Computer Support Blog

Once upon a time, there were three fields of vision.  Normal vision was considered a range around twenty feet away and with ideal vision you could see everything there clearly.  When humanity was hunting to survive, seeing farther way became important.  With the invention of the written word and, especially, printed text, the ability to see close objects became essential.  With the rise of technology tends to come new problems and for computer users, one of the most serious is computer eye strain.

Computer eye strain is a condition reported by fifty percent of computer users.  Computer eye strain can manifest itself in symptoms as benign as slightly dry or itchy eyes to the more extreme migraine headaches.  There are several causes of computer eye strain.

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Serious photographers who live on the cheap and use computers for their digital photography are feeling the squeeze.  One of the best sites for altering digital photographs is closing down on April 19, 2012 and the virtual world of the Internet will be a little worse off for it.  The site is called Picnik and is has announced that it will be ending service soon, sending many photographers scrambling.

Picnik is, at least for the next few weeks, a free website where you could alter photographs you took.  The site was simple.  You uploaded a picture to their site, where Picnik provided tools to crop, resize, alter lighting and color settings, reduce red eye and do several other alterations to your photograph.  When you had the picture looking the way you liked it, you could download your altered picture and move on to more pictures.  This was a wonderful alternative to expensive, licensed programs like Adobe Photoshop or Photo Explosion.  Through Picnik, you could transform the photo you actually took into the photo you wanted it to be.

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When you are not a member of a certain subculture, you may be entirely ignorant of its existence, much less what the principles and beliefs are for that culture or group.  As the Internet has effectively made the world smaller by connecting people from obscure subcultures, it has made learning about different groups of people much easier.  One of the most intriguing subcultures that has a surprising interest in computers and technology is the steampunk movement.

The steampunk subculture is preoccupied with reimagining the modern world as if steam power was still the dominant form of power.  The steampunk movement glorifies the sense of style of the Victorian Era and redesigns our modern conveniences to fit that style.  One of the very best resources on the Internet for those looking to understand steampunk is The Steampunk Workshop.

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Angry Birds is very cool and it is time we acknowledged that.  Angry Birds may have started as a limited computer game for smartphones, but it has evolved into a real cultural phenomenon.  In addition to the smartphone game, Angry Birds is now a merchandising bonanza.  Stuffed toys, t-shirts and other swag featuring Angry Birds hit the market right in time for the holidays last year and were very popular among a diverse range of ages and subcultures.  Even Hartz, the pet product manufacturer, licensed Angry Birds for dog and cat toys!

Why is Angry Birds so cool?  First, Angry Birds is very easy to buy.  The popular game started its life as a game application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.  Because those products featured a touchscreen, Angry Birds exploded onto the market as one of the first games that utilized that technology well.  Apple customers were excited about their touchscreens and Angry Birds gave them something to get truly excited about.  While Angry Birds was originally only available as an Apple app, with the rise of Android, the game’s publisher, Rovio, expanded the programming to allow it to play on the Android Operating System.  Now, there are versions of Angry Birds for virtually every platform, including Windows, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo 3DS!

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Have you had enough with portable technology devices?  If you said ”yes,” it can hardly be considered a surprise.  More than any other time in history, the consumer electronics market is overflowing with options . . . so many that it is easy to fail to see what the point of it all is.  Media players alone have become a market where the options seem to be designed more for competition between products than actually filing a niche that is desperately yearning to be filled.

For small-screen devices, you have your smartphones.  While many of the smartphones have screens that are less than 2” for the diagonal screen measurement, the iPod Touch changed the nature of such devices when Apple released it with a 3.5” screen.  This created a niche of handheld devices that could surf the Internet and perform all sorts of media functions, including playing movies and music.  The Apple iPhone added telephone communication to that and with that, Apple firmly entered the smartphone wars.

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Every major industry has a merchandising arm designed to attract business.  If you have ever been to a medical conference, you may have gotten nauseated seeing how much money pharmaceutical companies pour into some of the weirdest swag in the world.  So, it ought to be utterly unsurprising that computer companies have similar merchandising arms.  Apple, for example, has an entire line of products from clothes to pocket knives.  Similarly, to commemorate the defeat of a human chess player by the supercomputer Watson, IBM has produced some limited clothing.

The Watson cap is a black baseball cap that features the Watson logo on it!  Clearly IBM wanted Watson to be able to identify who in a crowd was allied with the supercomputer as this hat is made of quality materials.  The cloth of the hat is enzyme washed cotton twill and the adjustable strap on the back of the hat is fabric and features a buckle and grommet design.  IBM made the strap padded for comfort and easy adjustment for different head sizes.  What truly separates the Watson hat from cheap baseball caps is the embroidered Watson symbol on it.  Instead of just silk screening the bright blue and green symbol on the black cap, IBM embroidered the symbol so it will not chip off or fade as easily!

