Supplement Your Current Anti-Virus Software with the Microsoft Safety Scanner

 Are you looking for a free supplemental scanner to work with your current Windows anti-virus software? Then the Microsoft Safety Scanner is the right app for the job.
The homepage provides an overview about the Safety Scanner, provides links to Help and Resources, and displays a list of the current Top desktop threats.

Laptops, HDTVs, and Free Apps

If you love new gear but not high prices then we’ve got some deals for you; grab some deeply discounted laptops, monitors and HDTVs, and free mobile apps in this week’s Geek Deals roundup.
We’ve combed the net and grabbed some fresh off the press deals for you to take advantage of. Unlike traditional brick and mortar sales internet deals are fast and furious so don’t be surprised if by the time you get

Add Tranquil Beauty to Your Desktop with the Waterdrops Theme for Windows 7

Sometimes beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places such as water drops on the petals of a flower. If you love the look of peaceful, beautiful backgrounds then you will definitely want to give this theme a try. The theme comes with eleven wallpapers full of water drop goodness for your desktop.
Download the Waterdrops Theme [Windows 7 Personalization Gallery]

Hack a DSLR for DIY Infrared Photography

DSLR sensors have a special filter for IR light; a little hacking is all it takes to strip away that filter and modify the camera for awesome infrared photography.
Jerry, over in the forums for the Home Shop Machinist, shares his crash course in converting an old Pentax DSLR into an infrared unit. He had an old DSLR laying around and decided, upon purchasing a new one, that the old one was destined for hacking greatness. By taking the camera apart, removing the infrared filter, and

How Smoke Detectors Work [Science]

Smoke detectors are a common household fixture so small as to be almost unnoticeable, yet inside is a host of interesting technology and scientific principles at work. Check out this great video from Bill Hammack–the Engineer Guy–to see how they work.

Build a “Truth Meter”; A Simple DIY Lie Detector [Electronics]

One element of lie detection, as carried out by lie detecting machines, is the measurement of galvanic skin response–how sweaty the questioned person becomes. This simple electronics project recreates that measure right in your workshop.

See Life from a Different Perspective with the Small World Theme for Windows 7

Are you ready for a different perspective on your desktop? Then get ready to view a small world that is larger than life with the Small World Theme for Windows 7. This terrific theme comes with 16 wallpapers showcasing how the world looks from an insect’s point of view!
Download the Small World Theme [Windows 7 Personalization Gallery]

Kung Fu Panda 2 Theme for Windows 7

Po, Master Shifu, and the Furious Five are back once again as a new evil in the form of Lord Shen emerges to take over China and possibly threaten the existence of kung fu itself. The theme comes with nine wallpapers to help bring Po’s latest adventures straight to your desktop.
Download the Kung Fu Panda 2 Theme [Windows 7 Personalization Gallery]

Prevent a Media Directory from Appearing in Android Gallery

The Gallery application on Android devices is a bit aggressive about scanning and adding directories. Have a directory you want to keep private? Use this simple trick to keep it out of the Gallery app.
If you want to use the Gallery app to show people pictures of your kid/dog/home remodeling project and not your girlfriend’s chest/drinking exploits/night at the club then this tip is for you. By default Android’s Gallery

Are Color Blind Gamers Left Out? [Science]

Color blindness affects a significant portion of the population (5% of men and %.5 of women); game developers are finally noticing and tweaking games so success doesn’t hinge on whether or not you can tell red from green.
The BBC shares and interesting article on the impact of color blindness and the enjoyment of video games. Roughly 1 in 20 men and 1 in 200 women are afflicted with some type of color blindness. Video games often

Perfect Coding for Sleep [Wallpaper]

A life code [deviantART]

Turn a Webcam into a Motion Detecting and Email Notifying Security Cam

If you have an old web cam or two laying around you can convert them into a CCTV system that pushes email and growl notifications to you any time motion is detected in the area they are monitoring.
Sean, a DIYer from the UK, wanted to put his always-on-server to even more use. By linking a webcam to the server and setting up Yawcam (for the motion detection and email notification) on the server and a

Use High Voltage to Erase a CD like a Mad Scientist [Video]

You could throw your CDs in the shredder to erase them–if you want to be pedestrian and safe with your data disposal needs–or you could wide them down to the bare plastic with a massive blast of high voltage electricity.
YouTube user Photoinduction really loves playing with electricity and is always looking for new ways to put it to good use. In the video above he demonstrates how you can literally wipe the data layer right off a CD or DVD using a sustained burst of high voltage electricity.
Erase a CD with HV [YouTube via The Daily What]

Remove Backgrounds Automatically with a Free Photoshop Action

There are hundreds of ways to isolate an object or remove a background in Photoshop, and this is one of the absolute easiest. See how a quick download and some simple techniques can help you cut out images with ease.

Apps, Apps, & More Apps; An Infographic Look at Mobile Applications

Mobile apps are more popular than ever with individual apps boasting download counts in the millions and application sales breaking into the billions of dollars; take a peek at the phenomenon with this app-focused infographic.

