Buying or selling items through the internet, with other individuals, can be risky. Think about your safety. It’s not just that you want to avoid scammers, but also steer clear of other crime. Robbery or worse. For local sales that involve a face-to-face meeting, you may want a location that is safer than your front … Read more
Inhalant abuse, AKA “huffing”, “chroming” and now “dusting”, is when someone inhales chemical vapors, in pursuit of euphoria or some kind of high. This practice is very dangerous and can result in bodily harm or death. Why am I writing about this on a tech blog? Because: The greatest danger of inhalant abuse may be … Read more
If you have school-age kids, please read up on the viral Chromebook Challenge! Social media is spreading this as a fun activity, but it is quite dangerous and costly. The challenge prompts young people to short-circuit their laptops, using paperclips, tinfoil or other metal objects. By sticking these conductors into the ports of their Chromebooks, … Read more
In the technology world, bitterants are used in various ways to keep people safe. A bitterant is an otherwise-harmless chemical that makes something taste really bad. Here’s some info and trivia about bitterants that you might find useful or interesting. Compressed Air Many of us commonly buy cans of compressed air, used for dusting and … Read more
Posting about a missing person on Facebook just makes sense. Meta’s social media platform has incredible reach and spreads info extremely fast. But when you see such a post in your feed, don your critical thinking-cap before reacting. There are a few kinds of Missing Person Posts on Facebook. And each one merits a different … Read more
Yesterday, I reported a scam from a Facebook group. And an autoreply quickly arrived, stating that their “technology” had reviewed my request and found nothing to act on. I then chose the option to Request a Second Review, because they got it wrong. That got me this disappointing response: This suggests that they put more … Read more
In case of an emergency, many parts of the USA support Text to 911. This technology allows you to contact 911 for help via text message (SMS). The FCC reminds everyone that you should place a voice call to 911 whenever possible. Much of the Shenandoah Valley((Warren County, VA has assured me they support this … Read more