Every year, Epic Games goes on a giveaway binge. Starting today, you can get a free game every day til the end of the year. The holiday freebies change each day, so check in daily to see what’s up for grabs. Go to this page and scroll down to the Claim Today section.
And put this on your calendar for next year, so you won’t miss the next round of holiday freebies. We can expect Epic Games to uphold this tradition every holiday season, starting in December!
FreeAirPump.com helps you find places that don’t charge to use their automobile air pump. FreeAirPump.com gives you a map of locations near you (or a specific address or zip code) where you can fill your tires for free.
This site is powered by user-submitted info. If you know of a store offering free use of an air pump, but it doesn’t show on the FreeAirPump map, make sure to send it in!
DALL-E is a groundbreaking AI tool that is now open for the general public to use. Made by OpenAI, DALL-E uses artificial general intelligence to create things in stunningly human ways. And in almost no time at all. New users can sign up at the OpenAI website for free.
Most notably, DALL-E can create a photo or piece of art based on a typed description. Your imagination is the limit, you can ask it for a “bengal cat eating a banana” or “the grand canyon with a rainbow overhead”, and see what AI can create within seconds.
DALL-E also offers a “playground” where it can write something for you. You may type in any kind of writing prompt or topic, and in seconds, the AGI will churn out a very fluent chunk of English text.
If you experiment with DALL-E, you may notice some creepiness with the images it devises. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress, and also that the AGI is programmed to avoid making human faces that resemble real people. It won’t create anything that looks like you or the President or your favorite celebrity.
OpenAI does restrict this tool from creating objectionable content. Check out their content policy if you have any questions or concerns.
Even if you don’t aim to use this tool, it does have ramifications for our future. While OpenAI is closely supervising and limiting how their tech is used, I do worry about its misuse. I can see how DALL-E and similar tools might contribute to the Era of Deepfakes, if not properly policed. And the writing tool could be abused, but I don’t know what to call it yet. Whatever the term, it’s adjacent to plagiarism.
As you peruse the internet, stay dubious, my friends.
There are right ways and wrong ways to get your free Windows 11 upgrade. Of course, the cybercriminals are waiting to guide you into the wrong ways.
Lately, fake upgrade websites are showing up in web searches when people go looking for a way to install Windows 11. And these frauds look very similar to legitimate Microsoft websites. If it doesn’t explicitly show “microsoft.com” at the beginning of the URL, it’s a trap!
The safest way to get the free Windows 11 upgrade is to wait for your computer to offer it to you. Eligible Windows 10 computers will eventually show a pop-up about it. If you click the message, you’ll see the following, which is trustworthy to use:
If you think your computer is taking too long to offer this to you, you can check manually from within Windows 10. Click the Start button, go to Settings, then to Update & Security. You may see a similar option there to Download and Install Windows 11. Or you may see some options to check your system for Windows 11 compatibility. Again, all of these options are safe to try and use.
It’s when people go searching for a download website that things get dicey. Even the best search engines can be gamed by the scammers, to show bogus offers and malware-laden downloads. If you need it, here is the real Microsoft website for downloading the various editions of Windows. That site is legitimate and contains no viruses.
If your computer is very old and ineligible to receive Windows 11, don’t go looking for a workaround. It’s just not worth it. Better to wait until you someday buy a new computer — all new computers now come with Windows 11.
UPDATE on 9/25/2023: our government, once again, is offering to send each household free at-home COVID tests. They’ll send you 4 tests, at no charge to you. If you want yours, head on over to www.covidtests.gov or this website to request them.
Starting today (1/16/2022), our government will send 4 at-home COVID tests to any US household, for FREE. If you need some tests, visit their website to receive yours!
For many years, Bitdefender has offered free antivirus to all, but that ends soon for Windows users. As of 1/1/2022, they say that their free software will be discontinued. And they’d love to sell you their paid antivirus!
But whoa there, let’s slow it down a bit. If they’re trying to convert you to a paying customer, put your wallet away and consider other free protection software. There’s plenty of options out there!
