Posted on January 25th, 2021 by Joy Schwabach
I ignore Facebook friend requests from strangers unless I’m sure they’re faithful readers of this column. But some are tricky. An apparent captain of an enormous shipping line requested a connection. I thought for a minute it was a legitimate request. One of my friends, a savvy public speaker, was Facebook friends with him. I decided to investigate, in hopes of warning her if he turned out to be a fake. His Facebook photo, profile and name matched that of the captain he claimed to be, which I found on LinkedIn and on the shipping company’s website. So I accepted his request. Minutes later, I decided it was a risky experiment, so I unfriended and blocked him. That didn’t prevent […]
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Filed under: books, facebook, gadgets, photos, science, social networks, TV | Comments Off on FAUX FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK
Posted on January 18th, 2021 by Joy Schwabach
Bitcoin, the digital currency, has been going up like crazy. But is it a better store of value than gold? Last year, Bitcoin went from a little over $7,000 to over $26,000 per digital coin. On January 8, a single coin hit $40,675.80! I’ve had some experience with cryptocurrency. In 2017, I bought part of a Bitcoin at Coinbase.com, when it was valued at around $4,000. I bought a bit more when it rose to $15,000. What can I say, I’m a gambler. Unfortunately, I sold it after it crashed below $4000. Disaster! I admire those who “HODL” a Bitcoin acronym standing for “Hold On For Dear Life.” According to a deVere Group survey of their own clients, 67 percent […]
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Filed under: apps, browsers, cheap calls, free stuff, gadgets, Google, trends, video | Comments Off on GOLD VERSUS BITCOIN
Posted on January 11th, 2021 by Joy Schwabach
For Christmas, my brother-in-law got me a phone sanitizer that looks like a flower vase. If I drop my phone into the $80 “Oblio,” I get a germ-free phone after 20 minutes. Or so the company claims. But the directions asked me to flip my phone to clean the other side when the 20 minutes were up. When I flipped it, the purple ultraviolet light, the one that cleans, did not come on. Tech support was no help. They asked me to send a video of the problem. That’s when I discovered that the UV light doesn’t come on at all now, even at the start. A good alternative is the $80 “PhoneSoap” sanitizing box. It sanitizes both sides of […]
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Filed under: apps, backup, health, ink | Comments Off on SANITIZING THE PHONE
Posted on January 4th, 2021 by Joy Schwabach
I asked a friend who has arthritis in his hands and feet to test a cordless massage gun. He gave it a pleasantly-massaged thumbs-up. A good massage increases circulation, decreases pain and removes stiffness. My friend reported back: “The Merach Pocket Nano Massage Gun is better than my Wahl Heat Therapy Therapeutic Massager, with one caveat. The hard plastic tips work well enough on muscles and fleshy parts, but pose a problem for bony parts. For instance, I usually run my massager over the tops of my hands. With this, I can only comfortably do my palms.” But it turned out that massaging the palms worked its magic all the way through to the bony parts as well. It also […]
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Filed under: Android, gadgets, health, Internuts, video, word processing | Comments Off on MASSAGE GUN GETS A THUMBS UP
