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3 Simplest DIY Computer Repairs Anyone Can Do

Guy McDowell — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:00:09 +0000

You must understand that what I am about to reveal to you puts me in mortal danger. Men in black and white fuel-efficient vehicles may show up at my door and threaten me with terminating screwdrivers. Those are the easy ones to spot. It’s the independent contractor that you never see coming. They could be dressed, or look like, any sort of geek there is. What I’m about to reveal to you is their bread and butter. They’ve kept you in ignorance about how easy it is to do some of the things they do. Let’s keep it between us.

The first thing you need to know is basic troubleshooting. Start with the most obvious and work your way backwards. Read and understand the error messages on your screen. They are in plain language – don’t get intimidated. If it says No Video Source Present, check the cord between your computer and monitor. If the power light isn’t on, check the power cable. Many of your problems are likely of this nature. If you have already done all of the troubleshooting steps and are sure what hardware component is causing problems, then we can talk about that now.

Replacing or Re-seating RAM

There was a time when this was a major operation, requiring a soldering iron and steady hands. Now, RAM comes in easy to install and remove sticks and is a very simple DIY computer repair. Keep in mind for this, that static electricity is your enemy and grounding out is your friend. You can get a grounding wrist strap, or you can touch the metal chassis of your computer frequently. I’d recommend the wrist-strap just to be safe.

Open up the case of your computer. Many cases today don’t even require removing screws so that’s easy. Look inside for a few seconds at your computer. Seems really confusing and high-tech, doesn’t it? Don’t be intimidated. Look for rows of long computer chips that stick out of the board, perpendicular. They’re about an inch high.

If you suspect that they just need to be reseated, gently push on the center-edge of the RAM, then the top and bottom. If there was any movement, then that was probably the problem. Once you are sure all of the RAM is seated, you can try to restart your computer.

If the RAM is still causing a problem, you can remove it very easily. At either end of the RAM, there are little levers – or retaining tabs. Gently push these levers down, both at the same time. The levers should pop back and the RAM will be raised up. Using only the edges of the RAM, take it out and put it on a non-static surface. If you’re lucky you’ll have an anti-static bag around. They’re usually pink, silver or clear with thick black lines on them. You can usually get these from a computer repair place, just by asking for them. Tell them you want to bring in your bad RAM for a replacement. Hey, it’s an easy sell for them.

Take the RAM to your local computer store and they’ll help you select the appropriate RAM for your computer. Make sure you know what model of motherboard you have, since this is an ideal time to upgrade your RAM for a faster computer.

Replacing the Power Supply

If you’re certain the issue is your power supply, that’s easy to remove and install too! WARNING: Unplug your computer completely. Let it sit for a few minutes. This ensures that there is no power to the computer so you don’t get shocked. Letting it sit for a few minutes allows any capacitors to discharge so they don’t shock you either.

Once you feel safe to proceed with this DIY computer repair, take some masking tape and a pen and mark all the connections that your power supply makes to your components. Do that on the component side of the connection. This helps you to know what cables need to plug back in when you get the new power supply. Sometimes a ribbon cable can have a few connectors on it that aren’t used. No sense connecting to those. Disconnect the power supply cables from the components.

Now, on the back of your computer you will see a number of screws around the power supply. Unscrew those and save the screws. Hey, little screws can come in handy someday. The power supply should now slide right out of the back of the computer or inwards into the computer. Don’t force it. If anything is blocking it, carefully remove those things.

Voila! The power supply is in your hands. Take it, and your motherboard information, to your computer store. Now you can get an appropriately sized power supply. They may recommend a more powerful supply and if your motherboard is meant for it, it can be worth a few extra bucks to upsize. This can help the components run closer to their maximum capacity, meaning a faster computer for you. To install the power supply, read the manual that came with it and make all the connections accordingly. Often, these connections are now unique to each component, making it harder to mess up.

Replacing or Reseating a Video/Sound/Network Interface Card

If you are certain that the video or sound or NIC card is causing your problems, those are probably the easiest things to replace. When you open your computer, you’ll see a column of cards inserted horizontally. These are the cards we’re talking about. If you think they might just need to be reseated, do the same technique you used for the RAM. Gently push on the center edge of the card, then the left and right. Again, if there is any movement, this may likely be the problem.

If you are certain the card needs to be replaced, it is usually a matter of removing one screw from the mounting flange of the card and gently pulling the card out by its edges. Pop it into a static-free bag and take it into the computer shop. Once again, this may be the time to upgrade as well. Usually by the time you’ve had a computer long enough for a component to fail, a better component comes along and costs about the same as the original one. Sometimes it costs even less.

Take the card and gently insert it into the proper slot. Put the retaining screw in and proceed with the User Manual for the card to make sure it has the right drivers installed and the right configuration.

Yes, these instructions sound too easy to be true, and you’re right! These are the basics that apply to almost any make and model of the components we’ve talked about. There will be specific little variations for each new part, however those should all be covered in the user manual that comes with them. Keep all of your original packaging for the new parts as well, just in case they too are faulty. Then you can return them easier.

I hope this article has helped you to overcome any fear of the computer that you might have. Or at least saved you a few bucks in labour costs for repair. All this information comes with no warranty. If you try to repair your own computer and it doesn’t work, or gets worse, I can not accept any responsibility for that. Always research until your are completely comfortable with the work you will do.

If you’re familiar with any other tip that can be added to above list of DIY computer repairs, please share them in comments below.

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How Earn Money By Selling Online PC Support using LiveZilla

Ryan Dube — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:00:18 +0000

A lot of people reading this website are technically-savvy and heroes when it comes to computer troubleshooting. In fact, many readers could earn a small fortune on the side just by offering online PC support and helping computer newbie’s work through very simple computer issues. As massive social networks like Facebook brings millions of brand new computer users online every year, more and more Internet travelers are going to need help with simple things like how to check their email online, how to access their Facebook accounts with their mobile phone, and thousands of other questions that most of us could answer in less than five minutes.

How do you offer such a service for these Internet latecomers? It’s easy, you offer online tech support that’s available whenever you’re online (and you and I both know that’s pretty much all the time.) Here at MakeUseOf, we love chat services. Tim offered a few cool ways to add chat to your website, and MUO also covered Olark, a live chat widget for your website.

Today, in the spirit of my usual theme of ways to earn extra income, I would like to offer another easy business idea – using the free LiveZilla chat system in combination with Paypal to sell your expertise in the form of online PC support. Excited? I know I am – and it’s so easy you’ll be asking yourself why you didn’t think of doing this before now!

Using LiveZilla to Sell Online PC Support

LiveZilla is a freeware live support software package that you install on both your web host and your PC. Note that you don’t have to install any software on the web server itself, you only need to copy files over to your web hosting account – so there’s no need to set up your own web server to make it work. If you have a web hosting account, you’re good to go. There is one drawback to the software for our particular use. While it’s the best free software available for offering online PC support, it doesn’t provide any way to process payment for that service. That’s okay, because I’ll show you how you can integrate Paypal into the process so your website visitors can pay for the online PC support before the chat takes place. But first, you need to set up LiveZilla on your blog or website.

When you first download and install the LiveZilla software to your PC or laptop, it will initially launch the admin software. This is where you can set up and configure the LiveZilla service. The first step is to install LiveZilla Server on your web host. The process is made simple by the fact that LiveZilla will FTP the files up to your host automatically – all you have to do is select “Create new LiveZilla Server.”

