Informed Choice Search Results

How To: Hide the Facebook News Ticker in Firefox and Google Chrome

Facebook has been "improving" their interface in several different ways in attempt to combat the threat of Google+. One big change is the introduction of a news ticker in the top right corner that constantly feeds updates from friends and organizations you are connected with on Facebook. Not only do some people find the ticker annoying due to the constant stream of text flowing across it, but many felt unnerved by the fact that every “Like” or comment on a profile could instantly be seen acro...

Google+ Pro Tips Round Up: Week 8

It's been an eventful week for Google+. Facebook decided to up its game and start rolling out several major updates intended to address privacy concerns. We got a glimpse into the future of Google+ via an insightful discussion between +Bradley Horowitz and +Tim O'Reilly. And Google decided to integrate the +1 button more fully with Google+ by allowing users to share directly from the +1 button. That's not all, though—scroll down for more news & updates that occurred in the past week.

News: Is Open Source Really Insecure?

To go Open Source or go proprietary? There is a common conception that open-source is unsafe and insecure and therefore companies should rather go for proprietary solutions. They think that because software is termed "open-source", that the world can see the vulnerabilities of the software and might exploit it, and less informed people tend to think that open-source software can be modified while it is running.

News: The Godfathers of Street Art. (non-letter based)

With the Oscar nomination of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and Banksys rise to global fame, street art is becoming more and more accepted into the global art establishment and mainstream culture. Shepard Faireys "Hope" poster is now one of the most recognized posters in the world, some experts saying that it will become just as unmistakably american as uncle Sams "i want you!" WWII army recruitment poster. Banksys work sells for thousands of dollars in auctions, and has fans in mainstream holl...

News: Getting Started

Starting off on Your Journey So, you've decided to learn a language, eh? First off, let me congratulate you. Why? Well, language learning is looked upon by many people as a complicated and difficult task. Unfortunately, this outlook deters many people from even thinking about starting to learn a language. So, the fact that you chose to learn a language, despite what the majority tells you, means a lot!

How To: Write A Letter From Teachers To Parents

Parental involvement is a crucial ingredient in the success of many children. Teachers know the saying all too well that it takes more than a village to raise a child, for one - it takes parental involvement. Thus, it is important for teachers to reach out to parents in that first week of school. Teachers should write a formal letter that is welcoming and easily comprehensible to the parent and the student. This letter should be able to communicate that the teacher values the child’s educatio...

GENRE JAM: West Side Story (1961)

There's gonna be a rumble.... For this week's GJ article, I thought I would jump right into talking about a mortal-lock favourite of mine: West Side Story. If you haven't seen it (and a lot of folks havent - dudes especially) and you want a lesson in filmmaking craft from a bonafide master then you kind of owe it to yourself to rent this undisputed gem.

How To: Define entrepreneur

Jeff Hawkins has never thought of himself as an entrepreneur. According to him, being an entrepreneur is not a career choice, but it is something you do at certain points in your life because you have to. Hawkins believes entrepreneurship is a means to an end, as opposed to an end in itself. Define entrepreneur.

Windows Security: Software Level

As many of you know Windows is not the most secure Operating System in the world, but then again no OS is really secure if the user doesn't know how to protect themselves. Later I will show you how to lower the risk even more on your (the user's) end.

How To: Read a Poem

How to Read a Poem Poems can be read many ways. The following steps describe one approach. Of course not all poems require close study and all should be read first for pleasure.

News: Block Cell Phone Signals on the Carrier of Your Choice by Hacking a Radio Frequency Jammer

Cell phone jammers, a DIY endeavor for the darker crowd. I'm pretty sure we've all considered having one at some point: whether the obnoxiously loud woman next to you is announcing private bedroom stories to a crowd on the subway, or your kids are grounded from using the phone (and consequently snagged a hidden prepaid phone), sometimes having a cell phone jammer comes in handy.

News: Useful Vocabulary

Words that will help you with your writing Alliteration - The repetition of aconsonant sound. This si important because it makes words stand out, and because it can help set the mood for something.

