Thursday, February 5, 2015

An Ebola treatment center run by the Alliance for International Medical Action has tested the drug favipiravir. Credit Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos for ALIMA Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos for ALIMA
For the first time, a drug is showing promising signs of effectiveness in Ebola patients participating in a study. The medicine, which interferes with the virus’s ability to copy itself, seems to have halved mortality — to 15 percent, from 30 percent — in patients with low to moderate levels of Ebola in their blood, researchers have found. It had no effect in patients with more virus in their blood, who are more likely to die.
The drug, approved as an influenza treatment in Japan last year, was generally well tolerated.
“The results are encouraging in a certain phase of the disease,” Dr. Sakoba Keita, director of disease control for the Guinean Ministry of Health, said in a telephone interview. The drug is being tested in Guinea, one of the three West African countries most affected by the Ebola crisis.
The early findings have not yet been announced, but they raise questions about which patients, if any, outside the study should be offered treatment with the drug, favipiravir. “These are very difficult, agonizing decisions,” said Susan Ellenberg, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. She cautioned that early results were sometimes not borne out.
Avigan, a drug approved as an anti-influenza drug in Japan, is showing promise in treating ebola. Credit Issei Kato/Reuters Issei Kato/Reuters
The drug has been provided on an emergency basis to Ebola patients in European countries, but not in Africa. The Japanese maker of the drug announced in October that it had 20,000 courses of treatment in stock. The epidemic is now ebbing but is not over. The World Health Organization on Wednesdayreported 124 new cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the week that ended on Sunday, warning of an increased geographical spread in Guinea and a rise in new cases in all three countries for the first time this year.
Early reports of the interim results of the drug trial have created unanticipated complications, delaying the testing of at least one other therapy as researchers reconsidered plans and some doctors pressed to make favipiravir more widely available.
Researchers and health authorities have been quietly debating whether and when to release the preliminary results of the study. The dilemmas they face echo those from the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Because mortality was so high in a disease with no proven treatment, there was demand to provide experimental therapies to everyone.
The results for the drug favipiravir are based on an analysis of 69 patients older than 14 who have received it at two sites in Guinea since December. The survival rates of those with low to moderate levels of virus in their blood were significantly better than those of patients previously treated at a center run by Doctors Without Borders in Guéckédou, Guinea.
Caroline Guele, 31, a rice farmer who lost two children and her husband to Ebola, received the drug in January at the site run by the Alliance for International Medical Action soon after she developed symptoms. She said she believed it contributed to her survival. “When I heard I could take the medicine, I actually prayed to God it would help me,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
In a typical drug study, participants would be randomly assigned to take the drug or not, and the outcomes would be compared to see if the drug made a difference. However, because Ebola is so deadly and there is no known treatment aside from supportive care, all patients in the study were provided with the treatment. Fluctuating death rates during the current epidemic have complicated researchers’ efforts to assess whether the new drug should be credited with the reduced mortality.
The drug was expected to be most effective in patients receiving it within two to three days of showing symptoms, similar to antiviral treatments for influenza. However, most study participants arrived at the Ebola treatment units later in their illnesses, a median of five days after their symptoms began, so results were analyzed instead in terms of the approximate levels of virus in the blood.
