Rick's Daily Tips

1/4 of all PCs aren’t protected against viruses. Is yours? Are you sure?

Posted on April 19, 2019

For years now study after study has shown that about 25% of all PCs worldwide operate without effective protection from viruses and hacking attacks.

Most of those vulnerable systems have antivirus software installed, but that software offers little protection because the owners fail to take steps to keep the malware definition files updated.

Many people think that just having an antivirus program installed on a PC is enough to keep malware and hackers at bay, but nothing could be further from the truth. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why are our security monitors showing a ghost image?

Posted on April 19, 2019

Question from Carolyn L: A convenience store not far from where we live recently closed and the owners sold all the equipment at auction.

My daughter and I bought their very old, but working security system to monitor certain areas of our little craft store.

It came with two security cameras, two monitors and the cables to connect them to two VCRs for recording the video from the cameras.

A friend of mine hooked everything up for us and it all seems to work ok except for one problem. Both monitors have a ghost image that appears to show the convenience store’s parking lot from two different angles.

The images from inside our store are displayed on the monitors but the ghost images are displayed on top of them, making it hard to follow what’s going on inside the store.

Why are those ghost images on there and how can we get rid of them?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

ATTN Bloggers: Contextual ads service Chitika has shut down

Posted on April 18, 2019

If you’re a blogger, you’re probably familiar with Chitika.

If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re very similar to Google’s popular Adsense contextual ad service.

In fact, Chitika is where many bloggers who were turned down for admission to the Adsense program (or got booted from it) ended up turning to earn revenue from their blogs.

Although Chitika never really gained a lot of traction against the ultra-popular Adsense, they did serve as a vital source of income for quite a few bloggers who were unable to take advantage of the Adsense program for whatever reason.

If you currently have Chitika ads running on your blog(s), I have some bad news for you: The service has been shut down, effective immediately.

[Read more…]

Instantly retrieve a forgotten Wi-Fi password from your PC with WirelessKeyView

Posted on April 17, 2019

When most folks set up a wireless router they create a secure Wi-Fi network that’s protected by a wireless security key (commonly referred to as a “password”).

Most computers and mobile devices will “remember” the passwords for each of the wireless networks they connect to, allowing the device to automatically connect to a network whenever the device comes into range.

That’s a wonderful feature, but it can lead to a problem… [Read more…]

Q&A: What are ‘Add-On Items’ at Amazon?

Posted on April 16, 2019

(#ad)

Question from Brandie: I recently started doing some shopping on Amazon (#ad), and I absolutely love it!

Their selection is simply astounding and their prices are very reasonable.

For the most part everything is very easy to understand or figure out as I go, but I’m still learning the ropes about some things.

For example, every now and then I’ll come across a product that’s listed as an “Add-On Item”.

I’m not really sure what that means. Can you tell me?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]