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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
We love our technology, most of the time. Cell phones with cameras and video have been a tremendous help in catching criminals and creating a whole new generation of internet reporters. You might even be able to make a few bucks if you’re in the right place at the right time.
But using these devices for good isn’t the only purpose. The bad guys get to use them as well. You would hope that most shopping malls have figured out how to secure their dressing rooms and bathrooms from creepy hidden cameras, and that is most likely the case. There is one type of hidden camera that is a lot more difficult to protect against, especially in a crowded location.
Last Saturday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a story emerged that has reached national levels and tells us about this new threat and about the accused man named David Delagrange. Delagrange used a special type of camera that can be mounted on his shoe. The camera is so small it can barely be detected, unless you know what you’re looking for. It picks up both video and audio and sends it to a flash drive in his pocket for later retrieval.
Delagrange would then walk up to women and girls and slide his camera shoe under their dresses to take video while the victims had no idea it was happening. In a crowded location this is probably very easy, especially in a bus or on a train. In this case it was more obvious because it wasn’t as crowded, and it raised suspicion.
When confronted by security officers, he resisted arrest and was thankfully tased into submission. Delagrange has been charged with voyeurism, resisting arrest and felony child exploitation. How many of us would have paid to line up with our tasers to get our shots in?
How easy is it to get a hidden camera? I did a search and instantly found more than just a simple shoe cam. I found tiny video cameras for eyeglasses, a tissue box, an alarm clock, a lighter, a watch, a keychain, a pen, and even a can of soda. They run, on average, around $150. No permits are needed, although some of the websites try to protect themselves by making you click an agreement that you won’t do this in any illegal way. (If you’re about to do something illegal, would you say that you were?)
So, what do these guys do with these videos? Well, I’m sure they were for personal use when it all started, but now this industry makes big money. The terminology for it is called “upskirt videos.” I did a search for this and came up with a whopping 8.5 million sites!
Most of the sites appeared to be infected with viruses embedded in the pictures, so at least there is some justice for the people who visit them. But this does shed light on an entire industry that has flown under the radar for quite some time.
How do you keep all this from happening? The most obvious protections can help in many cases. Keep your eyes and ears open for people getting in your personal space, but there is an electronic option as well. Most hidden cameras are wireless and therefore put out a wireless signal. The closer they are to you, the stronger the signal. An RF spy camera detector can be purchased to warn you when these cameras get within your range and they cost around $75. If you want to be able to detect both wireless and wired cameras, then you have to spend a little more money, but the extra features may be worth it. For $280 you can get a miniature laser device that scans the room for hidden cameras. It sends out pulses of light and locates any camera lens that responds back to it. After giving away its location, you can alert security or just rip the camera out yourself. You can buy them both at dynaspy.com.
Being alert is still your best defense against any kind of intrusion, but it’s good to know about the threats that are out there. I’ll do what I can to keep you informed and up to date on all of them.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Amid the many stories of hackers breaking into websites and changing the home pages to something unintended by their owners comes a different kind of problem. You could have your website stolen legally, and attempted to be sold back to you at a premium.
Whenever your website comes up for renewal, you may be surprised to know it’s not always your website host that will inform you it’s time to renew. When you purchase a domain name, you buy it from a registrar. Examples of registrars are Network Solutions, Register.com, and GoDaddy. You can opt to have your registrar also host your domain, or you could pick another website company to do it for you.
We had a case this week where one of our reader’s website was stolen legally, but not ethically, right from under them. Back in December Eileen was informed by her registrar, GoDaddy, that her company’s domain name was going to need to be renewed. One option you can choose when you register your domain is to have it auto renew when it comes up for renewal at the end of the subscription. If you buy one year at a time it will cost you more to renew each time than if you buy three years or more.
Eileen went with the discounted rate by choosing to buy for five years, but have another company host the website. If you choose to auto renew your site but don’t update your credit card expiration date, then it doesn’t matter if you have it set to auto renew. The card will be declined, and you will need to check your email to make sure you are made aware of this. Sometimes spam filters filter out the reminder, so it’s best to set a calendar entry for the future as to when the domain will expire.
Eileen was aware that the domain was going to expire because she did receive the reminders the month prior to the expiration. In December, she decided to consolidate her domains to one registrar for her company’s three websites. She wanted to transfer out the GoDaddy domain and move it to Network Solutions. She sent emails back and forth between GoDaddy and Network Solutions trying to get this done before the expiration date, but somehow got sidetracked and the domain expired.
One day last week the company’s email stopped working and they contacted me to find out if I could help. Here’s where things get technical, but I will try to make it a little less dry than beach sand (where my wife and kids would rather be right now anyway).
Registrars try to give you an extra six weeks after payment expires before they allow your website to be purchased by other companies. The day it reached six weeks after expiration, a cyber squatter bought the domain and immediately sent an email to Eileen’s company to ask them if they wanted to buy it back. They thought the email was a joke and deleted it. After their email stopped working they realized that it was no joke.
I went to their domain name in my web browser and it pulled up a “for sale” sign with an email address to reach the new owner. I tracked down the new owner and asked nicely to give it back, as he was squatting, which is illegal but almost completely unenforceable. He laughed and told me to make him an offer.
There is a governing body called ICANN that is supposed to regulate these kinds of things, but it may take months or years to get it resolved. Eileen’s company has letterhead, business cards, yellow page ads and other advertising tied to this domain which would make it expensive to try to change. They asked me to make an offer for them. I decided to start low and go from there, so I offered $100. He laughed this off and came back with a demand for $5,000 plus some other bogus fees. Now, what makes this illegal in our country is that he has no business that operates under the name of the company’s website which he stole. But in his country it was legal, and no one in either country will do anything about it. ICANN will usually force the registrar to give the website back after a very long time and lots of legal work.
The cyber squatter dared me to pursue it, knowing Eileen’s company would spend thousands on legal fees and months of wasted time. At that point I turned the case back over to Eileen and said, “If you really want this resolved right away, it’s time to call your attorney to work out a deal.”
The real way to beat these guys is, unfortunately, to give up the domain for about three to six months. He will ultimately not be able to sell the domain to anyone else and the price will likely come down to the $100 figure I originally offered. If you look at the big picture, it’s just a huge inconvenience to do so. You will hopefully be in business for many more years than that and after a period time you will get it back for a more reasonable offer. Eileen’s company will have to weigh those options and see what is worth more to them, notifying of all their customers and contacts to use new email addresses and domain name, or paying the exorbitant fee to a criminal so they don’t lose the confidence of their customers. It is a nightmare either way.
Finding the squatter was not a problem. Through a service called “Who Is Contacts” I found out he is based in Armenia. He wasn’t hiding because he wanted us to find him so he could get paid. He is just hiding behind the law of his country so he could get away with it. I did a search of his email address and I found he has been doing this with dozens of other companies for a very long time. He even admitted to this when I contacted him, and was quite proud that this was how he made his living.
