Jason McCullough

Most of us use a word processor on a daily basis. In this article, I share five of the best word processors available and why you should consider each one for use. There are so many word processing programs out there that it would be ridiculous to say these are the only five you should consider; however, these are five of the best. Which ones did I miss? OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org is an open-source office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and more. Writer, the word-processing application that comes with the suite, is the result of user feedback and constant improvements over the years. I really like OpenOffice.org and would switch to it if I didn’t already have a Microsoft Office license. Download OpenOffice.org Google Docs Google Docs is an online suite that comes with all the features you’d expect from an office suite. I use Google Docs mainly for online web forms to collect survey responses etc. Here’s a video  that does a gre...

With iTunes 9.2 and iOS 4, the iBooks 1.1 app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch can store and view PDF files, together with EPUB files.   If you want to quickly add a document or a web page to your 'Books' collection in iTunes, all you need to do is to create an alias of iTunes and drag it to   ~/Library/PDF Services . Now, when you're browsing the web or viewing documents and you decide that you want to read them later on a portable Apple device just hit Print, click the PDF button on the bottom left corner of the window and choose iTunes. iTunes will launch and receive the PDF. Next, sync your device and you're ready to go.   [ I tested this, and it works as described. This idea will work with any application that can read a PDF, not just iTunes 9.2.]

The internet changes very quickly; for that reason, stepping back to the basics is very important. As you may know, the internet is no more than a collection of interconnected networks. In this post I will show a list of basic network commands. Even if you haven’t used any of these before, it is useful to know they exist. As always, increasing your knowledge is the better way to achieve your goals. To run these commands, open a command prompt:

Keeping your computer running within safe temperatures is important, especially as the temperature rises outside. Here's how to make sure your computer's not overheating—and how to fix it if it is. Photo by  Alfo23 . The cooling system of your computer is one of the most important features of the device. Without the cooling system, the electrical components of your computer wouldn't be able to function; overheating would damage the integral parts of what makes your computer work. The heat has to be dissipated in order to keep everything working within safe operating temperatures.

Yes, I took the weekend to relax. I will implement that as common practice for this blog. I think that everyone, no matter how busy should always take time out for the family and for themselves. So, if you are running around like a headless chicken, please, take the time to "smell the roses". Take a break from technology every now and then. Put the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad down, and go to the park. It is refreshing. See you all on Monday with amazing content.

Dropbox just made sharing files, pictures, music, and video with your friends, or the public web, as easy as right-clicking a folder. Even better, the page you share from lets anyone preview your media files right in the browser. In Dropbox clients at version 0.8 and later, right-clicking on a folder in your Dropbox folder now brings up a "Get shareable link" option. Click it, and Dropbox creates a short URL (db.tt/something) and opens your new shared folder in a browser. Images open up in gallery form, videos and music get their own tiny players, and one more click can send the page to your Twitter or Facebook accounts. Other Dropbox users who land on your shared page can add all your shared stuff to their own Dropbox. It is, in other words, amazingly easy, simple, and fun to use. Not seeing the right-click option in your Dropbox folder? You can use your Dropbox web interface to get the link, or upgrade your client  to a beta version . New Sharing Model (omg)! ...

A lot of iPhone 3G owners—myself included—have discovered that upgrading to iOS 4 has  slowed their devices to a crawl . If you decide the  new features and shortcuts just aren't worth the glacial performance, here's how to downgrade your iDevice. Note:  The process should work nearly the same on Windows and OS X, so unless we say otherwise, you can follow the same steps on each. The main difference between Windows and OS X is RecBoot, so Windows users, make sure you pay close attention to the RecBoot process before diving in. The same basic steps should likely work for iPhone 3GS, according to our 3GS-toting intern Adam Dachis, who's used a similar method in the past. (Still, I haven't been able to verify, so proceed at your own risk, and if you do, let us know how it worked in the comments.) Lastly, you should read through the entire guide before you dive in, just so you know what you're getting into.  Image remixed from  drewm . ...