How To: Back Up Your Infinity Blade II Character

Just removed an important gem from your weapon? Totally screw yourself over by restarting a bloodline instead of the battle you just lost? It sure would be great if you could backup your character so you can always have a safe copy ready to go at a moment's notice. Well, those smart folks over at the Infinity Blade forums have devised a clever way to do this.

How To: Make Marble Photo Magnets

Christmas is no more than a week away and you've still got some holiday shopping to do. Need an easy, thoughtful and personalized gift idea? Phone Snap is here to show you how to bring those cell phone photos off-screen with these DIY marble photo magnets. It takes less than five minutes to make and will look great on anybody's fridge!

How To: Enable Code Syntax Highlighting for Python in the Nano Text Editor

With the plethora of programming that we promote at Null Byte, I figured a lot of you newbies that stop by IRC will need a big boost in the right direction to make your dive into programming a lot easier. A hot question that has been thrown around in IRC a lot when making the initial dive is, "How do I write code?". People who do not know much about computers can't understand how code is written. Code that we write here is usually scripted and written in Python, so we will use it as our examp...

How To: Stream Media to a PS3 or Xbox 360 from Mac & Linux Computers

One of the main reasons I was held back from fully switching over to Linux was the fact that media streaming is nearly impossible. You have two choices in Windows: either you use file sharing with Windows Media Player, or you can just use the Windows Media Center. But both of these softwares are not for Linux or Mac. Microsoft doesn't like to make open source software because they believe in making a profit, instead of allowing others to innovate it.

News: Easy Skype iPhone Exploit Exposes Your Phone Book & More

Like the recent XSS 0day exploit found in the Mac and Windows versions of Skype, a similar one has been found in the Skype app for iPhone. The vulnerability allows an attacker to send a message that contains malicious JavaScript code in the "Name" parameter. This code can steal your phonebook, crash the app, and potentially do a lot worse. The URI scheme is improperly identified for the web-kit browser. Instead of going to a blank browser page, it defaults to "file://". The code could steal a...

News: Unity3D Could Change the Gaming World Now That It Has Flash

Big news from the world of game development engines. For several years, Unity3D has been the free 3D game development engine of choice for aspiring and indie game designers around the world. While it isn't as powerful as Unreal Engine 3 or CryEngine, it's free and much easier to use. Now, according to an announcement made by Unity yesterday, Unity 3D is about to unleash a huge weapon that neither of those other engines can claim: Flash compatibility.

How To: Subscribe to Google+ Users with Google Reader

If you're like me, you don't do a lot of web browsing anymore. I subscribe to my favorite blogs' feeds and read them via Google Reader. It's one of my favorite Google products, for a lot of reasons. I can keep up with most of my web activities in one tab, and follow along with my favorite blogs, Flickr photos, and Twitter. I can share instantly with people who follow me, and see what other people have shared with me. I hope that Google+ will integrate well with Google Reader, because it alrea...

News: Mobile Game Developer Fined $50,000 by FTC for Soliciting Emails from Minors

Children under the age of 13 possess insight that can blow the minds of their elders, but not the wherewithal to make important life choices for themselves. This is exactly why there are strict rules against marketing cigarettes to them. In 2000, a law went into effect called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that institutes similar consumer protections for our youth's online identities, prohibiting companies from soliciting personal information from children under 13 years of age ...

News: New Android Market Update Lets You Rent Movies and Buy eBooks

Google has been slowly rolling out a new update for the Android Market in the United States, which gives mobile users a new interface and some additional content for their Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The update started a couple weeks ago, taking the Android Market to version 3.0.27 on devices running Android 2.2 or higher. The new Android Market has a Honeycomb feel to it with a more visually pleasing layout and new colorful promotional page which showcases top apps and games, as...

How To: How Do You Handle Payroll?

There is a difference between what is possible, what should be done and what an owner manager may want to do. Decide how you want to handle payroll then determine if your desires and best practices are in agreement. Before I point out the decisions that need to be made, let me make two points. First, all personnel for your business do not have to be employees. Some entities can be run with all non-employee personnel or a combination of both. This is one of the reasons why doing a business pla...