Problems with Skype may not even be on your end — the Skype infrastructure may be experiencing problems or your conversation partner may have their system configured incorrectly. If you’re still experiencing problems after following these steps, be sure to ask the person you’re speaking to to go over these steps — the problem could be on their end.

Heartbeat

First thing’s first: If you can’t connect or use a specific Skype feature, check the Skype heartbeat page. You can access this page by clicking the Help menu in Skype and selecting Heartbeat (Skype Status), or by visiting heartbeat.skype.com in your web browser.

The heartbeat page informs you of Skype’s system status – if there are any problems with Skype’s infrastructure, you’ll see them here. If there is a problem, wait for Skype to fix it and try connecting later.

Audio Settings

You can test your microphone and speakers from the Audio Settings panel in Skype’s Options window – open the Options window by clicking Tools and Options.

To test your microphone, speak into it – you should see the green volume bar under Microphone move.

If you don’t see the volume bar move, click the microphone drop-down box and select another microphone device. Keep trying different devices until you see the volume slider move when you talk.

Test your speakers in the same way by clicking the green play button to the right of the speakers device. You should hear the Skype call sound. If you don’t, select a different device from the Speakers drop-down box and try again.

Audio Hardware

If playing with the options on the Audio settings panel doesn’t help, examine the hardware itself. Some microphones and headsets have volume sliders or mute switches on their cords – you could have accidentally moved the slider or flipped the switch.

Also check to make sure that the microphone and speakers are plugged into the correct port. USB microphones can be plugged into any standard USB slot, while analog microphones must be connected to the correct sound jack. The microphone jack is usually the pink one, although different audio hardware may sometimes use different colors.

If you’re using a desktop computer and the microphone doesn’t work when it’s plugged into the sound jack at the front of the tower, try the sound jack at the back of the computer.

Video Settings

Assuming you have a webcam, you can configure it from the Video settings pane in Skype’s options window. If your webcam is connected and you don’t see it in this window, you may need to install drivers for it. Drivers can usually be downloaded from your webcam or computer manufacturer’s website.

Check out our guide to troubleshooting Skype video problems for more information.

Test Call

If everything seems to be configured properly, try a test call. One way you can perform a test call is by clicking the “Make a free test call” link at the bottom of the Audio settings window.

You can also add the Skype user named echo123 to your contacts list and place test calls from there.

The call testing service will ask you to speak into your microphone after a beep. It records your call and, after a few seconds, plays your message back to you. This ensures that everything is working properly – your microphone, speakers, and the network connection. If the call worked properly, you should be good to go – if you can’t hear another person on Skype, it’s probably a problem on their end.

Bandwidth Usage

If you – or anyone else on your network – is overloading your network bandwidth with bandwidth-intensive tasks like downloading files over BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer networks, you’ll experience poor call quality. One of the obvious signs of network congestion is robotic-sounding voices.

Close any file-downloading programs – both on your computer and on other computers on the network – and try placing the Skype call again.

Check out our guide to fixing low-quality audio in Skype for more information.

You can also get more troubleshooting tips from the call quality guide integrated into Skype. Click the Help menu and select Call Quality Guide to open it.

Image Credit: Headset with a full length wire via Shutterstock, Sound card panel via Shutterstock

We’ve already seen a list of the best music videos featuring floppy disk drives, and now it’s time to broaden our horizons a little and bring more tech hardware into the mix. It’s amazing the variety of machines and old gadgets that can be reimagined as music-making instruments. Everything from an old ZX Spectrum to a new 3D printer feature in the genius videos that follow.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

This is an absolutely fantastic cover version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It uses an Atari 800XL, a 3.5-inch hard drive, a floppy drive, a tape drive, a scanner, and two oscilloscopes, amongst others, to recreate the classic rock song in perfect detail. This may be the best video on the list, hence its position at the top. If you don’t appreciate this then you’re unlikely to appreciate anything that is still to come.

The Imperial March – CNC Machine

This is The Imperial March played on a CNC machine. This particular song makes several appearances on this list because, for some reason, that’s the song of choice for many people setting out to create music from technology. I have only featured a few instances but a quick search on YouTube will reveal just how many there are. Be warned, you will not be able to get this song out of your head for a long time to come if you go down the rabbit hole.

