Apple dethrones Microsoft
May 27, 2010 by Jamie Stanislav · Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Apple’s market capitalization finally passed up long-time competitor and industry leader, Microsoft. Check out the full story here and here.
Evernote
May 25, 2010 by Scott Kerr · Leave a Comment
It’s not often that I find a smart phone app worthy of recommendation. It’s even less common for me to discover one that I personally use with consistency. Many available apps are novel at best, while countless others are just a waste of space, destined to dishevel your Blackberry or iphone’s menu and memory. A notable exception, however, is Evernote. At its most basic level Evernote, as its name suggests, is a note-taking application for pc’s and phones. But it’s capable of a lot more. It provides a centralized repository for just about anything you want to keep track of. In addition to providing the user with the ability to save their typed thoughts, reminders, and other ramblings, you can save voice recordings, photos, and documents. Since your entries are saved to the Evernote server you need not be concerned about gobbling up precious memory on your handheld. What’s more, your notes are available from any internet-connected computer, pda, or phone. Did I mention it’s free?
Identity Protection Companies Not Perfect
May 19, 2010 by Dominik Toepfer · Leave a Comment
Remember those ads from LifeLock with the CEO displaying his social security number claiming they could protect clients from identity theft? You can check out the full story here. Despite his promises of the security ofLifeLock, Todd Davis has had his identity stolen 13 times and was forced to step down as CEO. Use common sense with your personal information but often, even that is not foolproof. Your information is held by your bank, doctor, credit card companies and the list goes on and on. I would recommend checking your credit reports at least once a year as most states allow you to get it from all three major credit reporting agencies for free. Don’t leave your financial future in the hands of others!
To check out your credit reports, click here.
Warning: Old copy machines
May 17, 2010 by Dominik Toepfer · Leave a Comment
As an IT consultant it takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to data breaches; however, this one got me. I know that copy machines are basically overgrown scanners with a printer attached but did you know that some machines buffer the pages you copy to an internal hard drive? Here’s the kicker – sometimes these pages do not get deleted from that drive. So if you upgrade your copy machine, sensitive date from your network could be compromised via this hidden Trojan horse.
I’m also appalled that copy machine manufactures have an option that will delete this information from the hard drive as they are created but in most cases it costs extra. Like seat belts in cars, this should be a standard design component and not an option.
Starting from Scratch
May 13, 2010 by Nate Traiser · Leave a Comment
There are many benefits that come with starting from scratch. By that, I mean a fresh install of your operating system (OS). I don’t care if you get your PC from a local IT supplier or one of the big names (Dell, HP, etc.). All of the brand name manufacturers score many contracts with 3rd party software vendors like Symantec, McAffee or PC Doctor, not to mention the numerous proprietary apps that each manufacturer installs to “assist” the user.
The basic install of Windows XP or Windows 7 should have about 45 processes running after boot up. This process count should include an anti-virus and or anti-malware application and local backup application – the “bare essentials”. If you have more processes running, they could be valid but you shouldn’t need much more than 45 processes. Given my 10 years of experience, most of the major manufacturers will have you, out of the box, running around 60-70 processes! If you are not a nosey user like myself, then you will most likely will not do anything to kill/uninstall these services. Nor should you have to do this in my opinion. You are not intentionally purchasing these applications; rather you are forced to manage these on your own.
Folks, these applications are using valuable resources and you need to take them back!! 99% of these “proprietary” applications are already built into Windows. Thanks but no thanks, manufacturers. Anything that Windows does not inherently manage internally probably isn’t a huge concern for most users. Running applications like Ccleaner, Malwarebytes and the recently released Microsoft Security Essentials are commonly used add-ons to the basic operating system.
The next major concern is backups, Windows can address file restore inherently with Shadow Copies. You also have System Restore for the OS. Talking to your Greystone consultant can offer more advanced online and offline options as well.
Returning to the subject at hand, “Starting From Scratch”, I highly recommend, permitting time and your confidence level, reinstalling the OS before you start to personalize the existing OEM install (Original Equipment Manufacturer is the software received with your purchased computer that provides the pre-loaded applications). This gives you the opportunity to dictate everything that is installed from the very beginning. After addressing anti-virus & malware, then backups, you should be set and running a lean and mean OS that will reflect the hardware that you purchased.
Relying on Technology: Good or Bad?
