Reading Time: 2 min Child pornography and human trafficking are major problems across the world, and the web helps to facilitate both to a rather large degree. Whenever some website gets taken down (or blocked on a site like Facebook), you’ll often see memes like this start to float around: At first glance, it seems like a solid question. […]
Technology
Trusting authentic recommendations
Reading Time: < 1 min Over at GreenMellen, we don’t host websites. We help people choose hosting, and we take care of all of the technical work, but we want our clients to have ownership of their sites. We do this for their long-term benefit (owning your own stuff is a good thing), but recently I’ve noticed a great side […]
You don’t need to build your own server
Reading Time: 2 min With the continuing fight that many are facing against “big tech”, a growing group of people are building their own servers to host their websites and content. There are really two reasons you might want to do this: Servers for your media consumption at your house, such as music and movies. If you can’t get […]
Reducing and syncing notifications
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve talked a good bit about smartwatches on here over the years, from my first Google-vs-Apple post back in 2015, to recurring posts about how Pebble stuck around longer than we thought it might. I recently picked up a Galaxy Watch4, and it’s excellent. As I’ve been getting things set up, though, it’s helped me […]
Protect your community
Reading Time: < 1 min There is a good chance you found this post through an online community that you’re a part of, possibly Facebook or Twitter. While having a community on sites like that is a great thing, it’s also incredibly fragile. Social media accounts get shut down constantly; mostly for good reasons (spammers, etc), but normal accounts can […]
Don’t change your password without a good reason
Reading Time: < 1 min A common security measure that institutions push is to force users to frequently change their password. When discussing this with my bank recently, they simply said “For security purposes, we require you change your password every 90 days.“ For security purposes, that’s not a helpful thing to do. Microsoft calls periodic password changes “ancient and […]
You won’t notice the first time you get in a self-driving car
Reading Time: 2 min When I get in discussions with people about the future of self-driving cars, people often raise concerns and say something like “I’m not sure I’ll be comfortable the first time I get into a self-driving car.” I think they’re wrong, but for different reasons than they’re likely thinking. I suspect when someone “won’t be comfortable”, […]
The features that matter to you
Reading Time: 3 min Back in 2017, I leased a 2018 Genesis G80, part of the “luxury” brand from Hyundai. When the lease was up, I turned it back in and ended 2017 Ford Fusion — and I consider the Fusion to be a better car in every way. That seems odd, as the newer “luxury” car should seem […]
Why you should keep your phone battery above 30% (but below 80%)
Reading Time: 2 min Battery health has been in the news a bit the last few years, starting when people found out that Apple intentionally throttles (slows down) older phones in order to help with their battery performance. As a battery gets older, it can’t perform as well, and Apple chose to throttle old phones to help combat that. […]
Good versus “must listen” podcasts
Reading Time: 2 min I was looking in my podcast app today and discovered that I’m subscribed to 41 shows. Episodes pour in every week, but I don’t have time to listen to anywhere near all of them. I’ve realized that I’ve essentially put my podcasts into two categories: Those that I listen to every episode. Those that I […]