlet and that the power connector isn’t loose. If it’s a desktop PC, ensure the power switch on the back of its case — on the power supply — is set to the On position. If it still won’t power on at all, it’s possible you disconnected a power cable inside its case. If you haven’t been messing around inside the case, it’s possible the power supply is dead. In this case, you’ll have to get your computer’s hardware fixed or get a new computer. Be sure to check your computer monitor — if your computer seems to power on but your screen stays black, ensure your monitor is powered on and that the cable connecting it to your computer’s case is plugged in securely at both ends. The Computer Powers On And Says No Bootable Device If your computer is powering on but you get a black screen that says something like “no bootable device” or another sort of “disk error” message, your computer can’t seem to boot from the hard drive that Windows was installed on. Enter your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware setup screen and check its boot order setting, ensuring that it’s set to boot from its hard drive. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the list at all, it’s possible your hard drive has failed and can no longer be booted from. In this case, you may want to insert Windows installation or recovery media and run the Startup Repair operation. This will attempt to make Windows bootable again. For example, if something overwrote your Windows drive’s boot sector, this will repair the boot sector. If the recovery environment won’t load or doesn’t see your hard drive, you likely have a hardware problem. Be sure to check your BIOS or UEFI’s boot order first if the recovery environment won’t load. You can also attempt to manually fix Windows boot loader problems using the fixmbr and fixboot commands. Modern versions of Windows should be able to fix this problem for you with the Startup Repair wizard, so you shouldn’t actually have to run these commands yourself. Windows Freezes or Crashes During Boot If Windows seems to start booting but fails partway through, you may be facing either a software or hardware problem. If it’s a software problem, you may be able to fix it by performing a Startup Repair operation. If you can’t do this from the boot menu, insert a Windows installation disc or recovery disk and use the startup repair tool from there. If this doesn’t help at all, you may want to reinstall Windows or perform a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. If the computer encounters errors while attempting to perform startup repair or reinstall Windows, or the reinstall process works properly and you encounter the same errors afterwards, you likely have a hardware problem. Windows Starts and Blue Screens or Freezes If Windows crashes or blue-screens on you every time it boots, you may be facing a hardware or software problem. For example, malware or a buggy driver may be loading at boot and causing the crash, or your computer’s hardware may be malfunctioning. To test this, boot your Windows computer in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows won’t load typical hardware drivers or any software that starts automatically at startup. If the computer is stable in safe mode, try uninstalling any recently installed hardware drivers, performing a system restore, and scanning for malware. If you’re lucky, one of these steps may fix your software problem and allow you to boot Windows normally. If your problem isn’t fixed, try reinstalling Windows or performing a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. This will reset your computer back to its clean, factory-default state. If you’re still experiencing crashes, your computer likely has a hardware problem. Recover Files When Windows Won’t Boot If you have important files that will be lost and want to back them up before reinstalling Windows, you can use a Windows installer disc or Linux live media to recover the files. These run entirely from a CD, DVD, or USB drive and allow you to copy your files to another external media, such as another USB stick or an external hard drive. If you’re incapable of booting a Windows installer disc or Linux live CD, you may need to go into your BIOS or UEFI and change the boot order setting. If even this doesn’t work — or if you can boot from the devices and your computer freezes or you can’t access your hard drive — you likely have a hardware problem. You can try pulling the computer’s hard drive, inserting it into another computer, and recovering your files that way. Following these steps should fix the vast majority of Windows boot issues — at least the ones that are actually fixable. The dark cloud that always hangs over such issues is the possibility that the hard drive or another component in the computer may be failing. Image Credit: Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann on Flickr, Tzuhsun Hsu on Flickr     

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• C#: String Concatenation vs Format vs StringBuilder

