Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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How to Generate Better Random Numbers At The Bash Command Line
Shutterstock/David Orcea Generating random numbers in bash seems simple to do using the $RANDOM variable, but is the variable truly that random? Find out what may be preventing you generating high quality random numbers, and more! Random Numbers At The Terminal It seems simple to generate a random number in Bash: But is the number…
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Read This to Understand Windows 10 Update Names and Numbers
Riyard Ramnath/Shutterstock.com Windows 10 has a lot of overlapping version numbers and names. For example, the October 2020 Update is also called 20H2, version 2009, and build 19042. It often seems like different teams at Microsoft are speaking different languages. Here’s how to decode Microsoft’s jargon. The Development Codename (“20H2”) Each Windows 10 Update starts…
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Your Sonos Speakers Can Get Notifications From Your GE Appliances
Sonos Sonos speakers may have started life as premium whole-home audio solutions, but they’re getting smarter all the time. Take the latest update; if you have the right GE appliances, they can now communicate with your Sonos speakers. That’ll let you know when a dishwasher cycle is complete or your oven’s preheated. For now, GE’s…
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8 Best Websites for Unbiased Election Coverage
It can be hard to find unbiased political news and election coverage in the United States, even though a 2018 poll by Pew Research showed that 78% of respondents in the U.S. believe “the news media should never favor one political party over another.” Many so-called “news” organizations don’t even try to hide their bias…
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Troubleshoot Windows 10 Does Not Go to Sleep
I’ve already written about how to fix issues with Windows 7 not going to sleep and Windows 8 not going to sleep, but I haven’t talked about sleep issues in Windows 10. Due to the wide number of machines and huge variety of hardware that Windows can run on, every single version of Windows will…
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Google Pixel 2 Camera Tutorial and Tips
In 2017, the Google Pixel 2 was marked as having the best smartphone camera in the world. The power of the Google Pixel 2 camera comes down to new hardware improvements, and more importantly, changes to the software used to process images. Many Google Pixel 2 owners still don’t know how to master the camera…
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The Easiest Way to Clean Install Windows 10
Up till now, if you wanted to start fresh with your Windows 10 PC, you had one of two options: reset your PC or download the Windows 10 ISO and reinstall the operating system manually. In a previous post, I wrote about how you can restore Windows to factory settings, but this really only resets…
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NASA Races to Secure Its OSIRIS-REx Craft After Collecting Asteroid Rubble
A photo of the ORISIS-REx sampler head, which is wedged open by rocks. NASA On October 20th, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft gently touched the Bennu asteroid, let out a puff of air, and collected the agency’s first sample of free-range asteroid rubble. But NASA is now racing to secure the sample, as OSIRIS-REx’s collection head is…
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What is Instagram TV (IGTV), and How Do You Use It?
Alexander Supertramp/Shutterstock.com Instagram TV is a recent entry in the growing video-streaming space. What is it, and how does it differ from other online video platforms? Find out here. What Is Instagram TV? Instagram TV (IGTV) is a service Instagram released in 2018 that allows users to upload long-form videos over 60 seconds. Along with…
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PayPal Will Allow Transactions Using Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies in 2021
Wit Olszewski/Shutterstock.com It’s been a few years since the cryptocurrency market exploded, then settled back down like a loaf of bread that’s only nominally appealing. But PayPal, one of the web’s most frequent methods of payment and a go-to for secondary markets like eBay, is still interested. The company announced that it’s going to support…
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How to Browse Old Versions of Websites
The Wayback Machine is an online service that frequently crawls websites, taking snapshots of sites at a particular point in time. Using the Wayback Machine, you can see what almost any site looked like throughout its lifespan. Websites change frequently, and so do laws governing these websites. Whether due to data loss, new censorships on…
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How to Take a Screenshot on Android TV
You might not realize it, but your Android TV (or set-top box) can take screenshots just like a phone or tablet. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple, but we’ll show you a method that works. Some Android TV devices, like the Nvidia Shield TV, include a built-in tool for taking screenshots. However, most don’t, so you’ll…
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AT&T and WarnerMedia Offer Free Streaming TV for Connected Cars
WarnerMedia Safety tip: even as cars get more and more connected, it’s still a bad idea to watch Simpsons reruns while you’re driving. But for passengers, especially on a long road trip, it can be a wonderful way to avoid talking to each other. To that end, AT&T is teaming up with WarnerMedia to add…
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The Best Board Game Tables Worth Rolling Your Dice On
Standret/Shutterstock.com When it comes to tabletop gaming, most people probably don’t give much thought to the actual table they’re playing on. But in reality, a good board game table is a vital part of the setup. Think about it: if your table is too low or doesn’t have enough room for game accessories and snacks,…
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What Are the Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause Break Keys on My Keyboard?
