Library Tip

Use your library to avoid binge shopping, at least for physical books, ebooks, audiobooks, music, films and periodicals. It might seem like a game, but “ordering” things to download or physically pick up can scratch that itch to get something new—and it’s free. And your “shopping” will help increase circulation numbers, maybe leading to more…

Tech Notes

Buying a new smartphone sometimes gets you so excited to get rid of the old one that you erase and sell it too soon. Keep that old phone until you have full set up your new one, especially if you rely on authenticator apps and even WhatsApp, as they only trust your current phone. Using…

Tech Topics

Test your CPU in a fun way—warm it up by simulating the galaxy (galaxym.ovh). Controls are in French, but you can use the sliders to change aspects of the simulation and stretch the power of your computer’s processor and graphics system. As embarrassing as it might feel to fall for an internet scam, it needs…

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Bulk Uninstall

There are so many apps preinstalled in Windows it feels overwhelming to delete them. But it’s easy to bulk delete many silently in the background with BCP (bcuninstaller.com). I love apps that say what they do in the title. When you run it, you can check all of the apps you want to uninstall and…

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Tab Recovery

Unexpected browser shutdowns from crashes or hitting the wrong keys are frustrating when you’ve just finished opening a bunch of new tabs. Luckily, when you restart Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari, use ctrl+shift+t (Windows) or cmd+shift+t (Mac) to reopen the tabs. You can also set your browser to reopen all previous windows and tabs, a…

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Ads & Cameras

Ad blockers in your web browser accomplish three goals: reducing ad clutter; cutting down on malicious ads trying to inject malware; and speeding up the overall loading of many ad-heavy websites. And now, the FBI is recommending the use of ad blockers to reduce the chance of ads impersonating brands. None are perfect, but one…