Wi-Fi Security Algorithms Explained

Many of us use Wi-Fi literally every day, however even at a time where we’re becoming increasingly concerned with our privacy and security, many people still don’t understand the different Wi-Fi security algorithms and what they mean.

That’s why you read tech blogs though, right? We’ve put together an explanation of the most used Wi-Fi security algorithms, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 so you can stay informed on ensuring your connection is as secure as possible.

Of course, you might be wondering why you should even care what security algorithm you use when you’re using Wi-Fi. Great question — the thing is, if someone hijacks your internet network and uses it for something illegal, the police will be knock on your door, not the hackers.

WEP

WEP, otherwise known as Wired Equivalent Privacy, is the most used Wi-Fi security algorithm, and when it was released that was for good reason — it was designed to offer as much security as using a wired LAN, which is a big deal considering the fact that wireless networks are far more susceptible to eavesdropping and hacking simply because they’re wireless.

Of course, WEP hasn’t always been very secure — while it was ratified in 1999, it wasn’t very secure because of US restrictions on the export of cryptographic technology, which limited WEP devices to 64-bit. Those restrictions were eventually lifted, and while there are now WEP devices that are 256-bit, 128-bit is the most common.

Note: The number of ‘bits’ has to do with the length of encryption keys — the longer they are, the harder they are to crack. Think of it like this — a password of 10 characters is going to be a whole lot more secure than one of 5.

Despite the fact that key lengths have increased, there have been a number of security flaws detected in WEP algorithms — so much so that it has become quite easy to hack them. Proof of concepts were first seen as far back in 2001, and the Wi-Fi alliance retired WEP as the official standard way back in 2004.

One of WEP’s major weaknesses was the fact that it used what are called static encryption keys — in other words, when (or if) you set up an encryption key on your internet router, the same key is used for every device that connects to that router. Not only that, but data packets (groups of data transferred between device and router) are not encrypted, which means they can far more easily be intercepted, and once they’re intercepted a hacker can gain access to the Wi-Fi router and devices on it by deducing what the WEP key is.

Of course, this problem could be avoided by periodically changing the WEP key, but while that might help for the super tech-aware, it won’t help the general consumer — part of the reason WEP was retired so long ago.

WPA

When WEP was retired, WPA was implemented, formally adopted back in 2003. Commonly WPA is used as WPA-PSK (or Pre-Shared Key). Those keys are 256-bit, which is quite an upgrade over the 128-bit keys most commonly used in WEP devices.

So what, apart from key length, puts WPA ahead of WEP? When data is transferred, it’s transferred in packets, or groups of data. WPA as a standard basically checks the integrity of those data packets. In other words, WPA can check whether or note a hacker has copied or altered data packets between the router and the connected device.

WPA also introduced the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, or TKIP, which was introduced to work was a “wrapper” to WEP, allowing for people to use older devices while still getting some level of encryption. In other words, TKIP uses the older WEP programming, but wraps code with additional code at the start and end of that code to encrypt it. It was only introduced as a quick fix to the WEP security problems while something a little more secure was figured out (AES), and was subsequently retired and should not be used.


AES replaced the interim TKIP standard, and was designed to offer as much encryption as possible. It’s even used by the U.S. government. AES uses 128-bit, 192-bit, or 256-bit encryption keys, and is far superior to TKIP in that it converts the plain text encryption keys used by TKIP to ciphertext, which essentially looks like a random string of characters to those who don’t have the encryption key.
Theoretically, even 128-bit AES encryption is unbreakable at this point — it would take over 100 billion years for todays computers to figure out the encryption algorithm.

Despite this, WPA, like WEP, has been proven to have its weaknesses — normally however WPA itself isn’t hacked, but rather a supplementary system rolled out with WPA called WPS, which was designed to make the connection between router and device easy.

WPA2

WPA2 was implemented as the standard in 2006, and makes AES encryption mandatory rather than optional. It also replaces TKIP, which was only used for older devices that didn’t support AES, with CCMP, which still isn’t as secure as AES but is more secure than TKIP.

There aren’t that many vulnerabilities associated with WPA2, however there is one big one. Fortunately it’s somewhat obscure and requires the hacker to have accessed the Wi-Fi network in the past, then creating an attack on other devices on the network. Because of how obscure the flaw is, really only businesses and enterprises should be worried about it and there isn’t much of an issue for home networks.

There will likely be a replacement to WPA2 in the future, however there currently doesn’t need to be.

Conclusions

There you have it — if you’re not using the WPA2 algorithm with AES encryption, you should consider it. You can switch it on by heading to your router’s settings.  If you need any help with setting up a router or wireless connection to use WPA2, please post a question in the comments section below, or start a new thread in the PCMech Forums.

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PCMech’s Guide to PC Maintenance

If you’ve ever used a computer for any extended length of time, you’re familiar with how frustrating they get. They start slowing down, feeling sluggish, and might even do some strange things. There’s plenty of all-in-one software out there that offers to tune-up your PC and get it back into like-new condition, but those promises are empty. All-in-one software might help for a little while, but you’ll inevitably end up back where you started.

When it comes down to it, there are some maintenance processes that you’ll need to do to your PC to speed it up again, and you’ll have to do it every couple of months. We’re going to show you just what those maintenance processes are and offer you some handy tips on never experiencing a slow PC again. Stick with us, and we’ll make sure to get your problem sorted out!