On the next screen, create your administrator ID and password. Write it down or do whatever you have to do to remember it, because this is the account that you’ll use to create all other IDs that can use your LiveZilla Server – such as members of a technical support team. When you click next, you’ll be faced with a choice to FTP files or copy to your local server. If you’re setting up LiveZilla on your local machine, go ahead and select the local option. Most users will want to click on FTP.

Most of you who have used FTP before know the drill – enter your web host FTP user name and FTP address. If you don’t know it, contact your web host service and find out. The best setup for LiveZilla is to place the files in it’s own subdirectory on your hosting account. Here, I’m setting the software to FTP the files to a folder named “livezilla”.

This next step should be pretty straightforward for anyone who has ever set up a Wordpress blog on their own web hosting account. The software requires the use of a MySQL database. Before you can get through this step, you need to go into your hosting account and create a new empty database. Then, come back to this screen and click “Validate Database” to provide the software with the database name and details. Then click “Create Tables,” and this step is done! You’ll be directed to the online LiveZilla page on your web server.

Visit this page using every PC or laptop that you plan to use to interact with your website visitors. From each PC, click on the “Add Server Profile” button. This will download all of the files to that PC so that you can connect to the server to monitor website visitors, initiate chats or receive chat requests. Now, back at the admin screen (LiveZilla Sevrer Admin), you’ll notice another button for “Link Generator/Script Generator” under Integration. Now, if you want to offer simply free chat to your visitors – this is where you’ll go. When you click on it, you’ll see the following screen.

When you highlight the script and insert it into your blog or website, the status image that’s shown on the left will appear on your site. Select “Add Visitor Monitoring Script” if you want the ability to see when new visitors come to your site, or even interact with them if you want to. The “Live Support” button shows your online or offline status. As I mentioned, this is perfect if you’re offering free support, but in this case we want to integrate a payment system. So let’s go over to Paypal (my online payment processing option of choice), go into the “Merchant Services” tab, and create a new “Buy Now” button.

The last step of creating your button is where you’re provided the script for it. In my case, I configured the button with multiple options so that visitors can choose to purchase a 10 minute, 20 minute or 30 minute tech support session. Once they successfully submit payment, they are redirected to the chat link. There’s one trick here you’ll need to remember – when the button asks what image you want to use, go back to the LiveZilla button script and extract the “image src” link that has “image.php” in it. This will ensure that your new Paypal purchase button appears like the LiveZilla status button. This is what it looked like once I installed the new Paypal script on my blog.

Visitors can see that you’re available, and they can click the button to purchase an online support session with you, where they can ask you for help. This provides your visitors with a live person who’s always available to help them – a service that’s not always easy to find online. It also provides you with a valuable way to offer a more interactive experience for your readers.

Also, you can use your new LiveZilla chat service for more than earning income. Include the special link (see the script generator) into your email, and the recipient can click on it and instantly chat with you live – they don’t need to install any IM software at all! Post the link on your Facebook account and offer your friends and family with a place they can chat with you for free outside of the Facebook system. Provide your link as a way for work colleagues to meet up with you and collaborate on projects together. The uses for your own private chat system are limited only by your imagination.

Can you think of any other creative ways to use the LiveZilla chat service? Do you know of any other hosted services that are any better? Share your insight in the comments section below.

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5 Sites To Learn How To Repair Your Own Computer

Tim Lenahan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:00:37 +0000

Here on MakeUseOf, we’ve shared DIY stuff before (5 awesome DIY sites, ThomasNet – An Awesome Repository Of Technical Information for DIY Men, 3 Cool Science Experiments You Can Do At Home). The purpose of this article is to share 5 pages that help more specifically with how to learn computer repair.

Have you ever had a problem with your computer and gotten a quote from one of those box stores? Holy cow! I know this guy who got a virus, took his tower to a store and paid several hundred dollars to have them install an anti-virus program and “save the day.” I am serious, several hundred dollars! OK, I understand that a laborer is worthy of his hire, but I believe that every single one of us would jump on the chance to save a few bucks if we could.

If there was any possibility to do some of those PC repairs on your own, and therefore save a few buck, is that something you’d learn how to do? Here are five links that will help you with those DIY computer repair jobs.

(1) Fixing My Computer… 100% free step-by-step guide

If you can get by the pink, blue, and green pastel colors, this site can be a real great resource in you journey to DIY computer repair proficiency. Once you arrive at this site, you’ll easily find, along the left hand side, a nifty menu system obviously designed to look like a file explorer. On that menu you’ll find categories for almost any kind of fix you can think of. Check out a few of them and see if a problem you are having is covered. I’m not sure what’s up with the butterfly, so if you can get to the bottom of that, please tip us off in the comments!

(2) Yahoo Answers Community – Computers & Internet

I know, there are many communities out there on the internet that are ready and willing to give answers to your questions for nothing more than a few kudos. Yahoo Answers is just one of the communities that I’ve had the most luck with. For some tips on computer problems you are having, ask the community over in the Computers & Internet section and you’re sure to find some answers! Do what I do. Begin by searching through the many questions already answered. Odds are someone else had the same, or similar, problem that you are having so avoid the fuss of re-asking the same question.

(3) LaptopMag.com – 11 Ways to Fix Your Laptop

I like this article because it attempts to get right to the point with some of the most common problems associated with laptops. The goal of the article is better articulated by the writer himself:

To pinpoint the most common problems, we picked the brains of senior technical-support officials at Alienware, Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba. And we’ve provided solutions for getting your laptop back up and running with minimal effort.

You can go through each one of the 11 pages OR you can use the nifty little dropdown menu at the bottom of each page to jump the the topic you need. This article covers topics such as overheating, battery problems, network issues, and virus or spyware infestation. Like I said, the basics are covered here. They’re not exhaustive, but a really good start!

(4) Lifehacker’s Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades

Some of us will never get to the point where we will be wanting to build a PC from scratch, like number 1 on LifeHacker’s top 10 list of computer hardware fixes and upgrades, but some of these fixes or upgrades are easy enough for most of us. I’ve used my own good opinion to rate the number one’s on this list: Easiest fix on the list? Changing or upgrading RAM on a laptop (unscrew a few screws and that’s about it); Most creative? Using elastic strips to quiet a noisy hard drive; Most difficult or involved? Starting from scratch on your own PC. Good list and a great help.

(5) Fixed4free.com – Computer category

This site is more of an answers community. It seems pretty exhaustive in the computers category. The site is fairly easy to use – if you notice, the white speech balloons mean that there is no answer yet and a green speech balloon means there is an answer. Browse around and see if you can find an answer to your question. If not, it seems that there is a section that allows you to ask a question. Check out this post (because I think its funny): i wanna go on bebo but i cant in skwl?. I already learned a new trick from the site: My computer screen as turned upside down how do i turn it back?. Check it out and see what you can learn!

As a word of warning, there are obviously some repairs that not every person is capable of accomplishing on their own. If you are over your head, and you KNOW it, seek help, probably even professional help. The purpose of this post is to save you some dough on some things that you ARE capable of doing, once you know how.

Do you know of any other online sources that help with DIY pc repair? Feel free to share in the comments!

