QandA

Which Games Have Been Part of Origin's "On the House" Program?

2014-09-12T19:53:00.002-07:00

This is a list of games that have been part of the Origin On the House program:

Plants vs Zombies Game of the Year Edition
Battlefield 3
Peggle
Wing Commander 3 : Heart of the Tiger

How Do I Check Whether A Website I Use Was Affected By Heartbleed?

2014-04-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

Heartbleed is definitely a bug that has hit the world pretty hard. Mainly because so many people were unaware of it until quite recently. Many major changes have been undergone to re-secure the internet. But, how do you know if a site you use was affected by Heartbleed?

Fortunately, LastPass has created a tool that can help you check whether your sites were affected by Heartbleed. Simply head to lastpass.com and either create an account or sign in with an existing account.

If You Already Have an Account:
Once you have signed in and can see your LastPass vault, click on "Security Check" in the left sidebar. You should be taken to another page that has a red button that says "START THE CHALLENGE." Click on this button. The LastPass Security Check will now run. Give it some time, it may take some time depending on how many passwords you have. Once the check is completed, you will see a thank you page. Scroll down and you should see a grey box that indicates which sites that you use have been affected by Heartbleed. Beside each site there will be a suggested action. Follow the action and resecure all of your passwords.

If You Made A New Account:
If you don't have a LastPass account, after signing up for an account, you will have to manually enter in all your existing passwords by either signing into the sites with the LastPass extension installed, or typing in all your passwords into the vault. Once you have entered all your passwords, you can run the "Security Check" from the LastPass vault (instructions above.)

We hope this helps. If you have a better way of checking for websites affected by Heartbleed, please let us know in the comment section.

How to Make Better Use of Your Bookmarks Bar

2013-10-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

The bookmark bar in the browser has become a feature that is becoming used less over time with the introduction of new features such as speed dial. However, there is a little trick you can use to make better use of your bookmarks bar.

The trick involves only using favicons in your bookmarks bar, so no words. Basically, what you get is a bookmark bar that fits a lot more bookmarks than before. To use this trick, simply save items in your bookmarks bar without names (just clear the name field). You will get a much cleaner bookmark bar that only has the favicons of various sites. So, what are you waiting for? Give it a shot.

Note: This only works well if the sites you want to put in the bookmark bar have favicons

Questions, comments? Feel free to leave them below.

5000 Pageviews! Thank you!

2013-10-11T09:49:00.001-07:00

Dear Readers,

We started this Q and A blog with the intention of providing readers with great question and answers content and we've grown quite a bit since. We now have 5000 total pageviews and it's all thanks to you, the readers. Without your support, we wouldn't be where we are.

Thanking you for your support,

HelPus Sites

How do I Get Notified of Steam Price Drops?

2013-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Steam is a great service but it can get a bit annoying to have to check the price of a game you want everyday, especially during work or school time. So, an easy way to know when to buy a game is SteamAlerts. Simply head to the website at http://steamalerts.com/ and search for a game. Then, you will have the option to get notified when the price drops. You can even choose to get notified when the price goes below a certain value. It's a great tool and we highly recommend it.

How do I use Dropbox to make a website?

2013-08-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dropbox is definitely a great tool, and you can even use it to host your own website. To do this, make sure that you have free Dropbox account and then head over to http://droppages.com/ and sign in using your Dropbox account. Once you have this done, you can choose to either use a DropPages theme or just use your own HTML files placed in the right directory. You can host an HTML Dropbox site without using DropPages but the advantage of DropPages is that you get your own subdomain. Have questions? Comments? Feel free to drop them below in the comments section.

How do I disable the camera in iOS?

2013-08-12T11:53:00.001-07:00

The Camera is a useful feature in iOS but you may want to disable it. Parents who don't want their children taking photos can disable the camera, or you may just want to disable the camera for your own reasons. It is very easy to do this. Simply open up the settings app, and then tap general, then scroll down to restrictions. Tap on restrictions. You should then have the option to allow or not allow certain actions on the iDevice. Then, make sure that you set a restrictions password that you remember. It's as easy as that.

Thank You

2013-08-11T13:00:00.003-07:00

We are writing this post to thank everybody for their support over the last couple of years on making this blog awesome. Without the help of you the readers, this blog would not be as successful as it is right now. We are well over 4500 all time pageviews which makes this our most popular blog. Stay tuned as we continue to add content to the blog.

Thanks again,

---HelPusSites

How do I listen to Spotify on the Web?