  - by James Michael Hare

  I was looking through my groups’ C# coding standards the other day and there were a couple of legacy items in there that caught my eye.  They had been passed down from committee to committee so many times that no one even thought to second guess and try them for a long time.  It’s yet another example of how micro-optimizations can often get the best of us and cause us to write code that is not as maintainable as it could be for the sake of squeezing an extra ounce of performance out of our software. So the two standards in question were these, in paraphrase: Prefer StringBuilder or string.Format() to string concatenation. Prefer string.Equals() with case-insensitive option to string.ToUpper().Equals(). Now some of you may already know what my results are going to show, as these items have been compared before on many blogs, but I think it’s always worth repeating and trying these yourself.  So let’s dig in. The first test was a pretty standard one.  When concattenating strings, what is the best choice: StringBuilder, string concattenation, or string.Format()? So before we being I read in a number of iterations from the console and a length of each string to generate.  Then I generate that many random strings of the given length and an array to hold the results.  Why am I so keen to keep the results?  Because I want to be able to snapshot the memory and don’t want garbage collection to collect the strings, hence the array to keep hold of them.  I also didn’t want the random strings to be part of the allocation, so I pre-allocate them and the array up front before the snapshot.  So in the code snippets below: num – Number of iterations. strings – Array of randomly generated strings. results – Array to hold the results of the concatenation tests. timer – A System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch() instance to time code execution. start – Beginning memory size. stop – Ending memory size. after – Memory size after final GC. So first, let’s look at the concatenation loop: 1: // build num strings using concattenation. 2: for (int i = 0; i < num; i++) 3: { 4: results[i] = "This is test #" + i + " with a result of " + strings[i]; 5: } Pretty standard, right?  Next for string.Format(): 1: // build strings using string.Format() 2: for (int i = 0; i < num; i++) 3: { 4: results[i] = string.Format("This is test #{0} with a result of {1}", i, strings[i]); 5: }   Finally, StringBuilder: 1: // build strings using StringBuilder 2: for (int i = 0; i < num; i++) 3: { 4: var builder = new StringBuilder(); 5: builder.Append("This is test #"); 6: builder.Append(i); 7: builder.Append(" with a result of "); 8: builder.Append(strings[i]); 9: results[i] = builder.ToString(); 10: } So I take each of these loops, and time them by using a block like this: 1: // get the total amount of memory used, true tells it to run GC first. 2: start = System.GC.GetTotalMemory(true); 3:  4: // restart the timer 5: timer.Reset(); 6: timer.Start(); 7:  8: // *** code to time and measure goes here. *** 9:  10: // get the current amount of memory, stop the timer, then get memory after GC. 11: stop = System.GC.GetTotalMemory(false); 12: timer.Stop(); 13: other = System.GC.GetTotalMemory(true); So let’s look at what happens when I run each of these blocks through the timer and memory check at 500,000 iterations: 1: Operator + - Time: 547, Memory: 56104540/55595960 - 500000 2: string.Format() - Time: 749, Memory: 57295812/55595960 - 500000 3: StringBuilder - Time: 608, Memory: 55312888/55595960 – 500000   Egad!  string.Format brings up the rear and + triumphs, well, at least in terms of speed.  The concat burns more memory than StringBuilder but less than string.Format().  This shows two main things: StringBuilder is not always the panacea many think it is. The difference between any of the three is miniscule! The second point is extremely important!  You will often here people who will grasp at results and say, “look, operator + is 10% faster than StringBuilder so always use StringBuilder.”  Statements like this are a disservice and often misleading.  For example, if I had a good guess at what the size of the string would be, I could have preallocated my StringBuffer like so:   1: for (int i = 0; i < num; i++) 2: { 3: // pre-declare StringBuilder to have 100 char buffer. 4: var builder = new StringBuilder(100); 5: builder.Append("This is test #"); 6: builder.Append(i); 7: builder.Append(" with a result of "); 8: builder.Append(strings[i]); 9: results[i] = builder.ToString(); 10: }   Now let’s look at the times: 1: Operator + - Time: 551, Memory: 56104412/55595960 - 500000 2: string.Format() - Time: 753, Memory: 57296484/55595960 - 500000 3: StringBuilder - Time: 525, Memory: 59779156/55595960 - 500000   Whoa!  All of the sudden StringBuilder is back on top again!  But notice, it takes more memory now.  This makes perfect sense if you examine the IL behind the scenes.  Whenever you do a string concat (+) in your code, it examines the lengths of the arguments and creates a StringBuilder behind the scenes of the appropriate size for you. But even IF we know the approximate size of our StringBuilder, look how much less readable it is!  That’s why I feel you should always take into account both readability and performance.  After all, consider all these timings are over 500,000 iterations.   That’s at best  0.0004 ms difference per call which is neglidgable at best.  The key is to pick the best tool for the job.  What do I mean?  Consider these awesome words of wisdom: Concatenate (+) is best at concatenating.  StringBuilder is best when you need to building. Format is best at formatting. Totally Earth-shattering, right!  But if you consider it carefully, it actually has a lot of beauty in it’s simplicity.  Remember, there is no magic bullet.  If one of these always beat the others we’d only have one and not three choices. The fact is, the concattenation operator (+) has been optimized for speed and looks the cleanest for joining together a known set of strings in the simplest manner possible. StringBuilder, on the other hand, excels when you need to build a string of inderterminant length.  Use it in those times when you are looping till you hit a stop condition and building a result and it won’t steer you wrong. String.Format seems to be the looser from the stats, but consider which of these is more readable.  Yes, ignore the fact that you could do this with ToString() on a DateTime.  1: // build a date via concatenation 2: var date1 = (month < 10 ? string.Empty : "0") + month + '/' 3: + (day < 10 ? string.Empty : "0") + '/' + year; 4:  5: // build a date via string builder 6: var builder = new StringBuilder(10); 7: if (month < 10) builder.Append('0'); 8: builder.Append(month); 9: builder.Append('/'); 10: if (day < 10) builder.Append('0'); 11: builder.Append(day); 12: builder.Append('/'); 13: builder.Append(year); 14: var date2 = builder.ToString(); 15:  16: // build a date via string.Format 17: var date3 = string.Format("{0:00}/{1:00}/{2:0000}", month, day, year); 18:  So the strength in string.Format is that it makes constructing a formatted string easy to read.  Yes, it’s slower, but look at how much more elegant it is to do zero-padding and anything else string.Format does. So my lesson is, don’t look for the silver bullet!  Choose the best tool.  Micro-optimization almost always bites you in the end because you’re sacrificing readability for performance, which is almost exactly the wrong choice 90% of the time. I love the rules of optimization.  They’ve been stated before in many forms, but here’s how I always remember them: For Beginners: Do not optimize. For Experts: Do not optimize yet. It’s so true.  Most of the time on today’s modern hardware, a micro-second optimization at the sake of readability will net you nothing because it won’t be your bottleneck.  Code for readability, choose the best tool for the job which will usually be the most readable and maintainable as well.  Then, and only then, if you need that extra performance boost after profiling your code and exhausting all other options… then you can start to think about optimizing.