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ThomasNet – An Awesome Repository Of Technical Information for DIY Men

Karl L. Gechlik — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:01:17 +0000

Normally when I am looking for technical information, it is computer related. In the last few weeks I have had to do a lot of manly tasks including polishing a garage floor and getting into some laser cutting.

I know crazy right? Real physical hands on work! Well in my quest for knowledge I found a awesome technical information website called ThomasNet. I found the website by a little Google-Fu and came upon their About Us statement. Here is a snippet of it:

Maybe you’re just looking for some ground-level information. Maybe you need to make an informed sourcing decision. Whatever the reason, whatever you’re looking for, these primers, briefs, articles and guides serve as your gateway to learning more. Each resource category offers a wealth of information aimed at providing you with the background and facts you need.

After reading that, I thought they sound right up my alley! I grabbed my to-do list and saw that my first task, as I said, was how to polish a floor on the cheap. I browsed on over to their site:

The search bar across the top does not search the articles. You can use the links on the right hand side, as you can see here, to navigate the articles:

Polishing a floor would fall under Chemicals? I clicked on through and saw this:

The second article was exactly what I needed. I clicked on through and read through the technical information:

Every term that is important and might cause you to shrug your shoulders are underlined and hyperlinked so you can click on through to those topics. I printed this article out and moved on to the first link for epoxy floor coating. That link took me off-site to a clear definition of what epoxy floor coating is (I already knew but I am trying to show you this site!).

I now knew what I needed to buy and how I had to apply it and what other tools I needed. I was able to do a whole large garage in less than 3 hours and for a hellava lot less than it would have cost to hire someone to do it. Times are tough and every penny saved is hugely helpful.

After I was done with my project I found myself back at ThomasNet for more technical information. I was looking for something that caught my eye and would be a good project for my workshop. I decided to read up on laser cutting:

I quickly found an article under the Custom Manufacturing section and learned what I needed to buy as well as how to be safe while using it. I also learned about an alternative technique called WaterJet cutting. There helpful hints on proper ventilation and how most products emit toxic chemicals – so open that garage door or work outside!

I have my periods of time where I break out the tools and now I have a nifty site to add to my talents. Do you have a site that has a lot of good hands-on information? Where do you turn when you need information on something like this? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

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4 Sites To Get Good Free Advice Online

Guy McDowell — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:01:25 +0000

The World Wide Web has fast become the resource we go to when we need advice on something. How do we do this? Why does that happen? Where can I get XYZ?

Unfortunately, the web is occupied by a lot of spiders that will give you poor advice for a high price or just ridicule you outright. But there are those out there that want to help others, often just for the altruism of it. Let me share with you some sites I’ve used.

Elder Wisdom Circle

This is a great resource that helps fill the void left by moving away from our hometowns and having older relatives close by.

What Elder Wisdom Circle does is connect you with cyber-grandparents. These are people who are a little older, often a lot wiser and willing to lend an ear. You submit your question and concerns to the site and one or two Cyber-grandparents will offer you advice based on their experience and wisdom, over e-mail.

For legal reasons, they can’t advise you on legal, medical, tax or investment issues. Mostly it’s to give you free relationship advice – like how you can relate better to your teens, or free love advice – what you can do to show your wife just how much you love her. These are the really important issues of life. Anything else is just gravy.

I have written to them before, and I have to say the free advice I received back was very well thought out and presented clearly with genuine concern. I hope you find the same to be true.

Life Advice from Old People

Seth Menachem’s blog takes him out into the world to ask older people for advice on having a good life. The insights aren’t necessarily directed at anyone’s personal issues, but it does help us tap into the rich resource of experience our senior citizens have. I like to think they are senior in the way a General is senior to a Colonel. Not senior just because they’ve survived, but because they have overcome.

Especially interesting is that the interviews are in video format. It lends a certain credibility to the advice and allows us to get the whole impact of the message. Often, the printed word fails in conveying how hard earned a lesson might have been or how enthusiastic a word of encouragement could be.

Seth also takes some time out to get advice from our future seniors as well. Definitely worth watching!

Teen Advice on About.com

About.com has some guides that are, well, lacking. Teen Advice is not one of them. Now, yes, I’m almost twice the age of any teen, however it helps me to better understand the advice today’s teen is looking for. It is a different world, and some principles are eternal, however, I have no idea how to deal with things like cyberbullying or single-parent homes. That didn’t seem to be the norm when I was growing up. So this advice helps me to help my teen as well.

It’s also a fun site for teens as it isn’t all about being talked to. It’s about being heard and being able to put fun into different areas of your life that might be very stressful. The Friday Mixtape idea is pretty cool.

FreeAdvice

Life has been fairly free of litigation for me, but it seems everyone will be involved with the law sooner or later. That’s where a site like FreeAdvice wants to be of help. FreeAdvice seems to cater mostly to the American legal system and its laws, but since a lot of the laws in the world are based on the Common Law system, like the U.S., you may find something that prompts you to dig further in your own local laws.

Although FreeAdvice says it offers free legal advice, well, it isn’t completely free. It is intended to act as a gateway to find you a lawyer to help you and those lawyers pay to be featured. However, that isn’t something that should deter you from this site.

FreeAdvice also has a free consultation feature that is interesting. You can submit your case for review to up to 5 lawyers. No cost – no obligation. Of course, there is also the forum where you can ask questions as well. Over all a very good site to help you understand the law as it applies to you.

Where do you turn to for advice on the web? Got any good sites to share? Where do you turn for free online vet advice, free automotive advice or free doctor advice? Tell us about it in the comments. It’s like I often say, “The reason there are 6 billion of us, is because we can’t all do it alone.”

Image Credit : Frippy

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Clean up your PC with Windows Installer Clean Up Utility

Karl L. Gechlik — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:01:12 +0000

Have you ever tried to install a program only to get an error message that another installation or un-installation is pending?

Maybe you have seen unknown errors during installs or just crap lying around from previous uninstalls? Maybe an installation did not complete and now you can not uninstall or re-install it? How do you deal with these situations?

Well Microsoft has released a tool aimed at making your life easier. This 351KB file will help you clean out all of these problems.

You do have to install the application. After the usual next, next, next, finish you will be ready to use the tool. When you run it for the first time you will see this:

You can browse through the list of what Windows thinks is installed. Most of the entries looked correct to me. Then I spotted one:

Twingly Screensaver which I installed a while back and shortly thereafter un-installed was still hanging out with my legit programs. This seems like a good test and I selected the item and hit Remove. I quickly got a warning message popping up on my screen:

It says: Warning – All products selected will be removed from the Windows Installer database. In order for the products to work properly you must individually re-install all products selected. Selected OK to continue removing product, Cancel to abort.

I was sure of what I was doing so I hit OK. A DOS box popped up and disappeared quickly but I managed to grab a screen shot of some of the commands scrolling by as you can see here:

It runs through the registry using command line options to search and remove registry items associated with your application and then it grabs and deletes shared dll’s and other files. It worked quite nicely.

We have featured some other uninstallation / clean up tools in the past. Mac users can see Jeffry’s post here and we also have a couple of other Windows alternatives, one from Jimmy and another from Stefan.

Do you have a favorite all in one clean up utility that does the dirty work for you? If you do please let us know in the comments!