Nude by Radiohead

Radiohead once held an online contest to find the best remix of Nude from the In Rainbows album. Many of the official entries were disappointing to say the least, which led one geek to create his own version of the song using a collection of old tech hardware. It’s not exactly like for like with the original, but it was never meant to be so. This surely has to be considered art; art created by a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, an old printer, an old scanner, and 10 old hard drives.

Funkytown by Lipps Inc.

Time for some classic disco now, with a remix of Funkytown by Lipps Inc. created using “computers from the early 1980′s that were destined for the Junk Yard.” Hence the title change to Junkytown. The hardware on display here includes a Commodore 64, a Ti-99/4A, and an old modem. All of which are items many of us will have thrown away in our time (except I still have a Commodore 64 hidden away somewhere) but which are clearly still good for something.

The Imperial March – 3D Printer

The second version of Darth Vader’s Theme on our list is successfully performed by a 3D printer. It sounds loud on the video so I’m guessing it was a cacophony of noise for anyone actually in the room. Someone on YouTube has commented the suggestion we should actually see what this set of instructions ends up printing. If Darth Vader’s head emerged at the end then I suspect most people would run away screaming. I know I would.

Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

Love or hate Lady Gaga it’s still amazing to hear her hit Bad Romance being performed by two NetComm Voice Modems with a little help from MATLAB. This is in no way a perfect cover of the song, but if you were expecting anything approaching perfection with such basic hardware then you were getting your hopes up a little high. It will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has every heard the original, however, which is surely most people gifted with the ability to hear.

The Imperial March – Hard Disk Drive

The third and final cover version of the most-memorable song from Star Wars now, with The Imperial March played on a single hard disk drive balanced on someone’s knee. This is a self-built HDD speaker which gives the tune a haunting quality I swear will stay with me forever. Instructables has a guide on how to create your own HDD speaker which makes it look so easy that even I could probably manage it.

The House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals

We end as we began, with the same person responsible for Bohemian Rhapsody returning with The House Of The Rising Sun. This guy’s YouTube channel is well worth checking out, with robot musicians and other cool gadgetry featuring in addition to these covers. This song uses much of the same legacy equipment as the Queen cover, but the hard drive is especially cool to watch.

Conclusions

I love the idea of taking old, defunct hardware and turning it into something capable of playing music. And I’m clearly not alone judging by how many people are not only doing just that but also sharing their creations on YouTube. When the world is facing the issue of an over-consumption of natural resources, recycling of this sort should be applauded.

How long until tech hardware turns up on one of Simon Cowell’s many talent shows covering classic pop songs? I’d sooner vote for that than Susan Boyle. If you have seen any better examples of old gadgets being recycled, musically or otherwise, then please let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Dan Zen

Unfortunately for the BPI, news of the forthcoming ban was reported on the BBC, resulting in a traffic spike of 12 million in one day – one can only assume that some people had no idea about the existence of Pirate Bay before the BPI decided to make such a big deal out of it. The long term effects of such a ban are simply to shift the usage of the site further underground, as would-be file-sharers seek out more secure ways to access the site and bypass that block.

On my Virgin Media connection, I see this.

I’m here to help though, so without further ado, here are 5 ways of bypassing those pesky ISP-level site filters.

The So-easy-it-hurts Method: Use The Pirateparty’s Mirror

After the success of the official political entity – the Pirate Party in Sweden – other European countries were quick to follow suit. In the UK, they’ve been kind enough to host a mirror of The Pirate Bay – just remember this URL:

https://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/

There is no guarantee it won’t be blocked too at some point, but it works for now.

Google Translate

This won’t work in all cases as The Pirate Bay URL is still present in the Google URL, but it worked for me on Virgin Media and may work for you.

