Rick's Daily Tips

You’ll be receiving a text message from the President on October 3. Yes, really.

Posted on September 18, 2018

Just a quick heads-up: In all likelihood you’ll be receiving a pair of SMS text messages from the President of the United States on Wednesday, October 3, 2018.

You can get all the details on these special text messages by visiting this page on the FEMA website, but if you just want the gist I’ve summarized it below.

The header of the message will read “Presidential Alert“, and the text of the message will be delivered in two parts…

Part 1 will test the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and it will read as follows: [Read more…]

Q&A: What’s the best laptop hard drive I can buy for $100 or less?

Posted on September 18, 2018

Question from Andy: The 750GB hard drive in my laptop has started making strange noises and I’m afraid it’s about to go out on me. I need to replace it ASAP but I don’t know which drive I should buy to replace it with.

I’d really like to get an SSD to make the laptop run a lot faster, but my budget for the drive is only about $100 (or preferably less).

I checked around and the largest SSD I can get for that price is way too small for my needs. I really need something that’s at least as big as the drive that’s in the laptop right now.

Can you help me find the fastest hard drive I can get for $100 that’s at least 750GB?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

ATTN Students: Get free two-day shipping and other free perks from Amazon!

Posted on September 16, 2018

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Most folks know that Amazon Prime members get free 2-day shipping on thousands of products as well as a number of other valuable freebies. And of course they also know that a Prime membership costs $119 per year.

But guess what? If you’re a college student you can sign up for a 6 month subscription to Amazon Prime for free! [Read more…]

ATTN Bloggers: Was your blog’s SSL/TLS certificate issued by Symantec? If so, you need to replace it ASAP!

Posted on September 14, 2018

By now most bloggers know just how important it is to have their blogs secured by SSL/TLS encryption.

If you’re a blogger and you haven’t yet enabled SSL/TLS encryption on your own blog(s), this post explains why I recommend that you get it done ASAP.

If you have already taken the plunge and encrypted your blog(s), there’s something you really need to know… [Read more…]

Review: Fenix PD25 550 Lumen LED Tactical Flashlight

Posted on September 13, 2018

Regular readers of this blog know that my interests in the computer and electronics fields vary quite a bit. If it has a chip in it, I’ll probably find it interesting.

Well, I recently received one of the most interesting electronic items I have ever received for testing and review: a Fenix PD25 550 Lumen LED Tactical Flashlight. (#ad)

I know, you’re probably thinking what could be so interesting about something as mundane as a flashlight? Well let me tell you, this thing is far from your typical flashlight! [Read more…]