Recent and relevant news items that require more than just a headline glance.
Let’s start out with one reality: You are NOT the customer of Facebook. You are the product. Rather, your attention is the product. Facebook is delivering your attention to advertisers. Since YOU aren’t paying for use of Facebook, Facebook stays alive by receiving money from advertisers vying for your attention. So it is in Facebook’s…
I am going to do my best to present only what I know and not what I think or suspect, and I’m going to try not to project my opinion onto what I’m about to write. But it’s really important that you understand that the major news outlets ran with a headline, blasted out a…
Bill Gates is synonymous with computing. Somewhat less so, unless you’re a geek, is Steve Ballmer. Ballmer was the guy who took the reins from Gates, and we kind of hold him responsible for what Microsoft has become–both good and bad. The new name to listen out for is Satya Nadella, as of February 4…
Sometimes I’ll get an email that I KNOW didn’t come from the person shown in the “from” column in my gmail online. Most of those are ending up in my spam filter these days, but every once in a while one will look legit enough that Google lets it through. Only by knowing my friends…
There’s a nasty piece of malware out there called Cryptolocker. You won’t know you’re infected with it until you get the notice that your files are encrypted and if you don’t pay $300 by a certain date the decryption key will be destroyed, causing you to lose all your files forever. At this time only…
Regardless of the method used to connect to the internet, if you use a wireless router or access point, IT NEEDS A PASSWORD–and it needs to NOT be set as “password.” If you use U-VERSE from AT&T, the password is on the bottom of the device, and it’s a good password. I don’t know how…
A reporter from Wired magazine recently got schooled in password security, which generated a lot of conversation in the tech space on keeping yourself safe in cyberspace. There is one simple thing to do to stay safe in cyberspace: stay out of it. Yeah right. That’s what I thought. So here’s the rundown: Strong passwords,…
What do Bill Gates, Hans Vestberg, John Thompson, John Donahoe, and Alan Mulally have in common? If you don’t know, you’re not alone, and if you don’t follow these circles nobody would blame you. Throw in the name Steve Ballmer and something might ring a bell, but I won’t keep you guessing. Steve Ballmer has…
First, what is “Net Neutrality?” Net neutrality is the concept that all internet traffic should be treated equally. “Treated equally” would indicate that traffic would travel at its rate of speed regardless of non-technical implications. To better understand net neutrality, let me give you an example if what is not net neutrality. You have as…
If you know me—at all—you know that I use a lot of different forms of technology, from different providers. This gives me the foundation to be able to tell you authoritatively that it is not just Microsoft that keeps changing stuff. Let’s start by saying that, although a horse and buggy is an adequate…