For those of you who host your own blog, it is important to be aware of security issues with the software you are using. Since the seemingly most popular blog packages (WordPress and Joomla to name a few) run on PHP with a MySQL backend, keeping up with respective infrastructure updates is key to making sure your site is safe from exploits. To help with news...

Windows Live Mail is a great email client, no question. But one very longstanding complaint is the way it renders fonts. Whereas in other mail clients it’s stupidly easy to make mails look a specific way for text, in Windows Live Mail (and the previous Outlook Express) it is, put politely, a challenge. This tutorial is how to get the fonts to look...

The typical tech people put into cars are music players, DVD decks, PNDs (personal navigation devices) and smartphones. And the most annoying thing is how to mount it. You have seven basic options for mounting tech in a car:Proprietary in-dash Semi-proprietary in-dash In-mirror Gooseneck/Bracket Suction mount to adhesive plate Suction mount to glass...

Something I stumbled across a while ago was this awesome power strip which allows you to selectively switch off certain outlets. As with standard power strips, you can shut off power to the whole device, but this only gives the flexibility to just turn off selected outlets with a similar switch. I started using this recently on my computer stuff at home,...

When using social media, you have to be really careful what you do because you can inadvertently give away WAY too much information. In this video, I demonstrate one way that people give away WAY too much info on Twitter. Many mobile Twitter clients that are used on GPS-enabled phones have the ability to update your location on Twitter with your GPS coordinates....

This tip is targeted to users of Microsoft Money. In case you have not heard, Microsoft will be discontinuing this product. Due to this, if you are an active user, you should start evaluating other options and planning on possibily making a transition so you are not stuck with a ‘dead’ product. I have written several endorsements for the use of GNU...

The primary email address I use is from my personal domain name. After all, that’s one of the perks of having your own web site, right? A problem I routinely encounter is getting people to remember my email address. Is it a long address? No. It is difficult to spell? Not in the slightest. But it does have two things going against it. First is the fact it...

Said honestly, when I first read this article, I thought it was a joke. I’m not kidding. I said to myself, "There is no way any organization would ask for your personal logins and passwords to the social media sites you use just to apply for a job." The article asks if the City of Bozeman, MT (which the linked article is about) has the right to...

Years ago it was really easy to tell the difference from one Intel processor to the next. For example, you knew that a 386 was better and faster than the 286. You also knew a Pentium 4 3.0GHz was faster and better than a Pentium 4 1.6GHz. It was decidedly easy to tell the differences. Well, that’s not the case at present. Intel in a way is "pulling a...

China, one of the world’s oldest civilizations (far older than the United States), has had its troubles over the years trying to handle this thing called internet. Recently the powers that be in those parts mandated that every single new computer sold must have net-filtering software on it. The people didn’t take too kindly to this and protested the...

If you use a laptop a lot, you might have a USB mouse which you use instead of the built in touchpad. Personally, when I use a laptop I find the touchpad quite annoying because I tend to tap it when typing which causes the mouse to move around an text being inadvertently typed where I didn’t want it. If this is the case for you, an option you might want to...

This is a call for all of you out there to post a comment telling us what you’re running right now for a computer. It doesn’t matter if it’s old or new, pre-built or custom, fast or slow, laptop or desktop, etc. Post your specs. If you have multiple computers in the home, go ahead and name them all. What I’m looking for here is a simple...

In 2007 I did a video on how to share files/folders to Windows with Ubuntu. But since version 8 of that OS the way in which this is done has changed a bit. It is simplified somewhat, but the drawback now is that in order to change the Workgroup name you must edit a configuration file manually instead of having the ability to do it in the GUI like before. In the...

If you have problems with your Windows computer freezing due to the system being overloaded, then a utility which might help is AntiFreeze. This free utility offers a way to shutdown processes which consume so many resources that the system becomes completely unresponsive. The scenarios where this utility will help are listed under the “When Will It...

I don’t know how this one slipped by me, so apologies that I’m late to the party on reporting this one, but better late than never. The Xcore86 is an amazing little board because the entire computer is embedded within it. And one of the best features it’s that since it only uses 1.2 watts, it can run without fans. Even better is that a netbook...

I bought a refurbished Dell Dimension 4400 back when Windows XP was brand new in 2001. It was $625 shipped. The only thing I ever did to it was upgrade the processor from 1.6GHz to a 2.4GHz and bumped the RAM from 256MB to 512MB. Other than that, everything in it is original. I used it for a few years then gave it to my father who has been using it ever...

Some people believe the iPhone was the game-changer concerning what you could do on a mobile device. I say no, because the Danger Hiptop (a.k.a. the T-Mobile Sidekick) predated the iPhone by four years all the way back in 2003. I state this because the ability to do things ordinarily reserved for PCs and laptops only have been on mobile devices for well over 5...

Mac users who utilize QuickTime for their video player might want to take a look at the Windows Media Components for QuickTime available for download at Microsoft’s site. With Windows Media for QuickTime, by Flip4Mac, you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a Web...

craigslist, love it or hate it, is a great site to find.. well.. anything. However you’re limited to searching just one local area at a time. However you can search multiple areas via the use of a particular web site and an RSS reader (like Google Reader, Feed Demon or even Windows Live Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird) to get the job done. The web site to use...

One of the best RSS feed readers out there is Google Reader. However one (very) longstanding complaint is that it has no ability to change the name of folders/tags. However there is a workaround, that being to "move" subscriptions from one tag to another. It’s sort of a long roundabout way of doing it, but it least it can be done. Here’s...