Create A Free Online Database For Any Purpose With Soda DB

What do you call a spreadsheet on steroids? A database. Where’s the best place to store a database? Well, on the Internet of course; and here I am going to tell you how to easily create a free online database for your own purpose. Having your data, and the ability to enter your data, right on the Internet means that you can manage and control your data from anywhere in the world, so long as you have an Internet connection. Why would you ever want to do this? Well, just think of the possibilities. You could maintain a complete online...

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5 Tools To Take An Auto-Guided Google Street View Tour

Hitting the road for a scenic drive can be super relaxing. Unfortunately, it’s neither a cheap, nor an environmentally friendly pastime, which both traffic and weather can utterly ruin. With Google Street View you can comfortably explore the world from your desk. Google Maps is a nifty navigation tool and all the information embedded in the maps make it a great travel guide, too. Now you can even set Street View on auto-pilot and let it take you on the world’s most scenic drives. Here are 5 tools that make this possible. Gaiagi Driving Simulator This online driving simulator will...

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Technophilia 84 Live From MakeUseOf

This week: some jerk hacked into a baby monitor and started swearing at a two-year old. Maybe your baby monitor shouldn’t be connected to the web? The federal government shut down the Silk Road. Typical big government intervention: shutting down an innovative company just to protect traditional, brick-and-mortar drug dealers. And we talk with a longtime Technophiliac whose website we made fun of. He’ll tell us whether or not we’re jerks. The CEO of Qwest, a phone and broadband Internet provider, is going to jail for not giving the NSA info. Why didn’t he just tell the NSA he’d drop...

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Align Parallel Texts and Help Improve Google Translate

When you select a language pair in Google Translate, you might see a message at the bottom of the page: "Please help Google Translate improve quality for your language here". The link sends you to a page like this one (the example is for French -> English).



It's an interesting way to help Google Translate become more accurate. Here's what you need to do: "In the translated sentence, select the words which mean the highlighted word in the original sentence."

It's likely that all the texts from this experiment are used to train Google Translate and they include professional translations. This might help Google Translate improve the word-level alignment of Google's parallel corpora.

Google's Knowledge Graph Card Shows TV Episodes

When you search for a TV show from the US, Google's Knowledge Graph card now shows the latest episodes. "For example, say that you're wondering when the next season of The Walking Dead starts. Try searching for [the walking dead tv show] and you'll see all episodes listed along with their air dates," explains Google.



I've searched for [Breaking Bad], [Seinfeld], [Dexter], [Modern Family] and the results are pretty good. Unfortunately, when you click on the episode title, Google displays a card that doesn't provide a lot of useful information. It's just the first paragraph from the corresponding Wikipedia article. Here's an example: "'Problem Dog' is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, and the 40th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on August 28, 2011." Google should use the plot summaries from IMDb.

How To Make Your Windows 7 PC Genuine Again After a Hardware Upgrade

When you purchase a computer that comes with Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows 8, that copy of Windows is tied to your computer’s hardware. It’s an OEM copy, which means it can only be used on that computer. Even if you purchase a retail, boxed copy of Windows and install it, that copy of Windows will become tied to your hardware after it activates itself with Microsoft. If you change your hardware later, your copy of Windows may become “non-genuine,” turn your desktop background black, and start pestering you to use a genuine version of Windows. You’re allowed to...

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How To Extend System Partition In Windows 8.1

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Most PC users allocate less than 25GB space to the system partition while installing Windows operating system. While 25GB of free space is good enough for users who don’t install apps that require huge disk space, it’s always a good idea to allocate at least 50GB of space to the system drive. If your Windows […]

Track Your Website’s SEO Performance with Positionly [Giveaway]

You run a website – but how do you judge your success with keywords? One way is to compare your keyword rankings with those of your competitors. Positionly offers this service, enabling you to compare and contrast your successful (or otherwise) keyword strategy. Offering a suite of tools and reports, Positionly can be used to determine whether your website’s keywords are projecting your website the best position in the search engine rankings, or if more work needs to be done. This might be used in conjunction with a Google Analytics account and a search engine optimization strategy for your website....

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How To Automatically Set Start Screen Background Color As Window Border And Taskbar Color In Windows 8.1

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The Start screen in Windows 8.1 has been enhanced with a couple of new features. The Start screen in the newest version of Windows comes with new tile sizes, lets you set desktop wallpaper as Start screen background picture, allows you uninstall multiple apps at once, and more. Just like its predecessor Windows 8, Windows […]

Google Chrome 31 Beta Packs Web Payments, Application Shortcuts For Android

Google Chrome is on a roll. After debuting a smarter Omnibox with Chrome 29 and baking Search By Image into the browser, the Chrome 31 Beta has even more new features in store, including a new e-payment system as well as mobile website shortcuts on Android. The current technology that automatically fills up forms on sites using the browser’s autocomplete information — requestAutocomplete() — is now also being used to work for online payments. On sites with requestAutocomplete(), users will be able to use payment data such as Google Wallet. Meanwhile, if you are using Chrome for Android beta, you...

