The podcast for online banking safety is now available at Geek Free Radio. I interviewed Scott Sims from Education First Federal Credit Union in Beaumont. Scott is the VP of Information Systems at the Credit Union, and is responsible for the safety of the network. Excellent interview regarding online banking, security, safety, along with some good tips on staying safe while accessing your accounts
In the course of taking calls today during the Geek Free Radio Show I received one of the highest compliments a business owner can get. The caller to the show just called to tell me two things. First, he sincerely appreciated the solid advice I was offering to the listeners regarding watching what your children do not only on the Internet, but while they are playing with the seemingly infinite number of game consols available today. He was referencing the segment of the show where I discussed how parents may often keep up with what their kids do when it comes to surfing the Internet, but often overlook what is happening when kids are playing with the gaming consoles. Many, if not most of the modern consoles have the ability for the gamer to play online (the Internet) either with or against other players across the World. A pedophile was recently captured in the US stalking a 15 year old child whom he befriended while playing these games online. The caller stated he had never really thought of video games having that ability, and it was certainly something to watch out for. That is gratifying to know you can help people when it comes to technology in other ways than just offering advice for repairing computer issues.
Oh, and the second reason for his call? Well, the caller offered that he was a former client of mine from a previous business from the days many years ago when we offered Internet access to Southeast Texas. It was nice to hear him talk about how we always treated our customers in a professional and courteous manner. That was just the icing on the cake!
To your Success,
Tim
After a lengthy process involving transmitter moves, tower relocations, land purchases, network installs, and other issues, the wait is finally over.
I am happy to report that KSET 1300 AM begins it's live broadcasting on Monday 12/21/2009! If you are in the Southeast Texas listening area, please tune in (and call in) to Geek Free Radio, hosted by yours truly, at 11:00AM CST, every weekday.
If you aren't in the listening area, you can still catch us at www.ksetlive.com where the show is streamed live 24hours a day.
I promise to keep it as "Geek Free" as possible. Just good solutions to computer issues experienced by you, with an emphasis placed on technology and how it can benefit the small business, which is the backbone of the American economy. Look for interviews with Antivirus companies, Microsoft, and other software vendors. Don't worry. I won't be easy on them either.
I'm honored to be the host of the show, and I'm looking forward to getting back on the radio. So check out the station anytime, and remember, it goes live on Monday. I'll do my best to answer your technology questions.
You can also check out the lineup at www.ksetlive.com We have some radio veterans on our team, including the infamous Jack Pieper from 2pm to 5pm every day. I know Jack is anxious to get back on the air as well.
Thanks for listening!
To Your Success,
Tim
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble will announce a new e-book reader tomorrow. It's dubbed the "Nook" and this color reader will retail for $259
Some other sources on the internet are saying that B&N are partnering with Best Buy to boost sales of the new product. Sources are also saying it will be available in Best Buy stores on Thursday, which just happens to coincide with Windows 7 Launch Day. That's either incredibly smart, or incredibly stupid, if it's true.
One of the unique features touted is the ability to "lend" books to friends. I'm not sure exactly what this entails, but none of the other e-book readers on the market have this feature. If you want the details from the WSJ, click here.
To Your Success,
Tim
If you use T-Mobile and a SideKick for your mobile access, this announcement comes as no surprise to you. If you don't, then read on.
Apparently, all of the data for Sidekick users is stored "in the cloud" and not locally on the phone. What this means is that your data resides on a server somewhere in cyberspace. If the server crashes, your mobile data (contacts, emails, etc.) is gone.
Which is exactly what happened to T-Mobile Sidekick users last week. The kicker is that T-mobile is blaming Microsoft (in a subtle way) for the data loss. Apparently, T-mobile's data cloud is managed by Danger, a company purchased by Microsoft last year. The company was performing update maintenance to the systems, which caused a crash. And guess what? No usable backup! The information is gone forever. T-Mobile initially issued an initial message of hope Saturday, but then changed their mind and let its customers know their information is gone forever. They are offering a free months data service to affected customers, but that seems like too little, too late in my opinion.
How can this happen to a huge company you ask? Simple. We see it every day at Networthy Systems with small and large companies. A backup program is turned on, and everybody assumes it is working properly. Backups are not managed, or monitored. Test restores are never performed to make sure that backup you have is actually usable.
If you run a small business, or even a large business, you need a third party to monitor your networks for various issues, including this one. Most businesses never recover from catastrophic data loss, and end up going out of business. If the person/group responsible for your IT needs is not regularly monitoring and TESTING your backups routinely, you are a ticking timebomb.
To Your Success,
Tim
Sometime in 2010 Microsoft is scheduled to release Office 2010 Starter Edition. This will be a free version that only includes Word and Excel. In exchange for receiving and using this edition of Office for free, you will have to put up with ads. Here is the quote from Microsoft:
Microsoft's Security Essentials has left beta status and is now available as a "real" product. I haven't personally tried this product yet, but hey, at least the price is right. Keep in mind there are other free antivirus products out there like AVG, but typically they are only free for non-commercial use. Apparently, Microsoft is not making a distinction in how or where you use their product. If you want to give it a spin, the link is here.
