You’re back from a long day at the office and life sucks. Your back hurts, your wrists feel like stiff, numb boards of wood, and your eyes feel like they’re just about ready to pop out of your skull.  As an added bonus, you can’t move your neck without sharp pain shooting through your body. Computers are great, but the health problems that can...

This is an example of where the internet did things wrong. There are a lot of things it does right, but the stinkers stick out, and this is one of them. Originally, any system that required a user ID asked you what you wanted for a screen name. Simple systems only allowed letters and/or numbers. Advanced ones allowed letters, numbers, dashes (-) and underscores...

No matter how much a computer geek would prefer otherwise, we still have to use the US Postal Mail service to get things done for certain things, particularly when it comes to signed documents, physical receipt of delivery and so on. As good as email is, its status as far as "being an official document" is concerned still doesn’t hold the same...

Once again, Google is making news again because effective 1 March 2012 they’re migrate/merge/whatever Google products to center personal data around Google+ accounts primarily. It is really easy to read that and think, "not good". My personal opinion? What Google does with your data is nothing compared to the real threats to your privacy. The two...

It’s that time of the year again. First year University students are stumbling into post-secondary institutions, wide-eyed and scared, with no idea of what they’re doing, where they’re going or how they’re going to get there. Those who’ve been in the institution for a while are shaking off the after-effects of a summer of binge...

I know and you know that Netflix recently upped their prices and lost a whole bunch of customers because of it. Even so, it’s still a darn good service if you use it online-only. Unlimited streaming from Netflix is 8 bucks a month, which in all honesty is pretty good. Also, the first month is free so you can try it out for 30 days. Now before I give you...

These days a lot of people feel more than just a little uncomfortable giving out their credit card info online when making a purchase, and don’t want to go the PayPal route either. You’ve heard time and time again, "Get a prepaid credit card!" Okay then, how? I’ll tell you how. Knowing the difference between a locked and unlocked...

Lately there have been disorganized attempts to get something calling The Darknet Project a.k.a. TDP off the ground. What is it exactly? This article states it best as, "to create a global darknet, a decentralized web of interconnected wireless mesh networks that operate independently of each other and the conventional internet". Recently the people...

Sometimes people will do some pretty wacky things when it comes to getting statistical information. Well, now we have a relatively good idea as to how much the entire internet weighs, as in physically weighs. 50 grams. It is really a mind-blowing thing to think that physical data actually has weight to it, but it does. Watch the video below and be amazed at how...

It’s more or less true that the PCMech audience doesn’t really care for Twitter all that much, but regardless of that I would suggest "following" (if you use Twitter) or at least bookmarking the Twitter profiles listed below. Why? Two reasons. First, you get can get quick updates for service outages. It’s generally true that whenever...

Proving once again that Google is a useful search tool for just about anything, the search engine includes a quick lookup to display your IP address. What search term do you use? Just search for ip. That’s it. A few notes:The IP address returned is your public address, meaning the one from your ISP and not your router. Yes, it will work for both IPv4 and...

More people are reading books on computers, phones and gadgets these days, but at times it can be a hassle finding a good selection, much less a free selection of good eBooks. One place that has a good wide selection of books to read – all for free – is Project Gutenburg. The area you’ll probably want to start in is the Top 100, which list the...

Here are two things you should remember about the internet concerning multimedia content:The internet is inherently lo-fi. Good content always trumps the technology it’s presented in.What does lo-fi mean? In simple terms: "Not broadcast quality." In technical terms: Non-widescreen, monaural (meaning not stereo), low-bandwidth multimedia...

Yesterday, the ISP I use, Brighthouse Networks, had a major outage. And wow, was it a doozy. There was not only zero internet connectivity but nobody could contact customer service on the phone either to even report the outage as they were down as well. On top of that, even the main brighthouse.com web site was having problems. Like I said, it was a doozy. And...

There is a proposed federal law that would require ISPs to store logs about their customers for 18 months. Should you be concerned about this? No. Before I explain why, the people I feel most badly for are the ISPs themselves should the law pass; this is because the ISPs at present simply do not have the room – and I mean that literally – to store...

Knowing when you created an account is fun information to know, and in some instances can even be used as geeky bragging rights. Do you have any accounts that are over 10 years old? Yahoo! Step 1. Go to pulse.yahoo.com Step 2. If not signed in, click “Sign In” at top of screen. Step 3. Click “Profile” on left. Step 4. Look for...

VAN is the abbreviation for Virtual Account Number; it is without a doubt the absolute best thing you can use for online purchases of any kind and you’ll understand why in a moment. What is a VAN? It is a virtual number you generate per your primary account, but only exists in cyberspace. When generated it acts exactly like your primary account works,...

After many months of planning, the first intergalactic summit was held at Kennedy Space Center with the Mars Delegation; our first contact with alien species from another planet. Upon the Mars Delegation’s arrival, which comprised of two individuals, senior space delegation official Burton Mercer noted that the two were well dressed for the occasion in...

If you’re currently feeling the pinch of an overpriced privately-owned ISP, watch out because municipality-run, a.k.a. "community broadband" internet is making waves. Currently there are 133 US cities that have community broadband. This map shows you where they are. The red markers on the map are FTTH (Fiber To The Home), and yes that means...

It’s really easy to complain about webmail. After all, no email is perfect. However it’s rare that anyone says anything good about it, and said honestly it really is. Here are some of the better features of the major webmail providers out there. Who knows? There might be features mentioned here in the webmail you use below you didn’t even know...