One of the most common pieces of tech advice Brian gives is to suggest to the caller to turn the problem device on and off again.  This advice can work on a computer, smart phone, router or all matter of digital devices.   

My previous smart phone would often lose its cell connection and while I could still play sudoku, my email would not download.  I would turn it off completely by powering it off and turn it back on again and voila, it worked.

By turning the machine off and on again, you take it back to the initial state, in which it can start everything over. This is why it will often work and resolve issues. Everything starts again from fresh.

Now of course this doesn't always works but often takes care of a majority of the problems.

​Happy New Year

I recently got asked if there was a way to remove duplicate pictures on a Mac. It seems that there were 6 of every picture in her Photos folder.  I’ve seen this duplicate pictures problem before on Macs, though I don’t know the cause of it.
 
If you are on the latest Mac OS, Ventura, then you’re in luck, as it has a duplicate picture removal option built in. If, on the other hand, you aren’t on Ventura, then a better option may be getting an inexpensive 3rd party app. There are several choices available, and some do duplicate files overall, and not just photos.
If you are interested in this, then read the article HERE Best Duplicate Photo Finder & Remover Software To Keep Your Library Organized (2023) (wethegeek.com)
Which offers some links and comparisons.
 
And another thing:
I got a scam email this week which I thought looked really good. It had a few tells, but they were subtle, so I thought I’d include it in case you all might be getting them. This is the season of concentrated phishing scams and you need to be particularly wary. My email was from Kinetics, which is the new Windstream. It talked about migration of my email to their new webmail platform and I needed to verify my account in 30 days or my email account would be deleted.
 
Other than just sounding scammy to me, it was very well written and there were only a couple of subtle grammar mistakes, the usual giveaway for this type of thing. I checked the From email address and sure enough, it wasn’t Windtream or Kinetics, but someplace in Germany.
 
Be aware that the common scams involve your email, banks, UPS, just the most common businesses that most people do actually use. If you are being asked to click a link in an email that wants you to sign in urgently, then it’s likely not real. Check the sender’s email, do a reality check, and be cautious. 

Brian and I take a lot of road trips.  It's always been a practice to have someone know where we are going and when we expect to arrive (good advice for hikers as well).  We've started doing that digitally by giving several family members and a friend the ability to check our location on their smart phone.   

Following Courtesy of Rick Rouse Daily Tech Tips:
Do you travel frequently via automobile? If so, it's a good idea to let someone you trust track your progress for security reasons.

Knowing someone is keeping track of your whereabouts while you're out on the highways great for your peace of mind. After all, we live in a strange world these days.
​
Luckily, you can easily share your location with someone via your smartphone.

If you have an iPhone you'll find instructions right here.

Have an Android phone? Go here.

We got a newer TV not too long ago, which I finally mounted on the wall. I haven’t put the cables into the wall yet, if I ever do. But where to place a TV deserves some thought. While you're considering placement, above a fireplace is a bad idea, as is one in the bathroom.  Read more. My thinking on this is that it’s the season where folks buy new things, like TV’s, so here is an article on that sort of thing.  Click to Read 

While were on the subject of screens, what about folding screens? I never would have thought this possible, but they are here. I don’t particularly want one, but I am curious. One thing I’m curious about is how a folding screen helps anything? I’m still not sure. A folding phone, like a flip phone but the screen is bigger? That doesn’t appeal to me, but what if it was so thin that it could be a phone sized phone, but you could keep unfolding it so it got tablet sized? And then laptop sized? Then big screen TV sized? Well that does seem useful.
There’s nothing like that, yet.
​
There is an article HERE touting the Lenovo folding tablet/laptop that has some interesting points. Folding screen technology is still brand new, so I’m sure it will get better. Eventually turning into something you can roll up and put into your back pocket. In the meantime, read about what this guy thinks about the Lenovo.   click to read

I get it. Sometimes my tech tips are so complicated there should be a tech tip to explain my tech tip.  One of the most commonly used “tips” is for copy & paste. Some folks still don’t know how that works and it’s a tool I use every single day. Ctrl + C to copy, Ctrl + V to paste. But what does that mean?

If you highlight some text on a webpage, or a document, whatever, and then press the Ctrl key and the C key, you will copy that text to an imaginary place called a clipboard. It’s saved there. Then, if you open up a document, for instance, and press the Ctrl key and the V key, the stuff on the clipboard will be pasted onto that document.

You can copy pretty much all the text and pics from anywhere and paste them into something. That’s just the beginning. Macs and PCs both do this, but on the Mac you use the Cmd key instead of Ctrl. For a bigger list of keyboard shortcuts, and there are a lot of them, go HERE. 
​
The hardest part of finding a list was finding one that wasn’t overly complicated and fairly complete. Good luck.
 
While having said list above is handy, understanding how and when to use them is a bit more complicated until you get used to it. An article that gives pretty good help with the actual use of some very common shortcuts is HERE.