#233 - January 2014 Newletter

PCSS January 2014 Newsletter

 

Happy New Year Friends!  It’s a bright sunny New Year’s day in the Highlands of Virginia.  A great day to start off a new year.

We’ve decided to end our blog after 10 years and will just post our State of Technology thoughts in our monthly Newsletter.  Saves on my effort and makes it easier for our customers.

PCSS Work Schedule for 2014

Monday – Alleghany County – Focus on Covington

Tuesday – Bath County – Focus on Hot Springs

Wednesday – Alleghany County – Focus on Clifton Forge

Thursday – Bath County – Focus on Warm Springs/ Millboro

Friday – Other coverage areas and hi priority work

There is no change in PCSS hourly charge for 2014!  Yeah!

We have a limited number of the PCSS, LLC 2014 pocket calendars available.  Let us know if you would like one or more!

State of Technology

The hacking of Target credit card information brings back to each of us how we are more susceptible to fraud.  In 2013 I’ve had 2 of my credit cards compromised.  The first one was where a reputable agency began monthly charges to my card.  I had not made those purchases.  The credit card company refunded the money, but we never found out how those monthly charges began. 

The second incident was scarier.  I received a call from a different credit card company asking whether I had used that card in West Virginia that day.  I had not.  The company thought that I had been the victim of process where the information from my card was stolen and then a fraudulent credit card was manufactured and used.  I lost no money in either case and the Credit Card companies did very good work to protect me.  That they happened both in the same year is frightening.

Many of my friends have also had at least one issue with credit card fraud.  So what are we to do to protect our cards?  The US could move to the credit card system that Europe uses.  The European cards have embedded micro chips instead of a magnetic stripe.  This is a more secure card and difficult to copy.  Getting away from swipe card usage in the US is problematic.  From gas stations to car washes to every check out counter in Walmart and grocery stores, they all would have to be changed.  A huge cost.  Remarkably this is going to occur by October 2015.  The US Credit Card companies are pushing for that deadline by saying that any merchant that does not use microchip swipe technology will be libel for any fraud that happens on their machines.  A big stick indeed.   The only group that will not be ready is gas station swipes.  They are projected to be on board by 2017.  

So you will see a change in your credit card very soon.  If you have an option please take the microchip credit card if offered.  You can also ask your credit card provider to change out your card for a micro chip one at no additional cost.

2014 PCSS Sales Items

We’ve just finished our inventory so everything you see below is in stock.  First come First served!

HP Deskpro 6305 PC with AMD  A4-5300B processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW Drive, keyboard, Mouse, 3 year warranty!, Windows 7/8 Pro - $450.00

HP Deskpro 4300 PC with Intel i3 3220 processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW Drive, keyboard, Mouse, 3 year warranty!, Windows 7/8 Pro 64 bit- $555.00

HP 255 Laptop with AMD E1 series processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW Drive, 15.6” TFT Display, wireless, MS Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, 1 year HP warranty - $499.00

Toshiba Satellite 855D-S5201 laptop with AMD E1 series processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW Drive, 15.6” TFT Display, wireless, MS Windows 8 Pro 64 bit, 1 year Toshiba warranty - $399.00

HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax with Wireless and sheet feeder - $150.00

LG 22” LED Monitor - $149.00

Wireless 802.11n router (speed up your wireless!)  $49.00

Engenius Wireless extender – (improve your wireless coverage) $49.00

AVG antivirus – 3 PC- $39.00, 1 PC - $29.00

500GB USB Hard Drive - $65.00, 1TB USB Hard Drive - $85.00

USB Flash Drives!

64GB – $39.00, 32GB - $23.00, 16GB - $12.00

USB Wireless adapter (add wireless to your PC or laptop) - $24.00

4GB Micro SD memory card - $11.00

USB Hub (add more USB Ports to your PC) - $12.00

Tripplite 550VA Battery Backup - $65.00

Fellowes Mighty 8 Super Surge Suppressor - $15.00

January 2014 Sites of the Month

A new year means a new set of holidays.  This site has every US holiday listed:  Holidays and observances in United States in 2014

It’s the season for returns.  If you have a gift you want to send back to the store here is a very good guide on the procedure:  How to return a gift and get the most for it

Here is an article on the microchip embedded credit cards:  U.S. rolling out chip card technology, ever so slowly

Its also the season for the “Hot Toddy”  Here is a good recipe:Hot Toddy Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Keep warm and see you in February! 

Nick

#232 Holiday thoughts 2013

Wow what a Thanksgiving!  We had lots of activities and way too much food.  We'll have to watch our consumption till Christmas.  Technology wise here are some holiday thoughts:

Tablet PCs are very hot for the holidays.  There are several special deals out there for 7" Android tablets at less then $100.  Be careful on those, the ones we saw were very outdated Android operating system and almost useless memory.  We recommend the Asus or Lenovo 7" Android tablets at $125.  The older Kindle Fire HD (like the one PCSS owns) only costs $139.00 from Amazon.  Even the first generation Apple mini costs $299.00.  So what should your buy?   Its a matter of taste.  No winner, no loser.  They are all nice small tablets.  If you go up in size to 9/10" then you go up substantially in cost.  Not much less then $299.00 for an Android 10" with the new iPad Air on top at $499.00.   

Laptops are always popular holiday items.  Windows 8 laptops are priced from $399 and Windows 7 laptops from $499.  We also like color printers for the holidays.  The quality has gone up and the features are many with wireless now a standard.  The photos are near spectacular if you use the best photo paper.  Even the costs of inks are down some.  Wireless speakers are also hot.  You can stream music from your PC, Phone or any Internet device to these speakers.  Bose, JBL and Sonos make some remarkable quality speakers.  I have heard them all and I'm pretty amazed. 