About ten years ago, Microsoft forgot to re register their domain for their MSN customers. Fortunately, one of the customers found out before the bad guys did and registered it himself and gave it back to Microsoft. Many other companies didn’t realize how powerful the web would be, so squatters registered domains for America’s largest corporations and squatted on them until the big companies realized their mistake. Most of the big companies had lawyers and money to get the domains back without having to pay off the squatters, but smaller companies like Eileen’s will have a difficult time paying $5,000 to this miscreant.
Now that you know the risks and how to avoid them, make sure your website doesn’t fall into the hands of a squatter. Make calendar entries now so your domain won’t expire. Update your credit card with the registrar online and check periodically that the domain hasn’t accidentally expired.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Ola’ from the Dominican Republic! This week I had the privilege of being invited to the Kaspersky Security Conference for the Americas in Punta Cana. Now don’t hate me because I’m in a warm climate with an ocean view from my hotel room. (Although I wouldn’t blame you.)
Kaspersky Labs is the largest privately held antivirus and anti malware security company in the world, and soon to be the third largest overall in market share. Their growth has been phenomenal, and even with the recession, they still grew over 30% last year.
Now comes the part that should concern all of us. If Eugene Kaspersky is afraid, you should be terrified.
So why is Eugene Kaspersky afraid? We first met after he just got through with a meeting with the leader of Singapore. He was in a great mood, and was amazingly surprised that they were not only listening to him, but also planning on taking his advice on computer security. Despite his company growing to an estimated $600 million in sales for 2010, Eugene is still a big (genius) kid at heart, and more humble than anyone would expect.
His name is so respected in Asia that refrigerators, stoves, and other products bear his name and logo without his authorization in China. It would be like putting the name or logo of CBS on a car, or a box or cereal. It doesn’t make sense to us, but brand name recognition of a product held in high esteem is hard to come by in certain places, and unscrupulous vendors will try to exploit that.
During the conference, in a segment entitled “Eugene Unplugged”, Kaspersky talked about his company’s phenomenal growth, and how he got started in the industry. He also joked that he never would have named his product as he did had he known how big the company was going to be. He never counted on being a brand name.
When the MC asked him how viruses and Malware have changed over the years, and what’s in store for us in the future, Kaspersky’s face changed in an instant. The normally gregarious Eugene Kaspersky showed such emotion that he had to think very hard on how to respond in this very public setting.
He said “I don’t really want to bring this wonderful crowd down. This is a time for happiness and celebration.” But the MC pushed on a little further, unknowingly backing Kaspersky into a corner where he had to respond.
Kaspersky said “There was a time when the people who wrote viruses were doing it just to prove they could bring down millions of computers. They’re motivation may have been mischief or political. But now it’s all about the money. And the people who write malware programs that now infect over half of the world’s computers will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.”
With the weight of the world seemingly on Kaspersky’s shoulders he went on to say that Kaspersky Labs had analyzed over 35 million pieces of malware. Even I didn’t know how pervasive malware (aka viruses worms, Trojans etc.) had become, and I work in this arena every day.
The US is no longer the spam capital of the world. Kaspersky says that now the crown belongs to Brazil. They sent out over 7.7 trillion pieces of spam last year. Almost all of them were designed to lure people into clicking on their links or attachments so their identities and their money could be stolen.
Other executives came on to elaborate on what Kaspersky was speaking of earlier. One of the more interesting analogies is that we are taught to not take candy from strangers from the time we are able to speak, but we do this every day we click on a link or attachment in an email. Sometimes these strangers dress up as people we know and usually trust, like a bank or credit card company. But these emails are almost always a wolf in sheep’s clothing. No legitimate bank or other financial company will have you enter your password from a link in an email. Do the right thing and call the organization that supposedly sent you the email before clicking on it.
The Kaspersky product has only been in the US for about five years, but their market share is growing rapidly.
With the bad guys finding new and scarier ways to steal our money online, I’m glad we have Eugene Kaspersky to do all the worrying for us. It may keep him up at night, but we’ll all sleep much better for it.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
I guess we need to take a quick break from all the iPad and other tablet news to concentrate on something that seems to plague all Windows users at one time or another, and that is what to do when you get a virus that even your antivirus can’t protect you from.
I see this every week. People bring their computers to us to fix what they thought they were protected from: Worms, viruses, Trojans. You name it, they’ve got it, and in many cases they didn’t even visit websites that were considered high risk. High risk sites would be gambling, adult entertainment, and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The people with infected computers had antivirus software. They even may have had anti malware software. It just doesn’t seem to matter.
This hit my sister’s computer this weekend. Despite having the latest antivirus software and even a program to protect her web browser from websites that could infect her PC, she still got hit. Now I’m going to tell you how the pros get rid of your computer viruses when you bring them to us, and it’s not that difficult if you take it one step at a time.
I have previously covered the differences between viruses and other malware, so we’re not going to get caught up in terminology. We will just refer to them generically as viruses, even though technically all intrusion based software installations come under the name of “malware.”
I’m going to refer to some products for home users that are absolutely free. I don’t recommend them for businesses because they have additional security requirements that will cost money and do additional things you may not need. We will also use Windows XP as the example since most computers are running this version. Although the principles apply to Vista and Windows 7, the actual locations of various different things to check may be slightly different.
I also want to express I take no liability for any changes you may make to your computer. This is a “do at your own risk” venture. These things work for us, however, so they are based on sound advice.
Let’s assume you have obtained a virus on your computer despite having antivirus software that’s up to date and running in the background. This is what I had to deal with on my sister’s computer this weekend, so I will walk you through what I did to resolve it.
After attempting to boot the computer into Windows, the screen went blue for a second and then rebooted over and over. I went ahead and chose the F8 key during the next reboot and tried to boot in Safe Mode and other modes with no success. I had to assume that the virus had damaged the hard drive and a repair was in order. I booted from a Windows CD and I chose the repair option. When I was presented with a command prompt, I typed in a command that fixes the hard drive (hopefully) and allows me to remove the virus in Windows. The command was chkdsk /r /p. This locates bad parts of the hard drive and repairs them.
Success! I was back in Windows, but now the virus was launching itself and trying to tell me it was infected. It asked me if I wanted to fix the infection. I know this is an old trick that downloads new viruses and makes the infection even worse. Fortunately, I had disconnected the network cable so it couldn’t go online to download any more baddies.
Since I couldn’t locate the virus using antivirus software, I knew I had some choices. I downloaded a free copy of Malwarebytes which you can get online by going to Download.com. I also downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy. Since she already had this program, I knew that the Spybot program wouldn’t help with this infection, but I saved it for later. The virus wouldn’t let me go to Download.com so I had to do it on another computer and save it to a USB flash drive. I copied it to the desktop for installation after the next step.
I then right clicked on My Computer and chose Properties. I checked the box to disable System Restore. If you don’t do this when you remove the software, it will automatically re add itself from the saved files in the restore area, and the virus will come back. Then I rebooted into Safe Mode by pressing F8 on reboot and choosing that option.
I installed Malwarebytes in Safe Mode and it found ten viruses, which I was able to remove. I scanned one more time to be sure that the virus didn’t create any new ones from the time I discovered the viruses and when I cleaned them. Everything was good, so I rebooted.