Google Video Shutting Down; Rescue Your Orphaned Videos Before 5/13

Google Video is shutting down its hosting services as of the end of this month; users will be able to download their old videos until May 13, 2011.
Google Video’s fate has been in limbo since 2006 when Google bought YouTube–since 2009 they stopped

CraigsEasy Converts Craigslist Searches to Image Galleries

If you spend most of your Craigslist time filtering to show only pictures and then checking out those listings with pictures attached, CraigsEasy will save you the leg work by converting any Craigslist search into an image gallery.
Visit CraigsEasy, add the bookmarklet to your bookmark toolbar, and then any time you want to view a set of Craigslist search results in an easy to browse image-gallery format, you just click the bookmarklet. Watch the video above to see it in action and then visit the link below to grab a copy for your browser.
CraigsEasy [via Unpluggd]

How to Change the Virtual Machine Boot Device in Virtual PC

If you’re trying to install an OS or are testing out boot disks, you might be wondering how to change the boot device. Here’s the quick and easy technique to change it.

Smart Video Enlarger Automatically Scales YouTube Videos to Browser Window

Smart Video Enlarger is a free Google Chrome Extension that automatically scales YouTube videos to the size of the browser window–or slightly smaller if you prefer to read the video comments along with the video. By default the videos enlarge to 100% but you can select a ratio from 30-100% in order to allow for comment reading. It’s a nice feature but most people will likely leave it at 100%. Smart Video Enlarger is free and works wherever Google Chrome does. Hit up the link below to grab a copy. Curious about the video in our screenshot? You can watch it here.
Smart Video Enlarger [Google Chrome Extensions via Make Use Of]

Visualize How Your Tax Dollars are Spent at The Data Viz Challenge

It’s Tax Day; curious where all your tax dollars go? Thanks to this year’s Data Viz Challenge you can look at dozens of interesting data visualization tools to see just where your money is going.
Earlier this year Google launched the Data Viz Challenge–a five week competition that challenged developers to visualize how federal income tax is spent. Watch the video above for a sneak peek or follow the link below to see the grand prize winner, the runners up, or browse through dozens of additional entries.
Visualize Your Taxes; The Data Viz Challenge 2010 [Data Viz Challenge via The Official Google Blog]

How To Save, Share, Download, and Install Custom Photoshop Actions

Photoshop Actions, you may remember, allow users to do record and replay complex tasks with no programming skill. But exporting, sharing, and installing downloaded actions can be confusing. Here’s simple instructions on how you can do all three.

How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions

Have a huge folder of images needing tweaks? A few hundred adjustments may seem like a big, time consuming job—but read one to see how Photoshop can do repetitive tasks automatically, even if you don’t know how to program!

Boost Networking Performance by Installing Tomato on Your Router

 Your newly purchased router has a ton of potential, but unfortunately the manufacturer usually downplays the capabilities by only enabling limited features. Here’s how to unleash some of those features with an open source firmware.

Internet Explorer 10 Will Not Work on Vista or XP

This week we learned how to break down the anatomy of a phishing email, “understand data latency problems with gaming, use a laptop screen as a second monitor, & ID your computer’s components”, convert a hard drive or flash drive from FAT32 to NTFS format, understand the science behind cooking with

PWN3D – The Ultimate FPS Game [Humorous Video]

These gentlemen are really excited about their new super realistic first-person shooter game. Once a third friend joins them it is game on, but does the game get just a bit too realistic? Say goodbye to the living room!

Craft a Simple Laptop and Tablet Stand from Cardboard

You need to prop your laptop or tablet up at a comfortable angle but you’re not too excited about the idea of spending a lot of money on a stand. Fair enough, this study cardboard stand should do the trick.
It’s not pretty–although if you have access to a laser cutter and acrylic it could be–but it gets the job done. Hit

What You Said: What’s In Your Flash Drive Toolkit

LaCie USB Key available here.
Flash drives are such handy devices when you’re trouble shooting computers. You can run operating systems off them, stash portable apps on them, transfer data between machines, backup old data before system instability wipes it, and more. The simple flash drive has opened up a world of trouble shooting tips and tricks

The Old Stone House in the Mountains [Wallpaper]

Stoneage House [DesktopNexus]

Build a PVC Didgeridoo to Jam Out like an Aborigine [Weekend Project]

If the warm weather has you itching to open the garage door and get tinkering, this PVC didgeridoo–a 1,500 year old aboriginal instrument–is a fun (and noisy) way to kick off a summer of tinkering.
Didgeridoo’s are an ancient instrument that is at minimum 1,500 years old–probably much older but the first rock art depicting the use of one appears around 500 AD. The instrument is essentially just a resonance tube the player uses to generate music that sounds like a deep and rhythmic humming. You can hear a traditional

Friday Fun: Blockgineer

After another long week at work it is time to relax and have some fun. This week’s game puts your thinking to the test as you construct a course to get the balls from the starting point to their targets at the end of the course.

Use the Navigation Pane in Word to Easily Reorganize Documents

Microsoft Word has a zillion features, and even after using it for a while, you’re always finding something new. The Navigation Pane is a great feature that lets you easily skip between sections, but even more useful is the ability to use it to reorganize your documents.

How to Convert a Hard Drive or Flash Drive from FAT32 to NTFS Format

If you’ve got a hard drive formatted with the FAT32 file system, you might have found that you can’t copy large files to that drive. So how do you fix that, and convert the file system over to NTFS? Here’s how.
Scratching your head? Here’s the deal: the FAT32 file system, which most external drives are still shipped with, can’t handle files larger than about 4 GB in size—which means most full-length movies and anything

How to Properly Clean Your Camera Lens [Video]

Everybody is familiar with the most rudimentary of lens cleaning techniques–a swipe with a clean sleeve–but what about giving your lens a thorough and lens-friendly cleaning? This detailed video shows you how to get the cleanest lens around.