Independent boards charged with monitoring the drug trial detected the encouraging findings and recommended that they be made public. Results were submitted for review to the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, which will take place in Seattle at the end of the month. A draft of an abstract of the findings was reviewed by The New York Times.
“With Ebola, there’s precious little good news,” said Dr. Susan Shepherd, who served as medical coordinator at a treatment unit run by the Alliance for International Medical Action, one of two sites where the drug was tested. (The other was a facility run by Doctors Without Borders.)
Dr. Shepherd added, “There will, I think, be an enormous pressure and desire to offer the treatment more broadly.”
A patient is treated at the ALIMA ebola treatment center in Nzerekore, Guinea. Credit Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos for ALIMA Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos for ALIMA
The trial is sponsored by the French public research institute Inserm, with support from the European Union, and is run by a consortium of organizations and the Guinean government. The drug, also known by the trade name Avigan, was developed by the Japanese company Toyama Chemical, part of Fujifilm Group, and approved for influenza treatment in that country last March after safety testing.
The company has said it would produce more doses of the drug in anticipation of the trial. It has also provided the tablets on an emergency basis to several Ebola patients in Europe, according to a company spokeswoman, Kana Matsumoto. She said that the drug had never been provided on that basis to patients in any African country, and that the company had no comment as to whether it would do so in the future given the new findings.
“With a medication that seems to be safe, you really don’t have a leg to stand on in terms of this person gets it and this person doesn’t,” Dr. Shepherd said. “The problem we seem to have is it doesn’t help at all for people who have high viral loads.”
Researchers hope that some patients’ lives might be saved by bolstering the immune system, including through transfusions of serum extracted from the blood of Ebola survivors, which contains virus-fighting antibodies.
However, expectations around favipiravir have contributed to a delay in a trial of serum transfusions, also known as convalescent plasma therapy, in Guinea’s capital, according to Roeland Scholtalbers, the head of communications for the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, the study’s sponsor.
Some doctors are urging that if favipirivir has a positive effect and seems safe, it should be given to everyone with the virus.
If patients getting the serum transfusions also get favipiravir, it would probably be more difficult to discern whether the serum had an effect. Mr. Scholtalbers said that just because early results for favipiravir came first did not mean that researchers or the public should “put more hope on that solution than any other solution.”
“There are pretty good arguments to think that plasma can give good impact,” she continued. “It will be a shame if we don’t manage as a scientific community to test it.”
Dr. Xavier Anglaret, the lead investigator of the favipiravir trial in Guinea, said that he and his colleagues agreed that the other study was important. “The plasma trial should start as early as possible,” he said.
Both trials are all the more important because of the abrupt cancellation last Friday of a study testing a third therapy, the anti-viral drug brincidofovir, after the manufacturer found an insufficient number of Ebola patients in Liberia, where the trial had been planned, to determine the effectiveness of the drug.
Dr. Anglaret said researchers had expected to have results from all three studies around the same time. Instead, one study advanced ahead of the others, with early results that are encouraging but not definitive. As of Tuesday, Dr. Anglaret said, the favipiravir trial had enrolled 101 patients in the continuing study.
The complications of managing the Ebola trials are a sign that more needs to be done to prioritize research in future outbreaks, said Dr. Bernard Lo, a bioethicist and president of the Greenwall Foundation in New York City.

