A better clipboard

One of the deficiencies of the Windows operating system is that it allows you to copy and paste only one item at a time. The one (sort of) exception I know is that in Word you can hold down the Control key and select discontinuous pieces of text. Fortunately, there are numerous free utilities that will hold a bank of clipped items, which you can copy and paste from with ease. Some examples are ClipMagic, M8, and Clipboarder.

Creating secure passwords you can remember

A study of more than 30 million passwords found that almost half use names, common dictionary words, or sequential characters like "qwerty". Fingerprint scanners and other biometric controls are becoming more mainstream, but the password will still be the main barrier between hackers and your data for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, here is how to create a secure password that you can actually remember in "12345" easy steps.

Create your own 3D pics

The first 3D movie I saw was a Mighty Mouse cartoon back in the 1950s. The second was Michael Jackson's Captain Eo at Disneyland three decades later. There has been a quantum leap in the technology since, and suddenly 3D movies are the rage. Dozens are being released this year, although the number of cinemas fitted to screen them is still small. But you can make your own 3D photographs using the free program Anaglyph Maker.
You can also create your own 3D movie using easily available software, although the process is a bit more complex. Not that complex, though - this article gives the simplest instructions I've yet seen.

Public domain music

1,193,526 public domain songs by 10,253 artists, boasts the website Dewey Music. You can listen to, download, remix, and share anything you see on this site legally and for free.
But if you are into music, the best website in the world for my money is GrooveShark, which plays streaming audio of every conceivable genre. You can tailor the site to send you just exactly what you want to hear, and it is so easy to use. If there is an award for "smooth", GrooveShark gets it.

Cleaning a monitor

Computer screens get dusty, dirty, and dingy just like windows. But unlike glass windows, computer screens are complex, sensitive electronic devices that can be damaged by incorrect cleaning. Here's how to clean various types of computer screens safely.

Cleaning a monitor

Computer screens get dusty, dirty, and dingy just like windows. But unlike glass windows, computer screens are complex, sensitive electronic devices that can be damaged by incorrect cleaning. Here's how to clean various types of computer screens safely.

Sudden computer slowdowns

Sometimes your computer seemingly goes to sleep for no apparent reason. Lincoln Spector has some trouble-shooting tips.

9 Gmail tips that will let you take a longer lunch

Gmail is not bad as an internet-based email system - better than most of its competitors, possibly. But it's not perfect. Here are 9 tips to improve it.
One tip not covered: If you have an "ordinary" email client (ie, program, like Outlook or Thunderbird), you can gather your incoming Gmail emails through that, without visiting Gmail at all. Here's an article that shows you simply how to do it.
Another PC World article lists 10 Gmail Labs features you may not know about but could benefit from.

15 internet annoyances and how to fix them

It seems that every day we go online and there's some new type of nagging Web annoyance to deal with, says Jared Newman. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about auto-playing video ads, leaping pay walls to read the news, fake emails phishing for our bank details, or Farmville spam from Facebook. But for now, we're on our own. Here are 15 of the most annoying things on the Internet, and how to work around, ignore, improve or fix them.

Why the internet has gone sour

"The central mistake of recent digital culture is to chop up a network of individuals so finely that you end up with a mush," writes Nick Galvin of the Sydney Morning Herald. "You then start to care about the abstraction of the network more than the real people who are networked, even though the network by itself is meaningless. Only the people were ever meaningful." He looks at why the internet has gone sour, and what effect it's having on us.

Computer maintenance on a flash drive

You can keep a toolkit on a flash drive for those times when things go wrong and you need some fix-it tools. Lincoln Spector shares his list of must-haves.

How to cope with email overload

"If you're suffering from email overload, I bet you didn't know you have a solution at your fingertips. In fact you have your very own personal inbox secretary at your disposal. One waiting to read all the emails you receive (and send); then manage them for you.," writes Debbie Mayo-Smith.