TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn

It's a good thing that automobiles aren't sold like computers. Imagine bringing your new car home only to find that you'll need several aftermarket items just to make it work right. In Short Circuits: Microsoft 365 is what Microsoft wants you to use for word processing, number crunching, database operations, presentations, and email. It's the right choice for most people, but there are other optio...

My wife and I both purchased new computers in March. Mine was 7 years old and ineligible for Windows 11. Hers was 5 years old, ineligible for Windows 11, and had a failing keyboard. The computers are both from the same manufacturer, but otherwise substantially different. In Short Circuits: A computer can be secure, but your privacy may still be at risk. You may be surprised by how little informati...

You may have seen articles that claim a 7-character password containing numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and symbols "could" be cracked in less than a minute. Longer passwords are better. Using upper- and lower-case letters along with numbers and symbols is also better. But less than a minute? Let's check the logic. In Short Circuits: When it's time to buy a new computer, you probably wan...

Today we'll revisit the process of converting film negatives to digital images, but this time the main focus (Sorry!) is medium-format film. Even if you don't have any medium-format negatives, there's information that works for 35mm negatives. In Short Circuits: Are you frustrated by Windows 11's inability to display the day on the Task Bar? Well, surprise! You can restore the day name if you want...

Whether you love Microsoft Word or detest it, you probably use it. It's possible to customize Word so that it works the way you want it to, but the settings aren't always obvious or easy to find. In Short Circuits: Just about everyone has seen the "we couldn't deliver your package" email scam that's usually intended to steal your login credentials or to install malware on your computer. There's no...

Sometimes there's a post or an IM conversation on Facebook that you'd like to save on your own computer. It's not always easy, but it is always possible. Let's see how. In Short Circuits: The DuckDuckGo search engine doesn't collect or sell user information. Maybe you already use it instead of Google, but there's more from from the duck, including an extension that can be installed in any browser...

A free utility called System Explorer is like a combination of the Windows Task Manager and System Resource Monitor with an application uninstaller, security monitor, startup manager, and more tossed in for good measure. In Short Circuits: Domains housed on shared servers can be added to email blacklists if there's just one bad actor on the server. This can affect people who use their internet ser...

Virtual private networks can protect your computer and your data, but they can also lead to a false sense of security. So, do you really need one? In Short Circuits: If you read last week's post, you know how to find out what Amazon knows about you. This week, let's consider what Google knows about you. There's no single form to fill out to ask for the information, but there are lots of places you...

The pandemic may keep us isolated for a while yet, so if you have old negatives, prints, movies, video tapes, and even audio tapes around the house, now would be a great time to start digitizing and sharing them. In Short Circuits: If you've ever wondered what Amazon knows about you, you can find out by just asking. Beware that you'll be buried under a huge pile of data that's seemingly designed n...

Speech recognition is getting better and even the systems that are built in to Windows, the MacOS, and Android do a remarkably good job. I've been wondering if there's a clear winner among the three, so let's look. In Short Circuits: People who make advertisements, entertainment programs, and other media that keep us from going berserk during the pandemic are also affected by the pandemic. What ar...

The Vivaldi web browser is perhaps the most customizable browser available. If you'd like a browser that can be adjusted to work the way you want it to, take a look. In Short Circuits: When you need to use Safe mode in Windows, getting there can be a challenge. Making a few changes to some settings will provide immediate access at boot time. • If you think IBM invented the business computer, you'r...

Outlook is probably the most used email application other than Google's webmail client, but that doesn't mean it's the one people like the most. A few weeks ago, Outlook created a problem that required me to use Thunderbird temporarily. The temporary change quickly became permanent. In Short Circuits: Other than not using the internet at all, there's no way to eliminate scam phone calls, SMS messa...

Every modern computer operating system has a built-in way to capture information that's on the screen, but if you need more than a basic screen shot, SnagIt is the right choice. In Short Circuits: Adobe's Creative Cloud Express is free for anyone to use, and it works online via a web browser or with apps on Windows, MacOS, IOS, and Android. • You'll find lots of ways to get information from people...

It's not uncommon to think of the VLC media player as a video player. It plays video files, DVDs, and Blu-ray disks, but it can also play internet audio, CDs, and network files. And if you need to convert video or audio from one format to another, it does that, too. In Short Circuits: The 2022 update to Adobe Illustrator has several welcome and worthwhile additions and improvements, but huge impro...

This week's podcast is brief, just 4 minutes long, with some year-end thoughts and a quick look at changes you'll hear starting on 7 Jan 2022.

This is one of two weeks every year that TechByter goes silent. The link is to last week's podcast.

The most accomplished software developers work hard to improve their skills. Sadly, this is also true of the best scammers. If you want to protect yourself and your data, it's important to update your skills, too. In Short Circuits: People who speak more than one language are often more mentally adept, and the best time to learn a language is during the first few years of life. So a Cleveland comp...

All of the apps in Adobe's $10-per-month photo plan received updates at this year's Adobe Max conference, and time-saving artificial intelligence tools continue to lead the way. In Short Circuits: Far too many people operate computers without any defined backup system in place. This is unwise, particularly when free backup applications exist. • Although health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid cov...

Exposure X7 comes with several new ways to create and modify masks. Although that is clearly the most important enhancement in this version, there's lots more to like. In Short Circuits: Macros help computer users perform tasks easily and accurately, from complex activities that involve multiple applications to simply replacing what are essentially abbreviations with much longer sections of text....

This is one of two weeks every year that TechByter goes silent. The link is to last week's podcast.

If your computer isn't eligible for Windows 11 but you'd really like to have Windows 11, there are ways to install it on most computers that run Windows 10. Microsoft won't stop you, but they also won't help you. In Short Circuits: Because of privacy concerns, Facebook says it will no longer use facial recognition when users post photos and videos. • Scammers are sending email messages that tell p...

For the second year in a row, the covid pandemic transformed Adobe MAX from an exciting in-person event to an exciting virtual event. We'll take a look at some of the updates released at Max. In Short Circuits: If you think you'll never be involved in a data breach, think again. It's entirely too easy to have your information stolen even if you do nothing wrong. • A small utility called TrayStatus...

The Windows 11 Start menu differs quite a bit in appearance from Windows 10. Those who want to manipulate Start in Windows 11 manually can use the same procedures that worked in Windows 10, but you don't have to. Windows 11 Start finally gets this operation right. In Short Circuits: Anyone who owns a Windows computer has at least one disk drive that's formatted as NTFS, but is this the right file...

Software developers need text editors. These applications are also helpful for anyone who needs to look inside binary files. Even if you never perform any of those tasks, a text editor might still be useful. In Short Circuits: Windows 11 has been generally available for about four weeks. If it's already on your computer, there are some settings you may want to check. • How many people have uttered...

Facebook is the service we love to hate, or maybe hate to love. There are ways to make Facebook work to your advantage, not Facebook's. We'll explore some of them. In Short Circuits: Sometimes an external disk that's connected to a computer may enter standby mode. Although a Windows setting should keep that from happening, it doesn't always work. There's an alternative that does. • Advertisers use...