Ebola Drug Trial Has Encouraging Early Results, and Questions Follow

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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

To Lose Your Belly Fat All people in the world want to get slim body with a natural look. Many people in the world are affected by fat belly and thus many issues happen with them regularly. Belly fat gives you an ugly look and affects your health as well. The ailment will give you heart diseases, diabetes, stroke, and dementia.
Here Are Top 8 Home Remedies To Reduce Belly Fat:
Lemon Water
First, you are required to treat the liver, since the strained liver cannot function properly, because of the excessive fat dumped in your abdomen. The Lemon water has the power to enhance the enzymes that clean your liver. With no worry about fat, one can take lemon juice with a glass of lukewarm water. Mix the juice with water perfectly for a few minutes and take lemon water daily in the morning on an empty stomach. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Cranberry Juice
Cranberries are rich in citric acid, malic acid, and quinic acid. These acids act as digestive enzymes. These acids have the power to fight against the fat deposited in your abdomen. Cranberry juices absorb the lymphatic wastes and decrease your fat. To prepare the remedy, take one cup cranberry juice without sugar and mix water seven cups. Drink it 2 times daily till a month. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Fish Oil
Fish oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acid, which is also known as fish oil. It also contains docosahexaenoic acid, linolenic acid, and icosapentanoic acid. These acids act against the fat that deposited around your waistline and help you remain slim and fit. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Chia Seeds
If you a vegetarian, then you may not prefer to take omega- 3 fatty acid. So in this case, you can take Chia seeds, which are equally good as omega-3.  In fact, you have to work more, to change the alpha-linolenic acid in these acids into DHA that comes from fish oil. Chia seeds are rich in calcium, iron, fiber, and antioxidants that make you not to think of foods frequently. Four to eight teaspoons of Chia seeds are enough for a day and helps you from the gorge. You can also add Chia seeds to salads and yogurt to make it easy to take. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Ginger Tea
Many people know about the greatness of ginger. It is a natural digestive agent. Ginger increases your body temperature and helps to burn the fat. You can have belly fat for various reasons like lack of work outs, over eating, and age related factors, and ginger is the right solution to cut down your belly fat. Drinking ginger tea with honey for two times a day, will definitely lead to a reduction in belly fat. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Garlic
Garlic is good for the cardiovascular system and many of us know this fact. It lessens your systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and enhances good cholesterol. Take two or three cloves of garlic, one lemon, and one glass of water. Now pinch the lemon juice with water and grind the garlic cloves to make a juice. By taking it in an empty stomach on every morning, you will definitely find your fat reduced in just a month. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Diet And Exercise
To lose weight one has to take right foods and do regular workouts. The foods you consume and the exercises you do, will protect the liver and provide a protective cover to withstand belly fat. There are a number of fat burning foods and spices that can be taken to lose belly fat. To Lose Your Belly Fat
Consume Water Before Meal
It is advisable to consume water 10 minutes before you take your every meal. Doing so will fill your stomach quickly and you will take less food. As a result the fat level of your body will be reduced and hence the belly fat also reduces. To Lose Your Belly Fat

8 Top Home Remedies To Lose Your Belly Fat

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What do Hennessy, Jack Daniels, and Everclear have in common? According to a rather fascinating new study, these three brands are especially popular with those teenage drinkers who get into booze-related fights.

In the new paper, researchers Sarah P. Roberts and colleagues of Boston say that some brands of alcohol are correlated with self-reported involvement in “alcohol related fights and injuries”, in a national sample of American underage drinkers (i.e. drinkers under the age of 21).

The relationship held true even after adjusting for factors such as gender, age, and overall quantity of alcohol consumed. Here’s a bar chart I created based on the adjusted odds ratios in Roberts et al.’s results. The higher the bar, the more strongly each drink was independently associated with reported involvement in alcohol-related violence.

Everclear 190 dominates the list, perhaps unsurprisingly given that this ‘drink’ is 95% pure alcohol (it’s banned in many states of the US.) I was very surprised to see Hennessy Cognac come in at #2, however. Here in the UK, cognac has an image as a refined, upper-class spirit. Here, Hennessy is seen as a drink more for middle-aged schoolteachers than for young delinquents. I guess it must be marketed differently in the USA.

Jack Daniels cocktails come in at #3 though the whiskey itself is ranked at #5.

Down at the bottom of the scale, Coors Light beer and Grey Goose vodka are if anything more popular among people who don’t get into fights than among people who do. However, these odds ratios did not significantly differ from 1.0, so the difference may be due to chance.

We also shouldn’t read too much into the differencesbetween any one drink and another, as these differences may not be significant. Bear in mind also that drinking and involvement in violence were bothself-reported variables.

Roberts et al. conclude by saying that

We cannot say with any certainty exactly which characteristics of these brands influence the nature and degree of alcohol-related consequences among youth. Clearly, this is an important area for future research.


