Category: ‘Thoughts From a Clicker’

Typeless Review (2026-03)

March 1, 2026 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I haven’t jumped on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) bandwagon.  Sure it is fun to create silly pictures and write funny songs while demonstrating at a club meeting.  In my real life day to day computing, I haven’t found much use for it.  Why should I spend time writing prompts to create a picture when I can download thousands of them.

Early on, I did a lot of experimenting with AI.  I had it create a quiz for the newsletter and write a couple of articles for my website.  They were okay, but I didn’t think very good.  About a year ago, I downloaded a Microsoft AI app called Seeing Eye.  I demonstrated it at a club meeting and at Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.  It was a lot of fun and did quite a few things.  I haven’t opened it for several months now.

I’m not giving up though. I’ve found some AI software that actually seems to be useful for me.  Typeless is a voice productivity tool that converts spoken words into polished text in real time.  It removes filler words, detects self-corrections, and structures content without requiring manual editing.  The idea is that anywhere you would normally type something, you just speak it instead.  Instead of typing, you just say it.  Typeless takes out all the errors and converts your speech to text.

On my phone, it works by replacing the keyboard with a large microphone icon.  If you need your regular keyboard, it only takes a tap.  It works great for texting.  On my Windows computer, it is activated by holding down the Right Alt key and speaking.  Other than composing emails, I haven’t used it all that much on Windows.  It is not yet available for Linux,

Typeless requires an email address to register the app.  After registration, there is a 30 day free trial of the pro version.  After that, the cost is $30 a month or $12 if you pay annually. The free version limits you to 4,000 words per week.  As I write this article, I’ve got four days left on my trial.  I like the program but am not planning on paying for the Pro features.

You can find out more about the software on their website.
Thanks for reading.

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Android Developer Options (2026-02)

February 4, 2026 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Did you know that Android has many hidden advanced settings that you can change?  Most people don’t.  Android has an impressive hidden settings menu called “Developer options”.  Although meant for application developers, these options contain a number of advanced and unique features that can be use by everyone.

In order to access any of these menu options, you first need to unlock the hidden Developer Options Menu on your device.  To begin, go to the main Settings menu.  Then select About Phone (or Tablet or About Device).  Then find the “Build number” entry.  Tap it seven times in rapid succession.  You’ll get a message informing you that the Developer options menu has been unlocked.
Here are just a few of the options you might want to consider enabling or changing.

1) When you move between apps and screens in Android, some of that time is spent looking at animations and waiting for them to go away.  You can disable these animations entirely by changing the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale options.  If you like animations but just wish they were faster, you can increase the speed.
2) The first option I always enable is Stay Awake While Charging.  Android will keep your device’s screen on while charging.  It won’t turn off unless you hit the power button.
3) If you find that you are often running short on memory, you can limit the number of background processes that run.  The “Limit Background Processes” option allows you to limit the number of background processes that are allowed to run or not allow to run.  For example, you can select “At most 2 processes” in the dialog box.  Then the current app and the two most recent apps you ran and switched away from are the only processes that can run at one time.  This should free up a memory on your device.
4) The Force allow apps on external setting allows you to install any application to the SD card, whether it was programmed to do so or not.  Keep in mind that sometimes there is a good reason the developer of an app blocked the ability to install the app to an SD card.  Some apps look for files in a specific place and the app won’t be able to find those files if it’s installed in an unexpected place.  If the app doesn’t work when installed on the SD card, be prepared to uninstall it and reinstall it on internal storage.
5) The “Force activities to be resizable” setting forces applications that don’t normally work in split screen to do so.  Split screen view might cause some apps to not work correctly.  This is usually because they have not been optimized for split screens.  Once you turn on this setting, you have to restart your device.  Theoretically, all your apps will work in split screen mode.  Be prepared for some of them to not look too great or to crash.

These are just a few of the many things you can do after enabling Developer Options.  You can spoof your location, use the Android Task Manager, change your screen refresh rate and much more.  If you are curious about the myriad of other options, just do an internet search.  You will find many sites that tell you what each option does.

A word of caution:  Changing Developer Options will effect how your phone operates.  Double check before before you edit.

That’s all for this month.  Thanks for reading.

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A to Z – It Used To Be (2026-01)

January 4, 2026 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Over the years, I’ve written many articles on technology terminology.  This is another one of them.  It originally started as a puzzler quiz for the newsletter.  It soon evolved into a list of obsolete technology, terminology, companies, etc.  I hope you enjoy learning the alphabet from A to Z – it used to be.

