Energy Star is a standard for efficient appliances. It was started in the United States by the EPA but has since grown to have an international influence. Energy Star appliances are above and beyond the federal requirements for energy efficiency, saving energy and saving you money. The Energy Star label also saves you time when shopping. The Energy Star information can help … [Read more...]
Archives for 2013
How to modify the Regular Maintenance scheduled task in Windows 8.1
This morning, my computer was awake and humming though I know for certain that I put it in Sleep mode last night. The computer was updated to Windows 8.1 and I never caught Windows 8 having this behavior. To figure out why the computer was awake, I first checked out the event log. Under the Windows Logs, System I was able to find an event from Power-Troubleshooter. It told me … [Read more...]
Video demands NSA ‘Stop Watching Us’
Under the EFF's coordination, a collection of celebrities, whistleblowers, and others made this video to speak out against the NSA's overreaching compromise of American's privacy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGmiw_rrNxkOn October 26th, the Stop Watching Us group gathered in DC to demonstrate for Congress the importance of privacy, personal communication, and oversight to the … [Read more...]
Configure Adobe Acrobat and Reader to open PDFs at 100% by default
For years (years!), I have been annoyed by a behavior of Adobe Reader and Acrobat. When you open up a PDF, the viewer will scale the PDF to fit your resolution. On my monitor with 1680x1050 resolution, PDFs would start off zoomed to 174%. On my other monitor with 1920x1200 resolution, documents would start zoomed in to 232%. Every time after opening the PDF, I will click the … [Read more...]
Our privacy is croaking with social networks
Doghouse Diaries made this clever observation in a recent comic. The comic uses the common anecdote of how to boil a frog and ties it to the frequent privacy policy updates of social networks. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float … [Read more...]