Rick's Daily Tips

Rant alert: Why are U.S. Government agencies still using 50 year old computer equipment?

Posted on May 26, 2016

70s-era-computer With the federal government spending trillions of dollars each and every year, wouldn’t you expect our most critical government agencies to be using the latest technology?

Well here’s a news flash for you: They don’t.

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), some of the government’s most important tasks are still being completed using computer equipment and software that was developed as far back as the 1950’s.

If you’re thinking that tasks being completed using such outdated equipment can’t be all that important, consider this quote from the GAO report: [Read more…]

Chromebooks outsell Macs for the first time

Posted on May 24, 2016

According to sales data compiled by the folks at IDC Research, more people bought laptops running Google’s Chrome operating system than Apple Macs for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2016.

Chromebooks (#ad) have been steadily gaining market share for some time now, and it was fairly inevitable that this would happen sooner or later.

While they won’t overtake Windows PCs any time soon, Microsoft must still be wringing their collective hands as these nifty devices eat into their market share as well. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I prevent my Facebook friends from knowing that I’ve read their messages?

Posted on May 23, 2016

Question from Glen T. There are times when I’d rather not let certain Facebook friends know that I’ve read a message they sent me.

I’ve checked the Facebook privacy settings from top to bottom and I can’t figure out how to block the “Seen at” notifications from being sent.

Is there any way to turn the “Seen at” notifications off?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Warning: Pay attention to this Windows 10 upgrade notice if you don’t want Windows 10!

Posted on May 17, 2016

As you probably know, Microsoft has been very aggressive of late with their attempts to get you to install the free Windows 10 update.

Well, it appears that they have decided to try toning it down just a bit with their latest update notice, but that “toning down” can be a bit misleading.

In order to understand why it’s misleading, it’s important to carefully consider the way the Windows 10 update notice is constructed.

With that in mind, lets take a look at the notice: [Read more…]