5 March 2017 | Computers, How Does it Work? |
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has openly stated recently that Google’s hold on information is so powerful, it could even influence people’s political views. Ya think?!
The only thing worse than this influence is the fact that Google has become deeply embedded in our lives. If you so much as view a web page with a single Google ad, they can track you in very clever ways.
When you use Android + Google search + Google Maps + view web sites with ads, Google is essentially gathering data on everything you do.
It would be naive to assume that this data isn’t finding its way into the hands of folks like the NSA… The point of the Ed Snowden “revelations” wasn’t to make you safer; it was to scare the living crap out of you. Nothing changed, despite the very public declarations that all is better now.
Well, okay… But Google search is handy. Is there a better alternative? There sure is!
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19 February 2017 | Computers, How Does it Work? |
One of the best features ever in Windows is hibernation. You may never even have heard of this feature, but it’s one you should definitely know about – and use!
Of course, everyone is familiar with “Sleep mode”, and it’s probably what you’re already using. But there are certain advantages to hibernation, especially on laptops.
But what exactly is hibernation? How is it different than Sleep?
And most of all, why should you use it?
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30 January 2017 | Computers, Gizmos, How Does it Work? |
You know the drill: You’ve got an image on your puter. You print it.
It’s either really small, or it’s big enough, but really blocky and nasty looking.
So what gives?
It’s all about PPI and DPI.
That’s Pixels Per Inch and Dots Per Inch. Don’t worry, it’ll all be clear in a few more paragraphs…
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27 November 2016 | Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Networking |
You may have heard about tethering, but it probably seems a bit mysterious and complicated.
Tethering is when you connect your smartphone or tablet to your puter, and then use your mobile device’s data connection to surf the internet on your puter.
Well, to put it another way: your puter uses your smartphone (or your tablet’s 4G connection) as its internet connection instead of your normal DSL, cable, fiber, etc.
Tethering can be done in several ways, and it’s much easier to set up than you think!
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23 October 2016 | How Does it Work?, Networking |
If you live in the middle of a big city, chances are you are currently enjoying internet download speeds on the order of 100 Mbps, 200 Mbps, or even 1 Gbps in some areas.
But for the rest of us – especially those who live out in the country – it’s often nearly impossible to get any kind of good high-speed internet connection.
Sure, you may have DSL, but it’s very slow. You know the drill: “Yes, we’re upgrading our networks, running fiber everywhere, blah blah blah… Please wait 5 years.”
Well, it just so happens that there is a solution to your internet woes, but a little luck and some homework is needed!
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17 July 2016 | Computers, Gizmos, How Does it Work? |
If you’ve read any reviews recently about phones, tablets, and other gizmos, you’ve probably come across a lot of talk of PPI (Pixels Per Inch) and “Retina” screens.
In short, the number of pixels crammed into a device’s screen seems to be uber-important to which gizmos get the best reviews.
But hang on a minute… Just what do these numbers mean?
Does it really matter that much?
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10 July 2016 | Do-It-Yourself, How Does it Work? |
Superglue is awesome.
Originally discovered in 1942 by American scientists who were trying to come up with good transparent gun sights during WWII, superglue is the “sticks to everything” goto adhesive for all your gluey quick-fix needs.
And frankly, until you’ve superglued two fingers together, you really haven’t lived…
Anyway, there’s probably a lot about superglue that you’ve never heard before. So, read on, and then you can go impress your friends with your amazing knowledge of cyanoacrylate adhesives!
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20 March 2016 | Computers, How Does it Work? |
You’ve probably heard of SSDs (solid state drives). These are hard drives that use a type of very fast and very robust flash memory for data storage instead of a spinning magnetic disc.
SSDs are very fast, and until recently, their storage capacity was limited relative to old-fashioned mechanical spinning HDDs. They were also rather pricey.
You probably haven’t heard quite as much about SSHDs: hybrid mechanical hard drives with a small amount of SSD-type storage built-in. The idea here is that the SSD part of the drive can be accessed very quickly, so it acts as a very fast buffer between your puter and the slower mechanical part of the drive.
The result? SSHDs are faster than a mechanical HDD, not as fast as an SSD, but still offer 2TB, 4TB, or even more storage space – all at an affordable price.
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3 January 2016 | Gizmos, How Does it Work? |
For awhile now, the talk of the town has been “4K”. We hear a lot about it, and you can even buy a 4K television.
On the other hand, 4K content hasn’t really hit the mainstream yet. In fact, it hardly exists at all.
We do have plenty of new TVs and Blu-ray players that have “4K” printed on them, though.
So what is this magical new format? What is 4K? What is UHD? More importantly, should you care?
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12 September 2015 | Computers, How Does it Work?, Networking |
I recently read an article about the Ashley Madison hack. For those of you who aren’t into cheating on your spouse, Ashley Madison is a web site where you can sign up and meet up with other lovely people in order to have an affair.
Anyway, they were recently hacked. More than 11 million passwords were obtained, and the reason why made me fall off my chair.
In short, the users’ usernames + passwords were stored in the site’s database in an MD5 hash – along side a BCrypt hash of the user’s password.
Well, what does all this mean to you?
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Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has openly stated recently that Google’s hold on information is so powerful, it could even influence people’s political views. Ya think?!
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