Anti-Virus and Malware Removal

Some of the biggest things that can bog your computer down are viruses and all sorts of other malware. That said, when you start feeling some sluggishness, it’s always worth running a virus check as well as a malware check. It’s important to run both checks, as one or the other will, more often than not, pick up some traces of something that your first check missed.

For virus scanners, you don’t have to pay a whole lot of money to get a good one on your computer. In fact, reputable antivirus scanners like AVG and Avast are free and do a great job at keeping the harmful software off of your computer.  If you need further help in choosing antivirus software, please check out our comprehensive guide.

If you don’t have a malware scanner, it’s worth getting one of those. Malware Bytes, a free download, is a fantastic option, as it’ll keep your computer protected from things like trojans, rootkits, adware, ransomware, and more.  For more information on malware, check out these articles on the subject we recently posted:

The Different Types of Malware, and What You Should Look Out For

How To Prevent Yourself From Getting Infected With Malware

Keep in mind that when using an anti-virus scanner or malware scanner/removal tool, it’s important to keep them on regularly scheduled scans. This will make sure your computer is regularly checked for problems. No one likes their computer breaking down, losing important data, or even getting their identities stolen; by having your anti-virus and malware scanner on a routine for checking on the status of your PC, you’ll be able to prevent a lot of this in advance.

Finally, if your computer is in infected with malware and you need help, our community is there to help you out.

Keep Your Operating System Current

Another aspect that can quite easily slow down your computer is not having the latest updates installed. You can choose whether to download updates via auto-update or regularly go in and manually up date the system yourself. Manually updating will let you install only the recommended updates, while auto-update will install everything.

Manually updating the system is only recommended if you can remember to regularly check for updates. If not, the safe route is to enable auto-updates and let the machine do everything automatically.

Alternatively, you can set Windows to download critical-updates only. This will make sure that only key security updates are downloaded and installed for Windows. Selecting this option won’t install all of the optional updates, which can and do have a tendency to make the system unstable.

If you’re on Mac, be sure to set MacOS to download system updates automatically.

Internet Browsing

While viruses and an out-of-date operating system are fairly common and logical reasons for your system to slow down, did you know your Internet browser can bog down your system as well? It can, and through a few different ways, too.

It’s important to make sure all of your browser plugins are all up-to-date. An outdated and unused plugin is more often than not a quick way to take a performance hit or even get your credit card information or other personal info stolen. That said, make sure the browser plugins you use are always updated. If there’s a plugin that you don’t use or is outdated, it’s best to get rid of those.

Another big thing is your cache and cookies. Depending on how much you use the web, over time you can be storing gigabytes of data on your PC. It’s a good practice to go into your browser and clear the cache and cookies regularly. This will ensure that your system is running at an optimal performance by cleaning up a bunch of used space.

It’s also worth noting that you should keep Java up to date as well. If you have Flash, you can either get rid of it or continue to make sure that’s also updated. It’s quickly become an outdated and unused technology. Recent security exploits have shown that you can’t trust it anymore. It’s definitely worth uninstalling, and you might just be surprised at how much of the web doesn’t use Flash anymore.

 

Installed Programs

Do you have any applications your PC you don’t use anymore? Uninstalling them can potentially free up a lot of space on your computer and sometimes even increase performance.

Now, one of the biggest causes of performance issues is actually startup programs. Not only do they cause a lot of unnecessary slowness at startup, but they can continue to cause sluggishness while using your computer throughout the day. You can go into Task Manager (see here on instructions on how to launch it) to stop many of your high-impact programs from launching on start-up. You can always start them later when you actually need to sit down and use them.

Data Backup

If you’re PC is running slow or acting out of the ordinary, a major step is to make sure that you have something like Windows Backup enabled and running regularly. If something were to happen to your PC, you’ll at least have a fairly recent backup of your system on-hand.

In addition to that, you’ll also want to create a restore point. Microsoft explains a restore point as:

“A restore point is a representation of a stored state of your computer’s system files. You can use a restore point to restore your computer’s system files to an earlier point in time. “

Restore points are usually automatically created on a weekly basis in Windows, but to make sure, head into My Computer, right-click it and select Properties. Under the System Protection tab you’ll be able to create your own restore point.

If you’re looking for alternatives to Windows Backup, there are plenty of third-party software that can help you out. Both Carbonite and MyPCBackup are great and seamless options for this.  For a additional options check out our detailed review of cloud backup providers.

Lastly, if you don’t trust the Cloud, you can create a backup on removable media, such as a CD, USB disk, and so on. You can read our guide on choosing the right backup option here.

 

Hardware

Cleaning up your disk is another great way to reduce sluggishness. Windows has a built-in Disk Cleanup application for doing this, but it can also be done through a neat and free tool called CCleaner. Running CCleaner on your machine regularly can make sure things stay in tip-top shape. When you run CCleaner, it also let’s you clear cache, cookies, and other data in your browsers, so you don’t actually have to go in and manually do that in each of your browsers.

Defragmentation is yet another process you should consider doing once in awhile. It’s basically a process of reducing the fragmentation on your hard drive, ultimately cleaning up more space. You can read all about fragmentation here and how regularly defragging your mass storage device can speed up your PC. Defraggler is another great and free program for taking you through this process (you can even schedule it to run during the night when you aren’t using your PC).  Keep in mind that if you have an SSD (flash storage) you won’t need to defrag the drive.

