Generally speaking, when most people hear "webcam", they don’t exactly equate that with "high quality image"; the main reason for this is that webcams started out as being very poorly-constructed, awful-image-resolution plastic pieces of crap. In addition, there were scores of higher-priced webcams that shoved in software features but...

For the most part, the way people type out directions using a mapping service like Google Maps or Bing Maps is exact-address-to-exact-address. Well, you don’t have to do that. If you know your ZIPs, you can get the directions info you want faster and easier. 1. Abbreviate, skip the Town/State and use the ZIP This is a good one to know because there are...

Back in 1995, Bill Gates released a book called The Road Ahead. With the book came a CD that had some videos on it, one of which showed what people thought mobile communications would be like in the future:You have to bear in mind none of the stuff shown in the video above existed in 1995. How much of it exists now? Paying with a mobile device? Possible, but...

Making the rounds this week is a bunch of news stories going on about the fact that the Microsoft Windows XP operating system is officially 10 years old. I can’t say "Remember when we used to use that Windows?" because a ton of you out there are still using it. What has made XP such a beloved OS for so many? Two things. Longevity and...

By now most if not all who read this have tried automotive GPS at some point, either by owning a GPS device yourself, maybe trying it in a rental car, using it through a cell phone app or what-have-you. "Basic GPS" when it comes to a car basically means that all the device does is route. It does not do Bluetooth, meaning it won’t pair to a...

I’m honestly shocked at how much lower in price AMD desktop processors are compared to Intel these days. Considering a quad-core from AMD starts at $90 and Intel at $180, you can easily see why so many PC builders choose to go with AMD as their CPU of choice. But are AMD processors any good? Of course they are. Just take a look at some of the reviews for...

There’s a fair amount of people (yours truly included) that don’t own a printer. My reason for not owning one is that since I print so infrequently, the ink would dry out resulting in wasted money. So how do you print when you don’t own a printer? Use someone else’s. Here are 5 ways to do that. 1. Print from work Lots of people do this,...

An article that’s been making the rounds is 7 Gadgets That Won’t Be Around in 2020. You can read that article if you wish, but this is the list of things predicted to be gone by that year:Standalone GPS Systems E-Readers Feature Phones Low-End Digital Cameras DVD Players Recordable CDs and DVDs Video Game ConsolesHere’s my opinion...

Example of "crazy synchronized light show":Some of you out there with a flagrant disregard for your electricity usage like to set up advanced displays like the one shown above. But where does one get all the stuff to put together a light show like this? One such place is Light-O-Rama. If you want just about all the stuff you’d ever want to...

A PC emergency kit is basically nothing more than a shoebox of PC accessories and peripherals that exists for the sole reason of getting your PC back up and running when something on the box or laptop dies on you. And by "emergency" I don’t mean the all-out-disaster type but rather parts that will keep your box running until you get proper...

A short history of accepting payments with credit online before telling you about Stripe (and this is good info to know if you’re in business for yourself): In the early-early days of internet commerce, known as "e-commerce" back then when anything internet had an "e-" in front of it, it was required to have a true merchant account to...

It’s more or less true that the PCMech audience doesn’t really care for Twitter all that much, but regardless of that I would suggest "following" (if you use Twitter) or at least bookmarking the Twitter profiles listed below. Why? Two reasons. First, you get can get quick updates for service outages. It’s generally true that whenever...

In the computing world, an aliased font means "blocky" and/or "non-smoothed"; there are some people to this day who prefer reading web pages with fonts rendered in this fashion. A quick example: Anti-aliased ("smoothed") Aliased ("blocky") Windows and Linux do offer the ability to turn off anti-aliasing for all...

When using the Lubuntu Linux distribution, the one thought I have more than any other is, "If something exactly like this was available back in 2001, the landscape of desktop computing would have been a whole lot different." While Linux fans make take great offense to what I’m about to say, I’m saying it anyway. Lubuntu’s best feature...

There have been a few times in computer history where the Mac vs. Windows (or Windows vs. Mac or whatever) has been at the forefront of technology news. When Windows 95 was released, all the Macheads went nuts because they instantly pegged the interface as a direct rip-off of MacOS. One of the most popular phrases was "Win 95 = Mac 85" in reference to...

Proving once again that Google is a useful search tool for just about anything, the search engine includes a quick lookup to display your IP address. What search term do you use? Just search for ip. That’s it. A few notes:The IP address returned is your public address, meaning the one from your ISP and not your router. Yes, it will work for both IPv4 and...

If you check out the www.lubuntu.net web site, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s drastically changed to look like www.ubuntu.com. Well, there’s a reason for that as Lubuntu 11.10 is the project’s first release as an official Ubuntu derivative. "So? What difference does that make?" Plenty, as it means the Ubuntu team...

While it’s true a whole bunch of you build your own PCs, it’s also true there are many out there with Dell PCs. Something Dell does not do (or at least not to the best of my knowledge) is ship their PCs with driver discs in case you have to reinstall Windows. Fortunately it’s easy to create your own either on CD/DVD or USB stick. Step 1. Find...

As most of you are aware, Skype is now owned by Microsoft, who has already put up a web page promoting the product: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/ You can also see Microsoft branding on the www.skype.com web site. There has been wild speculation about what Microsoft will do with Windows Live Messenger now that it has Skype. Will Windows Live users be...

Leonard writes: I would like a manual for Windows 7, where can I find one?Now before any of you say, "it’s in the Help and Support section of Windows 7", this is true – but that assumes Leonard actually has Windows 7, which he may not. Some people would prefer to download a detailed manual before buying a license of Win7 or buying a new...