The problem with computers is that they’re never 100% reliable. Whether through a virus, degradation of your hardware, or an error in your system, there’s always a chance that any data, no matter where on your system it’s stored, might become corrupted, fragmented, or lost. As such, it’s pretty much vital that you keep a backup of any...

A situation that’s happened to all of us at one point or another: You’re typing up something inside a web browser. Could be Facebook. Could be email. Could be a blog editor. Whatever. Then it happens. *Poof*, everything you typed is gone. It happens instantly and there’s absolutely no way to get your text back. It’s gone forever....

In a not-so shocking report, 47% of US consumers feel they don’t need 4G LTE. When it comes to network speed improvements/upgrades, eventually you get to a point where faster isn’t better and turns into hurry-up-and-wait mode. For most people on mobile, that’s exactly what 4G LTE is perceived as. 4G (and even 3G) connectivity in all honesty is...

Now, the word “technology” used to mean anything that a person used to make their life easier in some fashion. At one point forks, spoons, and knives were considered to be technology by virtue of that definition. The term has undertaken something of a different meaning in recent days, however.  Instead of cars or forks or knives or even electricity,...

This is a quick tip for anyone that encounters annoying pausing or freezing when attempting to empty the Windows Recycle Bin. The #1 reason why the Recycle Bin pauses when going to empty it is probably because you have an external hard drive connected to your computer. When the external drive isn’t in use (even if powered and connected), Windows will spin...

I’m sure more than a few of you have seen “Sent from my iPad” or “Sent from my iPhone” or “Sent from my [insert other smartphone here]” taglines in emalis and possibly forum posts. Personally, I think the best answer to that ridiculousness is to use a tagline stating you sent the message from an item that would be...

It’s a pretty awesome time to be a gamer. Not only do we have epic releases like Skyrim, Arkham City, and Dark Souls to keep us busy, but more games than ever before have picked up on the latest phenomenon in the gaming industry – the “Free To Play” craze.  Hey, I’m not knocking the whole deal. I think it’s pretty awesome...

Bill Keller – a columnist for New York Times, former The Times editor and one of the authorities on American policy making – recently launched a blitzkrieg against the White House through his Twitter account. He targeted their strategy-making in one of the most extroverted acts of criticizing the government in recent memory. He also defended the WikiLeaks,...

(continued from part 1) A quick about how POP mail works Post Office Protocol mail works in such a way where in the inbox and only the inbox is downloaded by a mail client such as Thunderbird. In other words, anything not in the inbox is not downloaded. Move everything in webmail from “Incoming OLD” to the main inbox Yes, I know, this may take a...

In the way I personally do email, I perform an annual cleanup. When January rolls around, I download all my email, store it locally using a mail client, then back it up to media. After that I delete everything that’s stored in the web account. I pretty much have to do this because if I don’t, my email becomes unmanageable. During the course of a year...

It still floors me how many people don’t seem to realize the most fundamental detail of the Internet is that, no matter what you do, no matter how you act, no matter what you say…chances are you’ve got an audience. Say the wrong (or right) thing, and suddenly the world knows who you are.  Post an inflammatory status message or an embarrassing...

Home security isn’t cheap and never has been, and this is why people look into fake security alternatives. But does it work? That answer depends on what the fake security is and how it’s applied. Here are a few of the more popular fake security items out there. Fake “Protected By” stickersThis is a fake security item that people have...

There’s an old saying that presentation is everything. There’s a lot of truth to that, and it’s also true you can see some electronics presentations at their worst at Wal-Mart. Recently, I went into a Wal-Mart to pick up some AA batteries. The electronics department is usually the best place to go for these because you’ll find choices not...

A couple weeks ago, I picked up the Complete PC D&D Collection at EB Games. It was a shame, I thought, that I’d never played such greats as Baldur’s Gate or Planescape: Torment, and that had to change. After grabbing the collection- along with the Neverwinter Nights collection- I rushed home to install them all on my PC. Thankfully, most of them...

There really is no good reason for an IRC client to be bulky. It should be very small, lightweight and run very fast. While there are a few good IRC clients for Windows, my personal pick is XChat 2 for Windows, a free Windows version of the popular XChat software. For those of you who bounce between Windows and Linux environments, you probably already use XChat...

In the late 2000s, Microsoft introduced its replacement to Outlook Express 6, Windows Live Mail (at the time known as Windows Live Mail Desktop). This was barely more than OE6 with a different theme, as the menus were all virtually identical. The only real major difference is that WLMail stores mail as separate EML files rather than proprietary DBX files, and...

Before you start reading this article, feast your eyes on this. It’s the results of a fairly recent series of Windows browser speed and power tests carried out by Life Hacker, in which they pitted all of the top browsers (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer) against one another in order to determine which one runs the fastest and the best. The...

I live in Tampa Bay Florida and during the summer there are a lot of thunderstorms; it happens so often that a “spat” storm (meaning one that lasts a half-hour or lses) happens pretty much every other day all summer long. That being the case, it’s totally normal in these parts that the power kicks off for anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes...

Making the rounds is a new web site called Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (which is somewhat similar to TOSSOS) that puts a rating from A to E (E being worst) on basically how bad you’re going to get f&#%#d concerning your content and activity on particular web sites. I can save everyone the trouble of reading through any of those sites with a...

Configuring your router and setting up a network can be a bit of a pain sometimes- particularly if you’re planning on running applications which require specific ports to be opened. Thankfully, there exists a plethora of online tools to make your life easier.  Let’s get started, shall we? Port Forward: We’ve covered Port Forward before, but...