Computer Support Blog

It has been almost eight years since bovine spongiform encephalopathy, more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, was an international story.  While dramatic agricultural reforms in the meat industry played a large role in keeping Mad Cow Disease from spreading, computer support via computerized models continue to play a key role in monitoring and preventing a Mad Cow outbreak.  Computer models that calculate far more accurately than a single person could are now protecting humans.

According to “Mad Cow And Computer Models: The U.S. Response To BSE,” the sheer number of variables needed to calculate the vectors of a Mad Cow Disease outbreak are staggering.  Despite the seemingly daunting task of correlating all of the necessary data through computer support techniques, the USDA now has a model to predict and calculate the vectors of a Mad Cow Disease outbreak.

One of the significant challenges in predicting and tracing the outbreak of a prion disease like Mad Cow Disease is that the disease is only evident through an autopsy of an infected cow.  Once an infected cow is found, the race begins to trace back all of the relevant factors in that cow’s life.  Those factors include: the food source that each infected cow was fed from, every location where the cow lived, every cow in the herd with the infected cow each time the infected cow was sold and the location of the infected cow’s parents and offspring, if any exist.

To get this data, the USDA must have access to complicated databases of shipping records, sales records and inventory controls for both cattle and the cattle’s food supply.  While the USDA must be vigilant for these models to work, the most common challenge to the model is human error, missing data, or computer support failures.  However, with the database working ideally, the USDA hopes to have a rapid response plan in place to prevent both an outbreak that would endanger the United States and a series of sweeping mass cattle executions that would effectively end the beef industry.

The USDA’s database, if properly maintained, will allow ranchers to target specific cattle when authorities find an infected cow.  Based on feed source, herd and sales records, the USDA would inform every rancher who had a potentially exposed cow in their herds.  In other words, the database provides the possibility that the infected cow’s food source could be traced back and then predicted for all cows in the database.  Then, ranchers would be notified of which of their cows were likely infected with Mad Cow Disease and they could be killed before ever entering the human food chain.  And, if potentially infected cows already entered the human consumption market, the USDA could issue a more precise recall.

The computer models for Mad Cow Disease rely upon vigilance, precision and updates over a long period of time, but they offer the greatest potential for humans to survive an outbreak.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

People are listening to more music than ever before, and free Internet radio is all the rage these days. Millions of people rely on Internet radio like Pandora and Jango to provide their daily dosage of tunes. Internet radio continues to garner more popularity as it offers listeners free music, as well as the chance to more-or-less customize their music preferences. It’s a great way to discover new favorites while remaining in your musical comfort zone. But what happens when you don’t want to just tune into what’s playing and want to listen to a specific song? In case you are wondering, no, the answer is not to illegally download the music, a practice that poses an immense threat to your Internet security, among other inherent reasons not to. Well, one option is to buy songs and use Google Music or iTunes to organize your library, but what if you don’t own that much music and you don’t want to pay every time you want to listen to Adele in the background? The answer is Spotify, an Internet music streaming service that lets users pick the exact tracks they want to listen to!

The first question that comes to mind is price. The good news is that Spotify offers a free version. Naturally, subscribers to the free plan experience occasional radio ads and other limitations like a lower sound quality and no offline mode. According to Wikipedia, after an initial grace period, the free version supports only 10 hours of music streaming per month, which is not that much for many people. Still, most Spotify users, around 7.5 million, currently use the free version, and given the service’s popularity, these numbers are certainly going to increase!

Upgrading to an unlimited account has the advantage of better music quality, fewer ads, and ability to listen in an offline mode. Spotify also boasts smartphone apps iOS and Android. So, similar to Google Music’s online storage feature, Spotify can act as a cloud music library. Regardless of which version you use, Spotify offers more than 15 million songs, having reached agreements with the big four music labels.

The service is quickly expanding to many European countries, and despite only having been active in the United States for a few months, it’s gaining immense popularity. Spotify recently announced in a blog post that is has reached 2.5 million paying users. Another recent major development has been the collaboration of Spotify and Facebook. To register for the service, you must use a Facebook  account—there’s no way around it. Once you sign up, you can share playlists and songs with friends, see what tracks others are listening to and follow your friends’ recommendations.

