Truth: Microsoft Technicians are NOT going to call you and offer to help fix your computer. That means that anyone who calls you claiming to be a Microsoft Technician is NOT telling you the truth. There is no division within Microsoft tasked with calling users to help them fix their computers. Furthermore, there is no process within your operating system […]
Microsoft is Not Calling You!
Low-Tech Kind of Day
With the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico is enjoying a rare sleet/snow/freezing rain storm, most roads are closed and most businesses have put their operations on hold. This has left me with an opportunity to catch up on several projects that have been quite neglected, and it has provided me with a reminder that electronic technology does not offer […]
How Safe is Your Password?
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, different passwords, different cards, non-obvious […]
How to Change the Size of Web Pages
You may stumble on this process by accident but if you do, it’s unlikely you’ll know what you did and how to do it again when you need it. If you need to make a web page bigger, do this: From a Windows or Linux machine, hold the Control key and hit the + key. You may—or may not—need to […]
Spammers Know There’s One Born Every Minute
I remember the early days of spam emails, before there was a way to block them. There weren’t nearly as many as there are today, but we still spent a lot of time keeping our mailboxes clean. It was pretty easy to spot one, too. They were always selling something, and it was always obvious that they were selling something, […]
Who’s next for Microsoft–what we know today is subject to change tomorrow
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 been serving as Chief Executive […]
LOG OFF!!!
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 window your credentials could still […]
More Cores is the Key to Multitasking
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 what it is and what […]
How I Use Evernote to Keep Track of Stuff
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 feasible to pull off the […]
A Post about POST
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 basic components on the board […]