Last, but certainly not least, is checking your hard disk for any errors. You can easily do this under Windows’ My Computer tab, then right click the desired hard disk and select Properties. From there, you can check for any errors under the Tools tab under the Error-Checking section. Just press the Check Now button.

Final Thoughts

It goes without saying: this is an exhaustive list on everything you can do to make sure your PC is in tip-top shape. Not all of this has to be done on a weekly basis. For instance, defragmenting, uninstalling unused programs and even checking your disk for errors can be done every couple of months.

You’ll want to make sure you’re regularly following some of the most important processes on a weekly basis, though. This includes checking for updates, running anti-virus and anti-malware tools and running CCleaner. If you follow some of these most basic steps, you can say goodbye to PC sluggishness!

What do you do to keep on your PC maintenance? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below or join us over in the PCMech Forums!

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How To Easily Transfer Files Between Your Mac, iPhone, and iPad With AirDrop

Have you ever wanted to seamlessly share files between your Mac, iPhone, or iPad without having to deal with cloud services like Dropbox or hardware like USB sticks? Well, you can with a neat little feature called AirDrop! We’re going to show you just how to use it to send those files from your Mac to your iPhone without a hitch.

Some Requirements

Before we get started, there are a few requirements you should be aware of first. For your Mac, you’ll need to be running OS X Yosemite and have a machine that was released in 2012 or later. For the iPhone and iPad side of things, you’ll need to be running iOS 7 or later. Additionally, AirDrop will only work with the iPhone 5 or later, the iPad 4 or later, iPad Mini, or a fifth-generation iPod Touch.
A surefire way to see if your Mac supports AirDrop is to open up Finder. If you don’t see AirDrop listed in the navigation pane, your machine does not support it.

Apple also notes that when using this tool, you should ensure that your Mac and iOS device are within 30 feet of each other. In addition, you’ll need to make sure that your Mac is not blocking all incoming connections. You can make sure that box isn’t checked by heading into System Preferences > General > Security & Privacy > Firewall > Firewall Options.

Finally, a quick mention about iCloud. You actually don’t have to be connected to the same iCloud account to accept incoming files by way of AirDrop. However, if you are on the same iCloud account, things do get a little easier, as files will transfer automatically through AirDrop without needing any permissions. For instance, a photo you take on your iPhone that you want to AirDrop to your Mac won’t require any approval on your Mac.

Now, with that out of the way, below is how you can actually use this streamlined file transferring process.

How To Use AirDrop

The first step is to ensure that both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is enabled on your Mac and iOS device.

The next step is to make sure AirDrop is enabled on both devices. For the Mac, you can open Finder and navigate to the menu bar at the top of the display. Under “Go,” click on the “AirDrop option. From there, make sure to choose whether you are discoverable by “Contacts Only” or by “Everyone.”

On iOS, you can do this same thing by swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen to access the Control Center. Once the Control Center is open, simply tap on the AirDrop bar to select your preference.

Congratulations! You’re now all set to start using this streamlined process to transfer files between your devices. To make sure everything is works, I’ll be right-clicking on a photo and navigating to Share > AirDrop.

You can do this for almost any type of file. Once you press that AirDrop option, a list of nearby devices should show up. Simply click on the device or person you want to send the photo to you. Once you’ve done that, the device you sent it to will be asked to accept the transfer.

In the same vein, you can click the Share button on a file in iOS and share it with a nearby device, such as your Mac. Once you choose to share it with your Mac, you’ll be asked to accept the file on that machine.
And that’s all there is to it. Happy streamlined file sharing!

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Netflix vs. Hulu vs. Amazon Prime Video

Sick of your cable company. It’s well and truly a great time to cut the cord and get rid of cable for good. There are a ton of great video streaming services out there, including the much-loved Netflix, many of which offer the same TV shows available on network or cable TV channels.

But which video streaming service is right for you? Well, first of all, let’s not think that you can only go with one! Still, you may not want to go with all three of the major services, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime. Here’s our comparison of the three top video streaming services.

       Ease of use and user interface

Amazon and Hulu aren’t difficult to use, but Netflix surely has to be the most simple. The interface is clean, the search function works decently well, and it’s just a pretty app. Not only that, but it also offers recommendations in easy-to-see places, and the interface is more or less the same no matter what device you’re watching on.

Again, Amazon Prime and Hulu don’t offer bad user interfaces. Hulu recently redesigned its app, making video suggestions easier to find and improving on its search functionality. In our opinion, Amazon Prime comes in third place — the interface is a little unrefined and hard to get around. of course, all three of these services are constantly improving though, so perhaps basing your decision on user interface isn’t the best idea.

supported devices

While all three services will generally be available on all of your devices, Netflix really goes above and beyond — many TVs even have a Netflix button built straight into the remote. All three are available on smart TVs, phones, tablets, and so on, and even if you don’t have a smart TV you can stream content using a Chromecast, Apple TV, or Google Nexus Player. Amazon Prime is a probably a little more readily available than Hulu considering the fact that it comes pre-installed on many smart TVs, but in reality you shouldn’t have many problems installing any of these three services on any device you want, provided its a smart device.