May 11, 2010 by Jamie Stanislav · Leave a Comment
We live in a world dominated by technology. Even the simplest tasks have been taken over by electronic gadgets and constantly upgraded technology. While these advancements continually allow us to do more than we ever thought possible, at what cost do we employ machines in our everyday lives? As author David R. Larsen puts it, “While our brains are being increasingly enriched with sensory input, our memories, creativity, reasoning, communication, and other cognitive abilities may be atrophying in the wake of this increased dependency.” Has technology actually decreased the use of our minds to solve problems, store data or think “outside the box?”
My husband and I moved to Denver just this summer and were thrilled with the gift of a GSP before we traveled the 650 miles to our new home. Transitioning from a small Iowa town of 5,000 to the thriving city of Denver was no easy feat. Our little gadget proved itself invaluable as we navigated the city streets – finding grocery stores, government offices, retail stores, restaurants and our even piloting alternate routes to avoid traffic. We were beginning to gather our bearings after a few months, but it was so easy to type in a location name or address, that we started to realize we were relying on it rather than actually learning the street names and geography of the city. After a week of turning the device off before leaving our home, we realized that having to use the trial and error method of finding our way from memory used way more brain power, planning and problem-solving. While we still use our GPS to find a new location or an occasional detour, we have found it much more thrilling to rely on our memory and the surrounding landmarks to find our way.
Not only are we relying on GPS devices and the like, but with Blackberries and cell phone data plans, we have internet access at our fingertips. Who was the star of the latest action movie? Let me look it up right here online. What is John’s phone number? Hold on, I’ll email you so you can immediately save it to your contacts and never actually look at the digits. When is your mother’s birthday? Just a minute, let me Facebook my brother…
Some would say the reliance on technology results in the loss of previously accumulated knowledge because we cease to pass it on person to person. Have we become too content to let other people and things do the studying, the searching, and even some of the thinking and evaluating for us?
However, there are always two sides to every argument, and although we do have devices that process computations and store our memories, we also have a large increase in information being delivered to our brains for processing. As more information is processed, more power and memory is needed to support the processing. Maybe now that we are receiving so much more information on a daily basis our brains can’t help but to have to increase the capacity and memory to support the information.
What do you think? Are we at a greater advantage or disadvantage for relying on technology?
Google Chrome – Super Fast
May 7, 2010 by Dominik Toepfer · Leave a Comment
The recently released beta version of Google Chrome’s browser has some handy features and is astonishingly fast for those who have a Google account.
Chrome features allow you to sync settings and bookmarks between all the computers you might use. Chrome’s browser window is streamlined, clean and simple. You can also search and navigate from the same box, and arrange tabs however you wish — quickly and easily. Also, Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected.
Above all, however, Chrome is designed to be fast in every possible way. Not only is it quick to start up from your desktop, it loads web pages in a snap, and runs complex web applications fast. Google recently created this video showing off just how fast its web pages load by using a high speed camera at 2700 fps. Check it out here.
Is your personal info on the web?
May 4, 2010 by Byron Williams · Leave a Comment
Lately I’ve heard people express concern over the safety of the information they provide on the web including social networking sites like Facebook. It’s true that although you may delete these accounts, your information can remain, forever encapsulated on the World Wide Web. Before you establish accounts on the internet, I suggest reading the privacy policy. Although few people do, it’s worth the time to know what a company can do with the information you provide to them. Before clicking “Create Account” recently, I read a company’s privacy policy and learned that even if I deactivated my account – notice they did not use “deleted” – the site could keep and use the information I provided to them. This fact was not clearly and boldly stated. In fact, it was buried in long, run-on sentences of legal jargon. It reminded me of the “terms and conditions” statement insert for my credit card account. Perhaps this is becoming a standard; however, I find this alarming.
I don’t mean to sound paranoid but start by Googling yourself to see what sort of information is out there. You may be very surprised. I know a friend who, as a member of a professional organization, was included in the group’s member directory on their website. As a result, when his name was searched, his address, employer and phone numbers were easily found by anyone performing a simple search of his name. There are ways to have some search results displaying your personal information removed – for this, check out this information from Google. As a general rule, never share more information with any site than what is required, know what information is public, and create strong passwords that are changed regularly. By the way, if you really do want to delete your Facebook account, click here.
