Be honest to your Techguy...we already know the truth

Recently, I have had cause to remind people of this fact.  When you have a computer problem or mishap, please be honest with your friendly neighborhood techguy.  This does not only include me, everyone of the brave, smart and handsome/pretty tech guys and ladies out there.  When we get your computer to fix, we pretty much know within 5 minutes or so what the issue is.  Based on that, we can also figure out how it most likely happened.  The honesty is appreciated, as it saves us time from having to figure it out on our own.  Examples from this past week is a customer with a bad screen.  They "don't know what happened, I just turned it on and it's not working!"  If this were true, I can plan on spending about a half hour diagnosing potential issues.  If he were honest, he would say, "I dropped it and need another screen".  Second example involves a newly reformatted laptop that is functioning properly upon my delivery.  A couple of days later....."It's all messed up, it won't do nothing....etc.  After getting irritated by my request for specifics on "won't do nothing", a review of the laptop shows a bad download from Pirate Bay and an even worse attempt of cleaning it up.  Honesty is appreciated.   It saves time and saves you from insulting your tech guy by pretending that he/she won't figure out what damage you caused.  Good technicians can figure it within 5 minutes.  Honesty is the best policy!

A personal VPN that nobody can crack....really!

If you’re smart, you probably think twice before using a WiFi network anywhere outside of your own home to log into things like your bank account and even your email. Being on a shared network notoriously leaves you more vulnerable to having someone else monitor all the details of your web browsing activity and access your personal data. But if you’re a remote worker, as more and more people are, lots of your time online is spent using relatively untrusted networks in places like cafes, airports, and hotels.

A new product from iTwin called the Connect is aimed at taking away those worries. The iTwin Connect, which launched today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is a tiny 3.5 inch device that plugs into your laptop through the USB port, encrypts all your data, and routes it through the host server of your choice — either iTwin’s own secure servers, or your own computer that you’ve linked to the device. Essentially, this lets you freely browse the web through a secure VPN while utilizing an untrusted public or shared Wi-Fi network. This means that you can use it to access sensitive things such as online banking, and also get around certain site geo-restrictions.

The benefits here are pretty big and the use-cases are many, so it was great to have iTwin’s co-founder and COO Kal Takru stop by the TechCrunch on-site CES stage to show us the Connect and give us the product’s pitch first-hand. Check that out in the video embedded above.  Check out the video, courtesy of TechCrunch

An introducing a 1 TB Flash Drive

So for months we sputter along from 32 to 64 to 128GB drives and all of a sudden....BAM  1 TB!!??

Imagine being able to back up all the photos, videos, songs, documents, and everything else on your computer on a single thumb drive. Soon you'll be able to.

On Wednesday, Kingston Technology unveiled the "world's largest-capacity USB 3.0 flash drive" at the 2013 Computer Electronics Show in Last Vegas. Due out later this quarter, the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 boasts a full terabyte of storage—that's 1,000GB to you and me. Those who don't necessarily need a terabyte can get a Kingston drive with 512GB of storage, which is available now.

The device is also fast. Kingston said the new HyperX Predator offers transfer speeds of up to 240MB per second when reading data and up to 160MB per second when writing.

Before you get too excited, Kingston has not yet announced pricing details for the 1TB version of the drive, but the 512GB model retails for $1,750.  Oh well....

Stock up on Blank CD's and DVD's now....prices will be rising!

It's never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, and if that's how you feel about cloud backups, there's a good chance you're also still using optical discs to store your precious data. If so, now would be a good time to assess your optical disc inventory and, if necessary, stock up on more media. Otherwise, you might end up paying a 50 percent premium by the second half of 2013.

According to DigiTimes, the optical disc industry is in the midst of a "reshuffle" in which disc makers in Japan, along with second-tier and third-tier makers in Taiwan, have all stopped producing inventory. As a result, optical disc prices are expected to jump by nearly 50 percent in the next six months once demand catches up with and surpasses supply.

On the bright side, most optical disc media is fairly inexpensive these days, save for some Blu-ray media and certain high quality CDs and DVDs. What's more, the optical drive market appears to be shrinking. Most Ultrabooks don't even ship with an optical drive, and due to rock bottom prices, Sony exited the market altogether just a few months ago.

Internet Explorer users, please update now!

Microsoft on Saturday confirmed that Internet Explorer (IE) 6, 7 and 8 contain an unpatched bug -- or "zero-day" vulnerability -- that is being used by attackers to hijack victims' Windows computers.

The company is "working around the clock" on a patch, its engineers said. They have also released a preliminary workaround that will protect affected IE customers until the update is ready.

In a security advisory issued Dec. 29, Microsoft acknowledged that attacks are taking place. "Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer 8," the alert stated.

Newer versions of IE, including 2011's IE9 and this year's IE10, are not affected, Microsoft said. It urged those able to upgrade to do so.

Manage Multiple Windows by Peeking Through

Wondering what window you have open behind the other? With this app, you can make your windows transparent to manag your windows better!