Tech Guru Speaks

Will Droid Terminate the iPhone?

Katatkoin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:50:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru This is a big week for Verizon. You have probably seen at least one ad on the new Droid phone. In case you’ve been living under Pioneer Square these past few weeks, I will elaborate. Verizon’s new phone called the Droid is based on the Android operating system put out by Google. It is made by Motorola, which has been having all kinds of problems selling phones ever since Blackberry and the iPhone came out. Now they believe they have a chance to shine once again....(read more)

Caught by the Internet’s Fingerprints

Devereux — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:06:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru Q- “Why do some people get caught while others get away with internet crime?” Sarah L. Portland A- Every website you go to, and every item you post, is traceable. That now includes tweets and text messages. I remember the first tweet I sent through Twitter many months ago, and I was surprised to see it online a few weeks later. At the time I didn’t realize that I could make it private. That doesn’t mean the message is gone if...(read more)

Here Comes Windows 7!

Katatkoin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:20:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru Thursday, October 22nd is the official launch date for Windows 7. Many stores like Best Buy have been without a PC for the last few weeks while they replace the old pumpkin squishy Vista computers with shiny fresh Windows 7 ones. You may have read previous articles about difficulties we had in our lab while trying to implement Windows 7 in a business environment. Problems do persist, but for home users, Windows 7 is ready for mass consumption. ...(read more)

Cloud Computing Gets Stormy as it Drops and Loses Your Data

Katatkoin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:15:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru Microsoft may have lost something this week that belongs to you, and it’s in the cloud. What is Cloud Computing? If you have an office that stores customer data, or if you have a digital camera or collect lots of music, you have a choice of how to store that data. You can store it in the cloud or on your computer, or both. Cloud computing is inevitable, but very premature. Cloud Computing (CC) companies say that they will save the day during a disaster. If your...(read more)

Handheld Gaming Slap Fight: Sony PSP go vs. Nintendo DSi

Katatkoin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:11:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru It is tempting to get nostalgic about the types of games we played when we were kids, but I’ll save that for after Christmas when you’re going through buyer’s remorse. For now we have a decision to make about our kids. I know my kids would have built the replacement for the space shuttle with the amount of time and mental energy they have expended on handheld and online games by now. But they wore us down, and it’s the way they parent. I know you think we are...(read more)

Your New TV and Electric Car May Blow Up the Grid

Katatkoin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:40:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru California made big news last week when state energy regulators stated that there may be a ban on large flat screen TVs. Apparently, the old Cathode Ray tubes (CRT) were far more efficient in bringing you your favorite shows than the new electricity guzzling TVs. What does that mean for Oregon? Well, the way California goes, so goes the nation.Just look at the dozens of new laws in the past twenty years and you’ll find many of them originated in California. The...(read more)

Say Goodbye to Your Bookstore

Katatkoin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:25:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru We have five senses: Taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell. The internet has changed two of those senses forever. If you can see it or hear it, the world has changed on how you get it. If you grew up in the 1960’s through the 1980’s then you probably spent a considerable amount of time perusing albums at the record store. By the 1990’s, MP3’s came out and the music industry took a nosedive. Steadily, the loss of these iconic record stores has whittled down...(read more)

Guitar Hero World Tour vs. Rock Band 2

Katatkoin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:27:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru I remember it so clearly. I came home after a business trip last year and when I walked into the living room I expected to see things looking the same as when I left. I was wrong. The first thing I noticed was an obnoxious looking drum set, and next to it I saw a microphone in a stand. In the corner was the electronic guitar, sort of. My wife and children ran downstairs and seemed very excited. To see me? Well, kind of. They were very excited to start up...(read more)

What if Microsoft and Apple took us to Mars?

Katatkoin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:50:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru This is sort of a departure from my usual question and answer blog, but I had a thought (uh oh). Some of you will get the joke and some will scratch their head and walk away unfulfilled. Life is like a box of something, but it’s not always chocolates. Voyager 1 has just about escaped our heliosphere (the bubble that is the outer reaches of our sun’s protection for the solar system). It did this with no hard drive and enough memory and code to fill up...(read more)

My Windows 7 Nightmare

Katatkoin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:38:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru Windows 7 hasn’t even been released to the public yet but people are already asking me if they should upgrade or buy a new PC with Windows 7. Since my company, All Tech 1, is a Microsoft certified business partner, we have a special deal with Microsoft: every product they make is given to us to test and try for free so we can learn how to use it before we deploy it to our customers. We downloaded the Beta version months ago and several of our staff decided...(read more)

What if You Were the Target of a DOS Attack like Twitter?

Katatkoin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:56:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech GuruThis week we have an excellent question after the attacks on Twitter and other social networking sites.Q- “After seeing Twitter suffer with a denial of service attack, I am wondering what I should do if someone tries to do the same to my network?” Dan G. from PortlandA- Dan, I really like this question because if shows that you...(read more)

Is Malware a Place to Buy Mall Clothes?

Katatkoin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:58:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech GuruMalware is a confusing topic for many, and it’s the topic for this week’s technical question.Q- “I have antivirus and antispyware on my computer. Should I also have anti malware?” ...(read more)

How to Get Your Stolen Cell Phone Back

Katatkoin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:50:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru Are you one of the estimated 700,000 people who had their cell phone stolen this year? Well, I am, or at least it happened to my family. We have a family plan with T Mobile that we have been using for years. My mom was very happy to be added to the plan because now she could call us for free even though we are over 2,000 miles apart. In the last few years, her knee started going all wobbly on her, so she had a knee replacement several months ago. After the operation,...(read more)

Denial of Service Attacks Take Down Websites and Networks

Katatkoin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:21:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru As many have heard by now the 4th of July weekend brought a host of website problems as some of the country’s biggest websites and government servers were hit by hackers and fires. In Seattle, a fire that brought down a large data center that hosts websites as big as Microsoft’s Bing was down for up to 36 hours, but that wasn’t the only problem. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack hit government websites and now it’s clogging up the internet. A DDOS...(read more)

Cyber Bullying IS Legal

Katatkoin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:55:00 GMT

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru You or your kids can go online and be harassed, abused, and bullied with no consequences. This is what was decided this week in federal court after Lori Drew had violated a law that was too vague to prosecute, according to Judge Wu. According to prosecutors, Lori had pretended to be a 13 year old boy on My Space. She then coaxed a teenage girl into starting an online relationship with the fake boy. After a while, Drew allegedly told the teenage girl “the world...(read more)