Rainmeter is a lightweight application for customizing your Windows desktop. Rainmeter works by installing community made ‘skins’, many of which can change how the desktop works with widgets like app launchers, RSS and email readers, calendars, weather reports, and many others. It has been around since Windows XP, where it was used as a tool for displaying basic info on the desktop, but has since gained a large community following which has produced high quality skins which can change the whole desktop experience.
Around 2015, a few companies started to pop up that offer “cloud gaming,” a service promising to turn your cheap laptop into a high powered gaming rig through the power of “the cloud” (and a fast internet connection). A lot has changed in the few years, and cloud gaming is now a fully realized service, with many different options from which to choose.
Video formats can be confusing, and some might not work in your video player of choice, especially more obscure formats like MKV. It’s often easier or even necessary to convert them to something more usable, like MP4. Luckily, that conversion is easy to do.
A tar file, often called a tarball, is a collection of files wrapped up in one single file for easy storage. Rather than keep track of a whole folder of files, you only need to keep track of one. Tar files are often compressed after being created, giving it the .tar.gz file extension. Technically these are TGZ files, but nearly everyone calls both .tar and .tar.gz files simple “tar files.”
Software engineers have always developed new ways of fitting a lot of data into a small space. It was true when our hard drives were tiny, and the advent of the internet has just made it more critical. File compression plays a big part in connecting us, letting us send less data down the line so we can have faster downloads and fit more connections onto busy networks.
DMG files are containers for apps in macOS. You open them, drag the app to your Applications folder, and then eject them, saving you the hassle of the dreaded “Install Wizard” of most Windows apps. So if all they are is a folder for an app, why do we use them instead of just downloading the app itself?
Freeing up disk space on a full hard drive can be difficult, especially when it’s full of small files. However, there are some excellent tools for macOS that let you find the files taking up the most space and delete the ones you don’t need. Ready to get your disk cleaned up?
Nearly everyone has accidentally deleted a file before. Whether it’s family pictures or important documents, all files are just data on your hard drive, and that data doesn’t exactly go away after you delete it. There are plenty of ways to recover them after being sent to the trash.
Ever wish you could play Wii and GameCube games on your PC? Just like your favorite retro systems, there’s an emulator that can do the job, and it’s called Dolphin.
The ability to automate tracks is one of GarageBand’s more powerful features. Automation allows you to adjust the volume, panning, echo, and other effects at different points in your song. The way GarageBand implements this feature is actually very straightforward and intuitive, and easy to get started with.
Geektool is a program for adding customizable widgets to your Mac’s desktop. Geektool runs almost entirely on shell scripts, which update every few seconds to display useful information on the desktop. Customizing Geektool is made easy by packaged scripts called Geeklets, which can be installed quickly and do not require knowledge of shell scripts to use.
MCEdit is a powerful third party program for editing Minecraft maps. MCEdit has many tools and filters for editing and building, and can speed up the building of large or complex Minecraft creations.
Apple’s prepackaged tool for audio editing and song writing isn’t hard to operate, even with minimal experience with music composition. Garageband is surprisingly powerful for being so lightweight, and can be used for everything from simple audio editing to a full songwriter’s studio.
Do you have a really cool Minecraft world, and want to show it off? If so, Chunky will take very high quality pictures of your Minecraft worlds, which will show off your creations better than a simple in-game screenshot.
Running a vanilla Minecraft server is fun, but the real advantage to using Bukkit is the ability to install plugins to change gameplay. Bukkit plugins can do anything from protecting your world and managing large servers to adding gameplay and new features, and we’ve compiled a list of the best to add to your server.
Minecraft is one of the best ways to introduce young and new people to coding. Command blocks are easy to learn and use, and Java programming is right around the corner with Minecraft mods and Bukkit plugins. It’s also just a very fun place for experienced coders to tinker in.
The Xbox One Controller is a fantastic gamepad, and although Microsoft has only recently started bundled the drivers for it in Windows 10, there are drivers available for Windows 7 and 8 on their website. Mac users do not have an official driver, but there is an lightweight open source solution that works well.
Minecraft is a game all about blocks, and the beauty of it is that you can build anything your heart desires. Building in Minecraft is like building with digital Legos, but, like Legos, building takes a long time and is often tedious and repetitive for anything more than a few blocks on each side. WorldEdit is a plugin that makes the repetitive tasks like filling in walls and replacing blocks easier.
Minecraft’s native LAN support is great for running games on the fly, but if you want a dedicated, customized server, Spigot is the way to go. Spigot is built on a plugin API called Bukkit, which makes customizing your gameplay easy, and since the Bukkit project has been around since the dawn of Minecraft multiplayer, many developers have released their own plugins and modifications.
Each network card on your computer has a built-in unique MAC (Media Access Control) address that can be used to identify your computer. This is usually fine, but it is possible to change it natively in OS X.
