This series of posts will walk you through the process of figuring out whether or not you can cancel your cable or satellite subscription.
As much as cable and satellite providers would like you to think they're the only ones with the good content, you do have other options.
These devices take content from the Internet to display on your TV.
We're not giving up the fight! These links take you to resources supporting the campaign to get Google to bring back Classic Maps.
While none of these alternative sites are perfect replacements for Classic Maps, they're what we've got for now. I haven't checked most of these out personally yet, but I'm linking to them anyway in case you find them helpful for your purposes.
Yeah, I hate 'em too... But if we're going to be stuck with them at least for the foreseeable future, I'll be working on some tutorial posts to try to make them a little less painful.Notice: Undefined variable: content in /home/customer/www/techforluddites.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/magazine-pro/functions.php on line 1822
Today’s T3 includes tips for YouTube videos that won’t play, a reader-recommended spam management app, and a time-limited deal on the Roku Premiere streaming media player.
1. YouTube Fix
Quite a while back, I started having trouble playing YouTube videos in Firefox. When I went to YouTube or there was a video embedded in a web page, it wouldn’t start playing right away like it had previously. Instead, it would try to load and a message would appear that said “If playback doesn’t begin shortly, try restarting your device.” I found that if I clicked on the video a few times, it would finally start playing and I lived with that for quite a while.
But recently I finally decided to see if I could find a more permanenet fix… and I did! Turns out the problem is that YouTube changed its default player from Flash to HTML5 so a kindly developer created a free extension you can add on to Firefox that will force the video to play in the Flash player. There’s also a version for Chrome, although I haven’t had the same problem when I did use that browser.
YouTube Flash Player for Firefox
Flash Player for YouTube for Chrome
When you install the extension, a Flash icon will appear in your browser toolbar so you can enable/disable the add-on easily if you want to switch back to the HTML5 player.
NOTE: For this extension to work, you have to make sure you have Flash installed and that it’s enabled. I had disabled mine as a defence against video ads and it took me a while to figure out why the extension wasn’t bringing up the Flash Player on YouTube… d’oh!
Thanks to developer Maxime for coming up with a solution to this annoying problem—and for responding so quickly to an email question I sent. Check out Maxime’s website to find more browser extensions for enhancing YouTube. And if you do end up using one or more of them, please consider making a small donation so he can continue developing such great tools!
2. Reader App Rec: Spam Deleter
T4L reader Randy submitted Mailwasher to the Favorite Program/App Contest because “it lets me delete unwanted emails from my ISP’s server instead of my computer. No more junk downloaded.” Thanks for the tip, Randy!
There’s a free version of the program and a Pro version (starting at $39.99/year with discounts for longer terms; 10-day free-trial period). The free version is limited to 1 email address; Mailwasher Pro supports multiple addresses and includes some additional benefits. Mailwasher is available for PCs running Windows 7 and above and also has iOS, Android and Windows mobile app versions.
Check out the Mailwasher website. >>
Share your own favorite program or app and enter for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card. >>
3. Roku Deal
Roku currently has a sale on its Roku Premiere streaming media player. The Premiere is right in the middle of its lineup of 5 box players in terms of features. The regular price is $79.99, but until Saturday (January 25th) you can get it for $69.99. If you prefer to buy through Amazon, they seem to be matching the discount but I don’t know if it expires at the same time or not.
Learn more about the Roku family of streaming media players in this T4L post. >>
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Stop Firefox from Treating Your Computer’s Backspace Key Like a Back Button