Friday 3 July 2015

Use an Android device as a Raspberry Pi screen

Use an Android device as a Raspberry Pi screen

Connect to a Pi with your phone or tablet using VNC as a secondary or actual display

There are a few ways to attach a display to a Raspberry Pi. The ones that everyone is most familiar with are the HDMI port, which can go straight into your monitor or TV, or via the GPIO ports with a portable screen. One avenue that is rarely pursued is using VNC software to remotely view the Raspberry Pi desktop using another computer entirely.

Monitor your local network with NagiosPi

Monitor your local network with NagiosPi

Embrace the power of Nagios to keep an eye on servers, switches and applications on your network

Is your PC offline? Has your Linux box stopped serving Minecraft or Counter-Strike? If you’re out of the house, or even the country, there is no real way of knowing without trying to log in – something you probably won’t be able to do without being on the premises (unless you’re using remote desktop software).

Add a battery pack to your Raspberry Pi

Add a battery pack to your Raspberry Pi

Don’t leave your Raspberry Pi behind – incorporate it into mobile projects by powering it with AA batteries

Your Raspberry Pi’s mobility is usually restricted by the length of the power lead. Rather than limiting it to your desk or living room, however, you can use it for mobile projects as diverse as launching it into near-Earth orbit or monitoring and automating your garden.

Improve Productivity on Windows 10

Improve Productivity on Windows 10

Windows 10 brings a lot of new features to the table. It also reworks a lot of the old ones to the state they should’ve been in at the launch of Windows 8. Old favourites such as AeroSnapping have been expanded, allowing you to organise your workspace a little easier, and finally we have the fabled ‘Task View’ button, allowing us to see all open applications at once – something that Apple users have had for years. There’s also command prompt now having copy and paste, and, of course, the hallowed DirectX 12 making its debut. But what other interesting tidbits has Microsoft given us to make our lives that little bit better?

Overclocking your GPU

Overclocking your GPU

Last, but certainly not least, the final hurrah of overclocking

With DirectX 11, at least, OCing the GPU is the area of most benefit to gamers. But it’s also where overclocking has most dramatically changed. That’s because, with Nvidia’s GPU Boost and AMD’s Power Tune, it’s no longer possible to simply up the voltage and in turn increase cards’ core clockspeeds.

It’s now often better to ignore the voltage and let the proprietary software do its own thing. This way you can avoid reaching the artificial power limits set by our GPU overlords – cores won’t throttle themselves in an attempt to control imaginary temperatures, that may or may not be present, even if they’re running on an aftermarket cooler, or water. Sounds ridiculous, right? You’re not wrong. Still, we’ll show you how far you can go with these cards.

Overclocking your RAM

Overclocking your RAM

Wait! There’s more! Overclocking isn’t limited to just your processor

Yes. It’s true. Overclocking doesn’t just mean tinkering with your CPU. Other avenues exist if you’re keen to shove the boat out a little bit more.

RAM speeds over the course of the last few years have almost tripled in frequency, meaning performance can be improved quite dramatically in certain computational programs. It’s important to bear in mind, however, that the higher you push your RAM frequency, the more your CPU will suffer. In other words, it might mean an overall lower final overclock for your little powerhouse.

Overclocking your CPU

Overclocking your CPU

Learn to fulfil your processor’s potential in 10 simple steps

Before crossing the start line, there’s a few basic principles to get your head around. The first one is heat. Inevitably, the more voltage you add to your components, the more heat that component is going to output. Second, the higher the clockspeed you’re trying to achieve, the more voltage you will need to power that attempt. And thirdly, there’s only so much voltage your PC part can take before you start to see detrimental effects. These could be a drop in frame rates for GPUs, corrupting processes on the CPU, or even a failure to boot at all. These, essentially, are the basic limits of overclocking.

Too Much Hacking

Too Much Hacking

David Hayward grows a beard and goes to live in a cave

I was reading an article the other day regarding some extreme hacks, and it got me thinking about how much we, as a society, rely on technology and how easy it is for that technology to be manipulated by others.

The more I thought about it, and the more I looked into various hacking methods and what kinds of devices and connected technologies can be hacked, the more I became paranoid about the world around me.

How To Use A Tablet As A Second Screen For Your PC

How To Use A Tablet As A Second Screen For Your PC

We look at some options for extending your desktop to your mobile device

A dual monitor setup is quite a common sight these days, both at work or at home. We’ve used a dual monitor for some years and found the extra screen ‘real-estate’, as they call it, a great advantage when researching, transferring files and coping with multiple versions of a program open at the same time.

There is, however, a slight problem with having a dual monitor setup, and that’s the amount of space taken up. While you can get away with a smaller computer desk when using a single monitor, once you include another one, your desk space decreases significantly.