You may not immediately think "gaming" when you think "Mac," but there are tons of games for the Mac these days, and some of the most popular PC games are also available for OS X. Let’s take a look at a few ways to make those games run as smoothly as possible.
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This article was written on May 01, 2012 by CyberNet.
Yesterday we covered how to install new skins in XBMC, and today we are going to show you how you can customize the backgrounds skins use for each of the entries on the main home screen menu. When I hover over the movies menu, for example, mine will rotate through over a dozen photos that I downloaded of my favorite movies. You can tweak these settings directly from the XBMC interface, but I actually found it to be faster to change the settings in the appropriate configuration file. So I’ll show you both methods and you can pick the one you find to work better.
If you are looking for somewhere to get images for your favorite TV shows and movies, I recommend heading over to TheTVDB or TheMovieDB. Each has a vast selection of 1920×1080 backgrounds that can easily be downloaded to your machine.
In XBMC navigate to Settings -> Skin, and there should be an option related to backgrounds or backdrops depending on the skin you are using. Select the menu item you want to modify, and then choose whether you want to set it to a single background image or multiple images:
Now just save the settings, go back to the home screen, and you should see that the changes have already taken effect.
If you are updating all of the various menu items it might be faster if you work directly in the guisettings.xml configuration file. Before making any changes to this particular file make sure you close out of XBMC first. After that go ahead and navigate to your profile folder:
And then open up the guisettings.xml file.
Now you need to know what to look for. There is a lot of data crammed in the guisettings.xml file, and the setting names will change based upon the skin you are using. I’m going to provide the names you need for the Confluence skin (the default skin) as well as the Aeon MQ 3.
The portions of the XML file we will be looking for are going to be in this format:
<setting type=”string” name=”SKIN_MENU_ID“>FILE_OR_FOLDER_PATH</setting>
The SKIN_MENU_ID is what you’ll search for in the guisettings.xml file, and the exact name will depend on the background image you’re looking to modify:
Confluence Theme:
Aeon MQ 3 Theme:
Once you’ve found the one you want to update, then you need to put in the FILE_OR_FOLDER_PATH. As you might guess that is the path to a single image or multiple images (if a folder is provided). You can use files that are stored locally on the computer or any one of the remote protocols that XBMC supports, such as SMB, FTP or AFP. Here are some examples of what the paths might look like:
After you’re done making your changes you should save the file, and then start up XBMC. You’ll see the result of your hard work:
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This article was written on April 05, 2008 by CyberNet.
One thing that you may not realize is how many different actions can be performed simply by dragging and dropping text or URL’s in Firefox. Most browsers actually support similar actions, but we thought it would be useful to provide an overview of the different ways you can put it to work.
Tip: When dragging and dropping the text, images, and URL’s you can also hold down the Control key to force them to open in a new tab.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on January 01, 2008 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
One of the greatest features in Windows has always been the Run command. It’s such a simple concept, yet if exercised properly, can be a power user’s dream come true. What we’ve got in store for you today might be a little much to absorb all at one time, but rest assured that once you become accustomed to how the Run command works you’ll be thankful that it is at your beckon call.
For starters it is important to know how you can bring up the Run command. In any version of Windows it can be done by using the keyboard shortcut WinKey+R. The odds are pretty good that there will also be an option located in the Start Menu labeled Run, or if you’re using Vista the search box essentially serves as a Run box as well (clever, huh?). Now lets get going running…
The Run box has a lot of different elements to it. There is the box where you enter in your command, the OK and cancel buttons, and, oh, I guess that’s pretty much it. Don’t mistake the simplicity for weakness! 😉
Here are some of my favorite things you can do with the Run command:
Quick Tip: Capitalization is ignored in the Run box, so don’t worry about whether you accidentally capitalize a letter or not.
There are many other things that the Run command can be used for, but those are the things that make it useful for me. In doing my research I came across an extensive list of things that can be used in the Run box, but many of them only apply to Control Panel items.
We know that many of you are Run command guru’s, so let us know what you use it for in the comments below!