A is for Amiga computers, the last product line of Commodore International.  That was the company that brought us the VIC-20, the Commodore 64 and many other great computers.
B is for Beta Max tapes.  They have become obsolete along with the letter V.
C is for Circuit City.  After the bankruptcy in 2008, the brand name was purchased by Systemax and lived for a while on the internet.  Even that is no longer with us.
D is for dial up modems.  I imagine that someone somewhere is still using one.  Can you remember calling someone on the telephone and getting that unique sound?
E is for ENIAC, the first computer.  It was initially designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army.
F is for floppy disks.  They started big and got smaller.  Finally they disappeared.  CDs and DVDs probably won’t be around very long.
G is for Google Reader, which was an RSS aggregator operated by Google.  Although it was still popular, Google discontinued it.
H is for Honeywell computers.  Still in business today, Honeywell International ceased manufacturing computers in 1989.
I is for Infocom.  If you’ve read any of my past articles, you’ll know that I think they produced some of the best games ever.  My all time favorite was Suspended.
J is for the Jupiter Ace.  In 1983, it was advertised as possibly the fastest computer in the universe.  Instead of BASIC or CP/M, the machine’s default operating language was FORTH.
K is for Kinescope, at one time the cutting edge of video technology.
L is for Laserdisc, a video technology that never really made it to the big time.
M is for Mosaic, one of the first graphical web browsers.
N is for Netscape, once the dominant browser for surfing the internet.  The final version was released in February 2008.
O is for Olivetti, once a well known typewriter manufacturer that branched out into making computers.  They are still in business as a subsidiary of an Italian telecommunications company.
P is for Pager.  It used to be the machine that made the noise in movie theaters.  Supposedly, you were important if you carried one.
Q is for Quantum Link which later became America Online.  Q-Link was one of the first on line bulletin boards.
R is for Rolodex.  Does anyone still use these index cards to keep track of their contacts?
S is for Slide Projector.  The only time you hear about slides anymore is when someone wants to know how to digitize them.
T is for typewriters.  There is still a company that makes them, but you won’t see them in use very much.
U is for UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer for commercial use.  It was also the first computer to correctly predict the outcome of a presidential election.
V is for VHS tapes.  They have become obsolete along with the letter B.
W is for Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0 Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows Millennium, Windows 98, etc.
X is for the xD-Picture Card. These flash memory cards were only used in Olympus and Fujifilm cameras.  They were expensive and replaced by SD cards.
Y is for Y2K which on January 1, 2000 was going to be the end of the world because computers wouldn’t be able to correctly calculate the date.
Z is for Z-DOS, a forked version of MS-DOS designed to run on the Zenith computer.  I was originally going to make Z for Zenith, but they are still around.  LG owns the brand and sells a few items.

That’s all of my thoughts for January.  My mind is empty again.  Thanks for reading.

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Little Red and Little White Guys (2025-12)

December 7, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I was looking over my past articles that I’ve written in December for the club newsletter.  Almost all of them with “Bah! Humbug!”  Almost immediately, a little guy sitting on my shoulder in a white suit whispered in my right ear, “That isn’t very Christmas like.  You should get in the spirit of the holiday.  Why don’t you write something positive for a change?” Then another little man in a red suit sitting on the other shoulder whispered in the left ear, “Start with the Bah!  Humbug!  You don’t want your reading audience to think you’ve changed your stiyle.”  A conversation between those two little guys followed:

Little Guy in White (LGW): You should write about how Christmas is giving and not receiving.
Little Guy in Red (LGR): The readers would rather know about how to create a computer virus.
LGW: How about a nice story of the great food you can eat at Christmas time.
LGR: They would probably rather read about “passing gas” apps you can download from the Play Store.
LGW: You know you shouldn’t listen to that red guy. Write an article on how to install free programs.
LGR: That’s what I said. Most of the gas apps are free.
LGW: You’ve done so many of those kinds of stories in the past. This year you should write about Christmas joy and harmony.
LGR: You know that it is so much more fun to make up something out of your imagination.
LGW: Maybe you could write an informative story about how Facebook and Twitter manipulated their news feeds to get that guy with the orange hair elected.
LGR: That’s actually not a bad idea. You could talk about how stupid users are to believe that stuff.
LGW: I’ve got it. Write a funny story about Christmas shopping on Black Friday.
LGR: That’s got some possibilities. The crowds, the deals that really aren’t so great, the greediness, etc.
LWG: You should try writing something that will make people laugh.
LGR: Are we back to “passing gas” apps?
LGW: Whatever you decide to write, do it quick. It’s almost deadline time.
LGR: We finally agree on something.
LGW: How about another one of those informative articles on how to use the club web site?
LGR: Now you’re hallucinating. Nobody will read an article like that.
LGW: Bah! Humbug!
LGR: Ditto!
Thanks for reading.

