Hacksar

If you recently decided to make the upgrade to Microsoft’s latest operating system offering of Windows 7 (and even if you haven’t, I STRONGLY suggest you do, as it’s almost perfect), or have even been hesitating updating your OS because you don’t want to spend time reinstalling the numerous pieces of software you’ve amassed on your system over the years, fret no more. (And of course, for those of you that regularly format and reinstall Windows OS’s that aren’t Windows 7, this is still applicable.) I recently my laptop’s OS from Vista to Windows 7 (good riddance) and I was able to save over an hour of tedious “download installer”, “click install”, and “do not sign up for newsletter” actions by using a great tool called Ninite Easy PC Setup. Keep reading for the guide on how you can use it yourself.

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If you are a television aficionado, you probably have noticed that there are more and more TV shows that have captured your interest, and it’s getting difficult to keep track of when each show is airing (and if it’s even on that week). You may have already read about our article on How to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows, but for one reason or another, TED may not be enough. Sometimes, you just want to know if there is an episode that will air this week just so you can either look forward or… not look forward to that day.

You may also have embraced Google Calendar or iCal to keep track of your life’s daily activities and be your personal secretary (I know I have), and so here’s a great way to automatically update your gCal or iCal with the airdates/airtimes of your favorite episodes with no interaction from you. It’s a good-old set-it-and-forget-it. Keep reading for the info.

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If you’ve browsed websites, you may have seen certain links or images that indicate an “RSS Feed”, but may not have any idea what that means. An RSS feed basically is a link to a file that updates whenever the site itself updates, and you can use this feed with other websites or softwares to alert you when there is an update to the original site. However, not everybody has access to some sort of RSS reader (whether it’s Google Reader or simply Google Personalized Homepage).

However, if you still want to be alerted when there is an update to a specific site, there is a very simple way. Keep reading for the guide.

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The leading website in streaming television is currently Hulu.com, as you probably know. It hosts a wide variety of different TV shows as well as movies, and one can spend days simply watching everything. However, It can become difficult keeping track of what you have already watched, and also keeping track of when new episodes are watchable online (since it takes a few days between the actual airing and the online availability of the show to occur). However, Hulu has incorporated an extremely useful feature that can assist in all your woes. Keep reading for the full information.

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There are so many different types of file formats that it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of all of them. Most of the time, your computer can’t even play certain files that you may have downloaded and wish to open. The biggest culprits of this are audio and video files. They come in all these random file formats where finding a player software for them can be extremely difficult, and so your only remaining option is to use some sort of converter to convert the file to a more popular format.

However, the problem with that is that if it is such a random file format, finding a converter can be difficult in itself. Furthermore, once you do find that program, it most likely is a trial and you have to install it on your system, then convert, then uninstall. All this is a hassle and a pain, especially for one measely file conversion. That’s where online file converters come in. Keep reading for the low-down on one of the most comprehensive online file converters.

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The internet is a very large place, and there are multitudes of online stores that sell things. Whether it’s just some generic sketchy .com online business or if it’s a store that’s selling an item you want through Amazon.com, it’s your duty to know whether or not that company is reputable. There are so many instances and cases where online stores are actually scams, and they just run away with your credit card info (since it’s so easy to set up a website without any sort of licensing). Other times, the service from said store are so atrocious that you wish it were a scam, because it seems like you’re never going to receive your package anyway.

You may think that you’re one step ahead of the game and head over to Google to search about the company before you purchase something from some random site, but often times that search is inconclusive. If the company name is some generic word, your search will be flooded with inapplicable results. Or, on the contrary, the company is so obscure that a search returns virtually no useful results. However, there is a way that has tons of reviews of a great deal of online stores, both sketchy and well-established. Keep reading for the info.

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YouTube has become the leading video streaming website found on the internet, and has a treasure trove of videos (and audio clips as well). Everybody and their mother (literally) has been hooked by the YouTube bug, and often find themselves spending hours on end simply watching (or listening) to various videos. However, as you may have noticed, it is notoriously difficult to actually download a YouTube video, unless you know what you’re doing. Whether you want the whole video, or just the audio from it, there thankfully are a few free sites that let you convert (and download) just that. Keep reading for the list of sites and description on how you can do this.

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If you have even the slightest attachment to your computer, you may have come to realize the hard way that often times you need to do some sort of job that can only be done on your computer. But, you’re stuck on some stranger’s computer and it doesn’t have all the cool bells and whistles that you simply need to do your job. Or, worse yet, you’re at school and you forgot to print out your essay, and nobody is at home to email it to you (or something of the type). You may think you’re smart and have set up a VNC server just for occasions like this… except for the fact that you’re not allowed to install any software on the only computer you have access to. There goes your master plan.

It’s ok, though, because there’s always another way. Keep reading for the simple guide to setting up remote access to your computer where all you need to actually access your computer is a web browser.

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Sometimes you’ve been surfing the internet for so long that it seems like you’ve run out of things to do. You’ve read all of your daily news / fun websites, and you don’t want to do work. Rather than typing in random web addresses and seeing what site pops up, there’s a much better way to spend your time.

If you remember back to your childhood, there’s a game called Pictionary, where one person would basically sketch something and other people would have to guess what was being drawn. This game has made its way online, and so you can play with people from around the world in your own game of online Pictionary. Keep reading for the full details.

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If you’ve been using computers for any amount of time, you are probably quite aware that there are almost an infinite amount of fonts out there. Serif, sans-serif, it can almost become too much to keep track of. Often times, you may come across a certain font that you really like, but have no idea what it is. Too bad there isn’t a way to find the name of a font just by looking at it…

But wait, there is! (I think I’ve been watching too many infomercials lately…)

WhatTheFont.com does just that. You upload a sample image of some words written in the font you want, and then the website will analyze and give you the closests matches to the font. I’ve used this site multiple times and it has never failed me. Keep reading for the step by step guide.

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