How to screenshot on your Mobile device

[original page]

I have figured out how to take a screenshot on a number of different mobile devices. They are not guaranteed, so I have put down some ways; please see which one works and tell me either in the comments or here.

Press and hold the screen off button and press the home button; the screen should flash.

• Apple Devices, i.e. iPad, iPhone, iPod
• Tested on: iPad 3, iOS 6; iPad 1, iOS 5

Tap and hold the back button and press the home button; you will hear a camera shutter sound.

• This should work on any Android 2 (or around there) phone with the normal physical buttons (Back, Home, Menu, Screen Lock, Volume up and down)
• Tested on: Samsung Galaxy Gio (GT-S5660), Android 2.2.1

Press and hold the screen lock and home buttons; you will hear a camera shutter sound and the screen should flash.

• This should work on any Android 4.0 and up phone with the normal physical buttons (Back, Home, Menu, Screen Lock, Volume up and down)
• Tested on: Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500), Android 4.2.2
• Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100), Android 2.3.3 - the shutter sound & screen flash only occurs once you let go of both buttons

Press and hold the screen lock and volume down buttons at the same time; the screen should flash.

• Any Android device that doesn't have a physical back and home button should work
• Tested on: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3110), Android 4.1.2

Any other ways? Post them in the comments or tell me. [Click here to comment]

Steam Free Game Deal

If and when I see a game free on Steam for a few hours, I download it. These games can be played for a few hours, then they will cost the original price. There is one loophole in this though: The game files stay on your PC. This makes it very easy to run the games after the limit is up.

PLEASE NOTE: If the limit has expired, then you might need to look up the command to run your game online.

Here is how to do it: (On Windows 7, Windows 8 will be similar but nothing is guaranteed)

1. Open Steam, and after you have downloaded the game you want to play, click the play button. [Pic 1]
2. When the game has loaded (Don't do anything in the game), press the Windows Start button (or your preferred method of getting back to the Windows desktop without interrupting the game)
3. Open Windows Task Manager (right-click the taskbar > Start Task Manager)
4. Go to the processes tab, then click on View > Select Columns... [Pic 2]
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the list, check 'Command Line', then click OK [Pic 3]
6. Go to the Applications tab, right-click on your game and select 'Go To Process'. Notice that this takes you to the 'Processes' Tab. [Pic 4]
7. Have a look at the command line (you may have to scroll to the right to see) of the highlighted process. Right-click it and select 'Open File Location'. This will take you to where the program is stored, i.e. in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\<game folder\any extra folders>" [Pic 5]

NOTE: All Steam games, if you installed Steam to the default directory, and your game is downloaded to the C: drive, will be in "C:/Program Files[' (x86)' if on Win64-bit]/Steam/SteamApps/common"

This is where it can get confusing, depending on where you put your Batch file (the file that you run to open the game), so I will list the different options:

1. The Batch file will be in the "Steam\SteamApps\common" Folder.
2. The Batch file will be in the "Steam\SteamApps\common\<game folder>" Folder.
3. The Batch file can be placed ANYWHERE and it will work (except on another PC)

The advantage that Option 1 and Option 2 have is that they can be copied, with the game, to someone Else's PC, or that they can be copied/moved with the game to another location on your PC without modification of the code, and the code will act the same.
The advantage of Option 3 is that you can put the Batch file ANYWHERE on your PC, but this means that if you want to copy the game to someone else's PC they will either have to put the game in EXACTLY the same location as where it was on your PC, or edit the code, which is what you would have to do if you move the game files on your own PC as well.
Personally, I use Option 1, it allows for a much neater list than Option 2 (even though you could make shortcuts in a folder on your desktop e.t.c) of your games, and if someone copies the files they don't have to worry about changing the code as in Option 3 (I have the "Steam\SteamApps\common" directory shared on my network so anyone can copy any of my Steam games without having to get me to give it to them).
This is how the batch files would look if you want to run TF2:
Option 1:

cd Team Fortress 2

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

Option 2:

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

Option 3:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

NOTE: Spaces play a HUGE role in how your code looks and works. On the first line that starts with 'cd' (BTW that command is used for changing the directory that CMD looks for commands in), spaces don't matter, so if you say Team Fortress 2 instead of "Team Fortress 2" it doesn't matter. But on the second line, if the executables' name had spaces, e.g. Team Fortress 2.exe, the whole line would have to look like:

Start "" "Team Fortress 2.exe" -steam -game tf

instead. Note the first pair of double quotation marks are necessary, they define the initial name for the window. Seeing as TF2 doesn't show the windows' name, this is irrelevant (even if it did, most programs set their Window name automatically when they launch).

Software and Hardware

(Click on the images to enlarge)
Software are programs that run on your computer, while hardware is the physical components found inside your computer.

Software
I have an external hard drive that is half filled with assorted software installers. I have different categories, for example Antivirus programs, media playing software and disk imaging software. I try to install only software that I need but do end up with a surplus of installed software. This makes it annoying to update everything when updates become available, because updates are usually quite big and my Internet speed is very slow.

One of the most important piece of software that I have (other than Google Chrome) is Piriform's CCleaner pronounced “see cleaner”. It has many tools for cleaning and optimising your computer, although if you don't know what you are doing you could make a pretty big mess. 

The user interface of CCleaner, it doesn't look like much from this shot, but there is plenty more to find in the other tabs.

Hardware
It is important to have decent hardware, because if your hardware is not good enough, then your computer will become slow and unresponsive, but better hardware is predictably more expensive.

An example of a motherboard with labels

My motherboard

An explanation of CPU, RAM, harddrive space and the differences.
CPU is where your foreground programs are temporarily (while they are open) stored and processed. RAM (also called memory) is where the background programs are temporarily (while they are open) stored. Hard drive space is where your files and programs are stored permanently. CPU and RAM storage is cleaned when you switch off your computer.

It is important that you get the right amount of power in your components, for example my computer's CPU is very fast and is always being used very little, but I don't have enough RAM, so mine is always almost full.

Windows 7 Task Manager displaying my CPU usage (top graph) and RAM usage (bottom graph)

Another example, where there is enough RAM for the computer to operate fine, but the CPU is being dangerously overwhelmed. This can burn out the CPU. This is also worse than the first example because additional RAM can be easily added, since there is always more than one slot, also RAM is relatively cheap. Additional CPU’s cannot be added since there is only one slot for them (see the example motherboard above) so they have to be replaced, and they are very expensive.

Windows 8 Task Manager displaying my CPU usage (top graph on the left) and RAM usage (second graph from the top on the left with the heading Memory)

The Windows Experience Index (referred to here as WEI) is a measurement that Windows takes of your computer to see how fast it is. to view your WEI, press the Windows key and Break(sometimes the same key as pause), then click Windows Experience Index (next to your score). It might be unrated, in which case you can rate it (requires admin permission).

A quick explanation of the WEI components

Unfortunately, it is possible for Windows to fail to assess your PC’s performance.

(Courtesy of Daniel Van Der Westhuizen©)

My WEI results