Why would you want to remove spyware from your computer? Well there are a whole load of reasons as to why you could, but I am going to tell you why you should remove spyware.

You buy a new computer to upgrade, to get a faster processor or just a faster computer, a computer that probably cost you a lot of your hard earned money. Now let’s say it starts to slow down. A lot. What could do this? Spyware will do this. If this isn’t enough to make you go download or run your anti spyware application then I don’t know what will. Read the rest of this entry »

Need to hide stuff? Dont know how? Follow these steps below:

Note: you need WinRAR to start, pick it up at RarLabs. Its just like winzip, but better.

• Get all the files you want to hide, and compress them into a file using WinRar
• Make a folder on your C:\ called “hide”
• Copy the compressed file you just made into the folder “hide”
• Copy the image you want noobs to see when they click on it into the “hide” folder
• Go open Command Prompt (you can find it in accessories)and you want to go to your C:\. If you dont start in it when you start the command prompt, type “cd ../../” without the quotes. It should say C:\>
• Now type “cd hide” without the quotes
• Type copy/b photo.jpg + files.rar result.jpg
• You have just magically created “result.jpg” with the files in your compressed folder. You can rename result to anything else

Now when you click the image file it will show an image just like normal It will be the size of the compressed file you used though.

When you want to decompress it just right click on it and go to “open with” and choose WinRar. Then just extract it to wherever you want!

Now go impress your friends. You could even make up a jpg that says “OMG DONT LOOK” or something so it looks suspicious, but no one will ever know why you have a 560MB jpg file on your desktop.

Well for my webprogramming class we have to design and code a website. Simple enough For that class, the main project runs throughout the entire semester, and gets handed in at the end. Our group decided we would do something based upon music, bands, and all that sort of stuff because we all love music so much

What we came up with was the name “Band Addict” we had a bunch more that I cant even remember but they had to do with bands… and music… and liking them together.

We didnt really want to have to code everything and have a plain jane boring ol website, so we took a different approach. We decided to design the website in Adobe Fireworks and have iframes wherever we had to put a page that needed to be changed. We used that for the news, top 20, latest bands, etc. It made it easier than having to edit the image each time, since thats how the web page is made. I know using a web site that is entirely images is a bandwidth hog and could have tremendous load times for people with slow connections, but who cares about them. We dont

Anyways check out the site below, hope you like it! (we arent finished and probably never will be, but here is the link to it)

A lot of people want to get something that will stop spyware in its tracks. One solution is to find an application that offers superior spyware protection, bundled with real time antivirus.

The best of the best in the computer application world are the applications that do real time scanning. What this means in simple English is that when a connection is being made between your computer and another over the internet, a certain program scans it, recognizes it and deems it acceptable or unacceptable. It makes its decision on the connection according to that company’s database of acceptable and unacceptable connections.

A lot of antivirus applications operate this way. They run in the background, often only displaying a small icon in your system try, beside your clock. The next generations of antivirus applications are coming bundled with spyware protection.

A lot of developers are coming to their senses about the current issue on spyware. It is becoming as big a problem as viruses these days. Many people actually consider spyware a virus. I personally consider it a wimpier, sadder attempt at making a virus.
Read the rest of this entry »

Getting paid for playing video games at home sounds like a pipe dream, right? This is one of those things that sets off the, “too good to be true” alarms, I know! I’m writing this article to let you know that you could land one of these jobs, if you know the secret to getting inside the business. Great jobs like these only last because people don’t know how to get them, and if you have previously searched for a video game testing job, you probably know this to be true!

The video game industry is rated at some 50 billion dollars and it is growing very quickly. Experts say that they expect exponential growth over the next couple of years, as well! What does this mean then, exactly? It means that now is the absolute perfect time to get your foot in the door of this industry. With the huge growth in the video game business you can expect many gaming testing jobs opening, including some very nice high paying opportunities as these companies try to best their competitors and grab up all of the best testers. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a kick ass list of nerd jokes.

Enjoy.

1. Duct Tape is like the Force.It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
2. Darth Vader’s wife is named Ella.
3. Sex is the most fun you can have without logging on.
4. How is a computer like an erection?It stays up as long as you don’t screw with it!
5. A nerd was walking on campus one day when his friend, another nerd, rode up on an incredible shiny new bicycle.The first nerd was stunned and asked, “Where did you get such a nice bike?”The second nerd replied, “Well, yesterday I was walking home minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up to me on this bike.

   She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, ‘Take what you want!’”

   The second nerd nodded approvingly and said, “Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit.”

6. An application was for employment
   A program was a TV show
   A cursor used profanity
   A keyboard was a piano!

   Memory was something that you lost with age
   A CD was a bank account
   And if you had a 3 1/2 inch floppy
   You hoped nobody found out!

