Windows XP just isn’t secure anymore! If the expense of the new Windows operating systems is too great, here’s an easy and painless way to get a completely free Linux, keep your old Windows XP installation, and start surfing securely. There are a lot of great features of Linux, and security is one of the best. Viruses on desktop versions of Linux are uncommon—in fact most Linux users simply laugh at the idea of viruses....
Docker images consist of multiple layers that collectively provide the content you see in your containers. But what actually is a layer, and how does it differ from a complete image? In this article you’ll learn how to distinguish these two concepts and why the difference matters. While you can use Docker without a thorough understanding of layers, having an awareness of their purpose will help you identify optimization opportunities....
Some laptops and tablets now ship with Microsoft’s “Windows 8.1 with Bing” operating system, something you may see mentioned in their technical specifications. But how is this different from Windows 8.1 — is using Bing mandatory? Like a lot of what’s going on around Windows 8 — especially with naming — Microsoft has created some unnecessary confusion here. The good news is that you don’t really need to care whether a device comes with Windows 8....
Anti-aliasing is a word that’s often thrown around by photographers and gamers when dealing with graphics and images. Take a look at what anti-aliasing is, why we use it, and, most importantly, when it’s best to not use it. It’s an important part of imagemaking and photography—anti-aliasing is certainly something that should be understood as thoroughly as possible to create high quality images. We hope you’re prepared for a very geeky article, as you have lots of discussion of math and science mixed in with today’s explainer article....
PHP 8.2 was released in December 2022 as the latest minor version in the PHP 8.x release cycle. It adds new features that build upon the capabilities of previous versions, further simplifying the development experience. In this article, we’ll tour each of the major changes and show how they’ll make your code easier to maintain. Type System Improvements PHP has been gradually evolving its type system towards a more strongly typed model over the past several releases....
WizMouse is a free and lightweight Windows application that enables a simple but effective trick: the ability to scroll the contents of a window that is under your mouse cursor without shifting the focus to that window. It may not seem like much, at first glance, but the ability to scroll a window without having to click on it and shift the focus of your current window is a huge time saver....
RELATED: The 10 Best Movies on Netflix in 2023 The Angry Birds Movie 2 Play Video The first animated movie based on Rovio’s mobile game was exactly what people expected out of a quickie cash-in on a fading fad. But The Angry Birds Movie 2 gets weirder with its approach to the world of birds and pigs at war on neighboring islands. Producers handed the sequel to The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack creator Thurop Van Orman....
The Ubuntu Software Center is a solid, user-friendly application, but sometimes you need more power. The Synaptic package manager – previously included with Ubuntu by default – can do many things the Ubuntu Software Center can’t. You can install Synaptic from the Ubuntu Software Center – just search for Synaptic. You can also perform all these operations from the terminal – but, if you need a powerful graphical application for managing packages, Synaptic can’t be beat....
Docker is a popular development tool as it simplifies starting isolated instances of your application with a reproducible configuration. It can also be used in production where it ensures live deployments are identical to your development environment. Getting a container into production isn’t always as straightforward as running docker run on your local machine. It’s not a great idea to be manually pushing images to a registry, connecting to a remote Docker host, and starting your containers....
Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag to answer your pressing tech questions. This week we’re taking a look at halting Internet Explorer from updating to version 9, customizing folder backgrounds in Windows 7, and customizing the Ubuntu bootloader. Halting Internet Explorer Upgrade Nags Dear Cautious, Is there a way that I can stop my computer from updating my Internet Explorer 8 to Internet Explorer 9? Currently I have to de-select it every time my computer wants to update....
Once a week we share some of the reader emails we’ve answered with the greater HTG readership. This week we’re looking at how to batch resize photos, exporting Outlook Express messages from XP to Windows 7, and cleaning a filthy keyboard. Easy Batch Photo Resizing Dear Shutterbug, Love your newsletter (which I’ve been receiving now for several months)—Several useful articles there for an non-technical guy like me. Here’s an issue I’d love some help with....
Every week we dip into our mailbag and answer your pressing tech questions. This week we’re looking at the difference between ISO and TS folders in DVD video, helping Windows recall folder locations, and Kindle book conversion. ISO Versus TS Folders Dear ISO-Confused I have a hard drive with several hundred GB’s of movies. Some are old family videos in which I just copied the Video_TS folder and Audio_TS folders [from the unencrypted DVD]....
A person using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac can now start a FaceTime call and generate a web link. That person can send you this link, and you can join the FaceTime call in your browser, even if you’re using Windows. This feature was added in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey, which were released in 2021. There is no FaceTime app for Windows, however. You also can’t start a FaceTime call on the web....
Firefox 4 has finally been released, and while it looks an awful lot like Opera, there’s no question that it’s faster, better, and an all-around great upgrade from 3.6. Here’s a couple of highlights. The bottom line? If you use a ton of add-ons, you’re going to want to check them out before you upgrade, to make sure they are compatible. Firefox 4 changes the underlying extension architecture a great deal, and many add-ons just won’t work....
Roll Your Own Flash Diffusion Dome Ron writes in with the following photography tip: We checked out the tutorial; for what amounts to a 50 cent food container and a spattering of spray paint, it certainly yields good results. Thanks for sharing! DIY Ethernet Cable Tester Tests Cables On The Cheap Mitch writes in with a tip off on how to roll your own cable tester: What they lack for in pocketability, they certainly make up for in price....
Every week we dip into our tips bag to share some handy reader tips with you. This week we’re looking at tips to help you share folders between Linux and Windows installs, upgrading your Canon’s firmware, a simple way to clean your keyboard. Harmonizing Dual Boot Systems with Symbolic Links Fodaro writes in with his experience dual booting Windows and Fedora: Thanks for writing in Fodaro; we’re sure other readers have found themselves in a similar situation and will benefit from your tip....
As a sort of branch off of Google’s Duplex, the company announced Call Screen, which is a feature where your Pixel phone can answer the call for you and ask who’s calling. Essentially, if you’re getting a call from a number that you don’t recognize, you can hit the “Screen Call” button and a robot will basically answer the call for you so that you don’t have to. From there, a transcription of the conversation appears on your phone’s screen in real time....
Google published a nearly two-minute video about the potential for augmented reality to reduce language barriers, through glasses that would overlay other conversations in your own native language. The video showed off a pair of normal-looking glasses performing real-time translation, and showing the results to the person wearing the glasses. Think the Combadge from Star Trek, but on your face. Play Video Before you get too excited, this isn’t a product announcement, or even confirmation Google will release any AR-powered glasses anytime soon — the narration just calls it “a prototype we’ve been working on....
Photo by sskennel. 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. The Question SuperUser reader Sathya posed the question: Here you can see a screenshot of a small C++ program called Triangle.exe with a rotating triangle based on the OpenGL API. Admittedly a very basic example but I think it’s applicable to other graphic cards operations....
There are plenty of ways to customize a chart you create in Excel. If you want to make sure your chart is clear to those viewing it, you can add vertical or horizontal axis titles and customize those too. Add Axis Titles to a Chart in Excel Select your chart and then head to the Chart Design tab that displays. Click the Add Chart Element drop-down arrow and move your cursor to Axis Titles....
