Power Up Phone Conferencing With UberConference

Traditional conference calling is a faceless and often unproductive way of holding meetings. In the age of the Internet and mobile devices, conference calls and online meetings provide an array of features and functions for sharing and viewing documents, developing and keeping minutes, and even recording meetings for archive purposes. My recently released free MakeUseOf download, Online Meeting Guide: Software and Strategy introduces over a dozen different online meeting services and tools, like Google Hangouts, Meetings.io, and LiveMinutes. Another service that rivals the market leaders is UberConference, a phone and web conferencing service that also allows participants to access online...

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Multiple Computers, One Keyboard: Quicksynergy Makes Sharing Simple

Stop jumping from one keyboard and mouse combination to another every time you switch computers. Control multiple computers using just one set – without the need for extra hardware. QuickSynergy for Linux and Mac, working with Synergy for Windows, means there’s no combination of systems that can’t be controlled this quickly and easily. If there’s more than one computer on your desk then you need to check this out. Multiple monitors are intuitive – you move your mouse from one screen to another and simply continue controlling. But what if your desk has multiple computers on it? Can you move...

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The New York Times Joins The IFTTT Crowd [Updates]

It seems these days as if you’re not getting anywhere unless you have a channel on the automation juggernaut known as IFTTT (If This Then That). In the past, we have highlighted lots of other companies who have allowed us to automate their service using IFTTT (the most recent one being Gmail attachments). But now the newspaper giant The New York Times has jumped right in with both feet with their own IFTTT channel, enabling you to have various stories and features from the NYT sent to you automatically. For those who love to read the news, this one could...

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How to Avoid Embarrassing Yourself on Social Media

If you’ve never ever embarrassed yourself on a social network, stand up now. No, I mean it, stand up, and leave your computer, because you don’t need to read this. You probably don’t use social networks anyhow, so why would you need tips on how to avoid embarrassing yourself on them? Alright, it’s definitely possible that you’ve been extra careful, but even the most perfect of us makes the occasional typo, and when that happens in the one tweet you’ve sent in the past month, it gets kind of awkward. Typos are not the only way you can inadvertently embarrass...

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How To Increase VirtualBox Disk Size

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Oracle VM VirtualBox is one of the best and widely used free virtualization software. While there are a couple of virtual machine software around and some of them even offer a few features that aren’t available in VirtualBox, this free virtualization software from Oracle is beats it competitors when it comes to overall performance, stability, [...]

Test Your Music Knowledge With The Mr. Quizter Spotify App

As much as it’s important to keep your body fit and healthy by watching what you eat and drink and taking regular exercise, it’s also important to keep your brain fit and healthy. This can be achieved in several small ways, including taking the time to de-stress once in a while and (conversely) exercising the ol’ gray matter with brainteasers and puzzles. I regularly attend pub quizzes. Not only do these make sure I’m putting my brain to the test on a regular basis, the socializing is good for my sanity, and there’s beer available literally on tap. Unfortunately I...

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Chrome's Redesigned Navigation Error Pages

Chrome's navigation error pages have a new look: a simplified design optimized for mobile, with bigger text and less information.

They usually show up if a site is down or the web address doesn't exist. "Google Chrome can show suggestions for the page you were trying to reach, if it is unable to connect to the web address. Instead of a cryptic error message, you'll see suggestions to navigate to other parts of the website or to search for the page with Google. Often the webpage can't be found because it's temporarily down. To check if this is the issue, try opening the page in other browsers, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer," suggests Google.



Chrome's error pages are powered by a web service, so that's the reason why the new design is available in old Chrome releases, in Chrome's mobile apps and more. Here's an example: http://linkhelp.clients.google.com/tbproxy/lh/fixurl?sourceid=chrome&url=www.gogle.com.

{ Thanks, Michael. }

How To Restore Windows 8.1 Backup Image

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In one of our earlier posts, we talked about creating system backup image in Windows 8.1 using the Command Prompt. If you have previously created an backup image of your Windows 8.1 drive and would like to restore the image now, you can follow the given below instructions to successfully restore the backup image. Things [...]

Launch the Google+ Photos App in Chrome

Initially launched just for the Chromebook Pixel, the Google+ Photos packaged app also worked on other Chromebooks. The app's description suggested that you'll be able to use in Windows, Mac OS and regular Linux distributions, not just in Chrome OS.



If you've already installed the app in Chrome, now you can run it: just click the Google+ Photos icon from the new tab page or the app launcher and then click "run anyway". Until now, the "run anyway" button wasn't available.

Here's the Google+ Photos app in Windows 8:

Unfortunately, the app's page from the Chrome Web Store is no longer available, so this only works if you already have the app. For example, if you've installed the app on a Chromebook and you use Chrome Sync, then it should also be installed on your other computers that run Chrome.

{ Thanks, Andrea Leardini. }

Looking For Feedback For Your Fiction? Check Out These 4 Websites

The number one rule when writing fiction is that most of the writing happens in the rewrite. Once you’ve typed out that monstrous first draft, you’re going to want a fresh set of eyes (or several fresh sets of eyes) to look over your work and give you feedback. After all, you can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s wrong with it and this applies whether you’re writing novels or screenplays. One way to go about it is to hire a freelance editor but they can cost you a pretty penny — upwards of hundreds, if not thousands, of...

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4 Ways To Bulletproof Windows XP Forever

Windows XP is slated to be exterminated for good by Microsoft in April of 2014. It is the last stage of a multi-year effort to kill off the operating system. Microsoft previously cut support for any system running SP2, driving a massive effort across corporations to ensure their systems were all up to SP3. As of April of 2014, even that will no longer be supported with patch updates by Microsoft. We certainly fell in love with XP here at MakeUseOf, just like everyone else. Even on my recent article on the Windows XP virtual machine, readers were commenting about...

Read the full article: 4 Ways To Bulletproof Windows XP Forever

4 Ways To Bulletproof Windows XP Forever

Windows XP is slated to be exterminated for good by Microsoft in April of 2014. It is the last stage of a multi-year effort to kill off the operating system. Microsoft previously cut support for any system running SP2, driving a massive effort across corporations to ensure their systems were all up to SP3. As of April of 2014, even that will no longer be supported with patch updates by Microsoft. We certainly fell in love with XP here at MakeUseOf, just like everyone else. Even on my recent article on the Windows XP virtual machine, readers were commenting about...

Read the full article: 4 Ways To Bulletproof Windows XP Forever