Your first step will be to uninstall all Bitdefender Free software from your computer. After you do that and reboot your PC, check the white or blue shield icon in your taskbar. The Windows Security Center should allow you to turn on Microsoft’s built-in protection, Microsoft Defender Antivirus. (And in many cases, it turns itself on!) That is enough protection, and equivalent to any other free antivirus out there!
If you really want to go above and beyond, you may. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but I realize that some folks appreciate having a 3rd party antivirus app. And many other companies still offer free antivirus, like:
These programs are trustworthy and quality, but may advertise to you after you install them. If you go with Microsoft’s free protection, you won’t see any ads or sales offers!
If you have any difficulty or concern with this switch, please call me! I can remotely assist with this quick changeover.
The USPS needs your help! Their Operation Santa program has gone national this year, and they need generous people to help them answer letters sent to Santa.
This USPS program collects and posts Santa-letters from kiddos all over the USA. When you participate in the program, you can “adopt” a letter, respond to it appropriately and send a gift (as Santa) through regular USPS mail.
If you’re interested in fulfilling a child’s holiday wish, you should check out how it all works, as well as the FAQ, for this program. They’ve got all kinds of instructions and print-outs that make this easy to do.
Most of the time, online surveys are a waste of time, or worse. They serve to collect & sell your information, while giving nothing back to you, or increasing your spam. But Google Opinion Rewards is an exception, and one that I can vouch for personally.
This app is free to install on your smartphone, and you will get paid for occasionally answering a brief survey. And by brief, I mean 10-30 seconds of your time. The questions are varied and not too personal, but might include things like:
Surveys can be easily answered, skipped or ignored and are not intrusive. And for each survey you answer, you get a bit of money, usually between 10ยข and $1.00. While this cannot be withdrawn as real cash, it does accrue for you to use to buy anything from the Google Play Store. You can use your earnings to buy Games, Apps, Movies or eBooks from Google.
If you don’t want your info being collected any more than it already is, then pass on this app. But if you want to earn a little something when the big tech companies study you, give this a try. In 4 years, I myself have gathered almost $380 in credits from this app. That’s a lot of digital movies!
Microsoft is starting to talk about their next version of Windows, and we may see it released in late 2021 or early 2022. Windows 11 will be a free upgrade for any computer running a legitimate copy of Windows 10.
But not all computers will be able to handle Windows 11. If you care to check your computer’s compatibility, Microsoft made this quick software tool for all to use. Download, run and open that program, and then click the big blue Check Now button.
If your computer is found to be Not Compatible with the upcoming Windows, no need to worry. Windows 10 will be supported through October 2025. And you’ll be welcome to use Windows 10 past that time, just as there are still some folks using Windows 7 in 2021.
For more general info on Windows 11, check out the intro page over at Microsoft.com.
Last month, I posted the basics about Private Browsing, but I skipped mentioning one of its important uses: Bypassing paywalls. When a website insists that you pay for access, Private Browsing can sometimes get you in without payment or logging in.
This most commonly works for news websites and other pages that offer you “5 free articles this month” before requiring you to sign up and buy a subscription. If you really need to read an article behind a paywall, you can try to right-click the link to the article and open the link in a Private Browsing/Incognito window. Or, you can copy the URL to the article, open a separate Private Browsing window, and paste it onto the address bar.
This works based on the cookies and other temp files placed on your computer by the website in question. When you switch over to a Private browsing window, the website cannot detect or place cookies on your computer. Having no cookie access, the website cannot know if you’ve viewed 1 or 5 or any number of its articles. So it may treat you as a new visitor & just let you in.
I have hesitated to broadcast this, as I don’t want to encourage Not Paying For Journalism. Many news media companies are suffering financially, and I don’t want to add to their financial woes. So I would like to ask that you consider using this tip as comparable to taking a free sample at Costco. If you find yourself returning again and again, for many free samples, please consider paying for what you are viewing. That company you are taking from needs your support!
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