Guy McDowell has been cited in scholarly articles, nominated for a columnist award, and is read by thousands every day. A former RCAF and college instructor, Guy is driven to help everyone discover that they are masters of technology. You just don’t know it yet.
His journey through technology always starts with two questions – “Why?” and “How?”. It has served him well through decades of taking apart, and sometimes fixing, things like: radios, computers, phones, houses from three different centuries, power tools, small engines, large aircraft, satellite systems, alternative energy systems, oil and gas production systems, and his own brain.
Guy always fixed the aircraft, mostly fixed the other things, and is still working on his brain. Join Guy as he weaves together technical writing, prose, and humour on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and www.guymcdowell.com.
Constant use of anything is going to lead to problems. Computers are no different, and it could be argued that humans spend more time on them, including smartphones, than anything else we do. Except maybe sleeping. This can cause, or make worse, some serious medical conditions. We’re going to first look at the health issues […]
A key to quality work is a quality workspace. Organized, a place for everything and everything in its place. That’s one of the ideas behind the Windows toolbar. Let’s learn how to make the most of it. The Windows toolbar is the strip across the bottom of your screen where the Windows button is on […]
If you’ve ever seen this issue, it was probably a simple fix for you. If you’ve seen this error more than twice, then you also know that it can be a complex issue to fix sometimes. Let’s hope you only run into the easy fix variety, but we’ll prepare you for the less easy, guaranteed […]
by File in: Windows 10
We’re all thankful that it’s no longer the days where it seemed like you had to re-install Windows every six months. There are still times, though, where we must go to the last resort. Sometimes, you just have to scrap it all and start all over again. When Should I Re-install Windows? There are several […]
You know about the cloud and how that’s basically your files on a server somewhere else. But how do those files get there? One way is through something called the File Transfer Protocol or FTP. If you’re running a website on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix, you’ve probably uploaded images […]
Everything works better when it’s clean. Not to mention that clutter kills. That is why it’s important to clean your computer regularly and this spring is as good a time as any. Just as a computer with an uncluttered hard drive runs better and faster, a computer with no dust build-up in it runs cooler, […]
by File in: Tools Review
A large part of tackling new viruses is figuring out how they work. To do that, you need to reverse-engineer it. The National Security Agency (NSA) obviously must do this sort of work a lot, so they created their own tool, called Ghidra to help them do this. By the way, it’s pronounced Ghee-dra. It […]
Who doesn’t wish they could be a wizard and utter a few words to have magical things happen? Well, we’re not able to show you how to be a wizard, but we can show you how to do a little computer magic. If you’ve got a Windows computer with Windows 7 on it, you’ve got […]
Before we begin, understand that this article also addresses operating systems (OS), specifically Windows, but the principles could apply to any software, app, or OS. When you hear or get notification that your software is nearing End of Life (EOL), it’s a bit disconcerting. It sounds so final, as though your software is just going […]
by File in: How-To
So many programs are going from being something you install on your computer to being a web app that you run in a browser. It’s a move that’s brought on by more and more of the world having access to high-speed Internet service in excess of 10Mbps. Another contributing factor is that server-based power is […]
