If you are using Ubuntu with Unity on an old machine, there are a few tricks you can use to make your experience better. In this tutorial we’ll be discussing one such trick. How to make Unity Dash respond faster Dash, as you’ll likely agree, can be referred to as Unity’s version of the Start menu. For the uninitiated, it sits at the top of the Unity launcher, which itself is located on the left of the Ubuntu desktop by default....

So is Google Docs – one of the best online office applications available till date. Google docs lets you create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings and stores them in your Google account, so that you can access the documents from any computer. If you love using both the above services, why not use Harmony – a simple Outlook add-in to integrate both the services and manage Google docs documents from the desktop....

Knowing how to handle these notifications, especially for new Mac users, can be especially important for your computing experience. Here are some ways to better manage your notifications in macOS. Viewing Notifications Most notifications will appear on your Mac in the form of a small pop-up in the right corner of your screen. Typically, this is either a banner or an alert. The former will appear on the screen for a brief moment and then disappear....

Note: This is not a “How To Code Ruby” article, it deals only with using RVM to manage your Ruby installations. How it Works The most common RVM setup goes something like this – A user installs RVM as an application, either system-wide or within their home. Through RVM, the user’s chosen Ruby versions are installed automatically into that user’s home. Using RVM commands, the user specifies which version they’d like to have active at any given time....

Microblogging has because pretty popular recently with Twitter being the best known of these services. I personally haven’t signed up for Twitter specifically, however the basic concept has spread to other services. I’ve never been a big fan of personal blogging, but I’ve found over time that my GMail status messages tend to give a pretty good idea of what I’m up to. I also use the status message as an excuse to share some of my favorite quotes and links....

Zcash is more anonymous by design, aiming to be a digital from of cash. It features shielded transactions, and everything about Zcash is designed to maintain privacy and security. This, like many up-and-coming currencies, is still fairly easy and profitable to mine, and it has an accessible exchange rate to buy into. Install Zcash The Zcash developers packaged it for Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions, but there’s also a generic binary package available in a tarball....

Luckily, since Android Marshmallow, this is actually possible for the majority of Android devices out there without rooting. Mounting an SD Card as Internal In this case, a feature called “adoptable storage” is your friend. With this, you can use an SD card as if it is permanent internal storage. By doing this, the folders that are stored on your SD card are mounted as if they are internal ones....

How to See Only Specific Contacts You can easily organize your contacts by using the Contacts app. This is a great option if you’re running low on storage and can’t install any more apps. Open the Contacts app and tap on the menu on the top right. Tap on the “Customize view” option and choose what type of contacts you want. If you have more than one Google account and want to view contacts from those accounts, tap on the logo of the first letter of your account’s name displayed on the top-right of the screen....

What Is a Partition? Partitioning a hard drive means splitting the drive into separate, usable standalone systems. For example, you may choose to create two partitions on an external hard disk – one for backing up your Mac and the other for your normal data storage. Similarly, you may choose to use two partitions for installing two different operating systems. How to Partition a Disk in macOS To partition any disk in macOS, follow the steps below:...

Making a new copy of a scripted spreadsheet The first step is to make a copy of the scripted spreadsheet. This has the original script created by Skipser that you can use to create a “web app” for your Google Drive. This is hosted on my personal Google Drive, so I can vouch for its safety. Click “Yes, make a copy” to copy it to your Drive account. You do have to be logged in to your Google account for this to work....

And maybe you want to covert to those files to another format – say MP3 to Ogg. There’s no lack of audio converters for the Linux desktop, but if you’re looking for one that’s small, simple, and fast, then look no further than Gnac. Let’s take a look at Gnac and how to use it. Installing Gnac You can download binaries for several Linux distributions from the Gnac website. For Ubuntu users, the easiest way to install Gnac is to open a terminal window and run the following commands: You can also download and compile the source code or build the latest sources from a GIT repository....

Google Drive Google’s office suite is a well-known free alternative to Microsoft Office, and it offers excellent file compatibility with that office suite. As for OpenDocument support, the experience is hit and miss. You can upload ODT files to Google Drive, but you won’t be able to edit them unless you first convert them into Google’s document format. While Google Drive does not support editing unconverted DOCX files either, it allows you view such files as a PDF....

Currently most DVRs (i.e. digital video recorders) are of two types: a traditional cable company set-top-box (that you do not own) or a third-party device like a TiVo (that requires a monthly subscription and an Internet connection). Both of these defeat the whole purpose of cutting the cord. However, there is third option called a PVR or Personal Video Recorder which is a glorified OTA digital tuner with a USB port for an external USB hard drive and a very basic VCR-like operating system....

There are several ways to record inbound and outbound audio in Linux, but Skype Call Recorder (SCR) is specifically designed for Skype. It is a free and open-source application with which you can record calls in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or WAV format. It supports manual and automatic recording, which can be configured for specific callers. Installation Preparation Making a call Assuming you have already used Skype, your audio mixer settings should be ready to record calls....

How to Recover Photos You’ve Deleted from Your Gallery The majority of Android phones out there ship with a preinstalled Gallery app that allows you to view and browse the photos on your device. If you were trying to clean out your gallery and you unwittingly deleted some photos, don’t stress, as you can bring them back easily at this stage. Most Gallery apps group photos in folders based on various criteria....

Disable Using Find My The quickest and easiest way to disable any lost Apple device is to use the “Find My” platform. As long as you have access to another computer (any computer, just not Apple), iPhone, or iPad, you can log in and start the disabling process. Begin by going to the “Find My” app on any Apple device or jump directly to iCloud.com/find on any computer and sign in with your existing Apple ID....

Dealing with a non-editable PDF? Make it editable by converting the PDF to a Word document! How to Remove a Password From a PDF Using Desktop Tools You can accomplish password removal from a PDF using a variety of installed apps and tools in Windows, including PDF readers and editors, Microsoft Office programs such as Word, and screen capture/recording software. 1. Print a New PDF Using a PDF Reader This technique can be used with any PDF reader installed on Windows: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Foxit PDF Reader, Nitro PDF Reader, PDF Xchange, Sumatra PDF, Slim PDF, etc....

Deleted messages are always easy to restore, as they automatically go to the Trash folder. However, archived emails don’t go to the trash and are a little harder to recover. This article is a step-by-step guide on how to retrieve archived emails. Retrieve Archived Emails in Gmail Webmail To archive an email in Gmail, you can select multiple unread/read messages and send them to the Archive as shown here. However, there is no real folder named “Archives” in Gmail....

Today, we’re going to be using chroot to treat certain parts of your Linux filesystem as (almost) completely isolated systems. This can let you do all kinds of interesting things, like run a full Gentoo system from inside your Ubuntu system with little to no performance loss. How it works Before we get started, it would be a good idea to go over exactly what we’re doing and how it all works....

Precautions When choosing a computer to use for these tests, we recommend opting for an old computer that you don’t care about much or a cheap, new computer that does not have any of your personal files on it yet. Warning: this guide involves downloading real malware – programs that are designed to cause real damage to your computer and data. If you take enough precautions, you should be safe. But be prepared for anything....