#174 - High Speed Internet for Everyone

Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to everyone.

In the Highlands of Virginia, some interesting changes are taking place. The Highlands have two high speed Internet providers. Shentel, the cable company, and nTelos the telephone company. Both have recently updated to fiber optic technology and can provide fairly fast Internet to many. Unfortunately there are still areas that have to rely on dialup or satellite Internet (MUCH SLOWER!).

nTelos has just received an $8 million grant that it will match to provide fiber optic Internet to every household in Alleghany County. The money comes from one of the stimulus packages. The time table is to complete this project by 2012. There are many of my customers who can hardly wait for this to happen. High speed (also called broadband) Internet has become a necessity in the USA. So much of our society has swung to doing day to day business on the Internet.

My mom is a good example of this. During our evening call last night, she asked if I could do her a favor. She had recently bought a new vacuum cleaner with a two year warranty. To activate the warranty she needed to register the vacuum on line. Mom has dial up Internet in Ohio (by choice - High Speed is available) and she said it was too slow so could I help? Well, of course i could, but I thought it was interesting that even vacuum cleaner manufacturers are using the Internet for day to day business.

The USA needs more projects like this nTelos one to get 100% high speed Internet coverage throughout the land. We have had 98% telephone (land line) coverage in this country for years. Next month, the Federal Communications Commission will deliver policy recommendations to Congress on how to make universal broadband a reality. Among other things, the FCC is expected to propose expanding the fund that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural communities and finding more airwaves for wireless broadband services.

#173 - Communication Style

Serving on several boards that are concerned with communications, I'm finding it interesting that the different generations in this country communicate vastly differently.

Although my Mom has email, she would still rather talk to me on the phone. Her phone is her lifeline to the world and any disruption to phone service (like the genius that crashed into the phone poll this weekend) is tantamount to a natural disaster.

All my peers are very email oriented. I'm not sure why we are, but we have adopted the email as our main communication form. We have cell phones, some belong to Facebook, some even twitter, but its the email that gets my generation moving. I have so enjoyed reconnecting with my high school friends via Facebook, but I don't do Farmville or any of the other Social Network add-ons. This is mainly due to my time is limited for that type of activity.

The nieces and nephews do email, but they seem to have adopted Facebook more so then my generation. I believe their work requires the email so they mostly use it there. They are cell phone addicts and would never be caught without it. They text a bit and post pictures with abandon everywhere.

The younger teens and twenties are different. Email seems an imposition to them. Its all about the latest phone. Facebook and Twitter are the rage, BECAUSE they can be accessed by their phones. Their cell phone (Many can't remember a time without them) is their communications life. They ALWAYS answer their phone no matter what they are doing (use that to advantage old people!). Any restrictions on phone use are as if the Constitution is under attack. A phone is judged on how well you can text from it. I'm thinking that the next generation will have the most dexterous thumbs of any human.

Anyway you communicate - Keep talking. Silence may be golden, but it doesn't make anything better.

#172 - The iPad is here!, The iPad is here!

A very highly hyped new product hit the streets today with a Bang! The Apple iPad was introduced to the world. As your able Technology commentator, I would surely be remiss if I didn't translate the hype and type a bit about this technology wonder.

So what is the iPad? Well like several other Apple products, competition doesn't really exist. The closest product would be the iPod, Itouch. Its not really a tablet computer. In fact lets take a paragraph to tell you what it is and a paragraph on what it isn't.

What it is:
It is nice size - 9.7" display (smaller then a netbook) and less then 1.5 pounds. I can run all the iPhone apps (140,000 at latest count). It can surf the Internet with the Safari browser. It can get let you buy books and display them like an Amazon Kindle. You can play all your iTunes music, display your Pictures, and view videos, movies and TV. You work with most email (on the Internet), get an app to edit documents, keep up your calendar and contacts. It does work on 802.11n WiFi (found many places) and if you buy a more expensive model it will also work on phone networks (data plan extra! Surprise!)

What it isn't:
I mentioned it isn't a tablet PC per say. It runs the iPhone operating system not OS 10. That means you can't run it like a MAC computer, you treat it like an iPhone or iPod. You can download a ton of iPhone apps, but remember they are designed for a 3 inch screen versus a 9.7 inch display (resolution sucks on apps played on the big screen). You can't run Firefox or Word or any other program written for the MAC. You can only run one program at a time (this is a biggy!). It doesn't have the phone function built in. There is no camera built in. It doesn't support Adobe Flash player and will only let you run Quicktime or Youtube type videos. So no Hulu or any other website that uses Flash video (another biggie). It has limited storage (16GB, 32GB or 64GB flash memory) which will eventually cramp what you save. (The smallest netbook comes with 160GB hard drive).