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• Maximize Your Quadcopter’s Range with a Wi-Fi Repeater

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  The majority of commercial quadcopters use Wi-Fi for remote control and suffer from a fairly limited range. This simple hack uses an Wi-Fi router as an extender to radically expand the range of your copter. There’s no heavy modification or code tweaking required, all you need is a power source for the router and the ability to set it up as a repeater. The extra signal boost provided by the repeater extends the range from an average of 50 meters to over 250 meters. Check out the video above to see it in action. If you’re looking for a more dependable but more labor intensive way to extend the range of your copter, you can also retrofit it with a traditional radio-controlled remote. [via Hack A Day] HTG Explains: Is UPnP a Security Risk? How to Monitor and Control Your Children’s Computer Usage on Windows 8 What Happened to Solitaire and Minesweeper in Windows 8?

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• How to Configure Ubuntu’s Built-In Firewall

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Ubuntu includes its own firewall, known as ufw – short for “uncomplicated firewall.” Ufw is an easier-to-use frontend for the standard Linux iptables commands. You can even control ufw from a graphical interface. Ubuntu’s firewall is designed as an easy way to perform basic firewall tasks without learning iptables. It doesn’t offer all the power of the standard iptables commands, but it’s less complex. HTG Explains: Why Linux Doesn’t Need Defragmenting How to Convert News Feeds to Ebooks with Calibre How To Customize Your Wallpaper with Google Image Searches, RSS Feeds, and More

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• 555 Footstool Turns Tech into Mad Scientist Decor

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you just can’t find the appropriate footstool for your laboratory, this laser-cut footstool styled to look like the ubiquitous 555 Timer should fit the bill. At Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories they were in search for the perfect footstool. Never ones to do something halfway they set out to build a footstool shaped like the famous integrated circuit design the 555 Timer. The project involved computer design, CNC routers, laser engraving, lots of plywood and glue, and paint. Hit up the link below to see pictures of the entire build process. 555 Footstool [Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories] How To Encrypt Your Cloud-Based Drive with BoxcryptorHTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)

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• Get Your PhD in Googling [Slideshow]

  - by Asian Angel

  Think you know how to search Google with the best of them? Then put your knowledge to the test with this awesome slideshow where you can verify what you know and perhaps learn something new along the way. Note: The slideshow contains a total of 22 slides. Go Directly to the Slideshow Your PhD in Googling – Blog Post [via Geeks are Sexy] 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? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux

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• Getting Started in Electronics Tinkering: A Shopping List

