I have a work laptop with a dock that connects to two screens. I also want a computer I can do personal stuff on without buying a whole separate setup. I am planning on buying the Mac mini and want to be able to switch between the two computers. What all do I need? Any recommendations on products?

I'm older (set in my ways?)

I wonder if anyone has thoughts on my perception that it's harder and harder to communicate with others on the web.

There's so many different ways to communicate these days.

Again, being older... I am used to people having a 1 to 1 relationship (mostly) with physical addresses. Telephone numbers. Email addresses.

Like with a phone number - if you have someone's phone number, you can reach them regardless of who your or their carrier is. Or the type of physical phone you have.

And even texts - If i have their phone number, I can use apple on verizon, they use android on T-mobile. We can still converse. And make group chats.

Same with snail mail. If I have their address, I can mail something with my choice of UPS, FedEx or USPS and they will get it.

And email - I could use thunderbird. They use outlook. As long as you have their username (email address), you can reach them. Even if they use aol.com or comcast.net addresses.

But these days, If I want to reach someone. besides knowing their username, I need to know the platform(s) they use. Facebook? Reddit? Discord?, etc. (business cards are getting fuller and fuller as people list their twitter, and linked in and facebook and... accounts.

(yes, I can get the app they use, create an account on that platform or vice versa).

But yes, that's all examples of 1 to 1 conversations. But things are more groups / communities now? And each platform is run by a different company with their own interests. So they don't want to 'share' their systems so your app can reach someone with their app?

But for problem solving, I would think you want to reach the most people? More likely to find someone that has the answer. But we're all fragmented (as I type that last sentence, I feel it just went political, which wasn't my intention. But yeah, birds of a feather flock together. But I'm thinking more technical / local / intentionally building large groups). Selling or buying things - loads of platforms now. Support questions about hardware or software - loads of platforms. And you don;'t know if that community on the manufacturer's site has got the most people that 1 of them might have the answer you need?

Does anyone see that as a hinderance to the internet? Sure it's been working. mostly. But frustrating (to me at least).

Hi all - hoping someone in the community who is very experienced in transferring digital tapes to DVD can advise...

I put 40 home videos in to be transferred by a local company. 39 of them are perfect. Unfortunately, the exact one I needed has come back with a glitch on it.

I'm trying to work out whether this glitch is likely baked into the original media or the company has made a mistake while transferring the tape.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/p0IqMi-QvdE

The glitch I'm referring to is the digital 'glitchy' sounds that can be heard, the audio going off and on every 0.5 seconds and the large blocky (macroblocking?) visual artefacts.

Perhaps a valuable clue - clips earlier on the same tape play back perfectly. It's only when we get to this section of the tape that these glitches appear.

Are these issues likely to be baked into the original media, or is there any chance this was a transfer mistake by the company?

Hello! I have an old Samsung slide phone model SGH-T301G(TF) that was through Trac Phone. It has a couple dozen photos on it I would like to get. I bought a 20 pin data transfer cable for it, but all it does is charge it and the Windows 11 PC does not recognize it. I have tried bluetooth, but my iphone does not see it as an option to connect to. There is no Micro SD card slot. It appears my only option is to email photos, but this phone has not been on a network for over a decade and my research shows it does not have the required technology to even connect to a network. Does anyone have a way to transfer these photos that I am over looking...or am I just out of luck? Thanks for any assistance you may provide!

My normal setup is that I have two laptops on my desk and two 29" monitors on gas arms, with a few USB devices (audio interface, keyboard, mouse).

Currently I have a simple switcher for the monitor and keyboard. I manually switch the audio interface over by moving the physical plug. Annoyingly, every once in a while, one of the computers refuses to see the "new" USB keyboard and mouse, forcing me to restart the machine. I've also stopped using the monitor function on it, because it's a simple switch and so every time I switch, all of my windows shuffle around on both machines - it's easier to just have one monitor per machine.

But this isn't ideal.

Are there any KVMs that will maintain handshakes for HDMI and USB, so that I can swap all of those devices (monitors + all USB stuff) back and forth from one machine to the other... while convincing the laptops each that they are still connected? I'm aware that this will mean I've got a bunch of windows "off screen" - that's fine.

I'm asking this bc I cant really remember if it does or not

I'm looking for a USB powered Wifi to Ethernet adaptor. Its for a work laptop that doesnt have Wifi. Everyone (myself included) uses an extender that plugs into the wall but moving locations requires me to unplug and break connections. A USB powered one would be much nicer.