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There are very few computer-related items as stylish, distinctive, or varied as the USB Flash Drive.  You can find flash drives for virtually any occasion or sense of style.  For the uber-geek, there are Star Wars flash drives and for Twi-hard girls, there is even a Twilight USB flash drive.  What about manly men who want a distinctive USB flash drive?  For the masculine man with a sense of whimsy, there are Flash Rods.

Flash Rods are handmade USB flash drives in the shape of popular or memorable automobiles.  Since 2004, Flash Rods have been integrating die-cast toy cars and flash drives to create a fun 4 GB flash drive that appeals to car enthusiasts.  Each Flash Rod is manufactured with the male USB jack projecting out the back of the car.  Each Flash Rod slides perfectly into any female USB port, so the tires and any back fins or ornamentation of the car end before the male USB jack begins.

The distinctive cars are what make the Flash Rods cool.  Currently, there are over twenty different Flash Rods available.  Many of the basic Flash Rods come in different colors.  If you have a favorite car type, you can pick up multiple Flash Rods to keep different files on different color Flash Rods of the same model car!  The basic Flash Rods include the Volvo 1800, GT 40 #11, a Delorean and Rudolf’s New Car.  There is an entire section featuring modern cars, like the Audi R8 and a Camero, and another section featuring muscle cars like a 1967 Mustang GT500 and a Studebaker Pick Up!  As well, there are some neat variants, like a clear race car.

Women need not feel excluded from the Flash Rods phenomenon!  Women make up a sizable portion of the NASCAR audience and Flash Rods seems eager to appeal to that market.  Flash Rods produces a series of five limited edition pink Flash Rods.  The pinks are custom colors and they look amazing on vehicles like the Tesla, ’67 GTX and SLR.  The pink line is one of the most distinctive and coolest collections Flash Rods manufactures and because Flash Rods produces them in very limited quantities, you should get them while you can!

But geeks need not shun the Flash Rods; this is not just a product for the guys who used to beat you up and take your lunch money!  Flash Rods caters to the hardcore geek audience with Flash Rods of some very cool, genre-oriented vehicles.  Doc Brown’s time machine Delorean is part of the current fun inventory of Flash Rods.  As well, Flash Rods recreated the black van driven by the A-Team as a Flash Rod flash drive.

With an average price of $25 (plus shipping) the Flash Rods are a very cool way to store your valuable computer files.

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 some real challenges to overcome as it becomes the new kid on the block of social networking sites.  Even so, Google has shown resiliency in its corporate history, so there is every reason to believe that Google+ could become the next Facebook at the top of the social network food chain.  Here is why Google+ may well succeed:

1. The social network market is dynamic.  Google+ enters the social network race exceptionally late.  Even so, the rise of Facebook and Twitter over Myspace illustrates that users have remarkably little brand loyalty to their social network.  Users have Facebook for friends and family contact, Picasa for online photo storage, and LinkedIn for professional networking.  Google+ combines all of those aspects, especially the data storage options for photo albums, all on one platform.  With over 40% of social network users belonging to 3-5 social networks, it is clear that social network enthusiasts enjoy the process of exploring new networks.

2. The Google+ interface.  The Google+ social network is based on the idea that people have several different groups or cliques to which they belong.  You make your own groups and associate your friends and acquaintances with whatever group you want.  You can watch as people move you between different groups.  The advantage is that you have the ability to compartmentalize the different people in your life and that is a clever way to run a single profile over many different interests.  The ever-changing nature of the Google+ relationship model encourages you to check in frequently.

3. The advertising.  Google+ advertising constantly during prime time this holiday season hits all of its key demographics fast, making it seem like it is an already established phenomenon.

4. A solid revenue model.  Google+ arrives on the social networking scene with its fundamental advertising revenue model in place.  Because Google’s AdSense is already in place and integrated with the Google+ platform, Google does not need to devote nearly as many resources to courting advertisers.

Google wants a piece of the social networking business, but they are coming very late with Google+.  Even so, it seems the platform has everything needed for Google to have another success in its portfolio.  Because social network users are fickle enough to constantly change their relationships, Google+ seems to have an interface that speaks directly to its target demographic.  Just as Google+ allows users to move friends among different groups the user creates, Google hopes to woo users from the other social networks.  Hopefully, it has a model to keep them there once they land on Google+!

