Rick's Daily Tips

Tech Tips, Tricks and Tutorials

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Q&A: Can I install a 3.5″ floppy disk drive in my desktop computer?

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3.5-inch-floppy-driveQuestion from Deanna T.:  Hi Rick. I have a question for you. Is it possible to install a 3.5″, 1.44MB floppy disk drive in a Dell Inspiron 660s computer?

The reason I’m asking is because the trusty 11 year old PC I use in my fabric shop has finally bitten the dust. I’ve replaced it with a refurbished Dell 660s and I love it, but all of my data files are on 1.44MB floppy disks.

I found out today that the company that wrote the software I use has a new version available that’ll work on my new computer, but I’ll need to retrieve the data files from the floppies.

I was hoping I could just buy a 3.5″ floppy drive and install it in the computer. Is that possible? Can you even still buy a floppy drive? As you can tell, I’m a little on the dumb side when it comes to computers.

Rick’s answer:   [Read more…]

Q&A: Can using Bitly to shorten URLs hurt my blog’s Google rankings?

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google-logoQuestion from Kevin:  For a while now I’ve been using Bitly to shorten my blog post URLs before I post them on Twitter and LinkedIn so I can track the clicks on them.

Yesterday I heard that using a URL shortener can cause a website to rank lower in the search engines.

Is that true? If it is true how can I get all the Bitly links removed from Twitter and LinkedIn?

I’m asking because my blog’s Google rankings took a nosedive a few months back. Do you think Google is penalizing my blog for using Bitly?

Rick’s answer:   [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I determine what type of RAM to buy to upgrade my PC?

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Msodimm-ram-sticksQuestion from Chris V.:  My family has two laptops and a desktop computer, all of which need more RAM. How can I find out which type of RAM to buy for each computer?

I checked online and there’s DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, DIMMs, SODIMMS, etc. and they all seem to operate at different speeds. It’s all so confusing!

Rick’s answer:  Chris, choosing the correct type of RAM for upgrading a computer can be confusing indeed, but our friends over at Crucial.com make it easy with their awesome System Scanner Tool. Here’s how to use it:  [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t Facebook show the photo from my blog posts?

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Question from Caroline:  I recently made a Facebook page for my “women’s issues” blog and I’m having a problem with it.

Now every time I write a new blog post I paste the link to it in a Facebook status update.

The problem I’m having is sometimes Facebook won’t display the photo from the blog post. All it will display is the title and a short snippet of the text.

Is there something I’m doing wrong? Or is there a trick to getting Facebook to pull in the image from my blog posts?

Rick’s answer:   [Read more…]

Q&A: Do surge protectors ever go bad?

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Surge SuppressorQuestion from Jeannie F.:  Hi Rick. I live in an area that’s prone to frequent electrical storms so I’ve always been fanatical about keeping my electronic stuff plugged into surge protectors.

But I was told the other day that surge protectors go bad after a while. Is that true? All of mine are several years old.

Rick’s answer:   [Read more…]

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