How to build an entry level Home Theater and Gaming System [Part 2]

It just doesn’t take good quality components to build an awesome entertainment setup. The placement of the components and their calibration play a lot of role in enhancing the overall experience. In part 2 of our guide to build an entry level Home Theater & Gaming System, we tell you how to setup the components you purchased in part 1 for optimal use.

Screen

As with movie theaters, the best seat is directly in front of the middle of the screen. Place the screen at such a height that it lies straight in front of your eyes most of the time. If you are gonna sit on a couch, look for a stand/trolley a little higher than your coffee table. If you are installing it in your bedroom, something around the height of a typical computer table should be perfect (albeit you might want to buy something shorter if you have those new style low height beds).

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How to build an entry level Home Theater and Gaming System [Part 1]

This guide is for people who would like to enjoy watching movies and playing games in Full HD and Dolby 5.1 without wanting to spend a lot of money on the gear. The setup which we are gonna propose can be bought at one go, or incrementally, depending on your budget.

The guide is divided into steps you need to perform to setup the system. From buying and optimal setup to calibrating and using the system efficiently. This is the first part of the series which focuses on purchasing the gear.

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How to turn off iPhone screen when using Skype [Tips]

This is one of those posts that a few of you might think – “I already knew this” or “Does this really deserve a post?“. But I am gonna post it anyway, because its one hell of a useful tip if you’re a regular user of this iPhone application and didn’t figure this out before.

The Skype Application supports calls using the iPhone headphones, and of course it comes with loads of features – one of which is to turn off the screen using iPhone’s built in proximity sensor.

On the other hand it also lacks some features, a few to say are, to be able to

1. Run the app even when the screen’s locked.
2. Switch off the screen when the headphones are being used.
3. Continue call when there is an iPhone alert (like SMS, Cal Alert etc) instead of going on hold/disconnecting.
   and a few more which we’ll try (*rant*) and cover as a separate post.

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Post an email address on your website without the fear of Spam [How-Tos]

It’s a known fact that posting your email address on your website is bound to get you loads of Spam. And unless you are interested in amazing free gifts, Nigerian treasures or *ahem* larger stuff, it’s a big nuisance.

But you do want to post your email address on your website don’t you? And you do want to get emails from people who won’t take pains to change the [at] to @ from your cleverly concealed email address. Well, we have a solution. Actually, Dan Benjamin developed it, but remember, we are the ones who told you

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Send emails in background in Thunderbird [Tips]

Thunderbird is an awesome open source email client. People switching from Outlook to Thunderbird find it annoying that it does not have an Outbox folder and opens a new dialog box (for a few seconds) while it sends emails.

Fortunately, there is a workaround for this problem. You will have to use a beta version though. Although this feature is not well publicized and buggy right now. If you’re looking for an easier way, look below.

For Advanced Users

1. Download Thunderbird 3.0 beta 4 preview from here.
2. Install Thunderbird and configure your mail account.
3. Go to Tools –> Options.
4. Click on Config editor under Advanced –> General
   
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Close firefox when the last tab is closed [Tips]

Google chrome has an inbuilt feature to close the browser when the last tab is closed. This is very convenient for avid users who use the middle click to close the tabs. Just close all the tabs with middle clicks and you are done.

However, firefox doesn’t allow users to close the last remaining tab using middle click. You can close all but the last remaining tab using the middle mouse click. So, one has to use the browser’s close button to close the browser completely. Luckily , there is a workaround for this – firefox close tab keyboard shortcut. Pressing Ctrl + W closes a tab in firefox (and Chrome for that matter). You can close all the open tabs using this keyboard shortcut, including the last one, thereby closing the browser. The shortcut works on Chrome as well (No idea about IE7+ as I do not have it).

It might be a little annoying at first, but once you develop a habit to use this keyboard shortcut instead of middle click, you’d just love using it.

You can visit firefox support page for an updated list of keyboard shortcuts available.

How to get maximum download speed via torrents

Most of us know that we can find almost anything on torrents these days. I remember not so long ago, KaZaa revolutionized the way we downloaded and shared stuff. That place has now been taken by much faster and comparatively safer torrents (or bittorrents).

The most popular torrent client is uTorrent. Owing to its extremely lightweight and awesome stability, it has become the client of choice for most people. However, its frustrating when you do not get good download speed even though you have a high speed broadband connection. The most probable reason behind this is that the port which uTorrent uses is blocked at your router/modem. To find out if that’s the case, perform the following steps:

1. Open uTorrent and go to Options –> Speed Guide. Click on “Test if port is forwarded properly”. Make sure uTorrent is running while you do this. Also, note down the port number somewhere as you will need it in the steps later.
   
