Many people probably do not realize what is going on right now in the world of the internet, or its inner workings anyhow…SOPA the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is being heavily pushed by many Hollywood studios and other media production companies to allow government to basically make websites accused of housing illegal materials such as copyrighted media illegal and allow them to force the websites to be blocked.

Essentially this bill will allow the government to control what is allow and not allowed on the internet, long story short. Many people and organizations are opposing these bills as they fear they will cause severe damage to the internet’s inner mechanics as well as the fact that it doesn’t actually solve the problem at hand.

With SOPA the initial bill allowed government to force ISPs and other DN providers to remove DNS entries to websites accused of hosting pirated material. While this may sound okay it is cause for concern on many levels. One of which is the fact the simply removing the DNS entry is not going to correct the problem because the website can still be browsed to via its actual IP.

While I am not going to go into much detail on the bills for lack of time…it should be said that people need to be pushing their congressman to vote this down just the same as the many organizations are pushing against it. Many organizations are planning protests against the bills. Some of those companies are Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, etc. There is currently a list of some 500+ websites that will be shutting their websites off tomorrow in an effort to protest these bills.

To read more about Googles stance and others on SOPA and PIPA click here.

To read more about Wikipedias stance on SOPA click here.

To view the ever growing list of companies also joining in on the blackout tomorrow click here.

Many people know that whenever a file is downloaded to your computer it should be scanned with an antivirus program to ensure it is safe before opening it. The fact is, if the file you just downloaded and scanned has a virus that is new, your antivirus may not catch it before it’s too late.

So what’s a better way of going about scanning files that you’ve downloaded? Well one thing you could do is to use multiple antivirus products to scan your files. The main problem with this method is that for you to do this you would need to install and uninstall every antivirus software you wish to scan with since you can only have one antivirus software installed on your computer at a time. The reason for this is that having multiple antivirus products on your computer can conflict with each other and cause a lot of problems.

The best way to scan your downloaded file (provided it is under 20 MB) is to use this handy website: http://www.virustotal.com/ this website gives you the ability to upload your file and scan it against a list of major antivirus companies.

Wanting to test this out, I hunted down a virus on the internet (Not to terribly difficult) and once I found out where it installed itself on my computer, moved it to my flash drive and used it to test their website. After uploading I was able to see what antivirus programs were currently able to detect this particular virus. Only 5 of the 42 it looks at were currently able to detect the virus.

Needless to say, always be very cautious about what you open (even if it appears someone you know sent it to you). As this website shows, just because you have an Antivirus installed, doesn’t mean that yours is able to detect everything.

If you are interested in reading more click here.

If you would like to check out the “Virus Total” website, click here.

The debate is on! Will Solid State Drives become cheaper than the current mechanical hard drives? Depending on who you talk to that answer is yes, but not initially. Due to the large amount of damage done in Thailand in recent months Mechanical Hard Drive prices have be slowly and steadily rising in price due to availability. Thailand manufactures roughly 70% of the world’s hard drives and because of the damage there many of the supplies have been cut off.

Micron, a major manufacturer of Solid State Hard Drives that they are actually seeing an increase in SSD demand from what they can only assume is due to the flooding in Thailand. Micron’s Kevin Kilbuck says that he feels their SSD fill the void nicely. 

SSD’s are still considerably more expensive than the normal mechanical Hard Drives are but with prices on the rise for Mechanical Hard Drives it’s anyone’s guess how much longer that will last. If Mechanical Hard Drive prices continue to increase more buyers may decide to spend a little bit extra money to get a SSD and have a faster performing hard drive.

If you’re interested in reading more click here.

Everybody knows the little pictures with numbers and letters on websites that need you to read what they say then type in the letters and numbers seen in them, and boy can they be annoying…that aside, are they really doing what they were intended to do successfully?

