Welcome to TechTea, my humble slice of the internet. This is the personal website of
Matthew Lamont. Here you will find my blog, projects, and anything else that interests me.
My blog consists of articles, these are longer form content focused on
FOSS Software, Digital Freedom and Personal Digital Sovereignty, and Privacy. There is also a notes section, these are smaller titbits that I find interesting. Notes are still a new section to the site so there is not much there yet, but soon it will have a little bit of everything that doesn’t fit nicely into an article.
I have been inspired by the indie web to transition to this new format for TechTea. If you have any suggestions feel free to
contact me. This site is ever changing and always expanding so feel free to subscribe to our RSS feeds:
Everything,
Articles, and
Notes
Update 2023-06-29: I do not recommend any of this tool anymore. While Windows is still bad at removing programs to this day, it is best to avoid using uninstaller tools and instead use Windows built in tools. Manually delete left over files.
Our computers fill up with a lot of useless programs over the years and many computers come with a lot of useless programs pre-installed, much to our annoyance. You could use Windows built in uninstaller, but it does not do nearly as great of a job as one would want.
Update 2023-06-29: Classic Shell has been discontinued, but there are alternatives and it is open source. A maintained fork named Open Shell is available.
On the twenty-ninth of July, many of you received your upgrade to Windows 10. The operating system is great as long as you ignore the blatant security problems and the problems in the new start menu. Fortunately the latter is easily fixed with the program Classic Shell.
Firefox has experienced a major update with built in chat and a new search box. Some of you may find the new search box inconvenient if you use multiple search engines regularly, fortunately there is an easy fix to the problem.
To use the old search box in Firefox in version 34 or higher you will need to edit the configuration settings.
Type about:config in the URL bar to see Firefox’s settings.
BitTorrent has been around for many years now, since 2001, yet there are many who still do not know what it is or how to use it. Today we will lock at the basics of what BitTorrent is and how to use it.
What is BitTorrent?
To put it simply, BitTorrent is a way to download large files quickly and efficiently. BitTorrent itself is a protocol that handles the transferring of files across the internet.
Update 2023-06-29: I do not recommend any of these tools anymore. CCleaner was turned into adware and Antivirus/Anti Malware tools are redundant now that operating systems include good tools of their own. I have removed links to the products from this article. Also all of these tools are closed sourced, you should never trust closed source software with critical things like PC maintenance if you can avoid it.
There are times when things break or stop working, this is a reality we all face.
If you are anything like me, you probably do not like the new look Mozilla created for Firefox 29. Fortunately there is a way to change it back. All that you will need is a simple add-on and a two line CSS edit.
Classic Theme Restorer The first step will be to install the Classic Theme Restorer (Customize Australis) add-on by Aris. This add-on is still in beta so it may contain bugs and we can expect updates in the future.
When it comes to word processing most think Microsoft Word, but there are other alternatives out there. Once I got into high school I learned that I could not get away with just a pen and a piece of paper, I needed to type things up on the computer. I was introduced to Microsoft Office 2003, I was amazed at the power of the program, I went home and asked my dad about it, then I learned the price.
I use Firefox as my default browser on all of my computers. Google Chrome is more popular nowadays, but Firefox has a solid extension library and I never had any problems with it. The extension library is one of the reasons I use it over any other browser. Here are some to the extensions that I have found most helpful.
Adblock Plus
The most popular Firefox extension (it is available for Google Chrome as well), Adblocck Plus blocks advertizements.
Many know that a court stated that the FCC lacks the authority to enforce Net Neutrality. This means that the FCC holds no power to prevent ISPs from discriminating against websites. The main fear that many who use the internet have is that this could lead to stronger censorship in the United States. This fear is justified in that, without Net Neutrality, ISPs could slow down connections to content that they do not like.
Update 2023-06-29: If you insist on using Windows then you can use the PowerToys Launch feature that gives the same abilities as Launchy, but with more features and better integration with the system.
When it comes to Windows, the way you start your programs is not always the fastest. Normally you would click a desktop icon, task bar launcher, or go under the start menu. This method is not bad, however there is a better way to do it.
