Have you ever wanted to record streaming music? Or perhaps your friend has a really great song from iTunes but you can’t listen to it on your computer.

Maybe you wanted to record the sound from a funny YouTube clip. This article will allow you to get great quality audio input directly from your computer, without a microphone! Note, this is for Windows, but similar steps may be taken in various other operating systems.

1. Silence any program that would create undesirable noise. This includes instant messengers, music players, websites, and games.
2. Open up a sound recording program such as sndrec32.exe. For anything longer than a minute, you will probably need to download a program from the internet (I personally recommend Goldwave).
3. Open audio playing program such as iTunes or Yahoo! Music Player.
4. If there is an icon for system volume in your System Tray, double-click it. If not, go to Start>Control Panel>Sound and Audio Devices, from there select the Audio tab and click the “Volume…” button in the Sound Recording frame. Now, regardless of whether or not the icon was in the System Tray, you should be at the same position. Click the “Options” menu, and select “Properties.” Choose the “Recording” option if it’s not already selected. Make sure that “Stereo Out” “Mono Out” or “Stereo Mix” is checked (these names may change slightly from system to system but check for anything with Stereo and/or Mono). Now click “Ok.” Back in the volume control window, make sure that the Stereo/Mono input is selected and adjust the volume of that input (I suggest starting at 30-40% depending on the volume of the audio your are trying to record, otherwise you will get very poor quality audio). Close the volume control window. 5. Start recording with your sound recording program just prior to playing your audio, to make sure you don’t miss the beginning; you can’t cut out what you don’t have.
6. Don’t forget to play your audio. Once you’ve finished, stop recording and save your audio file (edit it if necessary).
7. Play around with the volume to get better results.
8. Enjoy!

HiJack This is an ominous sounding piece of software; however, it is a very efficient piece of freeware.

This software actually pulls up the startup on a windows machine and lists all running processes; the user can then simply select which processes to “kill” to improve system performance. Which ever software is “killed” generally will not start again on a system reboot. The software is normally listed as a anti-spyware piece of software but it works just as effectively to reduce system drag associated with unwanted programs running in the background. It can be run from a flash (thumb) drive, or downloaded and put on the desktop and run from there. It has a file size of 392 KB, which means it takes no time to either download or use. A word of warning, if you utilize HiJack This and do not create a backup you could cause a serious operating issue on your computer. Start with the things that you know shouldn’t be there, like if you aren’t using McAfee anti-virus then it shouldn’t be listed in the “running” programs. There are some programs which are just easier to disable in their own interface as to prevent them from starting such as MS Messenger or Quicktime.

I get a lot of requests for help with various computer and software related problems. I usually start by asking the person to send me a screenshot of the error message or problem. Amazingly, a lot of PC users still aren’t sure how to go about this. As such, here is a quick and easy tutorial on creating regular screenshots:-)

In Microsoft Windows 95 1st Edition, the “Print Screen” button on the keyboard took on new functionality. In the days of DOS, this key would send the text on the screen to your printer. Microsoft Windows 95 and above, allow you to “Print Screen,” but the screen print is copied to the clipboard to be pasted into an application such as a word processor, email program or photo manipulation software, rather than sent immediately to your printer.

After pressing the “Print Screen” key, open the desired application and select “Paste.” This will copy your current screen’s image into the application for possible saving, posting or manipulating. Another trick it to hold the “Alt” key as your press “Print Screen.” This will copy only the active window into your clipboard for pasting. This is useful for taking screen shots of error messages.

Zenbound is a game for the iPhone developed by Secret Exits Ltd.

Unlike a typical five minute “ringtone game,” Zenbound is by far the most polished game in the App Store. The game presents an object that must be wrapped by a rope. It’s meditative music and detailed graphics and intuitive touch screen controls wrap the player in an entrancing experience. It is easy to get lose several hours to this work of art. It is definitely worth your time.

DivX is a wonderful and small program that is an all in one video software.

It has pretty much every type of codec that allows you to play videos in .avi, .mpeg, etc. All the common forms of videos are capable of being played on its own player included with the download and automatically loads the codecs in other media players like winamp and windows media player. The program is very easy to use with minimal space requirements and it is a quick download. All the features are easily modified and require little knowledge of video formats. Just download, install, and use. The installation will even notify you if there is a new version. Anyone that works with video files and needs a quick all in one codec download, then this is the software to download. Along with a player and a package of codecs, DivX comes with its own converter that makes converting and utilizing your video files a snap. The converter is greater for converting high quality videos into high quality but smaller size files like mpeg into avi or vice versa. Finally, the program is completely free – so don’t hesitate to use it if you need it.

Inkscape is a free, open source vector graphics editor in the same vein as Adobe Illustrator and Xara Xtreme.

It is capable of a very broad set of features, and has a simple interface that can be learned in minutes. In the help menu, you’ll find a set of tutorials which are themselves Inkscape documents. These contain examples of the concepts taught embedded right into the help document itself, allowing you to try out something new you’ve learned in the same environment. The ‘effects’ menu holds a set of customizable plug-ins, and more can be easily downloaded and installed. This gives a third-party developer boost to Inkscape, because it now has a small community of plug-in writers making little improvements and adding impressive features to the editor. This works similar to the third-party developer community around the Gimp and Firefox. Inkscape can export to a wide variety of file formats, including image files, PDFs, Adobe Illustrator .IA, encapsulated postscript, LaTeX, and many others.