TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

The domain name service you use may have an effect on the speed with which web pages load, but there are other reasons to examine the DNS you use now and possibly change it. In Short Circuits: When you’re giving away or selling a computer or disk drive, think about the files that were on the computer. Just deleting them doesn’t really remove the data. How much more you need to do depends on how mu...

Panicking pundits pummel Photoshop prematurely. If you listen to or read some of what passes for thoughtful reporting, you might be convinced that Adobe is a demon that must be eliminated. I disagree. In Short Circuits: Windows 7 introduced a handy new way to share files with other local users, but HomeGroup wasn’t widely used and it was discontinued with Windows 10. A follow-up function is limite...

When I noticed a disk drive problem early one Saturday, I decided it was time to replace an aging cabinet filled with aging disk drives. A significant performance boost was a welcome extra. In Short Circuits: Microsoft would like you not to use cleanup applications such as CCleaner because they might damage the Registry, but now they’re offering a CCleaner-like app called PC Manager. • Editing Env...

Despite having used CrashPlan for the past eight years and still feeling that it is a viable online backup service, I have switched to Backblaze. In Short Circuits: Starting in less that two weeks, Facebook will begin using your public posts, photos, and chatbot iterations to train its AI. • Libraries are among my favorite institutions because of their high-tech and low-tech solutions to today’s p...

This week is all about artificial intelligence, starting with the many ways AI can be used to improve images and sometimes create scenes that do not exist in real life. There are also applications for old and new motion pictures. In Short Circuits: We’ll move on to how AI might soon be used to help applications like Waze and Google Maps evaluate more conditions that affect your route. • Is the las...

Many Windows 11 users will be offered an update to Windows 11 version 24H2 between now and the end of the year. As is usual with Windows, the update brings both useful new features and a certain number of annoyances. In Short Circuits: Actions by three states probably kept internet service providers from doing their worst when the FCC eliminated net neutrality rules in 2017. Now the rules are back...

An update to Excire Search brings the ability to look for photos using a text description, as introduced in Exicre Foto, to the company’s plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic. In Short Circuits: Fake reviews, scam products, and questionable sellers can all be made to look like real bargains. Fakespot by Mozilla helps you sort the truth from the lies. • One of the most important new capabilities com...

Ensuring that your computer is safe, private, and secure is easy enough, but doing so will make the computer virtually unusable. Let’s consider some options that help without hindering, at least not too much. In Short Circuits: Windows computers use the New Technology File System, which was new in 1993, but it’s not a good choice for devices that must also be used by MacOS computers or Android dev...

Some remarkable capabilities have been added to Audacity, but it’s still not a contender to take Audition’s place for audio productions. In Short Circuits: It’s not a good idea to skimp on the devices you use to interact with your computer. One or more properly placed monitors, a mouse that fits comfortably in your hand, and a keyboard that doesn’t result in wrecked wrists are all more important t...

When something goes wrong with your computer, it may be easier, faster, and less frustrating to fix it yourself instead of dealing with tech support. In Short Circuits: Every computer screen is different and your vision is unique to your eyes. That’s why it’s a good idea to use Microsoft’s ClearType Text Tuner. • You’ll start to see computers being marketed with heavy AI claims soon, probably befo...

A surprising number of Facebook accounts are being stolen and recovering them is difficult, if not impossible. That’s why it’s better to avoid trouble in the first place. In Short Circuits: Although your internet service provider includes domain name services, there’s a good reason to use one of several alternate services. • Efforts by the federal government to eliminate junk fees have finally res...

You still have about a year and a half to decide what you’ll do when Microsoft ends support for Windows 10. There are several choices, but not all options will work for all users. Let’s take a look at some that will keep the computer out of the trash. In Short Circuits: Although Microsoft has added a file renamer function to PowerToys, it won’t be sufficient when you need to apply complex names to...