There are plenty of ways to listen to music. Spotify is just one of them, sure, but it’s also drastically different. Finally, we have a service that actually lets us listen to the music we want, share it, and instantly stream it for free.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

When one spends thousands of dollars on a dog, they need something that protects that investment and the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System does exactly that.  A family pet can be one of the most expensive investments, from the initial purchase to the ongoing investment in the dog’s health and training, and it is the investment most likely to literally run away.  The Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System may not be able to prevent escape artist dogs, but it does allow one to find a dog on the loose.

The Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System is a GPS system for medium to large dogs that comes with both the Astro 320 handheld device and the DC 40 collar unit for on the dog.  The Astro 320 handheld GPS device is self-contained and, as such, does not require any additional computer support to operate or update the unit.  The DC 40 collar is a specialized GPS transmitter that interfaces with the owner’s Astro 320.

The Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System is like a standard automobile GPS system.  The DC 40 is a collar that one simply puts on their dog and activates.  With a seventeen to forty-eight hour charge, the DC 40 ensures that a lost dog will not stay that way for very long.

The Astro 320 component of the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System is a handheld GPS device that includes a bright, full color screen with preloaded topographical maps.  The position of the dog is indicated with a high-contrast color dot or, when tracking a moving dog, a line.  The Astro 320 also features a compass module to help the user more effectively follow the escaped or hunting canine.  With the tracker function on, the Astro Dog Tracking System easily keeps the user informed to prevent users from following a dog’s trail after the dog has doubled back or changed direction.

One of the most appealing features of the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System is that the system may be used the moment it is removed from the box.  The user does not need to subscribe to an expensive monthly mobile phone plan to access the data from the transmitter.  Unlike many pet GPS products, the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System does not rely upon any other product or service.  At the same time, the Astro 320 features a port through which the user may upgrade to premium services, but most users will find the out-of-the-box benefits of the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System to be more than enough to safeguard their dog’s wellbeing.

Hunters, tourists, dog owners on vacation with their beloved canine and owners whose dogs who have a large property to roam will find that the Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System is all they need to recover their dog when the dog escapes.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

If you’re ever in the mood to find out if your email account’s user name or password have been compromised by a hacker—and if you’re brave enough to want to know the truth—consider giving PwnedList.com a try. The website offers a tool that allows people to check if some of their online data has been compromised.

The website began as an experiment to see how many compromised email accounts could be harvested programmatically, according to the tool’s creators. In less than two hours, approximately 30,000 accounts (usernames and passwords) were collected, showing just how vulnerable some people’s Internet security was.

PwnedList does not hack into people’s accounts to collect their data! It extracts usernames and emails from account dumps and stores the usernames and passwords in an encrypted form to prevent them from being re-hacked.

“The purpose of this project is to hopefully to raise security awareness, encourage users to be more proactive about handling their personal security in cyberspace and at the same time help people monitor their accounts for potential compromises,” says the PwnedList website.

One way to understand how PwnedList works is by thinking of it as a volunteer who searches the Internet, both manually and using complex programs, for information dumps. When PwnedList finds dumps of usernames and passwords, it encrypts them then adds them to its database. At the time this article was written, PwnedList bragged 4981012 discovered usernames and emails.

As cool as PwnedList is, it’s important to remember that it’s by no means an alternative to safe Internet security practices. The easiest of these is changing your passwords regularly and making them long and difficult. PwnedList is merely a way to casually check if any of your accounts’ information has been collected by a hacker somewhere.

The limitation of the tool, though, is that it references your information against the data it has collected over time. In other words, your information may very well have been hacked or compromised but not collected by PwnedList. If that’s the case, relying on PwnedList as a litmus test can be misleading.

Overall, PwnedList is a cool tool that offers an interesting, albeit limited, service. Give it a try. And don’t get too excited if your results come back positive—that means you’ve been hacked!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

With all of the changing technologies and new products, having computer support is no laughing matter.  When you need computer repairs, you want a company that provides efficient, professional service that addresses all your computer repair and computer support needs.  Even so, there is a rich amount of humor found in customer service calls to computer support technicians.  Communications problems frequently hamper computer repair over the phone or through online computer support. The inability of the technician to see and directly interact with the equipment they are repairing also creates issues.  The communications issues between computer support personnel and customers are the subject of a number of websites on the Internet.   Here are some of the best:

Computer Stupidities: Calls From Hell – This site features excruciating computer support calls from customers who take every word literally or do not understand the purpose of the disc for the game they just bought!  The computer support technicians attempt to aid customers with support issues and computer repairs with frequently hilarious results.  This site has some of the most in-depth humorous dialogues between computer support workers and actual customers.