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re interested getting an electronics tinkering hobby off the ground this detailed list of things you’ll need (including why you’ll need them and how to get the best value) is an excellent starting place. Kenneth Finnegan started his adventures in electronics tinkering a little over two years ago and in that time advanced from being a complete beginner to putting together some really advanced projects. After his projects started appearing on popular hacking/electronics blogs like Hack A Day he decided to put together a guide to help out all the new hobbyists who were emailing him about his projects and what kind of gear they should get. His buying guide covers books, equipment, development tools, components, and analog chips. His list is very detailed with links galore and plenty of explanation for a new hobbyist. So You Want to Build Electronics [Kenneth Finnegan via Hack A Day] 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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• How to Use Binder Clips to Fix Broken Keyboard Feet [Geeky Quick Fix]

  - by Asian Angel

  There are few things as frustrating as using a keyboard with a broken foot on it, so the folks at Apartment Therapy came up with a quick and awesome solution. All it takes is a little bit of binder clip magic… You can see the end results in the images above, so browse on over the blog post for the quick how-to instructions and say goodbye to the broken keyboard feet blues! Images courtesy of Apartment Therapy blog. Use Binder Clips to Mend Broken Keyboard Feet [via Reddit] 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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• Mario Warfare Episode 1: Invasion Day [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Back in September we shared the trailer for Mario Warfare with you–a clever live-action take on the battle in the Mushroom Kingdom. The team behind it just released the first full length episode, check it out here. We loved the trailer and the first episode is just as awesome; clearly combining the landscape and politics of Super Mario Bros. with highly stylized fighting and CGI was the right choice. If you’re interested in following the project check out their YouTube Channel and Kickstarter. Mario Warfare Episode 1 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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• The Legend of Digital Zelda [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  This clever animation project combines a real-world set, a great soundtrack, and a novel approach to showcasing the adventure Link goes through to rescue Zelda. The Legend of Digital Zelda [via TUAW] Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows

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• Curiosity’s Self Portrait

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  One space enthusiast couldn’t wait for NASA to release an official on-Mars portrait of the rover Curiosity, so he took 55 partial self-portraits sent back by the rover and stitched them all together into the first complete on-planet photo we’ve seen of Curiosity. Courtesy of Stuart Atkinson, the photos are stitched together from images collected over the initial portion of Curiosity’s mission. Hit up the link below to check out the full size image. Curiosity [via Wired] 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8

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• Curiosity’s Official Self-Portrait

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  NASA has released a high-resolution self portrait of Curiosity. The photo, a composite of images snapped by the rover’s agile arm and MAHLI camera, shows Curiosity in front of Mount Sharp. From the NASA release: The mosaic shows the rover at “Rocknest,” the spot in Gale Crater where the mission’s first scoop sampling took place. Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. The base of Gale Crater’s 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) sedimentary mountain, Mount Sharp, rises on the right side of the frame. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. The Martian landscape appears inverted within the round, reflective ChemCam instrument at the top of the rover’s mast. Self-portraits like this one document the state of the rover and allow mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI (among the rover’s 17 cameras) is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels. 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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• Mission 26 Captures Endeavour’s Last Trip in Stop Motion

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  On September 21, 2012 the Space Shuttle Endeavour was delivered to the Los Angeles International Airport and spent the next three days being slowly transported 12 miles to the California Science Center. One dedicated team of photographers captured the whole thing. Lead by Matthew Givot, the group followed the shuttle for three straight days, photographing it around the clock. The Endeavor started on Thursday night and went on until Sunday night, with very little sleep to no sleep. The only thing that kept us going was pure love of the art and adrenaline. One thing that stood out the most for me, while I was shooting, was the people of Los Angeles. It was so powerful to see the excitement on peoples faces and the pride of their home town. No matter how many times I would see the Shuttle it would never get old. This has been an amazing experience that I will never forget. My hope is that this film will show you the amount of dedicated people and teamwork that it took to get the Endeavour to its new home. Enjoy. The end result of their labor is the above video, a beautiful time-lapse video of Endeavour’s journey from the airport to its hanger at the California Science Center. Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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• The Beginner’s Guide To Tabbed Browsing

