Rick's Daily Tips

Think password managers are safe? Truth be told, they’re quite dangerous.

Posted on February 12, 2018

Many of the web’s most widely respected tech experts recommend using a password manager such as KeePass to store all of your online passwords. I don’t recommend them however, and after reading this post you will understand why.

A typical password manager will store all of your passwords in an encrypted database. In order to “open” the database to extract a needed password you’ll have to enter a master password.

This sounds like a great idea for storing and protecting a bunch of unique passwords without having to remember them all, and the concept is indeed a great one. But unfortunately it is seriously flawed. Here’s why: [Read more…]

ATTN Bloggers: You MUST enable SSL Encryption on your blog(s) before July 2018!

Posted on February 12, 2018

I’ve been sounding the alarm about the need for bloggers to enable SSL encryption on their blogs for some time now, and the time window for getting it done is closing fast.

All the major web browsers are now labeling any non-encrypted page with a form on it as insecure, and Google is planning to completely drop the hammer on insecure sites in July.

The folks at Google have just announced in this post on their Chromium blog that they’re planning to release Chrome 68 in July 2018.

That post also states that that new version of Chrome is going to mark every page with a URL that starts with http:// instead of https:// as an insecure (and thus dangerous) page.

That means starting in July your blog’s traffic will likely fall off the edge of a cliff if you haven’t enabled SSL encryption on it by then. Here’s why: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I disable the touchpad on my laptop?

Posted on February 12, 2018

Question from Ellen P.: I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 10 on it to use when I’m travelling.

I really like it but the touchpad is very sensitive. If I’m typing something and I happen to accidentally brush my hand against the touchpad it messes up what I’m doing.

I always use a mouse instead of the touchpad on this machine so I’d like to disable the touchpad if it’s possible to do so. Is it?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I manage all the cords that are plugged into my computer?

Posted on February 12, 2018

Question from Judy C.: Rick, how do you manage so many cords on these stupid contraptions? They are confusing and they are dust collectors.

I’m wanting to rearrange the locations of all the parts of my computer setup, but I don’t even know where to begin. Right now, as I try to sort this out, I am using my mouse with my left hand.

I fear that if I start disconnecting things, I will never be able to put them together again. (Phone, hard drive, screen, scanner, router, some other boxes of some dang stuff.)

What do you recommend? Also, is there a way to shorten the cables?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to forward your Yahoo mail to another email account

Posted on February 11, 2018

Yahoo Mail is the second most used email service on the web, and it’s also one of the oldest.

But if you use Yahoo Mail you’re probably painfully aware of all the troubles the service and its users have endured in recent times.

Those issues have prompted a lot of users to switch from Yahoo to a different email service.

I’ve received several emails of late asking me how to forward Yahoo Mail to another email account, so I thought it might be a good idea to just write a how-to post explaining the procedure. [Read more…]