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August 14th, 2012Top Story Give Your Old, Slow, Overheating Laptop New Life and an Extreme Makeover By Whitson Gordon No matter how fast and shiny your laptop was when you got it, time takes its toll, and your laptop's now dirtier, hotter, slower, and less effective than is was on day one. Here's how to give your laptop an extreme makeover and bring it back to—or at least closer to—its former glory. How to Use This Guide: Everyone's laptop is different, and the process for opening it up isn't the same for everyone. This guide is a starting point, demonstrating solutions to common problems along with the ease or difficulty of those fixes. For the purpose of demonstration, I'm refurbishing a 2007 white MacBook, but most of these processes should work with any laptop—Mac, Windows, or otherwise. When you sit down to fix some problems on your laptop, having your model's manual comes in very handy. If you have a Mac like I do, iFixit has just about everything you'll need, with fantastic step-by-step instructions for getting to any component inside your machine. If you have a Windows PC, check your manufacturer's web site—a lot of them have full service manuals available in the Support section of their site. If not, you'll need to do a bit of googling—usually something like Acer Aspire One ao32h repair guide will help you find what you're looking for. The Easy Stuff: Cleaning the Outside Remove Grime with a Magic Eraser: A little cleanliness goes a long way, and while your laptop may have a host of problems, cleaning off that superficial layer of grime can make any laptop feel a lot nicer. Our favorite tool for cleaining up a laptop's exterior is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which'll cost you about $5 at any grocery store. Just get it wet, wring out as much water as you can, and wipe down your computer—all that dirt, hand oil, and other grime will come right off, and your laptop will be as shiny as it was when you first got it. See the image above for an example to see my Eraser success. Clean the Keyboard with Compressed Air: You'll also want to grab a can of compressed air, which you can get at places like Target, Wal-Mart, or Best Buy. Open it up, attach the plastic hose to the end, and point it toward any dust-filled crevice on your machine to blow it out. This is great for your keyboard, which has probably accumulated a lot of crumbs and debris under the keys. You may even want to gently pop your keys off the keyboard and give it a more thorough cleaning. This can help fix keys that stick, don't go down all the way, or have other problems. Check out our guide to cleaning your keyboard for more info. Wipe Your Monitor Down with White Vinegar: When it comes to your monitor, you can use a soft cloth and some white vinegar. That should get the dirt, fingerprints, and other gross smudges off the screen. Of course, none of these tricks will make your computer run any faster or cooler, but it'll definitely make it feel like less of an old beater. If you want to give it a bit of extra speed, you may want to give it a few upgrades. Boost Your Laptop's Speed with Hardware Upgrades If you really want to give your laptop a boost, you'll want to upgrade its hardware. It may cost you a bit of money, but it's a lot cheaper than buying a new laptop, and it can go a long way. You can't upgrade the processor or video card, but the RAM and hard drive are free game. Boost Your Multitasking Powers with More RAM: Adding more RAM (think of it as your computer's "quick memory") to your laptop can improve multitasking, often allowing your laptop to better keep up with the latest software. Crucial, one of the top RAM manufacturers, actually has a great online tool that helps you find the right kind of RAM for your specific model of laptop (since every machine requires something a bit different). You can then either buy it right from Crucial, or seek out another brand if you so choose. When it comes time to install, just grab your laptop's service manual and check out our guide to performing a RAM upgrade Launch Apps and Boot Up Faster with a New Hard Drive: Replacing the hard drive on most laptops is very easy. In general, all you need to do is make sure you buy a 2.5" hard drive, which is the slim, laptop-sized drive. 3.5" drives are meant for desktops, and won't fit in your machine. Getting one with more space won't make your computer noticeably faster, but it will give you more room for apps, music, movies, and other files. However, if you really want a speed boost, we highly recommend upgrading to a faster drive like a solid-state drive. Solid-state drives are extremely fast drives that will make launching apps and booting up your computer very snappy. In fact, it's one of the best upgrades you could possibly make to an old computer. Check out our complete guide to solid-state drives to learn more, and when it comes time to do the upgrade, see our guide to upgrading your hard drive to see how it's done. Cleaning the Inside If you've had your laptop for awhile, chances are it gets a little bit hotter than