It is costly to replace the cartridges on laser and inkjet printers. You can save money by printing in draft mode, which uses a lot less ink. In most cases, you will probably find draft mode printouts are acceptable. Try printing in draft mode, and if the bulk of your printouts are fine, consider setting your printer to print in draft mode by default. You can then manually switch to full quality when necessary.

To avoid viruses and spyware, you should only download software from reputable sites you know are safe. One of the best sources of safe software downloads on the web is FileHippo.com. It has the newest versions of the most widely used software (freeware and shareware), browsers and browser plug-ins. The downloads on this site are 100% spyware and virus free. FileHippo also has old versions of some programs, allowing you to return to an old version is you don’t like the new version. There is also an Update Checker to scan your machine for old software. Visit File Hippo for a great selection of safe downloads.

Have you ever forgotten the password on your router? Hate when that happens! But don’t fret it, with routerpasswords.com you have no worries.
If you forget your router’s password and want to reconfigure it, you must reset it. Doing this will reset all settings to factory defaults, including the administrator password. Next, visit routerpasswords.com and enter your router’s make and model number. This site will give you your router’s factory default administrator login information. Nice!

Severe weather is a fact of life for Canadians. Thanks to Public Safety Canada, Environment Canada and Google, Google has just announced that Canadians can now receive warnings of drastic weather changes directly to their mobile devices and desktops.
Severe weather notifications for Canada, in English and French, will now appear on the Google Public Alerts page, in Google Search and Google Maps on both desktop and mobile, and in Google Now.
An alert will appear on your desktop or mobile screens when you search for relevant keywords such as flood or with location-based queries like Toronto. On Android devices running Google Now, alerts will appear automatically on Cards.
Here are example alerts in Canada surfaced on Search from a mobile device and Google Maps Mobile:

For more information, or to see all active public alerts, visit www.google.org/publicalerts.

When electronic devices work properly, you have no worries. But when they don’t, it’s a real pain in the rear! One of the most common trouble-shooting options is a factory reset – that special and specific combination of button presses and steps that restarts the device with standard factory settings.
Finding the right reset code usually requires finding the operation manual for the device. Yeah right! It might be in somewhere in the basement, or more likely went out in the garbage with the crumpled holiday wrapping paper.
So what do you do when you need to find a factory reset code for a misbehaving device? A quick visit to Factory-Reset.com will get you the code you need. It has factory reset codes and procedures for many different types of devices and products. The best way to use this site is by searching the product code. You can however browse through the site by equipment type or by manufacturer. Also listed are lamp hour/counter reset procedures and V-Chip reset guides.

On many occasions, the frequent surfers among us will have struggled to view a website that refuses to load. This raises a simple but profound question: “Is this website down for everyone or just for me?”
Now, you could call someone or send out an email asking if others are having the same experience. But, you might get a quicker response with a tweet. But even better yet, there is a humble website that will answer this important question: www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
What will they think of next?

With purses or wallets full of debit and credit cards, and all sorts of options for electronic payments and web-based banking, most of us have moved away from being reliant on cash. And most of us do all our banking at single bank or credit union.
There are some benefits to doing your banking electronically, but there are also some hazards. One of those hazards if finding yourself in a pinch if your bank or financial institution’s computer systems go down. This doesn’t happen often, but it is not unheard of. Another possible hazard is having your bank account access hacked.
In both these cases you can find yourself scrambling to access funds and/or to regain access to your account. How do you prepare for and lessen the inconvenience of these rare but possible eventualities? Consider opening a second account at a different financial institution. After doing this, account access difficulties on one of your accounts won’t totally trip up your access to banking or some of your money.

While computer newbies may find the categorized Control Panel helpful for navigating the ever more complex configuration and appearance settings for Windows, more tech-inclined individuals may prefer the old version of Control Panel which displayed all items at once.
Getting to the old or “classic” view of Control Panel is easy. In Windows XP or Vista, open the Control Panel and select Switch to Classic View. In Windows 7, click the View by drop-down menu in the upper-right corner and select your preferred display setting.
Am noticing there are a lot more options than there used to be…

Most of time you want automatic sync to run when you plug your iPad, iPod or iPhone into your computer. Indeed, this is the default setting in iTunes for all three devices.
However, sometimes you just don’t want to sync your iPad, iPod or iPhone when you connect it to your computer. Here is a simple trick to prevent aauto-sync from running on a one-off basis: With iTunes open, hold down Shift+Control on a PC or Command+Option on a Mac while plugging your device in. Doing this will make iTunes skip the automatic sync just once.
And note as well, you can prevent automatic syncing from running on a default basis for any specific iPod, iPhone, or iPad; or for all iPod, iPhone, or iPad devices you connect to your computer. See this Apple Support article for instructions on doing this.

You can retweet something in an instant with just a few taps or clicks. Tap, tap and zoom – the RT goes to all your followers. You get a good feeling when you retweet something that your followers will enjoy or find really helpful.

But, what if the link in the retweet doesn’t exactly say what the tweet suggests it does? Or, what if the contents of the link make statements that you just don’t agree with? Or, what if the tweet suggests the link contains something really good, but it really is a few hollow statements making a weak sales pitch? Or, what if the link takes you to some NSFW (not-suitable-for work) content?

Oops! In each of these four scenarios you will have unhappy followers,

Remember that friends and strangers alike will judge by your words and retweeted links. The lesson is simple: always read the links in any tweet you intend to retweet.

And a bonus tip (addressing one of my biggest pet peaves): if you are going to tweet or retweet something that requires a registration or login, please explicitly state this is the case.

Tweet with care and caution!

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• John G on Dead Space
• Linda Harmata on Search Multiple Sources
• Ken Fox on Search Multiple Sources

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