   Compress was something you did to garbage
   Not something you did to a file
   And if you unzipped anything in public
   You’d be in jail for awhile!

   Log on was adding wood to a fire
   Hard drive was a long trip on the road
   A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
   And a backup happened to your commode!

   Cut – you did with a pocket knife
   Paste you did with glue
   A web was a spider’s home
   And a virus was the flu!

   I guess I’ll stick to my pad and paper
   And the memory in my head
   I hear nobody’s been killed in a computer crash
   But when it happens they wish they were dead!

7. A helicopter with a pilot and a single passenger was flying around above Seattle when a malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s navigation and communications equipment. Due to the darkness and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position and course to get back to the airport.The pilot saw a tall building with lights on and flew toward it, the pilot had the passenger draw a handwritten sign reading “WHERE AM I?” and hold it up for the building’s occupants to see.People in the building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER.”

   The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely.

   After they were on the ground, the passenger asked the pilot how the “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER” sign helped determine their position.

   The pilot responded “I knew that had to be the Microsoft support building, they gave me a technically correct but entirely useless answer.”

8. A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. Upon being asked the price, the bartender responded, “For you? No charge.”
9. Two atoms are walking down the street. One suddenly stops and says, “Oh no, I’ve lost an electron.”
   “Are you sure?”
   “I’m positive!”
10. What did the proton say to the electron?
    Stop being so negative
11. This customer comes into the computer store. “Im looking for a mystery Adventure Game with lots of graphics. You know, something really challenging.” “Well,” replied the clerk, “Have you tried Windows 98?”
12. If Bill Gates had a dime for every time a Windows box crashed…Oh, wait a minute, he already does.
13. Computers manufacturer is considering changing the command “Press Any Key” to “Press Return Key” because of the flood of calls asking where the “Any” key is.
14. Whats another name for the “Windows Vista ™” sticker they put on computers?
    The warning label.
15. Teacher: Shall I put the school computer on?
    Pupil: No, Miss, the dress youre wearing looks fine.
16. I’ve been on my computer all night!
    Don’t you think you’d be more comfortable on a bed like everyone else?
17. Some people say the glass is half full. Others say it is half empty. Nerds say you made too much glass.
18. A programmer had been missing from work for over a week when finally someone noticed and called the cops. They went round to his flat and broke down the door. They found him dead in the still running shower with an empty bottle of shampoo next to his body. The instructions on the bottle said:

    1. Wet hair
    2. Apply shampoo
    3. Lather
    4. Rinse
    5. Repeat

19. Roses are #FF0000 , Violets are #0000FF
20. Nerdy pick-up lines :
    “I wish I was DNA helicase so I could unzip your genes”
    “Baby, you must be auxin cuz you’re giving me rapid stem elongation”
    “Baby, you turn my floopy disk into a hard drive”
    “YouTube Myspace and I’ll Google your Yahoo”

I hope you liked the jokes I have put together, pass it on to your friends!

There’s no doubt, that computer games are here to stay. They have to be one of the most prevalent forms of software around. You can find them on PC’s, Macs, cellphones, pdas, and BlackBerrys. They even have their own genre of hardware. Specifically for gaming. There are living room styled consoles like Xbox, Wii’s, and PS3s. As well as a horde of portable gaming platforms, like the PSP, GameBoy, and DS. I can’t think of any other software that warrants it’s own hardware platform. We sure do like to play don’t we?

It’s a basic human need – for some even an obsession. Play time is a stress reliever, a much needed distraction, and arguably a self esteem builder for the winners. But another basic need that computer games can feed, is that of creation. Everyone loves to create. Whether it’s a five year olds finger painting hanging on the fridge, or Stephen Kings next great horror epic. Anyone with an emotion to express, story to tell, or movie to capture can do their thing.

I must confess to be a wanna-be game developer from way back. I first tinkered around with building games on a Commodore 64. And if I really want to date myself, I’ll confess to writing a very basic random number generator type game in Basic on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. Fortunately for the inspired gamers of today, the technology supporting game building has improved by several light years since then. From the simple to use yet powerful GameMaker from YoYo Games to the Unreal Editor (UnrealEd) that ships with the purchase of most games powered by the Unreal engine. This enables anyone who owns the game to create their very own version of the game using the same tools as the professionals. Read the rest of this entry »

Free Spyware Removal is growing by heaps and bounds every year. The amount of free spyware removal tools grows every day, literally.

The hardest thing to do is to find a free spyware removal tool that actually does everything it is supposed to, and works perfectly fine. Most spyware removal tools claim to do a lot of things but until you actually get spyware and test out the program, you cannot be certain, or sure about the performance of the application.

The best place to start is a website that provides a free download service.

