Rick's Daily Tips

How to quickly create a mini-collage of your favorite photos

Posted on April 30, 2019

Every now and then I have a need to combine two or more photos into a single image by arranging them side by side and/or over top of one another.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at the image on the right.

It’s actually pretty easy to create a mini-collage like this with most popular image editing programs, but I’ve found a much easier and faster way to do it.

Just fire up your web browser and click over to the wonderful online Combine Images tool from the folks over at QuickPictureTools.com. [Read more…]

Amazon’s PartFinder tool will tell you if a computer part will work with your computer

Posted on April 29, 2019

(#ad)

By now you probably know that upgrading your computer’s RAM, adding a stand-alone graphics adapter or replacing the hard drive with an SSD can make it run faster and more smoothly.

But if you’ve ever actually shopped for computer parts you probably also know how difficult it can be to determine whether a given part is compatible with your particular computer.

All the info you need to make that determination is available on the Internet (and in many cases right in the product’s item description), but unless you’re very familiar with computer hardware it can be difficult to figure out which info is even relevant to the determination.

Well, Amazon has a handy tool that can help…

[Read more…]

Warning: Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader also installs add-on programs by default

Posted on April 29, 2019

I’ve written many times about the habit of some free software download sites bundling unwanted “add-on” software with their downloads.

Of course you can usually “opt out” of downloading the extra software by unchecking a box or two, but it’s very irritating that those boxes are typically checked by default.

Well, I recently received a message from a reader complaining about Adobe’s habit of bundling add-on programs with the downloads on their own site and I thought I should probably post a warning about it.

[Read more…]

Q&A: Can the RAM be upgraded on a Mac mini?

Posted on April 27, 2019

Question from Tom L.: I bought bought my daughter a Mac mini in November 2014 hoping she could use it when she started college in January.

The salesman told me that the only Mac minis they had in stock came with 4GB of RAM but I could always upgrade the RAM to a greater amount later if it turned out that 4GB wasn’t enough.

Well, it turns out that she does need more RAM now in order to run a program she’ll be using for one of her classes next semester.

The problem is she took the computer into Best Buy for a RAM upgrade and they told her that her model of the Mac mini can’t be upgraded. Is that true? She loves this computer and wants to keep using it if she can.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Warning: Don’t buy a Windows 10 device that has just 32GB of storage space!

Posted on April 26, 2019

If you’re shopping for a budget PC or tablet with Windows 10 on it you’ll find plenty of them that come with just 32GB of storage space.

In fact, I’ve reviewed several such low-cost Windows 10 devices on this blog in the past.

And I must say that some of those reviews were glowing.

But that being said, I’ll never review or recommend another Windows 10 device of any kind that comes with just 32 GB of storage.

[Read more…]