People shouldn't tinker with things they rely on. However if you have a 2nd or older/ancillary [device] that makes a good tinker project.

Only chiming in to be that guy... Handbrake only at #32?!?! Are you crazy? Most of your top 20 are indispensable so I could see it being in the low teens. But 32? I can't think of any other program that I've spent more time selling to my more tech-illiterate friends and relations. It's just so damn great if you want…

I really like Bitmessage, but I can't seem to convince anyone in my circle to use it. Security needs to be frictionless otherwise people just won't care enough.

I've got an Amazon Affiliate account for a blog I write, and Amazon shut it down before my blog even went live. Their reason? Because I was clicking my own links as I wrote the blog posts, and they claimed this violated their TOS. I successfully appealed with an explanation of what was happening (they were very…

Good clarification! Slight additional clarification: 529 savings plans are tax-exempt on the growth, so long as used for qualifying educational expenses, rather than merely tax-deferred. (The contrast is roughly the same as the difference between a 401(k) and a Roth IRA.)

Highly incomplete article. There are two types of 529 plans: prepaid and savings. Prepaid (managed by the institution and covers tuition only) locks you into institution but freezes the tuition at a current level (not always the case). Savings plan does not lock you into any specific state or institution (though…

1. Power Rack

I switched back because the new maps has no easy way to load in my saved locations or my current location. Definitely still needs a lot of work, but I'm glad they're making progress I guess.

How I saved on my cell phone bill:

Other than their outrageous prices for what you get, you mean?

I really like T-Mobile's approach lately; doing away with contracts, free international roaming, flexible upgrades, and reasonably priced plans. They seem to be the only carrier that's thinking differently (guess you have to when your trailing behind the competition). That Simple Choice plan looks really nice. If they…

I have not been convinced that increased screen time is bad for kids (or adults) except when it takes away from other vital activities. Maybe instead of trying to set a hard screen time limit, it would be better to encourage what you want to see every day. Getting enough sleep, getting enough movement, spending time…

Vote: Linksys WRT-54GL (or G)

I use a tablet laptop with OneNote.

I'm glad they kept libraries, but hid them by default.

I agree with this. Gaming, yes build. Anything other than gaming, buy.

Buy for your relatives or friends that are not tech savvy. Build for yourself.

When I am in need of new cables I always check AmazonBasics first to see if they have it and how much. I have bought numerous HDMI cables as well as USB Extension cables from them. My dad got an extra lightning cable from AmazonBasics and says it works great.

I have a textbook that claims that the fastest shortcut to shutting down your PC is to use the "3-finger salute" (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and then clicking the button in the lower right corner. It's much quicker than other ways I've found.

I use OneNote as well. Pity I don't know any "free" solution which is designed the same.