1. Go to translate.google.com

2. Type http://thepiratebay.se into the first box. Make sure it’s set as something other than English.

3. Set the right hand side to English.

4. Click translate.

Yes, it really is that easy. You’ll be able to browse and download torrents as always, but note that the internal piratebay search function will continue to be blocked. To get around this, use Bing to find the URL of a specific torrent (not Google, as it gives a redirected URL instead of the actual Pirate Bay URL), and paste that into Google translate.

Alternatively, just bookmark the following URL:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=thepiratebay.se&sl=es&tl=en

The Premium Route: VPN

A VPN creates your own private tunnel into another network. It’s a secure connection, so what goes on cannot be intercepted (or blocked) by your native ISP. Typically, the VPN you connect to is located in another country, with a different set of laws and hopefully more robust privacy. Whatever you do on the internet while connected to that VPN can only be traced back to the VPN company, at which point they have no records to hand over even if asked.

A few weeks ago I published a full tutorial on how to setup a BTGuard VPN with a utility called VPNCheck, which ensures your connection remains active and there’s no chance of your file-sharing habits being pried on. This does of course work perfectly well to let you both view the The Pirate Bay and download the torrents from it, with the added bonus that your ISP can’t even tell that you’re torrent-ing, and therefore can’t apply their “abusive file-sharing” traffic shaping rules to you.

DIY Proxy

I also described this WordPress plugin before that let’s you create your own proxy, of the The Pirate Bay or any other sites you wish to remain open; the theory being that the government won’t be able to block access to your blog, and even if they did, another 1000 proxies would pop up. Bear in mind though that running a Pirate Bay proxy in your country may be illegal, so don’t try anything like this if you’re living in China or in the Middle East.

If you aren’t running WordPress, UnblockedPirateBay.com has a small script you can download, though your server will need to be capable of CURL which puts it out of reach of most shared hosting. You can download the script directly from this url, then just upload all the files to a new directory on the server.

The Obscure Way: Searching for the Infohash

The infohash is a long alphanumeric string which can essentially be changed into a magnet link; which can then be used instead of a .torrent file (read up on magnet links – how to they work?).

To do this, search for the info hash using Google, as follows:

site:thepiratebay.se "info hash" "your search term here"

Then copy the infohash displayed in the results, and paste it into this website: http://centrump2p.com/magnet/ . Click the resulting magnet link.

I think that covers every angle, no matter how your dictatorship of a government chooses to censor something. If one fails, try the next; there are 5 methods here, I’m sure one will work for you. If you appreciate this article and would like your friends to benefit from how to beat The Pirate Bay block too, please help us both out by sharing the article on your favorite social networks!

Know any other tricks or methods? Love to hear them in the comments!

Source: Thanks to torrentfreak.com for some of these weirder suggestions.

But did you know that Zune can also be used for managing podcasts? Simply by adding RSS feeds to the app, clicking dedicated buttons on websites hosting podcasts or by using the dedicated podcast library in the application, you can enjoy a wealth of audio entertainment.

Why Use Zune?

While there is every reason to use iTunes – which is of course the de facto media syncing tool for many – using Zune is a great alternative that is designed to specifically run under Windows. Some might argue that iTunes for Windows is similarly dedicated, but you might also find plenty of users experiencing performance issues with it.

As Zune is free, and necessary for Windows Phone users, it is a sensible option to take, especially as a replacement for Windows Media Player. It is also very easy to use, and beautifully designed, featuring a version of the Metro UI that can be found on Xbox 360 and Windows Phone.

Adding Podcasts To Zune

There are three ways to add podcasts to Zune – using an RSS feed, clicking a smart link on a webpage, or by finding it in the Zune library.

To add a podcast to Zune and begin downloading recent podcasts and have them synced to your phone, first find the RSS feed for the podcast. You might find this by visiting the website that hosts the podcast.

Next, open Zune, and in Collection > Podcasts select Add a podcast and in the Subscribe box paste the RSS feed URL. Zune will then check the link and begin downloading podcasts.

Using a website smart link is even easier – simply look out for the distinctive Zune logo on webpages hosting podcasts and click it to add it to your collection.

The third option is probably the simplest. In Zune, open Marketplace > Podcasts, find the podcast you are looking for and use the Subscribe button to add it.

No Podcast Link? No Problem!