2013-08-10T11:26:00.002-07:00

Spotify is definitely an awesome service, but one of the major drawbacks is that the desktop service was the one first introduced, and therefore many users haven't learnt how to use the web version yet. The web version is extremely easy to use, and all you have to do is go to http://play.spotify.com/ and sign in with your Spotify credentials. You can easily manage playlists, your profile, and listen to music. All of this in a great easy to use web interface. If you use Spotify, we definitely recommend you give this a shot.

Transfer Music to Your iOS Device Without iTunes

2012-10-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Even though iTunes 11 is just around the corner, iTunes just seems to be a media player that doesn't manage to work well all the time. Despite having some really good features, iTunes really doesn't have the full stability and support that other media playing programs offer. But the most unfortunate part of all of this is that you have to use iTunes to transfer music to your iDevice. iOS has a great music app, and you can use apps like CarTunes to enhance this experience, but transferring music to your iDevice can be difficult with iTunes, so let's take a look at some alternatives.

Download iTunes and Use Another Program

Unfortunately, if you want to transfer music to your iDevice through a USB cable, you are going to have to at least have iTunes installed. You must install iTunes because iTunes provides the computer with a driver that allows it to access files on an iDevice. However, the good part is that after you have iTunes installed, you can download a program like SyncPod to help you manage your music. However, if you want something more advanced, you might want to try a program like MediaMonkey to help you manage your library and transfer music to your iOS device.

Use a Cloud Based Service and Stream Music

If you are like most people, you probably want to stop using cables now and want to transfer music wirelessly, you can use iTunes, but if you want to stay away from iTunes, there are many choices. Firstly, you might want to consider using Google Music. This is probably the best option if you use Google devices and have an Android device as well. Google Music also has a music store that you can purchase music from. If you are not the Google type of person, Amazon also has a great MP3 store that has deals and sales all the time. They also have cloud sync options for your music. If you don't really want to purchase music or have your music on a cloud platform, you might want to try a streaming service. Spotify is a great service that lets you pay a subscription and get access to a collection of so many songs across all of your devices. However, if you prefer something free, you will probably want to try Pandora. Pandora is a radio that understands you and plays music that you like.

Use a Wireless Transfer App

If you are going to be using your device offline, you might want to try a service that let's you access your music even when you are offline. There are many apps in teh app store that let you easily wirelessly transfer music and other media to your iDevice through the web browser on your computer and they work great.

Record Your Computer's Audio (Stereo Mix)

2012-10-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

If you want to record any sound coming out of your computer, or just sounds that your computer is making, you can easily record them. You are going to have to use a feature in Windows called Stereo Mix. This is a really neat feature, to enable it, right click on your volume control in the taskbar, and click recording devices. Now, right click on the some whitespace and you should see an option to show disabled devices, make sure that's enabled. Now, you should see a device called Stereo Mix. Right click on it and enable it. Boom, you've just set up Stereo Mix. Now to record it, consider using a program like Audacity, and then change the input to Stereo Mix, and you're set!

How to Download YouTube Videos

2012-10-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

YouTube is probably the best online service for sharing videos, however the only disadvantage is that you need an internet connection. However, over the years many services have come up that let you download YouTube videos for offline play.

Firstly, there is FLVTO, this is probably the best way to get just the audio of a video. If there is a really funny quote or pronunciation, you can easily use FLVTO to save them. Simply head over to http://www.flvto.com/ and then put in the link of the video you would like to convert, and hit convert. It will convert the video and you will be able to download the content easily. You can also use StereoMix to record, if using a Windows Computer. If you plan on editing the audio, then we recommend StereoMix

RealPlayer is a great solution

If you want to download to a format other than mp3, then you might want to consider using an application that you have to download. We recommend that you use RealPlayer, because after downloading into FLV format, it comes with a built in converter, so you can easily convert these files to the appropriate type. You can pick up real player from http://www.real.com, or find it on download.com

NOTE: Please do not steal content or infringe on copyright laws and take others work. Please credit the real author of work.

Online Radio Services

2012-10-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

The radio is always great for catching up on the latest sports, news, traffic, and music and with internet being available in more and more places and more and more people carrying around internet devices without built in radios, using the internet for radio is becoming more key. Overall, there are a few services that highlight the pack in terms of the best. Firstly, there is Pandora. Pandora is probably the single-best service for music. It is very smart at detecting trends and will only play music based on what you like. You can like a song and it will play more often, or you can dislike a song, and it won't play as often. The system works very nicely and through it we did manage to discover some new songs. Pandora has free plans, and you can also pay to remove ads. Secondly, there is Sirius. What's great about Sirius is that there is almost something for everybody. They have a lot of channels and the service works really well. In addition, you can subscribe for the satellite service and listen in your car or on a satellite radio receiver. This is a really nice addition, satellite radio service is probably best for people who go on road trips. The only disadvantage to Sirius is the fact that it is quite pricey, however for those who rely on radio, it is definitely worth it. Lastly, there is Slacker Radio, Slacker is nice because they have a better user interface than Pandora. They have some pretty good content, and excellent mobile apps. It works very similarly to Pandora, however their system isn't that great at detecting your music trends as Pandora.

