How to view blocked web sites on your phone or tablet

These days, darn near everything is censored – for your protection, of course!

While you may be able to read whatever web sites you want from home, mobile operators are particularly fond of blocking certain sites.

This is obviously particularly annoying for those of us who like to choose what we read and, ya know, make up our own minds. We’re not ALL brainless zombies.

While you could use a VPN, it’s often a PITA to set them up and use them. The best ones are also paid…

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy, free option to view what you want? Turns out, there is!

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Make Android TV work with a USB Ethernet Adapter

AndroidTV USB Ethernet AdapterThese days, streaming is all the rage.

Whether you have a smart TV, a streaming stick, Blu-Ray player, soundbar, or even some projectors, many of these gizmos come with Android TV built in.

Too many of them also only have WiFi – no Ethernet jack to be found! This is particularly irritating for those of us who want to go wired and avoid the Wireless Wonderland.

So, how to get Ethernet? Well, you just buy a USB-Ethernet adapter, right?

Yes – sort of…

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All the smartphone features, none of the Google!

No-Google SmartphoneI’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 Googley madness – even in this day and age.

But it does take a bit of time, patience, and some technical know-how.

Note that I don’t walk through the entire installation process here since it’s particular to your specific phone…

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Dumbphone with KaiOS: Hang on, isn’t that a smartphone?

A Smart OS for Dumb PhonesLast week, I published a video entitled 4G Dumbphones: Get one with KaiOS!

In that vid, I talked about why KaiOS is a great OS to have on a 4G dumbphone.

Quite a few people asked various questions, like:

But hang on, isn’t that just a smartphone disguised as a dumbphone? But if it has Google, how is that different from an Android smartphone?

And so on.

So this week, I want to dig into some of the details of KaiOS and why it is NOT your daddy’s smartphone.

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How to debug JavaScript on mobile devices

Mobile JS DebuggingAh yes, the Mobile Revolution!

It’s fabulous – unless you actually create web sites and other stuff that use JavaScript.

In desktop web browsers, you generally get a web inspector / debug console that lets you do all kinds of fun stuff, including debugging your JS code.

But on mobile, well, no such luck.

In fact, most mobile browsers give you absolutely nothing! Fortunately, there’s a neat trick that fixes everything.

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The #1 piece of computer advice that no one ever takes

Well, okay, that’s not entirely correct.

It would be more accurate to say it’s the #1 piece of advice that no one ever remembers to take – at the right time.

I’m talking, of course, about the Almighty Restart.

But I don’t just mean rebooting Windows…

Or linux, or Android, or macOS, or whatever…

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