What are /r/AskTechnology's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Perhaps a rubber keyboard makes sense. These are not pleasant to type on, but I doubt that's an issue here.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Waterproof-Flexible-Silicone-Keyboard/dp/B00Q4VNW18

Alternatively, get a kiosk-type metal keyboard, like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/DSI-Compact-Keyboard-Industrial-Connection/dp/B01DOOYWSY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1544298402&sr=8-5&keywords=industrial+keyboard+metal

These are intended to be installed in publicly accessible places, like bank terminals, and are very robust, able to cope with severe mistreatment. Not wireless, of course, but you could just get a long extension cord. Note that his particular example (which only costs a third of what these usually retail for) is a PS/2 keyboard, not USB, so make sure the PC in question still has this port or get an adapter. You could permanently mount it to a desk, if you want to.

Add your account to Thunderbird, which is one of the most capable e-mail clients. It looks old-school, but it's a highly sophisticated program. After it has imported all of your messages (which may take a while depending on your Internet connection and computer), go to Extras -> Add-ons and search for this add-on:

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/

After having installed it, click on one of the e-mails, press CTRL-A to select all messages, then click on file in the top left corner of the program -> Save selected messages -> PDF format. It'll bring up a bunch of warnings, including that you can't re-import these files into the e-mail client and that attachments will not be saved. Confirm these warnings and it'll save the files to a folder specified by you. Make sure there's plenty of space on your storage device and don't do this five minutes before the end of your shift, as this should take a few minutes.

Note that if you want embedded remote pictures to be saved in these PDFs (which Thunderdbird hides by default for safety and privacy reasons), you need to go to Thunderbird's privacy settings and tick "Allow remote content in messages" before doing the above.

I think you're asking how to convert from a 3.5mm audio jack to wireless? The cheapest method is to get a BT transmitter like this and pair it with whatever BT headphones you like.

It's probably set to a crowded channel. Use WiFi Analyzer to figure out a better channel, which you can set in your router's settings.

Sysadmin here.

Yes, someone could be on your network, stealing your info, but unless you're using hotel wifi or something, this is less likely than some alternatives.

It could be malware on your computer. Try this:

• Go to Internet Options
  • E.g. click start
  • type "internet"
  • One of the things that will appear as a search result is "Internet Options
• Go to the tab Connections
• Click "LAN Settings"
• You should not have a proxy here. At most, you can have a tick at the top where it says "Automatically detect..." but remove that tick as well. It's not a useful one.

Also (good advice in general): install Malwarebytes Antimalware.

You can download it from their official site, but what I use to download (and update) free tools is: ninite.com, one installer for both installing and updating lots of useful tools to have on a machine, even office machines.

I think using Flux will significantly reduce the strain on your eyes. If I have Flux running and then try to turn it off, the pain is real.

E-ink displays refresh far too slowly to be used as computer monitors, even just for word processing.

All VPNs can potentially spy on and record all of your internet traffic. Does that mean they all do that? Of course not.

My point goes back to the old adage, "if you're not paying for a service, you're not the customer, you're the product." Paid VPNs are much less likely to try and spy on their users and/or sell their data because their customers are their actual revenue stream rather than some third party.

TorrentFreak publishes a yearly article on the promises VPN providers make, and you should absolutely do some research before choosing a company whose servers you're going to use as a funnel for all your internet traffic. I use AirVPN and have used PrivateInternetAccess in the past.

Yup, it sure is. Look up fake wi-fis or hot spots and how people are getting their data stolen. With all the freelancing on the rise and working out of the office really becoming a thing, it is quite silly to not take the necessary security precautions. Especially if you are working with sensitive information. Anyway, I use NordVPN for that, my two colleagues use PIA and Vypr. If you want to get a VPN one thing to remember is to choose one with a zero log policy. And this should be enough for any public or private network, because your traffic is getting encrypted beforehand. You can check PCMAg reviews for more info.

I'd probably get a pair of noise cancelling headphones and a tablet.

Say something like

Audio Technica AUD ATH-ANC7B Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7B QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Closed-Back Headphones - Wired

Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8" HD Display, 32 GB

If you get the Fire HD tab, I'd sign up for a trail of Amazon Prime. That way you can take advantage of Prime Video, which lets you download and watch movies and TV Shows on the Fire HD for free.

You'd also be able to read books on it, your local library should have books you can "check out" for the kindle.

This is the IFTTT applet your looking for: https://ifttt.com/applets/XnveYFDL-log-how-much-time-you-spend-at-specific-locations-like-the-office-or-home-in-a-spreadsheet

The only requirements are to have an account with IFTTT and Google Drive. You can easily download Google spreadsheets and use them in excel if that's what you want.

The applet uses location services to update an excel spreadsheet on Google Drive. Just activate the applet and select the location you want it to keep a time log for.

Get rid of everything and just use Windows Defender set to the max level of protection. Have Windows Update automatically patch and reboot your system. Use Chrome/Firefox exclusively and have uOrigin extension installed. The toughest step will be to avoid installing random apps that will subtly screw your system up over a period of time; Ninite is the the easiest way to get validated, safely packaged apps, good luck!

Alright, good luck and be careful. I've heard about the bribery and "I know someone who knows someone" culture of the middle East, but I don't know where you or your family are on the social ladder, so I erred on the side of caution.

