The XPS format is Microsoft’s alternative to PDF. It was introduced in Windows Vista, but never gained much traction. However, modern versions of Windows continue to include better support for XPS files than PDF files. Once regarded as a possible “PDF killer,” the XPS file format now lives on in Windows seemingly out of sheer inertia. The average person should stay away from XPS files and use PDF files instead....
Cardano’s DeFi Ecosystem is Growing The upgrade is a welcome sign for developers and investors of Cardano. Despite being created nearly five years ago, Cardano only integrated blockchains back in September 2021. For Cardano to meet another milestone so quickly is promising. Since integrating smart contracts, Cardano has seen explosive growth in activity on the blockchain. Developers rely on smart contracts to create decentralized applications like DEXs, NFTs, or other yield farming platforms....
MongoDB’s latest major release, v5.0, was launched on July 13th, 2021. This iteration of the document-oriented database adds new features and improvements as well as a revised release cadence for future versions. Time Series Data One of the headline feature additions is first-class support for time series data. While some developers have already built their own time series tooling around MongoDB, having time series data types natively available will help many more to get started....
Wait… Napster Is Still a Thing? While you might be surprised to hear Napster still exists, it’s not the same file-sharing app you know from back in the day. That Napster died in 2002. The Napster properties, however, were eventually acquired by streaming service Rhapsody, who, in 2016, rebranded as the “new” Napster. So yes, Napster still exists in the sense that its logo still exists on a music app. The illegal peer-to-peer MP3 sharing is long gone, though, supplanted by de jure internet streaming....
EBS is a block storage service offered by AWS. If you’re running an EC2 instance, you’re definitely using it, as it serves as the storage disk for your server. However, it’s not safe from failures, and you should still do regular backups. “Fault-Tolerant” Does Not Mean Safe Of course, EBS is fairly fault tolerant on the backend. AWS aren’t a bunch of savages running a JBOD array; they’ve planned for single drive failures, so a single bad drive isn’t going to take down your server....
The biggest problem with Event Viewer is that it can be really confusing – there are a lot of warnings, errors, and informational messages, and without knowing what it all means, you can assume (incorrectly) that your computer is broken or infected when there’s nothing really wrong. In fact, the tech support scammers are using Event Viewer as part of their sales tactic to convince confused users that their PC is infected with viruses....
If you’re scratching your head at what Tomato is, check out our guide to installing it and come back when you’re done for some handy tips. This guide assumes you’re running Tomato version 1.28. We will be demonstrating all examples on a Linksys WRT54GL. So grab your router, a computer, and a fire extinguisher (just kidding) and let’s get started! 1) Increase Your Wireless Signal Sometimes your router’s wireless signal may not be reaching certain areas of your house....
The model has implications on your organization’s culture and working practices too. Cloud technologies should become an integral part of how you deliver software. Everyone needs to be aware of the possibilities so they can seek to utilize them in their work. This lets you operate in a more agile manner than rival companies which use the cloud as a bolt-on facility. In this article, you’ll learn some of the principles you can follow to efficiently build cloud native applications and maximize your return on investment....
While most of these settings can be changed via the Facebook app on iPhone and Android, the settings themselves may be presented slightly differently when accessed from the app. Delist Your Profile from Search Engines If you don’t want your Facebook profile potentially appearing when someone searches for your name, you should instruct Facebook to delist it from search engines. This tells the search engine not to index the page, but this might take a short while to take effect....
You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Today we highlight how to block unwanted and spam text messages, how to teach Windows 7 to prioritize Wi-Fi connections, and how to revitalize your aging Windows Mobile phone. Blocking Unwanted Text Messages Dear Spamalot, I occasionally get unwanted text messages from a variety of sources: old SMS notification lists I can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from, random spammy ringtone purchases requests that are probably my fault from past lapses in judgment on my phone, and that kind of stuff....
Once a week we round up some great tips from the HTG tips box and share them with everyone; this week we’re looking at recycling Android phones for use around the house, increasing safety with a glowing LED switch, and how to easily encrypt Dropbox contents. Recycle an Old Android Phone for Around the House Duties Nicole writes in with the following tip: Well if ever there was a reader email to make us feel guilty about not turning that old HTC Hero into a super awesome XBMC remote, this was certainly it....
What Are Logs? To figure out what happens to them, let’s first recap what logs are. When you make a connection between two devices—it doesn’t have to be through a VPN, or even via the internet at all—a record is created that records, or logs, that connection. A collection of these records is called a log file, or log for short. The name probably comes from the logbook a ship’s captain keeps to record the happenings on board their vessel....
Need to debug an application running inside your Kubernetes cluster? Port forwarding is a way to connect to Pods that aren’t publicly accessible. You can use this technique to inspect databases, monitoring tools, and other applications which you want to deploy internally without a public route. Port forwarding is built into Kubectl. The CLI can start tunneling sessions that redirect traffic on local ports to Pods in your Kubernetes cluster....
Gmail doesn’t offer a tool for adding tables to your emails. However, you can create tables in Google Sheets and move them into your Gmail emails. We’ll show you how. How This Works In Gmail, there’s no option to create or add tables to your emails directly in the compose screen. But you can copy tables from outside of Gmail and paste them into your emails. The workaround below uses Google Sheets to create a table....
If you’ve spent any time at all on the Internet, odds are pretty decent that you’ve encountered Reddit, the link-sharing social network and discussion platform. And if you’ve spent any time at all on Reddit, odds are approximately 100% that you’ve encountered jerks. Not that Reddit is inherently jerky, mind you—it’s just that there are millions of users posting links and comments daily. Unless you’re specifically limiting your viewing to the /r/Aww subreddit, you’re mathematically certain to encounter a certain level of dickish behavior....
When you download a script off the internet and try to run it, if you have not previously configured PowerShell, it will throw a nasty error in red font. This is enough to scare most users off, but there is an easy fix. PowerShell has a number of execution modes that define what type of code it is permitted to run, this is governed by a registry key that lives in the HKLM hive....
If you’ve got a hard drive formatted with the FAT32 file system, you might have found that you can’t copy large files to that drive. So how do you fix that, and convert the file system over to NTFS? Here’s how. Scratching your head? Here’s the deal: the FAT32 file system, which most external drives are still shipped with, can’t handle files larger than about 4 GB in size—which means most full-length movies and anything really large, like a virtual machine....
If you have some stray screws and bolts (a.k.a. fasteners) lying around and aren’t quite sure what size they are, or if you need to replace a missing bolt on a piece of machinery and need to know what size to get, here are some methods to easily figure that out. Check Out the Hardware Store RELATED: The Differences Between Screws, Bolts, and Nails (and When You Should Use Each)...
If you upgraded to Windows 11, you might be confused by the new right-click context menu in File Explorer. Where are all the options you’re used to seeing in Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows? We’ll help you find them. They’re Buried in the “Show More Options” Menu (Shift+F10) In Windows 11, Microsoft has created a new framework for the right-click context menu in File Explorer and on the Windows desktop....
When you have lots and lots of tabs open, it’s extremely annoying to suddenly hear a background tab playing some loud noise or music, and then you have to hunt down the right tab to close. Here’s a great Chrome extension that gives you better control. Head over to the Chrome Web Store and grab a copy of the MuteTab extension. Confirm your installation by clicking on the install button....
