There are open-source and free-to-play games available that cost nothing (up-front anyway), such as Fortnite. However, what about those AAA games, that have an up-front costs. How can you get those for free?
(more…)Category: How To
My “How To” guides on various things
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How to update the firmware on a UniFi Travel Router
When travelling, whether for work or pleasure, having a compact travel router can be a real benefit.
The idea is that they connect to the local Wi-Fi, or Ethernet, and then create it’s own, Wi-Fi signal for your devices. Apart from it being more secure, you can set it up with the same SSID as your home network, which means that all your devices just connect automatically.
Also, when a hotel provides Ethernet connectivity, that’s often faster and more stable than the Wi-Fi, but then you’d need to connect each device physically to make use of it – the travel router solves this too.
I use a UniFi Travel Router, and I would highly recommend it. It’s well built and has lots of features, including dual-ethernet connectivity and VPN support.
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Is your Apple AirTag facing the right way?
With the release of the second generation of Apple AirTag it got me thinking about how we use them and how they’re built.
As an example, here’s a screenshot of wallets that have an AirTag pocket on the front of them. What do you notice about the AirTags?
They all show the metal side facing out. The reverse side, white plastic, is the part that you can have engraved.
Is there a “right way round” or does it not matter?
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Facebook Messenger is leaving the desktop – how to get it back!
I hate Meta. Just read the news, both about them and their founder, and you’ll see why. I don’t use Instagram anymore, my profile on Facebook is intentionally inaccurate and only live because I need it for messaging with people. And that’s where I’m stuck – if friends aren’t on Messenger they’re on WhatsApp. So I keep an account and just use the messaging apps.
Now, for reasons unknown, Meta have pulled their desktop apps, making you message from your mobile device or the web. Urgh.
The app has already gone for new downloads and the Windows app will stop working after December 14th. The Mac app soon after.
But you can get it back. Kind of.
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The Sims 4 Not Starting: How to Fix
I’m told The Sims 4 is a great game. I don’t play it myself, but my daughter has more hours on it than she’s probably spent doing homework. No, not probably. Definitely. And I’ve probably spent nearly as much time fixing the damn thing.
You see, if you play The Sims 4 on PC or Mac, you can add third party content, known as “mods”, “scripts” or “custom content” (CC). This is (or rather should be – long story, but let’s just say it’s a heated debate in the Sims community) free and, let’s say, my daughter has a few of them (15,000 at the last count, each of them being a separate file. Urgh).
EA doesn’t guarantee that their updates won’t break due to someone else’s mod, so often that’s exactly what happens. And you’re then left hunting the thing down.
This week, though, no update occurred but, none-the-less, her game stopped working. Rather than something in the game break, the game itself just refused to load. I fixed it after about 2 hours of work and I have no idea even now what the cause was or, in fact, how I did fix it. None-the-less, I thought I’d share some useful resources and ideas on what others can do. Particularly stressed parents in the same situation.
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