Do get an ad blocker.

But probably not one that has less than a 4.0 out of 5 stars in the browser's extension/add-on store.

One of my customers got completely turned off to ad blockers in general because the ad blocker that came up when they looked for one to install was Total Adblock.

Total Adblock promises to block all ads, but it allows the sweetest malvertising targets in the free edition & nags for payment more often than ads themselves.

I won them back on side by removing it, installing uBlock Origin by Raymond Hill, & showing them how to use it, getting their fully informed consent at each step of the way.

Block ads, even in your go-to search engine.

Block ads, *especially* in your go-to search engine.

Today in "ad blockers are Internet security software":

Ars Technica, "Address bar shows hp.com. Browser displays scammers’ malicious text anyway.": https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/tech-support-scammers-inject-malicious-phone-numbers-into-big-name-websites/

Malwarebytes, "Scammers hijack websites of Bank of America, Netflix, Microsoft, and more to insert fake phone number": https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/06/scammers-hijack-websites-of-bank-of-america-netflix-microsoft-and-more-to-insert-fake-phone-number

TL;DR: Scammers buy search engine ads linking to legit websites' help pages with a pre-filled help query, but the query bar text is a message to call the fake-support phone number.

My office has a color duplex laser printer.

Getting it to print duplex pages and pages in color using LPR was kind of hard. I had to write my own ghostscript command as printer filters for separate simplex and duplex mode (virtual) printers.

Getting it to do the same using CUPS was and still is impossible. Since I don't use x86 Linux, let alone a major distro, I can't use the manufacturer's driver, and compatible drivers are simplex B/W only.

Yet LPR is a relic to leave behind?

Nope, slow hardware failure.

Periodic reminder: Give Windows 11 a proper reboot once every other week or so, or whenever it starts doing strange things. I talk my customers through that as a first troubleshooting step, & 99 times out of 100, it fixes the reason they called.

Click the Start (Windows logo) button, click the power icon, then click on "Restart".
--or--
Press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del], press [Tab] until the power icon is selected, press [Enter], use the arrow keys to select "Restart", then press [Enter].

Well, that's a first. A customer's Linksys E5600 router spontaneously forgot how to wifi. I don't think it's a hardware fault because a factory reset made it remember how to wifi normally. But nothing short of factory reset worked. Botched automatic firmware update?