Roberts SP, Siegel MB, DeJong W, Naimi TS, & Jernigan DH (2015). Brand Preferences of Underage Drinkers Who Report Alcohol-Related Fights and Injuries. Substance Use & Misuse PMID: 25612075

Hennessy, Everclear, And Alcohol-Related Violence

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Fairlife tastes fine — at first
I rarely forget a funny aftertaste.
Today, a mysterious box of milk arrived at the Vox NYC office. As the foremost expert on the cow-based drinkables, I agreed to a taste test.
Fairlife advertises itself as "cold-filtered" milk with less sugar and fat and more protein and calcium than its competitors. And not just that: Fairlife's also lactose-free. The claims are as exciting as they're capitalistic — high-end, ultra-healthy milk! — doubly so when you consider Fairlife is the latest creation by Coca-Cola, a company that built its legacy on soda, a leading cause of obesity.
FAIRLIFE IS REAL MILK
But Fairlife is no soda. And yes, it technically is real milk; the "REAL" seal, eligible for use by dairy product manufacturers, is proudly displayed beneath an explanation of how the magic milk is made.
To my surprise, Fairlife tastes, well, like milk. It looks and feels a little thicker than traditional milk, and has a slightly richer taste, especially the chocolate milk, which sits on the spectrum between chocolate shake and milk that's stewed on a lazy Saturday morning in a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. But in a blind taste test, I'd probably struggle differentiating it from the other milks on sale at my grocer.
THE AFTERTASTE IS MALTY
Fairlife's aftertaste is less appealing. A few minutes sipping a cup of chocolate Fairlife and then a cup of 2% Fairlife, the inside of my mouth had that malty feel that chases a protein shake. Makes sense: the filtration process used by Fairlife is the same one used to produce Coca-Cola's protein shake, Core Power.
What's even gnarlier, though, is Afterlife's ad campaign. You're bound to see the images if you Google Fairlife, a cursory practice I do for any new food product I consume, especially if the product promises to be markedly healthier than the competition.
Late last year, Fairlife found itself in the center of Twitterstorm after the company released a number of promotional images featuring nude women concealed by clothes made of milk — a bizarre pseudo-throwback to pin-up models of the 1940s, just, you know, covered in milk.
The worst ad of the bunch shows a human woman's face digitally glued atop an impossibly thin body that appears to be detonating a fart powerful enough to shred through the rear of her milk skirt. The digitized woman stands in heels on a bathroom scale — even though the ad makes no mention of the weight, sugar, or fat. (The ads appear to be riffing on these pin-ups, which sort of explains the scale's placement, but doesn't explain how these "real women" have thinner legs than animated women.)
'DRINK WHAT SHE'S WEARING'
In large print above the photo, the ad exclaims, "DRINK WHAT SHE'S WEARING. Milk with 50% more protein & calcium." So at worst the ad is selling consumers on the idea of drinking ultra-filtered milk off an ultra-sexualized woman, and at worst it's selling you 2% fart milk. The remaining Fairlife ads are equal parts awkward and demeaning, though mercifully none involve explosive gas.
Otherwise Fairlife has honed its pitch as a healthy, natural dairy product. Its marketing sheet contains phrases like "We grow our own crops," "We fill our own trucks," and it describes its cows as "spoiled." "Our cows have comfortable beds," the sheet says, "and freestanding stalls [...] Cows love to stay cool, so in the warm summer months we use fans to maintain a 7 mph breeze over the feed manger and over the cows' beds."
All of the buzzy promo speak sounds nice, but when it comes to something as healthful and natural as milk, Coca-Cola has a lot of trust to rebuild — at least for me. It's numerous controversies, including the unforgettable "Coming Together" ad campaign, a laughable attempt to respond to soda's connection to the obesity epidemic. I want to drink a healthier milk; I'll pay more for it. But it'll take awhile to get past that aftertaste