it used to, and that fan seems to blow loudly all the time. This is because over the years, your laptop can build up a lot of dust and dirt on the inside, which means more heat, worse performance, and a shorter lifespan for the laptop. The best way to fix this problem is to clean that dust out yourself. To start, find the vents on your laptop—which are usually on the back, and sometimes on the bottom—and blow some compressed air into them to clear some of the dust out. This'll help improve the airflow to your fan. However, this usually isn't enough; you'll probably want to get inside your computer for best results. To do this, you'll need to open up your laptop. It sounds scary, but for most laptops, all it really requires is unscrewing a bunch of screws and lifting your keyboard off the top. Here's where you'll want to consult that service manual we talked about earlier. It'll let you know exactly what screws you need to take out, and in what order. I recommend using a magnetic screwdriver and grabbing a piece of paper to keep track of where each screw goes, as shown at the right. This'll help keep you from losing screws inside your laptop, and remembering where they go when it comes time to close everything up. Note that you may have to also unplug one or two cords or ribbons in the process; just be very careful and you shouldn't have any problems. Once you've got the top case off your laptop, take your can of compressed air, step outside, and blow as much dust out of your laptop as you can, paying particularly close attention to the fan and the vents on the back and bottom of your laptop. Cotton swabs can also be helpful for getting into the more hard-to-reach places. It doesn't need to be perfect; just make sure you get the big dust bunnies out of there and you should be okay. See the image above to see the kind of progress I made. This'll not only keep your lap from getting burned (hopefully), but possibly even fix quirks like random shutdowns, overly loud fans, and other problems caused by overheating. For Adventurous Users Only: Fixing Specific Parts The preceding fixes are fairly simple, and can help solve a lot of your problems. But if your trackpad, your screen, your laptop's hinge, or something else is on the fritz, your repair may require a bit more work—but it's possible if you're up to the task. Here are some common ailments and what fixing them would entail. Buggy or Broken Trackpads: If your trackpad is giving you grief, an external mouse is an easy workaround, but it isn't a true fix. Some computers, when you take off the top case, have easily replacable trackpads, while others (like MacBooks) make it very difficult to get at the trackpad itself—it's just part of the top case. Either way, I'd first check the trackpad cable and make sure it's tightly plugged in. If it isn't loose, you're likely looking at a part replacement. Luckily, single parts like that are easy to find on places like eBay—heck, you can get a full MacBook top case for between $30 and $50, and parts for Windows PCs come even cheaper. For best results, see if you can find the exact part number for your trackpad or top case and search for that online. Broken Screens and Loose Hinges: One of the more harrowing fixes is your laptop's monitor. Whether it's a loose hinge, broken hinge, or altogether busted screen, you'll probably need to remove the entire top half of your computer and open it up. That means disconnecting more cables and ribbons, not to mention even more tiny screws. Finding replacement screens and hinges should be pretty easy online, though, so if you're up for the challenge, you can just replace them. If your hinge is just loose, though, you might be able to get by just by tightening its screws. I recommend trying that out before you go buying new parts. And, if all else fails, you can just grab an external monitor and turn it into a space-efficient desktop computer. Dying Wi-Fi Cards and Other Parts: If a specific part in your laptop is broken—like a Wi-Fi card—it should be pretty simple to order a replacement parts on eBay or another site. Then, when you've got the top case open, it should be a pretty straightforward swap—you'll just need to be very careful, since the cables and ribbons inside your laptop can be pretty fragile. As always, consult your manual of choice to find out exactly where the part is and what you'll need to replace it. Maintenance and Software Fixes to Speed Everything Up Lastly, we've recommended a lot of software tweaks, maintenance tasks, and other tricks for speeding up an old computer over the years. Here are some of our best guides, which should help you make the most of your shiny, newly-made-over computer: All the Maintenenance You Need to Do on Your PC, for Windows, Mac, and Linux Top 10 Ways to Make the Best of an Old, Crappy Computer What Hardware Upgrade Will Best Speed Up Your PC (If You Can Only Afford One) The Best Lightweight Operating Systems for an Crappy Old Computer A Beginner's Guide to Overclocking Your Intel and Intel Atom Processor Photo by Valentin Agapov, Wildstyle, FreshPaint, and MSPhotographic (Shutterstock).