I was disappointed, but not surprised that another virus appeared upon reboot. This was going to be harder than I thought, but I’ve been down this road before. I had a virus at the Hillsboro airport that took almost three days to clear out. They even named the virus after one of our techs since we discovered it.
I went back to safe mode so the virus couldn’t launch and stop my efforts and opened the registry. You get there by going to the Start-Run command and typing in regedit. I wanted to find out what was launching when Windows opened in regular mode. I had to go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
I looked to see what programs ran at startup. Some of them I knew, but just to be sure I typed each one of them into a search on the web. Some viruses look like regular files with one letter off just to be harder to detect. They were all fine except one. There was a file that ran at startup called vnvlsftav.exe. I did a search online and found nothing on this file, so I knew I had discovered a new one.
I searched the hard drive for this file and any other ones like it that started with “vnv” by going to the start menu and choosing “Search.” I typed in vnv*.* so it would find any file that started with those letters. I found two. One was the exe file that was the new virus. The other was a similar name but ended in a .pf instead of a .exe. A .pf file is used to make the virus load and run faster. It can also be used to locate and run new viruses locally and on the web.
I deleted both files and also deleted them from the recycling bin. Then I deleted the key that looked for the file in regedit that had previously opened. It’s also a good idea to backup the registry before making any changes. You can do this from the menu at the top of the regedit program.
I restarted the computer and the virus was no longer launching. I double checked both regedit and I ran msconfig from the start run menu. This allowed me to see if it lodged itself in the startup tab from there as well. Everything was looking good, but then I had to deal with the damage the virus had done. I could put the Windows CD in and run a repair of Windows, but that takes a long time and you have to have your Windows key handy in order to reactivate Windows during the process.
Instead, I put the Windows CD in the computer and ran a very useful command. I went to Start- Run again and this time I typed in sfc /scannow. This replaces all the important DLL files that makes Windows and all your programs run. Viruses like to corrupt or replace these files to cause all kinds of havoc.
Next, I wanted to do a few more things like install Spybot Search and Destroy, and run an online scan. Spybot Search installed and ran fine. I also activated the web browser protecting Tea Timer application that’s included. I then attempted to go to Trend Micro’s website at trendmicro.com to run the free Housecall application. This does a scan of your computer online and removes any viruses. I like to run multiple programs because very rarely does any one application remove everything. You should only have one antivirus program on your computer running because sometimes they fight each other and disable each other without you knowing about it. Apparently, their programmers never learned good manners.
Unfortunately, I was unable to reach any website. However, I quickly remembered that many viruses like to change a setting in the web browser that’s easy to fix. Just go to Tools-Options, and then the Connections tab in Internet Explorer. Uncheck the proxy settings buttons and then everything works as usual. There are similar buttons for other web browsers.
If I was unable to remove the virus then I would have removed the hard drive and plugged it into a USB enclosure. Then I would have plugged it into a known clean computer and scanned and removed the virus from there. That is assuming I had a virus that is known by an antivirus program. In this case, it was a new one that no one knew about, so I had to use the sleuthing techniques I spelled out for you here.
Now she’s back to surfing the web and causing other kinds of trouble, and I can get back to … working on…… everyone else’s computers.
If you have an interesting virus story please let me know about it.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at
9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Do you remember the last time we read about the release of a tablet? There was this guy in the Middle East, and he was trying to turn around his company when he got some help from above. I believe his name was Moses and the tablets he brought back made quite the stir. We may not remember Apple’s tablet thousands of years later like we did with that release, but it sure is causing quite the stir as of late.
This week, Apple is due to release the details of their tablet. What we think we know about it is that it will be like a large screened iPhone. It will be connected wirelessly to the internet and will support the same type of multi touch technology that allows you to pinch and scroll your way to computing.
Prior to the Apple tablet, many tablets have just not been that great. They also haven’t sold well. Mostly it was because you replaced the mouse with your finger. That’s not all the useful, but it does have some advantages. The multi touch that Apple offers allows you to use your whole hand if you want to. Now we feel more like the advanced humans we are, instead of a one fingered dunce.
But what will it mean to the average consumer? I don’t think it will mean a lot at first. This is such a new concept to tablet computing that people will need to figure out what makes that necessary before they buy one. Then the software developers will start writing applications that will fill that need, and then you will have to have one. I can’t wait for my kids to tell me they’ll die without one when they haven’t even heard of it until this week.
The retail price is said to be around $1,000, but after a short while I see that falling to between $600-800. Of course it will be available at all Apple stores and online, but we should start seeing these pop up in other retail locations as well.
The real story here is what businesses will do with it. The healthcare industry has been derelict in the government’s mandate to make their documents electronic. Almost everyone is still running on paper, and those that were early adopters in converting to a paperless office were very disappointed in the high cost and poor software that was out there. They could definitely use this tool to make the transition to electronic documentation go so much easier.
Retail locations will be able to use it as point of sale system for far less than it costs now. Instead of paying $100k for a POS system, small businesses will now be able to use a tablet to scan and make sales, and even check people out with their credit cards.
People in the legal system will find its value in dictation and recording speech to text. We hope and pray it will be better than the Newton! They will even be able to use it to take notes and record and playback items during trials.
That’s just scratching the surface.
For consumers I see this as an eventual competitor to the Kindle and other E-readers. It has the screen size people want, a color screen which Kindle doesn’t have, and you can use it as a computer which you won’t be able to do with E-readers in their current form. I can also see it as a boon to students once the proper software is written for it. It is a lot more portable than a laptop or even a netbook. The applications are going to be distributed through the Apple iTunes store for a few dollars each, just like the iPhone. There are a flurry of competitors that are trying to trump the Apple tablet, but I say wait until you can get your hands on both the Apple and the competition before buying either.
History does repeat itself. (Just ask Moses). The Newton was a horrible failure, but it spawned the idea that people wanted PDAs. Then Palm, Handspring, and HP all made great ones before they became incorporated in cell phones. If the Apple tablet is a similar bust, they could still invent a whole new “must have” product even if they’re not successful with it. But after the success of the iPod, the iPhone, and iTunes, I’m not betting against them. I may still be a PC, but with my phone, and probably the new tablet, I would likely be a Mac. Did I just say that out loud?
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at
9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
By now everyone has heard about the disaster in Haiti, but seeing how Haiti and the U.S. has responded using technology in the aftermath is a lesson we in the Northwest should take to heart.
It’s interesting to note that before electricity and gas were even beginning to be fixed, and even before food and water could be flown in, the first thing fixed were the cell towers. Having cell towers allowed several things to happen that made all the other fixes much easier and more efficient.
By having cell phones that would undoubtedly continue to run for days to come, the Haitians could call relatives in other parts of the country and the world to let them know if they were all right and what they needed. It allowed Twitter messages to be sent to large amounts of people at once to communicate where the roads were cleared and where they were impassable. Video from cell phones was uploaded to You Tube and other websites and was shown on the news to better portray the devastation. Even the armies of both our countries are relying heavily on the communication that cell phones allow so they can get food and medicine to the places it needs to be.
Survivors who are trapped in buildings and have cell phones can communicate their location to rescuers and tell them where others are trapped.