A new study finds “Captchas” (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), are at least on most websites, not well designed or even functional at all.  Captchas are suppsed to be put in place to prevent bots from accessing certain parts of websites by making it physically read the text within the picture and input it to allow further access. Unforunately only two websites tested were not able to be decoded with the proper setup. Both Google and Recaptcha’s captchas were found to be not decodeable by a bot. What were other some of the other contenders rankings? Well, some of the major ones that were easily decoded were, Blizzard which was decoded 75% of the time, eBay which was decoded 95% of the time, and Baidu which was decoded 98% of the time.

Though it’s amazing how easily many of these companies captchas were decoded, one thing is for certain, more rigorous testing needs to take place by organizations implementing them to ensure they are doing what they need them to do.

If you would like to read more about the study click here.

Those of you that have not yet heard, an Ultrabook is similar to a netbook in that it is a small portable computer and that’s about it. Ultrabooks are known to be very light weight and offer very similar features to a laptop with a fraction of the weight. They are the ultimate in portable computing.

Until recently Ultrabooks used primarily sold state hard drives (SSD) which made them very expensive. Acer just released an Ultrabook that gives its users the best of both worlds, SSD speed, but a cheaper price point only associated with cheaper and slower mechanical hard drives. 

Many people are wondering if the idea of these hybrid drives will catch on. Most experts agree that it would be in Ultrabook makers best interests to go in this direction as it offers a small amount of hard disk space for the operating system to function off of which increases speed but also offers a lot of storages space economically due to the mechanical drive portion.

If you’re interested in reading more on this topic, click here.

With Windows 8 releasing a developers version several weeks ago people are already beginning to form conclusions to the success and usefulness of this new operating system. Many users complain that the new GUI is not user friendly stating that it looks like a big mess of icons with little to no organization at all.

Many users want to have their old start menus back, or at least have it as an option. A lot of users are complaining that this drastic change to the way Windows functions will cause a huge drop in productivity as it will take many users longer to get to the programs they normally use.

Microsoft, though defending the design of Windows 8, is beginning to take some of the criticisms into consideration since there are so many people angered by the new design. Though Microsoft does see the comments being made they are not getting rid of the new “Metro” interface entirely, or even giving you the option to replace it with your old start menu. Instead, they are adjusting the GUI they have already designed to allow you to group your programs based on various factors to allow you to more easily navigate. If you haven’t gotten to see the new Windows 8 start screen just take a look at the picture posted with this article.

In my opinion, unless Microsoft changes the way this OS is designed drastically, or at least allows its users to use the old style start menus, I think this OS is going to flop horribly just like Vista did several years ago. While I think many home users may like the new GUI, I do not think this will be adopted to businesses as it is just too different. At this point it seems that Windows 7 is going to be the new Windows XP and will stick around for years to come.

To read more about Windows 8 and to see other links to more articles about it click here.

Ever since technology has been becoming more entwined with our society people have wondered just who is watching. As a matter of fact this idea of “Big Brother” has been around for years. Anyone remember “1984” by George Orwell. Seems the government and other organizations are stepping closer and closer to the ideas portrayed in this book in many different ways every day.

Over the past year there have been numerous occasions with various forms of technology that have been caught tracking its users without explicit permission to do so. Apple, Android (Google), and many others have all done this and now you can add one more to the guilty list. That’s right; everyone’s beloved Facebook has been caught using tracking cookies after its users logged out of their website which the company claims it was only using to improve their users experience on their webpages.

So are you being tracked right now? In my opinion, since it seems like everyday people discover other ways that companies can track users of their items, possibly. Due to the fact that our country uses so much technology and companies try to find out how the technology is being used to “improve customer experience” then I think it’s probably a pretty good chance that something you are using now, or at least later, will track your behaviors in some manner.

If you're interested in reading more click here.

So you’re having issues with your computer and you, being a bit of a do it yourselfer, decide to “fix” your computer on your own and save yourself some money. There is a high likelihood that if you do not have experience working on computers that you may wind up costing yourself a lot more money that if you had just brought the computer in to begin with.

A few weeks back we had a client that brought their computer in and needed us to recover their pictures. The reason for this was that they tried to fix their computer by themselves. When they tried doing this they had read to just “restore the computer” well not knowing what was meant exactly they did restore their computer….to factory defaults. This action caused them to not only deleted all of their pictures by overwriting them on the hard drive but also eliminated any chances of us being able to recover the pictures using any of our techniques.