Prices have continued to go lower on LARGE screen monitors.  24 inch is the new standard and with prices south of $200, why keep looking at that "small" screen.  The 24 inch screen lets you put up two full size programs next to each other - like a browser and spreadsheet.  Its a multitaskers dream come true.  Also waterproof, phones, keyboards, camera and anything else electronic are also jumping off the shelves.  Seems we are a messy group and love to drink and whatever, much to the detriment of our cyber gear.  Seeing that I wiped out a keyboard this year, I made the waterproof plunge...

So it looks like an interesting, if not exciting year in holiday technology.  Just let me help out if you are looking for that SPECIAL holiday gadget!  Merry Christmas friends!

#231 - Enjoying the new Pilot

We sold the old 2005 Honda Pilot and bought a new 2013 Honda Pilot.  Lots of technology upgrades in the past 9 years.  In fact most of the changes are in technology.  I'd say there were just a few computers in the old 2005.  At least one for the engine and maybe one for safety features.  Every thing else was very analog with pretty simple interfaces.  The new Pilot has at least 6 different computers.  Let me take you through the noticeable upgrades.

In the driver display I now have an info center that include the calculated MPG and a real time MPG calculation.   It is very similar to the one in the 2010 Honda Insight that I use everyday.  The display gives me feed back to drive more conservatively and hopefully get better MPG. 

The other BIG change is the backup camera display with gridlines.  The display is very big and the color camera has very good resolution.  It makes backing up a breeze.  The guidelines give you perspective so you know how close you are getting to any object.  The 8 inch display is also used for the Radio Control, Trip Computers, Calendar and many other functions.  Its large enough to be seen throughout the SUV. 

The 2013 Pilot has Bluetooth connectivity.  You pair the car with your cell phone and you can make calls, pick up calls and even set up voice calling (Call Home!).  It supposedly will import your entire cell phone phonebook, but I haven't had as much luck with that feature. There are phone controls on the steering wheel making the process much safer then some I've seen.

The new Pilot has a USB connection and can easily play music from your iPod, iPhone or any other music carrying USB device.  It will also play downloaded audio books, but the control of those audio books takes a bit of learning.  There are 3 12-volt electrical outlets, but no AC outlets yet. 

New to me, but certainly not new to cars is the XM radio, auto headlights and auto adjust rear view mirrors.  All technologies developed since 2005.  There are no shortage of buttons, knobs and adjustment devices for me to be distracted by.   There is no Internet connection though some models that have Pandora connectivity.   

This is an end of cycle model with an all new 2015 Pilot in the works.  I would imagine a new touch screen will eliminate many of the buttons and knobs.   We'll soon have the power of a tablet PC in our cars and hopefully an interface similar to iPads and Android tablets. 

Let me know what you like or dislike technology wise in your new car...

#230 - A kindle in the house

Through the generosity of Amazon, I've ended up with a Kindle Fire HD.  This is a 7 inch tablet that runs a modified Android operating system.  There is no doubt that the purpose of the Kindle Fire is to have you spend money at Amazon.  I have an Amazon Prime account so I am trying to minimize those purchases and try to use as many of the "free" features as I can.

Physically I'm also trying to gauge what you can reasonably do and not do on this size tablet.  I also own a 10.1" Asus Transformer tablet that uses full Android operation system for comparison.  I've always enjoyed reading books on the bigger screen.   The smaller Kindle does a fine job of presenting books.  The screen is crisp, clear and has enough fonts (make the print BIGGER) to satisfy my weakening eyes.  I've downloaded books from Amazon (part of the free lending library), from our local C.P. Jones Memorial Library (part of the Overdrive system) and from the Project Gutenberg (free classics).  They all look very good and use the same system of turning pages, bookmarking and annotation (though I'm not annotating any books at this time). 

Depending on the website you go to the Kindle can be OK on the Internet or just too small.  More and more websites are using re- sizable language in setting up their website to be more tablet (and phone) friendly.   Amazon provides the Silk browser which I have enjoyed.  It isn't what I am used to so I have adding the Opera Mobile browser, but I had to go through hoops to do that.  Amazon does NOT encourage your adding apps that are not in their app store.  It can be done, but you need a bit of geek to get it done.  I think I understand their reasoning: They want the same control that Apple has over the "i" pads, phones etc..  Its not good reasoning.  If the Amazon Android app store was of the quality of the Apple Store then that would be one thing, but its not.  There are lots of very sorry apps in the Amazon store, and they are missing many wonderfully written and I consider essential android apps. 

It all depends on what you want to do with your Kindle.  I've sampled some of the Amazon Prime streaming videos - both Movies and TV shows and they work great....When you have a strong WiFi signal.   At my home I've had no issues, but at other locations its a bit sketchy depending on the bandwidth the WiFi connection has available.  Sound is actually very good from the built in speakers or using a headphones.   Seems like the Kindle would be a very good way to entertain children if you believe putting them in front of a movie/TV screen is acceptable entertainment.  The resolution of the screen (we have the HD model) and the flicker free quality are very good.

Email seems to work, but I'm not the biggest fan of the email app that Amazon provides.  Again I had to bring over an email app from the bigger Android market (read Google) to enjoy handling email.  Actually the only thing I can do with email on the kindle is read it and do very BRIEF replies.  The keyboard and layout are tough to do much typing or editing. 

Now I do like the size of the Kindle for portability.  It fits in the smallest space and can help minimalize your baggage to the beach (lots of reading there, right?).  It weighs almost nothing and with a decent case can take some transport jostling.  Overall I think its a niche product.  Its priced (now $139)  so that almost everyone can afford it, though the Amazon Prime account is $79 a year for the free lending library and streaming movies. 

I'd be interested in your usage and thoughts on the Kindle since many of my customer have had one for much longer.

#229 Where did my Newspaper go?

