This is our second post this month about terminology. (The first was "Speak The Language.") Today, we're going to just focus on one term - browser. Whenever we deal with people on the phone or in Remote Technical Support, THE most confusing term for them seems to be the word "browser." Let's see if we …
Month: October 2020
Better Late Than Never?
Yep, I pretty much missed it. Here it is, October 30, 2020, and I'm just now telling you that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. I guess it slipped my mind since I pretty much think every day is a cyber security awareness day. This year, many websites - including the FBI - dedicated …
Cher
https://youtu.be/jq_BAHIAuNw Isn't it odd that some celebrities are so well known that they are only called by one name? What is the criteria for being in a position that people only need to know your one appellation? Think about it! The King of Rock and Roll was known by both of his names - Elvis …
Pic Stitch
In my July 21, 2020 post entitled, "What A Motley Crew!" I posted the picture you see above. Someone recently asked me how I created one picture from five different pictures. (Just in case you've forgotten, each of those in this photo - Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian West, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden and Bill Gates …
Covid-19 Halloween
Halloween is just about here but there hasn't been one this strange since 1918. With Covid-19 still with us and, in some areas of the world, actually increasing instead of decreasing, Halloween could be tough this year. However, using the techniques I teach here in this blog and in my video on searching (it's at …
2020 Finale
As if 2020 hasn't been a rough year already, a number of services will be ending on or near December 31, 2020. Here's a breakdown for you: ADOBE FLASH PLAYER It's been 24 years since Macromedia first introduced Adobe Flash Player. That's a very long run for any single piece of software but its time …
Chat With Us
Every so often, I like to point out new things on our site. I know sometimes visitors just read our blogs and then move on. Yet, we also get questions via email or phone call about things related to 4kcc.com. In an effort to better serve those coming to our website, I've added a "Chat …
It’s 2009
No, I'm not talking about a time machine that can take us back to the year 2009. I'm actually posting to tell you Windows 10 users that the latest version of the Operating System was released a few days ago. Of course, with a zillion Windows 10 computing devices out there, it may take many …
Speak The Language
Like many fields - think medical, legal, real estate - the computing world has lots of terminology which can be foreign to our normal thinking and even have double meanings. When we don't understand the terms being used, it causes loss of time, frustration and, sometimes, complete confusion. We see this all the time in …
Password Revisited
Password revisited sounds like a cool title, doesn't it? It's true - I've written posts about passwords before. (You can see how many HERE.) Still, we have some new readers, plus I know some of you are still not following the rules when it comes to passwords! How do I know that? Easy. Every week, …
Updating
If you're a Remote Technical Support subscriber of ours, you know all about our Quarterly Updates. (For those of you who are not RTS customers, let me explain: every three months, we send an email asking RTS members to log in to us so we can make sure their computer is up-to-date; that their anti-virus …
GC: Tips And Tricks
https://youtu.be/LrAELt6MSPc One of the primary purposes of our computing hardware and software is as a tool which helps us achieve some goal. Whether we're creating a letter, a spreadsheet, a photographic array or an email, our computing devices should make our task easier. Like tools in areas other than computing, there is often a major …
Edge New Tab: Make It Your Own
Like most browsers, Microsoft Edge has a New Tab setting. The image above is my New Tab which shows a picture I took of a FEC (Florida East Coast Railway) train. (You can click on the picture to see a larger image.) Edge now offers you the ability to use one of your own pictures …
Hate Crowds?
Some people hate crowds. Some people hate crowds even more now that we're dealing with Covid-19. Once again, Google is offering a new feature to help. You'll now be able to use Google Maps to see how busy a place is before you go there. The information will appear for places like grocery stores, pharmacies, …
A Real HUMdinger
Do you ever have a melody in your head that you just can't remember its name or the words? Thursday, Google announced a new search feature. You can now hum a tune and Google search will return the most likely song. You don't even have to be all that good at humming! You do, however, …
Try This Search!
Once again, in the past week, I have two long-time customers who fell for a scam. Even though I've talked about the types of scams with which they got involved, they fell for it anyway. Just today, a scammer tried to get almost $700 from one of these customers. With that in mind, here's what …
Shake, Rattle And…
https://youtu.be/YhELpSeeipg https://youtu.be/8B7xr_EjbzE https://youtu.be/EBlWGyp4eOY?t=14 Whether you like the Big Joe Turner or the Bill Haley and the Comets or the Elvis Presley version of Shake, Rattle and Roll, you have to admit it was a very popular song in the 1950s. Did you know that if you use Windows 10, you can do a little shaking …
One In 2,610,602
Today, myself and a few of my friends - about 2.6 million of them - watched the live Apple event. Most of us sat on the edge of our seat waiting to have all the iPhone rumors either confirmed or debunked. But, alas, we had to wait even longer than we thought. Tim Cook, Apple's …
An Apple A Day…
In just two days, it's another big day for Apple. You might recall that back on September 15, 2020, we told you about an exciting day for Apple. ("Today Is An Exciting Day...Well, Kind Of") For those of you Apple techies, it was just that. Apple introduced a new watch, new iPad and a new …
A Tree Grows In
Brooklyn...Harrisburg... Port Saint Lucie It's true: Joyce is from Brooklyn and I'm from Harrisburg (PA). However, the tree above was just planted today in Port Saint Lucie (FL). A dear friend at church, who is 94 and still a wizard of a landscaper, gave Joyce the tree this morning. He came by me in the …
Key Largo?
https://youtu.be/Bhx5tJ8Q8eI In 1981, Bertie Higgins had a Billboard Top 40 hit with the song "Key Largo." (You can hear it if you watch the video above.) I bring this up because someone asked me, after his email had been hacked for the second time, was it possible "that a hacker put a key largo on …
Sure, It Sounds Good
I received this in email today. It's legitimate but it reminded of something we see often in Remote Technical Support. Customers log in and when we look at extensions in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and other browsers, we find package tracking add-ons. Although it sounds like a good idea - being able to track a …
Crop Away
No, not that kind of cropping! In this post, we'll talk about cropping a photo. Instead of the dangerous tool pictured above, we'll use the nice, safe crop tool found in photo software. Why Crop A Photo? Why would you want to crop a photo? There are a number of reasons including wanting to remove …
Private Vs Public
It's very common for Remote Technical Support customers to log in because their wireless printer is not printing. While Wi-Fi printers are nice - fewer wires, etc. - keeping them on your wireless network is not always easy. There are many reasons these printers can drop off your network and leave you without the ability …
Don’t Do It – You’ll Drive Me Crazy
I know it's tempting. A pop-up appears and lets you know that your computer is missing important driver updates. It goes on to say that if you just purchase, download and install a certain driver update program, you'll be all set. Why, those drivers will speed up your computer and make everything better! Don't do …
Defrag?
A question that we are asked from time to time is: "We used to have to defrag our computer's hard drive. Do I still need to do that?" The short answer is "No!" A slightly longer answer is "No, especially if your computer has a SSD (Solid State Drive)." If you aren't aware, hard drives …
The End of 2010
Granted, the year 2010 was over ten years ago. But, what I'm talking about is Microsoft Office 2010 (not to be confused with Windows 10). Support for this version of Office ends this month - October 13, 2020 to be exact. If you are using Microsoft Office version 2010 or older (Heaven forbid!), it's time …