Did you watch President Barak Obama’s State of the Union address last night? Did you watch it on television, or on You Tube, or on Yahoo, or on…?
You had so many choices because last night’s State of the Union went social. Social media outlets from Facebook to Twitter has been used to promote and/or report on the annual speech to target teens, Millennials, and anyone else who consider themselves Internet savvy. And that’s not all. Traditionally, a news embargo (a gentlemen’s agreement between media and sources) was enforced to not reveal the State of the Union until after the address had been delivered. And yes, they do send the press a copy of the President’s speech trusting it won’t leak to the public. This year was different. A copy of the speech was sent to blog platform and alternative journalism website Medium.com?to make the speech public even before delivery. White House Adviser Dan Pheiffer called this preview ‘SOTU spoilers’. The Obama administration has used Twitter to preview technological issues such as cyber security and the broadband Internet debate.
President Obama knows support among 18-35 year olds is slipping. This is a great way to win them back.??And like President Obama himself said, “I’m done campaigning…I won both mine.” So now it’s less about winning elections, or helping win people elections. It’s about leaving a lasting legacy for future generations. And using tools and strategies like this could set the stage for the next president and the one after that to keep the younger generation involved. But my question is why did the administration use Medium to break the age old news embargo? Why not CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN? I think it’s because more people are blogging and reading turning to alternative media than ever before, and they know it. So this is the kind of media they’re reaching out to. So what does this say about the state of mainstream media today?
Since the dawn of the Internet, many have used it’s dating services to look for love. That’s not going too well…I mean for online dating services like Zoosk.
Zoosk goes down in employment and leadership. Last month, it’s founders announced they opted to become board members instead of CEOs. Now, one of their spokespersons announce they’ve laid off 15% of their work force this past week. A statement said they will cut in other areas in order to sustain cost. Lately, most revenue was brought in by membership fees. But that’s hardly covered their advertising. The market isn’t helping either. They’re delaying their IPO plan well into 2015. But the biggest threat is their competition, particularly Tinder. In the last several months, while Zoosk, Ok Cupid Dating, and others have seen market shares plummet, Tinder’s share has skyrocketed, up to almost 90%. One chart took Zoosk, Match.com, Ok Cupid Dating, Hinge and Tinder. By November 2014, of those five, Tinder had 80-some percent of the market. Zoosk had under five percent among those five.
But I’d like to be personal for a moment. Yes, among these five, Tinder is blowing the competition out of the water. But there has been so many ugly stories about online dating, such as people claiming to be something they’re not. Now I know there has been many success stories of online matches. But I’ve heard some horror stories as well. I’m not that old fashioned, and I think the Internet/21st century technology can be used for doing wonderful things. Meeting your soul mate shouldn’t be one of them. What ever happen to 1st dates, meeting people at socials, or dare I say it because I don’t want to encourage too many people, even the bar scene? Human interaction has linked men and women together for millennium. Don’t you think human interaction will work for our generation too?
Whether it’s Conflickr or a new fake anti-spyware program, it seems like spyware and viruses are inescapable for any computer connected to the Internet. It’s estimated that the amount spent annually on security software in the United States has risen to over $800 million in recent years, but computers are still getting infected daily. Why aren’t we virus free yet?
The answer lies in the nature of malicious programming. Computer viruses don’t spring up out of nowhere, they’re designed by programmers who either have nothing better to do and think it will be interesting, or professionals who make money by abusing your computer. Whenever anti-virus vendors are made aware of a new virus, they create a new definition for their anti-virus software to help isolate and remove that virus if it is downloaded onto your computer. Once the new definition is widespread enough that a significant percentage of computers are safe against that virus, a new one is created by the malicious programmers and the cycle begins again. Nearly two thousand new viruses were identified every day in 2007, and the problem isn’t going away any time soon. This is why you need to allow your anti-virus software to download new virus definitions so often.
Frustrated hackers tired of the rapid turnover of “regular” viruses have graduated to attacking your computer’s defences directly: your anti-virus software. Many new viruses include programming that either hides itself specifically from several popular anti-virus programs, prevents them from downloading new virus definitions, or shuts them down entirely. Even when these new viruses are identified quickly, many computers will already be infected and the software on the machines will be unable to remove the virus. In cases where one virus shuts down the anti-virus software entirely, other viruses will often infect the machine and can render it inoperable in a matter of hours if not minutes. Still other nasty viruses employ tricks to avoid removal techniques, and will re-infect a machine after an anti-virus program or a user tries to delete them.