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Tabs allow you to open multiple web pages in a single browser window without cluttering your desktop. Mastering tabbed browsing can speed up your browsing experience and make multiple web pages easier to manage. Tabbed browsing was once the domain of geeks using alternative browsers, but every popular browser now supports tabbed browsing – even mobile browsers on smartphones and tablets. This article is intended for beginners. If you know someone that doesn’t fully understand tabbed browsing and how awesome it is, feel free to send it to them! 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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• HTG Explains: Why is Printer Ink So Expensive?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Printer ink is expensive, more expensive per drop than fine champagne or even human blood. If you haven’t gone paperless, you’ll notice that you’re paying a lot for new ink cartridges — more than seems reasonable. Purchasing the cheapest inkjet printer and buying official ink cartridge replacements is the most expensive thing you can do. There are ways to save money on ink if you must continue to print documents. Cheap Printers, Expensive Ink Ink jet printers are often very cheap. That’s because they’re sold at cost, or even at a loss — the manufacturer either makes no profit from the printer itself or loses money. The manufacturer will make most of its money from the printer cartridges you buy later. Even if the company does make a bit of money from each printer sold, it makes a much larger profit margin on ink. Rather than selling you a printer that may be rather expensive, they want to sell you a cheap printer and make money on an ongoing basis by providing expensive printer ink. It’s been compared to the razor model — sell a razor cheaply and mark up the razor blades. Rather than making a one-time profit on the razor, you’ll make continuing profit as the customer keeps buying razor blade replacements — or ink, in this case. Many printer manufacturers go out of their way to make it difficult for you to use unofficial ink cartridges, building microchips into their official ink cartridges. If you use an unofficial cartridge or refill an official cartridge, the printer may refuse to use it. Lexmark once argued in court that unofficial microchips that enable third-party ink cartridges would violate their copyright and Lexmark has argued that creating an unofficial microchip to bypass this restriction on third-party ink would violate Lexmark’s copyright and be illegal under the US DMCA. Luckily, they lost this argument. What Printer Companies Say Printer companies have put forth their own arguments in the past, attempting to justify the high cost of official ink cartridges and microchips that block any competition. In a Computer World story from 2010, HP argued that they spend a billion dollars each year on “ink research and development.” They point out that printer ink “must be formulated to withstand heating to 300 degrees, vaporization, and being squirted at 30 miles per hour, at a rate of 36,000 drops per second, through a nozzle one third the size of a human hair. After all that it must dry almost instantly on the paper.” They also argue that printers have become more efficient and use less ink to print, while third-party cartridges are less reliable. Companies that use microchips in their ink cartridges argue that only the microchip has the ability to enforce an expiration date, preventing consumers from using old ink cartridges. There’s something to all these arguments, sure — but they don’t seem to justify the sky-high cost of printer ink or the restriction on using third-party or refilled cartridges. Saving Money on Printing Ultimately, the price of something is what people are willing to pay and printer companies have found that most consumers are willing to pay this much for ink cartridge replacements. Try not to fall for it: Don’t buy the cheapest inkjet printer. Consider your needs when buying a printer and do some research. You’ll save more money in the long run. Consider these basic tips to save money on printing: Buy Refilled Cartridges: Refilled cartridges from third parties are generally much cheaper. Printer companies warn us away from these, but they often work very well. Refill Your Own Cartridges: You can get do-it-yourself kits for refilling your own printer ink cartridges, but this can be messy. Your printer may refuse to accept a refilled cartridge if the cartridge contains a microchip. Switch to a Laser Printer: Laser printers use toner, not ink cartridges. If you print a lot of black and white documents, a laser printer can be cheaper. Buy XL Cartridges: If you are buying official printer ink cartridges, spend more money each time. The cheapest ink cartridges won’t contain much ink at all, while larger “XL” ink cartridges will contain much more ink for only a bit more money. It’s often cheaper to buy in bulk. Avoid Printers With Tri-Color Ink Cartridges: If you’re printing color documents, you’ll want to get a printer that uses separate ink cartridges for all its colors. For example, let’s say your printer has a “Color” cartridge that contains blue, green, and red ink. If you print a lot of blue documents and use up all your blue ink, the Color cartridge will refuse to function — now all you can do is throw away your cartridge and buy a new one, even if the green and red ink chambers are full. If you had a printer with separate color cartridges, you’d just have to replace the blue cartridge. If you’ll be buying official ink cartridges, be sure to compare the cost of cartridges when buying a printer. The cheapest printer may be more expensive in the long run. Of course, you’ll save the most money if you stop printing entirely and go paperless, keeping digital copies of your documents instead of paper ones. Image Credit: Cliva Darra on Flickr     

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• Xbox Live Traffic Light Tells You When It’s Game Time

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Why log on to see if your friends are available for a game of Halo 3 when you can glance at this traffic-light-indicator to see if it’s go time? Courtesy of tinker and gamer AndrewF, this fun little hack combines a small traffic light, an Arduino board, and the Xbox live API to provide a real-time indicator of how many of your friends are online and gaming. When the light is red, nobody is available to play. Yellow and green indicate one and several of your friends are available. Hit up the link below to check out the parts list and project code. Xbox Live Traffic Lights [via Hack A Day] HTG Explains: How Antivirus Software Works HTG Explains: Why Deleted Files Can Be Recovered and How You Can Prevent It HTG Explains: What Are the Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break Keys on My Keyboard?