To Your Success,
Tim
Verizon's website is showing virtually every smartphone (with the exception of 2) has been reduced in price to $99 with a two year contract. 3 months ago, I paid $400 for my Touchpro! What could this mean? Has Verizon turned the corporate corner and decided to be nice to customers? I doubt it.
If you want to upgrade your family computers to Windows 7, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Windows has released the Family Pack pricing. Officially priced at $149, it's actually a pretty good deal, compared to previous Microsoft upgrade pricing. If you are wondering whether you should upgrade or not, I recommend you do. Windows 7 is a good operating system, as evidenced by our experiences of running the Release Candidate of the software.
The Family Pack will let you install 3 copies of Windows 7 Home Premium. There is additional pricing released for individual computer upgrades as well. If you want the details, you can find it here.
To Your Success,
Tim
Last week, I blogged about Amazon remotely deleting selected books from their Kindle readers even after customers had paid for them. Apparently, the situation has progressed. Justin Gawronski had his electronic notes for his summer high school assignment on his Kindle, and they were rendered useless when Amazon pulled their "blunder" of the year by purposely deleting the aforementioned books from the Kindle devices.
It looks like Justin has found a lawyer and filed a class action lawsuit seeking punitive damages for people affected by the deletions and an injunction against Amazon to keep them from improperly accessing any Kindles in the future.
Now, I'm not one to justify frivolous lawsuits, but in this case, I say go get them, Justin. I think Amazon has it coming to them. After all, when you pay good money for a device, subscribe to the service, and pay for the books you read, what business does Amazon have digging around in your E-book reader, deleting books that you paid for, just because a publisher changes their mind about publishing in e-book format?
Let me know what you think.
To Your Success,
Tim
According to MacWorld, Barnes & Noble bookstores along with AT&T have decided to make their WiFi access free to anyone in their bookstores nationwide. Previously, WiFi access at the bookstores was only available as a pay for service through At&T.
Why are these two companies being so generous? Well, probably not because they are trying to be nice. Barnes & Noble has launched an e-book service similar to the Amazon Kindle offering, and is ramping up to compete against the behemoth book seller. And how could they get you to buy an e-book from them if you have to pay to get WiFi in the first place?
And you thought they were just trying to help you out during a poor economy? C'mon folks. Let's get real!
At any rate, it's a win for any business person needing to get online while traveling. Just hop into your nearest Barnes & Noble and score some free WiFi access! Nobody said you had to buy an e-book from them!
To Your Success,
Tim
No sooner do I post a blog about storage space getting bigger while form factor gets smaller, then along comes another big player in the storage market with another milestone. It seems Western Digital has announced the first 1 Terrabyte 2.5 inch mobile drive. WD claims a 3GB/s transfer speed as well.
According to Reuters (if you can believe them) Microsoft has offered to put other browsers into their operating system in order to settle a lawsuit from the European Union.
In the old days where profits were consistently up quarter over quarter, MS would hang in there and fight out lawsuits to the bitter end. In today's market, it could make more sense for MS to cave in and settle the lawsuit.
I wonder if this is a sign of times to come from the Redmond campus. Let me know your thoughts, please. The entire article may be found here.
To Your Success,
Tim
I ran across this article on Deal News, a site whose motto is "Every Day is Black Friday". They took a middle-of-the-road laptop and did price comparisons during the year. They confirmed the best time to buy a laptop is: back to school time or August and September.
Other good times to purchase are November (black Friday) and April. Prices ranged from a high of $580 in July to below $500 in April.
So if you are contemplating a laptop purchase, get your credit card warmed up. Back to school time is just around the corner!
To Your Success,
Tim
Today, Microsoft has officially RTM'ed, or Released To Manufacturing the new Windows 7 Operating System. Not a huge deal really, but there is one fact worth noting.
The BBC is reporting that Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm, sent a text about an update to Blackberry users, suggesting it would improve performance. Those who downloaded and installed the application, found their battery life reduced, and their cellphones crashing.
With barely one month passing since the arrival of 128GB thumb drives, Kingston steps up to the plate by releasing a thumb drive capable of 256GB of storage! That's right, it's not a typo. This is a 256 GB thumb drive! Although it's not available in the United States as of yet, the street price is estimated to be around $900 US. So I wouldn't rush out and get one just yet, but I would expect the prices to drop rapidly once its been on the market for awhile.
According to Amazon, You Don't Own It Even If You Buy It! According to a news report, Amazon removed some electronic versions of George Orwell's books from the kindle store, and deposited a refund in accounts of people who had previously bought them.
Windows 7 has been in Release Candidate status for a few months. We have received information from Microsoft that Windows 7 will go to RTM, or Release To Manufacturing on October 22, 2009. That means it will be released in its final production form, available for purchase.
