Posts

Twitter can be a little bit crazy. By default, it’s like a large public shouting match. Anyone can weigh in, scream something, wave a sign, and generally interact with whoever else they want. This can cause some issues. Although Twitter has some broad rules—like no abusive behaviour, threats, harassment, hateful language, leaking private information, and so on—they’re not very well enforced. No one is reviewing Tweets in real time, so it’s easy for someone to set up an account and send hundreds of abusive messages before they’re shut down....

If you have cellular service in the US, then there’s a good chance you’re on one of the big four carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile. But what if I told you that you could save a significant amount of money without sacrificing coverage by switching to a smaller carrier with the same great service? While the “big four” essentially run the show when it comes to mobile, they’re not the only game in town....

While Google Drive has an excellent search built into the site, did you know there’s an easier, quicker way to execute a Drive search directly from Chrome’s address bar (the omnibox)? Setting it up is a snap, and using it is even easier. Step One: Create a Custom Search Engine for Drive First, you’ll need to create a custom search engine for searching Drive. Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Chrome window, and then click “Settings....

If you’ve been on Facebook a while it’s probable you’ve amassed a friends list that includes close friends, old childhood friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, and a whole host of people you like but don’t necessarily want to share everything with. Read on as we show you how to selectively share content. First off, huge congratulations on the impending birth of your first child. Second, while we don’t mind seeing cute baby photos we certainly commend you for realizing that lots of people don’t really care to see the baby photos of people they aren’t particularly close to; you’re certainly in the top echelons of thoughtful Facebook users just for even considering such a thing....

Your once snappy Chrome browser is dragging, and you don’t know why. Do you blame Google, and switch to another browser to feel that new-browser smell once again? Not so fast! A browser reset is much less of a hassle, and will fix all kinds of issues—without deleting all your bookmarks and other data. What a Browser Reset Does Fresh out of the box, Chrome is actually a ridiculously snappy browser....

Using Apple’s Mail app on a Mac? You may be losing gigabytes of space from attachments that you could be putting to better use. Here’s what you can do about it. First, Check How Much Space Mail is Using By default, the Mail app wants to cache every single email and attachment you’ve ever received offline. This could take up tens of gigabytes of space if you have a lot of emails....

Android Auto is a game changer in the car. Regardless of whether you have a dedicated Auto head unit, your car came Auto-ready, or you’re just using your phone in Auto mode, it’s a killer piece of software. But it can also be frustrating when things don’t work like they should. Here are some suggestions on what you can do if Auto isn’t working. Step One: Check the Cable and Bluetooth Connections This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you’re using a dedicated Auto head unit, the cable is the first place to start....

A new feature was introduced in watchOS 3.2 called Theater Mode, denoted by a button with two little theater masks. But what exactly does it do? RELATED: How to Setup, Tweak, and Use Your New Apple Watch If you’ve ever gone to the movie theater and lift your arm up to grab a handful of popcorn while the movie is playing, you might have noticed your Apple Watch’s screen automatically comes on, because it thinks you want to look at the time....

For more than a year now, Gmail has allowed you to undo the sending of an email. However, this feature was only available when you use Gmail in a browser, not in the Gmail mobile apps. Now, an “Undo” button is finally available in Gmail for iOS. RELATED: How to Enable the Undo Button in Gmail (and Unsend that Embarrassing Email) Gmail for the web allows you to set the time limit for the Undo button to 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds, but the Undo button in Gmail for iOS is set to a time limit of 5 seconds, with no way to change that....

When Google introduced Google Drive in April 24, 2012, they promised Linux support “coming soon.” That was nearly five years ago. Google still hasn’t released an official version of Google Drive for Linux, but there are other tools to fill the gap. There’s also the Google Drive website, which will work in any modern browser. Google officially recommends using the website on Linux, but if you want something on the desktop, here are your options....

The ar command is a real veteran—it has been around since 1971. The name ar references the original intended use for the tool, which was to create archive files. An archive file is a single file that acts as a container for other files. Sometimes for many other files. Files can be added to, removed from, or extracted from the archive. People looking for that type of functionality no longer turn to ar....

When the air conditioner is running during the summer, it may not necessarily be functioning in a way that optimizes your home’s humidity level. With the Nest Thermostat, you can tell your air conditioner to cool your house based on the humidity level, so your house doesn’t feel like a Florida swamp. RELATED: How to Install and Set Up the Nest Thermostat Most thermostats don’t come with a humidity sensor....

If you want to catch all the action during the 2018 MLB playoffs, there are a handful of ways you can watch the games, either from your TV or on pretty much any other device. MLB.TV The gold standard in baseball game streaming is MLB.TV. During the regular season, you can watch pretty much any game you want (except for in-market games, which are blacked out). During the postseason, however, things are a bit different....

The “Define” feature in iOS has been renamed to “Look Up” in iOS 10, and has been enhanced to provide more than just definitions. Look Up now presents you with results from the App Store, Apple Music, websites, and Wikipedia. To use the Look Up feature, select some text in an app, such as a web browser or an email app and then tap “Look Up” on the popup....

Microsoft just announced Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22572 for the Dev channel, and it comes with an exciting change: two new tools are becoming Inbox apps, which means they’ll be preinstalled on all Windows 11 PCs. For users on the Home version of Windows 11, Microsoft Family is now an Inbox app, which means it’s preinstalled on the OS. For all versions, Microsoft’s Clipchamp video editing app is also preinstalled....

AppArmor is an important security feature that’s been included by default with Ubuntu since Ubuntu 7.10. However, it runs silently in the background, so you may not be aware of what it is and what it’s doing. AppArmor locks down vulnerable processes, restricting the damage security vulnerabilities in these processes can cause. AppArmor can also be used to lock down Mozilla Firefox for increased security, but it doesn’t do this by default....

Memoization is a specific form of caching that lends itself to scenarios where a costly function is executed repeatedly, sometimes with the same arguments. Provided that the function is pure so that it always produces the same value from a particular set of inputs, memoizing it can increase efficiency and reduce wasted CPU cycles. You’ll most often encounter memoization in functional programming languages. The technique has broad utility, though. It’s an abstract concept that you can incorporate into any recursive code....

If there’s one complaint nearly everyone seems to have about Windows, it’s that it wants to reboot so frequently. Whether it’s for Windows updates or just when installing, uninstalling, or updating software, Windows will often ask to reboot. Windows generally has to reboot because it can’t modify system files while they’re being used. Those files are locked, and can only be modified when they’re not being used. What Does Rebooting Do?...

Laptops, tablets, and phones never seem to know exactly how many hours of power they have left. The estimate may jump from two hours to five hours before dropping back down to one hour. Even worse, the battery may suddenly die without warning. Your Device Is Just Guessing Based on Your Current Usage RELATED: Why Are Progress Bars So Inaccurate? Your device’s battery drains faster when it does more demanding things....

Parental controls can filter the web, blocking inadvertent access to inappropriate websites. There are a variety of ways to do this, from configuring network-wide parental controls on your router to using the parental controls built into Windows or third-party software. Web filtering is best used to restrict the web for young children, preventing them from accidentally wandering into the seedier corners of the Internet. Teenagers are adept at finding their ways around parental controls if they want to....