This week brings the sad move from 6 days a week newspaper to 2 days a week in our community.  The Virginian Review after 99 years is still alive, but barely.  Of course, they are not the only newspaper, magazine, print media in trouble.  Paid readership is down dramatically.  Papers are downsizing by physically reducing the size of the paper, cutting staff to the bare bones, moving content online and some are just shutting down.  The implications of this event have not been made yet.  So what has this to do with Technology?  Well if you listen to many old time newspaper people the Internet is to blame.

Print media is all about advertising.  The price you pay to buy a newspaper/magazine never came close to covering the price of producing and distributing the issue.  The decrease in circulation has made print media a tougher sell to advertisers.  So where have the readers gone?  Mainly to TV and the Internet in alarmingly large numbers.  How do we get our "news" today?

Being linked to the world wide web has made everything more immediate.  Very seldom do we read an article in print that we knew nothing about.  We can get IN DEPTH information in print, but the basic who, what, when and where facts were available almost immediately on line.   For many in today's culture, that is enough.  "Don't bore me with the details" is a cry I hear way too often.  I can read the captioned news (ie. USA Today) on my phone and get RSS (Rich Site Summary) news feeds about subjects that I am interested in to my tablet.  What is lost in all this immediate information is who is writing this condensed info?  There are hardly any by lines.  Its like the anonymous writers in the sky decide what info to put online for our consumption.

Reporters are what I am most afraid of losing in this transition.  For example it was the Washington Post reporters that broke the recent Bob McDonnell gift scandal.  Would that have happened if there were no Washington Post paying reporters to investigate?  I don't know, but I don't think so.  Investigative reporters are the guardians of a free people.  Are these online news hawkers paying reporters to investigate or are they just prepared to recycle breaking tragedies and events?  I believe the latter based on what I read.  Nothing hard hitting and very few opinions are presented.  Though you can just turn on your TV and get the snippets that are covered by the evening network news and then 24 hour news channels.  It's something to think about.

I do use the USA Today and CNN apps on my phone & tablet.  I also enjoy the BBC news app for a worldly perspective.  But I will miss my daily Virginian Review and will keep reading it front page to last page on Wednesdays and Saturdays...

#228 Proximity Technology

We just returned from a great trip down the Rhine River.  The boat we were on was christened in April so it was very modern.  One of the items that caught my attention was the door lock on our room.  It used proximity technology so our plastic room key did not have to be inserted.  You just had to wave the key within a couple of inches of the lock.  If you are like me, I think this is a great break through.  The old plastic magnetic insert keys were notoriously unreliable.  I don't know of anyone that travels that hasn't found that their magnetic key did not work and they were locked out of their room.  Then comes the walk of anger as you go back to the front desk to get the key reprogrammed for some unknown reason.  We were on the boat for 8 days and never had a problem.  I put the key in my wallet and just passed it by the lock when I wanted in. 

Proximity technology is showing up in more locations.  Many new cars no longer come with keys.  They come with a fob that can automatically unlock your doors when you are near the car.  The fob also allows you to push a button to start and stop a car.  Not sure of the benefit of the start/stop button other then saving your pants (purse) some wear and tear.   You can also now change out your house door lock for a proximity lock.  This lock also has a keypad in case you don't have your fob.  I don't know how reliable any of this technology is or how secure.  It does require power (battery normally) in either the sensor or fob/card or both places.  And we all know that batteries don't last forever.  I'm sure there are horror stories about not being able to stop/start a car or get into your house.  I would think there needs to be a backup plan for using this technology.

The technology comes in two forms:  Passive and Active.   The key on our cruise ship was passive.  the battery is located in the door lock.  The passive plastic key has an antenna and chip that can be programmed with your individual door info.  They are activated by the power in the lock so the key has to be very close to the lock to work (within 2 inches or so).  The car lock fobs are active (and have a battery) so your car lock can be activated 10 feet from the car.  They work on high frequency radio (13.56Mhz is one of the usable frequencies) so don't have any competing items that can trip the lock. 

I sure can think about other uses of this technology.  I'd love for the computer, lights and heat/cool to turn on and adjust when I walk in a room or the house.  I've seen faucets that work with reflective proximity sensors.  They bounce a radio wave over you hands and turn on the water.  They still haven't figured out one to do the water temperature that you require.  So let you mind imagine the many potential uses of this technology and get out there and patent it!

#227 Summer Ramblings

Now that summer is firmly here, I like to think about technology in a bit different light.  That would be a strong summer sunshine focused on the trends and anticipated new gadgets that we didn't even know we require.  A decade or so ago I got my first bag phone and enjoyed being able to run my business out of my car.  I would not be as successful without the portability of the modern cell phone.  The benefit is more than being able to send and receive calls.   I love a quick look up of a problem when the customers computer can't get on the Internet.  Checking my calendar and tasks to be sure I won't miss anything is also a great benefit.  I've said it before and it remains a truth, the cellular smart phone is the most amazing invention in my lifetime.  Now if you asked me before the advent of the cell phone would I need one?  I'm sure I would have said no.  So much for me being the great prognosticator.

I went to training today for the Greenbrier classic golf tournament.  I volunteer as a walking scorer.  That means I walk with the players and put their scores (and more) into a palm held computer that transmits the information to the PGA Shot Link computers in the sky.  The advent of this technology has added over 50 different statistics to a PGA players portfolio.  You can not only find out how a player scored, but his greens in regulation, length of his drives, number of fairways hit and even how successful he is when he lands in the sand.  The walking scorer has to mark down every shot, what type of club was used on the shot and where it lands.  We are even in the fashion business and identify what color clothes a player wears (so he can be identified by the rest of the Shot Link staff and TV crews).  Its a busy job but good exercise and you do get to meet a few players.  This is another technology I didn't see coming, but should have.  Doctors are beginning to use the same technology with electronic medical records.  Your info and lab results are instantly transmitted to the tablets the modern doctor carries around.  It decreases the time waiting for information and that can save lives.

