I am going to start with the fun stuff this time. Many people search for specific recipes online but cookbook lovers should browse the Internet Archive’s “Cookbooks and Home Economics” collection to see how we used to cook and eat. It is at https://archive.org/details/cbk and don’t be surprised at the time you spend there. Then head out to space, specifically https://atlasof.space/ to interact with all the planets, moons, asteroids, and other objects in the Solar System. You can even animate the orbits to see how positions change over time. If you prefer the stars of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” enjoy some time at https://vangoghworldwide.org/ and https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en where there are over a thousand images of his work. Finally, if you haven’t avoided your work enough, get visually hypnotized at https://www.fallingfalling.com/, you may want to turn on audio for this site.
People concerned by the privacy concerns pf ChatGPT should check out Proton’s Lumo, an AI that defaults to not trying to making money off your queries and conversations with it. https://lumo.proton.me/ is where to find it and there is more information about how this privacy oriented AI works at https://proton.me/blog/lumo-ai. If you want it on your phone look to https://lumo.proton.me/download for your Android or iOS phone.
Samsung Galaxy phone owners who want to experiment with a simpler Easy Mode can test it by going into Settings, then Display, then Easy Mode and tap it to turn it on (it is one of those toggle slider buttons.) The home screen is simplified, fonts are larger, and you can add contacts to the home screen. There is more at https://www.samsung.com/au/support/mobile-devices/using-easy-mode/
I have two differing but free video editors that you may want to try out. The first is Google’s browser-based editor called Google Vids https://docs.google.com/videos (yes, you do need a Google account to use it but you don’t have to pay to use its basic features, and yes, you can use it in Firefox.) If you already have content in Google Drive, like slide shows or photos, it is really easy to make use of them. For serious video editing (nearly professional) look to DaVinci Resolve, https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve. It is free if you stay away from the Studio version at $295. If you haven’t done much video editing look through their training videos that you can download from https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training and then you can play them again and again until you have mastered what you need.
People who have met me when I am working always get a bit of keyboard shortcut training thrown in. If you want to find more to master and memorize look to https://keybegin.toolooz.com/ where you can click on any key on their virtual keyboard to learn more about what each key can also do. Mac users should click on the Mac link up in the top right of the site to get Mac shortcuts. The first one you should really learn is Undo, Control-Z or Command-Z, along with the usual ones for cut, copy, and paste that you may already know.
You may have watched scambaiting tech support videos (where researchers knowingly interact with scammers to expose their tactics and waste time) but here is one showing the awful world of towing services scams at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UmGnqK4hL8 or search at youtube.com for “I Crashed a Scammer Zoom Meeting” by Pleasant Green. I know there are some ads in this video, just ignore them and enjoy the author’s story.
If you ever get a notice about failed email delivery, do nothing more than read it to see if it applies to email you actually sent. Don’t click any image or download any attachment as that could actually infect your computer.