what Coca-Cola's low-fat, low-sugar, high-protein milk tastes like

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Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg/Getty
Project Chrome, a massive layoff that IBM is pretending is not a massive layoff, is underway. First reported by Robert X. Cringely (a pen name) in Forbes, about 26 percent of the company’s global workforce is being shown the door. At more than 100,000 people, that makes it the largest mass layoff at any U.S. corporation in at least 20 years. Cringely wrote that notices have started going out, and most of the hundred-thousand-plus will likely be gone by the end of February.
IBM immediately denied Cringely’s report, indicating that a planned $600 million “workforce rebalancing” was going to involve layoffs (or what the company calls “Resource Actions”) of just thousands of people. But Cringely responded that he never said that the workforce reductions would be all called layoffs—instead, multiple tactics are being used, including pushing employees out through low ratings (more on that in a moment). And some managers are indeed admitting to employees that their job has been eliminated as part of Project Chrome, leading employees to coin a new catchphrase: “Getting Chromed.” 
The news is coming in from around the world, and is affecting folks in sales, support, engineering—just about every job description. The only IBM’ers spared are those working in semiconductor manufacturing, an operation that is in the process of being acquired by Global Foundries.
Alliance@IBM, the IBM employees’ union, says it has so far collected reports of 5000 jobs eliminated, including 250 in Boulder, Colo., 150 in Columbia, Missouri, and 202 in Dubuque, Iowa.  Layoffs in Littleton, Mass., are reportedly “massive,” but no specific numbers have been published. Pink slips have been said to be flying at IBM Australia, with rumors of 400 workers to be cut. And the Economic Times in India reported last week that employees of IBM’s offices in Bengaluru were scrambling to find new jobs, trying to get out of IBM ahead of the coming tsunami.
Those are official layoff numbers. But then there’s that performance rating ploy—also known as a stealth layoff—that involves giving a previously highly rated employee the lowest rating (a 3), before showing them the door. The 3 can lead to immediate dismissal, particularly in older employees on what IBM calls the “Bridge to Retirement” program, in which employees commit to a specific retirement date and accept cuts in hours and pay in return for being protected from dismissal unless they get a poor performance rating. For younger employees, a rating of 3 can put an employee into what is called a Performance Improvement Plan, and if the rating doesn’t improve in a set period of time, the employee can be fired for cause. Giving out 3s works to the company’s benefit even if employees are officially laid off, because it can lead to reduced severance benefits.
This isn’t the first time IBM employees have received aberrant poor performance reviews shortly before a layoff; it’s reportedly standard operating procedure. A former employee who was the victim of a Resource Action in 2010 confirmed this, telling me that after years of top ratings, he received a 3 just before his job was eliminated, even though he’d just had what he perceived as his best year ever.
Anecdotal evidence is beginning to pile up. At the Alliance@IBM website, an employee comment thread indicates that a sudden flood of bad reviews indeed starting coming in last week. A few examples:
“I worked in the Lenexa, Kansas, lab for a year and 8 months. I received an unexpected 3 on Tuesday and then had a meeting Wednesday informing me that I am part of the resource action.”“After 13 1/2 years got RA'd today, age 38. Received a '3' after years of 1,2+,2.”“In [Research Triangle Park], I have talked with several people this week who were given unexpected ‘3’ ratings and were told that they have 30 days to improve their performance, with consequences if not successful.”
The comments to date also seem to indicate that older employees are getting hit hard. Women, also, may be finding themselves first on the chopping block. These allegations, of course, are unproven—and may find themselves adjudicated by the courts. Some examples:
“54 years old, 22 years of experience rated 2 last five years, just had my rating with my manager, 15 minutes, rated a 3, no reason given by manager. RA’d”“RA'ed yesterday. I'm 56 years old. I [had] a consistent 2 as an information developer in [the software group] in San Jose, CA.” "RA'd; last day 2/27; Rating: 2; Age: 61; Job Responsibilities: Chief Engineer. Played and RA'd”“I was included in the resource action in spite of consistently high performance numbers. I am the only woman in the work group and one of only a handful in the whole region. The male partners that were retained have crucial chummy drinking buddy relationships with their customers. The treatment and support of professional women, in spite of the window dressing at the top layers is appalling.”
Of course, the appearance of the situation, in the eyes of employees and the public, is not being helped by the fact amid IBM’s actions comes the board’s announcement on Friday of a big raise for CEO Ginni Rometty.
“Just call her Machete Rometty,” one current (or about to be former) employee posted.

