We’re back with another installment of your favorite tech newsletter! This week, we’re talking about our personal favorite browser extensions, an AI tool you can use to easily generate images locally on your Mac, the simplest productivity system in existence, and a retro gaming mashup that puts your favorite classic game characters into NES Super Mario Bros.
As always, welcome to all of our new subscribers and thanks to everyone that shared their feedback this week (shoutout to Ioannis in Greece). We hope you enjoy this week’s content!
Tech Tips
Our 10 Favorite Web Browser Extensions & Add-ons – Here at Defragg, we love privacy, productivity, and shortcuts. In this post, we’ll share some of our favorite browser extensions that make our online life easier and more efficient. From bypassing paywalls to controlling distractions, these tools can help you take your browsing to the next level.
Create Free AI Images Using ‘Draw Things’ on Your Mac – Stable Diffusion is a popular AI tool for creating unique images from text descriptions, and the Draw Things app makes it easy to use on a Mac. This app is great for both beginners and experienced users because it’s simple to install and runs smoothly on MacOS, especially on newer M-series chips. Best of all, it’s completely free to use.
Tool of the Week
Speccy – Created by the same folks who developed CCleaner, Speccy is a great tool to audit the hardware in your computer. It is especially useful when you are determining if you should upgrade components or buy a new computer. And best of all, it’s free!
Quick Tips
Quick Search with Start Menu
Press the Windows Key and start typing the name of a file, app, or setting you need. Windows will quickly show matching results.
Minimize All Windows
Press Windows Key + D to minimize all open windows and show the desktop. Press it again to restore your windows.
Screenshot Shortcuts
Windows Key + Shift + S lets you capture a screenshot of a specific area, which can then be pasted directly into apps like Word or Paint.
Windows Key + PrtScn captures a full screenshot and saves it directly to the Pictures\Screenshots folder.
Productivity
Simplify Your Task Management with todo.txt – Many people spend so much time testing apps and systems and constantly tweaking their setup that they don’t have time to actually work on the tasks that they’re tracking. If you’re looking for a flexible, light-weight, and simple solution that works on every platform and you can start using in 2 minutes (yes, really), consider using a todo.txt file.
Nostalgia
Remember Microsoft Bob? – The year was 1995, and to most people, computers were still not a common thing to have. Not only were they only just starting to become reasonably affordable enough to have one at home, but familiarity with technology was nowhere near where it is today, so using a computer wasn’t a necessity for most people. But Microsoft wanted to make PCs more accessible, and that’s what Microsoft Bob was made to do.
The Story of The Oregon Trail – A little educational PC game created in 1971 by 3 teachers in Minnesota to engage local history students has now sold more than 65 million copies and been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The Oregon Trail is one of the most recognized and enduring titles in gaming history. This fantastic documentary tells the story of how it all happened.
Retro Gaming
Download and Play Super Mario Bros. Crossover – Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a fan-made game that mixes characters from different classic video games into the world of Super Mario Bros.. However, the developers of Super Mario Bros. Crossover no longer support the game, and it has gone offline with the end of Flash. Despite this, you can still play the game by downloading the Flash file and using a standalone Flash Player. This guide will show you how to do that step-by-step.
Tech News
Raycast is going cross-platform – Raycast, the popular Mac launcher on steroids, plans to expand its software to both Windows and iOS in the coming months. The company has also raised $30 million in a Series B round to further develop its tools.
Hacker plants false memories in ChatGPT – A hacker developed a proof-of-concept exploit that was able to plant false memories into a targeted user’s ChatGPT long-term conversation memory. He was also able to use the exploit to cause all of a user’s ChatGPT input and output to be sent to a specified server.
UN worried about AI – A UN report proposes a global body to monitor AI and foster international cooperation. It highlights the urgency of regulating AI amid rapid development but acknowledges challenges due to differing views between major powers like the US and China.
Microsoft restarts Three Mile Island – Microsoft has inked a deal with Constellation Energy to revive the famous nuclear reactor that experienced a partial meltdown in 1979 and closed in 2019. The plant will be used exclusively to power Microsoft’s growing data center energy needs.
Meta unveils Orion AR glasses concept – At its Meta Connect event, Meta showed off its new AR glasses that use projectors to show content to the wearer without blocking their view and a “neural wristband” for performing gesture inputs.
This Week in Tech History
Transistor and integrated circuit pioneer Jean Hoerni born (Sept 25, 1924); Supercomputer pioneer Seymore Cray born (Sept 28, 1925); Creator of the Perl programming language Larry Wall born (Sept 27, 1954); GNU project announced by Richard Stallman (Sept 27, 1983); Court rules computer code can be copyrighted (Sept 22, 1986); Legendary adventure game Myst released on Macintosh (Sept 24, 1993) Infamous computer hacker Kevin Mitnick indicted (Sept 27, 1996); Apple releases Mac OS 10.1 Puma (Sept 25, 2001); First AMD 64 processor released (Sept 23, 2003); Cloudflare launches (Sept 27, 2010)
Bytes of Insight
“The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris.” – Larry Wall, creator of Perl