Rick's Daily Tips

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…]

Scam alert: CCleaner has been hacked. If you use it you need to download the latest version, ASAP!

Posted on September 18, 2017

CCleaner has been one of my favorite Windows cleanup tools for years, and I’ve recommended it to countless other folks during that time.

Unfortunately, CCleaner’s maker Piriform has just announced that hackers have somehow managed to break into one of their servers and add malicious code to a recent build of the CCleaner software.

That means if you recently downloaded CCleaner to your PC or installed a recent update, your computer could well have malware on it. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is the keyboard on my iPad split in half?

Posted on September 17, 2017

Question from Linda: My 4 year old got her hands on my iPad and now the onscreen keyboard is split into two halves.

I tried typing with it like this but I just can’t because it feels so unnatural.

I’ll be forever in your debt if you can tell me what I need to do to get it back to normal! Can you?

Rick’s answer: This actually happens a lot Linda, and it’s almost always by accident based on the desperate pleas for help I receive on a fairly consistent basis.

Your message prompted me to finally write this post explaining how to fix the split keyboard issue. [Read more…]

Just for fun: How close are we to the planet Mars?

Posted on September 17, 2017

Most everyone knows that our universe is an amazingly vast place that the human mind will likely never be able to truly comprehend, but relatively few realize just how far it is even to our closest planetary neighbors.

Take for instance the distance to that favorite fodder for countless science fiction books, the planet Mars.

Many of us have been fascinated by the “Red Planet” for our entire lives, but actually going there would take a lot longer than a typical vacation would allow. [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I reset my iPad back to the factory settings after it has been jailbroken?

Posted on September 14, 2017

Question from Christy L.: Hi Rick. I’ve been reading your tips for over a year now and I love them. Thank you for posting them.

Now, it’s my turn to ask for help. I hope you can tell me how to fix a serious problem with my iPad.

I loaned my son my iPad 2 to use while he was waiting for his Macbook to get back from the repair shop. While he was using it one of his friends showed him how to jailbreak it. Now it runs real slow and the battery drains in half the time it used to take.

I was told that resetting the iPad back to it factory default settings would fix the problem. Can you tell me how to do that? I can’t afford to pay Apple to do it for me and it’s no longer under warranty.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]