Category: Guides

  • Stream Your Music Library With Vibe Streamer

    Vibe Streamer is a free program that allows you to stream your music library to any device with a Flash enabled web browser.  Vibe Streamer also offers a set of security settings, user controls, and customization features. Download and Install Vibe Streamer is very lightweight.  The system requirements for Vibe Streamer 2.06 are detailed below: […]

  • Firefox Desktop Turns Your Browser Into an Operating System (sort of)

    Firefox only:  With the advent of cloud computing and sites such as Gmail, Google Docs, and even the online version of Photoshop, it is clear that desktop computing as we know it is beginning to shift towards an internet environment.  Browsers are quickly becoming the focal point of all our daily computing tasks, which easily […]

  • How To: Check Your Hard Drive Health With A Linux LiveCD

    Previously, I wrote a guide on monitoring your drive’s status with S.M.A.R.T. tools from a running system [see Check your HDD’s S.M.A.R.T. Status].  Although these programs work well for checking the live status of your hard drive, you may run across a situation where you cannot boot the operating system to access these programs. If […]

  • How To: Add Panels (Toolbars) to a Secondary Display in Ubuntu 9.04

    If you’re using multiple monitors in Ubuntu, you may find it frustrating that the Panels (Windows users will recognize these as toolbars) are only available on your primary display.  This means that if you’re working with applications on a secondary monitor, you have to look back to your primary to do any application switching, as […]

  • How To: Install Adobe AIR in Ubuntu 9.04

    Adobe AIR is a platform that allows software developers to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.  A few examples of applications that are based on the Adobe AIR platform are Twhirl and TweetDeck. To install Adobe AIR in Ubuntu: Navigate to http://get.adobe.com/air/ and click the “Download Now” button. […]

  • How To: Install and Configure Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu 9.04

    Although Ubuntu has fantastic driver support in recent editions, I had some initial difficulty getting the Nvidia graphics drivers (for my GeForce 8600GT) properly installed and configured in Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”.  The built-in video drivers supported multiple monitors, but I was only able to drag windows halfway across the secondary monitor before they would […]

  • How To: Fix Your Wireless Mighty Mouse’s Bluetooth Connection

    An issue that’s been popping up around the blogosphere recently is losing the Bluetooth connection with an Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse on Mac OS X. Essentially, the Bluetooth connection will be working fine and then – without warning – it will stop, leaving the user with no mouse support whatsoever. Here’s a simple way to […]

  • How To: Automatically View YouTube Videos in HD and Resized to 720p

    Firefox Only:  Now that YouTube has a high quality / high definition option available for almost all videos, you may have found yourself wishing it would be enabled by default.  Realistically, YouTube has the higher quality mode disabled by default to save bandwidth on users who don’t mind lower quality videos, but this guide will […]

  • How To: Automatically Hide Labels in Gmail

    Firefox Only:  Although Gmail’s labels can be extremely useful for organizing and increasing your email productivity, they can become quite a nuisance if you have several labels applied to a message.  When this happens, the labels take over the space that usually displays the message preview, and makes your inbox start to look cluttered and […]

  • Spice Up Firefox’s Appearance with Personas

    Firefox is a great browser, but despite all it’s usefulness it is pretty drab in the aesthetics department.  While the browser has always allowed you to install themes to modify its appearance, they have never been wildly popular nor particularily intuitive for the everyday user. Personas for Firefox are lightweight, easy-to-install “skins” that can be […]