Skip ‘Add your Microsoft Account’ during upgrades or installs
Windows 11 is okay - except when it comes time to do a big update or install it from scratch. In both cases, MS has decided to force you to log in to Windows using your Microsoft account. Wouldn't it be nice if you could skip this step? Fortunately, you can! Where did...
Do smartphones really hurt normal social relations?
As regular readers/viewers know, I'm not a terribly big fan of smartphones. For more info, see my video Why I ditched my smartphone. In response to my musings, many people have said that they don't think people buried in their smartphones all the time is causing any...
Wireless Trolls: How to win against electrosmog naysayers
You know the drill: you try to tell someone about some study showing the health effects of WiFi, 5G, or whatever, and then it hits... Maybe they come back with one of several standard cop-outs, maybe you're called crazy, maybe they ask what happened to your tinfoil...
Episode 4: Windows 10 activation issues are driving me NUTS!
Oh for the love of Pete... Yes, I ran into even more Windows 10 activation issues recently. I didn't even do anything wrong. This time, it was a spontaneous message that my Win 10 Pro on my main desktop puter was not activated - just, well, because... It turns out...
Why oscillating multi-tools don’t cut you
It's time for something completely different! I've wondered for awhile why oscillating multi-tools don't cut skin. I know there are many explanations out there, but it appears that many people were in the same boat: We kind of understand, but not really... Well, that...
How to make Chrome less Google-friendly
With Chrome version 69, Google was very naughty. It was quite easy to miss this little tidbit, but it seems Google decided to make Chrome automatically log you in to Chrome itself if you used the browser to log in to any Google web service. Before, you didn't have to...
The Internet of Things and 5G: It’s all BONKERS!
Ah yes, the IoT, or Internet of Things. The future is apparently filled with internet-connected everything, including dust (yes, dust). We're already seeing the beginnings of this brave new world, mostly in the form of smart thermostats, smart appliances, and things...
“Linux on Windows” missing after a Win 10 upgrade? No problem!
Another Windows 10 upgrade is here: the Windows 10 October 2018 update. For those of us using WSL, or "Linux on Windows", that means potential mayhem. When the last Win 10 upgrade version was released, I installed it. I then discovered that my Ubuntu icon no longer...
A crash course in how the internet works
Way back in 1995, I was a freshman at university. I had this new thing called "The Internet" at my fingertips. It was cool, but I wanted to know how it worked. I asked someone, and they wouldn't answer the question - mostly because they couldn't answer! Today,...
How to Remove or Block Cookies in Chrome
I use Firefox as my main browser, which is why I wrote the earlier article Remove individual cookies in Firefox (yes, it changed again). I also use Chrome as a secondary browser since I have 2 screens and too many tabs for one browser! Recently, I had to do some...
How to choose a dumbphone: It ain’t easy!
If you decide to ditch your smartphone, then you have to pick the right dumbphone. "You must choose, but choose wisely." There are many factors that come into play, like where you live and what wireless provider you're using. But it gets way more complicated than...
Surveillance Valley: What you need to know about the Internet
I recently finished reading the book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet. Now, I've known for awhile that the world of high-tech - and especially the internet - doesn't quite work the way everyone thinks it does. We worship tech...
How to turn off those annoying notification popups in your browser
Will you allow this site to send notifications? NO! And stop asking me, dangit! For ages now, I have put up with these silly popups. Then, one day very recently, I asked myself why. Why was I putting up with them?! In the absence of a good answer, I figured out how to...
Remove individual cookies in Firefox (yes, it changed again)
Our friends over at Mozilla have done it again! It seems that with Firefox 61, it's now impossible to delete an individual cookie for a specific web site. Oh sure, you can clear all cookies, and you can clear all cookies for a certain site... But if you want to just...
Censored on Social Media? What else is new…
Here we go again! From Alex Jones to Diamond & Silk to Telesur, suddenly social media is penalizing certain voices rather dramatically. The majority of the people I talk to think that the whole thing's ridiculous, and I tend to agree. Most people are even afraid...
Episode 3: Reactivating Windows 10 after a major hardware upgrade (again)
A little over a month ago, I had the opportunity to upgrade a whole slew of Win 10 machines. Back then, I wrote this article: Reactivating Windows 10 after a second major hardware upgrade Now, I thought I had everything figured out in terms of re-activing Win 10 after...