Rick's Daily Tips

Rick’s Daily Pick: Duracell Coppertop AA and AAA Batteries with a 12-Year Shelf Life (56 Count)

Posted on August 30, 2026

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

My “Pick” for today is this fantastic 56 pack of Duracell Coppertop AA and AAA Batteries with a 12-Year Shelf Life.

Are you tired of stocking up on expensive batteries that never seem to last until you need them? These little gems from Duracell are guaranteed to still be good after sitting on your shelf for a full 12 years.

You never know when the next emergency is going to hit so it pays to keep a stash of really good batteries on hand at all times. You can depend on these to be still fully charged and ready to use after sitting on your shelf for a dozen years. Duracell has consistently produced great batteries and these particular ones are the best you can buy.

Note: Package contains 28 AA and 28 AAA batteries.

Click here to check out these Duracell Coppertop AA and AAA Batteries with a 12-Year Shelf Life (56 Count) at Amazon.

Did you miss (or want to revisit) one of my earlier picks? You might find it right here.

Picture of the Day: “Grazing in Grayson County”

Posted on August 30, 2026

Today’s POTD features a pair of beautiful horses grazing in a Grayson County, Virginia pasture field. I hope you like it.

Have lots of treasured photos of your own that you’d love to display in your home but you have limited wall space? A digital picture frame (#ad) is an excellent solution. Check them out!

Enjoy these Pictures of the Day? Sign up for my free Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter and you’ll never miss one (or any of my tech tips either)!

Monthly Tech Giveaway – August 2026

Posted on July 31, 2026

Note: The links on this page are affiliate links.

August’s winner will receive a fantastic Ambient Weather WS-2000 Smart Weather Station with Wi-Fi Remote Monitoring and Alerts.

If you’re a weather buff like I am you’ll love this personal weather station. It’ll keep you up-to-date on what’s happening outside your own home in real time.

All subscribers to the Standard edition of my Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter have an equal chance to win.

Premium subscribers have two chances to win (their email addresses are added to the “pot” twice).

Not a subscriber? Just enter your email address in the sign-up form on this page.

Once subscribed you’ll be eligible to win each month’s drawing – starting with this month. Better yet, opt for a Premium subscription for double the chance to win!

The drawing for this month’s prize will be held on August 31 and the winner will be notified by email. The winner will be selected at random.

Good luck!

Why you shouldn’t leave your backup drive plugged into your computer

Posted on August 30, 2026

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Regular readers of this blog know I’m always mentioning how important it is to create regular backups of your computer’s hard drive or SSD.

After all, always having a recent backup on hand is the very best “insurance” you can have against a catastrophic drive failure or a crippling virus infection.

But there’s one important point that I probably don’t stress nearly as much as I should…

[Read more…]

Q&A: If I remove a computer’s hard drive will any data be left behind?

Posted on August 29, 2026

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Question from Karen: I have several old computers in my basement that I want to recycle.

I’ve always heard that you need to destroy a computer’s hard drive before you recycle it to prevent someone else from maybe getting your files.

My question is will removing the hard drive from a PC completely eliminate any possibility of someone finding my old files.

[Read more…]

Q&A: Is the Copy Plain Text browser extension safe?

Posted on August 28, 2026

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Question from Amber: I do a lot of copying and pasting when I’m writing posts for my lifestyle blog.

Something that always irritates me is having to paste everything into Notepad to get rid of the formatting and then copy the “clean” text and paste it into the blog post I’m working on.

I checked Google and found a Firefox browser extension called Copy Plain Text that allows you to copy text and paste it without the formatting.

My question is, do you think it’s safe to use this extension? [Read more…]