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…
When you finish up with your bank, or your credit card, or your electric company, make sure you look up for that little button or link that says “Log Off” and click on it. These websites have put lots of security in place but the session is still open. Even if you close the browser…
Multi-core processing is one of those terms that geeks love to use when they tell people about their computers because having multiple cores means wonderful things. Let’s start on what a processor is: A processor is a component that processes instructions from the different programs and makes outputs. That’s obviously a simplified explanation, but that’s…
It has become an increasingly busy world, hasn’t it? Seems like there’s never enough time to get to everything I want to do, and remembering everything I want to remember is nearly impossible. Technology has helped, and although I still love the feel of a pencil and paper for certain things, it’s just not…
A lot happens after you push a power button, even before you see the “splash screen.” Electronic devices—computers, tablets, phones, PDA’s (remember them?), even appliances, go through a Power On Self Test, or POST. In basic terms, it is exactly what it sounds like. As the current is applied to the system board, the most…
Sometimes you need to get inside your computer to check things out or to get rid of some dust, to keep the airflow clean. Whether it’s a laptop or a desktop, this shouldn’t scare you. Newer desktop computers are being built with easy-release mechanisms to allow you to take at least one side off….
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…
The only completely certain way to keep your kids safe online is to keep your kids offline. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get real. The internet is a wonderful tool that can provide access to the universe. It can open doors to education and entertainment. And let’s remember that not…
Everything has a cost of some type. That’s basic economics. It’s not always a monetary cost; sometimes it’s a price paid in effort, and sometimes it’s an “opportunity cost,” which means that as a result of choosing one thing you can’t take full advantage of another opportunity. An example of that would be in how…