USB: Which cable should I use?
There are more flavors of USB than ice cream. With so many gizmos, different USB cables, and chargers, how do you know which one is best? Which one gives you the fastest data transfer? More importantly, how do you charge all your devices as quickly as possible -...
Remote Desktop with multiple monitors: How to save window and icon positions
Many people these days have multiple monitors, especially on their primary desktop computer. The trouble comes when you want to use Remote Desktop and "telecommute". Let's say you're using your laptop puter, and you Remote Desktop into your main machine. All of your...
5G QnA: Why lions and chickens are different
In this episode, I answer some questions and comments left on my various 5G videos - especially 5G is just the tip of the iceberg. Since I posted that video 2 years ago, it has received almost 6000 comments. Many are informative, supportive, and heartening. And then...
How to install ImageMagick 7 on Ubuntu
ImageMagick is great. It allows your web app to process, resize, filter, and do all kinds of other nifty things with images. Not so long ago, ImageMagick 7 was released. One of the big new features was full support for WEBP images, the new image format from Google....
Is Big Tech in Big Trouble? It depends…
For awhile now, we've been hearing rumors of anti-trust actions against the four main Big Tech companies. Recently, the word is that actual charges will be brought starting in June of this year. When you put all the recent stories together - along with some other...
How to stop Apps from re-opening on reboot in Windows 10
When your computer with Windows 10 reboots or restarts automatically after updates, it will re-open applications that were running before the restart. There are two problems with this: First, not ALL applications will fire up again - only some. Second, sometimes you...
5 fun Computer Facts you probably didn’t know
And now it's time for something completely different! Computers are an integral parts of our lives now. Sometimes, we forgot how far we've come in such a short time. We also don't usually hear the details of where some specific piece of technology came from. So, join...
How to fix a Read-Only drive in Windows
There you are, minding your own business... Maybe you just installed a Windows 10 update. Maybe you just had to run a disk check that asked you to reboot. Maybe you didn't really do anything out of the ordinary at all. Whatever the case, things go kaflooey. All of a...
Even your APPS are invading your privacy!
As regular readers know, I'm not a big fan of the traditional smartphone craze. Sure, they're really handy gizmos, but the amount of data being hoovered up and shipped off to large service providers is a bit frustrating. As if things aren't bad enough on that front,...
5G or Virus? The data speaks for itself
Given the current global situation with the virus lock down, we are all looking for answers. Some people have suggested that 5G systems are causing the symptoms of Covid-19. But does that really fit the data? It turns out that we can easily find several rather large...
Smart Speakers are totally safe and privacy-enhancing (just kidding)
A recent study about smart speakers revealed that they are, in a word, crap. The study, entitled, WHEN SPEAKERS ARE ALL EARS: Understanding when smart speakers mistakenly record conversations, revealed that these smart gizmos are very often activated by words and...
How do Quick Chargers actually work? Magic!
Quick charging is all the rage these days. We all want our smartphones and tablets to charge REALLY quickly via plain old USB cables. But how do quick chargers actually work? After all, USB itself is limited in terms of the power that it can provide... Tune in and...
All the smartphone features, none of the Google!
I've been using dumbphones for awhile now, but I started to miss some smartphone features. Then a friend of mine mentioned LineageOS again. I decided to take the plunge... And I'm glad I did! It IS possible to have a relatively private smartphone without all the...
Surprise! Big Data doesn’t care about your right to Free Speech
In a shocking revelation that simply re-affirmed what everyone already knew, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals again ruled that internet platforms have nothing to do with the First Amendment because they're private corporations. Well, duh! In a ruling on February...
EEK! #7 – High Voltage DC is still alive!
We all know that AC won the war vs DC back in the day. But did you know high-voltage DC is still around? What's more, it's actually become quite useful! Some countries have recently installed million-volt DC power lines that span thousands of kilometers! While HVDC...
Mac malware surged in 2019 – true or false?
Macs were in the news again this week as Malwarebytes released a report claiming that for the first time ever, malware on Macs outpaced that of Windows-based PCs in 2019. It sounds like a total nightmare for Apple users! But hang on a sec... Malwarebytes released the...