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on September 05, 2012 by CyberNet.
It’s not a lot of fun when you’re caught outside in a storm without an umbrella, but the awesome If This Then That (IFTTT) service can be used as an advanced warning system for rain and thunderstorms. For those of you not familiar with IFTTT it’s basically a website that is able to tie multiple online services together. For example, you can have any image you’re tagged in on Facebook automatically saved to your Dropbox account. Or you can save any starred Google Reader items to Evernote. It’s a free and unbelievably awesome service that I have come to rely on.
IFTTT is also capable of sending you a notification via email or SMS based on the weather conditions. You can have it send out the weather conditions every morning if that’s what you want, or you can just have it give you alerts when it is about to rain. IFTTT checks the weather condition every 15-minutes, and if it finds that it is raining in your area it can send an email or SMS message so that you’re aware of the impending downpour. Alternatively you can have it push out a notification to you if tomorrow’s forecast calls for rain.
So how do you set these up? If you’re already familiar with IFTTT I’m sure you’ll be able to create “recipes” for these actions in just a few seconds. The good news is that IFTTT also lets users share recipes that have been created so that you don’t have to go through the hassle. Here are some pre-made recipes for getting notifications based on whether it is currently raining or whether it is supposed to rain tomorrow:
Personally I set up alerts for both situations. I find that the notification about whether it is currently raining gives you about a 10-15 minute heads up which in some situations just isn’t enough. That’s where the daily notification comes in… each night IFTTT will send me an alert if it thinks it is supposed to rain tomorrow based on the forecast. That way I know whether I should grab an umbrella before I walk out the door in the morning.
Want even more weather alerts? IFTTT can handle any of the following conditions:
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on October 20, 2007 by CyberNet.
One of the new things in Ubuntu 7.10 is the one-click enabling of restricted drivers (a.k.a. proprietary drivers). This is important because it will give users the best experience possible, and I’ve received several inquiries in our Ubuntu 7.10 from people wondering how they are supposed to enable these drivers in Ubuntu.
After you install Ubuntu 7.10 it will check to see if there is any hardware on your computer that has a corresponding restricted driver. If a match is found, you should see a little icon and balloon pop up in the tray notifying you of the available drivers:
If you happen to close out of the balloon, or you lose the icon there is still an easy way for you to get it back. You’ll find a menu option for enabling the drivers by going to System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager:
From there you can enable restricted drivers in Ubuntu, or you can also disable them by using the checkbox next to the respective device. When I tried to do this for my ATI X1400 graphics card I got hung up with an error message saying “xorg-driver-fglrx is not enabled“. I didn’t really have any idea what this meant, but I quickly found out that I had to enable a few more settings before I would be able to proceed. If you go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources you will see a checkbox that you can tick for “proprietary drivers for devices (restricted)“. I checked that box, and then I started receive an error “Could not apply changes, Please fix broken packages first“. So out of desperation I checked all of these boxes:
Low and behold I was able to go back to the Restricted Drivers Manager, and enable the proper drivers for my ATI graphics card (click screenshot to enlarge):
There were multiple reasons that I wanted to get the proprietary drivers installed, but the biggest one was that Ubuntu doesn’t recognize my native widescreen resolution without them. The other reason was to get the 3D support so that I could have some fun with Compiz Fusion, but that opened up another can of worms! I ended up getting Compiz Fusion to work, but I’ll save that story for another day.
Hopefully this solves any issues you may be having with trying to install the restricted drivers on Ubuntu. I was hoping that it would be a one-click solution, but it didn’t quite turn out to be that way. Luckily the workarounds necessary were not all that tedious.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on August 25, 2009 by CyberNet.
Last week Microsoft released a new version of Windows Live Movie Maker that I have to admit is rather impressive. I took some time to play around with it over the weekend, and the Ribbon interface makes creating movies so easy that I actually feel like new computer users could grasp how to do it in a matter of minutes. Plus they’ve included an “AutoMovie” button that inserts transitions, effects, credits, and titles automatically for you. The team did a remarkable job of making movie creation simple.