Massive Worldwide Layoff Underway At IBM

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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Google has admitted its responsibility over the shortage in supply of its well-received smartphone, the Nexus 6. (Photo : Getty Images)
Though Google's Nexus 6 smartphone has been receiving a lot of positive feedback because of its unparalleled specs and features, one main issue is getting in the way for it to become the best-selling smartphone this year and that is supply shortage.
According to Greenbot, Google's Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette has already admitted that the tech giant has somehow miscalculated its projected supply of the device in the market.
"While the Nexus 6 was well received as a new phone, we had real issues and were unable to secure sufficient inventory to meet the demand that we had forecasted," Pichette said during Google's earnings call on Thursday.
Since the high-end smartphone was launched in November, it has been mostly sold out the entire time and even when the supply was replenished, it wasn't enough to sell for days since it ran out just after a couple of hours.
The thing with Pichette's statement though is that it didn't really explain whether the demand for the Nexus 6 exceeded the demand for its predecessors or that Motorola just can't build enough and keep up to the current demand for the smartphone, reports Techno Buffalo.
Meanwhile, analysts claim that the possible reason why there's an undeniable shortage in the supply of Google's Nexus 6 in the market is that carriers have hoarded too many of the handsets so they can lure more customers into choosing their services.
Of course the news about the supply shortage of the Nexus 6 doesn't come as a surprise to many since the handset packs a lot of good stuff in its large build.

The device flaunts a 6-inch Quad HD  display with 493 pixel density. It runs on the latest Android software update, Android v5.0 Lollipop and has two internal storage variants: the 32GB and the 64GB. 
It sports a 3,220 mAh battery and supports wireless charging. The Nexus 6 houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with Quad-core 2.7 GHz Krait 450 and an Adreno 420 GPU.
Finally, what's best about the Nexus 6 is the fact that it is lighting fast almost all the time, PC Advisor claims.  

Nexus 6 Is Suffering From ‘Real Issues,’ Google Executive Reveals Shocking Deets!

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Screenshots from a Reddit user reveal that messaging app WhatsApp is ready to introduce the long awaited calling feature to its Android app. Based on the images posted by pradnesh07, WhatsApp plans on using an invitation system where one user with the feature places a voice call to another WhatsApp user, and the latter is then able to make voice calls using the app. In addition to adding support for voice calls, the update brings the Material Design look to WhatsApp.
The update is not available from the Google Play Store, which means that you must get the apk from WhatsApp. You can find it at the sourcelink. The 18.52MB file requires Android 2.1 or higher. However, to get the calling feature, you need to be running Android 4.4 or higher.
Another Reddit user, Tropiux, has revealed how to use the feature without getting an invite. "Go to terminal...insert this command with root privileges...am start -n com.whatsapp/com.whatsapp.HomeActivity." You will have to do this every time you want to make a call. Once you are enabled, call someone with the latest version of the app. That will enable his WhatsApp calling feature, and once he calls you, your app will be permanently enabled.
Eventually, the Google Play Store should have the version of WhatsApp "in stock" with the voice call capability.
Screenshots showing the new WhatsApp UI with voice call feature
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calling feature in place Screenshots from new WhatsApp UI show calling feature in place

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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Since the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop, there have been a number of bugs and issues that have been presented on the Google Nexus 5.

