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Everywhere I turned online yesterday, there was conversation surrounding the Malwarebytes blog post, in which they have very publicly accused IObit of stealing their proprietary database(s). It’s being talked about in blogs, on forums, via newsletters and news sites, and within private mailing lists. People chatted about this on IRC, and fights were instigated on various forums as to the validity of the claim.
Technology is something that many of us take for granted. Teenagers today look at us as though we are crazy when we reminisce about the days without Internet… without cell phones or even CD players. They cannot fathom what it was we could have possibly done for entertainment in the years we spent before game consoles were invented.
The term Cloud Computing is thrown about all over the place, it seems. Everywhere you turn, someone is talking about it. It’s a hot concept, and a hot conversation topic. The problem, though, lies in trying to even define what exactly Cloud Computing is!
To some people, the definition is very narrow. They define it as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. To many others, Cloud Computing is a term used for virtually anything you’re doing on the Internet… or “in the Cloud”. To my way of thinking, the definition falls with the latter. To me, anytime you see an entire “program” within a web browser, you’re computing in the Cloud.
Drew Olanoff is a close friend of mine. We met last year during my boss’ Gnomedex conference in Seattle, and clicked immediately. We share a love of people and technology, and have the same weird sense of humor. We’ve stayed in close contact via email/IM/phone over the past several months, solidifying and strengthening our friendship.
When Drew learned that he has Hodgkins Lymphoma back in May, he was ticked off. Me… I cried. I was terrified that I would lose my friend. I wanted to know what I could do to help. Little did I know that I would soon be able to help in a very big way.
It seems as though the entire world is abuzz with talk of Windows 7 being released today. Everywhere you look online, someone is discussing it. They talk about how fast it is, how cool some of the features are. However, you only really read about the security side of the new operating system if you look on the various tech sites. It’s as though the general population has forgotten about that important component… or have they simply written Microsoft off when it comes to security?
I am a moderator in a chat room that has around 250+ active users at all times – day or night. The chat mostly centers around technology, social media, and anything that could be considered to be “Geeky”. Several times a day – EVERY day – the talk turns to computer security. And always, some dolt makes a claim of how smart they are on the Internet… how they don’t need protection… how they couldn’t possibly become infected.
I have had my HP TouchSmart for just about a year now. I’ll never forget the day it arrived at my house. You’ve never seen a more excited Geek! From the day I won it in a contest until the UPS driver showed up on my doorstep, I read everything I could find about how best to use my new machine. After I unboxed it and set it all up, I “trained” myself to properly use all of the various features, and even steeled myself to having to use Vista instead of XP.
Just a few short years ago, Twitter was being used by the same people who are now becoming addicted to Foursquare. Yet, many people online are sputtering about how Foursquare is some passing fad, and will quickly fade into nothingness. We’re not so sure that’s true.
What is Foursquare? It’s a website that helps you mark your location anytime you go somewhere. You earn points for doing checkins, and can earn badges as well. For example, if you check in from any one place often enough, you’ll become known as the “mayor” of that location.
After 15 years as a Windows power user, and current Windows 7 user, a colleague at What the Tech has accepted the challenge of his roomate to give up his Windows notebook cold turkey, and use a similarly equipped Macbook for 30 days. He’ll be blogging about his experience daily. It should be an interesting read, and of special interest to anyone who’s ever considered switching from Windows to OSX.
Link: The Macbook Experience at WhatTheTech.com
Think back to the last time you took your poor failing (or failed) computer to your nearest G.O.D. (Geek On Duty…I just made that up and I hope it sticks). What was the first question that came out of his/her mouth? Was it “Do you have a recent backup”? I bet you a coke that your answer was “uh…no…should I?”. And the answer is YES you should. Most computer users consider their data to be critical to their existence. Their music, family pictures, that doctoral thesis you’ve been working on for every waking moment of the last year of your life. But the Internet is filled with horror stories of ill-timed power outages, cats with an uncanny ability to find the delete key on the keyboard, and other similar tales of catastrophe. If this information is so critical to your digital life then why aren’t you taking the steps to make sure that when (that’s right, when, not if) your beloved computer decides to take a vacation (or a permanent trip to the beyond) it can be restored without tears or massive expense?
There are countless backup methods available. Some free, some not so much. Some manual and (many more now than before) completely automated. These methods range from simple self written batch files with a well placed xcopy command to massive applications that sync data to multiple locations across the planet and ensure that there are no duplicate files. Whatever method you use to back up your data, the most important thing is that it’s backed up. So what are you waiting for? Get your data safe!
GFI software was founded in 1992 and has been offering various network and content security products to small/medium sized businesses ever since (one of their most well known products is GFI Languard, which is great). Their newest product is GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition. With Backup 2009 – Home Edition GFI has attempted to make home backup as easy as turning on your computer. Let’s see how they did with that lofty goal.
