Computer Support Blog

For those who might not have heard of it yet, there is a social network challenging Facebook for supremacy on the Internet.  It’s not Google+, either!  The social network is called Diaspora and it is an open-source alternative to Facebook that was founded on the belief that users ought to control their information and social network experience.  Diaspora is a good idea that has been plagued by problems, not the least of which are a lack of name recognition (outside the hacker community) and the suicide last November of one of the company’s four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy.  Despite the setbacks, Diaspora is poised to break out into popular culture.  If it does, it will no doubt be in part because of Rosanna Yau.

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From the time tablet computers debuted on the market, people have loved the devices’ flexibility and portability. That is why the market for tablets has increased so dramatically in the last few years and why other types of computers, namely laptops and desktops, have been garnering less attention.

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It is hard to imagine a cooler connector than the USB port.  Seriously, USB connectors truly live up to their name as being a Universal port.  USB flash drives can be cool and stylish and the ability to connect them to virtually any computer device has made the exchange of data and media exceptionally easy.  In fact, with so many different devices that use a USB port and contain a male USB jack, you are much more likely to run out of USB ports than ever before!  With the USB hub from iBuffalo, fear of not having enough USB ports may be safely set aside.

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Every new computer comes with at least a free trial of one of the many popular security scan programs. People recognize that security scan programs are important and tend to not take the time to fully read something that appears to be one of them, but which is in fact a scam, because they are afraid of getting a computer virus. By not reading everything that pops up on the screen, many people unknowingly infect their computers with malware and viruses. Many scams pretend to be legitimate security programs by telling you that you are unprotected or have a virus already, in order to gain access to your computer.

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As mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablet computers begin to dominate the electronics market, an entire generation of media enthusiasts is being marginalized.  The consumers who popularize listening to music on mp3 players and watching movies on tiny screens streamed from The Cloud are eroding the high standards producers of movies, music and quality television have when they pour their hearts into their work.  Fortunately, there are still those who are interested in immersing themselves in great music or the full movie experience.  For those consumers, there are giant-screen high definition televisions and Blu-Ray players.  For their sound system, there is the Bowers & Wilkins MT-60D Mini Theatre System.

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Any number of good ideas will fail when you do not have the right people in place to execute them.  As online advertising becomes increasingly competitive, Spongecell CEO Ben Kartzman knew that in order to compete with giants like Amazon and Google’s Adsense, he needed a staff that was both creative and could execute complex ideas.  For the computer proficiency Spongecell needed to compete in a very tight market, Kartzman turned to Blythe Dunham!

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In the wake of the Justice Department’s closure of the file-sharing and data backup website MegaUpload, most similar sites began reducing or shutting down their downloading features. The owners of these sites are concerned that they will face the same criminal charges as MegaUpload’s founders are, so they are playing it safe.

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It was not too long ago that webcams were a novelty.  Well before they were made standard equipment on virtually every laptop computer, webcams were a separate peripheral that allowed computer users to stream record and transmit small movies.  Even now webcams are a fun accessory for PCs and having an external webcam may offer you more versatility than the one embedded in your monitor or laptop computer.  For those who want more webcam options, it is hard to do better than the new Hercules HD Twist!

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There are a number of emerging online and mobile phone payment companies. No longer is the whole of the Internet beholden to PayPal for fast, secure, on-line payments. In addition to emerging mobile phone payment companies Square and Dwolla, there is Boku. If you haven’t heard of Boku, yet, that is not a surprise; it is still fairly new. But David Yoo is determined to make Boku a household name!

David Yoo is the Senior Vice President of Strategy, Product and Marketing for Boku. In that role, David Yoo is raising brand recognition and spending a great deal of time informing potential customers about the services that Boku offers. As Boku breaks into the rapidly expanding online and mobile payment market, it is David Yoo’s job to help Boku rise above the pack. So far, Yoo’s efforts have helped to net more investment from Silicon Valley investors and the launch of a multimedia advertising campaign.

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As if the public needed another reminder to be careful what they publicly share on social networking sites, the FBI is currently working on a new project that will monitor Twitter, Facebook, and other popular sites for keywords related to terrorism and other criminal activity. The FBI is asking companies to create a means of sifting through all the tweets, posts, and pictures in order to identify present and future threats.

The main purpose of the software, once developed and put into place, will be to allow the FBI to identify terrorists and criminals by highlighting social networking posts that include certain keywords. Some of these keywords will include “small pox”, “leak”, “gangs”, and “2600” (the name of a popular hacking magazine).

In order to sort through the data, the FBI wants to have the flagged posts appear on a map. Ideally, the data would be color-coded according to threat level to make it easier to identify possible incidents of criminal activity.

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