Technically Trying

  All of us are probably feeling the "get ready for Christmas" rush now that December is here. We have lists to complete, gifts to buy, families to visit, and kids to entertain. In the heart of all of the busy times this month brings, is technology. In order to enjoy the holiday and also stay safe online, here are a few shopping tips: 1) Only use trusted websites:     * If a website is advertising to you through Facebook or in a text message, or maybe it was an ad you saw on YouTube, don't click on their link! Go to your browser and type it in. Even better, if you don't recognize the business, don't use their website. There will be a lot of phishing style websites out there just to hook you into entering personal data that could end badly for you! Keep your personal information safe! 2) Flash sales are fun, until they're not:     * Those eye catching ads on social media are only meant for clicks and likes. Don't be fooled into thinking that the "flash...

 A lot of us are familiar with Google Sheets. Or maybe you're used to using Excel on your desktop. Either way, when you're using a spreadsheet program, you have an endless amount of tricks that you can use to manipulate your data. Whether you're making a spreadsheet to keep track of finances, a checklist that helps you remember your grocery list, or something that shows data from a Google form that live updates as users fill out the form and creates a beautiful graph for you, there are a ton of possibilities in Google Sheets. Lets start with the basics: What is Google Sheets? Sheets is the Google equivalent of Microsoft's Excel program. It is a lighter version that is based in the cloud and can be shared and edited in real time with a huge amount of users or collaborators. You can have up to 100 editors going at the same time! However, having that many edits occurring simultaneously may cause the program to jump around too much so I don't recommend it! Lets look at ...

 In recent news, a young man has become national headlines but for all the wrong reasons. This poor young man was emotional drawn into an AI Chatbot and ended up taking his life. He was fooled into thinking he loved the AI bot and had a very intimate relationship with it. While this may sound crazy, you need to understand the mental state of a teenager in his situation.   Lawsuit claims Character.AI is responsible Science has shown that the teenage brain doesn't develop fully until the child is actually an adult around the age of 25. The frontal cortex, the one with reasoning and thinking ahead abilities, is in an immature stage prior to that and this is why teens don't think before they act. If you were to ask them if they thought about their actions, they would answer honestly with "No". And they would be telling the truth! Their brain acts instead of reacts. So when someone tells them they're funny, they'll keep telling jokes. When someone tells them they h...

 Did you know you can access your Google calendar like an appointment book? Using this feature you can schedule a parent teacher conference for your students without giving the parent full access to your calendar, and it will automatically remind them about the meeting without you having to hound them to come! It is really easy to do! Open your Google calendar in your browser: Once you open it, you will see your monthly view of your calendar with the menu of options on the left side: Click on the little down arrow next to Create and select Appointment Schedule .  When you click on it, the above image will pop up. You will see the current week and time slots in blue on the right. These are auto generated time slots. Begin at the top and fill in the details you'd like for your conference availability: Title your appointments however you prefer. I used conference  for this example. You can then set the time frame. There are set time limits or you can add a custom time frame....

 In today's day and age you need to have a password for everything! Email ✅ Facebook ✅ Work computer ✅ Home computer ✅ Instacart ✅ Canva✅ That super cool website you found a recipe on that needed you to sign up for their newsletter so you could get it for free ✅ But there's no way to remember all of them. Especially now that phishing scams are so high! So I've compiled a list of apps I recommend to use for safe guarding your passwords. Using an app for passwords allows you to remember one password to get into the app and then it remembers all the rest for you!  Android: Keeper EnPass Sticky Password iPhone: 1password Dashlane Roboform Both platforms: Bitwarden Nordpass I personally use My Passwords Manager on my android device. I paid for the lifetime service and can now encrypt a backup just in case! I recommend using a password manager and making your passwords more detailed and difficult to remember.  Try adding: a number a capital letter a sign (&%$#@!) a phrase ...

 I came across a new app this weekend and decided to look into it. This app claims it helps with mental wellness and breaking the addiction to screens by allowing the user to have a minimalist experience on their handheld device. The app is called Minimalist Phone  and currently supports Android devices.  I downloaded the app and I have been playing around with it. One thing I noticed right away is its very plain design. The background on my phone is no longer visible, it is a black screen. The website states that this is to help with any visual distractions that usually cause us to waste time finding an app because our eyes get pulled in multiple directions. You can change your lock screen to be minimal as well, this is found in the settings of the app when  you set it up and later on if you want to change it .  This is a screenshot of my phone this morning. You can see that the app is only a list of the app titles on my phone. This is not a complete list, I ha...

 Apple has been a long time "go to" for all things cell phone related for a very long time. Adults everywhere are familiar with their products, if not because they have one, then because they have seen them advertised and used by their friends and businesses.  When the iPhone first came out, it was very basic, but touted a faster experience, better access to the internet, and knowledge at your fingertips. Adults used this to help their work and home relationships. But notice I've only mentioned adults. Not children. Children are a completely different human being than adults. Their frontal cortexes aren't developed until they are 25. They react instead of plan. They are children in an adult world.  This means they are not ready for adult content . And that brings me to my post today: iOS 18 update. This was released on September 16, 2024. In the past week, there have been numerous reports of iPhone users under the age of 18 having unlimited access to anything they can...