With smart phones, you can even update websites and Facebook pages to write about the tragedy. Hearing about an earthquake of this magnitude is one thing, but to see and hear it, and to have it explained in detail by the people experiencing it are great uses of the mediums that cell technology allows.
In the U.S. and other parts of the world, Twitter is being used to send money to the charities that support the Haitians. However, beware of scammers. To be sure your money is going to the right place, go to charitywatch.org. They will tell you if a charity is legitimate or not.
So, what technologies should you be aware of in case of a disaster here in the Northwest? If we take the example of Mt. St Helens and pretend it happened again today, we can see how technology could have made life easier for the most affected areas. If we are to assume electricity and land line phones are out for an extended period of time, we should have extra charged batteries for our cell phones that are replaced every two years.
Laptops with wireless cell cards can add additional functionality, but do cost around $50 per month to have. If you have a cell phone that allows tethering, like ATT, then you can connect your phone to your laptop and use all kinds of programs that may be too intense to run on a phone. You could run a video Skype session during the news and Kelly Day can ask you how you’re holding up.
Of course we all have water in jugs and food in cans for this type of disaster, but being able to communicate to family outside of the disaster zone would help ease a lot of anxiety. It would also tell them what you need and how to get it you.
High tech flashlights that can be hand cranked for light are now very affordable and available at most camping stores. A gas generator is great, but smoke emissions can be a problem, and having to start a gas engine that hasn’t been in use for long periods of time is difficult. A propane tank generator would solve those issues, and you can run most of your house on one tank for a couple of days or more. Having it auto start when it detects an outage is a bonus. That would have helped a lot in 1980, but the technology just wasn’t there.
A water purifier with a hand crank like the one from Steripen for around $70 will purify just about any water for drinking without electricity. That’s 2010 high tech without the need to plug in. Think how many lives that would save in Haiti right now.
So, now we have water and communication to go with our canned food. We will likely be successful survivors for days or weeks when the next disaster strikes, provided that our structure is safe.
Technology isn’t just limited to helping us communicate; it is being used as you read this very article to save many lives.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at
9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Many questions have come my way via email about CES. Everyone wants to know what hot new consumer electronics debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Here is a rundown of what I see as the most promising. Now I could go for the unusual, or the extremely innovative, but many times those don’t sell well. Many electronics companies make products that people just aren’t ready for. Remember Apple’s Newton? It was the right idea, but the wrong time. Because of that, there was poor execution and Steve Jobs temporarily lost his job.
Every year there are dozens of gizmos just like that, although not as famously bad. I had a Newton for a couple of weeks. Someone wanted one badly and I sold it for a small profit before it turned into a door stop. Of course now they sell for as much as $350 used on EBay.
So here are the top contenders for new products this year:
The most talked about product was a phone. It wasn’t the iPhone or the Droid, but it was the Google Nexus One. The reviews are in and if you like a heavy, chunky phone that is tightly controlled by Google technology, then you are in luck. Google decided to hire HTC to make it for them, and these guys make sturdy phones. It’s very similar to the Droid but it’s getting better reviews, mainly because of the better graphics. Yes, you can watch movies in HD on this phone. Just keep it near an AC outlet because that battery won’t last.
If you’re a new T-Mobile customer, you’ll get it for $179 with a two year agreement. If you’re an existing customer it will cost a lot more. I never understood the reasoning of cell phone company executives. I think they’re either failed lawyers or wannabe comedians.
This next one is a shocker. I didn’t think the public would be ready for it, but 3D TVs are here. Every major manufacturer including Samsung Group, Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp., LG Group, and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. are making them. Of the 37 million TVs expected to be sold this year, a whopping four million of them will be 3D according to the Consumer Electronics Group. It is generally believed that Avatar was the main movie that will cause the rush to 3D. These types of TVs will cost more, but not for long once mass production kicks in. Most 3D viewing will be on Blu Ray players since almost no one is broadcasting 3D programs as of yet. Expect to see a big jump in this type of broadcasting toward the end of this year.
I can’t wait to see Sussman present the weather in 3D. I expect the police will be getting a lot of 911 calls as viewers mistakenly think he’s actually in their homes.
There’s a new company called Oregan Networks. No, it’s not Oregon. I had to re-read that a couple of times myself. They’re an Asian company that makes widgets, or small applications, that will soon be available for your TV. With Oregan you will be able to turn your TV into a type of iPhone. There will be games, but also a host of useful applications that may tie into other devices in your home, or give you useful information about your community. You’ll have to have an internet connected TV to make it work, but most TVs sold the latter half of this year will have that feature.
Apple’s tablet computer is coming, and although I expect it to be a big hit, there were lots of companies that tried to jump the gun with their own tablets. However, they’re not all that innovative, and the way the news has been reporting it you would think that a tablet computer is a new thing. In reality we have had them for years, but they weren’t that exciting. The Apple tablet has the potential of reinventing the tablet industry, and in fact it already has without even delivering one yet. All a tablet does is allow you to interact with the computer screen by making it touch or heat sensitive. This way you no longer need a mouse or even a keyboard if you can type on the software generated one.
The excitement comes where you have the iPhone-like interface attached to a tablet. The Apple tablet will also allow you to download apps and music from Apple which makes it even more exciting. I see this as a big hit, and although there will be lots of imitators, it will take someone as big as Google or Microsoft to bring on any serious competition.
Microsoft did reveal their tablet at CES this week, but everyone is waiting on Apple to decide which one they like better. I think most everyone who ran out and bought a netbook will drop it like a rock and buy a tablet. Although these are the same people who spent $1,000 on VCRs and microwaves in the early 1980’s.
E-readers are the last of the major innovations I see for this year. Of course I see many brands from Sony to Barnes and Noble and others, but the winner this year is definitely Amazon with their Kindle. Even if it’s not the most innovative device out there, it has a few things going for it. Amazon made enough supply to meet the demand, something no one else did, and Amazon is a powerhouse company for selling the printed word. It apparently no longer matters that the word can be printed on paper or with e-ink. Amazon sold more electronic books last Christmas than printed books. That tells me they are finally here to stay.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at
9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
It has been a fun year for predictions and technical disasters. In January, many predicted that people would jump onto Cloud Computing, but very few people have done so although some businesses are starting to test the waters. Having T-Mobile’s Sidekick customers lose all their personal information due to no one backing up the cloud computer put a scare into everyone.
Blackberry just got through celebrating their big stock jump and then their email service for the entire country crashed twice in one week. If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you already knew that would happen. I predict that Blackberry will lose significant market share to other smart phone manufacturers although they will continue to grow for a while longer because of the magnitude of people moving from plain cell phones to smart ones. They built their technology on a buggy centralized system without the advantage of open programming. The centralized issue will continue although they have announced that they’re trying to open up the operating system to new programmers. Too little, too late for most of us.
Windows 7 made a big splash with consumers, but businesses are so shy about switching from something that works (like XP), they have been slow to adopt it. Well, Microsoft will have none of that. Starting in a few weeks, the last of the XP licenses will be sold and companies will have to switch over. But Microsoft has sung this song before and we’ll see if the backlash will be big enough to open it back up or not. I think this time they mean it. Expect a lot of bad press if this turns out to be true. Vista scared the crackers out of us.
