If you have a specific set of websites you visit often, you can make it easy to open all those websites at once using a bookmarks folder and a nickname. Typing a folder’s nickname in the address bar opens all the websites in that folder. To do this, we’ll create a bookmarks folder, add some sites to it, and apply a nickname to it. First, bookmark some sites you want to open using a nickname....
Whenever you download any file to your hard drive via your browser, Windows automatically flags it as coming from the Internet and potentially dangerous. As a result when you open the respective file, depending on the type, Windows will warn you with a dialog box or prevent the file from executing altogether until you mark it as safe. Have you ever wondered how Windows keeps track of this flag on these files, how you can easily (bulk) remove it on files you know are safe, and/or add this flag (along with the protection it brings) to any file?...
What Is LaMDA? LaMDA is short for Language Model for Dialog Application. In other words, it’s a machine learning language model that’s specifically designed to generate natural dialogue. Machine learning methods allow computers to discover patterns and relationships in data. So, for example, you can “train” a machine-learning algorithm such as GPT-3 (another cutting-edge system) on all of the works of Shakespeare and then have it generate new original texts that read like Shakespeare....
When Windows 11 launches in the fall of 2021, you’ll be able to see an install time estimate for Windows updates. It’s a feature just rolling out now for some Windows Insiders, but we should hopefully see it live in the finished builds. Here’s how it works. Estimates Everywhere When this feature fully rolls out for Insiders, if you’re running Windows 11, you’ll see an estimate of the time it will take to install a firmware update in several locations....
A lot of the customer service work Meta-owned Facebook is doing is aimed at creators on the platform. However, the company did announce that the Facebook app has a customer service chat in testing that’ll be available to English-speaking users. The company wasn’t clear on exactly who will actually have access, though, so if you’ve been locked out of your account, you can give it a try. “On the Facebook App specifically, we’ve also started testing live chat help for some English-speaking users globally, including creators, who’ve been locked out of their accounts,” said Meta in a blog post....
A series of studies over the last century have proven time and time again: if people can’t see where they are going they can’t walk straight. Check out this video from NPR demonstrating the phenomenon and pick up a few tips on navigating in a white out. Walking in a straight line would seem like such a simple task but if you can’t see where you’re going you can’t properly align yourself with your destination....
It’s not as versatile as a true Geiger Counter (it doesn’t measure as broad a spectrum) but for a free application that could be quickly deployed during an emergency to the hundreds of millions of smartphones floating around, it’s pretty awesome. From the app author’s web site: Want to play around with it? Hit up the link below to grab a free copy. [Ed. Oops! The app is actually $4....
Ubuntu, like many other Linux distributions, is a community-developed operating system. In addition to getting involved and submitting patches, there are a variety of ways you can provide useful feedback and suggest features to Ubuntu. From voting on and suggesting the features you’d like to see to submitting data about your hardware support and reporting bugs – both in stable releases of Ubuntu and in development releases – Ubuntu offers several ways to submit feedback....
For all the old jokes about one-button mice and simplicity, Macs have some power-user features Windows just doesn’t offer. Automator is one of them, offering a simple way to automate repetitive tasks without any third-party software. Automator is a powerful tool, and there’s a lot you can do with it. You can use the graphical interface to create automation “recipes” with drag-and-drop, or write AppleScript by hand. A quick web search will lead you to many different examples of things you can do with it....
Today a reader wrote in telling us that their home page used to be Google, but now they seem to be stuck on iGoogle instead, and would really rather have the plain old Google back. Here’s what we told them. What’s happened here is that since the Google redesign, it’s a little more confusing how to switch back to the old Google page, and once your account has been set to use iGoogle, it’s going to keep showing that page instead....
At Make Magazine they’ve shared a guide to building your own galvanic skin response tester. It’s not a full lie detector (nor are lie detectors even as accurate as Hollywood would have us believe); none the less it’s a fun little project and a great way to learn about physiology and electronics at the same time. Watch the video above to see how they build and test it, then hit up the link below for detailed instructions....
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader Jake wants to run a BAT file invisibly, he writes: Is there a solution for Jake’s stealthy prompt desire? I found a Redcar.bat file which is meant to launch Redcar as a shortcut, I presume, but I don’t want the extra command prompt window to open whenever I launch the BAT file....
Ecobee sells two different smart thermostats, both of which offer different features at different prices. If you’re in the market for a smart thermostat and have narrowed it down to Ecobee, here are some things you should know about the Ecobee4 and the Ecobee3 Lite before you make an official purchase. RELATED: How to Get the Most Out of Your Ecobee Smart Thermostat Ecobee’s previous flagship smart thermostat was the Ecobee3, but that was eventually replaced by the newer Ecobee4....
Once a week we round up some of the great reader tips to share. Today we’re looking at an iPad interface emulator for Windows, a fast-access flashlight app for the iPhone, and a Windows-based way to organize Kindle collections. iPadian is a Windows-based iPad Interface Emulator Play Video Nick writes in with a tip for an fairly unconventional Windows interface overhaul. He writes: Thanks for the tip, Nick. While we’re happy to stick with the nice iOS interface on our actual iPads we’re sure there are more than a few readers out there who would be ready to try it on on their desktops....
One of the characters you might have seen around How-To Geek is our very own “Keyboard Ninja.” Today, we honor him in t-shirt form, and you can pick the first design you’d like to see printed for the HTG store. If you like the content here at HTG, we’d love to hear back from you—we made these for you, the readers, and we hope to hear if you like what we’ve got to offer....
Windows 8’s default blue window border color isn’t the only option. Windows 8 automatically selects the appropriate color depending on your wallpaper – you can also select a different color or use a third-party tool to easily select other colors. Changing the color of the window borders also changes the color of your taskbar. The taskbar and window borders use the same colors in Windows 8, although the taskbar is still partially transparent....
If you love Minecraft, odds are you’ve found a server you enjoy playing on. Minecraft is a great game, but with Bukkit, you can run a more efficient server that’s easy to manage and is ready for advanced plugins. An Alternative Server We’ve already covered Minecraft, a game that geeks love, and discussed how running your own server can make things more fun. But, what exactly is Bukkit? Bukkit is a Minecraft-compatible server crafted from the ground up....
The Echo’s far-field voice recognition technology is one of the device’s most touted features. It lets the Echo hear your voice from well across the room, even when there’s music playing. However, the biggest hindrance is walls, and if you want to control the Echo from the next room over, it may not hear you. Furthermore, if you’re away from home and you want to give a voice command to Alexa, you obviously can’t....
Philips’ new Hue app is quite nice, but it’s missing some very useful features of the original “Gen 1” app. Thankfully, the Gen 1 app is still available for download, so if you need those old features, here’s how to get them. RELATED: How to Set Up Your Philips Hue Lights If you’re setting up your Hue lights for the first time, we recommend using the Gen 2 app–you can see instructions for setting it up in our Philips Hue guide....
Creating a chart in Microsoft Excel is a reasonably simple process, but it’s the customizations you apply that take the most time. So, if you create a chart and want to reuse the colors and formatting, save it as a template! By turning your hard work into a reusable template, you can save time later. Plus, you can hang onto those company colors or specific formatting you spent so much time applying....