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• From the Tips Box: Monitoring Android Battery Use, DIY Camera Stabilizers, and Decluttering Pages in Chrome

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some of the tips and tricks you mail in and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at monitoring your Android device’s battery, DIY camera stabilizers, and a handy Chrome tool for tidying up web pages. HTG Explains: How Antivirus Software Works HTG Explains: Why Deleted Files Can Be Recovered and How You Can Prevent It HTG Explains: What Are the Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break Keys on My Keyboard?

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• Add Firefox’s Awesome Bar Bookmark Search Function to Chrome and Iron

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you have a large number of bookmarks saved in your Chromium-based browser and need a quick way to search through them? Then see how easy it is to search through those bookmarks just like Firefox users do with the AwesomeBar extension. To engage the bookmark search function type “ab” in the Address Bar as seen above and press either Tab or the Space Bar. That will display the AwesomeBar prefix-bar as seen below. Enter the desired text to begin your search. For our example we decided to conduct a search for bookmarks related to the Ubuntu Twitter client Hotot. The results will continue to narrow down nicely as you type… Typing just a bit more finishes narrowing our search down the rest of the way for Hotot related items. Install the AwesomeBar Extension [Google Chrome Extensions] How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHow to Create an Easy Pixel Art Avatar in Photoshop or GIMPInternet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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• Quickly check Airtel Broadband usage details

  - by Gopinath

  If you are an Airtel India broadband user here is a quick tip to find out usage details. From your broadband connected device just visit Airtel’s web page and you’ll get  the usage statistics. The best part is the page displays statistics automatically, you don’t need to enter broadband connection details or login to Airtel website. It just works! The page displays your monthly data transfer limits, the amount of data transfer bandwidth that is available for the rest of the month and the number of days left in the month. This is a pretty useful tip to keep tabs on your broadband usage. Thanks Amit for the tip.

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• Why Aren’t All Applications Portable?

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  It’s a question that nags at anyone who has fallen in love with portable apps: why aren’t all applications portable? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8

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• Inside NASA’s Shuttle Trainer

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  After more than 30 years of service, NASA has retired their full-scale shuttle training simulator. Take a photo tour and learn where you can visit the trainer and crawl around inside for a more hands-on experience. The trainer is currently on display at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. For those of us unable to visit the trainer in person, Wired Magazine has a full photo tour at the link below. Get Inside the Replica that Trained Every Shuttle Astronaut [Wired] Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows

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• PHP Remains Strong Despite Security Flaws

  The Month of PHP Security (MOPS) effort found 60 flaws, but none of them "critical."

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• PHP Remains Strong Despite Security Flaws

  The Month of PHP Security (MOPS) effort found 60 flaws, but none of them "critical."

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• Polished DIY Projector Is Painted Right onto the Wall

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re contemplating building a projector screen but find yourself not entirely unhappy with just projecting right onto the wall, this simple paint-it-on-the-wall upgrade is for you. Check out the above video to see the steps required to patch, paint, and frame a space on your wall to serve as a projection screen. You’ll need spackle, sandpaper, white paint, and some very basic carpentry skills to complete the simple wood frame for your painted-on screen. If you’d like to create a screen using the same technique but make it removable (for adjustments or to take it with you when you move out) you can just as easily use the paint-it-on technique with a piece of hardboard instead of the drywall. [via Hack A Day] 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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• Easily Customize Internet Explorer 9 Using IE9 Tweaker Plus

  - by Lori Kaufman

  If you use Internet Explorer 9, we found a useful program, called IE Tweaker Plus, that allows you to easily tweak and customize over 27 settings in the browser, as well as create customized IE9 shortcuts that automatically open IE in InPrivate mode. IE9 Tweaker Plus does not need to be installed. To run it, simply extract the .zip file you downloaded (see the link at the end of this article) and double-click on the .exe file. If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue. HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization HTG Explains: What Is RSS and How Can I Benefit From Using It?

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