Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
Q: If gravity affects time, do radioactive materials get shorter half-lives on large planets and stars? (via Quora) A: No. As far as the radioactive material itself is concerned, its half-life is the same as always. All objects within the same frame of reference experience the same time effects. The half-life would only appear to…
Q. Who is the “genius” who invented Windows registry? (via Quora) A. It was a group, not a single person. But from your snark, I assume you’re unhappy with the Windows Registry — you’re having some problem with it, yes? Here’s the thing: The Registry is just a special-purpose hierarchical database. Hierarchical databases have existed…
Reader John Negley asks: “Fred, What e-bike do you have? “I know of your love of bike riding, I’ve seen your videos. I am also like you, approaching geezer age. So I’m thinking of getting a bike too. Just curious, what type of bike to you have? I plan on riding on paved roads &…
Plus: What happened to Karen’s PowerTools? Most of this article is about some free templates that can simplify your use of Robocopy — a free, powerful (but underappreciated) command-line copy/clone/sync tool that’s built into all current Windows version. But before digging into Robocopy, please let me tell you about a related issue: The rise, fall,…
Q: Does downloading data to a hard drive, say an app onto a phone, make the hard drive slightly heavier? (Question sent via Quora) A: On a flash hard drive or in RAM? Yes! Adding information — a 1, instead of a 0 — requires storing an electric charge. Each electron has a very small weight (something like…
After a recent Windows 10 update, I went spelunking into some unfamiliar features, including the new “Memory Integrity” option that’s part of the also new “Windows Defender System Guard.” It’s a pretty cool idea. The technical details are outlined in the Windows Insider Blog post, “Windows Defender System Guard: Making a leap forward in platform security…