Just remember to get a device with a relatively recent full version of Android (4.4 is the oldest acceptable version, but I wouldn't recommend it), a screen that has a resolution that has at least 360 pixels in one direction (since 360 x 240 is about the lowest resolution supported by many apps, not all of them though). I would suggest not getting a device with less than 1GB of RAM, since apps have become rather RAM-hungry as of late.

Look up the frequencies of your local phone companies and compare them to those supported by the watch. I'd suggest not getting a 3G only device - 4G usually has better reception (but this depends on the location - look up coverage maps if there are any). Note that your device can be tracked and/or blocked if your superiors are suspicious. Cell jammers and locators exist, but also be careful about using social media under your full name and tell your wife to keep it a secret.

There are smartwatches that have the charging cable integrated into the wrist strap. Might be useful. Alternatively, there are short, flat USB cables that can be folded up and hidden practically anywhere. A folding power supply that is easier to hide might also be a good idea.

If you need things to read, take a look at Project Gutenberg, a free online library of ebooks with expired licenses. Lots of classics in various formats.

Instead of a smartwatch, you could alternatively get a very small Android phone. This one is pretty well known:

https://uk.pcmag.com/smartphones/92352/review/unihertz-jelly-pro

I finally downloaded the .apk today, after hearing so much about this game. I don't really understand the fascination, isn't it just basically the helicopter game with slightly different mechanics or am I missing something?

Don't use them.

But since you still insist it is a good idea:

Force your browser to use HTTPS on all connections with https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Verify all HTTPS encryption certificates you use with http://perspectives-project.org

If it's mostly just that there are PowerPoint presentations that needs to be opened and read you can try and use LibreOffice. It's a free office suite which tries to be as compatible as possible with Microsoft Office files.

If it needs cleaning the best way to do it is with a brush style tooth pic, not blasting some chemical into the innards of your phone. You just need to get the lint and dirt out, not send it farther inside. These and others like them are great for doing the job. Just be gentle. https://www.amazon.com/JiaUfmi-1100Pcs-Plastic-Toothpick-Interdental/dp/B07V5C475J/ref=sr_1_51?dchild=1&keywords=toothpick+brush&qid=1627513386&sr=8-51

Echoing everybody else: a repair would be difficult-bordering-on-impossible. Considering replacements are cheap and readily available, you should just replace it.

Also, pay the pupper tax or GTFO.

> As far as I know, NTFS is only accessible by Windows and nothing else.

Nope. Once a drive is shared to a network it doesn't matter what file system it uses. Windows 9x can't read NTFS either, but millions of companies had NTFS file shares back in the day that 9x could read all day long.

>I’m assuming you’re using an Android phone, which in your case would require a very complicated workaround to get the file system to recognize on the phone

It shouldn't require a "very complicated workaround". I have File Manager installed on my phone, tablets and Android TV box to access some file shares on my main PC. Setting it up on various devices is simple: New Shortcut > New LAN shortcut > [choose my PC from the list that appears] > Enter my username and password > Tap 'Save'. From there, I have access to my NTFS network shares.

NordVPN all the way. Cheap, good performance and locations and most importantly they take privacy very seriously. They even stood up to the gov who demanded logs (they dont log). Most would/have caved. Its possible they in fact did cave secretly but they are the most trustworthy VPN with decent performance. Their support is really professional and fast too.

Shameless plug.

Buy VPN. 45€/USD a year and it hides all your traffic info. Do that and you can download all the stuff you want without your ISP knowing.

Private Internet Access, highly recommended.

And yes those streaming sites are illegal. Doesn't matter what way you acquire your shows or movies.

Buy a VPN subscription (like Private Internet Access or others for ~$3-6/month for protection and torrent all the shows you want.

A good torrent client is qBittorrent.

Good torrent sites:
(for TV shows)
Kickass Torrents and The Pirate Bay for everything else.

There's also a possibility the VPN will unlock CC's website (since they won't see you accessing it from your ISP, but from the VPN), no guarantees though.

Edit: some useful subs: /r/cordcutters and /r/Cordcutting

The software is harmless. However make sure install it from the official website.

It doesn't/won't harm your PC any more than a normal software (like a game) would. Just bear in mind that virtualization can be resource-intensive, so make sure you have a decent cooling solution and you should be fine.

In general my tips would be:

• Make sure you have Intel VT-d/VT-x or the AMD equivalent enabled in your BIOS, this will make virtualization much smoother, and also enable virtualizing 64-bit guests.
• If you are using a slow disk (like an HDD), consider putting the guest disk images in another physical disk, this is because HDDs are quite slow, plus they struggle because of their high latency resulting in low IOPS on random reads/writes. This is just a recommendation, you can ignore this, but your PC might feel very sluggish while running the VM depending on what the host&guest OS are doing.
• Leave some ram for the host OS. This is the biggest mistake I see newbies doing, allocating everything to the guest, leaving nothing for the host. For example if your host is normally using 2GB/8GB, then don't give the VM more than 4-5GB of RAM, otherwise your SO is going to use swap/pagefile as RAM and you are not going to have a great experience.
• If you desire the virtual screen auto-resizing, copy-and-paste, file drag and drop, consider installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions on the guest. Just bear in mind using such removes some of the isolation between the host and the guest.
• VirtualBox has a quite extensive, well-written, updated documentation available here.

Have fun!