Google Fiber

2012-09-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

Google Fiber is an internet service by Google that provides users with extremely high amounts of bandwidth as well as speed. Google Fiber is provided to users through the fiber cables. In order to have this internet in your area, you would have to have enough interest in the neighborhood for Google to make your neighborhood a fiberhood and have Google Fiber installed. Fiber has some pretty good plans, starting from $0 a month for free basic internet at normal speeds. However, if you would like to have the amazing speeds that Google Fiber is meant for, you will have to pay at least $70 a month. For $70, you will get a network box and 1 TB of Cloud Storage. Of course, this will come with unlimited bandwidth and fiber speeds of 1 gigabit up and down. However, for the maximum experience, you get everything of the $70 plan, plus you get a storage box, Nexus 7, and a TV Box. This plan also includes 1080p HDTV programming that you can record on the included PVR for $120 a month (TV+Internet)

iOS 6-New Features

2012-06-22T16:00:00.001-07:00

iOS 6 claims to come with over 200 new features. On this list, we will be listing off all of the new features we know of so far. This list will be updated as soon as we find more new features, so be sure to check often.

Facebook Integration
Post to Facebook or Tweet to Twitter from Notification Center
Colour of Status Bar changes based on app theme
Siri gives sports information
3D Maps
Easy options to reply to calls
Great new clock app for iPad
New look Music player
Pull to Refresh E-Mail
Photo Stream sharing
Passbook for saving coupons and other codes
FaceTime over 3G or 4G
Sync your tabs in Safari with iCloud tabs
VIP section in Mail for important people
Full Screen for iPhone/iPod Touch in Safari (landscape)
Makeover to App Store, iTunes, and iBooks (they look really good now)
Addition of Chinese Features
Easily add photos to E-Mail
Use Siri to open apps
Do Not Disturb mode for blocking calls during night time
Sync your Facebook contactsc
Turn by turn directions
New look for iOS 6 "Share" menu
Turn off Bluetooth easily
Use Music as an alarm tone (wake up to a song, or just add a song that sounds cool)
Look at what folder an app is nested under after searching in Spotlight Search
Yelp integration for easy reviews
Easily book a restaurant reservation with Siri
New Emoji
Banner for "new" apps
Save your own words in an iCloud dictionary (use it all across your devices)
Cloud Phone (pickup phone calls from your iPhone or iPad)
No need to enter Apple ID credentials when updating apps
Spinning gears on device while updating software over the air
Podcasts removed from iTunes app because of new standalone Podcasts app
Lack of built in YouTube app
New Privacy tab in settings
Ability to restrict what apps can access your contacts
Preview the homescreen bookmarklet before adding a website to your homescreen
New Panorama photo mode in camera, that lets you take panorama photos
Maps have photos from Yelp, and you can add your own easily
New settings logo
Bluetooth can easily be controlled directly from main settings tab
New Wallpapers
Apps can access your reminders, and you can control which apps get this
App can also access calendars, and you can control which apps can
Notes and reminders now in cloud, you can access them from icloud.com
Upload photos directly from Safari
Pull to refresh has a new look (Shown in mail app)
GameCenter challenges
iMessage alert restrictions
Find My Friends notifications update
Real Time user-supported Traffic information
Supported vehicles can now directly integrate with your phone
Support for more languages
Open password-protected Office documents
Bug Fixes
They must have more, so please tell us if you found any (contact info below)

Know a feature that we didn't get? Comment with it or tweet us @HelPusSites and we will add your feature and credit you.

Chrome Web Store

2012-06-14T13:32:00.002-07:00

The Chrome Web Store is an app store in which you can find various apps for your Chrome device. This is mainly targeted at users who are on Chrome OS, because the app store would be there primary source for downloading apps to run on their machine. However, the Chrome Web Store is still available on non-Chrome OS devices. The Web Store is really easy to navigate in, and you can easily view different categories from the side. You can install apps, themes, or extensions from the web store:

Apps: Short for application, apps provide you with a program that can help you with various things
Themes:These enhance the look of your browser, you can also make your own themes
Extensions: These are similar to plugins and will add new features to the browser, although be warned, too many may cause lag

