If you host your own WordPress blog, it is important to make sure you have the latest security updates installed and also to make sure you maintain a fairly tidy backend. The reason is simple: performance and data integrity. For a few plugins that can help with this, check out this article. Outside of the automatic update and backup (very cool), these plugins...

In the context of this article, "account" refers to anything on the internet that requires a username and password in order to access it, such as a web-based email account, instant messenger account, and so on. There’s an old word (if you could call it that) that’s been used time and time again in thousands of different I.T. departments...

On the PCMech LIVE show I do every week Wednesdays from 8pm-10pm EST I periodically get asked if there is an alternative way to participate in chat. This is because for some the text chat using the browser method is just too small, and/or the chat text scrolls by too fast for some to read, and so on. Yes, there is an alternative way. You can connect by using a...

Usenet is literally the last (and to the best of my knowledge the only) world-accessible discussion system that is completely unfiltered and non-moderated. It is unfortunate however that some ISPs have decided to drop newsgroup access altogether. My local Florida ISP, Brighthouse, does have complimentary service by Newshosting. This happened because Roadrunner...

The title of this tip is taken directly from an article on EcoGeek.org with the same name. I found this article rather interesting because many advertisements now tout how ‘green’ their products are. Personally, I don’t take any facts on an advertisement at face value because you can manipulate/stretch them any way you want so this article...

Since AVG is one of the most popular free virus scanners our readers use, this tip is simply a reminder that the free edition of version 9 is now available. The new release boasts a faster scanner and phishing protection: The new 9.0 edition is faster, safer and easier to use. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition gives you free rock solid protection for your basic...

Before social media was even a twinkle in a programmer’s eye, there were the early days of internet, affectionately known now as Web 1.0. Nobody knows the exact date of when Web 2.0 started, but it is believed to have started some time in 2004, which at this point is five years ago (oh, how time flies..) Many of you out there will remember these pre-2004...

The vast majority of you out there have an IPv4 type address. This is the type we’re all familiar with, that being the four octets of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Many of you also know the difference in IPv4 classes as well, such as the fact that home wireless routers assign Class C addresses. Something that has been a legitimate problem ever since the internet as a...

About a month ago, I wrote a tip on how to clean your internal Firefox database using a manual process. While this method works, a few of our readers commented on an add-on which automates this process (thanks guys). This is a great tool to know about, so I thought I would pass it along. Vacuum Places Improved 1: Defragments your Firefox “Places”...

I am not a journalist. Or am I? Keep that question in mind as you read through this. Dave attended BlogWorld Expo this year, and one of the things he noted is that Leo Laporte stated in so many words that new media will be the new standard in journalism soon enough. "New Media" is a very overhyped term, but is the only one that accurately defines the...

As I was doing an overview of the TextMate product for my tip yesterday, I noticed TextMate offers a nice collection of user submitted themes. Some of these I really liked (i.e Fake and Plastic Code Wrap) and would love to be able to use them in my text editor of choice, Notepad++. With the help of the “Textmate theme to Notepad++ styler” tool, this...

Mac users who do a lot work in text files (HTML, coding, etc.) and are not fond of the editor you use, should take a look at TextMate. TextMate brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users...

When it comes to my MP3 files I like having the album art included with it and directly embedded in the file. In Windows XP I was using a specific program to do this but it wouldn’t work in Windows 7, so I had to find something else that would do the job. There is EasyTAG, a multi-platform program that works great in Linux or Windows, but the interface is...

With more and more applications becoming deployable without the use of an installer (i.e. PortableApps and the like), you may wonder which option is best. After all, why install it if you don’t have to as this will surely clutter your system, right? As with just about any computer question, the answer is “it depends”. Take 7-Zip for example...

Text mode conferencing is one of the oldest forms of communications on the internet. You commonly know this as participating in a "chat room." This form of communication has lasted as long has for three very good reasons:It requires the least possible bandwidth necessary in order to do it. You don’t get any smaller in bandwidth usage than plain...

As I wrote in a tip not too long ago, Microsoft recently released Security Essentials which is their free anti-virus offering. While there are several free anti-virus programs you can choose from, there is a stipulation in most that says you cannot legally install the free product on any machine used for commercial purposes, which would include home...

An interesting tidbit I came across the other day when I was comparing Office 2007 versions was the the Home and Student release can be installed on multiple machines without having a separate license for each. For my own curiosity I looked this up and sure enough, according to the license agreement, 1.2.a reads: Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the...

Note that this is for the web-based version of Hotmail. If you are using Hotmail with the Windows Live mail client, see this instead. Hotmail does allow for the use of limited HTML in email signatures, and this does include the use of images as long as they are hosted in a public place. All that’s required for you to do this is the following:Use a free...

You’ve heard a lot about USB 3.0 spec. You’ve heard how fast it is. How great it is. How when it arrives that everybody will want to have it (and trust me, people will.) Well, wonder no more. Buffalo will be shipping the first USB 3.0 hard drive this month. And yes it has a controller card available to purchase with it since nobody has USB 3.0...

On many download sites, you may see an MD5 checksum (or hash) included on the page next to the file download link. If you have ever wondered what this is and how it is useful, then hopefully this tip will help. An MD5 checksum (you can read the full info on Wikipedia here) is basically a string of letters and numbers determined by the characteristics of a...