So first look, its pretty neat. Take a look at the apple iPad video: iPAD by APPLE
The first iPad's will ship end of March and I don't think I need one at this point, but hey I'm a gadget freak so you never know!

#171 Malware & Facebook

I am constantly fighting malware on customer computers. These are the nasty bugs that infect your computer, send information to bad guys on the Internet, put pop ups that say you are infected and please hand over $39 everywhere, can crash your PC and literally destroy your hardware. Where did I get it? is always the question I hear.

One source is Facebook causes and applications. Many causes and groups are now being put out there by the bad guys to get you to join so they can have control of your PC. They do this by putting out something outrageous that will get people mad. Things like Facebook is about to charge you monthly or that Obama is going to put your grandma in a detention cell. Items that if you step back and look at, you know can't be right.

The bad guys also hijack legit web sites and put links on there for FABULOUS opportunities (free Macbooks, iPods, HD TVS) that make you click on them. Hey People, if it sounds too good to be true, IT IS! I know your mother told you all about that.

My recommendation is to just stay vanilla when on the Internet. Don't join groups you have never heard of, or have lured you to their site with outrageous or fabulous offerings. Its dangerous out there and there is only so much of PCSS repair to go around.

#170 - The high tech car

Mr Gadget here! The new proud owner of a 2010 Honda Insight. THE GADGET CAR! It has more gee, whiz bang items then anything on the road. It looks pretty plain but with Honda the hidden stuff is all important. This is the hybrid car for the rest of us. Its priced reasonable(approx $20,000) and uses a conservative form of hybrid technology. It has an 98hp gasoline engine and a 10hp electric drive powered by regenerative batteries.

It has plenty of punch driving the mountains of Virginia. We go to Hot Springs from Covington twice a week and do fine in the Insight. We get around 43 miles per gallon over all and have gotten over 47 miles per gallon on trips over 1 hour using highways. The gadgets are all on the inside.

Here is the Insight's instrument panel: The speedometer is at the top and is backlit by a color rainbow that gives you feedback on how you are driving. All the instruments are learning tools to help you get better gas mileage. If you drive economically the rainbow is green, not so thrifty its aqua, press the pedal hard or brake hard and its that dark blue. It becomes a challenge to keep the rainbow in the green when you drive. There are "eco" guides, trip raters, real time and trip mpg feedback displays and lots more to keep you on the green path.

So the point of this car is changing your driving habits as well as using technology to get better gas mileage. I'm slowly changing how I drive not only in the Insight but in other cars. There are supposedly 3 computers in this geeks delight controlling everything from the continuous variable transmission to the trip computer. The heating/cooling system is even controlled to get better gas mileage!

I also enjoy the USB port found in the arm rest. I pulled a 16GB USB flash drive out and filled it with MP3 songs and plugged it in. The over 3,000 songs will take me a bit of driving to go through. Ain't technology grand?

#169 - Search Carefully

There are now a few more search sites and engines out there. Bing is by Microsoft and you know about Yahoo search and Google search. If you upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer or get a new PC, you will automatically use the Microsoft Bing search engine. So what you say? Aren't all search engines about the same? Actually not. There are patents and secrets and schemes that each search engine uses to get to the answers you expect.

Google recently announced that 25% of the search requests it gets are unique. That is, no one has ever asked for to search for the exact same thing. So how a search engine goes about its search and how it filters results is important. People don't generally go past the first page in results. So having the relative important information on the first page is key to a search engines effectiveness. For example I did a search for "Cost of Milk" and Google and Bing had the same first entry: a USDA report on milk costs. Google had a Wikipedia entry next and Bing had a magazine article. From here the entries were completely different.

The Atlantic recently did an informal study of Google and Bing search engines and found Bing to not filter results as well as Google. False sites (ones that have malware and other baddies) come up much more frequently on Bing searches then Google.

There is a great site out there that will let you compare the two sites side by side on a given search: http://www.bing-vs-google.com/

PCSS still recommends Google as its search engine of choice. If you have Bing and would like to change there usually is a little down arrow next to the search box that can let you change to another search engine provider!

#168 - Free or Pay Antivirus?

December 1st brings about the end of AVG support for AVG 8.5 free. Good news there is an AVG 9.0 free. You can get it here: AVG 9.0 FREE AVG 9.0 is quicker running and has more protection from fake Virus protection Malware. Unfortunately the AVG 9.0 FREE installation takes much longer then 8.5 and absolutely requires a high speed connection. Do Not upgrade your Free version of 8.5 to 9.0 Paid online. It will cost you more and has lots of issues.