Try Chromium OS

2012-06-03T15:38:00.001-07:00

If you don't know already, Chromium OS is Google's effort to remove the operating system stage in getting you to the internet. To do this, they have turned the Chromium browser (Google Chrome is based on it) into an operating system. This means you boot directly into your browser without any need for your operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS) to load itself up. This also reduces the risk of viruses because you are running a browser and not a full operating system with customization. To try it out, you can purchase Chrome OS Hardware, or you can try it on your own hardware. Option one would be to use a USB, and option two is to use a Virtual Machine within your current computer. Check out our guides:

Install Chromium OS in VirtualBox
Install Chromium OS onto a USB (coming soon)
Purchase Chrome OS Hardware

Install Chromium OS in VirtualBox

2012-06-03T15:37:00.002-07:00

Want to try Chromium OS in a fast, easy, and low-risk way. Well, why not use a virtual machine. For today's tutorial, we recommend that you use VirtualBox. VirtualBox is an extremely easy to use virtual machine maker and is our favourite. Along with VirtualBox, you will also need a virtual Chromium OS machine. In order to get a virtual machine with Chromium OS, head to http://chromeos.hexxeh.net and scroll down until you see download links. Now click on VirtualBox logo next to the latest build. It should begin downloading a .zip file.

Now, you must extract your zip file, you can use the program of your choice, or just use the built in extracter that comes with Windows. Once the zip folder is extracted, you should see one virtual machine file. Now, make sure you know what location this is stored in and head back to VirtualBox.

Now, set up a new Virtual Machine in VirtualBox. Click new and follow the on-screen wizard and remember these things

the name doesn't matter, it's just there to help you organize your machines
when asked for a hard drive, DO NOT create a new hard drive. Choose an existing one, and navigate to the unzipped virtual machine file
for RAM, go with at least 1.5 GB. In our test, we chose a little less then a gigabyte, and it lagged a bit
when asked for operating system in the beginning, go with Linux->Ubuntu

Now try booting your machine by clicking start, but it will probably say that your kernel has some problem thing. Don't worry. Simply shut down the machine by clicking close and head to VirtualBox. Right click on the machine and choose settings. Then head into the system tab and then select processor and "Enable PAE/NX". Now save the settings and boot again. It should boot up. Just give it some time. It might not boot in the promised 8 seconds but it will boot pretty quickly.

Once you are in, you might have to turn on scale mode depending on the size of your screen. For a better experience, try out full screen mode. For a more enhanced experience, you might want to login to your Google account, so you can try apps and extensions, but this is not necessary, as guest mode worked just fine for testing purposes.

Chrome OS Hardware

2012-06-03T15:36:00.001-07:00

Chrome OS is Google's desktop operating system, and with the latest version it brings a more Windows like interface. You can have multiple Windows open and easily manage them and also pin items to the taskbar at the bottom. In terms of hardware, you have two options for official hardware. You can get a Chromebook, which is really a net-book running Chrome OS. Or, you can get a Chromebox, which is like a desktop, however because of its size, its very similar to a Mac Mini. Overall, we recommend the Chromebox for home use as an entertainment machine. You may want to buy one and use it as a set top box because of its small size. Connect it to the web and hook up some wireless peripherals and you will have an extremely easy way to browse the web on the internet on your TV without much security risks. It is also super fast to load, and there are many entertainment apps.

Photos:

New Chrome interface with window manager and taskbar at the bottom-Wikipedia

The current lineup of Chromebooks. The Chromebook in the middle shows the apps screen

Samsung Chromebox. As you can see it has an extremely small size.

What is Chrome OS?

2012-06-03T15:27:00.001-07:00

Chrome OS (based on Chromium OS) is Google's desktop operating system. The objective is to take you straight from turning on your computer to the web. In order to do this, they run only the web browser as the operating system and the only extra tools that you may have are your extensions available in the Chrome Web Store. You can also easily install apps from the Chrome Web Store and apps can help you with your productive life. The systems are also less prone to viruses as most virus developers target more popular markets such as Windows and Mac. They also help you discover how much you can live without using apps other than your browser on your PC. The average user only uses the browser and sometimes their productivity suite which can easily be replaced by Google Docs. Another benefit of Chrome OS Machines is that because everything is in the cloud, even if something breaks or you lose your hardware you don't lose your data permanently because it will automatically sync when you log onto your new Chrome device.You can also use the Remote Desktop feature to work on your PC while you are on the go, which is a very helpful feature. Overall, Chrome OS is a great secondary operating system as it doesn't pack the power and advanced programs that current computers have, however we feel in the future it will take off because of the recent success in cloud computing.

