Text manipulation

• In some text editors (like Notepad++), holding the Alt key while selecting text will select a rectangle of text instead of lines.
• Double-clicking text then dragging your mouse around will select words instead of characters. Not cool enough for you? Triple-click text to select paragraphs.
• Delete entire words instead of letters by holding the Ctrl key while you press the backspace and delete buttons.
• You can also move the cursor from word to word by holding the Ctrl key while you press the arrow keys.
• Holding the shift key while moving the cursor with the arrow keys will select the text the cursor passes over. This can be used in combination with the previous tip.
• Drag and drop selected text to move it from a field to another.

Web browsers

Most web browser shortcuts can be found on in the browsers’ documentation. Here are the links to the most popular ones:

Firefox | Chrome | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari

Some interesting highlights:

• Ctrl+Click on a link will open it in a new tab. You can also click links with the scroll button to achieve the same effect.
• In most browsers, Ctrl+K will give the focus to the URL bar and Ctrl+L to the search box.
• Ctrl+Shift+T will restore the last closed tab in most browsers.
• Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab will navigate back and forth between open tabs. Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDown do the same thing.

Windows

• Ctrl+Shift+Esc shows the task manager. This is especially useful in Windows Vista and Windows 7 since it skips the full-screen menu page you see when you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

iPhone

• To close a buggy application, hold the power button until you see the “Slide to power off” screen, then release it and hold the home button until it disappears.
• To reset the device, hold the home and power buttons for a few seconds.
• Double-tap the top bar in Safari to go back to the top of the page.

The HOSTS file is a quick and painless way to block websites that could harm your computer or show you an alternative meaning to “Lemon Party”. If you haven’t learned about it yet, here’s how it works.

Now let’s say you want to create a shortcut to the file so you can easily add new websites to it.

1. First, create a shortcut to notepad.exe on your desktop (%windir%\system32\notepad.exe in Windows 7).
2. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties
3. If you use Windows Vista or 7, click Advanced…, check Run as an administrator and press Ok. We need administrator rights to edit the HOSTS file.
4. In the Target field, add %windir%\system32\notepad.exe %windir%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts to the end of the shortcut. If you did it right, the shortcut path should be the following: %windir%\system32\notepad.exe %windir%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

You might want to use an explicit name such as “Edit the hosts file” and place it in your Start menu in order to quickly find it with the Start menu search box.

Firefox:

• You can open links in a new tab by clicking them with the mouse wheel. Middle-clicking tabs will close them.
• Press Ctrl+Shift+T to open the last closed tab
• Use smart keywords to search anything from the URL bar, including Trly.gd. This trick also works with URL shorteners!

iPhone:

• Have an app that refuses to close? Hold the power button until the close then hold the middle button. This will close any app that might cause trouble.
• Visit AppShopper to browse only free apps or track price changes.

House:

• Use zippo lighter fluid to remove sticker residues (or about anything, really).
• AA battery chargers also work for AAA batteries. Just find a conductive piece to fill the gap between the poles.

Money:

• Ask your bank about your savings account. They take 20$ from my account weekly plus 5$ for each debit card transaction I make and put them in my savings account.

Charity:

• Submit your pictures and works to Wikimedia Commons and let everyone enjoy them.
• Put those few bucks left on your PayPal account to good use with microloans.

Every year, it’s the same thing. Yahoo!, About.com and others publish the same run-of-the-mill article with money-saving tips for the new year. However, we are geeks, and they forgot we have quite a few more ways to keep our account balance in the green.

Trade phones instead of buying them

For high-tech phone lovers, dealing with 3-year contracts and upgrade policies is routine work. However, constantly getting that 80$ plan in order to score a great price on a smartphone is not a smart decision. A great and cheap way to get new phones is to buy them from cellphone forums. Howard’s Forums and XDA-Developers both have trading boards for members. It’s a great spot to find a cheaper (and sometimes almost new) phone for a good price. In my case, I traded a shitty HTC Diamond for an absolutely awesome HTC Magic and it didn’t cost me a dime.

You can always sell the phone on eBay, as long as you don’t just let it there, collecting dust.

Crack your gadgets before you list them on eBay

Before you put your phone on eBay, crack it. A jailbroken/rooted/flashed phone always bring in more dough than a stock device. I was able to get ridiculous bids on older phones flashed with the latest Windows Mobile ROM. XDA-Developers is an excellent ressource for anyone wishing to hack their HTC phones.

Pictured above: loot

Coupons exist online, too

As soon as you see a “coupon” or “voucher” field when you reach checkout, your first reflex should be to head at RetailMeNot to check if there is any coupon you could use. Dell has some pretty slick deals you can profit from simply by taking

Buy online …but you knew that

This one needs no explanation. If you don’t already know about eBay or Newegg, you shouldn’t be reading this.

