Category Archives: Technology

For the longest time, I was one of the people who claimed that I would never need an MP3 player. With the exception of some songs, I get tired of hearing the same old music pretty quickly. I’m rarely on the train or even in the car for a very long time. When I am, I have XM radio and often listen to Opie and Anthony, or a mix of the 80s, rock and dance channels. It’s enough to keep me entertained.

Then one day, http://www.woot.com had a special sale. 30GB Zune for $100! I figured, 30 GB would be more than I would ever need in an MP3 player, and this was a decent price. I ordered my Zune and then the fun began!

I got really into podcasts and despite loading 20 GB of music onto my Zune, I left enough room for some audio and video podcasts. I thought I’d share my play list and if you know of any cool podcasts I might like let me know. If you produce your own podcast, feel free to let me know all about it and take advantage of my blog for some free promotion.

Photography:

• This Week in Photography (TWiP)- TwipPhoto.com/
• Tips from the Top Floor – TipsFromTheTopFloor.com

Technology:

TWIT.TV with Leo Laporte and Friends – TWiT.tv

• The Tech Guy (Ask Anything about Technology w/ Leo Laporte)
• This Week in Tech (Tech News w/ Leo Laporte, John Dvorak, Patrick Norton)
• Windows Weekly (Microsoft News w/ Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, etc..)
• Security Now (Security News w/ Leo Laporte, and Steve Gibson of GRC/SpinRite)
• FLOSS Weekly (Open Source Software/Hardware discussions w/ Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz)

(Yes, There’s a lot at TWIT.TV. lol)

• Off the Hook (Hacker Podcast) – 2600.com
• Hak5 (Hacker Podcast) – Hak5.org

Random Podcasts:

• This Week in Law (Law and Technology w/ Leo Laporte and Denise Howell) – TWiT.tv
• MunchCast (Geeky Food show w/ Leo Laporte and Cammy Blackstone) – TWiT.tv
• Scam School (Bar Scams/Tricks taught by Magician Brian Brushwood) – Revision 3
• Ask a Ninja (Comical QA show with a (?) real Ninja!) – AskANinja.com

While most people complain their commute to work is too long, I often find myself complaining that it’s too short 🙂

So I’ve had some time to evaluate windows Vista. Since it’s release I’ve heard nothing but bad things about it. It’s slow, It crashes, Nothing is compatible with it, The UAC is annoying, It’s just crap! I adopted this opinion for a long time. I listen to a lot of tech pod-casts, especially those hosted by Leo Laporte (from Tech TV’s, The Screen Savers), and he’s been commenting a lot about how after a year and a half, the problems with vista have mostly been addressed. With the investment of the new PC, I decided to add Vista Home Premium to my cart and come up with my own opinion.

Installation of Vista was a breeze. I got it up and running in no time. I stepped through all my hardware and installed the specific drivers and everything just worked the way it was supposed to. The system flys, I can multitask like it’s nobody’s business! I can see how there would be a lot of issues when Vista first came out. Like XP, it takes time for manufacturers to adopt the new platform and develop the necessary drivers and software.

As I stated above, I also heard a lot of complaints about the User Access Control (UAC) that Microsoft implemented in Vista. Basically, any time I go to do something that will affect the system (i.e. requires administrator access) I am prompted. I don’t get why this is a big deal. It’s a single click that only occurs when I’m performing an “administrative” task such as installing software, changing settings, etc.. It’s perfectly acceptable and for me to know there’s that extra level of security, I have tossed my plans to turn the UAC off. It’s benefits far outweigh it’s cons.

So, here’s what I’ve been told (and believe) – When it comes to Vista, if you’re planning on upgrading a Windows XP machine, don’t. XP is a great OS. I use it on my Laptop and it has given me almost 7 years of reliability! If you get a new PC, leave Vista on it. There’s no reason to shy away from it.

And either way, if you do or don’t agree with me about Vista, Wait a year or so and you’ll be able to play with Windows 7 which I’m hearing great things about. I’m looking forward to checking it out!

