I recently bought a new Mac Mini. The 2023 edition, like the following devices, has Wi-Fi 6E, which should mean it has a better connection to the internet, especially if you are very close to a new Wi-Fi router: The presence of Wi-Fi 6E, though, turned out to be our problem. Until recently, all Wi-Fi routers had two bands: 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. 2.4Ghz is slightly slower but has a longer range. 5Ghz is faster but has a shorter range. I…
Just a quick one because we just had some trouble with audio issues when working with Zoom on a new Mac Mini (M2). The issue was that when we adjusted the volume on the Mac in Zoom settings, the volume did not change. The voices of the people in the meeting were way too loud and adjusting the volume did nothing (I’ve seen reports elsewhere on the internet where the volumes were too low, or muted). It turns out that…
I first got a computer sometime around the age of 5. My parents one day came home with an Amstrad CPC 464 and my life started on a trajectory that has led me to where I am. I don’t think my journey has ended, it’s just a neat way of describing how I got to where I am now. I learned how to write BASIC and load and save games to the included cassette player. I bought cheap blank cassettes…
I have a controversial opinion – the Federal government of the USA should have more power, and the local governments (state, city, other regions) should have less. This is my opinion as an American. As a European by birth, I think the same is true of the EU. My friends moved from England to Belgium when England was still part of the EU. They had to register with all the Belgian government’s myriad tax and other authorities. Social security was…
I have been an Android devotee since the beginning of Android devices. I started with the HTC Desire and had a Pixel 5 until a couple of weeks ago. I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 14 Pro Max and, along with Google’s recent price increase for YouTube Premium Family, I decided to move to Apple One Family. This article explains how to accept Apple Family Sharing from an Android device. I invited my wife, who is still…
If you are a Windows user and have ever come across TAR files, I.T. Plays Well With Flavors has shared that you can extract them natively. Here’s their great post: https://it.playswellwithflavors.com/2021/12/30/open-and-extract-tar-files-on-windows/
I have long been concerned about following web standards (and any others that apply to me) to ensure maximum accessibility for readers of my website (and others I maintain). I recently attended a brief training that covered the definition of accessibility. It’s wider than I realized. Accessibility can be defined in terms of people’s disabilities – something like “the product or service can be used regardless of a user’s disabilities” – but it’s better to define it more broadly as…
I installed Windows 11 on my personal laptop last night because I like to try new things. Some people see an update to Android, or to a program they use, and fear having to learn the changes, or to make things comfortable again. But I am the reverse – if something can be changed, I want to try it out. Every review that I have seen says something like “It’s not finished yet” which is true, so I will ignore…
If you follow tech news, you will know that Microsoft have recently announced Windows 11 – the next version of Windows. As well as some cosmetic changes, it will be capable of running Android applications. This is a significant improvement to Windows and is something that I genuinely think is paradigm-shifting. Here’s why. When Windows was first launched it ran “Windows applications”. It ran only on 16 bit architecture – the original IBM compatible hardware with a few upgrades. In…
If you are using Linux and are relatively new to it, you might have come across kind and helpful people telling you to type a command like: Or something similar. Though this is really helpful, I sometimes worry that people do not know what the command does, and so they do not really learn how to use these features generally. They just learn how to resolve this very specific problem. So here’s a little bit of information about the command…