Firefox’s new tracking and how to turn it off
Well, here we go again... A few years ago, Google announced FLoC, which I talked about here. In short: 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...
Sublime Text: A Programmer’s Text Editor for the Rest of Us
Ya know, I program a lot. I also create a lot of web sites. So, having a good text editor is kind of essential. For the longest time, I've been searching for a good programmer text editor like TextMate. Unfortunately, I shun Macs like the plague since I can build...
Windows 8 Freezes or Hangs: The Fix that Worked for Me
Windows 8 will be released to the masses in October of this year. As a developer, I'm lucky enough to get Windows 8 RTM a bit earlier. Despite what everyone is saying, the new Start Screen really isn't that bad. In fact, it will be very nice once all your apps are...
AC Induction Motors: How do they work?
A lot of people wonder how alternating current (AC) induction motors work. In fact, I myself wondered exactly how they worked for a long time. You see, I'm an electrical engineer, so I should know these things from my university education. Unfortunately, in this age...
Windows Update Error: How to make Windows Redownload Corrupted Update Files
This one is a really, really fun problem: You dutifully let Windows download updates. It tries to install them, but fails with some kind of "0x800*****" error code. Great, what now? Well, normally you'd just click the button and try to install them again. You'd think...
Can’t Uninstall a Program in Windows? Now you can!
Every now and then, you'll probably come across some program on Windows that you simply cannot uninstall from the "Uninstall a Program" page in Control Panel. Normally, it will give you some kind of error that makes no sense whatsoever. I recently ran across this very...
GRUB Reinit: Repair or Replace GRUB in One Easy Step
If you have a dual-boot setup on your computer involving some flavor of linux, at some point you will most likely encounter a problem with GRUB, the linux bootloader. For example, maybe you used a tool like Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite to resize your OS partitions....
Everything on my Computer is Missing and I think it’s a Virus or Trojan
Lucky you! This happened to a friend of mine recently. She was minding her own business, surfing the web. A little box popped up, and it looked just like a Windows dialog box that said something about Microsoft Security Something-or-Other. So, of course, she clicked...
Make Rails 2.3.x happy with Ruby 1.9.3
If you're like me, you still have some Rails 2.3.x apps hanging around. Yeah, Rails 3 is awesome in some respects, but that "2x performance increase" never quite materialized. In fact, for the most part, Rails 3 is still slower than Rails 2.3. SIGH! Nevertheless, Ruby...
Seagate Agrees with Scottie about Green Hard Drives
I hate to say, "I told you so!", but: I told you so! Actually, I don't hate saying it. I'm relishing every second of this glorious moment, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Okay, I was ashamed for the few seconds it took me type the first sentence, but I got over it....
What is an ARM Processor, and What’s the Big Deal?
You've probably heard of ARM processors a lot lately. They are used in all kinds of devices like smartphones, tablets, routers, and so on. I'm sure you've also heard why they are so great: They're powerful, and they're extremely energy efficient! Well, so is my Intel...
Cell Phones: How to Maximize Battery Life and Minimize Radiation Exposure
This article originally appeared in Issue #14 of The Dot Connector Magazine. Cell phones: they’re everywhere. From the “Battlephones” of the olden days, technology has progressed inexorably to today’s Smartphone. Crikey, some people even sleep with their cell phones!...
Musings on the Death of Steve Jobs
Well, heck, everyone else is talking about it incessantly, so why not me, too? Of course, there are much more important topics to be worried about, like the fact that the global economic and political situation seems to be destabilizing in numerous ways. But this is a...
How to Remove SuperGlue from your Fingers and Skin
Everybody loves superglue. It bonds darn near anything to darn near anything else, darn near instantly. There's only one problem: it also bonds skin. Another problem: it's hard to remove from skin once it dries - or even before it dries. Most people will tell you to...
Why the World Will Soon Be Using Only Apple Products
I have to say that I simply can't stand it any more. I'm talking about Apple and their damned lawsuits. They are suing anyone and everyone who makes any product that even remotely resembles an iThing (gosh, I hope they don't sue me for putting that lowercase "i" in...
Dude, Your Web Site’s Been Hacked!
This article originally appeared in Issue #13 of The Dot Connector Magazine. Whether it’s the “Iranian Cyber Army”, those darn “Chinese Hackers”, or just your average script kiddie, everyone is aware that there bad people out there who want to mess with your glorious...