“HTD Tech Tip” collection
Solve common technical frustrations with quick, actionable “Tech Tips” and expert software workarounds. This series provides fast solutions for optimizing your devices and resolving minor technical glitches in seconds.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →September 27, 2014
Parents Guide to Social Media Apps Used by Kids
I was recently asked by a reader of my site (Denise) if I could put together a chart that lists out some of the main social media sites used by tweens and teens and if I could provide some commentary on how they are dangerous (or not) for kids - essentially, a Parents Guide to Social Media apps used by…
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September 18, 2014
The Best Way to Install iOS 8 & Not Delete Apps & Data
Apple's iOS 8 has been released and people are complaining that they have to delete applications and/or data and media in order to install the new mobile operating system. This is true if you do an OTA (Over The Air) update. Sometimes, even connecting to iTunes on your computer and trying to do the upgrade there prevents you from doing…
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September 11, 2014
How to Turn Off Facebook’s Auto-Play Videos & Save Data
If you are anything like me, you watch your cell phone's data consumption very closely. And given that I have 4 other people on my family shared plan (3 of them being teens & almost a teen), there are some apps that simply gulp down data. Tweens and teens absolutely LOVE image and video apps (think Instagram, Vine, SnapChat and…
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September 3, 2014
How To Change the Default Browser on Mac with Chrome Canary and Chrome
Google recently released a 64-bit version of its browser, Chrome Canary. If you want what Google calls "the bleeding edge of the web" type of browser, you can download and install Google Chrome Canary for Mac (or Windows). It has the latest features and is targeted towards early adopters, developers and the like. I had been using the beta channel…
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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 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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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 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 21, 2013
14 Things to Consider When Choosing a Cloud Provider – Part 2
In Part 1 of my 2-part series “14 Things to Consider When Choosing a Cloud Provider” I walked you through several important evaluation criteria that you should consider when choosing a cloud provider. The topics covered in Part 1 are: Performance, Breadth of Service Offering, Ease of Use, Price, Support, SLA and Security. Do note that these items are not…
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May 14, 2013
14 Things to Consider When Choosing a Cloud Provider – Part 1
You should all know by now that the cloud is here to stay. It may be in one form or another and in various flavors (infrastructure, platform or application) and it may not be called "cloud" in a few years, but the concept of on-demand, pay-as-you-go, Internet-delivery, scalable, as-a-service functionality will persist. It's efficient, it's cost effective and it is…
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