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WordHippo Website Review (2025-11)

November 2, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

This month I’d like to tell you about a website that I use nearly every day.  I do a lot of writing for the club website, several newsletters and my personal websites. LibreOffice and Scribus are the two main programs I use to edit the written material.  The WordHippo is a site I often use for tools to (hopefully) help me do a better job with my content.

WordHippo is an Australian site that was originally launched in 2008 to find rhyming words.  It has evolved to include a synonym finder, dictionary, antonym finder, word finder and many other word tools.  There are many sites on the internet that do these things.  This is the only one I have found where everything is on one easy to navigate page.

The site’s “Privacy Statement” and “Terms of Service” pages are clear and easy to read.  Although they state that they use a third-party to provide monetization technologies for the site, I have never seen any advertising. I’ve even disabled my ad blockers to test this.

A complete list of word actions include:
• Synonyms – the thesaurus is the default home page.
• Antonyms – gives an extensive list of opposite words.
• Definitions – a pretty much standard dictionary.
• Rhymes – I would have never found a rhyme for lagniappe without this section.
• Sentences – gives several examples of word usage.
• Translations – only translates from English to other languages.
• Find Words – you can select the number of letters and find words for Words With Friends, Scrabble and Crosswords. You can specify starting or ending letters. There are many more finding functions.
• Word Forms – finds plurals, past tense, present tense and more.
• Pronunciations – reads words and sentences aloud.

For the most part, the website is easy to use.  It utilizes a tabbed layout.  Entering a word in one section carries over to the other functions.  There are apps for both iOS and Android.  I haven’t tested them.  Give WordHippo a try.  Everything is free to use and there are no up‑sells for a paid version.

Thanks for reading.

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My Reading List (2025-10)

October 5, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Ever since I learned how, I’ve always been an avid reader.  My parents didn’t have a television until I was about ten years old.  That never bothered me. The library had a lot of entertainment.  In later life, when I was in the Navy, I seldom watched the ship’s movie.  I was busy finishing reading one more chapter of my book before lights out.  These days, I still read at least twenty magazines each month.  I am usually reading three or four books at a time.  I’ve got my bedside book, bathroom book, digital book and an audio book loaded on my phone.

This year I did something new.  I created a “summer reading list” of all the books I was going to read this past season.  I’ve never felt the need to do that before.  As I’ve gotten a little older, my memory is starting to slide a little.  I thought that a reading list would remind me of books I’ve wanted to read.

Now that we’re into October, I realize that I haven’t finished my reading list.  I thought I’d take a few minutes and share my books to read list with you.  These are all books that I haven’t yet read.  I’ve included the Amazon link for each title just in case anyone else would like to read them.  I’m not sure, but I don’t think any of them are available from the Parish library.

• The Manly Art of Knitting – The description says it all. Who am I to not read a cult classic.
• Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World – With a sixteen word title, this just has to be a great book.
• Winning Lotto / Lottery For Everyday Players – I’ll read this if I ever start playing the lottery.
• The 2009-2014 Outlook for Wood Toilet Seats in Greater China – I’ve been to China two or three times and never realized this was a problem.
• Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung – Confucius say, “Smooth words and fawning looks are seldom found with love. ”
• Much Ado About Nothing: The Restored Klingon Text – Shakespeare kind of looked like a Klingon.
• What’s Your Poo Telling You? – Sometimes I’m just overly curious.
• Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself – I’ve been thinking of taking up woodworking and this looks like an interesting first project.
• Reusing Old Graves – I need someplace to put those fancy coffins that I’m going to make.
• A Passion for Donkeys – I figure that any book that gets mostly five star ratings on Amazon must be a good one to read.
• The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America – I just hate going to the Walmart parking lot.

I guess you’ve probably figured out by now that I don’t really plan on reading all of these books.  I will admit that I have read one of the books on the list.  I won’t tell you which one.  You can feel free to read any of them and send a review to club newsletter.

A final thought.  Looking at this book list, I’m reminded of one book it makes me want to read it again.  It was one of Ray Bradbury’s best books.