Romania-based security company Bitdefender offers a comprehensive protective suite for Windows and MacOS computers, as well as IOS and Android phones. The package includes enough licenses for all devices used by everyone in the family unless you have an exceptionally large family or everyone has five or six devices. In Short Circuits: Your internet service provider would like you to continue renti...

The virtual desktops feature that was added to Windows 10 and improved in Windows 11 can help organize the computer when you need to work on more than one task at a time. In Short Circuits: Artificial intelligence is now being used to improve audio recordings by removing flaws such as background noise and room echo. Despite being new, the results are already astonishingly good. • Bugs are a simple...

If you regularly mutter to your computer that it doesn’t do something you want it to do or doesn’t do something the way you want it to, stop for a moment and investigate. There’s a good chance that the computer can accommodate your desires. In Short Circuits: Anyone who has trouble finding where TV programs they want to watch are streaming, or who forgets to watch new episodes, will find JustWatch...

One of the most common ways that people are victimized online involves the victims failing to recognize social engineering and giving their login credentials to scammers. In Short Circuits: Facebook accounts are filled with gold that scammers like to mine. There’s a quick and easy way to view what crooks see so that you can modify your account to maximize security. • Europeans can remove Microsoft...

When a charge for a service I didn’t recognize showed up in an alert from my bank, I found that I had been signed up for a video streaming service I’d never heard of. Eliminating the service was easy enough, but a lot of people have reported terminating it was difficult. In Short Circuits: Even those of us who are not typographers, graphic designers, or publishers sometimes need to deal with typef...

Exposure hasn’t had an upgrade from the X7 version, which was released in 2021, but it’s still a good choice both as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Lightroom Classic. In Short Circuits: Speaking of golden oldies, I encountered a little connector that could be used to join lots of devices two years ago. It saved the day a week ago when I had to deal with an IPhone that had a low batt...

A hijacked Facebook account can be a lot of fun, but only if you have a most peculiar understanding of the term “fun”. It wasn’t my account, but I had to deal with the repercussions of a hack recently. In Short Circuits: The technology that powers GPS, Bluetooth devices, and other modern high technology was invented 83 years ago by someone considered to be “the most beautiful woman in the world.”...

Which is better, cable or streaming? There are lots of variables and cable is perfect for some people while streaming is the winner for others. After switching to streaming three years ago, now seemed a good time to re-evaluate. In Short Circuits: You might have some old digital photos that would benefit greatly from today’s AI-powered applications. I have a couple of examples. • “Warning: Your pr...

The more digital photos you have, the harder it is to find the one you’re looking for. Excire Search, a plug-in for Lightroom Classic, makes the process much easier. In Short Circuits: Libre Office is the ideal office suite for those who are unable or unwilling to pay a monthly subscription fee. The latest version, though, has a surprising number. • Microsoft wants to be the king of artificial int...

Free, open-source software is often viewed as being second rate when compared to commercial software, but sometimes the best application actually does cost nothing. In Short Circuits: When something starts with Windows, but you don’t want it to, finding a way to make it stop can be a challenge. Autoruns fixes that. • Phones no longer have dials, but we still say we’re dialing a number. Hardware, s...

Windows 11 cannot be installed on certain computers, mainly older models that lack sufficient hardware, but it is possible to force-install Windows 11 on computers that would fail otherwise because they lack hardware security features. In Short Circuits: With so many free email clients, you might wonder why anyone would be willing to pay $60 per year for one. Anyone who uses multiple mobile device...

Anyone who has digital photos that are more than a decade old could improve their quality substantially with an application that uses artificial intelligence to fill in details that don’t exist in the originals. In Short Circuits: Speaking of AI, if you’re trying to keep up with what’s new, you may suspect that it’s difficult and maybe impossible. Anything written more than a day or two ago is pro...

The Sysinternals suite of utilities has been around since the 1990s and has been part of Microsoft since 2006. More than 70 utilities make Sysinternals essential for all Windows computer users and today we’ll take a look at just two of them. In Short Circuits: Believable sound effects are essential for motion pictures and podcasts, but it’s not an easy process. The first step involves identifying...