Do you have a video cam on your laptop or computer?  Do you Skype with friends or relatives around the world?  What a great technology.  We have friends in Costa Rica that we use Skype as our main communication tool.  The technology of the small camera has now found its way into cars and more are having  backup cameras installed just above the rear license plate.  Peoples lives and car damage are being saved with these new gadgets.  They will soon be required in most US cars as a safety feature.  I've had a video cam for many years, but never thought about using it as a backup camera.  Oh well, maybe the next great invention will be mine....

#226 - Too much information

I read an article last week on GPS navigation that are built into cars.  Seems that people are cleaning out their glove boxes when they trade in or sell their car but not their GPS.  Lots of good information in that GPS, like your HOME address and a map to get there.  Also with the newer models you may have uploaded your phone book information to the GPS so you could make cell phone calls.  Lots of good information there also.  Information like social security numbers, credit card numbers, and lots of personal information for family, friends and business contacts.   Now most people would ignore that old information, but we aren't talking about most people when it comes to identity theft and plain old burglary. Some cars also have your garage door opening code.  Talk about giving a crook the keys to your house!  So what is a cautious person to do?


The quickest way to wipe out information in GPS is to do a system reset.  This is usually available in the tools section of the GPS menu.  Look around and then reset the system back to the factory install information. If you cannot find it, (Try to google it with the model of the GPS or car) then go to the place you bought the car/GPS and have then do it in front of you (most 12 year old boys can handle this job!).  For you garage door information look in the car user manual for its reset.  If you can't find it the car dealership should know how to do it. 

If you rent a car with a GPS you may want to be cautious with what information you put in that device.  I'm amazed at what information you can find left behind.  Also your portable GPS, Phones, Laptops and PCs should be wiped clean before they are resold or even thrown away.  If you have a question let us know and we'll advise the most safe method of protecting your information.

Your information is valuable.  Any devise that holds that information should be treated with care and should be protected like it was your driver license or a credit card.  I have worries about all the devises that have now and will have personal information.  I'm seeing refrigerators with built in PCs, home heating and air conditioning with smart displays, entertainment centers with more then just your music built in  and even bathroom facilities with computers.  Wow!  Be cautious and vigilant. 

#225 - Protect your WiFi no matter where you are

We had a customer receive a threatening letter from a law firm in Los Angeles recently.  The bottom line of the letter - Your network has been used to download copyright protected material illegally.  Pay up or we go to court.  After I got involved we determined several things.  One the customer had recent problems with their Modem/router and had it replaced by their Internet provider.  When it was replaced no security was put on their wireless network.  It seems that someone got on to their wireless network in the early morning hours and downloaded many movies.  The downloads had been going on for a month or two.    I found out the law firm that issued the letter is known as a "copyright troll".  They have gotten the right to sue from a low budget movie company and had sent out over 20,000 letters threatening the worse.  

My advise (and the advise of those who have seen many of these cases) was to 1. secure your Wi-Fi now.  2. get a lawyer.  The fines involved are not insignificant.  The average settlement is around $750.  So let's be clear.  If you have a Wi-Fi network that isn't secured, you may be putting yourself in jeopardy of being subpoenaed and having to defend whether you or someone who was on your network downloaded copyrighted material.  Lets not even think about if the material was regular or child pornography.  Then you could be looking at sexual misconduct charges.  These are very scary implications!

So what kind of security should you have on your Wi-Fi network?  PCSS recommends using WPA security that is standard on every modern wireless router.  You can pick a pass phrase that will let you and those you trust onto the network.  Remember that you as the payer of the Internet bill are ultimately responsible for all that is downloaded (and uploaded) on your network. That means if your kids have programs such as LimeWire on their computers, you are at risk for being charged with downloading copyright material.  You probably need to check the computers of your employees, family and anyone that might be using your network to see if they have what we call bit torrent downloaders.  These programs are designed to download illegal material (songs, films, videos).   There is no free lunch.  With most songs costing $0.99 to download, why risk a lawsuit by illegal downloading.   If you have a business make sure you have a computer use policy that clearly defines what the Internet is to be used for (and not for).   Make sure you train your employees in Internet security.

If you have any concerns about your wireless security or Internet security, PCSS provides services to keep your networks safe and review your present security situation.

#224 - IE10 its here whether you want it or not

If you are like most Windows users, you have your computer to automatically get Windows updates and install them.  This is recommended by almost all PC experts and PCSS recommends it and has this very set up on ALL our PCs.  We should not have been surprised on March 31 when we discovered that Microsoft had decided that Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) was a necessary Windows update.  But we were.  Actually I did not notice that Internet Explorer(IE) had been updated for a while.  I don't use IE for browsing much on my office PC.  I have Firefox as my default browser and spend much time on Google Chrome.  The latest versions of Firefox and Chrome were better designed and faster then IE9, the last IE version. 

I use IE to go to a few sites that seem to work better with IE.  One of those is the site I use to order computer product.  Imagine my surprise when the page loaded and I couldn't find my old orders or saved orders.  The links for them had disappeared.  I also immediately noticed that the order site looked smaller then usual  - smaller font, buttons, and screen size.  Now I wasn't clueless and immediately clicked on the help button and found that my PC had been updated to IE10.  Once I knew that piece of information I also remembered from one of my Microsoft seminars that there is a compatibility mode button on the address bar that will let me look at a site just like it was in IE9.  I clicked on that (its right next to the refresh button )  and viola everything was back to normal!  I have already helped 3 clients out with this gem this week.

