Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why does my monitor take so long to display a picture?

Posted on February 22, 2022

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

Question from Janie: I have an Asus VW266 27″ LCD monitor that I’ve had for several years. I’d really like to keep it because my late father gave it to me before he passed away, but I’ve started having problems with it.

About a month ago it started taking a minute or two for anything to be displayed on the screen after I turned it on.

The screen would just stay black for a couple of minutes, then display the picture.

These past few days it’s taking longer still for the picture to show. The screen stayed black for about 20 minutes this morning. [Read more…]

Windows: Lock down your privacy with Microsoft’s ‘Privacy Dashboard’

Posted on February 21, 2022

As you probably know by now, Microsoft designed Windows 10 and Windows 11 to be quite intrusive when it comes to your privacy.

By default, the operating system collects all sorts of sensitive user data and stores it on your PC’s hard drive and/or sends it back to Microsoft via the Internet.

Luckily, most of Windows’ “spying” can be either mitigated somewhat or disabled completely if you know where to look for the various settings.

Unfortunately, finding (and understanding) all of the relevant privacy settings can be a challenge to say the least. [Read more…]

Q&A: Do I need to back up my SSD like I did my hard drive?

Posted on February 18, 2022

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Kyle: The hard drive in my computer died and I replaced it with an SSD per your suggestion.

I’ve read that SSD’s are a lot more reliable than hard drives and that they rarely go bad.

My question is do I need to back up my SSD like I did my hard drive? [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I quickly find a specific word or phrase on a long web page?

Posted on February 18, 2022

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

Question from Doreen: Hi, Rick. I moonlight doing product research for a local company, and I often find myself having to scan looooong web pages for a certain word or phrase related to the task at hand.

Some of these pages are literally thousands of words in length, and the font size is often very small which makes it even harder to find what I’m looking for.

Is there any way that I can just search for the word or phrase and have Firefox take me right to it? [Read more…]

The future of programming: What are the most promising languages?

Posted on February 17, 2022

Currently, software development is one of the most sought-after careers.

Job growth for programmers is expected to increase by 21 percent between 2018 and 2028, more than four times the average for all occupations.

A software programmer can expect to make $106,000 a year on average, more than three times the average income of all Americans.

Despite this, not all programming positions are created equal. Understanding numerous programming languages may be advantageous in a wide variety of contexts, including the workplace and the development of various types of software. [Read more…]