Tech Sense by John Bell September 2022: Back to School!
Back to School 2022 School is about to start again, and for the first time in a long time we are expecting a more normal school year with...
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tech sense
Beltsville News
- Aug 1
- 3 min
Tech Sense by John Bell August 2022: Finding Ebooks
Finding eBooks This month I am on vacation as I write the column. As a result, I will be revisiting a topic I last touched on in 2019 to...
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Beltsville News
- Jul 10
- 4 min
Tech Sense by John Bell July 2022: Upgrade
Upgrade This month I thought I would briefly cover a variety of topics, staring with updates you may want to consider for your home and...
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Beltsville News
- May 27
- 5 min
Tech Sense by John Bell June 2022: Computers and Cars
I have been writing this column for several years now and it is hard for me to believe that I have never written about computers and...
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Beltsville News
- May 6
- 4 min
Tech Sense by John Bell May 2022: World Password Day 2022
World Password Day 2022 World Password Day is on May 5th this year and is observed by updating your passwords and verifying your security...
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Beltsville News
- Mar 28
- 7 min
Tech Sense by John Bell April 2022: Q & A
Tech Sense Q&A Every now and then I get questions that I put aside and answer when I have room left in my column. I have accumulated a...
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Beltsville News
- Mar 1
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Pi Day March 14 By John Bell
Pi Day - March 14th Monday, March 14th is also known as Pi Day. Pi is of course the number that represents the ratio of a circle’s...
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Beltsville News
- Dec 31, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: A Safer New Year By John Bell
A Safer New Year I believe that the New Year is a great time to improve your security posture, so with that in mind I have a few...
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Beltsville News
- Dec 1, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Holiday Shopping Ideas 2021 By John Bell
Another Holiday season and we are feeling the economic impacts of nearly two years of COVID. There are shortages of many popular...
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Beltsville News
- Nov 2, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Potpourri 2021 By John Bell
Potpourri 2021 This month I thought I might touch on several short topics before we go into the holiday season. Windows 11 Windows 11 was...
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Beltsville News
- Sep 26, 2021
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Wireless By John Bell
Wireless This month our topic is wireless technologies. We will try to briefly cover three wireless technologies that we find in our...
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Beltsville News
- Aug 31, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Back To School 2021 By John Bell
Back to School 2021 School starts again shortly, are you ready for the new reality? We are not certain where our students are going to...
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Beltsville News
- Jul 28, 2021
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Space 2021 By John Bell
Space 2021 A number of significant achievements have occurred in space technologies in the past couple of months and I thought I would...
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Beltsville News
- Jun 24, 2021
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Chip Shortages By John Bell
Chip Shortages I thought for this month’s column it might be interesting to explore the chip shortage which is having an impact on...
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Beltsville News
- May 28, 2021
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Ransomware By John Bell
Ransomware I am writing this in May of 2021. As I drive down US 1 here in Beltsville the gasoline prices have all jumped from about $2.40...
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Beltsville News
- Apr 30, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Another World Password Day
Another World Password Day I have been writing this column for just over five years now and I have written five columns (one was in two...
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Beltsville News
- Mar 28, 2021
- 3 min
Tech Sense: The USB Port
The USB Port As I see it part of the purpose of this column is to give the readers insight into technology. This month I thought I would...
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Beltsville News
- Feb 25, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Pi Day March 14
Pi Day - March 14th March 14th is Pi Day. Pi is the number that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. In...
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Beltsville News
- Jan 31, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: How Search Engines Work By John Bell
How Search Engines Work Happy New Year! Welcome to 2021, hopefully a better year. Last week I was asked how search engines like Google or...
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Beltsville News
- Jan 1, 2021
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Free Gifts for the Privacy Minded By John Bell
Free Gifts for the Privacy Minded The holiday season is upon us as we work, play, shop, and go to school online. For many of us hours and...
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Beltsville News
- Nov 25, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Holiday Shopping Guide 2020 by John Bell
Holiday Shopping Ideas 2020 It's November again and time to prepare for holiday shopping. It seems that many companies are running “Black...
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Beltsville News
- Nov 2, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Phone Phishing by John Bell
Phone Phishing From last month, phishing is a means to try and fraudulently collect money or valuable information from a person using...
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Beltsville News
- Sep 25, 2020
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Phishing Attacks by John Bell
Phishing Attacks Continuing our series on security and privacy protection this month, we look at phishing. Phishing is a form of social...
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Beltsville News
- Aug 30, 2020
- 2 min
Tech Sense: Back to School 2020 by John Bell
Back to School Back to school in 2020 is expected to be a lot different from in the past. Currently, Prince George’s County is planning...