What Do You Want To Wacth?

Of course, while a great user interface and supported devices are important, content is really why we’re here. All three offer tons of great content, and it’s worth checking out their libraries before making your decision. It all really boils down to this: get whichever service has the content you want to watch.

Still, you might not have anything specific in mind and just want options for things to watch after a long day. If you’re wanting to watch the latest episodes of your favorite shows, Hulu is probably the way to go — many shows are available on Hulu the day after they air, and much of that content can be watched without ads, provided you have a Hulu Plus account.

Still, Amazon Prime and Netflix probably offer more original content — Netflix has shows like Marvel’s Daredevil and House of Cards, while Amazon Prime offers shows like The Man In The High Tower.

Of course, while a great user interface and supported devices are important, content is really why we’re here. All three offer tons of great content, and it’s worth checking out their libraries before making your decision. It all really boils down to this: get whichever service has the content you want to watch.
Still, you might not have anything specific in mind and just want options for things to watch after a long day. If you’re wanting to watch the latest episodes of your favorite shows, Hulu is probably the way to go — many shows are available on Hulu the day after they air, and much of that content can be watched without ads, provided you have a Hulu Plus account.
Still, Amazon Prime and Netflix probably offer more original content — Netflix has shows like Marvel’s Daredevil and House of Cards, while Amazon Prime offers shows like The Man In The High Tower.

Price

Really, Amazon Prime is the best value for money. You’ll have to pay the $99 for the year upfront, but that works out to around $8 per month, and you’ll get access to two-day shipping and other Amazon Prime perks. Currently Netflix costs $1 more, sitting at $10 per month for the standard plan. Basic users, who won’t get HD video or the ability to watch on more than one screen, will pay $8 per month, while premium users, who can watch in ultra HD and on up to 4 screens at a time, will pay $12 per month. Hulu is similarly complex. For the basic subscription you’ll pay $8 per month, however that service has ads. If you want to go ad free, you’re going to need to pay $12 per month.

Conclusions

You really can’t go wrong with any of these services. Netflix is known for its original content, Hulu has cable and network shows soon after they’re aired, and Amazon has some great perks along with it.

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Bing Vs. Google Vs. DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo and Google are two very similar search engines, but if you’re trying to keep privacy in mind, DuckDuckGo might just be the better option. That’s what we looked over when we last compared DuckDuckGo and Google, but this time around, we’re adding Bing into the mix to see how all they all compare. Is there one search engine that’s better than the rest? Many might say Google, but at the same time, you might be surprised.

  GOOGLE

Google in itself isn’t too special of a search engine. The company has created a search engine that produces results and works very, very well. On the other hand, what makes Google so special is the inter-connectivity between all of its products–Search, Gmail, Google+, and many others. It makes for an extremely seamless experience, and it doesn’t take much time to find the information you’re looking for.

With Google, you get the traditional search page. Enter your search query, and you’ll get a whole list of different results on the Web. There are, of course, ways to refine that search, such as to images, news, video and shopping. There’s plenty of other options for refining your search, but those are just the most popular.

 The search engine has some neat features embedded inside it as well. For instance, if you search a definition of word, Google will give that to you right away, not requiring you to have to navigate to a website. The same goes for searching for directions, information on a nearby location, and so on.

    Bing

Bing in many aspects has many of the same things Google offers. You get your traditional search engine page, though Microsoft spices it up a bit with a new background image from some location around the world every day. Any search query you put in, you’ll first get web results, and then options to refine to news, images, and so on. Any search for a definition will net you the same results as Google–a definition of word embedded right into the search page. Or, in the case of searching for a location, you get the nearest location of that store/restaurant embedded right into the search page. It really is very similar to Google.

The only really unique thing about Bing is its heavily advertised rewards program, which basically nets you a bunch of different credits you can use on rewards later. Once you net enough credits, you’ll be able to redeem things like movie rentals, sweepstakes entries, or something more lasting, such as a gift card for an Xbox Live Gold membership or even a gift card to the Windows Store. There are, of course, plenty of other things you can choose from as well!

 DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo actually has a few less features than both Google and Bing. As far as location features go, DuckDuckGo does not really have any. Searching a location near you won’t provide any helpful results, aside from a link taking you to that location’s website’s store locator. This is largely because of DuckDuckGo’s efforts to keep your privacy, well, private.

Aside from that, you have your basic search engine features: enter a search query, and you’ll get web results, then you can refine those results as you’d like.

What makes DuckDuckGo unique is a feature called Bangs. Bangs allows you to quickly and easily search content of a website with a simple shortcut. If you wanted to find a new movie or piece of hardware on Amazon quickly, all you would have to do is type !a <insert movie or hardware> in the search bar, and that would be the first result that comes up. It really is a neat and convenient feature.

Beyond that, DuckDuckGo is just like many of the other search engines, except with privacy in mind.

Which Should You Choose?

Is one search engine better than the other? No, not at all. Each one has it’s own benefits and downfalls. Your privacy is more open with Google, which allows for some added conveniences, such as quick search results for things in your area, relevant ads for your likes, and so on. The same goes with Bing. However, DuckDuckGo isn’t so fond of that idea, and would rather protect its users’ privacy instead of adding those extra conveniences.

Are you already in Google’s ecosystem? Are you using any other Google products, such as Google+, Gmail, and etc? If so, then actively using Google Search would just compliment those services, making things more seamless and easy to use over those different products.

