Hot Internet How-Tos

How To: Keep Tabs on Today's Voting Results for the 2012 Presidential Election

Believe it or not, the 2012 Presidential Election is (finally) almost over. While most of us are breathing a collective sigh of relief (no more political ads!), it still seems like it hasn't been that long since the last election results were announced. This time, though, one of the biggest differences is how people will watch. Since traditional cable is on its way out, and mobile devices are getting more popular every day, a lot of people will be watching this year's election results online ...

How To: Track the Super Storm Hurricane Sandy Live

As Hurricane Sandy barrels towards the East Coast, 50 million people are expected to be affected in the nation's most populated corridor. The behemoth super storm is a cause for concern, evident by the massive evacuations. The picture above is an eerie snap of the mostly crowded Times Square subway station in New York. Government officials have warned over half a million people to evacuate their homes and head to higher grounds. To help prepare for this storm, the internet has provided severa...

How To: Hide All of the Social Numbers on Your Facebook Page with the Demetricator

The reason that Facebook is so popular is because it connects us to people that we could have never been connected to before. When people log on, they look for messages, comments, likes, and any other notifications that connect us to those people. These same notifications, though, distort our view of Facebook. We tend to appreciate statuses (I prefer stati) that have more likes. We're geared towards people that have more friends, so we tend to like pages that already have hundred of thousands...

How To: Add Sticky Notes to Your Email Threads in Gmail

Notes for Gmail now allows you to insert sticky notes directly onto your email threads in Chrome. The browser extension, currently in beta, allows you to annotate your emails as a whole (thread)—or individually. You can add as many sticky notes as you would like and they all appear at the top of the webpage for easy accessibility. To download the application, go to this page and request an invitation. They add users everyday—I was added almost instantly after I applied. Once you've downloaded...

How To: Automatically Delete Spam Messages in Gmail

Most of the spam messages are commercial advertisements, phishing websites and get rich quickly messages that asks users to provide personal details and other confidential information.Spam filters in Gmail prevent its users from these spam messages and restrict them to enter in user’s Gmail inbox.Generally, it acts like a firewall between spam messages and Gmail Inbox.Gmail filters detect the sender’s email address and accordingly send the received messages in Inbox or Spam folder.

How To: Paste Text and Images as Files Directly from Your Clipboard

If you're doing research that includes a lot of copy/pasting, it can get really tedious to open a new document every time you want to save something. Luckily, you can cut out the extra step and save text and images that are currently in your clipboard directly to a folder or your desktop—without the hassle of creating file after file. Here's how to do it on both Windows and Mac OS X. Windows

How To: Shut Down Your PC and Send Other Commands Remotely Through Twitter Using TweetMyPC

Ever been halfway to work or school and suddenly remembered you forgot to log off your computer? A lot of people are constantly logged in to email and social media accounts, so if you have a mischievous roommate or sibling, this situation could be disastrous. That's where TweetMyPC comes in—it's a free Windows application that lets you send commands to your computer just by tweeting. Image by Twittermania

How To: Trick Your Twitter Followers into Thinking You're Somewhere Besides Where You Really Are

There are plenty of reasons not to use location information when you tweet, whether you're trying to stay safe or just don't want your crazy ex showing up while you're in line at the grocery store. But a new website called 'Please Don't Stalk Me' could actually make broadcasting your location work to your advantage—it lets you tag your tweets with any location you choose, anywhere in the world. Playing hooky? Send a tweet from 'home' to take care of any suspicion from your boss and coworkers....

How To: Stay Focused and Be Productive Online

The Internet has had a huge influence on many areas of our lives, but, in particular, has resulted in nothing short of a revolution in the way we work. The web has offered the sort of flexibility to the individual that few people would have dreamed of just a couple of decades ago. And where once a global marketplace was available only to a handful of multinational corporations, today thanks to the Internet, we can all access it.

How To: Find Out What Personal Data Your Mobile Apps Are Leaking with Mobilescope

If you use apps on your smartphone, chances are you have no idea what those apps are doing with your information. Just this year, there have been several scandals involving apps transmitting user data, like Path uploading users' entire address books onto its servers, HTC's Security Flaw, and Brewster exposing users' personal information (even Ashton Kutcher's). A new service called Mobilescope wants to make sure you always know where—and to whom—your data is going. Lots of apps copy your cont...

How To: Download TED Talks Videos onto Your Computer with the TEDinator

The TED website offers hours and hours of amazing streaming videos, with subjects including why videos go viral and sixth sense technology. With so much great content, it make sense that you'd want to save some of it to your computer, perhaps for a long plane flight or bus ride home. Unfortunately, because TED uses a proprietary video player, you can't use the normal stream downloading sites that you would for, say, YouTube. Luckily, there's a way around that.

How To: Add Your Gmail Inbox to Your Google Search Results

Google is rolling out a new feature that will integrate your Gmail account with Google searches. The feature will add results pulled from your email correspondences to create more "personalized" Google search results. Google is currently doing a test run of the service. To activate it for your account, head on over to this page to sign up. It's currently restricted to the English version of the site, and for those with @gmail.com email addresses (not available on Google Apps accounts). And be...

How To: Research Your Family Tree Online

Are you interested in beginning research of your family's history? I began this journey about 3 or 4 years ago and here is what I found. I've done almost ALL of my research online, and gotten farther, faster and more comprehensively than anyone else who has researched my family the old fashioned ways. This is the kind of thing that technology is made for. Here's how to use it.

How To: Spend Less on Textbooks This Semester, More on Dorm Room Pranks

It's already August, which means school will be back in just a few short weeks. If you're getting ready to start or go back to college, that means you'll probably be dropping a few hundred bucks on textbooks. Here are some of the best places online to buy, sell and rent textbooks so that you can get back to more important things, like making your papers look longer than they really are and getting around your school's website blockers. Plus you can spend your money on more exciting things, li...

How To: Add and Use Outlook.com E-Mail Aliases

Microsoft just revealed the preview of its latest incarnation of Webmail, Outlook.com. One particular Outlook.com feature worth noting, is its support of multiple e-mail aliases. They're a great way to protect your primary e-mail address. And because you can't log in to your Outlook.com account with an alias, it adds another level of security. How To Add an alias

How To: Catch a Hacker?

Hello! This post is not about craft, it's about cyber bullying. If you ever had such an experience, that an unknown hacker was bullying you for no reason at all, please follow my words. Thank you! Step 1: Let All the People You Know That Your Are Being Harassed.

How To: Register Your Domain with Your Favorite Registrar

Once you already have a keyword-researched name, it's time for you to register your domain in your favorite registrar/web hosting service—Godaddy, America Registry, Asia Registry, etc. You can definitely register foreign-sounding names, which are most likely not taken, but if you want a name that's rich with relevant keywords, this video can help.

How To: Convert PDF Documents to JPG Images Online for Free

PDF is a convenient format for documents that can embed text and pictures and can be read by almost any device—personal computers, laptops, smartphones, etc. However, PDFs are mostly read-only files, so sometimes it's necessary to convert them to JPG images, a universal format for pictures. JPGs can be modified by software such as Adobe Photoshop or posted on Facebook.

How To: Make Money Online by File Sharing

When I was unemployed I looked for different ways to make money. Most of that work was connected with online stuff; I’ve tried writing content, refreshed my old Photoshop skills and even created postcards, but then I realized that my passion to music can bring me more money than all of the other work. I was an active member of a few musical forums and started to add affiliate links to my posts instead of simple ones, so they can be profitable.