I had relatives from out of the country a little while ago and before they left, one of them decided to leave his laptop behind for me. It’s an old model from the Toshiba Satellite 2410 series but I’m not complaining since I got it free.

The current configuration of the laptop is a little slow though so I’ve decided to put in some cash and increase the RAM. Now, all that’s left is to figure out what to actually do with it. The first thing that popped into my mind was to use it to learn Linux. I’ve been a Windows user my entire life and although Linux appeals to me, I’ve never actually tried it out. My desktop is used by other people besides me and I wasn’t allowed to install Linux on it.

I have a vague idea of what Linux is and its running but I’m still pretty unsure about other things so I decided to ask the Ghacks readers for their advice. Here re some of the questions I’m searching for answers to:

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Tags: ask the readers, dual-boooting, Linux, ubuntu
Categories: Advice, Linux, ask the readers

Most of you will agree with me when I say that education (especially in university) is expensive. After tuition and living costs, the next highest expense on the list will no doubt be textbooks. College textbooks prescribed by the university change on an almost yearly basis and most students have no choice but to cough up the money to buy them.

In the early days, the only way a student could find a cheaper textbook was to buy a used copy from someone who had taken the same course earlier. Now, with the internet, you can search for textbooks online and buy them from the online store. However, if you want to score a good deal, it’s best to use a service like Campusbooks.

For people who have no time to scour multiple websites or don’t know all the resources for buying textbooks online, Campusbooks is extremely helpful. When you look for a book, the site searches multiple sites like Amazon, AbeBooks, eBay, and other similar sites. Then, the search results are neatly displayed so you can check whatever interests you. Once you select a book, you are directed to the online store to make the payment.

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Tags: books, capusbooks, education, online stores
Categories: Advice, Knowledge, Online Services

Sometimes, you may urgently need to share some information with a friend or family member. Or maybe you need to access a particular file from another computer. The easiest way to do this would be to use portable media like a flash drive. But what if that’s not an option? Then you have to find other means.

One way of accessing files is to use an online clipboard like CL1P. This website allows you to put up data using a unique url that you yourself choose. No sign-up or registration required.

Once the CL1P url is ready, you have plenty of options. The first thing you can do is set the clipboard to take plain or rich text formats. Alternatively, you could turn it into a messageboard. After that, you can either type in your data, or upload files and pictures. The maximum upload limit is 30 MB.

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Tags: cl1p, clipboard, share-files
Categories: Misc, Online Services

Whether you are a novice or an intermediate user in the world of Photoshop, everyone can use tutorials. Even if a person is comfortable with the software, tutorials are a great way of introducing oneself to new styles and concepts and pretty much be amazed by what you can create with Photoshop.

If you’re looking for Photoshop tutorials, Vunky Search is the place to go to. This site labels itself as the ‘Fast and Furious Photoshop Tutorial Browser’ or in other words, a Photoshop search engine. Both in looks and function, Vunky Search resembles one of the many multi-torrent search engines out there.

When you look at the homepage, you notice the links to popular searches. Below that are some of the featured tutorials for the day. If you’re searching for something specific, type in a search term. If you’re browsing around, just ‘randomize’ or click on a link that interests you. The selected tutorial opens in its original site with no hassles.

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Tags: photoshop, Search Engines, tutorials
Categories: Cool, Search Engines, Tutorials Advanced

Ever dashed off an email full of your rants and then regretted it after you hit the ‘send’ button? Maybe you had one too many drinks and decide to let your entire address book in on your drunken thoughts? If you use Gmail, you now have a failsafe to prevent yourself from sending out such emails.

Google has introduced a new Gmail feature termed as Mail Goggles, which has been described as a breathalyzer for email. Essentially, this feature lets you send out an email only after you pass a little test i.e. a math problem. This feature is part of the Gmail Labs set, which is a testing ground for new Google features.

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Tags: email feature, gmail, Google, Mail Goggles
Categories: Email, Google

Digital music has come a long way. From just one or two portals, the present scenario has an innumerable catalog of stores offering music completely legally and at a reasonable price. Digital music is not without its pitfalls though, most notably DRM. Still, most online stores now offer DRM-free music, which is great news.

One grouse that people might have is if they purchased a song or album online only to discover that another store was offering the same track for a lesser price. That’s where the Mp3StoreGuide can be a real boon. The brainchild of the Mp3Tunes creators, the site is basically a way to check online store prices and find out which store if offering the best rate.

Stores are grouped into three categories; those that carry major labels, minor labels, and stores offering subscription services. Each store has information like average price, song bitrate, country of service, whether the store offers free tracks, etc. Mp3StoreGuide offers users the option of searching each site individually or doing a comparison search.

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Tags: best price, buy music, drm-free, online music
Categories: Music Industry, Online Services, Open Source

At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Digital Entertainment Group released its figures for DVD spending in the United States in 2008. The results were a 5.5% decrease from the previous year.

DEG’s figures aren’t just for outright sales of DVDs, but also include DVD rentals and Blu-Ray disc sales. Rental revenue stayed nearly constant from previous year’s figures but sales pretty much took a nosedive. While it’s easy to blame dismal sales on the old monster of piracy, I personally think there are a lot of factors for this loss. Here are some of them.

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Tags: blu-ray, dvds, movies, video sales
Categories: Entertainment, Music and Video, ask the readers