Computer Tips and Guides

Archive for December, 2009

I have often ran across computers that I needed to gain access to for data recovery, but I didnt have the administrator password to access the hard drive. Since in many situations, there is just one administrator account I can’t log into another administrator account and change the password so I have to rely on other methods. I could put the hard drive into another computer as a slave and gain access (sometimes) or  I could try installing a second copy of ..read more

Get Lyrical Adds Song Lyrics to iTunes

Mac only: If you’re going to warble along with your favorite song, make sure you get the words right. Get Lyrical is a free app that automatically displays the lyrics of whatever song is playing in iTunes.

This tiny app grabs lyrics from lyrics.wikia.com and shows them in a resizable window as the song is playing. you can choose to have Get Lyrical display words to every song as it begins, or only the ones ..read more

Networks Lights Turns Your Keyboard LEDs Into Activity Indicators

Windows only: You squeeze every bit of customization and productivity out of your computer, why let those lazy keyboard LEDs sit idle? Put them to work as network activity indicators.

Network Lights is a tiny application that turns the NumLock and ScrollLock keyboard indicators into incoming and outgoing network traffic indicators. Check out our video here to see the lights in action. The video starts with some simple browsing—we were looking for a ..read more

Mark the Spot Lets You Tell AT&T Exactly Where Your iPhone Crapped Out

iPhone: Say what you will about the iPhone as a device, but if there’s one consistent weak spot for U.S. users (particularly in cities like New York), it’s AT&T’s service—specifically frequent dropped calls. Mark the Spot quickly reports your problems.

The app is a breeze to use. Whenever you experience a dropped call, failed call, lack of coverage, data failure, or poor voice quality, just fire up the app, ..read more

CopyTrans Manager Organizes and Manages Your iPhone or iPod Without iTunes

Windows only: If you love your iPod but aren’t crazy about iTunes, CopyTrans Manager is a solid alternative that can add media to and organize media on your iPod, iPhone, and Palm Pre.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

This nifty little app is compatible with all iPod models, iPhones (up to firmware 3.1), and also the Palm Pre. Use it to drag and drop media files to your device ..read more

Namebench Helps You Find the Fastest DNS Server for Your Computer

Windows/Mac/Linux: Last week Google announced a free DNS service designed to speed up your browsing, but just because Google wants to be fast doesn’t actually mean they’re the best option for you. Namebench finds the fastest DNS server for your connection.

After you download and fire up namebench, just click the Start Benchmark button to test out a handful of free public DNS services, from Google Public DNS to OpenDNS to ..read more

My Weekly Browsing Schedule Opens Specific Pages Based on Day and Time

Firefox: One of great things about computers is how excellent they are at remembering things for you. Leverage that trait to your advantage with My Weekly Browsing Schedule to have Firefox remember what sites you visit and when.

My Weekly Browsing Schedule allows you to set up a schedule for your browsing patterns. Check your bank account every Monday morning? Start every day with the same three web sites? Like ..read more

Do You Really Need More Than 4GB of RAM?

With the price of upgrading system RAM extremely low these days, people are always asking me whether it’s really worth it to upgrade beyond 4GB; today we’ll answer that question for everybody.

First, let’s take a moment to clarify what exactly more RAM can (and can’t) do for you. The biggest benefit of upgrading your PC’s memory is better multi-tasking, especially for those of us using RAM-hogging applications like ..read more

Ten Alternatives to Mininova

Ed. note: Last week, popular BitTorrent tracker Mininova started limiting torrents to only approved partners. If you’re hunting for a new torrent-tracking home, all-things-BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak is here to offer some worthwhile alternatives.

After nearly five years of loyal service, Mininova disabled access to over a million torrent files when it partly shut down its website. Starting today, only approved publishers are able to upload files to the site, but luckily there are plenty of alternatives and potential ..read more

FireFound Tracks Your Stolen Computer, Nukes Your Personal Data

Firefox: The worst thing about losing your laptop isn’t the cost of replacing your gear; it’s the loss of personal info and saved passwords. Firefox extension FireFound tracks your lost laptop’s location and nukes your personal data in a few clicks.

Once you install the add-on for Firefox or its mobile version Fennec, FireFound uses geolocation to track where you are every time you open your browser, sending that information to a secure ..read more