Due to localization issues, some countries (such as the UK and Australia) will be unable to find the Podcast view in Zune. Fortunately this can be fixed using a registry editor such as the native Windows Registry Editor.

To begin, type regedit in the Windows Start menu and tap Enter to load the Registry Editor.

Next, expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Zune, and in the right-hand pane right-click and select New > Key and call it FeaturesOverride.

You are then ready to add the instruction to the registry to force display of the Podcast library menu in Zune’s Marketplace view. Do this by right-clicking FeaturesOverride and selecting New > DWORD, naming it Podcasts.

You should then double-click on this entry and set the Value data to 1, then click OK and close the Registry Editor.

All that is needed now is to reopen Zune, where you will find podcasts added to the Marketplace menu!

Adjusting Your Podcast Settings

With your chosen podcast added to Zune, there are a couple of things you will need to check. First is your current sync setup, which determines what data is sent to your phone or media player.

To adjust this, open Settings > Software > Collection and against Podcasts hit the Manage button to set the correct location for podcasts to be downloaded to. In the Phone tab, go to Sync Options and against Podcasts you will see two choices: All and Items I choose.

With your preferred choice made, finally open Settings > Software > Podcasts and set the number of episodes you want and the playback order (newest first/last).

That’s it – your podcasts are added and configured! Next time you sync your phone or media player these will be transferred to your device for you to listen to – or you could just enjoy them on your PC.

Conclusion

ITunes is of course the market leading music library and podcast syncing tool – but if you’re looking for an alternative that looks slick and makes good use of the on-screen real estate, you could do a lot worse than Zune.

Even if you find that there are some expected features missing, they can be restored and managing your podcast feeds and downloads is extremely easy. As long as you have a device synced to the software you can take these podcasts with you anywhere you go!

We have written about several online and computer software for maintaining a journal or diary, but if you’re stuck for ideas or wondering about the purpose of journaling, several online sites by experienced journalers might be of help.

EasyJournaling

Though the Easy Journaling blogsite has low cost ebook and audiobook material for salel, Sam, the developer of the site, also provides a plethora of free materials for getting started with mainly e-journal writing.

His “Where Do I Start?” section includes answers to questions about getting motivated to write, how to tag your e-journal entries, and how to improve your journal writing along the way.

The site also has reviews of the top iPhone, and Android journal apps, including My Secret Diary, Day One, and Memories: the Diary.

Sam has been a lifelong journal writer who thinks that recording one’s history is a useful tool for busy professionals, parents and children, as well as students. His article on 37 Reasons to Penzu Pro is also useful to check out.

Writing Through Life

Writing Through Life is more about traditional journal writing – that of using journal writing as a form of memoir and story telling. The developer of the site, Amber Lea Starfire, offers one-on-one mentoring and editing services.

She also produces a free weekly e-zine of journaling topics, writing prompts, tips for renewing or starting a regular writing practice, and she suggest ways to mine your journal for writing your life stories. Her weekly prompts for exploring various facets of your life through writing is a good place to start with her site.

Art Journaling

You may or may not know it, but journaling is not limited to pen and paper, or a digital text editor. You can also express your thoughts and experiences through art. If you’ve never seen or done art journaling, one site to begin with is Artists Journals.

This site features a few examples, how-to techniques, and suggested resources for creating and maintaining an illustrated diary or journal.

1000 Journals Project

Though it’s a not a site with tips and journal prompts, you definitely owe it yourself to check out The 1000 Journals Project, which features photo captures of journals exploring all types of content, from family and friendships, to politics and world events.

The project site is based on a physical exhibition of personal journals and journals created in classrooms and adult learning centers.

A similar site called 1001 Journals is set up for you to pass along your journal in one of three ways: through the mail to a list of people who sign up to participate, by leaving your journal in public location, such as a café or bookstore so that someone else may pick it up, or you can scan your journal and post it on the site.

CreateWriteNow

If you’re in need of some immediate inspiration for journal writing, you might check out Mari L. McCarthy’s site Create Write Now, which among other tips and articles features over 150 journaling prompts.