That’s all of my thoughts for October. My mind is empty again. Thanks for reading.

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Airline Technology (2025-09)

August 31, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Last month, the wife and I took a trip to visit our grandson in Idaho.  We flew from New Orleans to Idaho Falls via Denver and returned via Dallas.  One of the things that was unique about this journey is that it was the first time I had been on an airplane in twenty‑five years.

No, I’m not afraid of going up in the air.  Way back then, we returned from a cruise and flew from San Diego to Lake Charles.  I’ll admit that my memory may have faded a little, but I remember the flight changes resulted in our luggage arriving at a different destination.  Of course, when it was found a few days later, they wanted me to make another trip to retrieve it.

Over the years, I just snicker every time I read about a tech glitch than cancels thousands of flights.  Same for bad weather, air congestion, maintenance delays, employee strikes and the myriad of other things that make air travel inconvenient.

After deciding to fly, we decided to make it easy.  Because of my mobility issues, we scheduled plenty of layover time in the two cities.  We didn’t check any bags which precluded the worry of lost luggage.  This also saved us the forty dollar cost of checking.
The outbound trip was great.  Even TSA was nothing more than a time delaying inconvenience.  We left and arrived as scheduled.  I was even enjoying the journey just a little.

Then we came home.  The plane left Idaho Falls on schedule.  We were in the air for about thirty minutes when the pilot made an important announcement.  There was a door that failed to close after takeoff.  He said it had something to do with the air conditioning system and was not a hazard to flying.  The only problem was that the plane could not fly at a high altitude, nor as fast as normal.  He then said there was not enough fuel to get to Dallas, so we would have to land and repair the problem.

At first we headed back to Idaho Falls, but then it was determined to go to Salt Lake City.  Then he told us we had to circle the airport and use up excess fuel before landing.  We landed in Utah for repairs.  The pilot was correct that it wouldn’t take very long.  After a little more than an hour, everyone was back on the plane.

The pilot soon announced that we would take off just as soon as some needed chemicals were poured into the lavatory.  Most of the passengers had a good laugh when someone in the back yelled, “Why didn’t you do it while most people were off of the plane?”  About a half hour later, we were in the air again.

Like many others, when we got to Dallas, our connecting flight was gone.  We were rescheduled to leave at eleven the next morning.  The airline gave us vouchers for a motel.  We finally got there around eleven.  After a lousy nights sleep we got back to the airport almost three hours early.  I just wanted to get through TSA (which was much more difficult than the other two times) and get back home.

We got to the departure gate about an hour and a half early.  About a half hour before take off we started to worry a little.  There was no plane at the gate.  I found an employee and asked.  The gate had been changed.  There was no announcement, either on the loudspeaker or the monitor.

We got to the new gatet with about ten minutes to spare. The door to the jetway was closed.  I said a few bad words.  It turned out that it had closed by accident and no one had the code needed to reopen it.  We finally got on the plane and made it to New Orleans.

Even with all of the improvements in technology, I’m still not impressed with airlines.
Thanks for reading.

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Check It If You’re Not Sure (2025-08)

August 3, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

Has your anti-virus or firewall program ever blocked a site and left you wondering what happened and if you should continue or not?  This month, I’m going to tell you about several internet sites that only do one thing.  All of them help you to stay safe by checking sites while you’re online surfing the Wild World Web.

URL Void is a free service developed by NoVirusThanks that allows users to scan a website address with multiple web reputation engines to facilitate the detection of possible dangerous websites. It’s easy to use. Either type or paste the URL of the website you want to check in the box and click the “Scan Now” button. In a few seconds you will know if you should be wary.

Have I Been Pwned checks your email address to see if it has been hacked.

PwnedList is another site that does the same thing as Have I Been Pwned.  Check if your e-mail has been hacked.

How Secure is my Password? Is kind of a fun site to use.  As you type a password into the box, the site estimates how long it would take to hack it.  At the same time, tips on selecting a good password are displayed.  In 2011, The New York Times had an excellent article about this site.

IP2Location Email Header Tracer searches and finds where an email originated.  Just copy and paste the email header and this site will find the sender.  Bonus – the website will also do a lot of other internet searching.

Blacklight is a Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector.  Just enter the address of any website and it will be scanned to reveal user-tracking technologies on the site.

VirusTotal inspects items with over 70 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blocklisting services.

There are many sites on the internet that do the same as these that I’ve highlighted in this article.  I’ve used these sites many times for many years and can attest that they are safe.  You do not need to create an account to use any of them.  Some of them offer upgraded services,  They are all free to use.

