Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Acer Predator 21 X Gaming Laptop

Posted on September 21, 2017

Serious “gamers” are always thirsting for the latest, greatest and fastest gaming PC money can buy. Well, I just found it.

Acer has released the fastest, most powerful and (possibly) the largest gaming laptop ever built.

Simply put, the Acer Predator 21 X Gaming Laptop is almost beyond belief.

This thing packs a punch that would knock out all but the most powerful desktop gaming computers, and the price tag reflects it: roughly 9 grand at the time of this writing!

But check out everything you’ll get for that 9 grand: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I turn on Chat for just one friend on Facebook while appearing to be offline to everyone else?

Posted on September 20, 2017

Question from Cindy H.: Hi Rick! I so love your tips! I have a question for you.

My boyfriend is in the Army and he’s currently stationed in Germany.

Is there a way to turn on Facebook Chat just for him so that my other Facebook friends won’t bother me during our nightly chats?

I have an Acer All-In-One computer with Windows 10 on it.

Thanks a lot!!

Rick’s answer: Yes Cindy, there is. And it’s really easy to do. just follow the steps below: [Read more…]

How to mute ALL auto-playing audio in your web browser

Posted on September 19, 2017

One of my biggest pet peeves is audio that starts blaring from my computer’s speakers just as soon as I visit a web page.

It makes no difference whether its coming from an ad, a cute video or simple background music, if it starts playing on its own, I don’t like it.

In fact, I dislike it so much I immediately hit my browser’s “Back” button when music or some other sound starts playing just as soon as the page loads unless I REALLY want to view the content on the page. [Read more…]

Kingsoft Office – An outstanding free replacement for Microsoft Office

Posted on September 19, 2017

I have often wondered why so many companies and individuals continue to pay big bucks for Microsoft Office when there are a number of outstanding free alternatives to choose from.

I haven’t owned a current version of either Microsoft Word or Excel for over a decade, and the free software on my PC can read and write those files just fine.

I have used Apache OpenOffice for some time and highly recommend it, but I recently downloaded and began testing Kingsoft Office. So far I find myself very impressed. Here’s why: [Read more…]

How to enable Two Factor Authentication on your Dropbox account

Posted on September 19, 2017

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of two-factor authentication for online accounts.

For those who might have missed them, I have already written posts explaining how to enable it on Facebook and Twitter.

Two factor authentication is a security measure which requires you to enter a verification code that’s sent to your mobile phone before you’ll be allowed to log in to your account.

This effectively locks your online account as tight as a virtual drum since a hacker would need physical access to your cell phone in order to break into your account.

The steps below explain how to quickly and easily enable two-step verification on your Dropbox account: [Read more…]