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August 14th, 2012Top Story Chicago's Shootings Didn't Happen In a Movie Theater, But It's Still the World's Deadliest City By Cord Jefferson Two months before alleged killer James Holmes stormed a Colorado movie theater, murdering 12 and injuring dozens more, police and politicians in a different place were trying to squelch the tremors from their own mass killing. It was in Chicago, over Memorial Day weekend, when police responded to more than 40 shooting victims in about 72 hours. Ten of those victims were shot dead, including four teenage children. Alas, despite the fact that more people died that weekend than in both the August 5 Sikh killings and yesterday's College Station shootings combined, there will be no flags at half-staff for those 10 Chicagoans. It's likely you didn't even know those people were dead, just like most of your friends and family. In a summer of now three much-lamented shootings with multiple victims, Chicago's murdered are the forgotten ones. Because people in the media like to compare and contrast things in order to add perspective, there are now dozens of ways to look at Chicago's murder rate: In May, it was up 49 percent from last year. The Windy City's murder rate is worse than the murder rate in Kabul, a literal war zone. It's worse than New York, a city three times its size. And trumping them all: It's the worst murder rate out of every so-called "Alpha" city in the entire world, a grouping that includes even historically rough locales like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York. Some people, especially the police, like to blame the violence on gangs, but Berkley law professor Franklin Zimring told the Daily Beast last month that saying Chicago violence is mostly gang-related is "both helpful and extremely mysterious." "Because there is no sense that Chicago has a gang profile which is vastly different from that of Los Angeles, and yet [the murder rate in] Los Angeles has continued [to be] low," he said. I emailed Chicago Tribune crime reporter Peter Nickeas to ask him how the lack of attention given to Chicago's violence makes him feel. President Obama, I pointed out, had visited Aurora and made calls to the Oak Creek temple members just after the respective shootings. But his last visit to Chicago, on a weekend in which seven people were killed and 35 wounded by gun violence, was for a wedding and a round of golf. Here's what Nickeas wrote: I love my job. It matters. I don't see any other reporters, most nights, at the crime scenes I visit. I don't see anyone else standing next to crying family members or cops who are desensitized to it because it happens every shift, like clock work, across the city. Someone has to put these shootings into context, and make people realize that the nightly stories are more than box scores, even if we can't get out to a crime scene to illustrate it that night. Everytime someone gets shot, someone in the neighborhood has to hear the gunfire, kids in the neighborhood see the police and hear the screaming relatives, they have to find out what happens as word trickles out into the community. So, that needs to be covered. I do what I can, and I'm proud of my organization's coverage. My editors give me wide leeway to go out and chase these stories overnight and I'm thankful for that. Overall, the general lack of media coverage of Chicago violence bothers me. I wish more people paid attention. I feel like people just say "oh well, that's Chicago," with its 450 or so homicides a year. No other big city in the country would tolerate this. New York City is three times the size and is on pace for about 400 homicides this year. Chicago is looking at a real possibility of passing 500, if trends in both cities hold. Regarding the presidential visit - I don't know why there's no visit. You'd have to ask his PR shop, I can't speak for him. I would note that if he visited after every weekend where 30+ people were shot, he'd be here every summer weekend, it seems. I absolutely am not comparing the shootings in Aurora or Milwaukee recently to Chicago violence - they are two totally different things. I think part of the media coverage in those two places is that it was unexpected, it's a crazy outburst of violence by a single offender targeting people who have no reason to be targeted. I think people here are numb to it. There are parts of the city where it's normal to hear gunfire. I've heard gunfire standing next to crime scenes and waited for someone in the neighborhood to call it in, only to hear silence on my portable scanner. I've listened to the scanner and heard cops calling in gunfire while they're guarding a crime scene from earlier in the night, only to hear the dispatchers keep saying "no tickets yet," (which means nobody's called 911 to report shots fired calls). The reality is, Chicago was clocking 800+ murders 10 years ago and was down to about 440 last year, might be more than that this year (we're up about 30% year over year at this point, though the Superintendent has noted, the rate of the increase is decreasing. We were up 60% at one point this spring. I think we're at 320 or 330 this year compared to maybe 250 or 260 last year). A lot of the shootings here are gang related, and a lot of times the people shot are mutual combatants. It's a matter of people settling scores with each other, often times, and not someone walking into a random crowded place and shooting. So what I try to do is show that the violence ripples out, even when it's confined to gang members and the people shooting hit only their targets. Nobody lives in a vacuum. The only thing we can do is keep visiting crime scenes, talking to families, talking to neighbors, talking to cops, and piecing together stories that