Tutorials »

• Tech Tip: Advanced Google search functions

  Searching Google is a quick way to find information, but more advanced functions can help users find more helpful information faster.

  Written by Nick Barber • 15 May 13 17:10

• Free Amazon Web Services -- and how to make the most of them

  If you avoid some gotchas and keep a close eye on resource usage, you can have a handy server in the Amazon cloud for free

  Written by Serdar Yegulalp • 10 April 13 10:16

• How to script: A Bash crash course

  An easy step-by-step guide to the Bash command-line shell and shell scripting

  Written by Paul Venezia • 08 March 13 11:08

• Cyberstalking with LinkedIn

  You just left cocktail hour or a networking event and forgot to grab a business card from the person you'd been chatting with. Don't kick yourself. Instead, log on to LinkedIn to do some cyberstalking. It's a much better resource than Facebook, because with just bits and pieces of information, you're still likely to be able to find your target.

  Written by Nick Barber • 12 Feb. 13 22:28

• Control your TV with your smartphone, tablet

  Using your smartphone or tablet to control your Tivo box is easy and offers a lot of flexibility in recording shows and channel surfing.

  Written by Nick Barber • 22 Jan. 13 18:49

• 5 excellent uses of Windows 8 Hyper-V

  Windows 8's bare-metal virtualization layer is a great way to create an app sandbox, run a test machine, launch a VHD appliance, and more

  Written by Serdar Yegulalp • 05 Dec. 12 11:16

• How-to: Get started with MySQL

  An easy step-by-step guide to setting up a MySQL database server, along with phpMyAdmin, on Fedora, CentOS, or Ubuntu

  Written by Paul Venezia • 15 Nov. 12 11:13

• How-to: Get started with Amazon EC2

  Amazon cloud skills are in high demand. This easy, step-by-step guide will help start you on your path to cloud mastery

  Written by Sean Hull • 24 Oct. 12 10:15

• How to check if your Android phone is vulnerable to the USSD security flaw

  A security flaw has been discovered on various Android smartphones that allows a USSD code to perform a factory reset without any confirmation prompt. Is your Android phone at risk? Here's how to find out.

  Written by Ross Catanzariti • 26 Sept. 12 15:20

• REST Web services demystified

  REST API integrations can be daunting if you haven't worked with Web services before. Here's how to get started

  Written by Kirsten Jones • 23 Aug. 12 13:39

• How to create custom notification tones in iOS 5

  Apple's latest iOS 5 operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices went live last week and one of its new features is custom notification tones.

  Written by Ross Catanzariti • 18 Oct. 11 09:39

• Internet Explorer 9: A getting started guide

  Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 officially launched late Monday and is ready for download here.

  Written by Ian Paul • 16 March 11 01:32

• Open source FreeOTFE encrypts disks handily

  FreeOTFE may sound like a political bumper sticker, but it stands for "Free On The Fly Encryption." The "Free" part is self-explanatory; "On The Fly Encryption" refers to the encrypting/decrypting of data as it is written to or read from your hard disk.

  Written by Ian Harac • 09 March 11 06:09

• Enable iTunes Home Sharing in iOS 4.3

  The next major iOS update is slated to be released this Friday, March 11, alongside the ultra-hyped iPad 2. One of the key features is a little something called iTunes Home Sharing, which allows users to stream music, podcasts, movies and more from PC to iOS device.

  Written by Mike Keller • 09 March 11 04:54

• Digitize your movies

  Analog movies can be the easiest--or the hardest--medium to digitize, depending on the format you're working with. While older camcorder and video formats such as 8mm and Hi8 or VHS and Betamax tapes are easy to transfer, digitizing film can be difficult at best.

  Written by Jon L. Jacobi • 03 March 11 02:00

• Digitize your music

  In my lifetime, music has been delivered on vinyl, cassettes, eight-track tapes, CDs, and audio DVDs. How do I listen to it now? Usually with a PC or a smartphone, and occasionally with an MP3 or other media player. I downloaded much of that music or ripped it from CDs, but the rest of it came from LPs and cassettes.

  Written by Jon L. Jacobi • 03 March 11 01:59

• Digitize your documents

  The space required to store paper documents can be a problem. Digitizing your documents renders them exquisitely portable--you can store an entire library on your e-book reader with ease. And because paper documents can be turned into editable computer documents, they become searchable. Compare typing "Roosevelt" in a search field with spending all day scanning microfiche and old newspapers by eye to research the Square Deal or the New Deal. The digital document is a boon to researchers the world over.

  Written by Jon L. Jacobi • 03 March 11 01:58

• Digitize your pictures

  Today the digital camera is ubiquitous, but photos used to be taken by momentarily exposing something called "film" to light. Yes, film--the ode to photo-sensitive chemical reactions that produced all of the pictures made before 1990 or so. Those images were, and quite of­­ten still are, transferred to photo paper and pasted into coffee table al­­bums. Sometimes they were processed into transparent 35mm slides and projected onto white screens for everyone's en­­joyment (or boredom, depending).

  Written by Jon L. Jacobi • 03 March 11 01:58

• Should I protect my tweets?

  When I signed up for a Twitter account in the summer of 2009 I spent some time thinking about whether or not I should protect my tweets. As a novice Twitter user, I had to decide whether the benefits of protecting my tweets outweighed the drawbacks. Looking back, I do not regret my decision to protect my tweets, and I'll tell you why.

  Written by Phil Shapiro • 23 Feb. 11 09:14

• Keeping track of your iPhone data usage

  When users had unlimited data there was no reason to be concerned with how or where that data was being consumed. Since AT&T dropped unlimited data in favor of tiered data caps, though, users have struggled to understand data usage, and now AT&T is faced with a law suit accusing it of systematically overcharging customers.

  Written by Tony Bradley • 09 Feb. 11 08:26