So what will happen with 2010? I’ll tell you. The long dominance of Comcast and other cable companies will finally be broken. Despite having the worst recession in decades, Comcast decided to raise their rates again. Verizon Fios was supposed to give us a choice, but their prices are almost exactly the same as Comcast. When the people get mad, they turn to the internet to break the backs of companies with near monopolies that have taken advantage of them for too long. Remember Ma Bell? She’s been scattered to the wind. Remember the recording industry? Broken. Remember the book industry? In decline. Remember the newspaper? I sure don’t.
Hulu and other websites have taken the best of TV and made it available online. You can now connect your computer to your TV in HD and watch what you want when you want it. Even the commercial breaks are shorter.
Now Netflix has added to the stress of the cable industry. For $9 a month you can watch unlimited movies and TV shows, and the list of movies dwarfs the list from “On Demand.” You can even watch Netflix on many different mediums. There’s the elegant and inexpensive Roku player for $80. You can use your Sony Playstation 3 with Netflix. There’s a rumor other consoles like Wii will do the same in the coming months. If your TV is already directly connected to the internet, then you can just download movies directly. TiVo can also hook up to it. My favorite is to build a media computer so you can play PC games, watch TV shows on Hulu, and download movies and shows through Netflix direct to your TV. Apple TV is even gaining ground as they have made deals with all the major broadcasters. Blockbuster has come up with their own on demand internet service due to their stores closing in droves. No one likes to rush back to the video store just to save a dollar, and remember how pleasant it was to deal with those clerks?
What has been Comcast and other cable companys’ response to these changes? First, they tried to charge you a premium for downloading movies if you use their internet service over the amount of gigabytes they allowed. The FCC and congress didn’t find that amusing, and neither did the public. As mentioned earlier, the cable companies also raised the rates saying their costs have never been higher. Yet they have been so profitable they are purchasing NBC.
We have been screaming for ala carte channels so we don’t all have to pay for stations we will never watch. I don’t speak Spanish. Why do I have to pay for that channel? I don’t have an RV. Why do I have to pay for that programming? I don’t watch every sporting event like wall climbing contests on ESPN 3. The answer was simple. Just allow us to buy the channels we want to watch. They wouldn’t do it despite the promise to do so “one day.”That day never came, so we did it ourselves. We switched to the internet, and there’s no stopping us.
America Online did a lot for the fledgling internet in the 1990’s, but they got greedy by overselling their product so people couldn’t connect to it as promised. Although they merged with Time Warner, they have since been shed into a separate company and have been in decline despite once having 30 million subscribers at their peak. This will be the business model of the cable industry. They have compressed the programming to the point of pixilation and have caused huge lags in the TV stream. “Too big and too arrogant to change” should be their new motto. At least if they came out and said what was really happening, we would applaud them for being honest about it.
Satellite will at least have the advantage of reaching all the people that cable wouldn’t pull their lines to. They have tried to compete with cable but the technology is difficult for people to put up with. No one wants to go on the roof, even in good weather, to adjust the dish.
My first cable bill in 1982 was $7 per month. Since then, we have had programming we don’t want heaped upon us along with constant raises in our rates. By the time I get done scrolling through all the channels I don’t want, it’s time to watch a new show. Having hundreds of channels isn’t better, it just costs more. So, goodbye cable. 2010 will be your worst year yet. You can at least continue to provide internet service until fiber takes over.
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house
was whirring and chirring and a laser guided USB mouse.
The kids are getting everything electronic.
I hear Mario, Luigi, and a hedgehog named Sonic.
"We said we would never do this," as my wife looked at me
"They spend day and night playing video games, and cross eyed they now be."
But I remind her of the good things we all get to enjoy
by our children playing these video games and the millions they employ.
We won’t have to send them to college, for their brains won’t be so deep.
We’ll save lots of money, and they don’t bug us when we sleep.
She reminds me of the teacher’s notes of bad grades and poor behavior.
“Fear not, my worried wife, for Prozac will be our savior!”
"Now let’s wrap these presents, as noisy as they are.
I just bought stock in Duracell, I’ll bet it will go far" (not a stock tip).
Even though the toys are wrapped in paper and wrapped in bows,
it looks and sounds like the fourth of July going on around our toes.
“This will never do,” I say, “for the kids will wake to this clatter!”
“They’re already awake,” my wife observes, “they’re texting, so it doesn’t matter.”
Ding!, “Oh, good gravy. They’re sending one to me now.”
“They want to know if we will be up soon so we can bring some drinks and chow.”
Remember when we were young and Christmas was quiet and full of ease?
Ding! “Oh great, now they want some salty crackers and easy cheese!”=
I’m so glad we have a loving family even though they’re all so very plugged in.
Could non-stop screen time in our lives be a mortal sin?
Oh! There’s Santa coming down our chimney, maybe he knows the way.
"Tell us, Santa, have we been good? We’re waiting for what you have to say."
Wait, that’s not Santa, that’s your mother, and she’s had too much “eggnog” to drink (the mustache fooled me).
She said “My GPS gave me the wrrrrrong directions. These things really stink!”
For great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
My wife and many other spouses have a really difficult time buying for people like me. I pretty much have all the gadgets I need, so finding something I would want can be tough.
So to help you all out this season I have come up with a list of things that we all can find something to like, and there’s no way we already have it.
For the dog lover in your life you can go to fatbraintoys.com and get a pet’s eye view with the wireless camera that connects to your dog’s collar. For $42 you can see what your dog is doing at all times. It may help you understand what they are thinking when they take a drink from the toilet bowl.
From Brookstone you can buy the ultimate shopper’s tech gift: A voice recognition shopping list computer. It remembers what you bought last trip, and you can tell it what to get on this trip. It will print out the list so you can take it with you. It costs $99.
For $50 from LL Bean you can buy the gamer in your life a solar powered charger for a Sony PSP. I’m not sure how much your gamer will need to play in the sun and away from an outlet, but gamers can be a little weird about when and how they kill zombies.
Toys R Us is now carrying toys for adults, and this is one I would love to have (hint, hint). For $299 you can have a remote controlled car with a built in web cam that streams video to the web that you can view on your computer or your TV set. I see myself battling it out with my dog’s web cam for domination. See the dog’s reactions on both webcams as you move the remote controlled car in a jerking motion towards his favorite dog toy.
You could also use it to drive around your neighborhood in a lazy man’s version of neighborhood watch. Now you never have to leave your couch while you do your shift for the people on your block.
Hammacher and Schlemmer is offering the ability to convert all those old slides and negatives from your family history and put them into digital format. For only $99, you can burn the images to DVD, add music, and send them out as gifts to younger family members who have no idea who these people were. Someday they will care. I promise.
Here’s another cool gift from Hammacher and Schlemmer if you have teenagers or music lovers on your gift list. You will love this very quiet high tech drum set for $60. It’s actually a drum pad with a USB connection. The drummer plays on the soft pads in any combination they want and they can listen to their work using head phones. They can record their riffs and send them off to Def Jam for consideration for the next rap album by that new and upcoming band “Bang Your Head on a Sharp Rock.”
