Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Can you recommend a good, but relatively inexpensive DSLR camera kit for a student?

Posted on November 4, 2018

Question from Helen C.: My son is going to be taking a photography class next semester with an eye towards eventually become a professional photographer.

He needs a DSLR camera to get him through this class, and hopefully beyond. I’m planning to buy him one for Christmas and I need some advice.

I really don’t know that much about cameras in general, and virtually nothing at all about the DSLRs that are currently on the market.

Can you recommend a good, but relatively inexpensive DSLR that would be a good choice for a photography student?

If possible, I’d like to get something for around $600 or less, and a few included accessories would be nice (yeah, I’m a dreamer lol).

Thanks for your help in advance. (Love your site by the way!!!)

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Want to save big on groceries and other household items? Check this out!

Posted on November 2, 2018

Have you ever pushed your buggy into the checkout lane at a grocery story and watched the person in front of you pull out a stack of coupons as thick as a brick, then use them to buy $200 worth of groceries for $28.73?

I have, and while I was a little annoyed at having to wait while the cashier scanned all of those coupons, I couldn’t help but admire the customer’s ability to save a ton of cash just by clipping a bunch of coupons.

If you’re a coupon clipper too, chances are you get them from a variety of sources including the Sunday paper, a favorite magazine or even your mailbox.

What you might not know is that you can find coupons for virtually anything you buy right on the Internet and print them out on your own printer. No more waiting around for the next Sunday paper to arrive!

[Read more…]

How to keep your WordPress blog free of broken links

Posted on October 28, 2018

Update: Unfortunately, it’s been discovered that the “Broken Link Checker” plugin mentioned in this post has a very serious security flaw and the plugin’s author has chosen not to fix it.

Therefore I can no long recommend the use of this plugin.

I now recommend using the web-based broken link checking tool on this page.

Note: The original post continues below…

Broken links are a blogger’s worst nightmare. In addition to providing your blog’s visitors with a poor user experience, they also give your blog a bad reputation with the major search engines, and your search rankings can suffer as a consequence.

Even worse, if you sell advertising on your blog, broken links also make your ad space less valuable.

Tracking down broken links used to involve a boatload of manual labor. We had to visit each page and post and click on all the links to see if they were still valid. But now a nifty WordPress plugin called Broken Link Checker makes it easy to find all the broken links on your entire blog without lifting a finger. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I transfer the Windows license from my dead laptop to a new PC?

Posted on October 23, 2018

Question from Leonard M.: I have an HP laptop that recently got ruined when my basement bedroom flooded. I was told that it can’t be fixed.

I’m planning to build a new desktop PC from a bare bones kit and I’m hoping I can install the Windows 7 that came with the dead laptop on it because I really don’t want to switch to Windows 10.

Will I be able to install my old Windows 7 on the new computer? I have a set of restore DVDs that I made from the laptop when I first got it.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Do you use a Norton security product on your PC? If so, your Internet could stop working on November 15!

Posted on October 22, 2018

Symantec Corporation has just announced the “retirement” of their Norton ConnectSafe DNS service.

If you have a PC that’s running any version of Norton Antivirus, your machine could also be using Norton ConnectSafe.

If so, you’ll need to switch to a different DNS service by November 15, 2018 to prevent your Internet service from coming to a screeching halt.

Important: This change won’t affect Norton Antivirus users who aren’t also using the Norton ConnectSafe DNS service. [Read more…]