Let’s start with CNET Download.com. In my eyes, this is the big daddy of all download websites. I have personally used this website hundreds of times, but to find an application, and to read reviews and comments on programs. Since Antivirus, Spyware Removal and Firewalls are all very important, they have their own section, click the link on the left side of the page to go to Antivirus, Firewall, & Spyware. While you are there, check out the top featured application, they usually are very trustworthy and very effective. I then narrow it down by going to Spyware Removers, and sorting it by showing only the Free applications. Then, to make it easier on your part, sort it by most downloaded at the top. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to annoy someone? Want to screw with your friends? Well you have come to the right place. Below is the answer.

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write “for sexual favors.”
3. Specify that your drive-through order is “TO-GO.”
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions “to keep them tuned up.”
7. Reply to everything someone says with “that’s what you think.”
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and “cc” them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words “in accordance with prophesy.”
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and “accidentally” flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you “like it that way.”
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    “DO YOU HEAR THAT?”
    “What?”
    “Never mind, it’s gone now.”
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce “No, wait, I messed it up,” and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn’t rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about “psychological profiles.”

These kids try towing a kids plastic wagon behind a crappy car and end up failing terribly. I love it.

So you’ve decided to plunge yourself into the world of game development, have assembled a team of mighty warriors to tackle all the big issues and are ready to create the next best game in the industry… trumping WoW, Guild Wars… (you get the point). You’ve chopped up all your brainstorming and assembled some really keen concepts for a storyline and you’re ready to go. But amongst all the programming, the character concepts, the dungeons, and the quests – what are truly the most important aspects of your game that will determine whether someone enjoys themself? Read on, and allow me to share with you what I think.

When we do decide to take that plunge into the development of a new game, there are five things you should consider very carefully, and pay a great deal of attention to. There are probably more of these that will hinder or help you along your way, and your ordering may be different than mine, but these are what I always hold to be the most important. Over the next week we will reveal each aspects, and at the end of the week culminate with the complete article. For today we’ll begin at the top, with number 5.

Number 5: Storyline

When crafting your game, there is no better inspiration for features and activities, quests and dungeons, than your very own highly developed and custom tailored storyline. Some may balk at this statement, claiming that storyline is easily overshadowed and un-necessary when you have intense graphics that make your fingers tingle, or when you have combat so intense that you’re literally ducking out of the way from behind your monitor. While these things definitely contribute to an awesome game, and can lead to a lot of excitement (in fact, they’re on the list too!), they cannot make up for a lack of storyline. One thing many players crave whether consciously or not, is a strong storyline that leads them into caring about the game – it entices you – and makes you feel as though your wildest dreams may in fact be possible in this environment. Storyline can be simple and to the point while being so flawlessly done that it serves as the crux of the entire game (EVE Online: We’re flying through space, blowing people out of the sky…) and at the same time being so rich and deep with lore (the complexities in lore and story surrounding EVE is so great that it entangles even the most basic ships and inventory items) that it compels players to write their own histories.

Not only does storyline help players become engaged with all that you’ve slaved over and worked for, but it helps you the developer along the way. If you’ve been smart, and from the beginning dreamed up an intoxicatingly deep history of your game setting, it will constantly serve you throughout development. It will provide clues into what features want to be a part of the game, what doesn’t need to be included, and what does or doesn’t fit. An architecture professor of mine once said, when referring to the site analysis portion of architecture that we could find out a great deal about what we should be building on the building site by simply visiting the location, and “envisioning the invisible building that wants to be built”. This is true in architecture, and it is especially true in game development and dreaming up your storyline/game setting.

Storyline may be important, but is it more important than a snazzy game setting so rich and vibrant that your tempted to stay indefinitely? Well, maybe – just as long as your 3d representation isn’t bogged down by hundreds of thousands of nasty polygons or quads. Why in the world is Artwork important, anyway?

Number 4: Artwork Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine waking up and being excited to go to work. Imagine getting paid for what you love to do. This article will show you exactly what you need to do to become a video game tester.

The first thing I did was contact game developers. Most of the companies that produce video games do not post ads in the daily classifieds or online like most other companies do. I am not sure why they don’t but I have never seen a job posting like that.

Search online for “a list of video game companies”. There are hundreds of companies that create video games that need beta testers. All you have to do is find these companies and present yourself to them. Make sure you are professional though, don’t just email them and say you want to test video games.

Create a resume. It might sound silly, but if you have a resume about your gaming experience then you will look much more professional and you will be more likely to get hired to test video games.

The next thing you need to do is follow up. Follow up with the companies that you talk to and let them know what systems you own and that you are available to start testing games immediately.

You will eventually get your first game to test and what you will also want to do is continue contacting companies to test games for. You are not actually employed by these companies so once you test a game for one company they may not have another game for you to test for a few months. It is a good idea to spend a few hours a day contacting companies asking to test games even if you already have plenty to test. You don’t want to run out of work.