Essentially the same thing goes for Bing. If you use a lot of Microsoft products, Bing will only compliment all of those products. In addition, you also have the added chance of obtaining credits for different rewards, which is something unheard of on a lot of other search engines.

Now, maybe you’re not a fan with how open your privacy is in Bing and Google. In that sense, DuckDuckGo is the way to go because your privacy is kept private. DuckDuckGo will never for any reason collect your personal data or share any personal information, keeping things locked up tight for you.

So, is one search engine better than the other? No, not at all. It just depends what you’re looking for. If you want privacy, DuckDuckGo is a safe route. Or, maybe you prefer those added conveniences, then Google and Bing are both some great options–it’s totally up to you.

What search engine do you use? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below or join us over in the PCMech Forums!

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How To Prevent Eyestrain From The Screen With f.lux

If you use a computer all day for work and/or play, you’re aware of how easy it is to get eyestrain after looking at the computer for a substantial amount of time. It’s easily solved by getting up and taking a break for awhile, but sometimes that’s just not possible, especially if a project is due or even late.

Eyestrain can make it very difficult work, play, watch movies and so on. Not only that, but it’s extremely bad for your eyes and overall vision. With that in mind, it might just be worth investing your time into a program called f.lux to take care of that eyestrain, never having to deal with it on the screen again.

Computer Eyestrain And How It Affects You

Effects from the computer screen can come in many different forms, with the most common being eyestrain, headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, and even neck and shoulder pain. It’s a serious problem for those that spend a large portion of their days on the computer, or even game well into the night. It’s largely caused by poor lighting, the glare from the digital screen, and sometimes even uncorrected vision problems.

The American Optometric Association lists a lot of different reasons for these problems, but there’s one symptom we’ll be looking to solve through a program called f.lux:

“Viewing a computer or digital screen often makes the eyes work harder. As a result, the unique characteristics and high visual demands of computer and digital screen device viewing make many individuals susceptible to the development of vision-related symptoms.”

It’s true. Viewing a computer or digital screen makes the eyes work a whole lot harder. f.lux attests this problem to our computers and laptops being designed to look like the sun. That’s why many don’t start feeling eyestrain or fatigue until it begins getting dark out.

That’s why f.lux is the go-to free program for adapting your computer or laptop screen to the time of day.

How f.lux Can Help Reduce Eyestrain

f.lux adapts to the time of the day by making the display warm at night, and defaulting it to look like the sunlight during the daytime. Here’s how the company describes how it works:

“f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you’re in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again. Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. f.lux will do the rest, automatically.”

Pretty simple, huh? f.lux is a free program, and by installing it and setting up the different lighting features, you’ll only be better off for it. For instance, many times we have difficulty sleeping at night due to the type of light our electronics give off. By switching it to something more “warm” during evening and nighttime hours, you won’t have to worry about that ever again.

Not only that, but it truly does reduce eyestrain when it gets darker out. This is because it enables that warmer lighting for your display, meaning you aren’t looking at something as bright as day during those nighttime hours.

Keep in mind that the problem isn’t just our computer screens, though. Now that mobile is a big part of our world, the problem is also with our smartphones and tablets as well. In this world, who doesn’t shut down their computer before bed, only to take their smartphone or tablet to bed with them to catch up on social media or watch a movie? Everyone does it, and it usually makes us feel more “wired” than we should before bed. Thankfully, f.lux will help negate those affects on mobile as well–for Android or iOS.

In addition to being available for free on iOS and Android, it’s also available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Closing

Eyestrain is a serious problem these days, especially since much of our world revolves around computers. By taking some small steps like downloading f.lux for a warmer light during night hours, you can reduce that strain astronomically. And while it might not help much during the day, there are still some other steps you can take to reduce that strain.

Taking frequent breaks from looking away at the computer can be a huge help. Even if you can’t get up and take a large 20-minute break, focusing your attention on something else for even a minute or two can negate the problem (refer to the 20-20-20 rule by the American Optometric Association for more info).

Do you have frequent trouble with eyestrain from the screen? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below or join us over in the PCMech Forums!

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How To Speed Up Your Mac With Activity Monitor

Whether you’re on Windows or Mac, your PC can slow down to a crawl. A common misconception is that Mac’s aren’t privy to the common sluggishness that day-to-day usage brings, but they are. We talked about how you can fix most of that through a neat little program called CCleaner, but another thing you can do is use Activity Monitor to help you speed up your Mac.


     Speeding Up Your Mac With Activity Monitor

To open the Mac Activity Monitor, you’ll need to open Launchpad and search for “Activity Monitor.” Simply click the application, and it’ll close Launchpad and open Activity Monitor.

Activity Monitor will give you an idea of what is taking up system resources as far as your processor, memory, energy, and network go.

If you see a process taking up too much memory or CPU power, you can click on the process and press the big “X” button at the top left of the program. Do this for multiple applications you aren’t using, and you should notice a significant speed up. Apps have a tendency to stay lingering in the background and not actually close so that they open faster when you want to use them. But, if there are too many open in the background, this can take up either way too much memory or too much processing power. It’s best to shut down whatever you aren’t currently using for maximum speed.