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How To Analyze A Windows Blue Screen Of Death With WhoCrashed

Stefan Neagu — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:00:53 +0000

Windows machines are often the subject of jokes within the computer geek community, and much of that bad credit is due to cryptic error messages that reveal very little information even to the veterans of this operating system.

Of those type of errors, BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) are the worst and are often caused by poorly written device drivers, kernel extensions or faulty RAM (Random Access Memory). You can’t recover to the normal software environment without either a soft or hard reset. Soft resets are usually the case, as the computer will try to automatically reboot or display the error code and require the user to initiate the restart sequence, the infamous “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” or “Press Any Key” prompts.

Many of you probably have encountered this type of error and know that any files that weren’t saved at the moment of crash have either lost changes or have been corrupted. Personally, as a writer, I consider this to be one of Windows’ greatest flaws. I have lost a lot of work due to this kind of issues and the problems seem to continue in Windows 7, although the frequency appears to be greatly reduced.

WhoCrashed, an application developed by Resplendence Software Projects, aims to demystify the error codes and present you with a likely culprit of the crash. Finding out what caused it can be the first step in eliminating the problem and creating a more stable computing environment. RAM memory, as well as faulty drivers, can be replaced – but your time can’t be.

With the help of WhoCrashed, an error code like “0×0BJS00341110B12” can point you to a kernel module like “nvlddmkm.sys” which comes most of the time with vendor information. In this case, as the ‘NV’ prefix suggests, an nVidia Miniport driver caused the crash.

Unlike many applications these days, WhoCrashed is presents you with only two buttons and a simple text-oriented interface. The ‘simple is always better’ motto holds true in this case. All you have to do is press the ‘Analyze’ button and scroll down to the date of the computer crash you want to inspect. Most of the times WhoCrashed will identify the module that failed and allow you to fix the problem.

When a driver caused the crash, which happens 99% of the time, a simple and easy way to fix the problem is to identify it and download the latest version from the manufacturer’s website. When a Windows component frequently causes a crashes, the problem will most likely be fixed by running Windows Update.

Overheating can also be responsible for faults in data transfer or processing. If crashes happen while playing intensive 3D games, photo or video editing, check the ventilation system and revert to previous clock speeds if you’re overclocking any of the system’s parameters. Overheating can permanently damage the hardware, so fixing the problem as fast as possible is recommended.

Pressing and holding the F8 key while the systems boots will bring up a screen with various system recovery options including Safe Mode, which only loads the basic drivers and modules, and a RAM verification tool. Various Linux distributions including Ubuntu, have a similar memory check module (memtest) which is presented at boot-time when the live CD is inserted or by the bootloader in multi-boot environments.

You can download WhoCrashed for free. Installation is achieved via a simple and straightforward wizard. A Pro version aimed at tech support staff is also available for $35. The Pro license removes the ‘home-use-only’ restriction and provides more details about the crashes among other features.

At under 1MB, WhoCrashed is a must-have in any geek’s virtual toolbox. Check out more posts related to Windows or RadarSync, an application which automatically keeps your drivers and software up-to-date.

Are you annoyed by BSODs or Windows errors? What’s the most common one and what did you do to fix it? Let us know in the comments.

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Ask & Answer the Web’s Questions with Aardvark [Free Invites!]

David Pierce — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:00:15 +0000

I’m a big fan of applications that tap into something I already use, and make it better, more useful, and more fun. In this case, I’ve discovered a new service that taps into your instant messenger, your social networks, and your areas of expertise all at once.

It’s called Aardvark, and is a brand-new application that just came out of the SXSW conference this year.

The site was in private beta for a while, then was invite-only. Recently, it’s become publicly available and is now open for questions. It’s available to anyone who logs in through Facebook Connect (If you have a Facebook account already, you’re all set. If not, Facebook accounts are free to everyone!). The Facebook implications of Aardvark are pretty impressive, but even logging in with Facebook is a great tool. If you haven’t had the privilege of owning a Facebook account, read on — we have exclusive invites and we’re giving them out to MakeUseOf readers!

Signing up for Aardvark is simple, as is getting it running – just add some information about where you are, the IM client and username of your choice (as long as it’s Google Talk, AIM, or Live Messenger – for now), and the types of questions you’d like to answer for other people. You can also use the service by email, but I’m going to focus on IM because it’s so much cooler.

Once you’re set up, Aardvark lives in your IM window, and anytime you want to ask a question, just IM Aardvark with your question. Aardvark parses the question to figure out what it’s about – which it does a remarkably good job with – and then sends it to someone who it thinks is able to answer your question. You’ll get an answer back quickly, and be able to have a brief chat with the person who answered your question.

From the other side (the answerer), Aardvark is even more ingenious. When you sign up, you choose how often you want Aardvark to ask you questions; I chose “a couple of times a day.” When that time comes up, Aardvark sends you an IM saying “So-and-so has a question about ‘Some Topic You Can Answer.’”

You can respond one of a few ways – “Sure” to see and answer the question, “face” to pass it on to a Facebook friend who might be able to answer, or “pass” to just make the question go away. If you pass, you can then mute a given topic to not get any more questions based on that topic.

The cool thing about Aardvark is that the questions are limitless. For instance, I’m listed as able to answer questions about New York City, where I live. I periodically get a question like, “Where should I go for dinner near Union Square?”, and I’m able to offer a recommendation. The questions I get rarely require factual answers, and that’s one of the fun things about Aardvark – it’s a great way to find out what other people are into that I might like as well.

One of Aardvark’s sample questions is, “Where’s the best place to buy running shoes in San Francisco?” It’s this kind of question, one that Google wouldn’t know but an actual local person might, that gives Aardvark awesome potential. Instead of services like ChaCha, which essentially just replaces a Google search when you can’t do one yourself, Aardvark goes beyond the capabilities, and sets you up with an expert in their field – even if that field is running shoes in San Francisco.

As you use Aardvark more, you get a sense of people who are able to answer certain questions for you – maybe you have a friend in Utah who you trust to answer such questions. You create these connections, and Aardvark uses them to narrow down your respondents even more, to try and get you the best possible answer. From the get-go though, Aardvark’s always done a good job of finding me the right person to answer my question.

Once you set it up, it’s incredibly simple to use. It’s unobtrusive, and lives right in your IM window; nothing to install or download, or remember to run. There was a lot of buzz around Aardvark as SXSW got underway, and a few minutes using the app makes it easy to see why.

As a MakeUseOf reader, you can now sign up to Aardark without using your Facebook account. Just hit this link and sign up! It’s now open for questions, but there are only 300 invites so grab one quickly!

Is there anything else like this out there? Can Twitter do this better? What do you think?

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How To Use SpeedFan to Remotely Monitor Computer Health

Guy McDowell — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:01:10 +0000

In the Oil and Gas industry, our computer users are often several hundreds of miles away from a hamlet, let alone a city. The average user is also much more of a hands-on kind of person and is usually a novice computer user. The environment they work in is rife with dust and dirt and, of course, oil. One of the biggest problems I’ve experienced with my users is CPU overheating due to all the dust and dirt and lack of experience in taking care of a computer.

