WHAT IS A SOLID-STATE DRIVE? In order to get a handle on what a Solid-State Drive is, we need to sort of understand what the term “solid state” means. In short, when we say “solid state,” we mean electronic circuitry that is built entirely of semiconductors. It may help to understand what NOT “solid state” would be. Older televisions and […]
Should You Buy a Solid-State Drive?
6 Things You Should Know About Flash Drives
These little gizmos are fabulous, aren’t they? They make it so easy to carry around everything you could ever need, in some cases even a whole operating system! I have some very geeky friends who have some distribution of Linux on a flash drive, and all they have to do is plug it into some computer somewhere and they have […]
The Top Things to Do To Avoid Malware
As a tech professional, it’s my job to clean up after computer “accidents.” But a more important aspect of my job is keeping them from happening. There is a lot of information on the web directed at cyber safety, and most of it is good. But there is one thing that you can do more to keep you safe than any other […]
Critical Information on New Ransomware
Embed from Getty Images Hot off the press, there’s a new version on ransomware that is cheaper to unlock, and there’s bad news and more bad news. Yes, they charge only a portion of a bitcoin to get the key to unlock the files they’ve encrypted. Except that they haven’t encrypted them. They’ve actually deleted the files. So if you […]
Hoax List – 5 Things That Will Never Happen
Is this meme real or is it a hoax? We want to be good people and help others. And we would like to think that wealthy people and huge companies want to pass along some goodies. Unfortunately, there are people and groups that will take advantage of your good nature or your trusting tendencies. There are also people who […]
What is “The Cloud” and Should I Be Using It?
This is a very simplified network drawing done in Microsoft Visio, using commonly accepted symbols. Something like this, only much more complex, would be used for planning a new network or an upgrade or change, or to identify where the technology components of a network are. In the center of the diagram, you see a Cloud symbol. This symbol has […]
I’m Completely Safe On a Mac Or Linux
FALSE! Well, you might be safer on a Mac or Linux machine than on an unpatched Windows machine. But just getting a Mac and never taking safety measures, and then clicking on every link that comes into your email and giving your install password to every process that requests it isn’t any safer than running any other Windows machine. Remember Willie […]
How to Get Your System Information–and Why You Might Want To
There is a lot of stuff under the hood of your computer. Today I’m going to show you how you can find out exactly what is under the hood. Why, you ask? Well, first of all, it can come in handy when you’re talking with a tech support person over the phone. Another thing is that sometimes you may want […]
Get Ready for a New Household Name
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 of this year. He has […]
The–Blue–Screen-Of–DEATH!!!!!
Every computer system has the capability of crashing. Some self-recover better than others, and some manifest it more elegantly than others. Make no mistake, regardless of what kind of computer you are using, your computer can crash. I am not particularly loyal to one hardware set or to one operating system. I use them all and I enjoy them all. […]