VPNs provide an encrypted "tunnel" between your device and a server owned by the VPN service. The VPN server then acts as a proxy server for you, fetching web pages for you from the VPN server's location and sending them down that encrypted tunnel to your device. VPNs used to be quite complicated, and required dedicated hardware and support staff. For this reason, they were mostly used by traveling sales\support staff at big companies. They would spend their day making sales, then, when they arrived back at their hotel, they'd get on the hotel's Internet connection, start the VPN client, then upload all the sales to their company securely.

VPNs are, of course, much more popular now. Connecting to the Internet from "unfriendly" countries like China and Egypt are one of the main reasons people use VPNs. But people who torrent a lot use them, because if the Media Police logged a user's IP address, it would be to the VPN provider instead of your personal computer. VPNs are also popular with ex-pats: Americans overseas might use an American VPN to watch Netflix, for example, or British ex-pats living in the US could use a British VPN to watch BBC's iPlayer.

Here's a list of Lifehacker's best VPNs. Note that the list is from 2014, so it's a bit dated. This list is from Lifehacker Australia from February 9, so is much more up to date.

As for gaming... I dunno, I don't game. However, given the delay you often encounter with VPNs, I can't imagine the latency would make for good gaming. But perhaps someone with more experience can come in and share their experiences.

>and even that old website search engine where it finds dead pages for you

If you meant https://archive.org/web/ - it only takes exact URLs. It doesn't work like google where you can put just about any search terms.

My advice is to try use Google to find sites that reference it so you can get the original link. Once you have that you can put it in archive.org.

Try using GrandPerspective to get a visual representation of all your files in your hard drive. The bigger the square, the bigger the file. Same folder = same color and they appear together as a group. I've been using it for a long time and it's really helpful. http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

You have to assume that none of the apps are working for you unless you have the source code.

The most secure local option is to use a small computer like a Raspberry Pi, and use camera software that you've configured yourself.

https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki

If you have a decent computer I would suggest:

Use the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy:

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/index.php

The BOINC project is located at the University of California, Berkeley. It has existed since 2002, with funding primarily from the National Science Foundation.

Why are you afraid to download Dolphin? The website looks pretty safe to me but maybe I'm overlooking something.

http://www.dolphin-emulator.com/

There's a website to check if Norton, the antivirus company, thinks a website is safe. I entered the above URL and got this report, which says it's safe.

For one-time use, just copy and paste or clone the drive as previously suggested. But IMHO you might want to ramp up and automate a bit. There are lots of tools out there for this, but here are just a couple:

Duplicati is a free, open source tool that will make scheduled incremental backups from anywhere on your computer to any of a number of backup storage destinations, including cloud providers (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, etc) as well as local options like another hard drive on your system or a network drive on your home network. The major benefit of this is that you set it to backup entire directories with filters (with full ability to exclude specific subdirectories or folders as you wish), but after that you don't need to remember to copy-and-paste over the files you want to back up, it handles it for you including added stuff. You could use this, for example, to back up your main files to your current external drive.

Another tool, RSync, automates basically direct copying of files from one place to another (as far as I've heard it can also do local drives as well as cloud targets). So one thing you could do if you're nervous about your current backup external HDD failing soon, is to get a second drive and schedule RSync to essentially mirror the backup data from drive #1 over to (new) external drive #2 (or a cloud storage target). This will increase your resistance against disaster scenarios. Keep in mind though that the only complete protection against disaster (like a housefire etc) is to have an offsite backup. I personally use B2 as it's among the cheapest cloud storage providers out there as far as I know.

Ironically, LibreOffice, a free program not made by Microsoft can do it better than Microsoft's own expensive office software.

• 50-pack of blank 25GB Blu-Ray disks with cases on amazon - $50 (i.e. 25 GB for $1)

• 32 GB MicroSD card on amazon - $7.50 (i.e. 25 GB for $5.86)

1. MicroSD cards come out to be about 5-6 times more expensive.
2. They would be wasted for movies and games, because those media are written once, and only once, on the storage medium and read multiple times.
3. Piracy - manufacturers would have to actively prevent copying data from movie microSD cards, that would drive the price of each card even higher. Currently the disk drives do this job and the cost is absorbed in the Blu-ray players, not in each disk.
4. After "burning disks", there are physical "etches" on the shiny surface, they last a long time. Flash memory "traps" electrons to represent 1s and 0s. It's a delicate system, bit-rot, EMF, cosmic rays may corrupt data.
5. Imagine boomers inserting microSD cards in those tiny slots, hahaha

Well PIA is not a bad VPN, they are secure (tested in court or something), of course, they are based in the US and many people don't trust this fact. It's hard to tell, US do really have data retention laws and can ask them to store data. I use NordVPN myself, it's based in Panama and doesn't keep logs. I like Nord over PIA because they work with streaming Netflix. It just depends on you what you will be using your VPN for and if you trust US VPNs. You should just read more about data retention laws to understand what's the deal with them.

There are articles in which various analysis are made to determine which VPNs in general Reddit users mostly recommend. I suggest checking out such articles, it should help you get a better understanding and make some conclusions based on the opinions of the masses. For example, this one

Spoiler alert: NordVPN, PIA and Proton are considered to be the best

I'm partial to Private Internet Access article, they keep no logs, so they value their user's privacy. They also provide a SOCKS5 proxy in case you need it.

It's not free (but it is quite inexpensive), but in my opinion, it's far better than anything you'll find out there for free.

