Rick's Daily Tips

The simplest way to type accented characters

Posted on April 26, 2013

Most of us English speakers rarely need to type accented characters, but if you have family or friends in Europe or Latin America and you wish to converse with them in their native language, you’re going to need a simple way to type accented characters on your English language keyboard.

And if you’re taking a foreign language class, being able to type accented characters is essential for completing assignments, typing essays, etc.

Typing an accented character typically involves looking up the ALT code for the character in question, then holding down the ALT key while typing the appropriate code on the numeric keypad. But a great free utility called Holdkey eliminates the need to perform either of these steps.

Using Holdkey couldn’t be simpler: [Read more…]

Canonical releases Ubuntu Linux 13.04

Posted on April 25, 2013

Over time Ubuntu has gradually become the most popular flavor of Linux among users who have decided to make the switch from Microsoft Windows, and for good reason.

In addition to its fast and easy installation, Ubuntu also offers a more “Windows-like” user interface than many of the other Linux distros out there. [Read more…]

Tired of Solitaire? Play Pacman instead!

Posted on April 24, 2013

pacman Note: The extension mentioned in this post have been discontinued.

Are you old enough to remember the classic Pacman game from back in the golden age of video games? Did you enjoy gobbling up pellets and battling those colorful little monsters as much as I did? If so, you can do it again for free, right in your Chrome browser!

The classic Pacman game is available as a neat little extension to the Chrome web browser. And installation couldn’t be easier. Simply ~~click this link~~ with your Chrome browser and click the Add to Chrome button.

Pacman will be installed instantly, and a yellow Pacman icon will be displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the Chrome window. Just click on that icon at any time to start playing one of the most popular video games of all time!

Crucial Memory now selling a 1TB Solid State Drive (SSD)

Posted on April 21, 2013

Crucial Memory is now selling the world’s first consumer-grade 1TB SSD. It’s dubbed the M500, and at $600 you get all that massive storage for a mere 60 cents per gigabyte!

SSDs are quickly becoming standard in new laptop PCs, but their problem has always been limited storage space compared to traditional hard drives. Models in the half-terabyte range have been available for a while now, but their prices have kept them pretty much out of the mainstream.

But now that Crucial is selling this monster of an SSD for such a relatively low price, I look for the prices of smaller drives to drop in order to remain competitive in the market place. Could the traditional “spinning platter” hard drive soon go the way of the floppy drive? I think it very well could if SSDs keep getting larger and their prices per gigabyte keep dropping.

Click here to see Crucial’s complete line of solid state drives, including the 1Tb M500.

Q&A: Can I use a USB 3.0 Flash Drive in a USB 2.0 socket?

Posted on April 21, 2013

Question from Daneen: Hi Rick. I bought a couple of USB Flash Drives last night to put baby pictures on and give to my mom and mother-in-law, but I noticed after I got home that they’re USB 3.0 drives.

Will these drives work in USB 2.0 sockets or should I return them and buy USB 2.0 drives? I don’t want to damage my computer, and I REALLY don’t want to damage theirs! Thanks a lot for your help.

Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]