Rick's Daily Tips

Dell to release $99 PC that you can carry in your pocket

Posted on February 6, 2013

dell-ophelia How would you like to pay just $99 for a very capable Dell PC that you can carry around in your pocket? Well, starting sometime around June 2013 you’ll be able to.

Although it hasn’t been given an official name yet, Dell is developing the device under the code name “Project Ophelia”.

It’ll look very similar to an over-sized USB thumb drive, run Google’s Android Jelly Bean operating system and plug directly into a monitor or TV (from which it will draw its power). A keyboard and mouse will connect via either USB or wirelessly via Bluetooth, your choice. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my HP laptop turn on?

Posted on February 5, 2013

Question from Sean W.: I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista. Now all of a sudden it won’t turn on. When I press the power button some of the LEDs light up then go right back out and the system is dead. Do you think my computer is fried? Or maybe the power adaptor?

Rick’s answer: Sean, I don’t think anything is “fried”. I believe a hard reset to the machine will probably get you back up and running. Try this: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is there any way to retrieve the files from my old floppy disks?

Posted on February 4, 2013

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Anna G.: Hi Rick. I read your post the other day about playing old games on new computers and it reminded me that I have a ton of old 3.5″ floppy disks filled with stuff that I’d like to check out and possibly copy onto my hard disk.

The problem is my laptop doesn’t have a floppy disk drive. Any ideas?

Rick’s answer: You’re in luck Anna. All you need to do is buy an external USB 3.5″ floppy drive and plug it into your laptop’s USB port. You’ll be able to view the files on your floppy disks and copy them onto your PC’s hard drive, onto blank DVDs or even onto a USB thumb drive.

There are a couple of things to be aware of however: [Read more…]

How to find out if your PC will run windows 8

Posted on February 4, 2013

Now that Windows 8 has been out for a while you might be wondering if you should buy the Windows 8 upgrade package and install it on your computer. If you’re a regular reader of RicksDailyTips you already know from reading this post that I don’t really think so.

That being said, there are some valid reasons for upgrading your PC to Windows 8. If you’re considering taking the plunge, the first thing to do is determine whether or not your PC can even run Windows 8. According to Microsoft, the minimum system requirements for running it are as follows: [Read more…]

Remove the WordPress version from your blog’s pages for added security

Posted on February 3, 2013

WordPress is the most widely used self-hosted blogging platform out there which makes WordPress-based blogs especially appealing targets for hackers.

The core WordPress files are updated quite often in order to plug security holes, but it’s easy to miss an upgrade when it becomes available, or simply forget to install it. Missing an update makes your blog an open target because hackers tend to go after blogs that are still running older, insecure versions of WordPress.

And it’s extremely easy for the bad guys to find blogs running older versions of WordPress. Since the WordPress version is listed right in the blog’s source code, all they have to do is search Google for an older version number and Google will comply by listing all the blogs that are running that WordPress version. But there’s an easy way to prevent hackers from finding your blog by using this method. Simply install a great little plugin called Remove My Version! [Read more…]