GodOfAxel mentioned Tor, but Tor is not in any way suitable for bittorrent downloads.

I would caution you against free VPNs, since they exist for the sole purpose of trying to sell something. That something can either be advertising space (annoying but usually harmless), your personal information (less harmless), or both.

Not a bad idea. I have an old phone that I use as:

- An alarm clock; I'm a HEAVY sleeper, and have one of those alarm apps where you have to solve math problems to shut off the alarm.

- A music streaming device - Spotify, TuneIn, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Prime Music, etc.

- A white noise machine, for my GF when we travel.

The sound quality is... "acceptable" with the built-in speaker, but I often carry an Oontz Angle 3 with me when I travel. The sound quality is pretty good for a $25 speaker, the battery life is better than good, and it's splash\sand proof so you can take it to the beach.

I don't have an SD card in it at the moment, but if I wanted to use it 100% offline I could get one and download music from Spotify and\or copy my own files to it. I like Pi Music Player for music, but I'm sure there's a better option for audiobooks.

Seems like an easy option to me. I already had the phone, and it didn't take long to reset it, delete the unwanted apps I could and hide the apps I didn't want but couldn't uninstall. I keep airplane mode on all the time, and only turn Wi-Fi on to stream stuff; the battery life is ridiculous - something like 25 days a charge with light use.

You're looking for a switch

Is it possible someone else had figured out your WiFi password and is stealing your internet. Can you use your router to figure out who's connected to your network? Finally, if you can't figure it out then check for yourself. You can install custom firmware on your router that will record all data usage, http://www.howtogeek.com/192654/how-to-monitor-your-internet-bandwidth-usage-and-avoid-exceeding-data-caps/

I worked for Intel, Celeron scores slightly better. Are you going to buy a new laptop? Invest in a i3 6/7 generation (first number after i3-), it's better long term.

Edit: If you can give me more details about the devices I can give you an advise for buying. What are you looking for in a laptop?

The switch does not physically prevent the card from being written to. You can find some discussion here.

Well, you could just get a less expensive phone instead. The truth is that smartphones in general, good smartphones, are getting cheaper. It's just that the high end is becoming gaga price-wise.

There's no reason to spend a thousand bucks on a phone or even half as much (which used to be high end). Most people would be more than fine with one that costs between one and two hundred bucks. We're talking full HD IPS displays, 3GB RAM, four to eight core CPUs, large batteries and even NFC at this price point, coupled with excellent build quality. Apart from better performance in certain games, better cameras and some AR and VR capabilities as well as exotic, but ultimately not very useful features, there really isn't that big of an advantage to buying a high end phone. A relative recently bought a Motorola G5 for something like €122 and it's excellent. Feels really solid, the screen is good, it's snappy and responsive, does everything a smartphone needs to do. A couple of years ago, this would have been a high end phone, now phones that are just above entry level are this good. If you want a recommendation, look at this very phone, it's the one to beat.

Sure, a tablet is possible (and you can make calls), but pretty pointless in my eyes. Tablets are cheaper, because most of them are occupying lower price ranges, using the same components as in slightly cheaper phones, just with larger screens and batteries. The tech is otherwise identical. Few people are interested in spending a thousand bucks on a tablet, because at that price point, it makes more sense to purchase a laptop. High end smartphones do not have this sort of competition, which is why manufacturers can get away with ridiculously inflating prices of their top models.

If you want to try a way without using the command line interface, why not download an installer from another computer and transfer it over to your laptop using a flash drive?

Failing that, you could try opening Windows Explorer (File Explorer) and typing in a web address into the address bar. It should then try to open that address in your default browser.

If you want to go the flash drive route, I highly recommend you try using Ninite. It's a unified installer that lets you install a whole bunch of programs all at once, including several browsers. It downloads on the stop, so the installer itself is really small, and helps make sure you grab the latest version.

Good luck!

Gimp.

There's almost nothing you can do in photoshop that you can't also do in gimp. On the down side, the interface is not nearly as polished or intuitive and you'll probably have to put in some actual effort into learning it (there are tons of youtube tutorials). But on the up side, it is legitimately free.

I've never used VLC to record anything, but at a guess I'd suspect that either VLC is using a very inefficient codec, or it didn't actually "record" the video but merely change the framerate to be 8x the original video.

Take your new, short video and run it through handbrake. Use the youtube 720p preset. That should make it a fraction of the original size, regardless of why/how VLC created a large file.

Yes.

If they have enabled router logging, they can see what addresses have been looked up, by which machines and when.

Here's an example of how someone could set something like that up. It's fairly simple.

If you're just looking to force the discrete graphics card during the installation (so that it will install correctly), that's fine. If you're looking to force it all the time, you should be aware of more power consumption (which negatively affects battery life) and more heat, which could potentially shorten the life of your laptop. If your laptop is plugged in all the time and/or in a relatively cool area, you'll probably be ok.

I'd just try forcing it to see if it helps you through the installation, and if it doesn't, revert back. If you have the nVidia drivers installed and can access the nVidia control panel, try following these instructions.