Remember, just because you’ve checked a sites URL, doesn’t mean it is safe.  Common sense is probably the easiest way to stay safe while surfing the internet.

Excuse me, I think I’ve finally found the web site of the real Nigerian prince.  I’ll probably be a lot richer the next time you see me.

Thanks for reading.

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Rambling About the Computer Club (2025-06)

May 27, 2025 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I’ve spent the past two hours trying to decide what I should write about in this space.  At first I thought I’d remind everyone that school has let out for summer vacation and remind them to drive safely.  Then I remembered when school started everyone was reminded to drive safely.  I decided that wouldn’t be a good subject because some wise acre would surely think that meant we didn’t have to drive safely the rest of the time.

Then I thought that maybe I could give some hints on how to use your computer more efficiently or maybe how to use one of my favorite programs.  I immediately realized that I already try to do that in my various workshops every month.

Then I realized how lonely I get at some of them.  My favorite workshop is the Tuesday Q&A.  We don’t get near as many members as I had hoped for.  With well over 150 active members, there are seldom more than three or four attendees.  It’s a real shame.  Cal is usually one of the participants and he is really great at answering questions.  Why not join us and try to stump him?

Now that I’ve started to ramble, I can think of a few other things you can do for the Cajun Clickers.

Why not contribute an article to this newsletter?  Do you have a favorite program that you think would be useful to other computer users?  Did you get some new hardware?  Have you found a great website that everyone should know about?  Heard a funny technology story that you just can’t want to tell everyone?  Take a few minutes and write about it.  It doesn’t take long and might be just the thing that could generate more interest in our club.

Why not bring a friend to one of our monthly meetings?  You can impress them with how smart you are by being a member of our club.  They just might decide to join and then we could all benefit.

When he wasn’t busy helping me invent the internet, almost the President Vice President Al Gore said, “Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.”  I think that means this would be a good time for me to shut up.

Thanks for reading.

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April Fools Pranks (2025-04)

April 6, 2025 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

April is here again.  I won’t make the same mistake I did last year when I wrote an April Fools column about leaving Baton Rouge.  I sure got a lot of questions about why I was moving.  I’ve always been an April Fooler type of person.  It all started several years ago when I was almost born on April 1.

In this modern age, April 1 pranks almost beg to be played on someones computer.  Almost every one uses a laser mouse these days.  They can be easily disabled with a small piece of tape or a post it note on the sensor.  Many people won’t notice and will have a hard time figuring out why all of a sudden their mouse isn’t working.  You can confuse them even more by opening mouse properties in the control panel.  Change the mouse speed to the slowest setting will make any mouse activities an ordeal.

Another prank that has been around forever can still confuse even a veteran computer user.  Simply take a screen shot of your victim’s computer.  Then hide all of the desktop icons and replace their wallpaper with the screen shot.  Sit back and watch them click on icons that won’t load a program.

Another quick prank is to open Google’s home page in a browser.  Click on preferences and change the default language.  You’d be surprised at how many people this trick will fool.

All of the following pranks in this article have been tested on Windows computers.  I haven’t done any research to see if they will work on Apple’s Operating System(s).  It shouldn’t be to hard to find out if you’re interested.

Many users don’t know about sticky keys.  Sticky keys will change how the Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Windows Key will function.  When enabled, keys are serialized instead of operating together.  For instance, instead of typing “Shift – a” to capitalize, you would have to type “Shift”, release the key and then type “a”.  This key change will drive an unsuspecting victim crazy.  Sticky keys are enabled easily by pressing the “Shift” key five times in quick succession.

An evil prank that you should only play on someone that won’t beat you up is to cause their computer to shut down.  Right click on one of the icons on your victims desk top.  Type the following in the target box: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 100 -c “Your Message Here”.  “Your Message Here” can be replaced with whatever message you like.  I use something like “That does not compute so I am shutting down” or “I’m sleepy. I think I’ll shut down and rest now.”

Whenever your victim double clicks on that shortcut, their program will not start.  Instead, your message will display for 100 seconds (unless you change the number in the target box.)  Then the computer will shut down.

These computer pranks are all designed for the Windows operating system.  Although they are non-destructive, you run the risk of aggravating the user and making him or her possibly want to harm you.  Use them at your own risk.

Remember, pranks are supposed to be for fun.  Use discretion when implementing them.  It would be nice if you fix their computer for them afterword, but who am I to tell you what to do?

Thanks for reading.

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