Back Up Your Computer

2012-05-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

Backing Up has always been very important, and if you have a backup of your computer, you can go to sleep everyday without much worry. There are various ways that you can backup your computer, here are a few:

External Hard Drive-probably the easiest way, you can use the software that came with your hard drive to backup to it, or you can use the Windows Backup tools
USB-Recommended as an extra backup for music, photos, and documents. USB drives can easily be lost, or break, so don't use this as your primary source
Cloud Services-Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and Amazon all offer great storage online for free. If you use all the services, you can have a lot of your information and files safely in the cloud. For music, you might want to consider Google Play Music, and for photos, you might want to put them in a social networking site. Due to the fact that these two types of files normally take up the most space, if you put them on other services, you will have more space for other stuff

Save Hard Drive Space

2012-04-30T13:09:00.002-07:00

"No More Disk Space Available" don't you just hate that error message. When most people get this, they wonder-"where did all my space go". Lots of people just go out and buy a hard drive, but you can actually save hard drive space by clearing out some files.

Firstly, install CCleaner, CCleaner is a great cleaning utility, that removes lots of junk from your computer very easily. On our first use of the program, we got back 6 GB of files.

Next, take a look at any programs that you might not be using, and uninstall them. Uninstalling programs can free hard drive space, and also improve system performance most of the time.

Then, start to look into some of your files. Do you really need that set of footage that you already edited? Ask yourself questions and then decide to delete files. Media (Videos, Photos, and Music) take up a lot of space, so be sure to look for duplicates and then remove any.

Also, be sure to backup your files-this can save a lot in the event of a hard drive crash

Speed Up Your Computer by Removing Malware

2012-04-23T14:19:00.001-07:00

Malware is a big issue, and on top of slowing down your computer, it is also known for compromising your security and potentially leaving you with many problems. You can easily avoid malware, by avoiding computers, however as computers become a part of our daily lives, there are a few steps you can take to help:

Use a non-administrative user. You might be wondering what this means, and it simply means that when you login to your computer, you should use a standard user. Standard users do not have as much power as administrative users in terms of control of programs and settings, and by using standard user, damage will not be as deep as it would have been if you were using an administrative user.
Have an antivirus suite. These are really helpful, and they are also available for free. Our personal favourite is avast! antivirus, however there are many other options. Make sure that your antivirus program has live scanning, so that it is constantly scanning your computer to make sure that all activity and files are safe. The only drawback is that some antivirus programs use quite a bit of system resources.
Don't click on links or attachments from unknown senders. Spam from unknown senders always has the potential to have malware. Links can also redirect you to malicious webpages that may download files and run scripts without your permission, so always be careful. Also, watch for messages from known senders that sound a bit weird, and sound like they may have been sent automatically. In that case, delete the message, and inform the sender that they might want to check their account security.
Scan your computer regularly with Malware Bytes and Windows Malware Removal Tool. Both of these utilities do not offer constant scanning, so you should only use them when you feel needed. We recommend once a month just to help keep your computer safe. Malware Bytes is downloadable, and Windows Malware Removal Tool can be found by typing in the run command: mrt.
USE COMMON SENSE-This may seem like a no-brainer, but common sense is one of the most important ways to protect yourself from malware. When something seems too good, or doesn't seem like its real-avoid it!.

Pandora in Canada

2012-04-16T13:12:00.002-07:00

Although going on a vacation can be fun, sometimes when going outside of the country, some services won't work because they are US only. Pandora is one of these services. For those of you that don't know, Pandora is a great music radio that will play music based on what you like. Its also great for discovering new music to purchase. In order to use Pandora outside of Canada using our method, you will need an iOS device. Open up the app store and download GetCloak, this app will help you install a VPN that will most likely be based in US. Now, all of your connections will also bounce through this US address making Pandora feel that you are in US. The only problem with this is that with the free account, you have limited time and bandwidth. Also, feel free to give this a shot with some other American services when you are on vacation

For educational purposes only

Speed Up Your Computer with Defragmenting

2012-04-09T11:59:00.001-07:00

Had your computer for 2 years and now find it lagging so much and things don't run as fast as they used to even with your 4 GB of RAM and dual-core Intel chip. Well, there are many reasons why your computer could be running this slow and one of them is fragmented files. This means that your files are all over the place and your computer has to spend some more time gathering them up. The more scattered the files get, the slower the computer will be. So, you can defragment your computer. Microsoft offers a built in defragment tool called Disk Defragmenter. On Windows 7, simply search for this program and run it. You can then start your defragmenting. Don't worry you don't lose data. On XP, click Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter, and run it from there. While this is running, it is preferred that you leave your computer alone. Depending on your hard drive size, processor, and how fragmented these files are, it can take some time.