Google Nexus 5 owners have complained about various bugs involving WiFi connections, network connections, unauthorized restarts and faulty performance. These problems were addressed in the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop update for the Nexus 5, but a lot of users are still sending in reports of serious problems such as an issue with battery life. Nexus 5 battery drain on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop can be caused by third party apps lacking the proper updates. One solution for this is to start your device in safe mode and check to see if the battery drain issue persists any further. If this doesn’t work, then it is advised to sort through your third party apps one at a time and find which ones may be causing the underlying problem. Monitoring your app by checking your battery information section in your nexus 5’s settings can also help you see which apps is using the most power from your battery life. Another reason for any battery drain issues could be the software itself, in this case there isn’t anything you can really do.
It is quite surprising though that after most of these problems were resolved with the Android 5.0.1 update, people are still experiencing battery drain, failed connections, app crashes and random reboots with their Nexus 5 devices. The battery drain problem isn’t as common as the latter however, as many users have been reporting. As soon as the lockscreen is activated on an owners Nexus 5, the handheld restarts without warning. The same problem occurs when the phone is locked manually or goes idle by itself as well. There still hasn’t been an official fix to this problem, but one noted solution for battery drain and restarting issues on the Nexus 5 is a clean manual install. If Android 5.0.1 was installed automatically, your system may have been unknowingly susceptible to corruption. The best solution would be a manual installation of Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. To do this owners will have to root their Nexus 5 and perform the update manually, which is strongly advised against considering you will be voiding any warranty on your device or crash the phone entirely.

Google Nexus 5 Battery Drain Issue on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop SolvedRead more:

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Friday, January 30, 2015

We've talked before about the things every computer user should know how to do, but we geeks are special: we want to go above and beyond, to explore every nook and cranny of our system and make everything easier. Here are ten ways to do just that.

10. Find New Uses for the Programs You Already Have

Chances are, you've probably already found a few awesome tools and added them to your productivity arsenal, but most programs can be used for more than just their inteded purpose. The file-syncing Dropbox, for example, is also great for monitoring your home computer, printing files from afar, and even downloading stuff with BitTorrent. Savvy folks can use Gmail to store files in the cloud or find out if someone's stolen your laptop. Any tool can become multipurpose if you know its ins and outs.

9. Use the Command Line Like a Ninja

Using the command line isn't as exciting as it looks in the movies, but it can be a very useful tool (in fact, some tools are just better in the command line). It's pretty easy to learn, too-check out our command line primer for beginners to learn some basic commands. Once you've got that down, read up on the best shortcuts that help you navigate the command line like a ninja. Those guides apply to UNIX-based systems like Linux and OS X, but if you're a Windows user you can grab something like Cygwin to get a similar experience (or, if you want a more Windows-centric tool, try Powershell).

8. Read and Understand Your Resource Usage

When your computer starts acting a little slow, a lot of people jump to their resource monitor to see what's causing problems. However, just looking at a bunch of charts and graphs isn't going to tell you what's wrong unless you really know what you're looking for. High CPU is a common problem with one app slowing your system down, and as soon as you close it, the issue should go away. High network activity could be the cause of slow internet or slow file transfers over the network. RAM usage, however, is where a lot of people get thrown off: high RAM usage isn't inherently a bad thing. Know the difference between good and bad RAM usage before you start blaming processes. If you want to keep an eye on your resources, check out our favorite system monitors for Windows, Mac, and Linux, too.

7. Run Everything on a Schedule

Stop performing all that system maintenance yourself and set it all up to run on a schedule. With Windows' built-in Task Scheduler, you can run just about any kind of task-whether it's maintenance, picture uploads, or even a simple alarm-through Windows' built-in tools (in fact, it's one of the best Windows 7 features you've probably forgotten about). Mac users looking for something similar should check out Tasks Till Dawn.

6. Know Your OS's Hidden Features

Every operating system has hidden things lying under the hood, you just have to know where to look. Windows users should check out the hidden features of Windows 7 and Windows 8, while Mac users should peruse the hidden features of OS X Lion and Mountain Lion. If you want to find even more, you can often find them in Windows' Registry or in OS X's terminal. System tweakers like Ultimate Windows Tweaker, OnyX for Mac, and Ubuntu Tweak are also great places to find secret features.

