Quick Links Brightness and Contrast tools are for beginners! Ever wondered what graphics programs offer advanced users to ensure their photographs have a great value range? Read on to learn about Levels, Curves, and Histograms in three major programs. However, they offer a great deal more control over images that professionals and skilled image editors will demand. What is a Histogram? Histograms are confusing looking collections of information, and are not obviously understood unless they are explained....

Read on to learn how to backup your web-based email using open source email software Thunderbird. While thats wonderful nobody lost any important emails its also very unsettling. Not every Oops, we lost your data! scenario ends so well. Today were going to walk you through backing up your email using the free and robust open-source app Thunderbird. Enable POP for all mailand2. When messages are accessed with POP keep Gmails copy in the Inbox....

Some operating systems get their names from obvious places, but others need some explaining. Read on to find out where your favorite OS got its name. The DOS acronym does not always mean MS-DOS. Windows 95, 98, and Millennium Edition were all built off of the original Windows 3.1 kernel. This experience lasted all the way until 2007 when Microsoft released Windows Vista. It was very philosophical of Microsoft but ultimately they moved to a more simple approach with Windows 7....

Read on to see two different ways to do just that. The Power-User Way: Using Foobar2000 Foobar2000 is a lean, free and incredibly versatile audio player. Setting it up for audio conversion requires a little bit of work, but this is a one-time operation. Dont forget to see to it the Converter option is checked. Next youre going to need LAME, which a free MP3 encoder. it’s possible for you to get it atRareWares....

Now scroll to the bottom of the page, where youll find the Export Birthdays link. This will pop up a dialog with a link, and youll need to copy the link. Paste in the URL from Facebook. And thats all there is to it. Shankar is a geek and writes abouthow to block Facebookandditching PDF readersamong other things at Killer Tech Tips. Check out his blog to read more.

Spoiler: it’s mostly bugfixes. Wait, What Now? This could be anywhere from a few hundred MBs all the way up to a GB or so. So… Should You Delete the Service Pack Backup Files? Bottom line: You should never rush to install or delete things when it comes to major system changes. As long as you use Windows Update set to Automatic for security patches, you’re safe. If not, skip down....

Quick Links Every week we bring you interesting highlights from the history of geekdom. Even the best of scribes could hardly manage more than a few pages a day. By comparison a simple printing press could manage to churn out in excess of three thousand pages a day. Early Super Computer ENAIC Unveiled ENIAC was thefirst general purpose electronic computer. Since then the women have been given more formal recognition for their role in the history of computing....

Super Mario has lessons to teach you might not expect about graphics and the concepts behind them. These are sometimes called sprites, which in context of video games, is another name for bitmap image. Compared to modern game consoles, the NES is pitifully low resolution. Resolution can be defined as the total number of pixels available for display. More pixels is always more opportunity to create a better image. However, the difference is pretty clear—Mario is considerably more high resolution than he used to be....

This means the technique probably won’t work in a virtual machine, or a really old PC. Every thing is done now, so let’s change the window border. Launch Emerald from System > Preferences > Emerald Theme Manger. it’s possible for you to hit one of them to apply it. Still haven’t found what you like? That’s no problem, because you’re free to download and add more themes. Just head towww.gnome-look.organd then choose Beryl from the right side of the web page....

Where can you get it? Weve got the answers for you. hit the OK button, then click to install it, and then just wait. Itll take a while to download, and once it finishes downloading, itll force you to reboot. Theres a lot of white space in that dialog. Seems like they could have put a picture there, or made it smaller.

If you don’t have an option, grab the latest Windows driver that your manufacturer provides. Click extract at the top and copy all the files to an easy to find location. Install Ndiswrapper Ndiswrapper is the tool that allows Linux to use Windows drivers for wireless card support. To install it in Ubuntu go to the Software Center and search for ndisgtk. Note: Linux Mint comes with ndiswrapper installed. In the window that opens, tap on install new driver and browse to where you extracted the driver....

Quick Links Have a huge folder of images needing tweaks? Photoshop actions are a way of recording the tools, menus, and keys pressed while using the program. The image illustrated above is a template for a polaroid-style picture frame. opt for in the Actions Panel, pictured in the previous illustration on the left. Choose to create a “New Set” to get to begin creating your own custom Actions. Name your action set whatever you want....

Here’s how to do it. Then go to System > Preferences > Gnome Color Chooser to launch the program. you could change font, font color, background and background color of the panels and start menus. Tick the “Normal” option and choose the color you want for the panel font. The first two options are pretty straight forward, they change the typeface and the size. it’s possible for you to customize them just the way you did with the panel....