While looking for a solution to the problem, I came across SpeedFan from the awesomely altruistic Alfredo Milani Comparetti. I saw it on MakeUseOf, over at Monitor Your Computer Fan Speed With SpeedFan. That article covers all the neat stuff, like adjusting fan speed, graphing temperatures and so on. But what it missed is what was most important to me, and anyone else who has to monitor computers on a shoe-string budget – it can send me an e-mail when conditions cross thresholds that I set! Awesome!

SpeedFan can also be set to popup a message, execute a program or script, or beep.

Here’s how I set up SpeedFan for my users:

Open SpeedFan and click on the Configure button.

From there, you need to click on the Mail tab to set up access for SpeedFan to your e-mail account. It’s got to send the message somehow.

The profile name will be default, since Alfredo hasn’t added the ability to have multiple profiles yet. No sweat Alfredo. It’s epic as it is.

Then click on the Events tab.

The bottom of the screen is where you can set the parameters for the event you want triggered. On this example I’m using the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) temperature, but on the work laptops I used the HDD and CPU temperatures. There are an awful lot of variables that can be monitored beyond that though. Check a few:

That’s about half of the list. As you can see, you can monitor your HDD health as well. That should help you head off a few hard drive failures at the pass, and keep your data doggies rolling (remember, I work in the oil patch in Alberta. Gotta have a cowboy analogy in here somewhere!).

I researched the operating parameters of the laptop’s CPU and HDD and then used 80% and 90% of the maximum operating temperature as the trigger points. The lower 80% temperature triggers a pop-up to let the user know that the computer is too hot and that they should blow out the dust and elevate the back of the laptop.

The 90% temperature setting then sends me an e-mail so I can phone the user, wake them up with some Macarena and let them know they are about to have a dead computer. So far I haven’t had to do that.

The For n times parameter allows you to decide how many times the temperature has to exceed the limit before it triggers the event. The temperature is in Celsius. The Allow every n seconds parameter determines how often the event will be triggered. If 60 seconds hasn’t passed since the last e-mail was sent, then it won’t send another one. Keeps form crashing my mail provider.

Then I chose the event send mail. The next field is the subject of the e-mail that will be sent. I use the laptop’s name so I know who to call. Finally, the last field determines which e-mail profile to use. This will be default until the developer adds the ability to have more than one e-mail profile.

Here, let me show you what I mean….

Of course, feel free to adjust those numbers to meet your needs.

All 55 of my field computers are set up with this system that runs silently in the background until something happens. Since I’ve put this into place, I haven’t lost a single laptop to a burnt out CPU or HDD. The time and money this has saved the company is in the thousands. And the software is free!

If you’ve used a different software to achieve something similar, let’s hear all about it in the comments!

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Swapaskill – Swap Skills & Trade Favours With Others

Simon Slangen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:01:55 +0000

One of the great things about people, in my opinion, is being able to share, not only opinions, but also help and pieces of advice.

The internet has played a big source of information and advice in the past, but never in the way that we’re going to be experiencing today.

One of the big flaws of this part of the internet, is that a great deal of it has an impersonal air about it (not all of course). Everything gets countered straight on, often in a rush.

Imagine a community where online help gets personal again, where people go to help, or in search of the latter. Like a grown up Yahoo Questions, where people go to swap skills – quite literally.

swapaskill

Dear reader, meet swapaskill. I’m sure you’ll get along just perfect.

Swapaskill throws the impersonality overboard and goes back to the essential things that friends and family do for each other – giving favours and returning them. It’s all based on the principle of doing things you love, and helping others at the same time. In return, when you’ve got problems with something, you can count on the help of others.

Swapaskill essentially brings together people who can help each other out with various things.

How Does It Work?

To match the right people up – as some might say – they quite simply ask each user to state their skills upon signing up. Of course you can always adjust these skills later on.

The meaning of these skills can be taken quite broadly. It can be something like being good with Photoshop, or MS Word, and willing to help the struggling other. It can also be something more solid, like being a good cook; you can not only offer tips, but even your service as a cook, or frozen meals.

Swapaskill has recently also started supporting. the possibility of swapping items.

If you need help with something, you can search for skills based on keywords; e.g. if I’ve got a problem with Spanish, swapaskill will put forward all the users who’ve stated it as one of their skills.

You can then access their profiles and contact them with any questions you might have.

Additionally, you can also save your searches, so skilled users can easily find and contact you themselves.

After you’ve been helped by someone, you can assign stars to rate the user. This way other people will know who they can depend on in the long run – kinda like with friends.

But Why? Tell Me Why?

A lot of people might be wondering about the why of doing this. To quote The Joker: “If you’re good at something, never do it for free”. However, this would show you’re missing the idea of doing favours. If your friend asks you to help them out with their computer, would you ask them to pay for it?

The spirit of favours was put down pretty well by the Roman Publilius Syrus who said that “The person who receives the most favours is the one who knows how to return them”, because next time you need help with some DIY furniture torture, Jdoe655 might remember that you helped him with the cooking for his lawn party.

What do you think about swapaskill? Is it brilliant or ludicrous? Or perhaps you know of some alternatives to this service. Share it with us in the comments section below.

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Give Remote PC Assisstance to Friends with InstantHousecall

Joel Reyes — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:01:42 +0000

If you’ve ever thought of finding a simpler way to help your friends or relatives with your computer skills, rather than having to be physically there to assist them with the installation of an app or the removal of spyware/viruses, then remote support to their PC might do the trick for you.

We’ve previously covered other remote support programs such as Crossloop, PCHelpware, Schnitz Remote Lite and Teamviewer but today we are going to look at remote assisstance software – Instant Housecall.

Instant Housecall allows you to connect to a friend or relative’s computer. All they need to know is your unique Instant Housecall specialist ID.

Functionality

This desktop version of Instant Housecall is the Free Edition. It can be installed and configured on computers that operate on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. Once you’ve downloaded Instant Housecall and configured it, you will be granted temporary access to another computer’s remote system once the user on the other end allows you to obtain it.

The user seeking assistance by you will have to visit FreeRemoteSupport.com and enter your specialist ID which you chose at the time you downloaded and registered your version.

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

When you have access, you will be able to move the mouse on the user’s desktop, open/close apps, remove/add programs, and more as if you were actually sitting in front of their computer. The specialist ID is very important and it will also act as your username when logging into the system. The user who needs you to come to the rescue will utilize this ID to enter it on the developer’s site (listed above) and download a small client that will allow you to instantly gain access to their PC and fix/add whatever need be.

Immediately after the user has requested your help and installed the simple client on their PC, a small Instant Housecall window will pop-up on your desktop and let you know that your assistance is needed. You will not only be able to manipulate their desktop, but you will also have full control of file sharing/transferring between your computer and theirs. You will also find the use of a built-in chat application helpful as well.

The Conclusion of Your Housecall

Instant Housecall is extremely easy to use because you won’t find any trouble bypassing through the users firewall once they’ve granted you access. You will have full control of their computer as if it were your own, and you will be able to chat with them sending them instructions or confirmations with this app’s simple chat system. This is a professional app that lets you share your PC skills with friends, relatives, and others. If you decide to use this app then you can further read of its functionality with the simple user guide.

If you decide to give it a go, let us know in the comments what you think about it and how it compares to its rivals such as Crossloop.

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Want WebEx-like Control Over A Remote Computer For Free?

Karl L. Gechlik — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:01:11 +0000

If you have ever dealt with a huge company that needed to provide you with technical support then you have probably seen or participated in a WebEx session.