McCarthy is a therapy specialist and coach, who has published a few ebooks on the subject of therapeutic writing. Her site also features a collection of personal journal stories of self-discovery, in both written and video format, from readers of her site.

There are several other useful journal sites on the net. Let us know which one’s you visit a lot for inspiration.

And for other ideas on journal writing, check out these articles:

• The Advantages Of Journal Writing On Penzu.com
• 4 Awesome Journal Apps To Write About Your Day [iPhone]
• 3 Ways To Keep A Journal Using Your Mac

Image Credit: Shutterstock

When it comes to Linux email clients, Thunderbird and Evolution come to mind quickly. Both of these programs are great if you need advanced features–Mozilla Thunderbird offers access to add-ons, and Evolution supports Microsoft’s Exchange platform better than any Linux client out there. Both clients can feel heavy at times, however. Exploring their settings can be confusing, and they tend to run slowly on older hardware.

If you’d rather use something lighter, Geary might be what you’re looking for. This email client was released very recently, and is very much a work-in-progress. It’s very stable in its current form, however, so let’s check it out.

Using Geary

Start up Geary for the first time and you’ll see a very simple window:

If you’re a Gmail or Yahoo Mail user, logging in couldn’t be simpler: just pick your mail service and enter your username and password. (Gmail users: make sure IMAP is enabled in your Gmail settings or the client won’t work).

There is also support for any email account with IMAP, but setting this up will require some knowledge of the settings those programs require.

Once you’ve logged in you’ll see a very simple three-pain email interface:

You can browse your various folders and tags at left; Gmail users will even find support for Starred messages and “All Mail”. I used this to look at my spam folder for the first time in months. Nothing of value was found.

Buttons at the top allow you to quickly create a message, reply/reply-all/forward or archive a message. You get the idea: email.

Conversations are sorted as Gmail users expect them to be: as conversations. For those unfamiliar with this feature: emails that are part of the same reply chain are grouped together and displayed as though you’re looking at an online discussion in a forum. I don’t understand how to use email without this, so I’m glad to see Geary support it.

Options are minimal:

Obviously not every feature you’d love to see in an email client is here–you can’t use multiple email accounts, there are no email signatures and only IMAP is supported. Still: most of what you need to quickly check and reply to your email is. If you just want something fast that works well, Geary will work for you.

Install Geary

Ready to install Geary? You’ll find installation instructions on the developer’s blog.

Ubuntu users can set this up quickly by running two commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yorba/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install geary

Non-Ubuntu users will need to compile the software, for now.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a faster way to access your email, I recommend Geary. But I want to know what you think: could you see yourself using software like this? Or are there specific features lacking that you need? Fill me in in the comments below, because I love a discussion.

These DIY tech hacks are compiled from the web. Regular MacGyver’s would need something more than a duct tape and Swiss Army knife. But these tech improvisations can really help to make your car stand out from their mass produced brethren.

Building a “CarPuter”

That’s the first thing a geek will think of when it comes to customizing his own car with a tech thingamajig. A computer inside your car doesn’t sound too cool when you can just bring along a laptop or a smartphone.  But there are some benefits of putting in place a computer as a permanent fixture inside your car. You can use it to store your entire MP3 collection (as this DIY-er has done), use it to connect to your home computer/server and stream entertainment, or do anything else that a computer can do.

The DIY hack starts with a small barebones PC that consumes less power, a touch screen, and some basic tools that you should have around the house. The most difficult part of this DIY tech hack is fitting the screen on the center console. The rest of it is as easy as setting up a normal PC.

Rotating Car Mount for iPhone out of Junk Electronics

This is a comparatively simple hack that you can do yourself if you are handy with a few tools. Of course, you can buy an iPhone mount from eBay – but that’s not going to give you the rush of doing it yourself and saving a few bucks in the process. The DIY-er sets off building his own iPhone mount for a long drive using recycled materials like a discarded PCB and scrap aluminum. The only complicated tool piece you might need is a propane blowtorch for getting that 90 degree bend for the iPhone cradle.