Open a command prompt in Windows (right-click the start menu, select Command Prompt or Windows PowerShel depending on patch level). Once you are at a prompt, type python and press enter. You should see something like this:

PS C:\Users\blahblah> python Python 3.6.3 (v3.6.3:2c5fed8, Oct 3 2017, 17:26:49) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>>

If you do not see the above, then Windows doesn't know where the Python executable is. Assuming this works, try going to the directory that has your Hello World, hold the shift key and right-click an empty space. You should see the option Open PowerShell window here, so select that (it may say command prompt instead, which is fine). Once at this new prompt, type dir and press enter and confirm that your program can be seen. Also check its extension. It should be something like hello_world.py. If there's no .py at the end, then Windows won't know what program to use to open it.

Assuming, again, that all is fine and you can see your program, try typing python hello_world.py and press enter, replacing the filename with the name you've given the program file. Your program should now run as expected. If not, you could try copying your code into Pastebin and post a link here for review.

Finally, I would recommend taking a beginner course on programming with Python as the tool. I know there are a few free ones online. I can personally vouch for this one from Udacity as a great entrance to object-oriented programming using Python. Remember that Python is a tool, but programming is the skill and that's what you want to learn.

When installing, select 'Advanced Setup' on this screen.

Click 'Change' to change the location of the folder on your computer. Select a location on the HDD.

Finish installing.

Done.

LibreOffice Draw can edit PDFs. It's properly-free open source software, and is fairly full-featured. It's part of the LibreOffice suite, which is not exactly "lightweight", though.

PDFedit is another FOSS option, but it's a smaller project and still in perpetual beta.

In what circumstances is proxy use legal? Almost literally all of them. It's illegal to, say, look at child porn, and even if you use a proxy to look that up, you're not breaking the law by using a proxy, you're breaking the law by looking at child porn. Proxies/VPNs aren't illegal, period.

Also, this site will tell you if a website is really down or not.

Use a virtual machine.

Edit: Another user suggested Parallels, which would work, but it's just a fancy virtual machine program that costs money (and doesn't include the cost of Windows). Instead you could just use VirtualBox for free.

It really depends on what you want to do. Creating another user account on your computer is easy to do, and what you do under that user wouldn't affect (for the most part) your own account.

Another option you should look into is running a virtual machine, which is basically an operating system running as a program on your computer. It's a bit advanced, and might be overkill for what you want to do, but it might also be exactly what you need. Look up VirtualBox for more info (it's free and open-source).

google wallet and paypal are both only as secure as the password used for them. both are susceptible to passsword phishing.

rather than just changing services why not turn on PayPal Security Key which makes it 2 factor authentication.

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/helpcenter/article/?articleID=94001&m=SRE

if the paypal payments are to "microsoft Corporation" do you know if your mother had one of those phishing phonecalls from someone claiming to be microsoft support?

Just watch the system's temperatures with the same applications running and the same tasks being performed using this tool, with and without your fan on. I don't think it should be a problem. If it's particularly hot where you're living, I'd recommend purchasing a cooling pad for your laptop, which blows air into the air intakes of your laptop. These actually work.

Some general advice: Always keep your laptop in a cool, well-ventilated room on a flat, firm surface and make sure all vents are clean and unobstructed. Regularly clean your vents and replace the thermal paste if you notice temperatures climbing.

Here's how far.

"Pfft. That's just [insert shitting on parade here] bla bla bla" --Some know-it-all.

Realistically, there's >6k games on steam. About 2k run on SteamOS. It's Debian based.

Before its release, ALL performance video drivers were antiquated, barely viable, and required real linux knowledge to install. After Valve announced SteamOS, Intel AMD and Nvidia had updates/patches within a couple months... and that right there is the real metric.

If video cards will support it without being a pain in the ass, then developers are more likely to try support linux. Unity and Unreal engine already support linux to some extent, so performance video support is the next step.

If you had asked that question 3 years ago, the answer would have been "Very far." It's pretty clear that valve started their whole Steam Machine bit because they, along with many other notables in gaming, didn't like the way the Windows 8 marketplace worked.

But today, the bottom line is that linux gaming is part of the conversation now thanks to SteamOS, but it's not a panacea. While it has made linux gaming "viable" to some extent, I would not say that it has made linux gaming a good idea.

Theres an application called CPU-Z that gives you a lot of info on your mainboard (CPU/RAM/Mainboard/GPU):

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Another application called GPU-Z which does the same for your GPU board:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

They can run as non-install exe files to get you the info you want (and then some)

You could look into combining PowerShell scripting with command line anti-virus utilities and Chocolatey to download and install the utilities. If you needed to manipulate graphic applications, you could also check out AutoIT or AutoHotKey.

I would imagine you could automate it easily enough to remove 90% of the issues.

There was also a Reddit user who created a utility called Tron that could be of use: https://github.com/bmrf/tron

Does it boot up / can you login (aka, enter a pin or code to unlock?) without visual?

If so you could try downloading the https://www.android.com/filetransfer/ app and pulling files off it like an external HD

You're in luck. Backyard Baseball was written in SCUMM, a scripting language used by Lucas Arts, Sierra, and Humongous for a lot of old games. There is an emulator called SummVM that runs most of these games quite well.

I've heard good things about Rockbox custom firmware, and the devices it supports are fairly cheap/good/easy to find. You can even use an older model of iPod and never have to worry about iTunes.

https://opensignal.com uses data voluntarily collected by people with their app on their phones; but looks like nowadays the actual maps are only available inside the app itself, not on the site.

And there is no guarantee the data in the region you're interested in is recent, since that depends on the last time someone with the app on their phone was in that area.

rdesktop is a pretty standard response when looking for remote desktop on a Linux machine, and I've heard pretty good things with it. It will definitely allow control of a Windows machine from a Linux box.

