Rick's Daily Tips

Affinity Photo: Popular RAW image editor for Mac users is now available for Windows

Posted on January 17, 2017

Most modern digital cameras do an excellent job at tweaking the images they capture in-camera to create great looking JPEG files, and for most casual photographers JPEGs are just fine.

That being said, many professional photographers and serious amateurs prefer shooting in RAW mode in order to retain complete creative control over the photos they take.

In a nutshell, RAW image files retain virtually all of the image data that was captured by the camera’s sensor. Since no adjustments are made in-camera, no image data is lost so photographers can edit their photos to their liking. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I remove the EXIF Data from my pictures before uploading them to Facebook?

Posted on January 13, 2017

Question from Mary: I just learned that every picture taken with a digital camera has something called EXIF Data embedded within it that includes the location where the picture was taken.

I have lots of family pictures that were taken at my house and I’d rather not have my physical address out there for all the world to see.

Is there any way to remove the EXIF Data / location info before I upload my pics to Facebook? My camera is a Nikon and my computer is an Acer laptop.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Have an unlimited data plan with Verizon? If so, you might be about it lose it.

Posted on January 12, 2017

Are you one of the relatively few Verizon Wireless customers who still have unlimited data plans?

If so, you need to start thinking about either switching to one of Verizon’s limited data plans or changing carriers altogether if you use over 200GB of data per month.

Our friends over at Droid Life and ars Technica are reporting that Verizon is planning to boot unlimited data customers who typically use over 200GB per month off of their unlimited data plans on February 16 if they haven’t voluntarily switched to a limited data plan by that date. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I remove the ‘Boot Menu’ from my computer?

Posted on January 9, 2017

Question from Kevin B.: When Windows 10 was released I installed it, but I also decided to also keep Windows 8.1 so I could boot into either version at any time.

I had been booting into Windows 8.1 every now and then to access some files I have on there, but I recently discovered that the Windows 8.1 installation is no longer activated because its product key was transferred to Windows 10.

I guess that means I won’t be using Windows 8.1 any longer.

How can I have my computer skip the Boot Menu and boot directly into Windows 10? I’d just delete the Window 8.1 partition but I have a bunch of files in there that I don’t want to lose.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

How to adjust the brightness of your screen with just two mouse clicks

Posted on January 9, 2017

Do you wish there was a faster and easier way to adjust the brightness of your computer screen?

Well, there is, and it’s a real time-saver!

A nifty free utility called ClickMonitorDDC lets you adjust your screen brightness by simply clicking an icon in the Windows notification area and selecting a new value.

Alternatively, you can save even more time by hovering your mouse over the icon and rolling the mouse wheel to change the brightness level. Either way is fine – whatever works best for you.

ClickMonitor DDC is a tiny portable utility that doesn’t have to be installed, and it couldn’t be easier to use. Here’s how: [Read more…]