5. Learn to Crack Passwords (and Protect Yourself)

Everyone should know how to create a secure password, but responsible geeks can take it a step further by learning how to break into a comptuer. This skill-whether used on a Windows machine or a Mac-can really help you understand how computer thieves and hackers will try to get at your data. Learning the process means you know how to protect yourself against the process-not just with strong passwords but with encryption and other settings tweaks that keep thieves out. Similarly, you may also want to learn how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP and WPA password.

4. Navigate Everything With Your Keyboard

There are certain basic keyboard shortcuts everyone should know, but if you really want to use your computer more efficiently, you can take it so much further. Learn the most common shortcuts for your favorite programs, like Gmail, Microsoft Word, basic text boxes, and even Facebook. After a little while, you'll be able to blow through menus and text boxes with unbelievable speed. Check out our guide to becoming a keyboard ninja, complete with a bunch of cheat sheets to help get you off the ground.

3. Run a Basic Linux Distribution

Even if you don't want to switch operating systems, knowing a few Linux basics can be really handy. With a live CD on hand you can troubleshoot your machine, revive an old, slow PC, and make your way through Linux-based DIY projects. Check out our five-part guide to getting started with Linux, and be careful-it can be quite the rabbit hole once you get into it!

2. Squeeze More Power Out of Your Hardware

With a bit of tweaking, you can push your hardware past its original limits and get some pretty serious bang for your buck. When it comes to your PC, you can overclock your processor and video card, and even install OS X on non-Macs by building a Hackintosh. And, while you're at it-even though it isn't a computer trick specifically-you should try turning your $60 router into a $600 router with DD-WRT.

1. Program Your Own Dead Simple Scripts

You don't need to learn an entire programming language to write advanced scripts. Windows users can do a ton of awesome stuff with AutoHotkey, from creating simple keyboard shortcuts to controlling their PC remotely. To get started, just check our beginner's guide to AutoHotkey and our list of the best AutoHotkey tricks. Mac users don't have anything quite like AutoHotkey, but you can do quite a bit with the built-in, insanely easy-to-learn AppleScript. If you aren't the coding type, check out Automator on the Mac and its clone, Actions on Windows

When all is said and done, this is probably way more than 10 tricks, but if you don't know any of the above, they should keep you busy for awhile. If you have an idea we didn't list, be sure to mention it in the comments below.

Top 10 Computer Tricks Every Geek Should Know

8:57 AM

Windows 10 phone preview,

The final release of Windows 10 is still months and months away, but Microsoft is happy to give users eager for a preview an early look at the operating system. The PC preview has been out for a while now, and for the past few weeks we’ve been anticipating the start of a similar preview for phones. Earlier this month Microsoft started prepping for it release by publishing its Phone Insider app, and at the Windows 10 event last week, the company confirmed its intention to make that preview available in February. As we approach that release, Microsoft is updating the Insider app, giving it a new name and preparing us for some of the first limitations of Windows 10.

Instead of Phone Insider, the app is now Windows Insider, a fitting change considering how Microsoft’s dropping the Windows Phone brand with the release of Windows 10. We also see the arrival of an option to sign in with your Microsoft account, though until the preview goes live for the public, that won’t do you much good.

We also see mention of minimum system requirements for installation of the preview, but we don’t yet know exactly what those will entail. That restriction shouldn’t be too surprising, consideringMicrosoft’s recent clarification that not all Windows Phone 8.1 models will see the arrival of complete Windows 10 updates. Really, we’re most interested right now in hearing the specifics of which kinds of devices won’t be able to run the preview, to give us a heads-up for what to expect in regards to compatibility when formal Windows 10 updates roll around.

Microsoft updates Insider app in advance of Windows 10 phone preview, hints at hardware requirements

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