WebEx is GREAT except for the fact that it costs a fortune to use. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be able to do what they do but I did not want to pay for it.

That was when I found a Free VNC product to kind of do what I needed. I became a huge fan on Single Click VNC for offering up tech support to my less technical friends and family. You can read this post from 2007 on how I set it up.

It is free but limits you to the machine you configured it to work against. To change where you (the operator) will remote control the machine from, you have to re-compile the executable and open ports on your router.

Now a loyal AskTheAdmin reader sent me a tip pointing me to Ammyy. This is the home page of AmmyyAdmin, a VNC-esque tool for remote support. You and the recipient of your support need to download and run a small executable. It is the same file for both of you and you can put it out on a web server, email it or simply instruct them to download the file from Ammyy’s home page.

You run the file, they run the file and then they give you their “Unique Code” to punch into my little console as seen below. The operator tab would be the tab you would go to to connect to a remote computer.

The Client tab is where your client goes to start the service. They simply hit the start button and wait. Then when you click connect they will be greeted with the following prompt.

You can limit it to just viewing, interacting and full on file system access via a nice little File Transfer module.

While you are waiting for the user to hit accept you will see this screen:

Once you are connected you can control their machine, make changes or edits just like you were sitting in front of their machine. A huge time saver and here is the kicker – it works without opening any ports like GoToMyPC and other similar services because it works over port 80! 443 (SSL) Sweet!

The tool bar at the top will get you to “Open the File Transfer Screen”, Send Control, Alt or The Windows Key along with Refresh and a few others.

And of course it wouldn’t be a MakeUseOf article without showing you the Preferences screen:

Are you using a similar free tool? Do you have a better way of serving up tech support? Put us on in the comments!

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How to Setup Easy Remote Support on the Mac

Jackson Chung — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:51:57 +0000

Technical assistance is something pretty common these days as more and more computers penetrate homes which have never played host to a Mac or Windows machines before. Personal computers are getting cheaper by the day; and many of us tend to give them as gifts to parents and grandparents in order to feel connected.

Most of the time, it just ends in disaster. There’s a learning curve, albeit not a very steep one, especially for Macs. Application installation and uninstallation is a swift drag-and-drop action (most of the time); and frequently used programs can be added to the Dock for accessibility. The tricky part is playing friendly with Windows machines. How many of you “family technicians” understand what I’m talking about?

As a troubleshooter for most of my friends, family and especially my girlfriend, I had to find the easiest and most straightforward approach to set up remote assistance. I found the solution to be Schnitz Remote Lite.

Wait a minute. Snitch what? I know many of you must be thinking about TeamViewer. But no, Schnitz Remote Lite proved to be the easiest setup from the “person crying for help” point of view.

The difference between TeamViewer and Schnitz RL is: with Schnitz RL, the connection is reversed – the person asking for assistance is the one who initiates the connection to the troubleshooter. You can’t even begin to imagine how many complications this sidesteps.

As I play the role of the troubleshooter, I have to complete a preparation checklist before anyone can connect to me:

Send the person you’re helping an unzipped copy of Schnitz RL (350KB) or send them the direct download link
Forward port 5500 to my computer’s local IP
Manage the OS X firewall to allow port 5500 or disable it temporarily
Install Chicken of the VNC or other VNC application
Adjust the connection profile (especially the amount of colours – if you’re dealing with a slow internet connection, set it to the lowest)

Listen for server

Click ‘Start’ and you’re all good to go!

In order to have the person I’m trying to help connect to me, I have to provide them with my external IP address – which I can easily obtain from whatismyip. Over on the other side, all they have to do is launch Schnitz RL and enter my IP, hit ‘Connect’ and boom! I’m in their computer.

I may be alone in thinking this but I prefer Schnitz RL over TeamViewer in certain aspects: there is nothing in between the person I’m remotely assisting and me. No servers, nothing calibrating or monitoring our connection. It’s direct. Also, there are no background processes running which can initiate a connection. A connection can only be established when the other person inputs my IP and hits ‘Connect’; and provided I’m listening for a server with CotVNC.

I was using this to remotely troubleshoot a problem my girlfriend had on her MacBook. She has a Windows NTFS-formatted external hard disk and every time she plugged it in, Trash would show that there were over a thousand items to be deleted. She tried to empty the Trash but whenever she tried, her MacBook would “get very hot and loud” but still it wouldn’t empty. I told her to launch Schnitz RL and she connected to me. I examined the situation, opened Disk Utility, repaired her disk permissions (something that she would never do by herself) then emptied the Trash again. And it did.

The only time Schnitz RL is outshone by TeamViewer is when a system reboot is necessary. Schnitz RL cannot initiate a connection by itself but in all other aspects, it’s just as good, maybe better because it’s just so easy to use!

Have you used any other applications to successfully help other with their computer problems? Share your success stories in the comments. We always like to hear any useful tips you throw our way!

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PCHelpware- Lightning Fast Tool for Remote Support (Win)

Ben — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:19:11 +0000

Let’s see here… WHAT!?!?!? $700 just for remote support software?! Ever feel like that? You need to give remote support but don’t want to shell out 700 to a couple thousand bucks, luckily, you don’t have to.

With PcHelpWare from uVNC, you get a portable, free, customizable, professional remote support program. But do you get what you pay for or is this one of the best things in life that are free?

The admin interface is just a bit more “techie” than some of the other remote support programs out there, but offers the same functionality. To create a server (that’s what client needs to download before you can offer him remote support) fill out the relevant information, and click on “Create Server”.

That will run a batch file that generators a small .exe file that who ever needs help can run. Then simply click on “Start” and wait for the user to run the program and click connect. As for the user, the interface couldn’t be simpler.

Here is a detailed list of instructions for the user after they have downloaded the program and run it:

1. Click “Connect”.
2. The End.

Yeah, that’s it. You can also require the user to enter the login and password.

So you’ve sent the file to the user, they’ve downloaded it and clicked connect. Now you have control of their computer, but what can you do?

In short, everything.

The image quality is spectacular, it feels like your actually sitting in front of the user’s computer. It is also lightning fast, the image coming across is almost real time. Need to get a file from point A to point B, with PcHelpware you can transfer files copy paste style, copy the file, click sync clipboard, paste.

You can also chat with the user if you need, go full-screen, and if necessary, lock server input (lock the keyboard and mouse at the user’s computer.)

For all of you security freaks, PcHelpware connects with two different encryption protocols, so everything you do is secure.

Yeah that’s great, but what about that customization you told me about! I’ll say this much, PcHelpware is the most customizable remote support software I’ve seen, but also the least user friendly to customize.

If all you do is edit the default “background.bmp” it is fairly easy, however, you can completely customize where the Login and Password fields are (or remove them completely), the size and shape, and just about anything you can think of. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a graphical way to do this, however uVNC does have a great section on how to customize the server here.

All and all PcHelpware is an absolutely great remote support app. It is 100% free and customizable. It includes many of the features of commercial products: repeaters, works behind firewalls, customization, etc. My one complaint if any is the slightly more complicated back end, but the front end is impossible to beat. Despite a few short comings, PcHelpware more than makes up for them with its price, customization, and speed.

