Episodes

I have 3 mysterious questions for you this week. Don’t worry, there will be a computer-related tip before we’re done here. Mystery number 1: Why can’t I add simple numbers in my head? This is just a simple addition problem. But you cannot use a calculator or a pencil and paper. This must be done completely in your head. Try it: Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10. What is the total? I’ll put the answer...

There was a time when I used and recommended AVG as a reliable option for a free antivirus. I stopped using it about 4 years ago, mainly because the software itself wasn’t really compatible with all Windows computers. When I make a recommendation, I try to make sure it’s something that won’t freeze up your PC. Now, AVG has given us some new reasons to not use their software. AVG has become one of the “bad guys” – now they’ll try to sneak malware and junkware on to your computer. Kind of ironic,...

This is a scenario that’s repeated many thousands of times on the internet, every single day. Someone has a file on their computer, and it’s in a particular format, and they need it to be in a different format. For example, they have an MP4 video, and they want it to just be an MP3 audio file. So they go on Google and search for “how to convert mp4 to mp3” and they see lots of free software that offers to do this. They click to download and install one of them, and within minutes their computer ...

There are a lot of reasons why your computer might be running slowly. But one of the biggest reasons is that you have too many programs running at the same time. This can be deceiving, because you might look at your screen and it seems like only a few are running. It’s the ones that are running that you DON’T see that could be causing the problem. Here’s the basic fact: the more programs you have running, the slower they all run. That means you don’t want to have any programs running if you don...

I love Google Chrome. I use it as my default web browser and it works great. Probably what I love most about it is how I can customize it with extensions. I can put on ad blockers and all kinds of things so that websites look and behave based on my personal preferences. Chrome has one drawback though – it tends to use a lot of the computer’s memory (RAM). Here’s how you can see this for yourself. Open Google Chrome, then open a website in a new tab. Then open another web page in another new tab...

I had an experience recently that I knew almost immediately would end up as a blog post and podcast episode. It’s another example of how someone came up with a great idea about yet another use for technology, and we can all benefit from it. When you go on vacation, what are the biggest expenses for which you have to plan? Airfare of course, if you’re flying. But the next biggest one could be where you’ll be staying. Obviously you need a place to store your stuff and a place to sleep every night...

Every week here on my blog I talk about some type of practical tip or trick that you can do with your computer. Hopefully you find some of them practical and useful. But you know what? Being a geek, I sometimes like to come across computer tricks that may not seem to have obvious practical value. That’s what today is going to be. And who knows, maybe there is some actual usefulness for this. If you find it useful in some way, please let me know in the comments below. You’ve probably always wond...

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email programs in use today. I ‘ve been using it for years and I like it. Yes, it’s a little quirky at times but overall it’s pretty reliable and has a lot of great features. However, one of the things not included in Outlook is an easy backup process. Other programs have that built in so you can just click File – Backup and send all your data to a separate drive, but not Outlook. No problem though – I know how to do it and today I’ll show you how. T...

If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird or some other email software on your computer, this is something you (or your tech) has dealt with. When you set up a new email account, one of the questions is whether or not you want the email protocol to be POP or IMAP. What’s the difference between them? Does it matter which one you use? First, you should know this: if you get your email by going to a website, the POP vs. IMAP question doesn’t really apply to you. You just go to the email w...

As a computer technician, I spend a lot of time doing computer repair here in Safety Harbor, Florida (and remotely for clients around the country). Just about everyone has a computer (or several) these days, and eventually something goes wrong with almost all of them. If there were no computer problems I would have to go look for a real job! But there are certain situations that you might be able to take care of on your own, just by trying one or two steps first. Problem: no internet connection...

A laptop docking station can be a pretty handy thing, if you need one for your circumstances. What kind of computer user would find value in one of these things? Anyone that uses a laptop as their home computer, and also takes it with them to work or while traveling would benefit from a laptop docking station. A laptop docking station is a small electronic device and usually your laptop will sit on top of it. Here’s how it’s used. A lot of people use their laptop as their primary home computer...

Last week I went over 11 programs and tools I use on a regular basis, and recommend to my clients. And that was only half the list! This week we’ll cover the rest. Of course, this is list is not exhaustive, and you might have other options that you prefer. Not every program is right for every user. Let me know what you think in the comments at the end. 12. Freshbooks (small business bookkeeping) Get it here A lot of small businesses start out with their bookkeeping by just using an Excel sprea...

