Rick's Daily Tips

Rick’s Daily Pick: Konpayde Electric Turbo Compressed Air Duster

Posted on August 29, 2026

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

My “Pick” for today is this super-handy Konpayde Electric Turbo Compressed Air Duster.

If you’ve been following my posts and reading my tech tips for a while you know how important it is to keep the dust and debris blown out of your keyboards and gadgets.

And you probably also know that cans of compressed air get pretty expensive over time.

This little gem will keep your gear clean and working great for years to come, and there’s nothing else to buy.

Click here to check out the Konpayde Electric Turbo Compressed Air Duster at Amazon.

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

Picture of the Day: “Daybreak in South Korea”

Posted on August 29, 2026

Today’s POTD features a beautiful sunrise over one of South Korea’s numerous rice paddies. This was taken just a few miles from the small US Army post I was stationed at back in the day. 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!

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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Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

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…]

How to read Kindle ebooks on your phone, tablet, PC or Mac

Posted on August 27, 2026

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You probably already know Amazon offers over millions of ebooks and a huge selection of magazines and newspapers for immediate download to Kindle devices.

You might also already be aware that many of the ebooks on Amazon cost just 99 cents each, and many more cost nothing at all (as in they are absolutely free)!

What you might not be aware of however is you don’t really have to have a Kindle device in order to download and enjoy all of those great Kindle products. [Read more…]