Teamviewer itself is also available on Linux, and will allow control again for just about any common OS to any common OS. Personally I use Teamviewer for all my remote needs, but I'm also primarily running Windows at this point - I do not know about stability or quality with it on Linux.

Laser and skip color if you don't absolutely need it. The consumables for Brother may be less expensive over the long run, since they tend to have the drums and toner cartridges separate.

Here's one on sale for $150 right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113654

Color versions can be found at around $400, though there are occasional sales that are much lower.

For example https://slickdeals.net/f/7149998-brother-wireless-color-led-laser-multifunction-aio-printer-mfc-9130cw-235-ncix?v=1

Once you have a laser printer, it can become a really boring peripheral that just sits there and works whenever you need it. I haven't installed any of the manufacturer's software, and they've worked with OS X 10.4-10.9 and Windows 7&8 without needing to do anything special.

Inkjets by comparison always seem to need new cartridges, can easily cost more than $100/year in consumables, and for some reason software support seems to just run out in 3-5 years—though that was my experience with HP and Epson rather than Brother.

Chromecast seems to be the best option. Using an Chrome extension like Videostream will allow you to stream local movies, present on your laptop, to your TV.

"Run the latest games" how? Are we talking 4k 100+ FPS, or is 1080p 60fps sufficient?

PC performance is very much a spectrum. Unless you have specific performance goals you want to hit, it's better to figure out what you can afford and get the best machine for that money. It's very possible to get a prebuilt desktop that will "run the latest games" for around $500 - it just won't run them great. If you're fine with 720p and low settings, then it will certainly get the job done.

PS - please don't buy that specific machine - 12GB RAM with an APU is spectacularly stupid.

It's part of an iOS / Android / Windows Phone (really!) app called Unified Remote, which allows you to use your phone touch screen as a track pad for your PC (great for controlling the PC from your bed, like pausing a YouTube video) within the same WiFi network. It can't connect from outside the local area network.

RemoteServerWin.exe the server side of Unified Remote to enable the remote control. You can download the free version from Play Store or App Store and the server from unifiedremote.com. Free version has 18 remotes, the paid pro version has 40+ remotes.

Unified Remote is legit. I've been using the paid pro version for years (literally, maybe since 2014 or something). And it has other remotes as well besides the standard trackpad and keyboard, they also have YouTube remote, Spotify, VLC, Netflix, Prime Video, Screen, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, Plex, Kodi, iTunes, foobar, GOM, CrunchyRoll, File Manager (you can browse and open any file from your phone), Minecraft, Command Prompt, Restart/Shutdown/Sleep, Task Manager, PowerPoint, etc.

To be clear, this is not a trojan or malware. If you kill the process, you lose the ability to control the PC using the Android app.

Of course, that's if you actually installed the server yourself and actually use the app. Otherwise, you can delete it.

Bluetooth is Bluetooth. They should work with anything that supports Bluetooth, be it a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. I've had a few pairs of BT headphones, and they've always "just worked" with all my devices.

If you're using a desktop without built-in Bluetooth, you'll need something like this USB dongle. I don't know how well this particular model works, but it's the #1 seller on Amazon.

Sysadmin here. Some specifics.

Ubiquiti's UAP-AC-M (the M means mesh) sells for $86 On Amazon.

Using the "xfinitywifi hotspot" (whatever the fuck that is) seems like a worse idea, than just running a single network cable outside carefully, and attaching one of those UAP-AC-M's to the side of the house. With another one nearer yours, of course, so you can run a cable from that. Or just use the nearer and properly amplified wifi signal of course.

In fact, this has the added bonus, that you can add an isolated, speed-restricted guest wifi to the setup, so other neighbours can browse on their laptops while in the yard, if you're so altruistically inclined.

Not under $30, no.

The HP Sprocket is about $130, there's a Kodak option for $90, and you can look for used/ebay auctions.

There's a Pandigital printer on Amazon for about $40, but it sounds like the company isn't reachable, and the necessary paper is not really available, so don't buy that.

Yep if your rooted then Titanium Backup is what you need. If you dont have root then you could install MyAppSharer from the playstore, allows you to save the .apk locally to your device, send via email ect. Hope this helps.

Nobody's going to make a custom sized OLED panel, unless you need a hundred thousand of them.

Does it have to be OLED? You can get an LCD display that is just about the size you're looking for that will attach directly to a raspberry pi. You can run your video on repeat in whatever video player you wish. Easy-peasy.

I'd recommend PIA. They're one of the most used and popular ones too. But there's also Torguard, NordVPN and ExpressVPN for you to check out and consider as well.

Here's a great article you can read about all the different ones and their policies/etc:

You could also check out /r/VPN or read through their recommendations megathread.

Check this page for some VPN and DNS services that still work for US Netflix along with some discount codes. The page is updated daily, the current top recommended services are ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, and StrongVPN. All 3 of these have been working very well over the last few months.

Generally, they are legit. But be carefull which provider you chose, some have cooperated with the police in the past, which makes them pretty much useless (e.q. HideMyAss). Others promise not to log anything (e.q. AirVPN).

If you have an Android phone, this app might support it. Just turns your phone into an actual FM receiver, though you need wired headphones attached to act as the antenna.

Whatsapp.