Long story short, if you are not 100% certain what you are doing is going to fix your problem your best bet is to not do it. You see in the above situation the client lost their pictures which to someone people are far more important than the cost to fix the computer but there are a lot of times when your actions can wind up costing you more money and time to correct the problem. So pretty simple, if you “think” you can fix it…DON’T. Make sure you know you can or just bring it in to us and we can get it fixed for you.

Are you eager to try out the newest installment of Windows?  Well now you can try out a preview of Windows 8.  Microsoft has released a “Developers Preview” of their new OS to help developers create new apps, and updating current applications.  With over 500,000 downloads since yesterday’s release, it looks like a lot of people are interested in trying it out.  Some of the new features of Windows 8 include a new start menu called “Metro” that runs on-top of the Desktop that will load up by default.  Metro is where you will find all of your apps; it will handle your social media needs including Facebook and Twitter.  You can also visit the Windows Store (Microsoft’s take on an app-store)and download Metro-style applications build for the new OS, including apps for productivity, photos, entertainment, and of course, games.

This is only a preliminary release and by no means is it available for use on your primary everyday machine.  If you want to give Windows 8 a try, you might want to consider dual-booting the OS alongside your current Operating System because if you upgrade your current OS, there is no way to uninstall Windows 8 if you do not like it.  You will have to format your hard drive and start over with a clean installation of your previous OS.

For more information click here.

Since Windows XP’s Release it has been and still is currently the most used operating system. Surveys are beginning to show that XP’s hold on that market share is slipping. Windows XP was at its highest usage ever roughly one year ago peaking out at about 62% of the operating system market share. Since then however, XP’s market share has been dropping several percentage points each month. This month XP is sitting right around 51%.

So what does this mean to you? Absolutely nothing…unless of course you want to have a more secure operating system and want to have support for it if something goes awry. The current operating Windows 7 has been shown to be more than five times as secure as XP. With Microsoft discontinuing Windows XP’s extended support in a little less than three years (4/8/2014) it’s time to start planning that upgrade.

If you are interested in reading more click here!

Also if your curious when support for your various Microsoft products will end click here!

This is going to be short and sweet this week folks. Ever been typing on your laptop and once you looked up realized you just type half of what you wanted to say in a completely different spot on the page than you thought you were typing? I know I have… The BEST solution I’ve found for this is a very small program called “Touchfreeze” What Touchfreeze actually does is disables your touchpad while you are typing. When you begin typing you are no longer able to move the mouse and as soon as you stop (within a few milliseconds anyhow) the touch pad begins to function again. I have personally tested this program on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and it seems to work on all of those platforms without any problems. Installation is very easy, pretty much just download it, and follow the prompts selecting all default values.

The reason I wrote about this is that most people have experienced this issue at one point or another and wished there was a way to solve this issue...and…there is! If you’re not sure how to install this yourself or are just not comfortable doing it and would like us to setup for you, we can definitely do it for you just give us a call.

To download click the Touchfreeze Logo below.

This past week you may have seen or heard talk of a mysterious black bar appearing on top of Google.com.  Well it wasn’t by accident.  In fact it was a sign of something new to come from Google.  What is it you ask?  “Google+”.  What is Google+?  Google+ is a top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year.  The reason for this new project is to create a new way we interact with our friends and family in an all-in-one online experience.   Some key features of Google+ include Circles, Sparks, and Huddle.  With Circles, you are able to organize your contacts into categories or ‘Groups’ and share and interact with people in those categories the way you do in the ‘real world’.  Sparks is another main feature with Google+.  Sparks is more than just a “search engine”.  With Sparks, you enter an interest you have and Google goes out and finds elements on the web that they think you’ll care about. These can be links to blog posts, videos, books — anything that Google searches for.  Finally the last feature I will talk about is called “Huddle”.  Huddle is essentially a group messaging app that works across Android, iPhone, and SMS to allow you to communicate with the people in certain Circles.
 

