Best LOW-tech gift for just about anyone
What do you get for somebody when you have NO IDEA what they'd like? And preferably without breaking the bank? Easy: You get them a date calendar puzzle from DragonFjord Puzzles! Even people who hate puzzles quickly become addicted to this thing, and it lasts the...
No more choppy video in VLC!
VLC media player is free, popular, and just awesome. It'll play just about any audio or video file you throw at it. Beginning in version 3.0.0, it supports hardware acceleration so that it should play even hi-res vids smoothly. But quite often when you try to play a...
Is Chrome spying on you?
Chrome is a fantastic web browser - except when it eats all your CPU power and crashes your puter. What's going on here? I thought Chrome was lean, mean, and zippy? Well, it IS... But the Software Reporter Tool that it downloads and runs to scan your computer "for...
Will Windows 11 run on your PC? YES!!
Microsoft can't seem to get Windows 10 right, and maybe now we know the reason: because they just announced Windows 11! Coming sometime around the end of this year, Windows 11 promises to be everything Win 10 is not. There's only one problem: Everyone is claiming...
The EASY way to use Material Design Icons
If you're a web developer, you've probably used Google's Material Design Icon font. It's a great way to include 1 small file and get gajillions of icons - instead of making 20 different pixel sizes of numerous icons, and then creating sprites and all that jazz. The...
Phishing Scams and how to protect yourself
Even if you don't know the term 'phishing scam', chances are you've already been targeted by many of them. A phishing scam is when someone uses a genuine-looking e-mail, login page, SMS, or whatever to fool you into giving up personal data - like logins, passwords,...
How to learn to code (or anything else)
For reasons unknown to me, other people are always asking me how to learn programming. Well, there's the traditional route: go to school, become a coder. Done! But as we all know, many of the best and most famous programmers were those who dropped out of school and...
Are you wasting your internet speed?
Most people probably don't even notice the actual speed of their internet connection. If it 'goes fast', they're happy. What many folks don't realize is that they may be wasting a large chunk of their very high speed net connection. If you use even newer flavors of...
The BEST way to stay safe on the Internet
Ah, the internet! It's so incredibly useful, and at the same time you won't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Well, technically, it's more useful than villain-y. Still, it's good to be careful! So what's the best way to stay safe when using the internet?...
How to fix black thumbnail preview icons
This one is fun: One day, your thumbnail preview icons turn into black squares instead of showing a preview of the file's contents as usual. You may even find that the usual methods to fix the problem simply don't work. Fear not! With a few easy tricks, you can get...
Taking screenshots is easier than you think
Every now and then, you need to make a snapshot of what's on your screen - or maybe just the content of a single application window. Most people think you need some kind of special software to take screenshots, but the truth is that it's actually a whole lot easier -...
FLoC and the future of Internet Privacy
When it comes to privacy on the internet, the new word on the street is 'FLoC'. Led by Google, a group of businesses and advertisers is pushing a new standard that would have your browser identifying your particular group of interests by a unique ID number. This...
Why can’t I enable CSM on my new motherboard?
This is a fun one! You get a new motherboard with an Intel 500 Series chipset. You decide to just use the integrated graphics in the CPU, but you can't boot! It turns out your actual boot drive is missing from the Boot options menu. Gonzerooni! WTH?! UPDATE Nov 2023:...
Why do microwave ovens use 2.4 GHz like WiFi and Bluetooth?
Microwave ovens that you use to cook food operate at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. This is the same radio band where one finds WiFi, Bluetooth, and so on. So, why is everything lumped into this one chunk of the frequency spectrum? Is there something particularly magical...
Windows won’t update? Fix it fast!
These days, you might not want too many Windows 10 updates given all the problems they tend to cause. But the fact remains that if you can't update Windows at all due to some cryptic error message, you're still in trouble. You're missing out on security and...
Blockchain and Cryptos explained for Non-Techies
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are all the rage these days. All we hear is how Bitcoin has smashed another record high, cryptos are the future, don't miss this train, etc. The question is: How do you know what you're getting yourself into? Many people are talking of...