From Uncommon Goods you can buy a pen for just $25 that can write in space! You may not get there for a while but you can buy this space pen that NASA spent millions of tax dollars trying to develop. Don’t mention to your spouse that the Russians got around the space vacuum issue by using a one ruble pencil.
Good luck with your shopping, and let me know if you find anything even more unusual than what is on this list.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
If you’re a professional shopper in brick and mortar stores, you know all the secrets to getting the best deals. But if you want to get those same deals online, then you need to learn some new tricks to get you to your goal of being the “Supreme Shopper of all Time” award.
Let’s pretend I want to buy a tech gift for my spouse, but I don’t know that much about it. My wife has made it clear that a digital camera is what I need to buy to put under the tree this year.
First I need to know everything about the technology I’m buying so I don’t get hyped by the advertisers. I don’t know how many pixels to buy, or even what a mega pixel is. I do know they seem important, since it’s what everyone leads with, and I have to find out why. When I need to learn something about anything, I do several different types of searches to help me. First I go to Wikipedia.com and type in “digital camera.”
I quickly find out that the cameras are split into two major categories the same way they were when everyone was using film. (Remember film?) There are point and shoot cameras and DSLRs. The former are cheaper and have less features than the latter. The greatest difference is the DSLR’s ability to interchange lenses and achieve better quality.
I then find out what those pesky pixels are. I find out that it is the measure of how many tiny little squares you can fit into the image. The more of them in the photo, the larger I can blow up the picture and still have a clear image. Most people think that this means better quality, but I find out differently when I do a Google.com search. (When you do a search on any search engine, it’s important what you type in so you don’t get a bunch of websites you don’t want).
I want to know if more megapixels equals better quality, so I type “mega pixel quality” into Google. If you put the quotes around the search then you’ll receive website results that have those words exactly as you type them. Without the quotes, you’ll get websites that have both words, but not in the same sentence. You’ll also get websites that have either one word or the other. The quotes may save you hours of searching.
I find a fantastic site called About.com that tells me the quality of the lens is the thing that makes the picture look better, and not just the megapixels. It also has links to other camera features I should be looking for. Off to the right of the Google search screen are paid ads by companies who sell the cameras that I can look at. They’re not informational or unbiased as my other sites have been.
Now you can do a quick search for the different brands of cameras. I decide to go with a DSLR for the better quality and features, so I type into my search site “DSLR brands.” I see Sony, Nikon, Pentax, and Canon are the ones with the most hits. I go to consumerreports.com and cnet.com and search for reviews on these various brands.
These websites tell me the models and features of each major brand of cameras. They also mention some smaller brands that I take a look at to see if they measure up. I find out what people are saying about the quality of these models, and I also go to the manufacturer’s website to see if I can get any more information as I narrow down which model I want. I decide on a Nikon D300 for various reasons. (Don’t take that as an endorsement). I also decide to compare the prices to a Canon model that is similar.
Now I know what features I want, and I know the specifications. It’s time to shop. Oh yeah. A little retail therapy, and I didn’t even have to get dressed. You didn’t need to know that. TMI.
My favorite sites are Bestbuy.com, EBay.com, and Amazon.com. I can find new models or slightly used ones to choose from. On EBay I can determine the seller’s reputation to see if I want to buy from them. They have all kinds of sellers, whereas Amazon and Best Buy can sell me the camera directly. I can also go to pricegrabber.com and bizrate.com (among others) that will search all kinds of online stores to buy from and find the best price.
I find out that there are several stores that sell the cameras for a lot less than the major online stores. Looking further, I compare what’s in the box and find out that some of the extras like the storage card, case, and strap have been stripped out of the ones that sell for less. I also find out by calling the store that the box says it was made for another country and not the U.S. That means its gray market and I don’t want to touch it. Gray market products are ones that were supposed to sell elsewhere. They may have lower specs, less features, and no U.S. warranty. It’s not illegal, but it will hurt me when the camera breaks and I want to get it fixed. The parts may not even be in the country, despite being the same model.
I also check out the Better Business Bureau to see if they have any unresolved complaints against them. You can’t stop people from complaining, but you can see what grade the BBB gives the company based on their response to the complaints. Check out BBB.org and type in the website address to see what they are saying about that company.
After doing extensive searches, I find that going with a known company like Amazon is the best way to go, but before I make that purchase, I decide to call Best Buy to see if they’ll beat the deal. Always look for price matching offers. If they beat the deal or will match it and have it in stock, you may want to switch your purchase to that company.
So now I have my camera, and the last thing to do is to figure out where to hide it for the next few weeks. That will be the toughest decision of all. My wife is a present Ninja.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru
Black Friday is almost here and it’s time to think about what to get the geek in your family. There are lots of good new toys to pick from, as well as some upgraded standbys.
In the new category, the netbooks are all the rage. They have no DVD or CD drive, but they are lightweight and great for class and traveling. They are also cheaper than a laptop. Don’t plan on playing high end games, however. It just doesn’t have the horsepower.
An upgraded tech toy would be either the Nintendo DSi or Sony PSP GO. I wrote a review on each of these about a month ago. I recommend the DSi for the 12 and under crowd and the PSP GO for any age over that because of its abilities to play movies and more mature games.
If you want to go with a laptop, you have many to choose from, but rather than recommend a particular brand I will let you know what most people are looking for when it comes to features. Make sure it has a built in web camera so you can chat with your favorite geek while away from the family. Get at least 4 GBs of RAM, and a minimum 120 GB hard drive, although much larger ones are now appearing. Get a built in 802.11 wireless card that supports G and N. Otherwise, you’ll have to upgrade the card by next year since N is finally catching on. If you go with Windows make sure you get the Windows 7 Home Premium for home use, and Windows Professional or Ultimate for business.
If speed is the most important thing in your geek’s laptop desires, then upgrade the hard drive to a flash based drive. They don’t hold as much data as a traditional drive, but they’re at least twice as fast.
For Console gamers, all three of the big names have dropped their prices by around $50-$100. Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are all cheaper this year with lots more games to choose from. Expect another major upgrade by next Christmas. This may cause it to be outdated sooner than you expected.
USB flash drives are very inexpensive now, but the kind a geek wants has a built in bootable operating system and encryption software to protect the files in case it gets lost or stolen. The built in OS allows you to boot a computer off the flash drive in case the regular hard drive is broken or is infected with viruses.
A digital video recorder is on the higher end of expensive geek toys, but will be much appreciated. Besides buying the computer to record your videos, you’ll have to call your cable or satellite company to put in a digital card to be able to record HD and digital signals. This will add around $300 for the two cards you’ll need so you can record two shows at once. You could also buy a Tivo for a little less money, but pay an annual subscription.
How about a cool flat screen TV? The new flat screens are better than ever, and here are the geek must-have features: It has to be able to connect to the internet. Some new models have this built in, and it allows you to connect a computer to it so you can watch TV from websites like Hulu. It also must have many HDMI ports so you can connect all your peripherals in HD like Blu Ray, VCR/DVD combo players, console game units, video cameras, and computers. It should have an S Video connector for older connections, and a VGA connection for non HD computer hookups. Having a card reader so you can plug in your camera’s memory card allows for instant slide shows. We’ve done this at family gatherings in the past and it’s very cool.