Let your bank do the work

There’s a sweet thing some bank can do for you. In my case, 20$ + 5$ for every transaction I made with my debit card go in my savings account every friday. Since I can only withdraw from that saving account twice a month before being charged, it’s a great way to put some money aside without hassle.

The terminal in Gnome

To create an ISO image of a CD or DVD in Linux, you can use the dd command. Open up a terminal and type the following command:

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/path/toyouriso.iso

This will copy the contents of the folder specified by if to the file specified by of. This can also be used to backup your data from a drive to another too, but be careful, as using a blank disk in if will completely wipe the data of the space it is written to, unless you output it to file (like an ISO file).

I admit it: I spend way too much time on the computer. I do a lot of great things with a computer, but I also kill a lot of time doing absolutely nothing but web browsing. It doesn’t have the impact it would have on some people’s life, but it’s still a lot of wasted time. Here is a few tricks to fight your computer addiction.

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While our Linux systems are already packaged to be as good as possible, there are many tips and tweaks that will greatly improve your experience. Here is a random list of the best tips you should know about Ubuntu and other Linux distros. You should already be familiar with many of these tricks but it’s not necessary to be rude about it. Instead, feel free to include your own tips in the comments.

Ubuntu tips

Clear some space with autoremove and clean

Open a terminal and type in the following commands:

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean

The first command will remove all the unused dependencies and the second clears the cached packages.

Use the Super key as a modifier in Keyboard Shortcuts

One thing that sucks with the Win key is that you can’t use it as a modifier like Ctrl, Shift and Alt for keyboard shortcuts. That can be fixed easily without even opening the terminal. Here is a short tutorial.

Enable Gnome’s Control Panel

Just like on Windows, a control panel is available for Gnome. This one can be enabled by right-clicking the menu bar and clicking Edit menus. Under System, check “Control panel”. You will now have a shortcut to your control panel in the System menu. Alternatively, it can be launched from the terminal by typing gnome-control-center.

Root file manager

When you want to move and delete files, it can be much easier to use the file manager instead of the terminal. Right click on the Applications menu and select Edit menus. Create a new item and in the Command field, type ‘gksu nautilus‘.

Terminal tips

Quickly go back to your /Home directory

If you quickly wish to go back to /Home, just type cd alone in the terminal. It’s always better than double-dot-slashing your way back (cd ../ brings you back to the parent directory). Source.

Go back to the previous directory

For those who play with files and constantly switch between two directories, typing cd - will bring you back to the previous folder (the one you were in before using cd). It’s the equivalent of the “back” button in a GUI file browser. Source.

Auto-complete

When you press tab in the terminal, you will be presented with auto-complete suggestions. It’s a quite handy trick when you can’t completely recall a command’s name. Source.

Avoid rewriting the same commands with arrow up

This has to be one of the most useful tips in the terminal and one of the most well known, but it still has its place on this list. When you press arrow up in the terminal, it will bring up the last commands you typed. This even includes the commands you typed in previous terminal sessions. It’s a good trick to save some efforts when you make typos in super long commands.

Repeat an argument with a different command

Using !$ will repeat an argument with a different command, saving you a lot of time when messing with files and directories.

[nicolas@Nick-Ubuntu ~]$ mkdir /this/is/an/argument
[nicolas@Nick-Ubuntu ~]$ cd !$

Repeat the previous command as root

Use sudo !! to repeat a command as root. !! is a keyword to repeat a command.

[nicolas@Nick-Ubuntu ~]$ gedit /your/text/file.txt
[nicolas@Nick-Ubuntu ~]$ sudo !!

Looking for an easy way to generate a favicon for my blog, I stumbled upon this wonderful tool. It couldn’t be simpler or work better. Click for DeGraeve’s favicon generator.

Mad props to its creator.

Did you know your Xbox will still provide power through its USB ports when it’s turned off? It’s a great way to charge your gadgets when you frequently lose your wall chargers.

I learned quite a few things from life. You know, some small tips that help you McGuyver your way out of problematic situations. For example, did you ever use crazyglue to seal a small cut? It’s totally possible and does a great job of protecting you from bacteria. Like it? There’s more!

• When metal objects rust, dip them in Coka Cola and watch the magic. It can also help to clean dried blood on the floor. The worst part is that I still drink that crap.
• You can start a fire with a battery and some thin wire. Using the wire to short-circuit the battery will make it hot enough to light a fire.
• Tampons do a great job of stopping bloody noses.
• Planting a popsicle stick in a banana and putting it in the freezer makes a refreshing summer snack.

Next time you’ll need to wipe out the blood from concrete or crave for bananas, you’ll think about me.