Artificial Stupidity: Your amazing AI future
When you imagine your future with the amazing technology of AI, chances are it doesn't look like what's happening today. In fact, it's not even close. If you're sick of hearing about AI while lamenting the lack of actual, cool uses for it, you're not alone. On top of...
Time to switch to a HomeGroup on Windows 10
Way back in 2009, I wrote this article: How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup I also released a tool called LAN Scanner that lets you see all the puters on your local network, their IP addies, MAC addresses, and which puter is the Master Browser....
Get your politics out of my tech!
In recent years, we've seen a huge upsurge in "political correctness" and certain "social movements". From James Damore being fired for speaking his mind in a very "leftist" corporate culture, to Amazon's Alexa declaring that she is a feminist, to DNA testing services...
Windows 10 Buffet: Fixing a failed upgrade to the latest version
It's been several months since Windows 10 1709 was released. Even now, not all puters out there have received the update. As with all versions of Win 10, Microsoft rolls them out slowly over time. Sometimes, you might not get the latest version because of some...
Meltdown & Spectre: DO NOT PANIC! Yet.
By popular demand! Meltdown and Spectre are the recently-publicized exploits that take advantage of flaws in modern processors. These flaws are big news, but what's the actual scoop? It turns out that they ARE a big deal, but with a few important caveats... Since the...
How do Christmas Laser Projectors work?
If you're like me, you tend to go a little Clark Griswold every Holiday Season. My current favorite holiday lighting apparatus is those sassy red/green laser projectors! But how do they work? It turns out they're actually pretty simple. Lasers, some funky hair, and...
Is AI really here?
We hear a lot about A.I. - artificial intelligence - these days. But is it really here? Should you be worried about Skynet and terminators and some little punk named John having to grow up and save the world? Not quite. At least not yet, anyway... While so-called...
DuckDuckGo: Uh-oh! Search add-on goes nuts…
Lots of people are using the search engine DuckDuckGo these days. It's a bit more "friendly" than behemoth Google, and it still gives great search results. In fact, you may have read my earlier article Search like a pro with DuckDuckGo: Better privacy + great search...
Why is my USB stick so slow?
A few weeks ago, I published a video on how to get max speed from your USB 3 gizmos, which you can find here: Slow copy speeds with USB 3? No problem! Right, but if what about lowly USB 2 sticks? They're far more prevalent than USB 3 sticks, and many of them are...
Fix the tab bar (and other stuff) in the new Firefox 57
Firefox 57 - also known as Firefox Quantum - was released recently, bringing all the glorious new performance improvements to the world. Well, that's nice, especially if you pronounce "Firefox Quantum" in a Mr. Moviefone voice... BUT... The new version of Firefox also...
How to code smarter – now with 50% less irritation!
Everyone knows that coders are weird people. Interrupt them, and you often encounter a rather strange and "interesting" reaction. Why is that? Well, it's all about what happens in your brain when you're programming something. It's probably one of the hardest things to...
Convert your Windows 10 boot drive from MBR to GPT
In the olden days, your puter had a BIOS. Nowadays, the BIOS is rapidly giving way to UEFI, which provides all kinds of benefits. At the same time, hard drives have sort of evolved, so now we're supposed to use GPT instead of MBR. Well, okay... First of all, what does...
Waterproof cable and wire splicing made easy
If you've ever accidentally chopped through a wire or electrical cable, you know how much fun it can be to try to repair it so that it stays waterproof, dust proof, weatherproof, etc. I recently had just such a fun experience myself. It turns out that there are quite...
What you need to know about Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709
The Windows 10 "Fall Creators Update" version 1709 was released not long ago. Chances are, if you don't have it already, you'll be getting it soon. Naturally, there are some new features and stuff, but nothing that most people will get all excited about. It's just yet...
DIY Ultrasonic Fuel Gauge / Level Sensor
If you have a fuel or water tank that is either metal or colored plastic, you may have run into the same problem I had: How do you know when it's empty? Mechanical level gauges are nice, but not always practical or even possible. So, I went on the hunt for an...
Slow copy speeds with USB 3? No problem!
USB is totally awesome, and USB 3.0+ is even more awesome. With real-world data transfer rates of 400MB/s or more, copying files to external USB sticks and drives has never been more fun. Only one problem, and I've noticed this A LOT: People are using USB3, but...