Kiran Upadhyay

Facebook  Wall is a powerful tool: it lets you stay in touch with hundreds of people all over the world and keep up-to-date with what they are up to and what they share. With it being such an important tool, it is quite clear why it has been tweaked so many times throughout the life of the social network. You can see lots of things at a glance once you enter your Facebook dashboard: your friends’ current mood and thoughts, your friends’ new friends, your friends’ photos, etc; as well as your new potential friends, your friends’ upcoming events and lots of other things. With so much information stuffed into one page, it is easy to get lost. With Facebook  killing default wall filters  while quietly introducing  new wall settings , seeing what you actually want becomes almost impossible. Would you like to have more power over your wall? The following user scripts will help you to tweak your Facebook wall to de-clutter and simplify it! Note: All the three user scri...

If you use Ubuntu, you may have faced the frustration of trying to find a native way to annotate your PDF files, like say, any of the  MakeUseOf PDF manuals  you know you can download for free. Unless you run some Windows program via Wine, wait for Evince’s annotation features, or learn to use the incredibly user-unfriendly  PDFEdit , you’re pretty much out of luck. That’s when you can be thankful that there are developers focused on making web-based PDF tools. There are plenty of PDF tools, many that are  document-viewing sites , such as  Scribd, Issuu, DocStoc , etc. that beautifully display PDF files neatly on your browser, but not many of these let you do much other than admire the document. Few web-based PDF tools actually offer annotation features, like the ones you can find in  Foxit  (whose Linux version doesn’t actually have annotation tools) or  PDF-XChange , my favorite reader with customizable keyboard shortcuts. Perhaps, you occas...

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got at least one old desktop PC or antiquated laptop lying dormant in the attic, cupboard or still under your desk. I’d even hazard a guess you’ve got a CRT monitor and a serial mouse to boot. Now, you’re never going to use that old machine for anything particularly demanding, but if a simple web browser and word processor is the order of the day then there’s plenty of lightweight solutions that can come to your rescue. Linux  is perfect for this task as it can be so easily stripped down, rebuilt and released as a new distribution. Here are six of the best lightweight Linux flavours for sub-par machines. Xubuntu The first on the list and the first to be based on the immensely popular Ubuntu distribution. Xubuntu uses Ubuntu as a base, which provides great compatibility and full access to Canonical’s repositories. Instead of the usual  GNOME  desktop environment found in Ubuntu (or  KDE  in Kubuntu) this release u...

Everyone dreads being the recipient of a computer virus, but not everyone minds studying them. There are researchers who spend a lot of time looking into different types of computer viruses and related security threats in order to determine how they’re programmed, how they do damage, and how they spread. Personally, I find this field interesting, and I enjoy reading about the different types of viruses in existence. But even if you don’t know much care, basic knowledge about security threats can be useful. It’s sometimes hard to know how a risk must be dealt with before you know its consequences. With a computer virus, however, the consequence is sometimes complete loss of your data or identity theft – so it’s best to learn sooner rather than later! 1. Boot Sector Virus The term “boot sector” is a generic name that seems to originally come from MS-DOS but is now applied generally to the boot information used by any operating system. In modern computers this is usually called the “m...

Even the best free software is useless without hardware, yet how many of us actually know how their computer works? Teach yourself by reading the latest free guide form MakeUseOf: “Your PC, Inside and Out.” This amazing free guide covers the computer’s chassis, power supply and motherboard, and is only the first half of a two-part volume. In this guide Lachlan Roy breaks the computer down into its different components. For each component he describes its function, explains the different specifications to look out for and provides a bit of history, too. You will learn to identify the various parts in your computer, and possibly even how to upgrade it yourself. DOWNLOAD Your PC: Inside and Out Part 1 or Read online on Scribd Expect to learn: The difference sizes of chassis on the market How cooling works, including the varying models of airflow What to look for in a power supply Why to avoid cheap power supplies What a motherboard does The components of a motherboard As with...

Whilst writing my  recent article about XBMC , I came across a few quality Linux distributions aimed solely at providing media center capabilities. Many people have used Microsoft’s Windows Media Center at some point, either on their PC or Xbox 360. Personally I found it a frustrating experience, with my Xbox 360 not recognising my Windows 7 laptop, not to mention limited streaming and playback options. If you really want a powerful media center and are fed up doing it Microsoft-style then one of these Linux solutions might just do the job. XBMC Live I’ve already mentioned it once – and for good reason. If you read my XBMC article then you’ll know that I personally think it’s the bees knees. Once a hacked media solution for the first generation Xbox console, XBMC now packs a punch and comes with its own stripped-down Linux distro. You can use a blank CD or USB stick to create a Live version of XBMC which boots straight into its media interface. Once you’re satisfied you’...

WiFi is a catch-all term. In a sense, it is very precise as it explains a specific method used to connect to the Internet. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes clear that the term isn’t helpful if you’re trying to troubleshoot WiFi problems. There are a lot of different types of WiFi standards used by routers and laptops, and to make matters worse, devices don’t typically complain when a sub-optimal WiFi connection is made because of mis-matched WiFi standards. You’ll only notice an issue when the speed and reliability of the connection isn’t as solid as you’d expected. You’ll need to investigate the problem yourself to fix it – and that means knowing a thing or two about WiFi standards. The Cast & Crew – WiFi Standards First things first – let’s take a gander at the WiFi standards that exist. These standards were created by an organization known as the WiFI Alliance, a trade association consisting of companies interested in promoting a common standard for wireless Intern...