For better privacy, devices running Android 10 or later use a randomized Wi-Fi MAC address by default. In some cases, you might want to disable this feature. Here’s how to do it. Why Disable the Random Wi-Fi MAC on Android? For most people, it’s OK to leave randomized MAC addresses turned on. It’s a privacy and security feature that makes you harder to track. One good reason to disable it, however, is if you use MAC filtering on your router....

Most people don’t realize this, but when your PC gets infected from browsing a web site, it’s not usually because of your browser—it’s because of your plugins, like Flash, Java, and others. They are sadly insecure, but Google Chrome has a built-in option to make your PC much safer. The option is actually called “Click to Play”, and it’s only enabled inside a hidden page—though we have to assume it’ll eventually make its way to the default Options page....

If you need to perform certain GPU-intensive tasks, like 3D modeling or playing top-tier games, it can be useful to know your Windows 11 PC’s VRAM amount. There’s an easy way to check this, and we’ll show you how. RELATED: What Is VRAM? Fortunately, Windows 11 includes a built-in option to check the VRAM, so you don’t have to install or use a third-party app. To check your PC’s VRAM, first, launch Settings on your PC by pressing the Windows+i keyboard shortcut....

The “Firefox is already running, but is not responding” error has haunted Firefox users for years. You don’t have to restart your computer when you see this error – you can usually fix it with a quick trip to the Task Manager. This error occurs when Firefox is closed but is still running in the background. Firefox is either in the process of closing or is frozen and hasn’t quit properly....

This week, AWS announced IVS, a managed solution for handling live video, likely based on some of the same software that powers the streaming giant Twitch. It offers an easy way to integrate live video into existing applications without the headaches of setting it up yourself. What Is IVS? Low-latency live video content is pretty hard to do properly, and even harder to scale up to handling many simultaneous streams all around the world....

If you use a touchpad or trackpad, or if you have arthritis or other problems when using a mouse, you may find it difficult to hold the primary mouse button down and move the mouse at the same time to select text and move items. However, there is a built-in feature in Windows called ClickLock that allows you to briefly hold down the primary mouse button, move the mouse to select text or move an item, and then click the mouse button again to end the selection or move....

Microsoft Teams is an incredibly popular choice for a communications platform, but what if you just want to make a simple voice call with your team? RingCentral integrates directly into Teams to give you the best of both worlds: a first-class VoIP system that works alongside Microsoft Teams. RingCentral has been around for a long time as a great VoIP phone system for small businesses and a powerful fax service, and they’ve recently started offering their video call system as a standalone product, which is really worth a look....

In many ways, S3 buckets act like like cloud hard drives, but are only “object level storage,” not block level storage like EBS or EFS. However, it is possible to mount a bucket as a filesystem, and access it directly by reading and writing files. The Benefits and Limitations of S3 as a Filesystem The magic that makes this whole setup work is a utility called s3fs-fuse. FUSE stands for Filesystem in Userspace, and it creates a mounted virtual filesystem....

Ever get a sudden, inexplicably irresistible desire for karaoke? Maybe you like the music of a song but can’t stand the lead singer? Here’s how to use remove the vocals from most music tracks in a few simple steps. How It Works Vocals are normally placed in the “center channel.” Stereo tracks have two channels, but not all of the instruments are balanced evenly. Sometimes the bass is pushed more towards the right channel, rhythm guitar might be found more towards the left, and so on....

If you have a lot of windows open on your Linux Mint desktop, wouldn’t it be nice to “roll up” windows to get them out of the way, but still see what you have open? We found a setting in Linux Mint 12 that allows you to change the behavior that occurs when you double-click on the title bar of a window. By default, double-clicking on a title bar maximizes that window....

We’ll assume you’ve already got a functioning Exim server that’s able to receive email. The official wiki provides informative guidance if you’re starting from scratch with a fresh installation. Managing Exim Configuration Available configuration approaches vary by operating system distribution. An Exim installation built from source will use src/configure.default as its config file. The file for Exim installed from a package manager is typically /etc/exim/config or /etc/exim.conf. You can find the path that’s currently used by running exim -bP configure_file....

Traefik is a leading reverse proxy and load balancer for cloud-native operations and containerized workloads. It functions as an edge router that publishes your services to the internet. Traefik routes requests to your containers by matching request attributes such as the domain, URL, and port. The proxy incorporates automatic service discovery so you can add new containers in real-time, without restarting the Traefik service. In this guide, we’ll put together a simple Traefik v2 deployment that will publish multiple Docker containers....

The .gitignore file is a crucial part of any Git repository; it prevents unwanted files from being tracked and shared in source control. Usually, you want to ignore certain files and folders, but sometimes it’s easier to do it the other way around. Using .gitignore as a Whitelist Regular .gitignore usage is simple—give it a filename or matching wildcard, and that file will be blocked. When you use it as a whitelist though, it becomes a bit more complicated....

Kubectl contexts are a mechanism for quickly switching between different clusters, users, and namespaces within the CLI. They make it easier to move between multiple environments without changing your active Kubectl config file. In this article, we’ll show how you can use Kubectl to create, manage, and select different contexts. Make sure you’ve got Kubectl installed before you continue. What’s A Context? Contexts encapsulate the collection of settings that permit a successful connection to a Kubernetes cluster....

React is one of the leading frameworks for frontend development with JavaScript. It’s a naturally component-based approach where you assemble your app from reusable pieces of self-contained functionality. A logical step is to separate your fundamental UI components from your scenario-specific application code. Creating a component library gives you ready-to-use building blocks that you can pull into your next project. In this article we’ll put together a simple set of React components with Storybook, then package them using Babel....

Spot instances are AWS’s way to sell off unused server capacity when demand isn’t high. They are much cheaper, but come with a lot of restrictions, such as being interruptable and more complicated to start, stop, and run for longer periods of time. Restrictions For Stopping a Spot Instance Spot instances work a lot differently than on-demand or reserved instances. Generally, they’re for short-term workloads that can be interrupted at any time, which makes them mostly suitable for task running or auto-scaling deployments....

Windows 10’s first big update in November 2015 added a device-tracking feature. You can now enable GPS tracking and remotely locate a lost Windows 10 tablet or laptop just like you’d track a smartphone, tablet, or MacBook. Previously, this required third-party software like Prey. Now, it’s integrated for everyone to use with a Microsoft account. It is off by default, so you will have to enable it before you lose your device....

You’d like a secondary screen to increase your productivity in Windows 10, but you don’t have another monitor handy. If you have a recent Windows laptop or tablet, though, you can use it as a wireless monitor. What You’ll Need In order to take advantage of this trick, you’ll need two Windows 10 machines that support the Miracast streaming video standard. Most newer laptops and tablets have this built in, as do some desktops....

Interesting in fixing those library errors and bugs you observe when installing a cool new program on Linux? Check out this article which shows how to use ltrace, arming you with the tool needed to debug library calls. What Is a Library? Most people are familiar with .dll/.DLL files (Dynamic Link Libraries) in Windows. The Linux equivalent is a .so file, a Shared Object, often referred to as just Library....

Microsoft has released the final version of Internet Explorer 9, and there’s just one question you should be asking yourself: Should I bother installing it? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest release of Microsoft’s infamous browser. Spoiler alert: If you are running Windows 7 or Vista, you should absolutely install IE9 on your PC—even if you prefer Chrome or Firefox, it’s better to have a secure, updated version of Internet Explorer....