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3 Tools to Control Your PC from A Distance Using Remote Access

Ben — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:05:24 +0000

If you’ve been sick, gone, or needed to access any of your computers from another computer, you know how infuriating it can be. It can make you want to throw your mouse across the room, or worse. But before you turn to throwing mice, try some of these easier solutions to access and control your computer remotely.

LogMeIn

Out of every remote access service I’ve used, this one is by far the simplest. You simply sign up for a free account at LogMeIn and download a small program on the computer you want to remote-control and presto. You can now remotely access that computer from any other computer with Java.

There is also an ActiveX control for Internet Explorer and a plug-in for Firefox that gives you a bit more control (faster, better image quality, etc.) over the remote access.

LogMeIn’s free version is absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, it has its limitations though. First of all, only three computers can be part of any one account if the free version is being used. You also can’t transfer files from one computer to another. If you want some of these more advanced features, you are going to have to shell out about $70 a year per PC or Mac.

LogMeIn works with PCs and Macs.

uVNC (Windows only)

Think of LogMeIn Pro for free, but you’re going to have to know your IP address and what your open ports are.

uVNC (that u stands for Ultra) is extremely full featured and easy to set up. The quality of the image coming across is wonderful, it feels as if you’re sitting right there in front of the computer. Full of awesome features, one of the most useful ones is file transfers, where you can drag and drop files on to the remote computer.

Another nice feature is to be able to chat with the user of the other computer – this especially good if you are collaborating on a project or giving support.

My only two gripes about uVNC is that 1) it can be a bit of a drag to connect to a remote computer. You need to type in the IP and port settings and ACK! Nothing beats just clicking on the computer name and not having to worry about dynamic IPs or anything like that. Also 2) some anti-virus software apps will not let you use it.

FolderShare (Windows and Mac)

FolderShare’s motto is “keep your latest files with you, no matter which computer you’re using.” and that is exactly what it does. The general setup process is similar to LogMeIn: download a small setup file, create an account, and presto, you’re done.

To access your files you simply navigate to FolderShare, login and… wait a minute! It says I can’t access my computer! Don’t worry, you see the little blue F in the lower right hand corner of the screen? Right click and under ‘more’ click ‘Settings’, under ‘computer information’, there is a check box that says “Allow remote access to this computer” simply check it, click ‘OK’ and you’re done. You can now download any file on your computer from any other computer.

This feature compliments LogMeIn free, giving you access to your files. But wait there’s more! A very useful feature of FolderShare is the ability to create “libraries” both public and personal. Public library allows anyone or just the people you specify, to view and download (or even upload) to that folder. This is great for sharing pictures with family or collaborating on a project. Personal libraries give you the ability to sync that folder between two computers. This is absolutely great for anyone who uses two or more computers regularly, you set a folder in say My Documents (or just Documents on a Mac) and tell FolderShare you want to make a personal library and that folder will be the same on all of the computers.

How do you deal with separation from your computer when you need it? What remote access apps do you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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TeamViewer – Be A Remote Support Superhero!

Lee Mathews — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:27:56 +0000

I love my friends, and I love helping them. But God knows they’re not all that great with following along with my tech support advice over the phone. You know exactly what I’m talking about and it gets frustrating for you too I bet.

Well, after my last Make Use Of article, I had a brainstorm: why not use the most painless remote control and viewing application and the best URL truncator together to get rid of my support headaches? I almost started tapping my fingertips together and muttering “exxxxxcellent…” under my breath.

It’s a two step plan.

Step one: download and install TeamViewer on my laptop. I browsed over, grabbed the 1.1MB setup file and had it installed in less than a minute.

Step two: create a snurl.com address that points to the TeamViewer “customer module”. Snurl graciously shortened the URL to: http://snurl.com/2jbo8.

I can’t believe I didn’t do this ages ago.

Why did I choose TeamViewer? There are two major reasons: portability and a zero-configuration connection. Setting up a painless remote support system is no good if it requires multiple steps for the person on the other end. My goal is this: if I can make this so easy that my wife doesn’t get irritated when I talk her through the process, I’ve achieved my goal (and I’m still married).

TeamViewer doesn’t require any ports being opened on a user’s router, and they don’t need to know their IP. Talk them through getting the link open in a browser and running the file, and they’re presented with this screen:

Can it get any easier?

As long as you’ve got the software running on your end, all they have to do is read you the two numbers and they’re done! Type the first one in the “Create Session” box, enter the password when prompted, and the connection initiates within a few seconds. You’ve got full control of the remote PC – in about a minute, start to finish. The connection is fully encrypted “based on RSA private-/public key exchange and RC4 session encoding,” as described on TeamViewer.com.

If you can type, you can get a TeamViewer connection running

TeamViewer at work, controlling my wife’s laptop…

It also supports pretty much everything else you’d want a remote control app to, like session recording, file transfer, chat, scaling, multiple monitor support, and more. TeamViewer even runs on Mac. It’s totally free for non-commercial use, and that’s what I’m aiming for – all I want to do is minimize the amount of my free time the people I love consume with their PC woes!Think you have an easier method? I’d like to hear about it – really!

(By) Lee Mathews is a blogger who writes to share downloads, links, and tech advice with other slightly frustrated users at Unsightful.com.

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The Best Websites for Gadget Freaks

Aibek — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:54:02 +0000

Like any other geek I have an eternal love for gadgets, especially those shiny, slick and expensive ones. If you’re reading this, I am sure you’re in that category as well. Over time, I discovered a number of websites that I found extremely useful for my gadget mania. Some help me decide what to buy next, other for troubleshooting, and a couple to get rid of the old ones. Here you go …

Gadget Reviews

Whether you’re buying a new mobile phone, MP3 player, speakers or digicam, one of the first things you usually want to know is what other people who have used the product have to say about it. In most cases, a real feedback from someone who have used the same gadget before is far more valuable than what you get on the sales page. So what are the best websites for gadget reviews ?

TestFreaks

Original article

ExpoTV – Over 250.000 of short and unbiased consumer video reviews. [Original artcile]

Swotti – Swotti scans web (blogs, review sites, forums etc.) for product mentions and gives you a lsit of quick opinions about it. Quite useful if all you’re looking for are quick summaries and not interested in details. [Original article]

Fix Gadgets

Where do you go when your gadget breaks? Google works well but only if it’s something popular, like iPods for example. For less popular devices you might need a more specialized source. So far I am aware of two websites that can be of great help.

The first one is recently mentioned SafeManuals. With nearly 900.000 user manuals this is the first site you should visit. Go and get the owner’s manuals for the device. However if you already have one and still can’t find the fix then ask about it on FixYa. FixYa is a free tech support community for troubleshooting and fixing electronic gadgets. Ask questions, browse HowTo guides, search huge databases of previously answered questions and so on.

Sell Old Gadgets

Want to get rid of that old cell phone or digicam and get some cash for it ? Of course you can always post on eBay. But if you’re just too lazy to go through all this auction hassle then BuyMyTronics (original post) is for you.

These guys will buy pretty much any used (or broken) gadget and most importantly give you a good price for it. Quick and simple. You can check out how much they will pay for your gadget by going to their website. There are no fees here, you’re only responsible for shipping.

There is also a website called SellMyOldCellphone, it does the same thing but only for mobile phones. Check out our SellMyOldCellPhone review here.