There are many more great features to come with Google+ and I’ve only mentioned a few.  The project is still in beta but they are expecting to release it to the public soon.  Right now is only phase one.  You can sign up to beta test here.

IBM is once again doing something pretty amazing. Their engineers are currently working on a new type of memory that is supposedly one hundred times fast than flash memory. The remarkable thing about this ram though is not just its speed, but, it’s really cheap to produce. Even at the early stages IBM is saying that this type of memory can easily be integrated into everything from corporate mainframes all the way on down to you mobile phone. As amazing as it sounds to be able to have that much power in the palm of your hand it is still going to be a little ways off.

In order to get the benefit of RAM that is that fast other hardware is going to need to be further developed to handle the speed which IBM apparently does not see as a problem because they are anticipating having this technology available within the next 5 years! If you are curious and would like to read more, including the press release by IBM click here.

The Board of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that regulates how domain names work, has approved the creation of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that will allow for a near-infinite variety of new website addresses.  This means anyone can submit to be approved their own “.Com, .Org, .Net, etc…”  New gTLDs will also change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

Organizations who seek an ‘.anything’ domain may send in applications as soon as January 2012, through April 2012. ICANN anticipates that the first new domains will be approved by the end of 2012

There are some new forms of storage on the market. These have been around for several years now so I guess they're not that new...but at this size/speed and avaiablility to consumers, they are completely new! At around $4,500 for a 1 TB PCI-Express card this may not really be in most consumers price range but devices like this are slowly coming down in price and may in the future actually be the types of storage you see in PC’s. 

Most computers use a common mechanical hard drive that has several metal plates that data is written to and 1TB drives like this are becoming common place in consumer PC’s these drives currently run about $70 for a replacement when purchased online but in years past were much more expensive. 

The advantages of the PCI Express card when used for storage have to do with its read/write speed. Most hard drives found commonly in computers today have a 3MB Cache which is used during the read/write process. These cards not only give true 1.4GB/s read/write speed but offer a much larger cache (512MB) which allows the card to process data much quicker than that of today’s hard drives. If you’re interested in reading more about hard drives and the way that they function click here. If you just want to drool over the “new” Sold State Drive (PCI-Express hard drive) click here…

Mac users beware! There is a new malware attack that is taking place on Mac’s. That’s right; contrary to popular belief the beloved Mac is vulnerable to Malware attacks.  Those Mac advocates try to lead people to believe that Macs are better than PC’s simply because they do not get malware. Mac’s do get attacked on occasion by malware, the reason you don’t see this more often however, is that, they are such a small market share in comparison to the Windows based PC’s that almost everyone owns. That fact alone means that hackers developing this malware are being smart and trying to get the most bang for the time they put into developing.

While I do not agree that Macs a less susceptible to malware I will acknowledge the fact that Macs are generally made with higher quality parts and then to have a bit longer life due to that. Only problem I would point out when it comes to Macs hardware, if say your screen went bad they generally want to replace the screen and the motherboard at an authorized dealer only. On a PC a screen replacement would only cost you a fraction of that price.

When it comes to what PC you choose to buy the choice is yours, I just recommend that people do a bit of research before believing all the propaganda that implies that Macs are “Malware and Problem Free” because, let’s face it, even Macs can break.

If you’re Interested in reading more about the recent Mac malware attack click here.

Lenovo has announced a new entry in its ThinkCentre all-in-one line, the ThinkCentre Edge 91z. Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, the system measures just 2.5 inches thick, offers a 21.5-inch LCD display, and packs a lot of power—up to a second-generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. The 91z supports up to 8 GB of RAM, and will be available with SSD and hard drive storage options, integrated Wi-Fi an optional Blu-ray drive, and discrete ATI graphics with up to 1 GB of dedicated video memory.  The 91z also packs built-in speakers, a 2 megapixel webcam, six USB ports, Windows 7, and a 6-in-1 card reader.  The ThinkCentre 91z should be available in July through Lenovo’s business partners with prices starting at $699.