2. A browser window will open and tell you the status of port forwarding on your router. If you get the OK screen like the one below, it means that port forwarding is properly set up on your router (or ports aren’t blocked) and the low speeds you get are due to crappy service from your ISP. Go thrash him.
   
3. However, if you get an error screen like the one below, the port on your router is blocked. Proceed with this tutorial.
   

The above error can be easily fixed using the steps below. We are using the screenshots of Netgear WGR614 wifi router here. If you have any other brand, don’t worry, just look for similar terms in the UI.

1. Open the web control panel of your router in a browser. Usually it located at http://192.168.1.1 unless you change it.
2. The browser will ask for the admin username and password. If you do not know this, consult the manual which came with the router.
3. Look for “Port Forwarding / Port Triggering” option in the menu. It should be somewhere under Advanced settings.
   
4. On the port forwarding page, you will probably find presets for port forwarding for popular applications like AIM, NetMeeting etc. Since uTorrent is not there, click on “Add Custom Service”.
   
5. On the Custom Services screen, enter the following details and click on Apply:
   Service Name: uTorrent (or whatever you might want to call it)
   Service Type: TCP/UDP
   Starting Port: <The port number you  noted down above>
   Ending Port: <The same port number you  noted down above>
   Server IP address: IP address allocated by your router to your computer. Run “ipconfig” command to find it out (“ifconfig” on Linux).
   
6. Save the settings. Your router will be restarted.
7. Perform the steps to check port forwarding again. You should get the success screen this time.

Note that you should use the same port you forwarded above in uTorrent each time it starts. To ensure this, go to Preferences –> Connection and uncheck the “Randomize port each start” option.

That’s it! You will get much faster download speeds in uTorrent from now on. Of course it will depend on the seed/peer ratio. But if you are downloading a healthy torrent (seeds > peer), you should get the maximum speed your connection supports.

Synergy: share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers

This article/tutorial is for those people who use more than one computer at their desk and have to juggle through the stack of mice and keyboards to find the correct one.

With Synergy, redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (the Windows 95 family)
• Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (the Windows NT family)
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
• Unix
  • X Windows version 11 revision 4 or up
  • XTEST extension (use “xdpyinfo | grep XTEST” to check for XTEST)

• All systems must support TCP/IP networking.

Setup

It is recommended to share the keyboard and mouse of the system whose display is in the middle of all the displays on your desk. That way, it is easier to move your mouse pointer around different screens. In a 2 system setup, use the keyboard and mouse of the system on the left. If you have a lot of monitors, you can also go vertically.

Download

Download Synergy from here and install it on ALL the systems.

Configure Synergy

1. Start Synergy on the system whose mouse and keyboard you want to share.
   
2. Select “Share this computer’s keyboard and mouse (server)” and click “Configure”.
   
3. Now we need to add the host screen. Click on the “+” button under Screens.
   
4. Enter the computer’s name (or IP address) under “Screen Name”. Enter an alias. Note that these 2 fields cannot have the same value. It is also recommended to use computer name instead of IP address for better readability and management. Click “OK” when done.
5. Click on the “+” button under Screens again and add client systems.
   
6. Repeat step 6 for all the client systems on your desk.
7. Let’s link the screens. Select [New Link] option under Links. Now specify the position of screens on your desk relative to one another. For example – if system1 is to the right of host, here is what the setting should look like:
   
8. Note that it is important to specify the links both ways. So, if system1 is to the right of host, you also have to specify that host is to the left of system1:
   
9. Repeat the above steps for all the screens.
   
10. This will setup your host machine. To configure a client, you simply have to start Synergy on the client system and select the option “Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse”. Enter host computer’s name or IP address.
    
11. Once you are done with configuration, you can test it out by clicking on the “Test” button on all the machines.
12. Once you are satisfied with the testing, you can run the program by clicking on the “Start” button. The Synergy icon in the system tray will change showing that it is connected to the clients.
13. You can configure Synergy to Auto Start during operating system. Click on Auto Start and choose to start it at windows logon or at system startup.
    

That’s it! You can now use a single keyboard and mouse across all the computers on your desk and get rid of all the cable clutter and juggling through the stack to find the right one.

TeamViewer – Free Desktop Sharing and Remote Control

Team Viewer is a free download available for Windows and Mac which allows seamless desktop sharing and remote control. The interface is very intuitive. You can connect to another computer anywhere in the world without even knowing its IP address! It also works perfectly behind firewalls.

Features:

• Integrated file transfers
• Works behind firewalls
• Encrypted data transfer
• Free for private use !