The fight against computer viruses is non-stop, but you can do something to help protect your system. Installing a good anti-virus program and allowing it to update frequently is just the first step, but beware of fake anti-virus programs you may find online (many of these are viruses themselves). The fake anti-virus programs normally go by the names: Antivirus 2010 Pro, Windows Pro Police, System Guard? 2009, Personal Antivirus, Antispyware XP 2009, and many more. You can see a pattern in how they name themselves. Never download anything from a person or website you don’t trust, never open a suspicious email (you don’t always have to open the attachments to get infected), and don’t go to websites with a poor reputation. If you take these steps and your computer still gets infected, have a trained professional remove the virus for you instead of trying to remove it yourself. Modern viruses can be very difficult to isolate and remove, and it’s very easy to damage your system accidentally while trying to remove one.
If you’ve got a slow computer and think you’re infected, call Computer Geeks today. Our techs have the tools needed for proper virus removal and have access to fast breaking news about new types of viruses and their removal. Computer Geeks is a nationwide on-site computer service and repair company.? If your computer has any of the following problems, we can help: Slow computer, Virus or Spyware, Computer startup problems, Printer not printing, Not connecting to the Internet, Scanner not working, or the “blue screen of death”. We also offer other technical support services, including: New pc setup, Data Backup or Recovery, Wireless network setup, Business Network Firewall setup, Upgrading memory, cpu, hard drives, video cards, and more. You can pick up the phone at any time and call us at 1-800-GEEK HELP (433-5435).
All of us Geeks in the tech community HATE Internet Explorer with a passion. Hell, I’ll download Safari on my PC before I’ll use it. I’ll switch back to dial-up and use a Net-Zero browser before you see IE on a computer that I own. Apparently Microsoft has made it’s own New Year’s Resolution, to rid the world of IE! In comes Spartan,? an entirely new, light-weight browser that should be able to compete better with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Sticking with their obsession with the Xbox phenomenon “Halo” to theme all of it’s new products (“Cortana” is their version of “Siri”), more than likely to appeal to the younger audience.
Spartan will make it’s grand entrance in 2015 coupled with Microsoft Windows 10, and although they aren’t “replacing” IE, lets be honest, Internet Explorer 11, should be the last iteration of that browser. Internet Explorer has been losing market share among computer browsers for years (it?s at about 58 percent today, according to NetMarketshare.com, compared to more than 90 percent 10 years ago), and browsers from Apple and Google dominate the mobile market.
Spartan should support extensions, and will more than likely be using an updated version of the Trident rendering engine, which means it should be able to go blow for blow with Chrome and Firefox. On January 21st, Microsoft plans to show some of the new features of Windows 10 and in all likelihood, we should get a peak at Spartan. Unless the software isn’t ready yet, in which case they don’t need Spartan’s first appearance to be riddled with a bug, or a crash, which would be fatal to the project.
Windows 10 is designed to run on many different devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones. Microsoft?s goal is for the user to be able to have a familiar experience no matter what type of devices they?re using, and to that end, if ?Spartan? is indeed under development, we?re likely to see both desktop and mobile versions in the end. Internet Explorer 11 is already available for Windows computers, tablets, and phones, so the two browsers will probably coexist for the foreseeable future.
Internet Explorer made its debut in 1995 as part of the Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft hasn?t built an entirely new browser since then ? all its focus in that area has been on keeping Internet Explorer up to date ? so a made-from-scratch ?Spartan? would be a big deal for the company and for customers.
And maybe Microsoft wont have to deal with these memes anymore..
Computer Geeks would like to take this time to wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas! We hope all is well and everyone stays safe this holiday. Lets hope that Santa was nice and got you a fancy new tech gadget, or a new computer! If you are having any issues with your new technology device feel free to call us. Our call center is open all day today and we are available for service calls starting Friday the 26th!
We’d also like to thank all of you out there that have supported our business and our staff throughout the years that you have been great, loyal customers. It has been an honor and a privilege servicing the Beacon Hill and Boston community every day for the last 18 years! We look forward to a great new year in 2015, but for now, let me summarize some of the new, and old services Computer Geeks can provide for you
So I wanted to do something funny for you guys on Xmas and give you the 12 Days of Geek Christmas. This is an assortment of “gifts” our customers give to us throughout the year. I’m going to fill it with lovely pictures, and memes, and just overall fun things that should put a smile on your faces for the Holidays!
On the 12th Day of Geek Christmas my customer gave to me, 12 Trojan Viruses!
Please don’t trust him. Never open something when you don’t know what it is, or else they’ll getcha.
Here at Computer Geeks we are the nation’s leader in Dental IT Support, and there are days where everything goes haywire, and Dentists panic, till they call us!
Another thing we have all done, whether we dropped it, kicked it, stepped on it or just closed it real hard when there was something on the keyboard, we all need laptop screen repair.
http://youtu.be/1gyzSdGjJU8
On the 4th Day of Geek Christmas my customer gave to me, 4 water damaged laptops
On the 3rd Day of Geek Christmas my customer gave to me, 3 Paper Jams