Tales From The Techs – For more random computer support calls, technicians upload their humorous stories here.  Less technical than many of the computer repair humor sites, this features stories from the customer support technicians themselves and is worth a few good grins.

Funny Support Calls – Tech Support Jokes – This is a great site for quick jokes, as opposed to in-depth humorous stories between customers and computer support technicians.  These jokes from the perspective of computer repair technicians and computer support professionals are quick zingers that will make you smile and are work-safe.

The Joy Of Tech – For the visually-inclined, this is a tech-themed Internet comic strip that features daily geek humor.  While not limited to computer support jokes, this comic strip is intended for those who see the humor in computer repair and the oddities of computer design.  Anyone who understands the frustration of the computer support technicians on the other humor sites is likely to be computer-literate enough to get a real kick out of this comic strip.

Computer support and computer repair should be done by technicians who are patient, kind and professional.  While there is humor in the foibles of over-the-phone and online computer support calls, be sure to get your service with a company that respects your business and your dignity.  Rescuecom hires their computer support professionals and computer repair technicians with that in mind; our sense of humor is just an added part of the service!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

In the absence of true cable competition, and with little regulation to prevent cable companies from ridiculously overpricing customers, people are starting to get fed up with how much they have to dish out for television. While some staunch free-market believers might still be waiting for a little laissez-faire to kick in, others are ready to stop supporting giant cable greed and are looking for other ways to get their weekly dosage of “Glee,” “Law and Order,” or “Frasier.”

Though many cable companies offer a cheap introductory rate, users quickly start seeing price hikes, which is why many people are looking into online streaming options like Netflix and Hulu in order phase out cable completely. In fact, switching to alternative services isn’t a bad idea given the right settings.

For starters, the bill for a monthly subscription with either Netflix or Hulu remains, thankfully so, in the single digits, with both plans starting at 7.99. Better yet, Hulu offers a limited free service! For an added cost, Netflix subscribers can get DVDs by mail. Netflix’s long-term plan, though, is to phase out the mail service completely, but that’s not necessarily bad, since it will create more streaming options.

In terms of offerings, Netflix has thousands of documentaries, dramas, critically acclaimed works, foreign films, and popular movies as part of its offerings, with hundreds added daily. So if you’re a film buff, you’re definitely going to get more out of Netflix than you ever would with a regular cable connection. For television fans, Hulu’s the way to go. Hulu also offers thousands of movies, but these are nothing too fancy. The real gem is the more than 16,000 episodes from more than 400 current and classic TV shows.

If you plan on watching a lot of Hulu or Netflix, make sure you understand the extent to which these services drain your network service. According to Netflix, one hour of streaming will use up close to 1 GB of bandwidth and works best on a connection speed of  500kbps (0.5MB). Both services can be used via gaming devices like the Wii, Xbox, or PS3.

Lastly, both services allow you to place your subscription on hold for a while in case you’re travelling or busy for a while.

The biggest limitation of abandoning cable is decentralization. Instead of getting most, or all, of your entertainment from one spot, you’re going to have to switch between Hulu, Netflix, and online news services to compensate. You’ll also find that Netflix has limited and problematic parental control; Hulu’s is even worse.

If you’re willing to deal with multiple entertainment outlets, then you might survive ditching cable. Unfortunately, you need both Hulu and Netflix for a more complete entertainment experience. At the end of the day, if you do watch a lot of television and like the surprise of variety that comes with it, you might have to stick with cable. You won’t be able to find a resource that brings together as many cooking shows, for example, online. As for Google TV, that’s a different story with a different blog.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Over the past few years, blogs have become a standard online entity. Thanks to a variety of free blogging interfaces, anyone with an interest in writing for the public may do so. People blog on everything from sports to technology to politics to cat grooming to education. For the average Internet user this probably marks a positive transformation towards a more egalitarian cyber landscape in which everyone has a chance to speak. Prior to the rise of Twitter “reporting,” blogs were the most significant outlet for i-reporting, news and event reporting done by the average, untrained individual. However, from the perspective of the media gatekeepers, those whom we used to entrust with filtering news as it passed through the gates of the media, the rise of the blogging culture marks a dangerous transformation in the public’s relationship to news.

