“How To” collection
Simplify your digital life with comprehensive step-by-step tutorials and instructional guides for modern technology. Learn how to optimize your software configurations, manage cloud services, and master new devices with these easy-to-follow technical walkthroughs.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →April 27, 2014
Review & Giveaway: Honeywell WiFi Smart Thermostat (RTH9580)
A little over a year ago, I installed a Honeywell WiFi Thermostat in my home, replacing one of those traditional, "dumb" thermostats that typically comes with a furnace or air conditioner. It was great being able to not only remotely connect to my home's heating and cooling to turn it on and off, but also using the smart heating and…
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April 21, 2014
How To Install a New Hard Drive & Battery into a 2010 MacBook Pro
There comes a day in the life of every laptop when it simply isn't running as efficiently as it could be. This day came to my 2010 MacBook Pro recently when I looked to see that it only had about 18 GB of hard drive space left and the battery was only able to hold a charge for about an…
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December 17, 2013
This Amazing Fix Will Get Your MacBook Air Charging Again!
I have an older MacBook Air and absolutely love it. It has performed flawlessly and is well used by me and my kids. However, I have had a lingering issue that has appeared every few months or so that has often left me scratching my head. Sometimes, when I plug in my 45 watt power supply, the little green light…
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October 29, 2013
How To Use the eBay Simple Flow Interface to Easily Sell your Old Tablet
One of the big problems about being addicted to gadgets and consumer electronic devices is that you always want the latest and greatest "bright & shiny" device. When that desire hits you, suddenly, you are faced with two issues: 1) how do you find funds to get a new device and 2) how do you easily sell your old device…
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October 7, 2013
Which Apple ID to use for iTunes App Store, iMessage, iCloud and Find My iPhone
Apple's iOS 7 introduced some confusion when it comes to Apple IDs. But the change was intentional because Apple's desire was to make iOS much more secure. As part of the upgrade process, iPhone and iPad users are required to set up an iCloud account and associate it with Find my iPhone. This process will (hopefully) cause the number of…
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September 27, 2013
Site Performance Optimization: MaxCDN, Nginx, CloudFlare and WordPress Caching
My blog has a problem. Or rather it had a problem but I'm making some big improvements to it to make it perform better. For many years, my site has suffered from slow performance. Much of that is my fault though. I tend to overload WordPress with lots of plugins. Plugins are bad, but they are in many ways, quite…
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August 15, 2013
Selling Yourself versus Applying for a Job
I recently had an interesting conversation with an ex-coworker around the process of getting hired. What was fascinating was that we both had the same thoughts, his as a result of some advice from a career coach and mine from some introspection. What it all converged on was that there is a big difference between simply applying for a job,…
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June 21, 2013
How To Fix “Login to server imap.mail.me.com failed” Issues on Postbox or Thunderbird
There is nothing more annoying than getting repeated email error messages in your email client from an email server. Sometimes this can be caused by issues with the server, or perhaps the connection, or because some configuration has changed or simply because you have not set up your email properly. Recently in my Postbox app (which is based on the…
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June 14, 2013
Instagram Users – How to Clear the Instagram Cache & Save Space on your Smartphone
If you are a heavy Instagram user, you might not know this but the more you use Instagram, the photo-sharing service and mobile application, the more space the app will consume on your iOS or Android device over time. Originally, when you install Instagram, it only uses about 24 MB (on iOS), but it can grow to use up literally…
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June 5, 2013
Parents Be Warned! Ask.fm is a Dangerous & Deadly Social Site for Teens & Tweens
Back in 2012, I wrote about some potential dangers surrounding the Instagram and Kik Messenger combination. By now, hopefully many parents know what to look for and how to combat this social danger. Recently, I started to investigate a new social danger for kids, specifically Ask.fm which actually has a few documented teen suicides attributed to the service. Interestingly, it…
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May 7, 2013
How To Easily Remove, Install & Replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery (Video)
I'm such a heavy user of my Apple iPhones that it really seems like about a year after I get one, I'm doing a how-to article on replacing the iPhone's battery. I now have an iPhone 4S and this past weekend, I replaced the battery. Other smartphone users may scoff at the fact that Apple has made their hardware quite…
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April 25, 2013
How to Stop CHKDSK from Running on Every Boot Up
Recently, my Windows 7 computer started running a CHKDSK each and every time that it booted up. For those that don't know, the CHKDSK utility is a way that Windows validates the system file structure and integrity of your computer's hard drive. You can scan your hard drive with it or run it with a fix (/f) flag to correct…
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