Tech Tips

Forget LTT, forget TWiT, forget Google, forget ZDNet, forget Geek Squad, forget your friend who thinks they know computers. Here's the real, honest, funny, true, and final place to read about some sweet tips about various tech.

Why me? I've been in the tech world for tens (tens!) of years. That's why. I know stuff, I prefer stuff, I want to tell you about stuff.

Your mileage may vary, I assume no responsibility for screwups, consult your doctor, void where prohibited, no re-entry, screen images simulated.

Page currently under construction, check back frequently for updates/newly added/updated/filled sections. There's plenty of stuff I'm going to put here, but I just have to organize thoughts into written words.

Uncategorized Tips

Outlook Categories: That time Microsoft almost fixed inbox clutter
What is GitHub?
Updating SCCM Apps - The Fun and Easy Way (GUI)
Backing Up Your Data
If you're annoyed with how crappy/expensive/annoying Microsoft Office has become, give OnlyOffice a try. The interface is very similar to the Office apps.

PowerShell Tips

iPhone and iPad Tips

When shooting a photo or video on newer iPhones (i.e., those with multiple cameras and optical zooms), stick to the 0.5x/1x/2x/3x options whenever possible, and avoid any in-between values or those exceeding the maximum zoom value listed. For the best uncompromised photo, you never want to settle for a digital zoom (it's just performing an on-the-fly crop), so stick with the listed options.

Windows Tips

Coming soon

Mac OS (macOS? Mac OS X?) Tips

Disable the incorrect (ugh) default trackpad scroll direction: System Settings->Trackpad->Scroll and Zoom->Uncheck "natural scrolling"
Put the Dock on the left or the right. Don't leave it on the bottom. Laptop screens are wider than they are tall, and the Dock wastes precious vertical space when in a horizontal configuration.

Linux Tips

Coming soon

Podcasting Tips

Coming soon

Streaming Tips

Coming soon

Privacy/Security Tips

Never use any Chromium-based browser (this includes Edge, Brave, Chrome, Chromium, etc.). Google is behind the Chromium engine and as a result, any fork or usage of the technology should honestly be considered untrustworthy. Utilization of a truly open source browser such as Firefox is a much safer bet. While Mozilla doesn't always make the best decisions, their motives are much more morally sound than Google's, and there are privacy-related forks of Firefox such as LibreWolf that take that user-first privacy-centric paradigm and expand upon it tenfold.
It's really not a good idea to store your files in any cloud-based solution (Yes, that means DropBox, OneDrive, Box, Google Drive, etc). Regardless of what marketing buzzwords of the $currentyear try to say, the best method of storing your data is going to be on your own network on your own hardware. What's the best strategy for that? Build out a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. I personally advise using either an old Desktop running Proxmox Virtual Environment with an OpenMediaVault Virtual Machine. Or, a Raspberry Pi running OpenMediaVault if you want to be less fancy.
Never use the same username more than once if you can avoid it. Come up with unique usernames that are fun/randomized to reduce trackability.
Use KeePassXC to store your passwords.
Avoid using multi-factor authentication (MFA) that is exclusively tied to your phone. If you do this and then lose your phone, you lose your MFA. So try to avoid this. Consider hosting your MFA on via a service such as Authy or self-host it using 2FAuth instead.
Discord is not to be trusted and should be avoided at all costs. Discussions found in this thread summarize my sentiments regarding the company's iffy track record when it comes to privacy.