First of all, because blogs vary so drastically in content and purpose, it is impossible to discuss the entire blogosphere as one giant lump. This is why it is important to make distinctions between problematic pseudo-news blogs and other, helpful, and entertaining, blogs. Perhaps the only problematic type of blog is the one that attempts to inform on public affairs and events, often trying to demand the same authority as news outlets. Other kinds like opinion, computer support, film, arts, and environment blogs are, for the most part, great.

Most blogging activity does in fact signify the proliferation of the public voice in previously elite areas. Now the casual citizen can talk about politics; the avid gardening fan can give soil advice; the ambitious cook can document her journey cooking through Julia Child’s recipes. The problem emerges when ordinary people try to cover serious, national, and world news in lieu of traditional news reporting. As people’s mistrust of large corporations expands to include news agencies, many look elsewhere for their news, which is one reason i-reporting is so appealing—it’s reporting from the people for the people. In truth though, this is an absurd dynamic. The “people” simply do not have the same training or resources as professional journalists.

To keep up with these trends in news blogging, traditional news reporters are often forced to maintain their own blogs. Though harmless on the surface, this phenomenon defies the traditionally staunch separation of news and opinion. In many ways, by opining on the same topics on which they report, journalists are committing the same industry faux pas as registering with a political party, something that is generally not permitted for reporters in order to ensure fair and unbiased reporting.

In the end, the dynamics of blogging are still emerging, so we have to carefully interact with this relatively modern aspect of the cyber world until it takes a stable form. When it comes to news, there’s still no alternative to real news sources like The New York Times, the BBC, or CNN. Simply put, these institutions spend lots of money covering the news accurately and efficiently. Bloggers have no primary contact with news, and don’t have the resources that newspapers and television reporters do.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

In the wake of news stories about viruses and identity theft, Internet security remains a very real concern for everyone who goes online today.  Internet security issues have created a big business for programmers in the virus removal industry. But with dozens of computer anti-virus programs available on the market, it is hard to know which provides the best virus removal and the greatest Internet security.  For that, the best response may be overkill.

Researching Internet security issues and virus removal protocols is enough to make the head spin of anyone who is not a trained computer expert.  Astute computer users who just want to check out what the current threats to their computer are become baffled by technical jargon.  Looking at reports from the major Internet security companies like Symantec are likely to leave the average computer user confused.  After reading their report on the Packed.Generic.340, most computer users will not know how serious a threat it represents to their computer or if they need any form of virus removal.

Many companies that specialize in Internet security rely upon more than one antiviral software product to ensure they are adequately protecting their computer or network.  Some of the leading Internet security companies take the time to test the leading products on criteria like malware detection and virus removal.  AV Comparatives recently released their report on their tests of anti-viral software.  Even that, though, may be too much for the common computer user to handle and process.  Their testing methods are rigorous, methodical and designed for the best minds in Internet security and virus removal to understand.

Businesses only survive online when they have adequate Internet security and powerful virus removal.  Thousands of businesses and home computer users use the Rescuecom Internet Security Suite.  Rescuecom has one of the most reputable Internet security and virus removal products on the market.  As a leader in Internet security and virus removal, Rescuecom has a proven track record for business and home computer users.  Even though the Rescuecom Internet Security Suite may have more virus removal options and greater Internet security provisions than the average user is likely to need, you have to ask, “If the professionals are using this much protection, shouldn’t I?”

The answer, of course, is that you should.  With the threats of identity theft, infections that require aggressive virus removal and emerging Internet security concerns, private computer users should not skimp on their anti-viral software: overkill is safer than being under protected.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Google has finally released its latest application, Google Music. The search engine giant officially made the latest Google service available Wednesday. Google Music is a simple concept with big ambitions, namely, to emerge in the online music world as a viable iTunes competitor. The service combines an online locker service with a music marketplace.