show what the violence does to the city. For his part, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has responded to the killings with his unique brand of tough love, saying that he doesn't really care if gang members kill each other, just as long as they do it away from children and other innocents. "Take your stuff away to the alley," he told a press conference in early July. "Don't touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don't get near them." In Emanuel's words is the tacit understanding that it's not kids committing these crimes—at least not very small ones. It's young men committing these crimes, and the vast majority of those young men are black (though blacks make up only 33 percent of Chicago's population, they're 78 percent of the murder victims). Wherever and why-ever and whomever is doing these shootings, it's been interesting to juxtapose them with the recent spate of mass killings that has America rapt. Chicago is on track to have 504 homicide victims by year's end, or about twenty-five times more than the casualties in the Aurora, Oak Creek, and College Station shootings combined. To be sure, there is a problem of false equivalency here in that tragedy befalling people in one fell swoop—as it did in Aurora and Oak Creek—is jarring in a way that a consistent barrage of little tragedies is not. It's the difference between a home being flooded and a home suffering a steady leak in the ceiling. But that doesn't explain away why we as a nation care less when it's Chicagoans dying in their neighborhoods instead of Batman fans in a movie theater. New pieces in the New Yorker and the New York Observer have pointed out the differences in how people have treated the Aurora shooting versus the Sikh temple shooting. The Observer's Hunter Walker noted that some Oak Creek Sikhs are disappointed Obama hasn't yet paid them a visit. In the New Yorker, political science professor Naunihal Singh wrote, "Unlike Aurora, which prompted nationwide mourning, Oak Creek has had such a limited impact that a number of people walking by the New York City vigil for the dead on Wednesday were confused, some never having heard of the killings in the first place." When a hospital is overwhelmed with people in need of care, they perform triage to decide which patients to see first. Those hemorrhaging blood and on the verge of death take precedent, and those with headaches are told to wait. Society institutes triage, too, though it's mostly unspoken. Tragedies like the Aurora shooting get months and years of press, and Americans of all stripes cry together over the preciousness and loss of life. After that, tragedies like the Sikh shooting and the College Station shooting get political statements, and maybe some people wonder what went wrong. But as Naunihal Singh lamented, there simply isn't the same level of interest as there is other times, perhaps because the victims were less in number or of an esoteric religion. Then, after all of those, comes Chicago, and the 100 or so people mowed down by gunfire there every few months. Maybe if everyone killed annually by guns in Chicago was executed at the same time on Wrigley Field, the world might decide to pay attention. Life, for whatever reason, seems to be valued more when a lot of it is snatched away unfairly all at once. Also possible, and far more chilling, is that maybe people don't think it's so unfair for young black people to get killed in Chicago's ghettoes.

Chicago's Shootings Didn't Happen In a Movie Theater, But It's Still the World's Deadliest City What Are Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen Doing In Croatia Together? Probably Going CroGAYtia Together, Hopes Everyone Ask Author Robert Anasi About 'The Last Bohemia:' Williamsburg, Brooklyn Revised List of Fattest States Reveals Which States Are Pretty and Cool, Which States Have Great Personalities Watch Robert Pattinson Awkwardly Avoid All Mention of Kristen Stewart, On The Daily Show Comedian Calls Out Progressive Insurance for Defending His Sister's Killer; Progressive Responds in Heartless Robot Fashion 'Congrats, You're Getting Hijacked': Check Out This Surprisingly Polite Somali Pirate Memo More Stories on Gawker »

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August 14th, 2012Top Story Three Huge Reviews, All Right Here: Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs and Papa & Yo The slow summer is over! Today, we've got three reviews of three major video games. Two of them, you may have heard of. The third is a pleasant surprise. Darksiders II (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Kate Cox checks out the sequel to the cult hit. Is it more than the sum of its influences? And is it the action game we've been craving? She's a fan, but there's a significant hitch. [Read the review.] Sleeping Dogs (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Tina Amini dives into the former True Crime: Hong Kong to discover a game she likes quite a bit. [Read the review.] Papa & Yo (PS3) Evan Narcisse plays a PlayStation surprise, a game about fathers and sons, a short, lovely game that may make you cry. [Read the review.] Pssst. You, uh, might wanna check out Bad Hotel on iOS, too.

Three Huge Reviews, All Right Here: Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs and Papa & Yo Sleeping Dogs: The Kotaku Review Black Ops II Multiplayer Blowout: Scorestreaks Replace Killstreaks, Livestreaming Goes Big-Time, Leagues, and More Oh Man, This New Star Wars Game Looks Gorgeous These Cigarette Fighter Planes Are a Highway to The Danger Zone The Only Place Tonight You'll Find Oddworld, WoW and Magic Cards in the One Place The Greatest Sharks In Video Games, Just In Time For Shark Week More Stories on Kotaku »

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