PCSS sells AVG 9.0 Antivirus/Antispyware Paid version. Cost is $39.00 for 2 years. It provides quicker updates, more control of when scans and updates run, more Internet bad site protection and automatic removal of the fake Virus protection Malware. Call and we will come by and install the paid version.

So Free or Pay version AVG? Its a matter of risk. You get what you pay for. Don't expect complete coverage with the Free, but on the other hand you do have some protection. Can't afford the $39, then stay with the Free. PLEASE have some kind of Antivirus/Antispyware software on your PC. Of course you could buy a MAC an not worry about it!

#166 Windows 7 Arrives!

Windows 7 arrived at PCSS this past week. We followed our own advice and did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate version on our Lenovo Laptop. The laptop previously had Vista on it so we didn't want to upgrade that disaster. We also wanted to give Windows 7 a fair shake. And it also means that PCSS has no more PCs with Vista installed! (YEAH!)

Even with a clean install (back up data & drivers, format hard drive). there were a few issues. It was surprising how fast the install went. It certainly installed a bit faster then XP and way faster then Vista. There were several hardware items on the laptop that were not initially recognized. We copied the Lenovo Vista drivers over to the laptop and got all but the finger print reader to work. We are still working on that issue. Everything else seems to work fine. We've also installed AVG, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Picasa, Adobe Reader 9 and Office 2007 without any issues.



Readers should know that Windows 7 is really Windows Vista faster and lighter. Many Vista "features" have been retained, but many have been chucked out the "Window". The interface (where buttons and utilities are located) is very close to Vista. That means if you haven't used Vista, you will have to get used to having things in different locations. For example if you click on the Start Ball and then Control Panel, you will see the reduced version of Control Panel. You will have to click on the View By: and pick small or large icons.

We will review different features of Windows 7 for the rest of the year. If your PC has Vista and you would like to upgrade to Windows 7 let PCSS know.

#165 - Fighting Back Against Malware

I can't keep up with all my customer having malware issues. If you do get some bad guys you will know you have it because windows will pop up telling you need something to fix an issue. DO NOT GO THERE. The program trying to get you to buy something is the infection. What to do if this happens? Try and download Malware Bytes here: MalwareBytes; Install it and run it. If you can't do that then call PCSS.

A way to prevent getting malware is to use the Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser with a couple of their add in programs. The worst thing to do is nothing and go browsing the Internet. Here is the Mozilla Firefox Download Site: Mozilla.ORG. Firefox will import all you Internet Explorer favorites and home page. After you start Firefox then go to the Tools menu and then Add Ons. Click on the Get Addons button and search for two addons: AdBlock Plus and WOT (Web of Trust). Install these and you will have protected your browsing. AdBlock Plus blocks ads in web sites. Ads have been one of the worst transmitters of malware on the Internet. WOT will let you know when you go to a site (red/yellow/green indicator) whether it is infected.

Keeping your antivirus up to date and having a paid antivirus/antispyware program will also help. We recommend AVG paid ($39 for 2 years from PCSS). We've used the above items and have kept clear of any infections. Confused at any of this? Give PCSS a call.

#164 - Exercising your mind

I saw an interesting article in the Roanoke Times on keeping your mind active. There have been many studies that confirm that exercising your mind is at least as important as exercising your body as you age. The Internet has some great sites that can help you to keep the "little gray cells" moving and grooving.

My spousal unit loves Suduku. She prints of pages of Suduku puzzles (evil only!) from the web suduku site. She always prints them on the back of used paper being environmentally friendly.

WEB SUDUKU

One of my favorites is to use your opposite hand in doing everyday tasks. Try brushing your teeth or hair with the other hand. Try hitting the space bar on your keyboard with the other thumb. This is harder then it looks. You can even wear your watch on the opposite wrist to get you thinking different.

Reading is fundamental. Read a book every week. Well we try. What I've done lately is try to read an entire series by an author. Pick up a James Patterson series, or Nora Robb, or even Janet Evanovich! The Internet is your friend when looking for a series to read. You can also read books online with the Google Book library.

There are even websites that specialize in exercising your brain. Here is one that does brain training by playing games MIND 360.

Crossword puzzles are very popular and the New York Times has some of the best. They charge a fee for online access. Here is some free crossword puzzles FREE FREE FREE

Learning more about your computer is always good. You probably have programs on your computer that you have never used. What is this Access thingy? I have all these Accessories, what do they do? Google is your friend here. Look up how to use these programs and try to use them.

Happy Exercising!