I love the new handheld digital video cameras that cost around $200. They have all the advantages of a tape based recorder without the expense, tapes, and weight. Even the new iPod Nano has one built in, and you get an iPod that goes with it. The quality isn’t as great on a large TV, but on a 32” or smaller TV or monitor, it looks great. Some geeks attach them to their hats and broadcast their lives on the web. Unfortunately, most people don’t find the lives of extreme geeks that interesting.
Don’t forget about still cameras. I recommend no less than a 10 MP camera. A DSLR allows you to change lenses like the SLR film based cameras before them. They also don’t have that hesitation problem when you push the button like the cheap cameras do. Sometimes the moment is over by the time you take the picture on point and shoot models. Definitely get the DSLR for enthusiasts and sports photographers. Be sure to get one telephoto and one wide angle zoom lens to cover all the possible shooting scenarios. Many come with video capability, but you need to make sure it has sound with it. Silent movies are boring. DSLR packages have come down to around $600 including both lenses.
There are some unbelievable deals at Best Buy and Wal-Mart on 32” LCD TVs. They may go for as little as $250! For a guest room or other location where a high quality TV is not necessary, this is great, but the quality won’t be as good as their better TV models.
If I have missed any great gifts for geeks that you can think of, please email me to let me know.To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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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.
I’ve had many Motorola phones over the decades, including the brick phone. I was so cool carrying that around in my suit coat circa 1989. The only problem was that it looked like I tilted to one side. Later on I moved to the flip phone. It almost fit into my pocket, but the battery stuck out too far.
Once the smart phone came out, I moved away from Motorola because they had really nothing to offer. That is, until today. True to its tradition, the new Motorola Droid phone is built like a tank. It’s big, heavy, and will survive many accidental drops and nuclear attacks. Unlike Blackberry phones, this phone will not have people complaining about its durability.
But is it an iPhone killer? Let’s take a look.
The Droid does excel with a better camera at 5 MPs. It also has a pop out keyboard that the iPhone lacks. The Android version 2.0 software is very easy to use and the screen quality is easy on the eyes. The phone quality is also getting great reviews, especially with the Verizon network’s reputation of quality phone service. Although the Droid doesn’t yet have the 100,000 apps that the iPhone has, it shouldn’t take long for the applications to start rolling in considering the open source nature of Android vs. Apple.
The built-in turn by turn GPS will save you from paying money for an Apple GPS app that goes from $40-$100 on the iPhone. Google voice is also more accurate on the Droid than the same app used on the iPhone. Droid’s cost is $199 for a 2 year agreement, which is comparable to the iPhone 3G.
You can run multiple applications at once on Droid, unlike the iPhone. The processor is also more powerful and is said to be on par with a PC.
But it’s not all flakey pie and shaved whiskers because here is the downside to the new Droid phone. Verizon is shooting itself in the foot because of its data policy. With AT&T you get an unlimited data plan for a flat rate of around $40 (depending on your contract and when you bought it). Verizon’s “unlimited” data plan has a cap of 5 GBs for $30 per month. With the iPhone it really is unlimited. If you want to tether your phone, which means to plug your phone into your computer to get the computer on the internet, then double that charge. Add another $15 if you want to connect to an Exchange server. There is no extra charge to get an iPhone on Exchange, and if you want to tether it, just pay $30 to a company that offers it when you jailbreak the phone.
The software for the camera makes you wait a painful amount of time to take and process a picture. Don’t plan on using it to capture your kids playing soccer. The game will be over by the time you get it going again.
The phone is bigger and heavier than just about any current smart phone, but it still fits in your pocket and I don’t always count weight against a manufacturer.
You can only install applications on the Droid's built in 256 MBs of memory. Yes, you can store data on the separate memory card up to 32 GBs if you choose, but the application limit is going to kill off some business. A work around is to move your apps between the card and built in memory, but I don’t see anyone doing that without a fight. You don’t have this limitation on the iPhone, but there’s no memory slot either.
Verizon is touting their 3G service to be superior to AT&T’s. This week AT&T sued Verizon for falsely claiming their commercials show how much less 3G coverage AT&T has compared to Verizon. AT&T actually has 2G coverage in most of the country where Verizon says AT&T has no 3G coverage. Huh? So AT&T is agreeing with Verizon, but says that Verizon should also mention the 2G coverage in their commercial. Um, ok.
Blackberry is laughing on the sidelines because no matter what happens, it still owns the majority of the smart phone business. But Blackberry, who basically invented the smart phone business, has lost a lot of its market share. And, without having any innovation other than the “Storm II” (insert laughter here), I don’t see them hanging on to the majority much longer. HTC is a strong contender, and they too have an Android phone out with Verizon that is turning heads. We will review their offerings in the future.
For now if you have AT&T, you may as well stick with the iPhone. If you have Verizon and don’t want a Blackberry, then the Droid is a good solid phone. They all have their warts, but they also have some fantastic features.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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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 someone like the police want it bad enough. (Unless of course you have a Sidekick phone. Ha! Sorry about that.)
I will not only explain how the average internet user leaves fingerprints, I’m also going to show you how a hacker does it so he won’t get caught.
When surfing the internet, the website host keeps track of every IP address that has visited their site for however long they feel they should keep the log files. Some, like WebMD, don’t track it at all because of confidentiality rules. Others, like the NSA and CIA, may keep them forever. The IP address can be easily tracked by being turned over to the police, and then the address can be matched up when the police give the internet service provider a court order to tell them who owned that IP address on that date. Then they come knocking on the bad guy’s door.
They don’t do all this for just any type of web browsing, however. They mostly do it for people who threaten harm to others, solicit something illegally, or attempt to load an illegal program like a virus onto your computer. I have been involved in many types of these cases where they need an expert to gain access to the perpetrator’s information to build a case against them.
Your employer (or your parents) can find out about your web surfing habits by viewing the local web cache on your hard drive. Your computer keeps a list of cookies and photos on your computer for around 30 days to make it faster to visit the same sites in the future. The number of days can be changed, and you can even manually erase this information and delete it from your recycle bin. Some companies even make cache cleaners that get rid of the evidence of your surfing habits. But if the employer also caches that information on the firewall or proxy server, then deleting it off your computer won’t make any difference. I not only have helped many employers set this up, but it’s also how I track my children’s surfing habits- along with a good parental filter.
Even if the people under your administration don’t surf to places they shouldn’t because of a filter, you should also be able to check where they attempted to surf. This gives you an idea if the filter is working properly.
Many of you may have seen the movie about the Seattle riots in 1999. The group of anarchists didn’t just wander from street to street, they used technology like text messaging and cell phone calls to avoid getting arrested, and it allowed them to cause more mayhem. I managed a Seattle office from here in Portland at that time, and I was scared to death for my Seattle staff’s safety. At one point, we told our staff to not leave the building. Fortunately our people were all okay, but I wish I was on the jury to convict all of the anarchists who broke the law. A cold, damp dungeon would be all they would ever see again.