That’s all I’ve got for gadget sites. If you are aware of another good website that should have been mentioned let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Remote PC Assistance with Crossloop

Mark O'Neill — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:12:19 +0000

Remote desktop access is nothing new – Windows has had it for years – but as with everything else, Microsoft is rapidly losing the monopoly by smaller companies determined to bring out their own alternatives. One such alternative is Crossloop.

I have been watching Crossloop for a while and so far I have been extremely impressed. Now that they have brought out a new version, I am now totally blown away. Profiles and details of your remote sessions makes this a serious tool in the remote access market.

But before I get into the nitty gritty details, let’s take a moment to help out the non-techie crowd by explaining what remote desktop access is. Say you are in the United States and your computer-savvy genius friend is in Germany (hey, I’m in Germany! What a coincidence!). Obviously your computer genius friend in Germany can’t fly over to the United States everytime you have a computer issue and giving computer support over the phone is very hit and miss (”yeah, it’s a squiggly thingie-wingie with weird colours man!”). So what’s the alternative? Letting your computer genius buddy access and take control of your computer from where they are in the world. That’s “remote access”.

Now before you start getting all paranoid, no-one can remotely access your desktop without you allowing it first. You have to provide a password to the person wanting access and you can revoke the access at any time. You will also have to allow the person through your firewall. But when the person finally does get access, they can see your screen and advise you on what to do. Everything is “view only” so if you don’t know the person advising you, you don’t have to worry about them changing anything or copying anything off your hard-drive. They will only see what you want them to see.

OK, now with Crossloop, both parties need to have the program installed on their computer. Whenever you need to use it, fire it up and you’ll see the following box (see graphic). If you are the one wanting to grant remote access, you would click on “share” and then give the person wanting access the unique password. If you are the one trying to gain access, click on “access”, enter the password you are given by the other party and wait to be connected.

Now the person who wants you to access their computer will probably have to confirm to their firewall that they want to let you through, but normally this is nothing more than clicking the right box. This is what I like so much about Crossloop – the sheer simplicity of it. There’s no difficult set-up to take care of. It’s just choose your option and click. So easy even the baby could set it up for you.

Once the person is in, you can revoke the access at any time using the disconnect button. So if you are the remote accesser, be nice and don’t make fun of the Britney Spears desktop wallpaper. Just advise the user how to delete the 500 toolbars and then get out of there.

But the part I REALLY like is the ability to set up a free account which you can then use to publicise your IT skills. Here is my page for example. People who do IT support for a living will find this feature invaluable as it will not only help you to advertise yourself but the page also keeps detailed records of each remote session. After the remote session is over, each party can then rate and comment on one another. To gain customers, you can put a widget on your blog / website / social network page.

If I had to nominate a program for Best New “remote access” Software Program of 2007, Crossloop would be it. No other contenders!

For some Crossloop videos see CrossLoop review in MUO directory. In case you’re interested in collaboration-focused remote screen sharing Offeools make sure to check out 7 easy Screen-Sharing and Remote-Access Tools

By Mark O’Neill

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Top 10: Free and Highly Trafficked Q&A Communities

Aibek — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:41:25 +0000

Just last week makeuseof covered ‘HowTo’ sources, extremely handy services listing thousands of all kinds of user-contributed ‘HowTo’ guides. While these services provide an excellent solution for all ‘HowTo’ type questions, they’re of little help when it comes to other range of questions, i.e. What … , Where… , When … , Why…. , etc.

And that’s what this post is about: popular and totally free Question and Answers (Q&A) communities where users can

easily post whatever questions they have and wait for community to answer, rate and comment on them
browse and search through thousands of already answered questions.

*** TOP 3 (Fast Answers, Guaranteed) ***

Yahoo!Answers – biggest, well-designed, highly-trafficked, feature-rich, multi-lingual (over 20 languages), community-powered Q&A service. More on Yahoo Answers

AnswerBag – yet another cool, well-trafficked Q&A community. Additionally to standard feature set provides an option to quickly rate (+/-) questions in order to make interesting ones standout. Higher rated questions, receive more attention and tend to get multiple replies in extremely short period of time, sometimes within the first 5-10 minutes after it has been posted.

QnA.Live - based on the user-activity it seems to be less popular than the above two, although as it originates from Live.com, the network still ensures decent amount of daily users. Doesn’t provide that many features but incorporates couple of most needed ones, i.e., RSS support for each question to easily follow-up on replies via feedreader AND an option to tag questions and browse them by tags (by category or popularity).

*** OTHER (7 more) ***

*** BONUS ***

Find ‘Answers’ – google-powered, custom search engine letting you instantly search for ‘Answers’ on all of the above mentioned websites simultaneously.

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Massive List of ‘HowTo’ Sites + ‘HowTo’ Search Engine

Kaly — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:49:25 +0000

‘HowTo’s (HowTos, HowTo’s, or whatever you prefer to call them) are excellent problems solvers: they provide quick, easy-to-follow and non-overwhelming solutions to one or another problem that pop-up during daily routines. People love them, especially when they’re free, regardless whether it’s a step-by-step guide or a couple of minutes long video.

Good news, the amount of freely available, user-contributed HowTo’s out there is staggering. There is something for everyone: ranging from fun stuff i.e. how to make invisible book shelf, imitate gunshot wounds and even open up a Coke machine to more practical stuff i.e. how to negotiate a raise or tie a Tie. All categorized, commented and rated by users like you and me. Below you’ll find all ‘HowTo’ services we could find, as always all free, well-categorized and hopefully objectively ranked. Plus a bonus ‘HowTo’ search engine at the end. Enjoy!

*** HOWTO GUIDES ***

eHow (over 35.000 HowTo artciles)

WikiHow (over 20.000 articles)

Instructables (approx. 4.500 articles)

HowToDoThings (~~???~~ 2500 HowTo artciles)

Koonji (??? HowTo artciles )

*** VIDEO HOWTO GUIDES ***

VideoJug (approx. 2.500 video HowTo’s). Lets you downloaded videos directly to your iPod. More iPod Tools

ExpertVillage (approx. 28.000 videos, and growing by 4000 every month)

SuTree (approx. 5.500 videos)

Sclipo (approx. 1000 videos)

TrickLife (approx. 600 videos)

5min (approx. 500 videos)

ViewDo (approx. 350 videos)

HelpfulVideo (approx. 150 videos). Note: some videos require payment

YouTube (category ‘Howto & DIY’)

Metacafe (category ‘Video tips and Guides’)

*** TOPIC SPECIFIC ***

NewBaby [Parenting / Newborn / Breastfeeding / .... and everything related to babies]

TeacherTube [guides for education courses for Math, Literature and etc.]

Helpero [Computers / Networking / Mobile / Games / Internet]

Work [everything related to Entrepreneurs and Small-Business owners]

ShowMeDo [Computing / Internet / Python / java /Linux/ Ruby /Blender / Graphics / Screencasting]

Video-Tabs [Guitar] – over 200 video HowTo’s

*** BONUS ***

Google Coop – ‘HowTo & DIY’ Search: Here is something worth a bookmark, to make things easier I created all-in-one ‘HowTo and DIY (Do It Yourself)’ search engine, using Google Co-op. This custom Google-powered search engine will search on all of the above mentioned ‘HowTo’ sites, simultaneously. Works great,… TESTed.

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