Google has gotten three of the big four music labels to sign on, as well as Merlin, a collection of larger independent labels, according to the L.A. Times. The only major music label that hasn’t yet signed on is Warner.

Though in general, the blogosphere received GMusic in a cool—maybe even hostile—way, there were still plenty of blogs and websites who found lots worth admiring in GMusic. Many people have automatically dismissed GMusic as an iTunes alternative that will fail, but we know from recent history (Kindle Fire, Android phones) that not all Apple alternatives fail. Indeed, there’s plenty of room for multiple service providers in the tech world, which is a good thing for innovation, competition and prices.

Rather than merely looking at GMusic and seeing how it fails against iTunes, we need to consider how viable its potential for growth is. Surely, we can’t expect it to take down iTunes a mere few days after its launch.

Google Music offers two main services, as well as a variety of smaller features here and there. The first is a cloud storage system for music. Google’s service allows users to store up to 20,000 songs for free. On the other hand, Apple’s iTunes cloud charges users $25 a year for a very similar service. With the cloud storage, of course, comes the ability to stream content from one’s cloud library to any device that has the free Google Music app, which is currently available for Android, or just access the service using a regular web browser. Compared to iTunes, this is really a breakthrough—no limit on number of devices that can link to the cloud (ten for iTunes users) and no need to have iTunes installed on each of them.

GMusic comes with an easy-to-use music manager that users can download for free from the online service. Once downloaded the music manager lets users upload their music to the cloud, where they can organize it. Some users complain that the uploading process takes too long, but given the fact that the service is free and that the uploading is a onetime thing, that shouldn’t really matter.

The other big service is GMusic’s marketplace. With big names like Universal and EMI, Google is offering users over 13 million songs, some of which are free.

So, even though at first, the service doesn’t seem all that amazing, a closer look reveals that it’s actually very appealing. It’s free music backup, free cloud access and storage, and occasionally free music. The interface is simple and attractive; the available collection is on the rise. What’s not to like?

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

When it comes to giving wedding gifts, dressing for interviews, drinking tea, writing thank-you letters, and an endless array of other social situations where proper etiquette is desirable, Emily Post’s Etiquette might just be the official American canon of Etiquette. The fact that the book’s latest edition includes several new chapters on online activity, social networking, and digital communication etiquette is a sign that etiquette is very much a dynamic standard. More importantly, though, it’s a sign that digital communication—Facebook , for example—has become such a significant and serious part of our lives that it demands inclusion in the canonical discussion of etiquette.

According to Fox News, the latest edition of the book confirms some common sense expectations about handling email correspondence, for example. “Etiquette” says that you should respond to personal emails within two days and to business correspondence within 24 hours. While it’s good to keep that knowledge in the back of our minds, in reality, most of us already respond to emails very quickly. Still, larger business and big companies who take forever to respond might want to skim through Post’s new book for an etiquette tip or two.

When it comes to Facebook, Emily’s advice might seem counterintuitive to many, but in the end, it comes as a relief. According to the book, Facebook users aren’t obligated to respond to every friend request. What a relief. We’ve all gotten undesirable friend requests from family members, coworkers, or, simply, annoying people that we don’t want to let into our cyber social space! Recent changes to Facebook now allow users to delete unwanted requests, instead of just ignoring them or leaving them in, what was colloquially known as, Facebook quarantine.

In fact, the etiquette guidelines not only permit rejecting friend requests, but they also permit unfriending (AKA, defriending). In other words, having contacted an old lost friend or family member once, there’s no rule that says that person must forever have access to your Facebook  profile and social activity. Indeed, regularly unfriending low-contact friends and acquaintances is an easy way to protect your online Internet security—the less people have access to your account, the less you risk your information falling in the wrong hands.

For many of us, this might seem a little odd. After all, one of the biggest reasons we accept annoying friend requests is our fear of being judged or a sense of guilt. We shouldn’t feel guilty at all, though. Requests require approval for a reason—they’re not mandatory. Also, never feel guilty or embarrassed about untagging yourself from a photo or link that you don’t like. The same applies to posting photos. If the photos aren’t of your event, then don’t post them unless you have permission.

For a more detailed analysis of etiquette, in general, and online etiquette—or netiquette as some call it—check out the latest Post edition, all 736 pages of it.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com