So what is IE10 and is it worth the upgrade?  IE 10 is Microsoft's browser upgrade to go with its new operating system Windows 8.  That is important to remember as we go through the features items.  It will work with Windows 7, but not any other operating system (XP, Vista, 2000 sorry!).  The first and probably most important upgrade is that IE10 is fast.  Its 20%+ faster then IE9 and after doing some checking it is faster then the latest Firefox and is a close 2nd to Google Chrome.  Sites just respond faster.  When it comes to Browser features, speed is on top.  The interface looks very close to IE9.  That is it is very sparse and utilitarian.  Not much showing on the screen.  If you right click in the upper area you can pick the toolbars and features you would like to display.  We just use the menu bar. 

The biggest hyped new feature it the ability to PIN sites to your Windows taskbar.  With this feature you can drag a site you are on to the taskbar (bottom of the screen) and a permanent short cut icon will be located there.  For example we went on facebook and dragged the tab to the taskbar and there is our pinned facebook shortcut.  But wait its more then just a pretty icon.  It can tell you when you have messages, or special friend updates, um just like on your phone!  Ah now it clicks in.  Microsoft was copying the phone interface into Windows.  Not every site can be pinned, but most popular sites seem to work.  You can google IE10 pinned sites to get a list.

There are several cosmetic changes (the right scroll bar works like the one in Windows 8) and several upgrades to the HTML5 language compatibility (geek for IE10 is more compatible with new websites then IE9). Open tabs can be closed without having to open the tab (like Chrome & Firefox have had for years!). There are also some excellent privacy settings that make surfing the web safer.   Many of the changes in IE10 only are shown if you have Windows 8 and a touch screen PC/Tablet. 

So bottom line - Should I upgrade to IE10?  The increased speed and security make me want to say yes.  Being more compatible with HTML5 can only make IE10 a better browser.  We'll keep checking it out, but PCSS will give a YES to this upgrade.

#223 - Is a 3D printer in your future?

3-D Printing or Additive Manufacturing has been around since the late 70s.  This process makes a product from a  3-D representation of an object.  Building up layers on layers of usually plastic or metal material.  An item can be "printed" over and over.  This smacks of the Star Trek's replicators.  Ask the computer for something (like food) and viola it appears. 

Prices of the early 3-D printers were astronomical.  In the past 3 years prices have come down to "stromical".  They are still expensive, but in the thousands of dollars versus hundreds and tens of thousands of dollars.  What also has improved is 3-D scanning.  There are holographic scanners now available that will plot out any object so that it can be sent to the 3-D Printer almost instantly after being scanned.  Hand held laser scanners can quickly get all the coordinates for an object.  Problems do happen if the object has shiny or reflective surfaces.  There are also contact scanners and volume scanners that can handle those objects. 

I've seen on two early morning talk shows (not that I watch them regularly) table top 3-D printers making models for the hosts.  On my favorite geek show - The Big Bang Theory - two of the geeks bought a 3-D scanner and make life like dolls of themselves.  Of course they didn't show the process, because if they did it would have taken way more then the 1/2 hour the show runs. 

The applications for 3-D printing are limited only by human imagination.  Parts for industry (shown above) are one application that is in use today.  Producing models for prototype products is another use.  I don't know of anyone making food at this time.  AutoCad corporation (the leading CAD software company) now makes a program called 123D Creatures, that lets you design a monster and then print it out on your 3-D printer.   Of course the monsters are less then 6 inches in height, but hey isn't that cool?

The future of 3-D printing appears very bright (the leader of the 3-Dprinter makers is MAKERBOT) so it may not be too far in the future when you too have a 3-D printer and scanner on your desktop.

#222 - What apps make sense to have on your phone?

I just got an email from one of my credit card providers telling me about their new iphone/Android app.  I can pay my bill, find out my balance, view activity, and view my minimum payment.   After thinking about those items, I decided quickly that I do not need to do those items on my phone.  The email jogged my memory to the recent GEICO ad with the pig on the plane (you knew they were going to hit on 'When Pigs Fly'),  I don't need to do my insurance on the phone, so sorry Nationwide don't develop an app for me. 

There is this fever going around the corporate world that you have to have an app for your business to succeed.  Well I hate to break it to the business that are spending big bucks on apps development, but the fact is that not every business needs an app.  Maybe I'm on old stick in the mud technology guy, but I don't think so.  I love having stock updates, weather forecasts, breaking news and getting sport scores on my phone.  I even like getting ski reports (thanks Wintergreen!) navigation aids and suggestions for where to eat or buy something on my phone.  Picking emails and limited game playing are also welcome.   Doing major financial work on a phone is just not going to be my cup of tea.  I barely like doing it on my laptop/desktop.  I do pay most of my bills on line, but pay them on my phone?  Why?  Maybe some of my customers can clue me in this need.

So what apps make sense to have on your phone?  I've listed some great categories above.   I love having a camera where I can instantly post the picture to facebook.  I like seeing facebook updates.  I don't tweet from my phone, but then again I don't tweet from anywhere else so that's not relevant.  I don't order items from the phone because the screen is so small.  I'm not sure what I'm getting.  I do have a 4.3" phone screen, but making a financial transaction when I may or may not be 100% sure of what I've done (no print capability) is not for me.  I like looking up information on the Internet so have a browser or 2 and voice commands is very cool.  I do use the airline apps when I travel and use an app called Tripit that reminds me of my schedules.  I even have an app that turns my phone into a flash light (used that during the 6 day power outage this summer). 

Let me know if you have a favorite app I haven't covered and I'll pass it on to the PCSS customer base!

#221 - The Value of a Technology Assessment

One of the services PCSS offers for small business is a Technology Assessment.  For no cost to the business, PCSS will come in and look at how your business is using technology.  A written and oral report will be given to the business as to the state of their technology and recommendations for cost savings and productivity improvement technology.  Also given are opportunities to use technology to increase the businesses revenue.    Here are some of the items that we take a look at:

Where is the business right now?  An inventory of what PCs/laptops/printers/monitors/networking that the business has.  An estimate of what the business is spending on technology per year.  Items we review include printing costs, licensing/leasing costs,  age of PCs and replacement costs, Internet provider costs, email provider costs, web page/facebook page costs, telephone system costs.