Another thing you can do in Activity Monitor is run diagnostic/debugging tests. Under the gear icon, you’ll see an option for a couple of different tests–System Diagnosis, Spindump, and etc.

Once finished, a Finder window will open with a couple of files, showing you very detailed results. This helps for advanced debugging. The same goes for the Run Spindump option. However, you won’t need to worry about these specifically, as they run automatically when needed.

This is a really simple process. It may not seem like much, but it can make things run leagues smoother.  If you have any comments or questions please post them below or start a new thread in the PCMech Forums.

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Congress Needs To Implement A Policy For Computer Science Education

Our world is moving at an extremely fast pace where technology is concerned, especially in the United States. Generally, this is a good thing–it’s creating more conveniences, new technologies to improve quality of life, more jobs, and so on. But, we’re running into a small problem: we need more manpower.

Here in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (via ComputerWorld), there are more than 500,000 unfilled computing positions (keep in mind this is only in the US, worldwide is much more vast) in various specialties–software engineering, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering (specifically the creation of hardware), and more. It goes without saying, there’s a huge demand for jobs in this field, but there’s not enough people who know how to program, administer a database, create systems to fend off cyber attacks, and so on.

So, what do we do?

COMPUTER SCIENCE IN ONLINE COURSES

The overwhelming response to our lack of people skilled to take on computing jobs has been free education. And that’s the obvious response to a problem like this: offer free education for a specific field, and just maybe the people will come, learn, practice their skills, and ultimately, get a job in the computing field. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Computer Science education, except for maybe the fact that the computing education market doesn’t provide a clear path for a student and that we are lying to anyone who signs up.

First, the computing education market does not have a clear guideline to a job in computing. There are tons of free course and programs popping up everywhere, for free. You can find them at Khan Academy, Coursera, edX, CodeAcademy, Code School, Code.org, Udacity, Team Treehouse, FreeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, and so many more places. And while this provides ample opportunity for learning, there’s not much room for advancement – all of these places will teach you the basics of coding (excluding FreeCodeCamp and maybe Udacity), but won’t take you any farther than that.

There’s a lot of discouragement in this area. The market of getting people started in coding is so crowded, and there are not many resources for increasingly higher skill levels. And this is a good
thing: students should be able to hit the web, look up documentation and try to figure out a problem on their own. But, here’s the problem: many of these courses aren’t in the business of teaching problem solving. They hand-hold until the very end (excluding a few, of course) and then drop the student off in a territory where they are not familiar.

With that said, computing educators, particularly MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), need to shift gears. Syntax is important, it has its place. But teaching a student how to overcome problems within programming will last that student a lifetime, giving him or her the tools to constantly adapt with new technologies and frameworks coming out. Giving students the problem solving skills within programming will create quality programmers that can bring quality to work in the jobforce.

              WE NEED TO STOP LYING TO STUDENTS

Another aspect that’s discouraging students from getting into the computing industry is that we’re actually lying to them. As a culture, you wouldn’t believe how many times we bang into a student’s head that coding is easy. News flash: it’s not easy in the least.

I don’t know one person that has picked up programming and instantly got it with no trouble whatsoever. We’ve all been at the bottom of the bucket, banging our heads against the walls just trying to figure out how object-oriented programming works. And even though you may make it through courses, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an expert. Even Senior developers have problems with code. Even they spend a large part of their time staring at piece of code, wondering why it doesn’t work and then spend a significant chunk of time trying to get that piece of code to work. In a nutshell, that’s what programming is.

But, we tell new and upcoming students the exact opposite. “It’s not difficult,” we say. Many instructional videos, even from the aforementioned educators, will tell you that coding is as easy as walking. That’s why many will be interested in the idea of coding, get plugged into an online course, and then drop a week or two later after they decided that they just don’t get it.

We need to be upfront with students. Coding is difficult, but the path to learning how to do it is so rewarding. In two, three years, being able to create a website from the ground-up on your own is an experience like no other. But, the path to get there is difficult, just like anything in life.

If we were upfront with students like that, we might just start making a dent in those 500,000 unfilled positions.

But, it doesn’t stop there. No, we actually have to solve the problem of getting people interested in computing.

And that’s not a good place to be. At all.

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Review: Pokemon Go Reawakens My Inner Pokemon Master, But Not Without Flaws

A bit about me: I’m 22 years old, which means I grew up eating and breathing Pokemon. Whether it was the Pokemon TV show, the Pokemon trading cards, or Pokemon Red Version on the Game Boy Color, Pokemon played a huge part in my childhood. And, while I perhaps haven’t kept up with the latest games on Nintendo DS, I’m sure you can imagine why a free-to-play Pokemon game that I could simply download on to my phone peaked my interest.


Pokemon Go is really the first real Pokemon game for the smartphone, and as such has the potential to be a huge hit. In fact, since it was released just last week, the game has become a phenomenon, almost as much as the original games were way back in the early 2000s. But just how good is the game? I spent a few days playing it to find out.

         GAME PLAY

Pokemon Go is actually a very simple game to play. You start out by creating an account, either through Google or by making a new account. After that, you’ll be able to create an avatar, or character, for yourself. You can pick your gender, hair style, skin color, etc.