I just received a chain email alerting me to a virus that came out over a year ago, so I wrote up a “usefull” chain email and sent it out as a reply. Here it is for archival purposes. I look forward to anybody’s comments, additions or arguments:

(Written July 2008 – If recieved as a chain letter, stop passing on beyond 2009!)

BASIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COMPUTER SECURITY:
Prevent Viruses, Spyware, Malware and Hackers from getting into your system:
by Jason ‘Jaypoc’ Bauman

Keep your PC up to date
Always update your PC. Most operating systems can be set up to download and install updated automatically. Once a bug in an operating system or peice of software is identified and a patch is released, it only takes malicious programmers a day or two to develop and implement a virus or worm that can take advantage of that bug. Keeping your PC patched constantly will ensure that your protected from such attacks.

Surf Safe Sites
Stick to web-sites that are well known, or run by legitimate organizations. Stay away from adult sites and sites that offer pirated software, music and movies (This includes using Peer to Peer or illegal bit-torrent sites). Often these sites are riddled with malware and spyware.

Don’t click links in email.
Spammers/Malware developers can make an address appear legitimate in an email, but clicking on the link can sometimes send you to a totally different web site. It’s always a good idea to confirm the address by checking the status bar at the bottom of the screen, or copying and pasting what you see into the address bar. If you recieve an e-card, don’t click the included link, but go directly to the site and then type in the confirmation code given in the email. Also, don’t respond to or click links in emails from people you don’t know or don’t trust.

Use a Firewall
If you’re at home, put a router (wireless or wired) between you and your internet connection. If you’re using a public hot-spot, turn on your PC’s software firewall. If you are unsure how to do so, contact your computer vendor (or send me an email. I’ll help if I can).

When in Public, pretend you have no privacy
If you use public Hot-Spots to connect to the Internet, you should keep in mind that nothing you do is private. Don’t enter any information that you wouldn’t want the person sitting next to you seeing. Unless you are using a secure website (https://) then any information send to/from your computer to the Internet could be seen by someone using special (and freely available) software on another computer nearby. When logging into sites, make sure the site offers a secure login page before typing in a name and password.

Use Strong Passwords
Easy passwords are easy to guess, or break using freely available software. Malicious hackers use “dictionaries” to guess thousands of passwords a second, and if your password is a dictionary word, or close to, it is likely to be one of the passwords that are guessed. Combine Capital and Lowercase letters as well as numbers and if allowed, symbols.A good practice is to use a phrase, make an acronym of it, and replace some of the letters with numbers or symbols. You’d be surprised how easy it is to remember very complex passwords this way.

Install Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware
Install an anti-virus program and make sure you keep it up to date. Most good antivirus programs will release updates on a daily basis. Be sure to keep your anti-virus solution up to date as a backup to catch anything that got past you. You may also want to install an Anti Mal-ware program (i.e. Spy Sweeper, Ad-Aware, Spybot). These are okay, but you generally don’t want to install more than one Anti-Virus program (same goes for firewalls). Most commercial anti-virus programs protect you from spyware nowadasy as well, so using a separate program is often not necessary.

If you took the time to read this, then you should have a pretty good idea of how to keep your PC safe and clean. Using a little common sense while online and keeping an eye out for “trouble” will greatly reduce your risk of Virus/Malware infections, and possibly even eliminate the chances completely.

If you’d like a GREAT (and entertaining) resource for keeping your computer safe, I recommend a podcast (downloadable radio program) called “The Tech Guy” podcast. Hosted by Leo Laporte, a long time technologist. The show covers everything from Home Entertainment, HDTV, Radio, Phones, Computers, Security, etc… If you want an entertaining look into “geekdom” Leo is great and he breaks things down for the less tech-saavy.

The podcast can be downloaded for multiple MP3 players at – http://twit.tv/ttg

It is also available via iTunes and the Zune Marketplace

The Tech Guy can also be heard on XM Satelite Radio and multiple local radio stations. Check your local listings.

Hey. I was hoping some of you might be able to help me out here. I’m looking for 2 online items, and perhaps some of you have these things. Feel free to email me privately if you dont want to post here.

1. An invite to Waffles (I am a former oink member and it’s tough finding a suitable replacement)

2. A Windows XP SP2 OEM Activation Crack that WORKS 😉