Where can the business cut costs?   Would a printer or multifunction machine with lower supply costs save the business money?  Getting a competitive price on Internet service often results in decreased costs.  Long distance and basic telephone savings by using VOIP technology.  Are your technology costs reasonable for 2013?  ie. are you paying too much for what you are getting?

Where can the business use technology to improve their profit margin?  Is the business being reimbursed properly for the services they use and are providing ?  Are there new technologies that can improve productivity or lead to new revenue streams? 

These are just a few questions that PCSS can help your business answer as you look to have a more profitable 2013.  Using technology should be viewed as a positive in your business not just a line item(s) in the expense column.

#220 - Christmas 2012

Dear blog friends.  Thank you for reading my blog this past year.  I am trying for 2 posts per month in 2013 so if you don't see one for a while please send me a reminder.  This blog let's talk about the latest in Technology and what it could mean for you!

We are still getting used to our new Motorola Droid RAZR cell phones.  Today we investigated the voice recognition capabilities.  We have Android Jelly Bean (the latest) operating system.  It has two apps that provide voice support.  Voice Command lets you use the phone functions.  You start the Voice Command app then can say things like Call Home and it will!  I have found it to be pretty accurate as long as the name you want to call isn't very ethnic or complicated.  You can also ask it to dial a number and it will.  Both are very handy for in the car dialing.  The negative is that you have to start the app by hand.  The other app is Voice Search.  Think of this as Google Search by voice.   The results vary depending on what question word you use (Where - gets google Maps, Who and What get Google search results, Temperature questions gets the Weather App, and Why questions are a mixed bag).  Voice Search takes some getting used to, but is quicker then typing in a search.

You never know where you will learn about new technologies.  I had breakfast this morning with a childhood friend.  She is a retired librarian and enjoys technology, but certainly not a geek.  She asked me if I had heard of Raspberry Pi.  After the yes I love all kinds of pies comment, she let me know that this was a credit card size computer (bare bones) that runs Linux.  Cost is $25 or $35 depending on memory and ports.  You provide the TV (one with HDMI or composite input), Keyboard, Mouse, Operating System (Linux Debian recommended, though others will work), and power supply are extra.  You actually load the Linux on an SD card that can provide storage and other program files.  The company making this product is a charity based in the UK and did this to encourage students to learn about computers.  Here is a link to their site:  http://www.raspberrypi.org/

I saw the Apple iPad mini up close and have several thoughts.  It is nicely designed and may be a great tablet for kids.  Its a bit small for the browsing I like to do.  I was constantly increasing the size of type and that got to be aggravating.  Angry Birds played great on it (as did many other game apps).  Reading a book on it worked fine.  This will probably be a pretty good sales item for Apple due to price and opening up the child owning an iPad market.  For $329 (similar to the gaming systems out there) you can keep a child actively entertained.  The dangers of the Internet remain and I have NOT seen a good parental control app for the iPad.  Let me know if you see one!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Very Happy New Year.

#219 - New Cell Phones!

The Moga family now have new phones.  We chose the Motorola Droid Razr M phone for both Mr. and Mrs. Moga.  The spousal unit has a white phone while the artistically conservative Nick chose Henry Ford Black.   Our 2 year plan with Verizon was up and our phones had admirably supported us with only one small issue.   We took a look at our favorite online wireless site, Wirefly, and found a deal that was tough to turn down.  The phones cost $0.99 each with an updated contract.  We moved to one of Verizons Share anything plan.  We get unlimited minutes, text and 2 GB of shared data for about $9 more per month.  The spousal unit has never had a "smart phone" so there is a learning curve experience going on now.  I'm upgrading from a Motorola Droid Pro so this shouldn't be hard, but the old Pro had Android version 2.3 (code name Gingerbread) while the new phone has the latest Android 4.1.1 (code named JellyBean) operating system.  They are not anything alike so I'm having some upgrade issues also. 

Why this Phone?  Besides the good price, the Razer M has some very good features (and a couple of clunkers, but nothing is perfect).  Here are the specs:  It weighs in at an impressive 4.44 ounces, is water (splash) proof, has a 4.3" edge to edge screen with 540x960 pixels.   It uses the latest Super AMOLED advanced graphics on the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 plus 1.5MHz Dual Core processor.  It has scratch resistant Gorrilla glass screen with a back made of Kevlar fiber.  The Razr M gets a great 20 hours of talk time (you don't have to charge it every night!)  It has 1GB System memory and 8GB of storage for your pictures, apps, music, video etc.  It has a micro SD card slot so you can store up to an additional 32GB (we put a 8GB card in ours - dirt cheap at $10).  The camera is an 8 Megapixal autofocus with LED flash (the least impressive item).  It has a small 0.3 Megapixel front facing camera (real poor resolution!)  It came out in September so it is a relatively new phone that won't be outdated as fast.  The size is also very nice. We looked at the Razr HD and Razer Maxx, but honestly they were too big for the pocket.  They did have great screens.

Testing it out we've found the voice quality to be excellent and the battery as good as advertised.  There are aspects of the Jelly Bean operating system that are infuriating, but that's not Motorola's (or Verizon's) fault.  For some reason Google got rid of the speed dialing feature in the default dialer app.  Easily taken care of by downloading a free dialer app (we use Dialer One).  That's the great thing about smart android phones:  Don't like something I'm absolutely sure that there is an app for that!  The screen is very nice looking and doesn't bleed out in sunlight as bad as my old PRO, but it still a bit hard to read in direct sun situations.  I do like the new 3 circle system info (see it in the picture above) that lets you know the time, any voicemail,  emails, temperature and battery life at a glance.  I moved all my apps from my Droid Pro to the new phone using the MyBackup Pro app ($2.99).  It works slick and saved me tons of time.  I also now have a backup of all my apps and data on my SD card.