Last time I did a blog post about the software I use regularly and recommend to my clients – two years ago. Time flies! So I wanted to update that information since a lot of it has changed since then. Originally I was going to cover all of these in one blog post and podcast, but it became way too much so I’m spreading it over two Mondays. 1. Windows 7 (operating system) Get it here Windows 7 is still the Windows operating system of choice. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it will be supported by M...

Any website that automatically starts playing sound as soon as it loads up should be on some kind of blacklist. Whether it’s a selection of background music, or a news video, or any other kind of audio – any web designer with a clue knows to not have that stuff automatically start up. You give your website visitor the option to play sound – you don’t force it upon them. Autoplay on a website is rude and tacky, and it guarantees that I leave that site immediately. Can you tell I have a rather st...

Today’s tip is not going to be very long and elaborate. It’s a pretty common problem with a simple fix (most of the time). But if you don’t know the solution, it can be very frustrating because it seems like something major is wrong with your computer. Here’s what usually happens: You try to go to a website and instead of the website content, you see a big warning on your screen. The warning is telling you that you should not try to access that website, because the website’s security certifica...

This week I’m going to show you some interesting things you can do with YouTube. You might not use all of them, but hopefully you will find one or two of them helpful, or at least fun to try out. I love “discovering” these kinds of little-known things and bringing them to you here on my blog, and on my podcast. Trick 1: Download any YouTube video to your computer, without installing other software Sometimes you might watch a video you really like, so you bookmark it for easy access. But then yo...

It seems like Facebook is always involved with some type of controversy, and it usually involves the violation of the privacy of Facebook users. Of course, if you don’t like Facebook’s data collection practices, you can always just cancel your account (see last week’s blog about how to do that). The latest issue has to do with the Facebook Messenger app that works on a smartphone. If you’re on Facebook, you have probably heard the recent uproar over the privacy settings on the Facebook Messenge...

For some people, the novelty of social media has worn thin. Facebook is constantly wanting more and more of your personal information, because that’s their biggest selling point to advertisers. Twitter hashtags are displayed on just about any television show now, and YouTube videos are showing up virtually everywhere. If you get to the point where you say, “That’s it, I’m done – no more social media” do you know how to go about cancelling those accounts? I’ll show you a really easy way today. A...

Ever try to print a web page? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The reason for this is that website content is designed to be displayed on your computer screen, not sent to the printer to be put on paper. So even though it looks perfect on your monitor, the printed page is often completely messed up. I’ve even had people call me and complain that their printer isn’t working properly, because the words and images are all out of order and misaligned. The problem wasn’t the printer, though....

Last week I talked about 4 bad computer habits that I see happening pretty regularly. This week in part 2, I’ll cover the other 4. If you do any of these things with your computer, knock it off! Picking up from where we left off last Monday – 5. Clicking on unknown links Every time I get to the point where I think that by now just about all computer users must be aware of the danger of clicking on links that they aren’t sure of, I get a phone call from someone who did just that. Just recentl...

Since we use our computers just about every day, sometimes all day, it’s easy to get into a routine. As human beings, we have a set of habits. That means we don’t necessarily do things a certain way because it’s the safest or most efficient, but rather it’s just because we’ve always done it that way. These are some of the most common bad computer habits I see. I’ll cover 4 this week and 4 next week. 1. Weak and reused passwords No one would ever guess your dog’s name followed by your birth dat...

You know I’m always talking about having an automated, consistent backup process in place. This is partly because I have people bring me computers just about every week with a crashed drive, and they’re in a panic because they need the files and folders that are on that drive. But it’s also from first-hand experience – just a few weeks ago my OWN primary computer had a complete hard drive crash with no recoverable data. Of course I lost nothing because of my automated backup process. That autom...

Are you someone that would rather talk than type? Personally, I would rather type out words on the keyboard because then I can make sure that the message that is transmitted is exactly what I want to say. The downside of typing is that it usually takes longer since most people can speak much faster than they type. But if you prefer to control your computer by your voice, you can do that. And the software that allows that is probably already in your computer. I remember many years ago I purchase...

My favorite kind of computer tips are those that address a particularly common and annoying problem, and solve that problem with a quick solution that’s easy to implement. And preferably free. Today is a great example of this kind of computer tip. It’s a common complaint among laptop users. The cursor seems to jump around to random places on the page while you’re typing. If you happen to not be looking at the screen for a few seconds, you look up and you might see that you have typed a few word...