Category Archives: computer tips

I Tested 13 Local LLMs on Tool Calling: March 2026

Thursday, 2026.03.19 J.D. H. Leave a comment

I built a deterministic eval harness and tested 13 local LLMs on tool calling (function calling) to find out which models work decently well for agentic tasks. The result that surprised me most: a 3.4 GB model scored higher than everything else I tested, including models five times its size. If you’re running a local AI stack with Open WebUI, LM Studio, or any OpenAI-compatible frontend, tool calling is one of the key features that enables agentic behavior. It lets

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Gmail to Claude: Line Breaks Disappear on Paste (Fix)

Wednesday, 2026.03.18 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: When you copy text from Gmail and paste it into Claude (or Claude Code), all your line breaks disappear and the text runs together into one giant wall of text. The fix: right-click and choose “Paste as plain text” (or press Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+V on Mac). Your line breaks will be preserved. The Problem You’re working in Claude and need to paste an email from Gmail. You copy the text, hit Ctrl+V, and… all your carefully formatted paragraphs

TurboTax Adding Rental Property Depreciation to the WRONG State Return

Tuesday, 2026.03.17 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: If you file in multiple states and have rental property in TurboTax Desktop, check your Asset Entry Worksheets. TurboTax may silently add state depreciation entries for every state on your return, not just the state where the property actually exists. The fix: go to the Asset Entry Worksheet, scroll to the State Depreciation section, and set “Include asset in state return” to No for any state where the property is not located. The Problem I have a commercial rental

MacBook Neo Tap to Click (how to turn on)

Friday, 2026.03.13 J.D. H. Leave a comment

The MacBook Neo launched recently and at $599, Apple’s cheapest laptop ever is a legitimately impressive machine. I’ll have more to say about the Neo overall soon, but I wanted to quickly share something that tripped me up right out of the box: the trackpad. ⚡ TL;DR The MacBook Neo’s trackpad uses a mechanical click instead of the haptic feedback found on other MacBooks. If that bugs you, go to System Settings > Trackpad > Point & Click and toggle

TurboTax Rental Income Bug: Why Your Schedule E Amount Keeps Disappearing

Thursday, 2026.03.12 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: If you’re entering rental income (or other dollar amounts) in TurboTax and the amount vanishes when you click Continue, the fix is to open the supporting detail worksheet FIRST (by clicking in the field and starting to type) not trying to paste an amount into the field! The Problem You’re updating your Schedule E rental income for the current year. You click into the “Other income not on a 1099-MISC or 1099-K” field, paste your amount, and it shows

MacBook Neo Review: A18 Pro CPU, 8GB Reality, and the Thermal Wall

Thursday, 2026.03.12 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I have not been paid by Apple or anyone else to write this. The Short Verdict The MacBook Neo is the fastest single-core laptop you can buy for $599 or even lower at $499 educational pricing! It also drops to phone-class performance after about 60 seconds of sustained CPU load. Both of those things are true at the same time, and thankfully even (Apple) phone class performance is still quite speedy. I ran 30

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How to Upgrade a Windows 10 VM to Windows 11 in VMware (Complete Guide)

Wednesday, 2026.03.11 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: Your old Windows 10 PC or VM (virtual machine) doesn’t meet Windows 11 requirements? It probably needs UEFI firmware, TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot, none of which older PCs and VMs were configured with out of the box. This guide walks through the full in-place conversion for VMware VMs without reinstalling Windows, in about 45 minutes. Many of the concepts (MBR to GPT conversion, UEFI firmware, clearing update policies) apply to physical PCs as well. Microsoft ended Windows 10

MacBook Neo Deep Dive: Benchmarks, Wafer Economics, and the 8GB Gamble

Saturday, 2026.03.07 J.D. H. 20 comments

Update, July 2026: covering Apple’s price increase (the Neo is $699 now, up from $599). Summary: the MacBook Neo is VERY fast for bursty everyday use but fairly limited for sustained, memory-heavy, or pro workloads. If you don’t have an interest in the computer industry and its history, you can probably skip everything else below. Otherwise, read on! Availability Heads Up (July 2026) Apple raised the Neo to $699 on June 25, 2026 (it launched at $599). Supply has finally