Everybody in the world has it. If you don't, then you're the exception. Seriously, Google Play lists the installed number at "between 1 billion and 5 billion". source. iTunes doesn't provide similar statistics, because Apple are jerks.

Here's some info on how to use it:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/pano-logic-brings-us-closer-to-the-screen/

Apparently, setting it up is far from trivial. I don't think you'll be able to run the required software on your laptop and even then I doubt it's suitable for video playback. I'd just get a Chromecast instead, which is purpose-built for what you're trying to do.

Something like Text Wrangler or some other text software that will increase your typing speed with macros and text replacement shortcuts and stuff.

F.lux

An adblocker. I remember when I wanted to get one, they said I couldn’t because we’re enterprise so we’d have to pay for one that’s normally free. IDK if your job is as tight about that, so if you gotta pay for it, let them foot the bill.

Probably can’t get a standing desk for that price.

Maybe some of those blue tint shades to eliminate the harsh fluorescent lights.

Really depends on your TV.

Some can play media off of external storage, but have trouble with certain file types.

There are some wireless options out there for pc to tv, but they tend to be expensive.

You can buy a little "Android TV Box" to play your files, or a Apple TV or Google Chromecast(if you have a good wifi network).

You can also make a Rapberry Pi PC box

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kodi-raspberry-pi-media-center/

http://uprhomesystems.com/tutorials-and-knowledge-center/raspberry-pi-3-streaming-box/

Best Overall, basic support: https://www.digitalocean.com

Personal preference, great support (with them since 2013): https://www.ramnode.com

another great option is google Cloud ..check out "google compute engine" (aka fancy scaleable VPS)

I agree with you on this — I would definitely continue using encryption software illegally. But, what about services we use every day that might not be able to operate without encryption (or choose to shut down because they are not willing to compromise on our security)? I'm thinking about something like this current case of WhatsApp in Brazil.

About the precedent: it wasn't that the FBI was able to set a precedent that allowed them to break encryption; it's the precedent that the FBI is allowed to attempt it, with the help of the DoJ, in the hopes that a company will relent because they won't be able to pay the legal fees to fight it (or something like that). Once one company caves, the FBI will then have that legal precedent set — they will be able to force pretty much whomever they want.

1. Slow down, take a deep breath, and separate your rational thoughts from your paranoia.
2. Understand that telling us to fuck ourselves before we even have a chance to respond is probably not going to make anybody more willing to help you.
3. Use TAILS, as /u/greenerthumbleXD said.
4. Make sure that any files you have stored, either locally or in the cloud, are fully encrypted.
5. Any information that you have previously shared online should be considered to be in the open for good. Write it off as a consequence of past indiscretion, and don't stress yourself out too much in trying to take it offline. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do stuff like delete facebook posts and whatnot, but understand that once something is online, you can't guarantee that nobody else has that information.

Most functions are missing:

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_watch-review-1820p5.php

It would be a complete waste of money to buy this watch for an iPhone. Makes no sense whatsoever. Either switch over to an Android phone or get an Apple watch.

here is a comparison https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9230&idPhone2=9284&idPhone3=8854In my opinon the Mate 20 lite is the best due to screen ratio and storage expandablity but the 10 pro has a little more battery life. I would go for the mate 20 lite

You should test the RAM, using a tool like MemTest86, or using the included ram tests from a linux live CD.

VisiPics is what I use and it finds duplicate with different resolutions. I love it.

VisiPics

The video itself cannot be upgraded once it has been recorded. With the Wii, specifically, the highest resolution option you have is 480p, which to be honest isn't that much of an improvement to warrant the purchase of the cable you can buy from Nintendo. Here's a link to the cable http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17071&type=page&cp=1&nrp=15&usc=Electronics&sc=electronicsSP&st=Nintendo+Wii+HD+component+Cable (the wii has standard 480i output when stock)

The only other way for you to get higher res content is to upgrade your console and use the appropriate cabling. I do also advise doing a little research into the hierarchy of the cable world in the future too. Might help solve any other future resolution questions later on :)

Check this out:

http://www.cnet.com/topics/laptops/products/?filter=display-diagonal-size_17-in-and-larger_display-diagonal-size_16-in_display-diagonal-size_15-in_processor-chipsetab-cpu_intel-core-i7-4th_os-provided-type_microsoft-windows-8-pro

Maybe you should try this tutorial for the GUI version of PhotoRec if using the command libe version was difficult: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/20/how-to-use-photorec-gui-to-recover-lost-digital-photos-and-files/

If you are still unsure about how to use it, google some video tutorials and see if they help. There should be other step by step videos/websites on how to use it.

Here is an explanation of a RAW file system: "The RAW drive is a hard drive partition which has not been formatted with the file system neither FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 nor NTFS/NTFS5. The RAW drive can be caused by a number of reasons such as virus infection, format failure, accidentally shut down operating system, power outages, etc."

This is because the drive is formatted using FAT32 as the file system.

You will need to back your data up to somewhere else to fix the issue because it will erase all data on the drive when you reformat it.

This explains how to format the drive from your Mac. Note that the drive will no longer be readable on a Windows computer if you format it to "Mac OS Extended".

This article better explains different file systems and the advantages and disadvantages of each when using your drive for Windows and Mac.

> Norton is the worst

Not really, it's a mediocre, complacent, and worst: expensive antivirus.

