Smart Laptop Search Results

Alien Swarm: Free Game from Valve!

You can get Alien Swarm for free on Steam starting today. Alien Swarm is a 4 person co-op adventure with an updated Source engine and the ability to create custom levels. Think of this as a top view Left 4 Dead or Killing Floor, but with aliens. Too bad they are not zombie aliens, but it's a free game so we can't complain.

How To: 9 Nifty Ways to Use Washi Tape

If the letters on your laptop keyboard are faded or dirty, cover them with strips of washi tape. A high-quality, decorative tape made of rice paper based in Japan, washi tape is an extremely versatile craft tape known for its eye-pleasing decorative patterns and low-adhesive quality that makes it easy to unstick, reposition, and reuse again and again.

How To: Hack Battery-powered Christmas Lights Into Laptop Holiday Decorations

Christmas is the time to splurge— not just with presents and food— we're talking decorations. It's that time of year when verdurous fir trees take up half of your living room, when waving elf figurines silhouette your front windows, when Rudolph flies from the rooftops, Santa in tow. But more than anything else, it's a time when those Christmas lights double tour elctrical bills, dancing to the "12 Days of Christmas" for the whole neighborhood to see.

News: Hack Your Computer's BIOS to Unlock Hidden Settings, Overclocking & More

Your BIOS, or Basic Input Output System, is the firmware on your motherboard responsible for initializing your computer's hardware when it is first powered on. It probes for video adapters, RAM, the whole works. The BIOS provides a small library of basic input/output functions used to operate and control the peripherals such as the keyboard, text display functions and so forth, and these software library functions are callable by external software such as the OS and system software within sai...

How To: Use Smart Shapes in Fireworks 8

With Smart Shapes you can easily create complex objects like arrows, stars, rounded rectangle, and even 3-dimensional objects with click and drag ease. In this Fireworks 8 video tutorial you will learn how to use smart shapes. Make sure to hit "play tutorial" in the top left corner of the video to start the video. There is no sound, so you'll need to watch the pop-up directions. Use Smart Shapes in Fireworks 8.

How To: Turn Off 4G on the HTC Thunderbolt Smartphone

So you own the latest smart phone beast, the HTC Thunderbolt, but you don't get 4G service in your area yet and it's killing your battery life because of the constant 4G searching. What to do? The 4G network is spreading throughout the country which is great, but it's not provided in your area or you've traveled to a non-4G destination. Why not turn off the 4G and save battery life? Turning off the 4G on your HTC Thunderbolt is very easy to do and the procedure is reversible.

News: Automatically Manage and Sort Files Using Hazel [Mac]

In many of my articles, I will refer to applications designed to empower Mac users to automate various tasks on their computer. One such application is called Hazel. Like smart folders, smart playlists, and smart albums found in Mac OS X and iPhoto, Hazel can automate the task of moving, copying, or deleting files in folders on your Mac. I recommend Hazel as one of the most essential applications for any Mac user. Let's explore how it works.

Weekend Homework: How to Become a Null Byte Contributor (2/17/2012)

Grab your thinking caps and get your hack on. Null Byte is officially seeking contributors on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the Null Byte community on anything, from hardware hacks to life hacks. Contributors that write tutorials will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (providing it's up to par, of course).

News: Is Your Dream Gaming PC Worth It?

The last week has been a trying one for me. On Sunday, there were four computers in my office, three of which were broken. The fourth was not really a computer, but more of a collection of parts that were cobbled together for the purpose of constructing a PC that would sneer derisively at the mere mention of turning down any game's ambient occlusion settings.

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.

How To: Effectively Play Hooky from Work

On average, about thirty percent of working Americans have called in sick at least once just to take a day off from work. If you are in the other goody-two-shoes seventy percent of the work force who've only called in sick for actual physical illness or have never actually used a sick day, consider giving yourself a mental health day if you ever feel like you really need it.

Solidoodle: Cheap 3D Printing at Home for Under $500!

The possibilities are endless for 3D printing. With your very own 3D printer, you can make spare parts, circuit boards, inflatable balloons, duplicate keys, Minecraft cities, and even tiny replicas of your face. From a more artsy standpoint, you can make complex sculptures, like this cool mathematical sculpture of thirty interwoven hexagons by Francesco De Comite:

How To: Use Google Voice to Prank Your Friends on April Fool's Day

In this article, I'll show you how to prank your friends on April Fool's Day with the very popular Google Voice, a computer to land/mobile calling feature. Basically, Google allows you to play whatever you like through the microphone port on your computer, and play it right through to your victim's phone. Whether it's Rick Astley ("Never Gonna Give You Up") or a text-to-speech application, general hilarity always follows.

News: Holy Pac-Man! DIY Light Painting Saber Is Pure Awesome

A few months ago, we showed you a pretty awesome light painting project that visually captured invisible Wi-Fi signals around town using a Wi-Fi detecting rod filled with 80 LEDs. With some long exposure photography, the results were pretty amazing. This project was inspired by those crazy Norwegians, but this build lets you do something even more amazing—capture pictures of colorful written text and drawn images, frozen in midair.

News: Oops, New York Times... Why Is Your PayWall So Easy to Hack?

When the New York Times paywall first went up, there was a whole lot of balking. The idea seemed egregious to most, and the digerati's overwhelming conclusion was that the system would fail. But interestingly enough, there is speculation that the NYT is actually experiencing an increase in their print subscriptions, which according to Business Insider founder Henry Blodgett, is due to users feeling less guilt over buying the print media if, after all, the digital version is no longer free.

Receipt Racer: A Paper and Laser Tangible Video Game

Video games have been a purely digital medium for some decades now. They exist in the electronic nether, embedded on discs and projected on screens. Since digital distribution has gained popularity, even the physical manifestation of the game disc is going away, leaving games (especially digitally distributed indie games) more ethereal than ever before. It is unclear whether this slightly unsettling fact was on the minds of the three people who made Receipt Racer, but regardless, it stands as...