Tutorials
How to Password Protect Your iPad
Matt Cone May 2, 2012
Did you know that you can enable password protection and hardware encryption on your iPad? It’s an easy and effective way to protect your private data from prying eyes. After you enable password protection, users will have to enter a password to unlock the iPad or access certain iOS system settings, as shown below. There are a couple different reasons why you would want to do this. If you’re the only person who uses the iPad, you’ll want to keep your email messages, Safari history and bookmarks, and app settings safe and secure when you leave your iPad at home or in the office.
How to Set Up a New iPad
Matt Cone April 30, 2012
Last weekend I did something I had never done before: I purchased an iPad for the first time. The process of setting up a new iPad is relatively straightforward, but some of the options can be confusing, especially if you’re new to iOS. (For those who don’t know, iOS is the name of the operating system that runs on the iPad). If you’re unboxing a new iPad right now, this tutorial will guide you through the entire setup process and describe all of the options available.
Untangling iOS Wireless Problems
Ric Getter April 27, 2012
Not long ago, the wireless authentication system at the college where I worked was having issues. It wasn’t a “secure” network per se, but you did need to enter a student or staff login to use it. With the rapid proliferation of handheld devices, it was getting, to say the least, temperamental. Adding to the confusion was a spate of traveling I did that brought my iPhone and me through a variety of airports and hotels that required some form of login to gain access to their public wireless system.
Getting Started with Perl on Mac OS X
Richard Myers April 25, 2012
Perl is a widely used programming language developed by Larry Wall in the late 1980’s. Since being originally written as a scripting language to assist in system administration tasks, it has taken off as a popular language for doing everything from low-level systems programming to website scripting. If you have ever thought about getting into programming on your Mac, Perl is a great place to start! Preparing for Perl All you will need for this primer is a text editor, the terminal, and Perl (of course!
Speed Up Safari: Lose the Previews
Ric Getter April 23, 2012
One of the first things most of us learned back when Safari 4 appeared was how to turn off the “Top Sites” feature (via the General tab of Safari’s Preferences) and return to our normal home page. Safari does a lot of work to collect those cute little thumbnails of the web pages, store them in a hard-to-find folder and organize them in a way they can be quickly retrieved. In fact, if you click over to the History view in the Top Sites window, you’ll see that Safari has industriously captured a thumbnail image of seemingly every page you ever visited.
How to Use Your Mac as a Wireless Router
Matt Cone February 29, 2012
Did you know that you can turn your Mac into a wireless router for your home or office? This is a great option if you have cable or DSL service, but have yet to purchase a wireless router! These instructions will show you how to connect several computers or devices - such as an iPhone or iPad - to the Internet via your Mac’s wireless network. The best part is that you can save big money on expensive devices like the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express by setting up your Mac to do the same thing!
How to Monitor Your Mac's Memory Usage
Matt Cone January 2, 2012
Imagine driving a vehicle with no gauges on the dashboard. You wouldn’t know how fast the car was going, how much fuel it had left, or whether or not the engine was about to overheat. In short, you’d be driving blind - hoping, by chance, that everything would just work out okay. As ludicrous as this scenario sounds, millions of Mac users do essentially the same thing every day. Most people have no idea how much RAM is installed in their Mac, or how much memory it is currently using.
How to Update Your Mac's Software
Matt Cone December 30, 2011
Updating Apple’s software on your Mac is an important maintenance task that you should perform regularly. Using the latest versions of Mac OS X and Apple’s applications can protect your Mac against malicious attacks, improve sluggish system performance, and fix bugs that can cause applications to randomly crash. This tutorial will show you how to automatically and manually update the Apple software on your computer. Automatically Check for Apple Software Updates You can manually check for updates with your Mac’s built-in Software Update tool.
How to Connect a Hard Drive to the AirPort Extreme
Matt Cone December 28, 2011
You can use an AirPort Extreme Base Station to create a wireless network for the computers and devices in your home or office. But did you know that you can also connect a USB hard drive to an AirPort Extreme? Doing so effectively creates a network drive that can be accessed by all of the users connected to the wireless network. It’s a great way to share documents, photos, music, and movies with the other people on your network.
How to Install Windows 8 Using VMware Fusion
Matt Cone December 27, 2011
Maybe you’ve heard the buzz about Windows 8, the new operating system being developed by Microsoft. It’s not for sale yet, but if you’re feeling adventurous, you can install Windows 8 for free in a virtual machine on your Mac. Using a product called VMware Fusion (free trial, $49.99) is a great way to test Windows 8 in a sandboxed environment. Here’s how to install Windows 8 on your Mac using VMware Fusion: