TechByter Worldwide 2020-01-03: Find Hidden Powers with Utility Programs. Short Circuits. Spare Parts.

The blog and podcast date has been advanced from Sunday to Friday and the email alert now goes out on Friday morning instead of Saturday morning. This week's primary topic looks at two useful utilities and a location where you can find lots of equally useful applications. In Short Circuits: If you want to accelerate an older computer, you have several options, but some of them aren't worth what they'll cost. • Future Me is an unusual website that allows users to send messages to themselves in the future. Why? I'll see if I can explain that. In Spare Parts (only on the website): A scammer who sent fake sextortion messages has been arresed, but that won't have much effect on the scourge. • Would you be able to tell the difference between the real log-in page for Amazon's app and a phony that tries to steal your credentials? I couldn't and this illustrates why it's important not to click enticing links in email messages. • Twenty years ago: A website aimed at being a clearinhouse for product recalls seemed like a good idea. It wasn't.