We briefly thought about iPhones, but my invested time in droids (and gmail stuff) made that a non starter.  Like most apple products they are pricey and not very flexible (the opposite of what we purchased).  I have my outlook calendar/contacts/tasks going to my gmail stuff and thus to my phone.  That is VERY important to my business.  This can be done on an iPhone, but it would require more work and some expense.  Set up on the Razer M was a breeze.  I put in my account info for email and then used MyBackup Pro for apps.  It took less then an hour and was fairly painless.  The phone's camera is just as bad as that in my Droid Pro.  I'm not sure why Motorola doesn't make a good camera, but they don't.  iPhones certainly win that contest.  On every other front, I've found the Droids from Motorola to be as good as, or even superior to the iPhone. 

As we learn more and try out more items on our phones we'll keep you up to date!

#218- The Arrival of Windows 8

Its here, its here, oh my god it is here.... Windows 8 arrived this past week to a flurry of media events, but a big ho hum from consumers and dealers.  This is the biggest change that Microsoft has ever attempted in its Windows operating system.  Microsoft finally believes the future is in the tablet pc with touch capability.  Windows 8 is designed for touch screen pcs and tablets.  If you don't have either then you'll feel like you have been left behind.  Working in Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard is very non intuitive.  Plan on lots more clicks to do a simple task like changing a setting.  Lets take a quick look at the specifics of the release.


There are 3 versions of Windows 8. The home version is called Windows 8 (those Microsoft guys are just so creative). It has all the basic features and is missing the following: disk encryption, media center, domain membership and remote desktop connection. Need those features? Then get Windows 8 Pro. Both version REQUIRE a 64bit processor. That would exclude PCs and laptops over 4 years old. Here are the other needs: The minimum hardware requirements for running Windows 8 include a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or more; at least 2GB of RAM, 20GB of hard Drive space (WOW!) and DirectX 9-capable graphics.  Most manufacturers are providing drivers for PCs made in the last year to run Windows 8.  Most are also providing $15 upgrade packages if you wish to upgrade (note that PCSS is NOT recommending you upgrade).  The third version is Windows 8 RT which is designed for tablets, phones and other limited size devices.  You can't buy RT so we won't talk about its features.  We will mention that the new Microsoft Surface tablet ($499) uses the Windows 8 RT version.


  
The desktop screen that we are familiar with is gone.  We now have the Start Screen that has tiles you can click to start an app (yes they are now called apps not programs).  You can customize the Start Screen so that you have your most frequent apps there.  There are some size constraints if you use many different apps.  On the positive side Windows 8 loads fast, on the negative side there are two seperate control panels and browsers that will cause confusion.  The new Internet Explorer 10 looks faster then Internet Explorer 9 and has some unique (We are talking about Microsoft uniqueness!) features.   

The question for customers is should I upgrade from Windows 7? The answer is not as black and white as you might think. It appears that upgrading to Windows 8 actually can be done. The question becomes Should it be done? Unless you have a touch screen, PCSS is saying No you should not upgrade. If you get a new PC/tablet with Windows 8 then you should be OK. We haven't seen a list of what printers/scanners/special hardware will be supported by Windows 8. It doesn't do you much good to upgrade or buy a new PC and not have your existing printer/scanner work. The other issue is that if you do not have a touch device Windows 8 just seems hard to use.

#217 - E Recycling

The electronic gizmos that we have become addicted to have a nasty down side.  How do you get rid of them when they break or just get old?   The average US consumer keeps their laptop for only 3 years and their cell phone for only 2 years.  This means there are literally tons of electronics being discarded, many of them still have useful life. 

Electronic devices are a complex mixture of several hundred materials. A mobile phone, for example, contains 500 to 1000 components. Many of these contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium and hazardous chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants. Polluting PVC plastic is also frequently used.  Putting them in a landfill is not a good idea.

There are several ways to recycle.  If the product has useful life there are organizations that will clean them and offer them for resale.  The Salvation Army does this in Covington for PCs.  There are also many organization that will take your old usable cell phone.  You need to ensure that your personal data has been cleaned from the item.  Many electronic items can be restored to their original state without any stored information. Check with the manufacturers web site about restoring to original state.

If the item is broken there are recyclers that will disassemble the device and recover the valuable minerals and properly dispose of the hazardous ones.  Up to 99% of the materials in electronics can be recycled.  Gold, copper and even circuit boards can be melted and then reused in new electronics.  Metals like aluminum and steel can be sent to their own recycling industries.  Most of this recycling produces product that is indiscernible from virgin materials.  Its a win/win process that we should all embrace.

So where can you e-recycle?  Many computer companies, phone companies and many retail stores will take back what you bought from them to recycle.  You just need to ask them about it.  In the Highlands our local recycler, Jackson River Enterprises, has contracted with an e-recycler to come in twice a year to take your electronics.  Still looking for a place to take your stuff?  Try this link:  E-Recyclers!

Just say NO to putting your old electronics into the trash.  The damage to the environment and your health could be serious!

#216 - The week of new phones

Within the last week two of the heavy hitters in cell phones have introduced new flagship phones.  Today Apple unveiled their much anticipated iphone5.  A week ago Motorola Mobility (now owned by Google) introduced 3 new Droid Razr cell phones.  Lets take a look at these new phones and what new technologies they show off.

