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Disable comments on most Web sites with Shut Up

Some sites are well known for their excellent comments section, but many more are filled with trolls, spam, and worse. Shut Up is a great Chrome extension that hides the comments sections of most Web sites by default, but makes it simple to view comments when needed. Here's how to use it:

Install Shut Up here.

That's it! Most sites should now be blissfully comment-free. If you're visiting a site you'd like to see comments on (like, say, CNET), just click the dark speech balloon icon in the upper right. By default, Shut Up remembers the … Read more

How to back up your Dropbox account

A critical part of any storage solution is having reliable backups. Dropbox keeps backups of all the files you store on your Dropbox account, but having a local backup can often make it easier to recover your files. You'll also want to back up your files if you're considering switching to another provider, like Google Drive or one of the many other cloud-storage services.

To back up everything from your Dropbox account, log in to your account via the Dropbox Web site, then hit Ctrl+A to highlight all your files and folders. Click the Download button that … Read more

Clean and optimize your system with TuneUp Utilities 2012

TuneUp Utilities 2012 presents a wide range of useful system maintenance and optimization tools in one interface. Some tools you'll use to regularly clean your system, while others only need to be run only once in a while or if you have a specific Windows problem. The 2012 version of TuneUp Utilities also includes the Program Deactivator, which disables unused programs until you need them, and Economy Mode, which can help laptop users improve battery life. TuneUp Utilities is free to try for 15 days. A nag screen tracks the trial period.

TuneUp Utilities keeps things simple with its … Read more

Top external storage devices: Backing up is a personal matter

Editors' note: This blog was originally posted on March 30, 2012, and updated on March 29, 2013, to update the list of devices and add relevant information.

This last Sunday of March is World Backup Day, and you'll see a lot of storage/backup vendors taking this occasion to pitch their products. I am about to do a similar thing, but from a very different point of view: yours.

This is because none of the existing vendors goes as far as guaranteeing the integrity of storage on the products. At most, a vendor would give you a new product to replace the broken one, or in the currently unique case of IoSafe, offer to pay up to a certain amount toward data recovery. I, on the other hand, promise, if not guarantee, that if you follow my advice, your data will be safe.… Read more

The best personal fitness gadgets right now

Spring has sprung and that means summer is right around the corner. If you still haven't worked off those extra winter pounds, it's high time to start before swimsuit and tank top weather cruelly arrives. Luckily, there are new mobile accessories that harness wireless technology, competitive behavior, social media, and other online tools to help couch potatoes catch the exercise bug.… Read more

A site where getting poached is the whole point

Time and time again, the old adage that it's easier to find a job when you already have one rings true. One young Austin, Texas-based entrepreneur decided to capitalize on that notion and created a Web site with a perfectly descriptive name: JobPoacher.com.

When building the site in his spare time, John Everett Creighton said he drew on his own experience. As an MIT graduate with a degree in physics and nuclear engineering, he was in hot demand when entering the job market and had to juggle multiple offers and rounds of negotiations. Creighton sought to simplify that … Read more

Instagram clicks with Hipstamatic

The popular photo apps Hipstamatic and Instagram seem to have drawn a little closer.

Instagram has 17 filters to choose from for touching-up and enhancing photos before sharing, while Hipstamatic's free features include four lenses, three types of flash, and three kinds of film. The point here is this: there's a lot more people can do with photos using Hipstamatic, but there's been no one-step way to share them.

Until now, judging by a Hipstamatic tweet today:

Sharing is about to get easier! Tag Facebook friends & upload to multiple networks, incl. @Instagram http://bit.ly/yQunPt (@… Read more

PayPal Here racks up thousands of sign-ups in first week

Since PayPal launched its new payment service "PayPal Here" last week, it has raked in thousands of sign-ups. In fact, in the first 24 hours of its introduction, the online payment company says it was getting 1,000 sign-ups per hour.

"To say there's been some interest in our new offering would be an understatement," PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar said in a statement today. "Clearly there's a need for a secure, global solution that provides small businesses the flexibility to get paid anytime, anywhere, any way."

The idea of PayPal Here actually … Read more

RIM, Samsung accused of emoticon patent infringement

The latest in the everyone-sue-everyone patent war is an alleged infringement by Samsung and Research In Motion for installing emoticon shortcut menus on their mobile phones, according to tech news site Ars Technica.

A firm called Varia Holdings began the process of suing both cell phone makers on Thursday for using its "emoticon input method and apparatus" patent, reports Ars Technica. The company asserts that it owns the idea of pop-up emoticon menus, which let users easily insert a happy or frowny face without having to type out the characters one at a time.

"It is known … Read more

New video of the ShutUp Gun in action

Loud screams of excitement have been heard ever since the revelation that two Japanese researchers had developed a gun that could stop people talking. Without killing them.

I wrote about this fascinating firearm only the other day.

Now the Japanese researchers who developed it are so excited by the excitement that they have released a YouTube video of the device.

And what a frisky little Colt .45 silencer it is.

Wired reports that the two creators, Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University, are bemused at the … Read more