Now here’s the thing that some Windows users might notice. This version of Movie Maker lacks some features that older versions had. The most notable thing is probably the disappearance of the timeline view (used for more precise editing), and I’m pretty sure there are also less transitions available. The real damper may be that this version is only available for Vista and Windows 7, which means Windows XP users will have to stick with Movie Maker 2.1. Yeah… you power users probably aren’t too happy.
So what’s the point of Windows Live Movie Maker then? Many of you may not agree, but I think Microsoft made the right move with the direction they’re pursuing. The Windows Live blog stressed several times that a a good chunk of users are sharing videos that are just a few minutes long:
According to recent research from IDC, over 60 percent of US consumers watch user-generated videos online. They also found that almost half of the videos shared on the Internet are just a few minutes long. While video is becoming just as easy to capture as photos, it’s nowhere near as easy to edit and share.
So the focus of Windows Live Movie Maker is on videos that are around 2-minutes long. Personally there are very few cases where I’ll watch a video any longer than that, and so they are spot on for my kind of usage. That’s why I think the revamped Movie Maker is so nice. If I was going to put together a movie that was an hour or two I’d probably want to look towards a program that’s a bit more advanced.
They’ve also made sharing videos easy by integrating a YouTube uploader, allow exporting in HD quality, and let users burn a movie to DVD. Again, these are all things that are just a few clicks away. It’s fast. It’s simple.
There are some people I know who will absolutely love using this, and I’ll definitely be telling other people about it. The only thing I don’t like is the dreaded installer that tries to throw all the rest of their products on your machine at the same time.
Windows Live Movie Maker Homepage (Windows Vista/7 only; freeware)
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on October 13, 2011 by CyberNet.
There seems to be all kinds of screenshot apps available for Windows, and many of them cater to different audiences. One of my favorites is Greenshot since it is lightweight, free, and has just the right number of features, but CaptureIt Plus comes in a close second.
What makes this one any different? It has a long list of different screen capture modes, and this does just about everything except include a screenshot editor. Why wouldn’t you want a screenshot editor included? I know some of you have your own image editor that you prefer to use, and you can configure this app to open that program with every screenshot you take. So if you don’t want any kind of editor then I’d say this will quickly find its way to the top of your list.
Here are some of the features offered by CaptureIt Plus:
CaptureIt Plus Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on April 03, 2008 by CyberNet.
Regular expressions are one of those things that are incredibly powerful… if you know how to use them. It has taken quite a bit of time for me to learn the ins and outs of how they work, but once you get the hang of them there is almost always some variation that can be used in the different programming languages.
There have been some programs that try to lend a hand at building the regular expressions, but more often than not you’ll have to fork out some money for them. RegExr is looking to solve this problem. It is a free online regular expression builder that will show you the results of your regular expression in real-time.
I’ll be using this all of the time now, and it would have definitely been a great tool to have when I was trying to learn the ropes. Along the right side it includes a small “library” of the syntax available for building your regular expressions. That is a huge time saver so that you don’t have to keep referencing a cheat sheet.
If you don’t find the online version appealing they have also taken the liberty of converting it into a desktop application using Adobe’s AIR technology. That means it will run on Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux assuming that you have Adobe Air installed.
RegExr Online Version
RegExr Desktop Version
[via Download Squad]
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
This article was written on May 20, 2011 by CyberNet.
A few weeks ago I was talking to someone who had said what a pain it was to manage their iPhone and iPad photos in bulk. They told me that there were about 20 pictures they took that didn’t turn out well, and in order to remove them from their phone they had to go through and delete them one-by-one. Ouch! I could see how that would be frustrating, but there is a much simpler way that not many people seem to know about. Here’s what you need to do:
Note: You can repeat Step 3 to deselect items you didn’t mean to select.
So the key things you need to remember once you enter the selection screen is to tap, hold, and slide. From there you can send the photos through Email or MMS (limited to 5 photos at a time), copy them to the clipboard, print them, or delete them from your iOS device.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
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