Glance at your keyboard and chances are you’ll see a few keys you never use near the top-right corner: Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause / Break. Have you ever wondered what those keys are for? While these keys have been removed from some computer keyboards today, they’re still a common sight — even on…
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7 Nostalgic Halloween Websites from the ’90s and 2000s
POR666/Shutterstock At the turn of the millennium, websurfers celebrated Halloween with lots of animated GIFs, gaudy repeating backgrounds, and creepy MIDI music. As an homage, we combed through the GeoCities archives to find some nostalgic Halloween websites from the late ’90s and early ’00s. Each of them is a priceless time capsule of the past. The…
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What Is Optical vs Digital Zoom on a Smartphone?
If someone from the early days of cellphones were to jump to the present day, they might be confused that one of the features we care most about on our phones are cameras. Early phone cameras were absolutely awful, but the ability to have a camera with you wherever you go, quickly made them extremely…
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7 Easy Image Modifications You Can Do In Photoshop
Photoshop is no doubt one of the best image editors available out there. It packs some really great tools to let you edit and enhance your photos. Pretty much everything that you’ll ever want to do with your photos can be done using Photoshop. It includes basic tasks like resizing your photos and some advanced…
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3 Ways to Change Bitrate on MP3 Files
Want to change the bitrate on your MP3 files? This can be useful if you need to reduce the size of your MP3 files, for example. A MP3 file at 320 kbps, the highest bitrate allowed for MP3 files, could be reduced to 192 kbps in order to significantly reduce the size of the MP3…
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How to Enable or Disable Two-Factor Authentication on Social Networks
The days when all you needed to protect yourself online was a password are gone. Today a strong password isn’t going to stop anyone. If you want to stay on top of your security, you need to start using a solid VPN service, password manager, Tor browser, and more. Sometimes it feels like it’s easier…
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How to Create, Mount, and Burn ISO Image Files for Free
An ISO file is a disc image file that contains all the files and folders found on an optical disc. However, ISO files aren’t useful until you write or burn them to a USB drive or disc. If you want to transfer large files or programs over the web, an ISO file can help you…
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How to Repair and Fix Winsock Error in Windows
Winsock is a specification that is used in Windows to determine how network applications communicate with network services, such as TCP/IP. It basically defines how two network programs will communicate with each other. For example, in order for an FTP client to work correctly, it uses Winsock. However, Winsock can become corrupted on a Windows…
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Make Siri More Useful with Custom Shortcuts
When Siri first launched in the iPhone 4S we were pretty blown away. It sounded so natural and actually understood almost everything you said. Since the, well, Alexa and the nameless Google Assistant have overtaken Siri from a practical usefulness perspective. However, thanks to iOS 12, Siri now has a very powerful set of functions…
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Photoshop’s Enhanced AI Can Replace the Sky or Turn Your Photos Into ‘Starry Night’
Photoshop’s new Sky Replacement tool in action. Adobe Adobe’s latest update Photoshop update includes a slew of AI-powered features like Sky Replacement, Skin Smoothing, and automatic JPEG artifact removal. These new features are accompanied by an enhanced Discover panel and improvements to the Photoshop iPad app. The Sky Replacement tool, which first appeared in Adobe’s…
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