Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
The Overlooked Role of Credit in Hiring
When people think about job applications, they usually prepare resumes, references, and interview answers. What many don’t realize is that some employers may also look at credit reports before making hiring decisions.
It might seem unrelated — after all, what does paying bills on time have to do with professional skills? But for employers, your credit history can tell a deeper story about responsibility, reliability, and decision-making. [Read more…]
Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?
Sign up for my daily Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter!
A while back I wrote a post explaining how to give an old PC new life by replacing Windows with Linux as a means of extending the useful life of older PCs.
After that post was published I received a number of emails asking for a list of Linux programs that can replace the Windows programs they’d leaving behind if they made the switch.
I decided that it might be a good idea to publish that list in its own blog post, and here it is: [Read more…]
Imagine this: It’s 9 p.m. on a rainy Tuesday, you finally receive the long-awaited contract from your new distributor in Santiago, and it absolutely must be filed in two languages by the end of the week.
You could run it through free online software, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. Or you could trust an online translation partner that treats your words the way a jeweler handles diamonds carefully, deliberately, and with the right set of tools.
In 2025, when AI writes menus and court rulings alike, the challenge isn’t finding a translation service; it’s finding one that won’t burn you.
[Read more…]
Want to get my easy to follow Tech Tips in your email?
Sign up for my daily Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter!
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Burglars love targeting houses where it’s pretty obvious that no one’s at home.
After all, there’s less chance of them getting caught when there’s nobody there to catch them.
Are you worried about your home being burglarized when you’re at work, on vacation, or otherwise away from home?
If so, there are several things you can do to make it appear to potential burglars that your home is indeed occupied at all times – and prevent them from breaking in: [Read more…]
Social engineering rarely starts with a message. It usually begins long before that, when an attacker quietly studies a person’s public digital trail.
Old posts, forgotten bios, casual comments, and hobby updates combine into a surprisingly detailed picture. This information can then be used to craft messages that feel real, familiar, and trustworthy.
The less a stranger can learn from someone’s online presence, the harder it becomes to manipulate them. This is why reducing a digital footprint is one of the most practical ways to stay protected.
[Read more…]