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Beltsville News
- Aug 1, 2020
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Encryption Tools by John Bell
Encryption Tools Last month’s column discussed encryption. This month, the column looks at tools used to encrypt data for everyday use....
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Beltsville News
- Jun 26, 2020
- 2 min
Tech Sense: Encryption
Encryption One way of protecting your data involves a technology known as encryption. When you were a child, you may have owned a toy...
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Beltsville News
- Jun 26, 2020
- 2 min
Tech Sense: Privacy Protection Strategies
Privacy Protection Strategies This month I am finally returning to my series on privacy and protection. In February we discussed who...
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John Bell
- Apr 23, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Meetings from Home
Meetings from Home It's been a month now, and here we all are still stuck at home. Last month I deviated from my current series and...
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John Bell
- Mar 27, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Working from Home
Working from Home Due to the fact that everyone I know is working from home because of the threat posed by the COVID-19 virus, I thought...
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John Bell
- Mar 2, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Protecting Your Information
Protecting Your Information This is the third in my series on privacy and security. Last month, I reviewed one method of creating secure...
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John Bell
- Mar 2, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Time to Change Your Passwords
Time to Change Your Passwords This month starts my sixth year writing this column. Each year I have written at least one column on...
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Beltsville News
- Feb 28, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Protecting Your Information
Protecting Your Information This is the third in my series on privacy and security. Last month, I reviewed one method of creating secure...
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Beltsville News
- Feb 28, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Time To Change Your Passwords
Time to Change Your Passwords This month starts my sixth year writing this column. Each year I have written at least one column on...
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John Bell
- Jan 7, 2020
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Who Is Watching Us?
Anybody who has read this column over the years probably recognizes that I am an advocate for both security and privacy. As much as...
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John Bell
- Dec 2, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Holidays 2019
It's November again and time to prepare for holiday shopping. This year we will start with some new technology gifts that people might be...
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John Bell
- Nov 1, 2019
- 3 min
Tech Sense: The PC Game Industry!
In my last column of 2018, I discussed the game industry covering game platforms and distribution of games for the personal computing...
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John Bell
- Sep 28, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Smart Home Automation
This month I thought I would start a discussion of home automation and monitoring. Home automation is where devices in our homes do...
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John Bell
- Sep 9, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Back To School 2019!
Back to School 2019 It's that time again when school is starting, and once again we are scrambling to find the tools our students need...
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John Bell
- Aug 10, 2019
- 3 min
Tech Sense: Finding eBooks
Finding eBooks Last month we discussed eBook files and eReaders. This month we will continue looking at eBooks and discuss finding them....
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John Bell
- Jul 1, 2019
- 3 min
Tech Sense: eBooks and eReaders
Summer is here, and many of us will spend time on the beach or in the mountains relaxing and catching up on our reading. This month I...
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John Bell
- May 26, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Laptops
May and June are popular months for graduations, and laptop computers make a popular gift for the graduating student. This month we will...
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John Bell
- May 12, 2019
- 3 min
Tech Sense: World Password Day
World Password Day World Password Day is a day set aside on the first Thursday of May for everyone to change their passwords, add...
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John Bell
- Apr 1, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Frequently Asked Questions
This month I will be tackling some questions I get asked frequently or FAQ's. Should I use a Surge Protector for my Computer? The answer...
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John Bell
- Mar 1, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Pi Day, Raspberry Pi and SBCs
March 14th is known in the United States as Pi Day, a celebration of the number Pi. We celebrate on March 14th because the first digits...
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John Bell
- Jan 25, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: You've Been Hacked!
This month I have decided to present short insights into the loss of personally identifiable data or identity theft. I will start by...
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John Bell
- Jan 2, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Games
I ended my last column talking about games as Christmas gifts, and that has inspired me to write more about the state of electronic games...
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John Bell
- Jan 2, 2019
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Holiday Tech Toys
It's that time of year again where we help the non-technical spouse, sibling, or friend identify gifts for the techno-geeks in their...
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John Bell
- Oct 24, 2018
- 5 min
Tech Sense: Famous People in Computer Technology
This morning I woke up to read that Paul Allen has died. Paul Allen along with his better known partner Bill Gates created the company...
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John Bell
- Sep 26, 2018
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Telephone Scams and Robocalls
We all have telephones in our homes or pockets but this technology is abused by scammers to the point that many of us no longer want to...
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John Bell
- Aug 25, 2018
- 4 min
Tech Sense: Back 2 School 2018 Edition
It's that time of year again, and this month we have our annual back-to-school column. This year, let's start by taking a look at the...
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