Most internet lawbreakers are not all that tough to catch. They may be good at breaking the law, but they are not good at covering it up. For instance, all text messages are stored and are easy to bring back to court. All internet postings are the same way. Email gets backed up by both the sender’s mail servers and the receiver’s. The NSA also has an in to the major email carriers and they intercept and store email based on certain keywords in their massive database, along with the IP addresses.
If you go to the library or internet café to do something illegal on a computer thinking you’ll be safe from prosecution, then you would also be wrong most of the time. You can be caught by surveillance cameras that match up to the time of the posting, as well as by the hardware address of your computer. Let’s say you go to a wireless internet access café. Most only take credit cards, but you find one where you can pay cash. The firewall that passes your traffic onto the internet can cache your hardware MAC address. This is a hard coded address that is special to your computer and can be traced back to the place you bought it from. They look you up by your receipt and now you’re caught.
If you find an internet café that accepts cash, has no video cameras, and doesn’t cache MAC addresses, then you’ve found the perfect place to be a criminal. Of course you shouldn’t draw attention to yourself by talking to anyone, and you should wear a fake nose, beard, gloves and makeup. And you shouldn’t ever visit the same place twice. You should also have a MAC address spoofing program to be safe. If you can pull all that off, then good luck.
Another way bad guys try to hide their tracks is by War Driving. This is where you search a neighborhood with a wireless scanner. Once you find an open access point, you connect to it. You can even hack one that is secure if it uses one of the old technologies like WEP where the password and wireless keys never change. Then the police come after the person with the wireless access point rather than the perpetrator. So, if you don’t want to have police come knocking on your door, then be sure to secure your wireless with WPA2 AEP security. If you don’t know how to do this then hire a professional or turn it off.
Hackers use compromised routers they can bounce off of to do their dirty work as well. They may hack an easy to guess password on a server and use it to bounce through several other servers and then attempt to break in to a place, like a financial institution, where they can actually get a payoff. Doctors offices are starting to become an easy target because they rarely secure anything from the outside and they have confidential patient information along with credit card numbers. I have secured many of them, and despite laws like HIPAA and the Oregon Privacy Act, they rarely do anything right without professional help. In my experience most physicians hate computers and security, and if you don’t believe me then next time you see your doctor ask if they know how to log into anything other than a golf website.
Virus and other Malware writers get caught a lot because even though they do know how to write a good piece of Malware, they love to brag about it so much they eventually get turned in. They also don’t know how to cover their tracks as well because that’s not what they’re good at. The exceptions to this are hackers in Asia. When you have state sponsored hacking and virus writing, (where most of the world’s Malware comes from) then who will we arrest? I find it easier to just block any inbound access from the entire continent, and only open it back up when there is a business case to do so. When they learn how to play by the rules, then we can treat them like responsible world citizens. I won’t hold my breath.
So how do you not get caught? Don’t break the rules. It works every time.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com/
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com./
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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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.
Real estate is said to be all about location, location, and location. The goal for computers is stability, stability and less bugs. Previous versions of Windows have had a whopping 50,000 plus documented bugs in them upon release. That should be criminal, but when you break the seal on any computer, you should probably read the tiny print to see that you have already agreed you won’t blame them for it.
I’ve thought of some catchy phrases Microsoft could use for this release, but so far they have rejected them. “Microsoft, the house that bugs built,” and even a movie called “Microsoft, A Bug’s Life.” I’m not saying Apple is any better, but we have been trained to lower our expectations when it comes to commercial software for decades.
Many readers have asked me if there is a compelling reason to make the switch, and I say, “Yes.” But, if you’re happy with your Vista computer’s performance I think you should stay where you are. The reason is because the changes are mostly in the background, and Windows 7 has a lot less features than Vista. The stability of Windows 7 definitely there, and you can take any computer (according to Microsoft) that is three years old or newer and upgrade it to Windows 7.
There are lots of versions of the new operating system, but they are similar to the confusing amount of Vista versions already out there. So let’s break down versions and differences in features.
Versions- The home versions come in Starter and Home Premium. You can just forget about Starter for anything other than a netbook, but Home Premium is great for home and costs $120. Business versions come in Professional ($200), Ultimate ($220), and Enterprise. I don’t see a compelling reason for Enterprise, but for businesses I do like Ultimate over Professional if you have the extra money to do so. Pro and Ultimate will allow you to do a complete backup of your computer to a network location, while Professional and Home Premium only allow you to backup locally. In general, Windows 7 does offer more backup location options and choices than Vista. Upgrades cost about 1/3 less than the full versions, but remember that if you have a crash, you have to have the old install disc to get back to where it was before it crashed.
What you gain with Windows 7- Of course, a more stable computer as mentioned before. I am also crazy about the new toolbar. With the Aero feature turned on, higher end models will be able to see all the different documents and programs as little pictures when you hover over the program icon. Vista’s Aero wasn’t quite as sophisticated. With the Pro version on up you also get a free XP license so you can run a virtual XP version for software that may not be compatible with Windows 7. The operating system is more secure, and with Ultimate you can encrypt all the data on the hard drive, instead of in just a few folders. Ultimate also allows you to use Windows in any of 35 languages. Better backup choices and options. There are even more medium choices to backup data onto. The parental controls are so much better than with Vista. You can control when a child can access the computer and it has better built in web filters. Media player is more graphical and easier to use. If you’re thinking of using your computer as a DVR, you’ll like it better than any previous version. You will need Home Premium or Ultimate for this. Right click on any program and you have the option to launch it, or the most recent files you opened with that program. It will also search out files for you. Pinning programs to the taskbar is cool. It replaces the Quick Launch, but it’s far easier and more useful to use. It boots and shuts down faster. Previous versions hung up on shutdown and are now mostly just a bad memory.
What you lose by moving away from Vista- Business users joining a Windows domain will have lots of problems to overcome. In some ways, it’s so much more secure than previous versions because it won’t let you do anything. It’s reminiscent of when Symantec’s former antivirus program thought that the Symantec antivirus files were a virus and wouldn’t allow it to work or update. You have to manually make some changes to get it to work right to communicate with a server. I’m sure this will be the first thing they fix in the first service pack that will undoubtedly come out very soon. You can no longer edit photos natively. That feature is gone, so you will need a third party app. Gadgets have to be turned on manually. Dreamscape is gone along with Windows Mail. Many video cameras that were supported in Vista no longer work in Windows 7. Many printers will have problems printing, or not work at all. Some of these can be fixed by a driver update, but many manufacturers apparently have never heard of Windows 7 so there is no update. There is also talk that if they don’t make a Windows 7 driver, you will have to buy the device all over again, but it’s just an unconfirmed (but very true) rumor.
So should you upgrade? Yes, in most cases. Even businesses will move to Windows 7 after having skipped Vista altogether. Microsoft is ending XP updates and bug fixes shortly so there won’t be any choice. Otherwise you will have computers that may no longer be secure while accessing the wild and wooly internet, and that’s not just me talkin’ sheep dip.
To buy my latest book “How to be an IT Administrator,” go to http://howtobeanitadministrator.com
For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK and at 10:00 AM on KOL in Seattle, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.
If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column, I will always answer by email.
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