> get avira antivir or the other free one that's ok, forgot the name right now, the one that usually yells "virus database has been updated"

I reckon most antivirus programs will occasionally mention that their database is updated? You might be talking about Malwarebytes Antimalware though. (https://ninite.com/)

> CCleaner usually gets rid of a lot of shitty stuff, not viruses per say, but adware and nasty things.

Nope, CCleaner removes "unneeded" files in an effort to "declutter" or "speed up" your computer. Which, unfortunately, is largely useless in these modern days of SSDs and lots of RAM. It does not scan for and remove malware.

> You can also try to go into the control center (ctrl alt del or ctrl alt ESC)

You mean "task manager." I'm assuming you're using a non-English Windows and literally translated what it's called in your language? For the record, in English, it's called "task manager".

> try to find shady processes running in the background. Look for things that have lots of processes under the same name, or that take up lots of ram/processing power.

This is horrible advice. DO NOT DO THIS!

> Google the names !

This is *semi-*good advice. It might work for some "stupid" malware, but even slightly clever malware will assume a name that looks like (or is identical to) the name of a legit program, making this useless.

> Most importantly, ask google !

You actually hit the nail on the head there. This is how sysadmins come by most of their information.

> try a good antivirus and CCleaner first !

Glad you finally figured out that CCleaner is not antivirus. That said, it won't help OP.

tl;dr go to www.ninite.com and download malwarebytes. If that doesn't help, reinstall your Windows.

There's no reason why you can't use a USB cable to connect your android phone to either a PC or Mac, as I routinely do this to transfer gigabytes of files. Going through the internet will use data, and if on your cellular connection it will use your plan's data and be very slow. FTP is an old protocol (though still serviceable), it just lacks security; FTP with SSH and SFTP exist for these reasons. On windows you simply need to plug it into a USB port and it should appear in file explorer as a connected devices that you can browse like a flash drive, and on mac you'll need to download an extra program like this one: Android File Transfer MAC

Sling TV works on Roku. Their $25 and $40 plans include FOX. I have never used it so you should check out reviews for it before serious consideration.

Edit: Looks like they don't have Fox news though...

You could make a batch (.bat) file, so when you run it, it opens your VPN software and the other stuff at the same time: quick guide below

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/launch-multiple-programs-single-shortcut-using-batch-file/

If you can’t log in even after trying your twelve passwords, or you’ve inherited a computer complete with password-protected profiles, worry not – you don’t have to do a fresh install of Windows. We’ll show you how to change or reset your Windows password from a Ubuntu Live CD.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14369/change-or-reset-windows-password-from-a-ubuntu-live-cd/

The wireless transmitter seems like a solid, albeit expensive option.

If you can live with a bit of delay, a cheaper option might be to get something like a Raspberry Pi and connect it to the monitor. You can then stream the video data to the Raspberry Pi and thus display it on the monitor.

If you just want to display a slideshow on the monitor, you might even want to run the slideshow directly on the Raspberry Pi (as long as your application isn't too heavy, and can run on Linux/ARM). If needed, you could remote control it via a remote desktop application of some sort. This would also solve your second problem.

I know of no such website, as they would need to obtain user data from every website in existence, and that seems like a colossal security issue. What I think you're actually talking about is Have I Been Pwned?. This website tracks known data breaches. You enter an email address and the site tells you if this address is among those released as part of such breaches.

Just to add what the others are saying, you can totally use ham radio (which is most likely what you meant) to transmit data and use it for Internet access. This used to be incredibly slow, but there have been improvements in recent years:

https://www.hackster.io/news/utilize-a-ham-radio-for-long-distance-data-networking-a452bb91be38

Lots of good info here. Looks like my best option would definitely be the micro computer hard-wired to the screen on my arm with a battery. I looked into the Pi Zero and I am impressed at the price and it’s features. The Wifi supported version of Pi seems like it has a good system for connection but even if that isn’t good enough, I bet I could use the WiFi-SD card that you mentioned in a specific card reader that supports live feed. Anyways, I found a few really close matches that I can work with. This is the hardware that looks closest to what I’d like: [ https://www.hackster.io/Tylersuard/raspberry-pi-smart-watch-a0243b ]. And here’s a Pi with working live feed! [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Zb-4zI_rE ] If I can combine these two recipes it looks like I might have a blueprint!

http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/

This is my favorite because it can boot both legacy and UEFI Windows as well as a plethora of other bootable software. I use it for everything and I've never had it not work for me. I have a 32GB flash drive with every relevant Windows OS, a massive amount of Linux distros, rescue disks, and ton backup and restoration utilities all in one.

This is the best source I found on the matter. It's pretty in depth, and involves editing the registry. If you're not familiar or comfortable with doing that I would not. But to see if this folder is the source of your issues, I would suggest navigating to C:\ -> Users -> your user profile name -> AppData -> Local -> Google -> Chrome -> User Data -> Default and check the size of the Cache folder. Or just paste in C:\Users*substitute your user name*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default into a windows explorer window and that will get you to it.

Mine was about 617MB which isn't nearly enough to fill the hard drive unless you're using something pretty old. If that doesn't seem to be the culprit I would suggest going the original route and to check each folder from the main C: drive on and just follow which one is outrageously large.

Edit: After some short research, you can try and grab a program called "SpaceSniffer" or something similar that you can run on your computer to tell you what is taking up the most space. Just be careful about where you download freeware because a lot of sites will try and tack on programs that are unrelated.