When writing programs, it’s often necessary to perform repeating operations on collections of items such as customer orders or invoices. Often, you can just iterate through the collection or count the items to determine how many times to perform the operation. When working with a hierarchy of items such as a directory structure where you have […]
Replacing Your Wireless Mouse / Keyboard Receiver
Wireless mice and keyboards are a great way to reduce the tangle of wires on your desktop but what do you do when that tiny USB receiver, the one about the size of your fingernail, goes missing? That’s what I asked myself the other day when I lost the receiver (also called a ‘dongle’) for […]
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Importing Meta Descriptions to Yoast SEO
In a recent post, I talked about using the WordPress plugin Add Meta Tags for adding meta descriptions and titles to posts and pages within my WordPress sites. It’s a simple SEO tool but works well. Nevertheless, I decided to switch my sites over to Yoast SEO for all its extra features and guidance in […]
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How Do I Switch to Linux?
For years, the idea of running Linux has been associated with the typing of confusing commands into terminal programs and a fairly steep learning curve that a lot of users avoided just by sticking with Windows. In the last few years, however, Linux has come a long way with many different versions (also called distributions) for […]
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Using Visual Studio to Manage Your Data
(This article was updated in August 2018 for use with Visual Studio 2017.) Moving Beyond Microsoft Access I’ve written a lot about Microsoft Access over the years and still believe it’s a great training ground for people who want to learn to design database applications. Its user-friendly interface provides an easy learning curve and introduction […]
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Creating Virtual Machines with Oracle VM VirtualBox
What is Virtualization? Several years ago, I wrote an article for this site about Microsoft Virtual PC, Microsoft’s implementation of virtualization technology for the Windows desktop. Virtualization software enables a computer to act as a host, running multiple computer sessions with different operating systems for the purpose of testing software, isolating specific programs from the rest of […]
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Alcatel OneTouch Fierce Hotspot Stops Working
See the end of this post for the March 2015 update. I got it working again for now. Earlier this year, I upgraded to an Alcatel OneTouch Fierce smartphone from the $20 cheapo phone I was using and was pretty happy to be back in the Android camp with all the available apps and the […]
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Why I’m Still On Facebook
Yesterday, I received an e-mail notice of yet another change to Facebook’s privacy policy and finally decided to pull the trigger on something I’d been itching to do for a little while. Around mid-day, I posted the following status update… Once again, I’m reducing my presence on Facebook and trimming the Friends List. If you find […]
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8 Questions to Ask When Starting Your Meetup Group
Updated July 29, 2019 Introduction Unlike much of social media, sites such as Meetup.com and EventBrite actually focus on bringing people together in person and helping them find other like-minded people they might never have met otherwise. These sites provide a set of tools that make it easy for you to bring a group of […]
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HDMI to VGA: Using your VGA monitor on your HDMI laptop
Looks like the trusty old VGA interface is on its way out and while you’ll still see legacy systems and devices using this 25 year old standard for monitor connections, the newer laptops and computers are starting to pass on VGA connectors in favor of HDMI which, among its other benefits, allows for thinner devices. When I bought […]
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