The Smartphone Manifesto
This week I made the decision to get a smartphone. I'm heading off for college at the end of the month, and I thought it would be nice to have a phone that I...
Internet
How to Prevent Compulsive Browsing
Guess what happened to me the other day? I had a big project to work on. Before I started, I figured, I would just check my email and my Facebook account "re...
A Week Without the Internet
I've spent my last week mostly disconnected. It's been a surprising week in a lot of ways, and a very good, relaxing, and productive one as well. The Plan F...
Why Passwords Are Getting Easier to Crack
I'm going to do a security series over the next couple of weeks, inspired by last week's post. This week I'm taking a look at an Ars Technica article I read ...
Security Advisory: You Should Use Two-Factor Authentication
Passwords are rapidly becoming less and less protective of your online information. And at the same time, we're putting more of our lives online and standing...
How to Use BitTorrent
What Is BitTorrent? To put it simply, it's a way to download large files quickly. Instead of using a single server, like you do when you visit a website and ...
What Email Filters Are, and Why You Should Use Them
Ever gotten repeating emails from a website that you just can't get rid of? If you use Gmail, would you like to be able to prevent emails from a certain addr...
YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts
You probably know that you can press Escape to exit full-screen mode (after all, YouTube does smash you over the head with an alert saying exactly that every...
Email Etiquette (4): Odds and Ends
This is the fourth and final part of a multi-part series. Previous posts were "Replies and Formatting," "Subjects and Attachments," and “Using the Cc and Bcc...
Email Etiquette (3): Replies and Formatting
This is part three of a multi-part series. Last week we had Part 2, "Subjects and Attachments." Part 1 was “Using the Cc and Bcc Fields.” This week I'll firs...
Email Etiquette (2): Subjects and Attachments
This is part two of a multi-part series. Last week (actually, two weeks ago) we had Part 1, "Using the Cc and Bcc Fields." This week I'll discuss choosing be...
Five Really Cool Chrome (and Firefox) Extensions
In my opinion, one of the best things about Google's Chrome browser is the excellent selection of browser extensions. In the past, Firefox has taken the titl...
Tips & Tricks for Filling Out Forms
Ever had to fill out a form like this one? A lot of people waste large amounts of time working with forms because they don't know a few simple shortcuts (nam...