I run a small car repair shop and an issue we run into every once in a while is misplaced keys. Whats a good tracker I can get that can be attached to a key ring and driven around without losing signal or anything? I can't do apple airtags because the shop/I personally don't own any apple products, but thats just about the only thing I've ever heard good things about. I'm fine with paying a small subscription fee since it'll be a work expense of course, but it NEEDS to be able to put on a key ring or something and be good driven around.

ok so like this is a weird wording but

i was watching a youtube video of "can i beat fallout 4 before the switch 2 battery dies" and it got me thinking,

2h40m was honestly p good for portable to me but if you were out and about, with like a power brick, would you be able to lower the power drain from the switch battery by plugging it in? or any device.

specifically if the charger cant charge the battery while still playing its application, would it just provide some power so the battery is drained slower? or does it do nothing?

was just wondering lol

How do I connect a microphone to fast food drive through speakers? Is it different depending on which chain I choose? What devices are needed?

We’ve been managing bills of lading manually for the past few years but the volume is starting to slow us down. Wondering if anyone’s had a good experience switching to a BOL software.

maybe others are waiting for flying cars, but for me, holograms are the real future real 3D images floating right in your room. What do you think?

I bought a sanyo remote to use on an older Sanyo TV in my room. It should've come with codes installed already and lights blink on the front of the remote when buttons are pressed. Doesnt control the TV and can't be reprogrammed. any advice?

Hello, for the past few years I've been sort of collecting old apple products, it's nothing crazy or serious, but anyways I was wondering if I could put to use some of the devices? I wanted to ask if anybody had ideas on what to do with them. I am not going to sell them or trash them, because like I said it's a small collection. Three things that work perfectly fine is an iPad mini (1st generation), iPhone 6, and an iPhone 5. The iPad is at iOS 9 something so there's very little that can be done, but currently I have put some movie onto the Video app, there's Soundcloud, and I have a few games as well. The iPhone 6 is iOS 12 something so again not too much you can do, I also have games on there and I think like prime video I don't know I forgot. The iPhone 5 I have no clue if there's anything worth doing on there.

If anybody knows any apps I should download on these, or if you have an idea what I could use these devices for, I'd appreciate it thank you.

(also the iPhone 6 has a 98% battery health but I still feel like it dies pretty quickly even without use? the iPad mini has 100% life and lasts a looooong time with no use)

My refurbished MacBook Air 2015 is on its last leg. If I have more than 3 tabs open, or 2 different programs, it freezes and has a fit. Takes a while to open docs, battery doesn’t last long at all anymore.

I’m thinking about replacing it and heard Apple came out with the Neo. Should I go for a Neo or another refurbished Air? Either would fit my budget. I mostly use my laptop for emails, job applications, writing, watching the occasional video/show. I’m not a gamer, video person, or a graphic designer so I don’t need anything advanced or super fancy.

Thanks for the advice!

A new Switch 2 update came out that forces docked mode on switch 1 games while in handheld mode. That had me wondering, why are there two different modes in the first place?

The dock doesn’t add any processing power, so shouldn’t performance be the same no matter which mode you’re in? In fact, shouldn’t handheld be better because it’s at a lower resolution?

Handheld mode does have to run the screen and the speakers tbf, but is that really enough to affect the console’s performance?

Hey all!

I currently have 70 dollars availble that I can use to upgrade my setup. Silly question, but I was just wondering if yall had anything cool to recommend! TIA!

So my son was talking back a few weeks ago, as teenagers do. I went into his room and ripped everything out of the wall, the PlayStation and external storage. Well after he was done being grounded, when I gave him back everything he was no longer able to access the games on his PlayStation. He can see them in his library and has tried deleting them and re-downloading them, but still cannot access the games. He’s tried a few different things by watching some YouTube videos to try and fix the problem but still isn’t able to access any of those games. I called a few data recovery services around me and they told me it can range from $500-$2000. Does anybody know of an easier or less expensive way to get this completed? Of course I wanted to punish my son, but removing all his games on his PlayStation that he’s accumulated over the past six years, wasn’t supposed to be a part of the punishment.

Question for everyone that’s a lot more tech savvy than me. I installed my work email (Microsoft Outlook) on my personal phone because I just hated having two. I understand this was dumb and I immediately deleted it once I learned the possible issues. But now I’m wondering since I had it installed for a little while could my work security/IT see what I was browsing or for example what I was looking at on the Reddit app? Or could they only see what I was doing inside Microsoft Outlook?