Time Machine is hands down the most convenient utility built into Mac OS X. I have only one qualm with it. It backs up too much, too often. Im sure there are Mac users out there that have critical items on their machines and must backup every hour on the hour. I on the other hand do not make changes to my system or files that often. I have a online document system, so my documents are always backed up and secure. (I will have to dedicate another post to this online document system. So, we fast forward to a small application for Mac OS X called Time Machine Scheduler . It gives you the ability to set Time Machine backups to your schedule. You can backup at intervals of up to every 12 hours if you choose. It also gives you the ability to make your Time Machine backup disk invisible to users. This is a convenient option in my household due to many people using my iMac at various times.

The problems you must face using an Antivirus are not always obvious. By not properly uninstalling an antivirus programs, you can experience system instabilities. It is not unusual that you find problems when installing a new antivirus program due to traces of the older one.

Blu-Ray discs may be more protected and harder to play in certain programs, like XBMC, but that doesn't mean you can't play your HD video on your media center. Here's how to rip and compress Blu-Ray discs for high quality, space-saving results. Blu-Ray is not the most friendly of formats. It's highly proprietary and copy protected, you can't skip past previews, the discs only play in a few choice desktop computer programs (like PowerDVD), and they don't play on Mac or Linux  at all . Luckily, video encoding has come a long way since the days of lower quality, 700MB XviD DVD rips, and you can get high quality Blu-Ray rips that can weigh in anywhere between 4 and 12 GB each, depending on how close to the original source you want them to be, and boy do they look good.

PilotHandwriting is a free web service that turns your handwriting into a font that you can use to send out personalized emails. The site—a product of the Pilot pen company—is similar to  previously mentioned YourFonts , and the process is likewise similar: You print out a template, write the corresponding letters in each box, and then upload your filled out template back to the site (the video above demonstrates the process). PilotHandwriting is a touch more user-friendly than YourFonts, and it features several different methods of uploading your handwriting back to the site (including a really smart built-in webcam capture tool, a scanner, or a regular digital camera). You can even test your font or correct small imperfections.

This brief tutorial will guide you through the steps required to add PDF files to iBooks on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, using Dropbox. Update:  it has been pointed out to me that this method only works if you have an iPad – and that it does not work on an iPod Touch or iPhone. One solution that may work for you if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch is to copy the link to the PDF from the Dropbox app, then paste it in Safari. At that point you’ll be prompted to open it, and you can select iBooks. This method won’t work if you’re running iOS 4 on your  iPhone  or iPod Touch until Dropbox updates the app to work with iOS 4.

Well as I write this I’m taking the plunge and installing iOS4 to my iPhone 3G and then Jailbreaking with redsn0w.  A few hours ago this morning iOS4 was released to the general public for download via iTunes.  A few hours later the  iPhone Dev Team  and  Musclenerd  updated ultrasn0w which will now unlock ALL basebands, and just about an hour or so ago, they released the final beta version of redsn0w.  You can grab the latest version of redsn0w here:   download redsn0w The proper procedure for your iPhone 3G is basically this:  !!!ONLY DO THIS ON iPhone 3G!!!! I am not responsible if you F*** up your phone! Use at your own risk and don’t attempt if you are a n00b.

If you’re looking to  hide files on your PC hard drive , you may have read about ways to encrypt folders or change the attributes on a file so that they cannot be accessed by prying eyes. However, a lot of times hiding files or folders in that way requires that you install some sort of software  on your computer, which could then be spotted by someone else. I’ve actually written quite a few articles on how you can hide files and folders in Windows  XP  and Vista before, but here I’m going to show you a new way to hide files that is very counter-intuitive and therefore pretty safe! Using a simple trick in Windows, you can actually  hide a file inside of the JPG picture file !

For those who love to pin their favorite websites we have small tip that enables you pin any website shortcut to the taskbar. As you may know, by default, you can pin a website page to your default browser’s jump list only. So, here are the steps you need to follow in order to pin a website link to Windows 7 taskbar: #  Right-click on the  desktop , select  New  and then select  Shortcut  to launch Create Shortcut wizard. #  In the location box, you need to enter browser’s installation path followed by website address. For example, if you want to pin Into  Windows  shortcut to the taskbar and want to open open it in  Internet  Explorer  browser , you need to type the following command: “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe”  http://www.intowindows.com #  Click  Next  to enter a name for your shortcut and finally click  Finish  button to close the wizard. #  Now, simply drag and dro...