The new iPhone 5 was probably the worst kept Apple introduction.  Just about every new feature was known before the actual release.  Yes it has a bigger screen, yes it will run on the Sprint & Verizon 4GLTE network (faster Internet), Yes it has a different connector and yes it is made of different material then the other iPhones.  Nicely it will cost the same as the iPhone 4s.  It is thinner and with a new A6 processor it is much faster then the iPhone 4s.  The battery life is 10% better and that is very welcome.  So its an all round better phone.  Is it breakout new?  No, everything changed is evolutionary, not revolutionary.  I'm sure the iPhone users out there will soon put this model in short supply

Motorola Mobility introduced it's first new Droid phones since Google bought the company in May 2012.  The new Razr's are in 3 different price ranges and have a common theme - They are bigger, faster and have the best battery life of any cell phones.   The entry level Droid Razr M has a 4.3 inch (0.3 inches larger then the iPhone5) edge to edge screen.  It is the smallest, in size and weight, 4.3 inch cell phone made today.  Motorola uses their kevlar skin technology to make it the lightest also. Battery life is rated at 20 hours, which is more then most Android Cell phones (iPhone 5 rated at 8 hours).  The other two Razrs introduced are the Razr HD and the Razr HD Maxx.  They both share a 4.7 inch screen (these are BIG phones) with HD (high def 1080p) resolution.  They both have the kevlar skins and superior 4G LTE Internet capabilities.  The claim to fame of the HD series is battery life.  The HD is rated at 24 hours talk time while the Maxx is rated at 32 hours.  Note the iPhone rating above.  People hate to have to recharge their phones or to have a phone die in the middle of a call.  They don't like leaving them plugged in when not in use. These bigger batteries are a new thin technology.   If you are not into the iPhone type phones then I believe these new Droids will be winners.

My Verizon cell phone contract is up in November.  I think I'll take a real close look at the new phones and make a choice from the ones I've discussed today.  Size does matter and I'm not sure I want to wield around a BIG phone no matter what battery life it gets.  If you get one of these phones let me know what you think!

#215 - Traveling Tech Again

I got to get on the Internet at 35,000 feet last week.  Our Delta Airlines flight from San Francisco to Atlanta was outfitted with GoGo in flight Internet.  I had a complimentary code to get free Internet for the flight for one device.  Usually the cost is around $12 for a days use.  You can always get free Delta airline info and GoGo is always having some free Internet shopping  use.  For example on my flight you could shop Amazon at no charge.

So how does this work?

There are two technologies available - Satellite and cell tower.  GoGo mainly uses cell tower technology.  They have over 100 cell towers that point upward in the US.  A receiver on the plane picks up the signal and then sends out a wifi signal on the plane.  Speed of this technology is comparable to 3G cell phone speed (that is better then dialup, but not much).  I've checked the speed on board several planes and its never faster then 0.9 mbps (for example I have 6 mbps through Shentel cable at home).  It's good for reading email, simple surfing and playing online games.  Don't even think about video, though I did get tunein radio to work on a recent flight. 

The other technology uses rented space on geosynchronous satellites.  Row 44 is the seller of this Internet (and more) service.  Southwest Airlines is the main user of Row 44 and charges $5 per flight for the service.  The satellite technology has more bandwidth then the cell technology and is markedly faster.  You can watch videos and live TV content on Row 44 flights.  The receivers (there are 4) on the plane are more expensive then Gogo and have had some maintenance issues.  Overall the Row 44 service provides what we all want - faster Internet!

While on vacation, the bed & breakfast inn where we stayed had fairly good wifi service, but spotty cell phone service.  The b&b owner used two routers to cover the big house.  However he had used different type routers and had left the SSID (wifi name) as the generic "linksys" and "belkin".  I told the owner he needed to change the SSID name to that of his B&B.  Why?  Because he used security!  An average user will come to his B&B and have problems logging on because most users will have previously memorized "linksys" and "belkin" sites on their pc/ipad and will have different security settings.   That is why I recommend keeping those strange named SSIDs that now come with new routers (like: A09R5863Q).  Once you memorize a wifi security setting its hard to change it for a particular SSID. 

Also if you haven't changed your router in a while, you really need to move up to a n-band router.  They are 3 times faster and cover a larger area of your business/home.

#214 - Power - the backbone of it all

The June 29th Derecho hit PCSS with a vengeance.  We were without power for 5 days and Internet for 7 days.  Talk about your business crushing event.  Fortunately,  we had just a big mess an no real damage.  Our customers suffered worse and we hope everyone is back to normal.  We used our laptops and found Internet at customer sites (THANKS)  So this blog will be about Power.  The good, the bad and the ugly!

Your friendly power provider (Dominion Power, BARC, American Electric) is supposed to provide your residence or business with alternating current power at nominally 120 volts at 60 cycles per second (Herz).  When stress hits your power provider (think storms, Hot Weather, Cold Weather, etc) one of the methods of keeping power flowing is to slightly decrease the voltage you receive.  Under these conditions (a brown out) you get less then 120 volts and your computer equipment gets less DC power from their power supplies. 

A way to prevent brown outs from negatively affecting your computer equipment is to use an Uninterpretable Power Supply (UPS).  These batter back up systems not only give you power when the power is down, they AUGMENT the power when a brown out occurs.  PCSS recommends you use a UPS with all your valuable electronics.

On the other side of the power supply equations is the Surge.  When lightning strikes wires a surge is transmitted through the wires and can damage your electronics.  Surge Suppressors will protect you for ONE surge.  The way surge suppressors work causes them to no longer provide protection after a surge hits the wire.  If you have an UPS, they will likely provide protection for more then one surge.  Although a severe surge can take out even the best UPS.  Most of these devices have LED indicators when they are no longer providing protection.

"You get what you pay for" is very true when it comes to power protection.  Cheap (less then $15) surge suppressors provide very minimal protection.  When it comes to UPS, PCSS only likes Tripp-Lite and APC brands.  These are large companies, with great engineers, behind their products.  They meet all US Underwriter specifications and they even help write the IEEE specifications to protect the consumer. 

The best thing about power being back on?  Hot water? Air Conditioning?  Internet?  Refrigeration?  Any and all of those certainly make life more enjoyable.  We are a society based on Power as we were reminded in late June.