Once you’ve created your character, that character will show up on a map, which you’ll notice looks like your street. That’s because it is — the map is powered by Google Maps. And, immediately next to you, you’ll see three Pokemon to catch — you guessed it — Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. To decide on a Pokemon to catch, you simply tap on the one you want, at which point the screen will change to an augmented reality-type screen, taking in the scenery from your device’s camera, and placing the Pokemon in the area. If the augmented reality approach is too much for your phone, it can be turned off at the flick of a switch.

Catching a Pokemon is actually very easy to do — simply hold down on the Pokeball at the bottom of the screen, and once the circle around the Pokemon zooms in a little, flick the ball towards the Pokemon. Pokemon can be placed at different distances from you, so you’ll need to flick it hard enough to reach the Pokemon, but not so hard that it goes too far. Pokemon can dodge the Pokeballs or hit them away, however the majority of the time the Pokeball will capture the Pokemon, and you’ll have caught that Pokemon. Of course, Pokemon can escape from the ball too, and you’ll have to throw another Pokeball to recatch it.

That’s really the gist of the game. You wonder around your area (yes, you’ll have to go outside!), and wild Pokemon will show up for you to catch. You can also collect extra Pokeballs at Pokestops, which are located at landmarks around the map. You might also find other items, like Potions (for healing your Pokemon), or Incense, which draw Pokemon to your location. And, you could be given eggs, which will need to be placed in an incubator, and will hatch after you’ve walked a certain distance.

So why would you need to heal your Pokemon? The goal of the game is to capture gyms, which basically consists of going to the gym and battling whichever Pokemon is placed at the gym, as long as it’s a Pokemon from another team — that’s right, there are three teams in the game, and you’ll choose from Valor, Instinct and Mystic when you reach a certain level. If your team currently holds the gym, you can simply place one of your Pokemon there as backup, or, if another team holds the gym you can battle it out to try and take over.

Once you take control of a gym, you can opt to keep one of your Pokemon there, which will defend the gym against others trying to take it over. You’ll also gain rewards in the form of the in-game currency, which can be used to buy items from the store — like extra Pokeballs, more egg incubators, and so on. The only other way to get that in-game currency is, you guessed it, by paying real money.
Of course, the real goal of the game is to catch Pokemon — the more you catch, the higher level you’ll get. Also, just because you’ve already caught a Pokemon doesn’t mean you shouldn’t catch it again should you come across it. Each time you get a Pokemon, it will come with the “candy” for that Pokemon, and extra Stardust. Each wild Pokemon comes with three of its own candy, so if you catch 3 Rattata’s (you’re going to catch many, many more), you’ll have 9 Rattata candy. That candy can be used to level up the Rattata you want to level up (the strongest one is usually the best way to go), or even evolve it if you get enough. To level up, you’ll also need Stardust, which will also come with each Pokemon. Also, don’t worry about having a million Rattatas in your inventory — you can transfer Pokemon to the professor and you’ll keep that Pokemon’s candy, and even get an extra one from the professor.

Unlike previous Pokemon games, battling is not turn-based. Instead, you simply tap on the enemy Pokemon really fast and you’ll attack it. You can also dodge by swiping left and right, or perform a special attack by holding down.

THE GOOD

There are a few things that make Pokemon Go an awesome game. First of all, not going to lie, I’ve done a ton more walking than I otherwise would have thanks to Pokemon Go. The game is truly addictive — especially if you grew up with the game. While you can certainly spend money in the game, so far I haven’t felt like I need to — you’ll get plenty of Pokeballs at Pokestops, and if you’re a good enough shot when you’re trying to catch Pokemon, you shouldn’t go through those Pokeballs that quickly.

The game also looks pretty nice. It’s great that you can switch augmented reality on or off, especially considering not all devices will be able to handle using the camera all the time, and it eats up your battery a lot quicker.

The Bad

As a fan of the classic Pokemon games, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more battling in the game. It would have been cool if you could battle wild Pokemon to get their candy instead of having to catch each one, as it wastes Pokeballs and makes it seem like collecting Pokemon is simply for the sake of collecting them, not to get stronger.

Of course, even if you can’t battle wild Pokemon, the fact that you can’t battle friends except in the context of gyms seems like a pretty big omission. You really should be able to battle those nearby, and while there are whispers that feature will be added in the future, the fact that it’s not there yet is a problem for me.

Another fairly obvious omission is that the game doesn’t save your settings — I like to have my Pokemon ordered by number so it’s easier to find duplicates, but when I close the game and reopen it, they’re ordered based on recently caught Pokemon instead.

Also, too many Rattatas and Weedles. I get that it has to be hard to catch them all, but a little more variety would be nice.

The Ugly

The game is seriously buggy. Expect to experience a crash at least a few times per day if you play a lot. That’s assuming you can actually get in and play the game — many often experience a notice saying that there are problems with the game’s server, and telling them to come back later. We can only hope that will get fixed over time, but it’s a pretty serious issue in the meantime. Sure, the game is quite possibly a far bigger success than anyone anticipated, but that’s not really an excuse.

Conclusions

Pokemon Go has recaptured my 10-year-old imagination, and has me wanting to be a Pokemon master all over again. Yes, there are things that need to be fixed, and some features that would be nice to have, but this is an excellent starting point for a game that will no doubt evolve (pun intended) over time. If you’re a Pokemon fan, chances are you’ve already tried the game, but if not download it now — you’re a little behind in catching them all.

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What Is Machine Learning And How Is It Used Today?

