Andrew Hale: IT Talk & Other Topics

Recently, I had a user who informed me that Windows Photos was missing and that she was used to using it to review pictures. Photos is the Windows 10 application meant to replace the trusty old Windows Photo Viewer. The Photos application comes with Windows 10 by default but can be downloaded separately from the Windows Store. It was working fine with other accounts on the computer. Whenever trying to open the Windows Store to download and install the Photos application, the error "You'll need a new app to open this ms-windows store." Using Powershell, I managed to get it working. Read below to see how you can fix this as well.

"Life puts the best things on the other side of fear." - Will Smith I know this might sound dumb but when I lost my job this past Spring, a YouTube video of Will Smith talking about going skydiving is what kept me going. I mean, technically it only lessened my spiral into depression but the lesson he talks about after the experience genuinely brought me to tears. I don't know why it popped up in my "suggested videos" but I heard what he said when I needed it most. In the interview, Mr Smith explains his experience of going skydiving for the first time. He describes drunkenly agreeing to go with his friends the next morning, despite being deathly afraid of heights. He describes the anxiety of laying awake that night over the thought of jumping out of an airplane, hoping others from his group would chicken out too. He describes the fear he felt when getting in the van at the airport. He details the plane ride and standing at the doorway of the open plane 14,0...

I've written about how, from a budgeting perspective, food is my household's weakest link. To combat this, I started looking at meal planning apps or services since we save more money when we stick to a menu, particularly a monthly menu. My wife and I spent a solid 6-7 hours exploring Pepperplate and could not get it to meet our needs. I'd like to talk about what we didn't like so as to help someone else out in a similar situation.

There's a radio commercial that plays on a couple of our local radio stations that goes something like "Do you want to learn how to make up to $10,000 a month in Real Estate? With a small investment in yourself, I can teach you how to make amazing money flipping houses with other people's money in your spare time. " That's not a direct quote but it's a good example of a sketchy get-rich-quick scheme. I've known stuff like that is BS but I finally understand why. In order to make money, you either have to put in money or time. Anything that promises making nothing into something is complete and utter BS.

You may have heard of some of these, but I'd like to talk a bit about some online gig services that you can use to make money from home. These are simple jobs you can do online from home and you choose your own hours. You're not going to get rich from any of these services, but they can be effective ways to monetize your off-time, should you desire. I'll talk about the services themselves, but I'll also offer my experience with them.

I've had a case on my phone for years. My Palm Centro and Pre were deemed tough enough to go caseless, but when my devices started coming with glass screens, on went a case. As the devices got more premium, the level of protection I wanted from my cases increased. For proof, at one point, I had the Otterbox Defender and then some Military-grade Pelican Voyager case on my iPhone 5. When I bought a new phone last year, I decided that I wanted to go for less case. The only protection I had on my iPhone 7 Plus was a tempered glass screen protector and Apple's leather case. The screen-protector + slim case combo has thus far served my phone well. However, some drops had taken their toll on the screen protector. I faced the decision to either buy another tempered glass protector or go with a TPU protector.

Making money is great. Budgeting is fantastic. However, cutting down your finances will always be more effective than making more money.  Now, this isn't going to be some list of stupid Pinterest ideas that recycle garbage or some easier-said-than-done-post about buying the cheapest things you can. I don't know you or your circumstances, needs, limits, etc. So, instead of trying to tell you what you NEED to do, I'm going to discuss what has worked or is working for my wife and I. If you'd like to follow along and do the same things, I'm happy to help: That's why I write. Let's dive in.

The Bluetooth controller from the PlayStation 3 is a very popular controller to use, particularly for RetroPie. It works well with the RPi's onboard Bluetooth, once the respective driver package has been installed. I happened to have a PS3 that's been nothing but acting as a glorified Blu-Ray player, so I'm putting the wireless controller to good use. Frankly, I got it working over Bluetooth by accident. After reproducing my steps though, I can now instruct how it's done.

I started a new job a couple months ago. Back at the local university, where I should've stayed. Anyway, my job has me supporting Macs (among many other things), which I have only a little experience with. I'm no stranger to iPhones, iPads, AppleTVs, etc. I just haven't had a lot of seat time with a Mac. Most of the people on my new team haven't either. To fill that need, I volunteered to become the Mac expert for my team. I've either found a great need I can fill on my team or I've just made a huge mistake. Thus far, I believe it's the former. I was tasked with researching Apple training options for IT staff. The criteria was that it had to be more advanced than how-to-use-a-Mac. After doing a bit of digging here's what I found for Apple Training geared towards IT operations.