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 early 1990s, Decipher acquired the licensing rights to several lucrative franchises and developed Customizable Card Games for Star Trek and Star Wars.  As the CCG market changed, Decipher lost the license to Star Wars and then Star Trek.  What Decipher underestimated was the commitment their players had!  That commitment to the game has sprouted The Holotable and The Continuing Committee and the advent of “virtual” gaming cards.

When Decipher changed its corporate direction, it decided to dump the vast online support network it had created for players of the Star Trek CCG.  Undeterred by lack of corporate support, a band of Star Trek CCG players acquired the Star Trek content from Decipher’s significant website and created The Continuing Committee.

The Continuing Committee is an online resource for players of the defunct Star Trek CCG.  More than a reference for what Decipher created, the Continuing Committee has continued developing the game through collections of virtual gaming cards.  The virtual gaming cards present images with game text in the format of the original Decipher cards.  All of the various corners of the Star Trek universe that Decipher did not have a chance to incorporate into the game have been rendered online by a dedicated community of player/developers.  Online, they create “cards” that allow them to continue playing their beloved game well-beyond the static product represented by Decipher’s cancellation of the product line.  The Continuing Committee’s efforts are not a true progression of the game in the virtual world; players are encouraged to print the virtual cards and then play those physical cards.

What is a pretty incredible reimaging of the defunct physical game is the effort made by The Holotable.  When Decipher discontinued the Star Wars CCG, another company launched a Star Wars trading card game.  Players who invested so much time and money in Decipher’s product and game mechanic resisted the other release.  They founded The Holotable.

The Holotable took the idea of virtual cards to an entirely different level.  Instead of simply creating card images that matched the style and game mechanic of the Star Wars CCG, they created an entire virtual play platform.  Registering with The Holotable, players may assemble virtual decks – file folders of their virtual cards – online.  Players then play against one another by connecting through the Internet and adding their decks to a random shuffling program that then allows players to play against one another online with the sense of unpredictability for which card games are known.  Ironically, the customizable card game industry was born out of a desire to compete with video games (the same demographics tend to be targeted for both), but the Holotable has essentially saved their card game by making an exceptionally sophisticated virtual gaming platform!

They may not (usually) exist in the physical world, but the ingenuity shown by The Continuing Committee and The Holotable to transform their beloved games into virtual games online is undeniably cool.

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 recent uproar about the Stop Online Piracy Act, which many criticized as a potentially disastrous free speech violation, the major media outlets largely ignored the news out of the Supreme Court in January.  However, earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in The United States Vs. Jones, creating one of the first explicit privacy protections in the digital age.

In U.S. Vs. Jones, the Supreme Court heard arguments involving the use of a GPS tracking device against a suspect without a warrant.  The police affixed a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s vehicle without a valid warrant (law enforcement had an expired warrant executable in a location outside the jurisdiction where the GPS device was applied to the suspect’s vehicle).  On January 23, the Supreme Court ruled that applying a GPS device to an automobile without a warrant was unconstitutional.

What is most interesting about the decision is that the Supreme Court divided over the reasoning behind the ruling.  Many United States citizens forget that privacy is not a Constitutionally-protected right or freedom in the United States.  Nowhere in the United States Constitution is there an explicit protection for freedom of privacy.  While liberal Justices since the founding of the United States have argued that privacy is an implied protection under Freedom of Speech, most conservative Justices have only used property rights violations (Fourth Amendment) to take the side of pro-privacy advocates.

The majority of the Supreme Court followed that same classic argument with U.S. Vs. Jones.  What is more significant is that conservative Justice Alito wrote a concurring opinion agreeing with the ruling – that search warrants are needed to apply a GPS device to a suspect’s vehicle – but disagreeing with the reasoning.  Alito and three other Justices argued that the violation to the suspect’s property was insignificant compared to the violation of the suspect’s inherent privacy rights.  Alito’s concurrent opinion harkens back to a Supreme Court ruling in 1967 that judged – in a wiretapping case – that the Fourth Amendment is intended to protect individuals, not their property.

This is a significant ruling – especially with the concurring opinion – because technology has been developing much faster than the law.  As a result, the Supreme Court has not ruled on privacy rights for simple actions like sending and receiving e-mail, using a smartphone to take or distribute photographs or using smartphone applications to record conversations until now.  While the debate in U.S. Vs. Jones may appear to have been limited to GPS devices, the unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court is thunderous in its implications.  At this critical juncture, the Supreme Court is siding with an individual’s right to live free from government scrutiny using advanced technology.

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