Paul Downey | Flickr
Machine learning is a phrase that’s getting bandied about increasingly often, yet many still don’t know exactly what it is. Of course, there’s a reason for that. It’s still in its very early stages, and many assume it’s not something that affects the general population just yet. In fact, that’s perhaps not as true as some assume.
So what is machine learning? And what is it being used in today? Here’s our guide on everything you need to know about machine learning.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning, simply put, is a form of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn without any extra programming. In other words, the software is able to learn new things on its own, without a programmer or engineer needing to ‘teach’ it anything. Machine learning is able to take data and detect patterns and find solutions, then applying those solutions to other problems.

                                                         Image: K?rlis Dambr?ns | Flickr

It’s important to note that machine learning as a concept isn’t new at all — it’s hard to trace the precise origins of the concept considering it’s one that merges into and from other forms of technology. You could argue that machine learning dates all the way back to the creation of the Turing Test, which was used to determine if a computer had intelligence. The first computer program that learning, however, was a game of checkers, which was developed in 1952 by Arthur Samuel. This game got better the more it played.

Recent technology, however, drastically improves machine learning. For example, machine learning requires hug amounts of processing power, so much so that we’ve only just started being able to develop basic machine learning in recent history.

There are a few main ways programmers implement machine learning. The first is called ‘supervised learning.’ What that basically means is that a machine is fed problems where the solution to the problem is known. The learning algorithm is able to receive those problems along with the desired outcomes, identifying patterns in the problems and acting accordingly. Supervised learning is often used to predict future events — such as when a credit card transaction might be fraudulent.

Last but not least is ‘reinforcement learning,’ which is used specifically for things like gaming and robots. Reinforcement learning is basically taught through trial and error — the machine attempts things and learns based on its successes or failures. The goal here is for the machine to figure out the best possible outcomes.

Of course, all of these methods of machine learning involve feeding a machine hundreds of thousands of problems, and massive amounts of data. Really, the more data the better.
Where Is Machine Learning Used Today?

                                                             Pictures of Money | Flickr

Actually, there are plenty of places in which machine learning is used today. Many of these are behind the scenes, however you may be surprised to know that a lot of them are also something that you use every single day.
Perhaps the one that you use the most is in your personal assistant — that’s right, the likes of Siri and Google Now use machine learning, largely to better understand speech   patterns. With so many millions of people using Siri, the system is able to seriously advance in how it treats languages, accents, and so on.

Of course, Siri isn’t the only consumer application of machine learning. Another use is is in banking, such as fraud detection. For example, machine learning algorithms can track spending patterns, determining which patterns are more likely to be fraudulent based on past fraudulent activity.
In fact, even your email might be using machine learning. For example, spam emails are a problem, and they have evolved over time. Email systems use machine learning to track spam email patterns and how spam emails change, then putting them in your spam folder based on those changes.

Conclusions
Machine learning is set to be a big part of how we use technology going forward, and how technology can help us. From Siri to US Bank, machine learning is becoming increasingly pervasive, and that’s only likely to continue.

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How To See A Live Preview Of Your Code With CodePen

One of the many frustrating things about web development is not having an easy way to share your projects with others. In many cases, you’ll have to host your project on a web server or send over all the corresponding files to someone who wants to see what you’ve created. But thanks to a neat online tool called CodePen, you don’t have to worry about any of that anymore.

CodePen.io
CodePen is a free tool that will let you host your projects online without ever having to pay a dime. To get started, head over to CodePen.io and create a free account.

 

Once you’ve done that, you can create a “Pen” by clicking the “New Pen” button at the top right corner of the screen.

 

 

After that, you’ll be able to add any HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to their corresponding boxes. Once you start adding in some code, you’ll get to see a live preview of what you’re creating. You can title your first Pen in the top left corner. After you click on your first “Save,” you’ll be able to simply share the URL of the page with friends, family, and coworkers so that they can see what you’re working on.

This is how your Pen will look with some code in it (courtesy of a Free Code Camp project called Tribute Page):

 

When creating your own Pen, you’ll want to go through the Settings before getting started. When you click on the “New Pen” button, you should see a Pen template ready for you to start entering some code. In the top right corner will be a “Settings” button. Click on that (you should see the below screen).

 

 Here you’ll be able to go through the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tabs to add in certain information. In the HTML tab, you’ll be able to add meta information, things that should go in the <head> tab, and so on. Under CSS, you’ll be able to add CSS Preprocessors like LESS and Sass. Not only that, but you can add in external CSS like Bootstrap and Foundation. Under the JavaScript tab, you can add in a JavaScript Preprocessor like Babel or CoffeeScript. Additionally, you can add in external JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, Lodash, D3, and so on. 

 

Finally, CodePen will allow you to change the “View” you’re looking at. The default view is Editor View, allowing you to enter in your code and get a small preview in the console below. But, there are other options as well, with a particularly handy one being “Full Page” view, where you’ll get to see a project as if it was live on a website. There are a handful of other Views available to switch to, it’s worth playing around with!

CodePen really is a neat tool, and we’ve only touched the surface of its usefulness. It’s worth heading on over to CodePen.io and using it to work on a few projects, and then, if you feel like it, share with your friends or coworkers.

What do you think of CodePen? Have you used a similar tool? Let us know in the comments section below!

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