Observations on the world and its inhabitants
Lots of people do not know that they can take a video on their phones and upload it directly to YouTube. Most people will have a panic attack first. Required: A functioning brain of average intelligence. Sound internet connection via 4G or WiFi. A good performing phone. Heavy doses of Valium or grog for those ...
Well, something is up! As some may not know, I bought a Bluetti Powerbank several months ago before this post. At that time many had a good laugh whilst going, “You’re crazy – the lights won’t go out!” Now there is a shortage of these on Amazon.co.uk and at direct outlets such as Poweroak. But ...
Right – this is about weird stuff. I spent money on Amazon and was probably rewarded for my honesty about some sort of glitch. The purchase I bought two technology items on Amazon for a total of £156.98. I got notification that they were delivered to my collection point at 12:16PM on 30th August 2022. ...
Lots of people are content to refer to themselves as luddites when it comes to things technological. The main reason for that is the sense of camaraderie and support from equally dim people. How would I know? I’ve seen and experienced the phenomenon too many times over the last 20 years. Cognitive miserliness The underlying ...
‘Everybody’ believes they are organised. Well, not everybody obviously. There are some people who go, “I’m so disorganised..” – and they wear that badge proudly, expecting everybody else to work with or around them. I can tell you now, they’ll have a hard time being around me. The tip below is for a simple android ...
Okay – I’ve been known to do the impossible – partly because I am ‘impossible’. For example, I found a way to make microwaved poached eggs – after years of experimentation. And now you see, what ‘everybody’ might think is grilled cheese on toast. Except that it isn’t. This is not a recommendation to eat ...
Sometimes you (meaning me) needs a calculator fast. One might think of calculators as for doing sums – and that’s fine (as they say). However, calculators can do far much more. Obviously, this is not going to be lecture involving lists of reasons why ‘one’ may need a calculator. If you’re on a laptop or ...
So – for the last 2 years I have realised that many images in posts were not showing. Those were mainly before 2015. That as annoying but not in need of an urgent fix. I tried loads of thing that didn’t work. But – I kept on researching the problem every two to three months. ...
All technology is ‘confusing’ to most people. Read that again – carefully this time. Anything that is new, is on ‘computers’ and requires thinking through more than two steps – is confusing. Look, I’m not debating it – the latter is what I have seen repeatedly. Right – let me get on with the OneDrive ...
Over the years I’ve seen how people use word-processors. In fact the term has almost gone completely out of vogue. Most people in work environments use Microsoft Word. In the pandemic period documents would regularly have been shared in a group on a big screen and somebody would be typing. That experience over the last ...
Oh yes – it was another day in ‘Paradise’. This is a place that cannot be named, cuz I’m not economically independent as yet. But.. but one day the beans will be spilt – fully! Until then just get the anonymised story. So, there is nail-biting anxiety among folk over here about using a thing ...
Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been on an e-cleaning binge! That means I’ve been sorting out loads of electronic files of all types and cleaning up electronic messages. Did I say ‘electronic messages‘? Just checking. Yes – I did! Some fool wants to know what does ‘electronic messages’ mean. Chrysst! People don’t know what ...
What people immediately ‘understand’ is that this post is about understanding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Well, it isn’t! This is the math behind or under Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/math-behind-bitcoin You could spend your life understanding it – and it wouldn’t help anything. Preamble In this post where I say ‘Bitcoin’ I include all cryptocurrencies as a concept. This ...
I mentioned this situation in my previous blog, where I was almost diagnosed with sleep walking by a hotel manager. Some may have thought that I was joking. I wasn’t! The explanatory theories will preoccupy many – as if I can’t conjure up these too! The facts: I’m at a conference. My laptop computer is ...
I’ve found it!! There are some nifty little applications to change the dates of file images and exif data – in batches. Why is this important? Well – because I use Robobasket to sort my photos into folders, I need Robobasket to pick up ‘Date Modified’ and Exif data from these files. Robobasket will then ...
I’ve been using labels and filters on Gmail for quite some time. But like many things you come to appreciate them better with time. So I’ve been reviewing how I use these features. Lately I’ve been flooded with all sorts of emails. Many of them I don’t need to look at immediately, so I didn’t ...
Thorium is a fairly common metal that can be used far more safely than Uranium to generate nuclear power. The ability of Thorium to become a ‘cleaner’ and more safely manageable nuclear material was known back in December 1945!! Yes – so why are you now hearing about this? And if you’re one of those ...
If the title of this post appears to be gobbledeegook to you, then you know what to do next. No? Google!!! Google Drive is an online cloud storage drive provided by Google. I pay $USD 9.99/mth for a 1 Terabyte of space in the cloud – and tough if some can’t afford it, or need ...
For those who don’t know and are not friends with Google, McAfee is company that makes antivirus and firewall related software. As with most things you’ll always find a following of people who will shout how wonderful things are about ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’. And if you say anything negative about anything, you’re likely to ...
Gadwin is a little known software developer that I’ve stayed with for the last 10 years or so. I’ve found there products to be quite user friendly, simple and easy to use. At left is a screenshot of their website taken with Gadwin Printscren Pro 5 (the latest version that was released recently). I had ...
Problem: Media of various types will play though laptop’s speakers but no on inserting headphones. Solution: 1. Control Panel > Sound > Select Headphones. 2. Make headphones default and click ‘ok’. Headphones then play well. Removing headphones allows speakers to play. Yes, why? I dunno why this happens and I don’t care. The only thing ...
Oh well – I know – nothing better to do, so I’ve been studying Javascript and Formcalc. Why the devil would I want to do that?!!! I think that forms which people fill out can be automated so that manual calculations do not need to be carried out routinely. So for last year or so ...
I’ve been receiving unsolicited promotional emails again. I mean I tick the relevant box when I deal with companies – checking carefully that by doing so I do not opt in for such emails. But it’s clear to me now that they take no notice. They insist on sending me their junk. Yes – I ...
Recently purchased this Dell Inspiron 7737. I was aiming to purchase a 15-inch screen laptop but this 17-inch screen laptop deal turned out to be better than any 15-inch laptop I could find (at the time). [AND – this does NOT mean I like DELL or any particular brand. Read Disclaimer at the end.] Important ...
Google has many options in its maps. Most people never find these options because they’re scared of trying out new options or because they don’t have time to find ways of using features, or in common British parlance, they “..haven’t been told how to do it”. Some know of my longstanding gripe about “being told”. ...
Okay…okay.. OneNote is not new! It’s become new to me – well sort of. Actually, I’ve experimented with OneNote (by Microsoft) since 2007. I know that because recently I discovered some old OneNotes I created from back then. I didn’t get on with OneNote back then because it was more than a bit confusing and ...
This is only for those who know about music files and playlists. I’ve regularly had the problem when I moved my music from computer to computer, or disc to disc, that my playlists would not work. I mean I have like lots of playlists – so I really didn’t want to make them all over ...
I’m ashamed of myself because I’ve been caught out by a malware trap. I accidentally clicked some link that took me to a site that looked just like the reputable Adobe. A popup message said that my flashplayer may be out of date “click ok to update”, then I get to this link (don’t click): ...
A suitable smartphone to run this is required. Life Reminders is a neat little application that does the job of reminding you about stuff that’s coming at you, or has to be done. Here’s a list of examples: 1. You can also set it up to send SMS messages for a future date. 2. Remind ...
This is my set-up (aka strategy) for planning for destinations when I travel by car (note I did not say train – but some of this I use if on the rare occasion I need to go by train). Use laptop for following (a few days or months before): Final destination – full address and ...
Captain Walker
Captain Walker