Start Your Car With Siri

You will need some advanced hacking skills but there’s no shortage of inspiration when it comes to using your smartphone to control your car. Now you have iPhone’s voice enabled Siri feature as another hack target. Brandon Fiquett wears many a hat and one of these is as a programmer. He uses a custom plugin and a PHP script to interface with the Viper SmartStart (a vehicle security and remote start) app. Siri’s voice recognition and the smart app combine together nicely to help remote start the car from a distance.

The JEEPuter

We started with the CarPuter. The JEEPuter is an Arduino powered Wrangler Jeep. The JEEPuter is a custom programmed push-button system for controlling things like ignition, GPS navigation system, CB radio, RF scanner, 110V inverter, external and internal lights, and garage lights. It also has temperature and light sensors which can switch on the dash lights and internal lights on autopilot.  The JEEPuter also lets you start the vehicle with a passcode instead of a key. It might have started with a Jeep, but you can easily kit out any car if you can follow the detailed hack project.

Program a Car FOB to Work on All Your Cars

Programming a Car FOB that works on ALL your cars is one of the simplest hacks out there. Don’t get put off by the word ‘programming’ as all you have to do is punch buttons in a specific sequence of steps. Cars normally can work with four FOBs, so the hack here clears one FOB of its default programming and reprograms it so that it pairs with the vehicles in question. The method works for Toyota, GM, Ford, Dodge, Nissan, Jeep, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and more. Read the specific steps outlined for each make.

Concealed Garage Door Opener

A garage door opener inside a plastic coffee cup doesn’t sound like a cool DIY tech hack for your car. But when you think that this little hack makes it difficult for thieves to find the garage door opener and gain entry then you might reconsider. To those not in the know, the coffee cup would look like what it’s meant to – an undiscarded bit of junk. In reality, it conceals the remote button on its underside that rests in the cup-holder. The electronics is hidden inside the cup. Pushing down on the top of the cup activates the garage door.

Cruise Control with Your Smartphone

An online database of speed limits, a free Android app, and just about $20 in parts could help you build an advanced cruise control system for your car. The hack helps you drive safely as your car automatically slows down and keeps to the designated speeds in the different speed zones. The Android app requires a Promo code that’s given to safe driving groups. So, if you have that and have a little bit of circuitry knowledge then you can build the cruise device and connect it to your existing cruise control.

These aren’t the end of DIY automobile tech hacks for the innovative mind. There are quite a few more out there. Cars of today are quite advanced, but there’s a bit more you can still do to make them cooler or just stamp your geeky personality on them. What do you think of these seven DIY tech hacks for a car? Do you have a suggestion or idea of your own? Throw it across to us.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Type in a keyword and you’ll see Google results in the sidebar. Each result can be previewed via an additional sidebar pop-up. If it’s what you need, you can add it to your document via a link or cite it, which places a footnote in your document.

You can also reach the Research sidebar by right-clicking any word in a document and selecting Research from the menu. This will automatically search for that word. If you’d like to search for multiple terms at once you can highlight them with your cursor before right-clicking.

If your search is about a very specific person or place you’ll receive a summary at the top of the research sidebar before the search results. Entering the name of your favorite actor, for example, throws up his or her birth date, height, any awards they’ve won and some thumbnail pictures. You can do this for places, too, and you’ll receive a map along with the information previously listed.

All Google Documents users can access this immediately, so give it a try. What do you think of it?

Source: Ars Technica

Any business owner can now use its Facebook Page photos and information to create these nice printed cards, and as always with MOO cards, each card can get its own unique design, according to the number of photos existing on the business’s Page. The offer includes 50 Facebook MOO cards, which you can get for free “for a limited time”.

All you have to pay for when ordering is shipping costs, which range anywhere from $10-$20, according to your location. For 50 awesome MOO business cards, designed according to your Facebook Page Timeline, that’s not too bad a deal.

The first Facebook offer came from MOO last January, when they started offering free Facebook-based printed cards for individuals. Quietly, they have now extended this feature to businesses as well, and they too can add that extra something to their marketing in the form of the irresistible MOO cards.

Did you get your personal Facebook MOO cards? Do you plan to get some for your business?

Source: The Next Web