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7 Questions To Ask A Computer Technician Before He Starts Work

If your computer is out of warranty and it breaks down on you, is your first inclination to ditch it and just buy a new computer? Or, are you the kind of person that considers repairing it? Unfortunately, lots of people don’t want to deal with the hassle or cost of trying to repair their failing machine, so they toss it in the dumpster. Little do they realize that finding the right computer technician could lead to a simple, inexpensive fix and a computer that’s like new again. Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve always believed in green computing. Aside from better...

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How to Play YouTube Videos in the Background on iOS

Do you prefer listening to music while working? Learn a trick to help you play YouTube videos in the background on your iPad or iPhone.

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This story, How to Play YouTube Videos in the Background on iOS, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 08/10/2013 under IPad, IPhone, YouTube, Software

Need A New Wallpaper? These 5 Awesome Sites Will Get You There

Your choice of desktop wallpaper says a lot about who you are. On the one hand, it’s not good to make judgments and assumptions about people from such a small data set, but on the other hand, wallpapers that display expensive cars, fantasy art, scantily clad women, landscapes, or even solid blocks of color can speak volumes. Your wallpaper is an expression of who you are, so where can you find wallpapers that fit you? Within the past decade or so, there’s been a surge in wallpaper sites that allow users to upload and share their wallpaper creations for download....

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How To View Folder Size In Windows 8.1 Explorer

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Windows 8.1, just like its predecessors, doesn’t show size of folders in Windows Explorer (File Explorer) by default. That is, when you open up a folder containing several files and folders, Windows Explorer shows only the size of files and not folders in Details view. In order to view the size of a folder in […]

3 Ways To Pin Folders To Taskbar In Windows 8.1

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While one can easily pin a folder to the Start screen in Windows 8.1 by right-clicking on a folder and then selecting Pin to Start option, Windows 8.1 doesn’t let you pin folders to the taskbar with default settings. Only programs and application shortcuts can be pinned to the taskbar in all recent versions of […]

8 Ways To Improve Windows 8 With Win+X Menu Editor

On Windows 8, you can press Windows Key + X or right-click at the bottom-left corner of your screen to open a menu known as the “power user menu” or “quick access menu.” This menu contains quick access to system utilities like the Control Panel, Command Prompt, Task Manager, File Explorer, Device Manager, and more. Win+X Menu Editor allows you to edit the shortcuts that appear here, adding new shortcuts, removing existing ones, and even rearranging the list. While Microsoft did remove the traditional desktop Start menu, they also added this very unappreciated feature. It’s useful without any customizations, but...

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Create a Public Folder Where Anyone Can Add Files

You can create a public folder where anyone can view and upload files without you having to invite them as a contributor to the shared folder.

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This story, Create a Public Folder Where Anyone Can Add Files, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 07/10/2013 under Dropbox, Internet

BazQux Reader – A Worthy Minimalist Replacement To Google Reader

If you are a power RSS reader, I’m sure you mourned the passing of Google Reader a few months back. But once we were past the initial gnashing and wailing of teeth, we began to search for replacements. A lot of my colleagues swear by Feedly or Digg, but I never really melded with either of them. Instead, I was looking for something really simple, minimalist, and perhaps similar in appearance and functionality to Google Reader. And something that just worked. I’m afraid I’m rather picky about what web apps and software I will continue using. When I met BazQux,...

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5 Ways To Make Your Windows Computer Speak To You

Lean back and listen: let your PC do the reading. Whether you generally dislike reading yourself or simply want to multitask from time to time, letting your computer read documents to you out loud can make life better. Windows comes, built in, with the ability to read text – it’s how anyone blind makes use of the operating system. The computerized voices won’t win awards for their dramatic performances, but they’re perfectly fine if you want a break from reading yourself. Sadly, how to use this functionality isn’t altogether obvious. Don’t worry, though, because a simple trick can turn Microsoft...

Read the full article: 5 Ways To Make Your Windows Computer Speak To You

5 Ways To Make Your Windows Computer Speak To You

Lean back and listen: let your PC do the reading. Whether you generally dislike reading yourself or simply want to multitask from time to time, letting your computer read documents to you out loud can make life better. Windows comes, built in, with the ability to read text – it’s how anyone blind makes use of the operating system. The computerized voices won’t win awards for their dramatic performances, but they’re perfectly fine if you want a break from reading yourself. Sadly, how to use this functionality isn’t altogether obvious. Don’t worry, though, because a simple trick can turn Microsoft...

Read the full article: 5 Ways To Make Your Windows Computer Speak To You