Tag: Tech News

Sneaky Ways Criminals Gain Access To Your Computer

burglar - Microsoft scammers try to gain access to your computerSooooo…  while I was working late tonight a malware/virus company made the mistake of calling me (Angela) to try to get me to allow them access to my computer. And I have to say, I had a GREAT time with these guys — obviously Steve and I don’t get out much. I happened to have my cellphone nearby and I recorded the entire affair. Is it awful that I had a fun with these dweebs? (Does that make me a bad person?)

I’ve uploaded the exchange. Want to hear? Want to know what they are trying to do? Want an example of how this works? Take a listen. (And don’t worry about reporting their URL, we already did that!)

Please, please don’t let people like THIS bamboozle you. Microsoft will NEVER call you and no technical support will EVER call you. If someone calls you or if there’s a number that pops up on your computer for you to call to eliminate malware and spyware — it’s a scam. Don’t fall for it.

Again, I had an absolute BLAST with these jerks. It was fun to play dumb about what they were trying to do. And it was a wonderful opportunity to educate our clients (and the general public). Do you blame me for doing my best to frustrate the begeezus out of them? The typing you hear is me preparing a report to Google on them. Yeah. I did that while I was on the phone. 🙂

Be sure to listen until the end… what a hoot!

Now, with all this said. If you have any questions about your computer, call us. We won’t call you, but we are always here for you to call us. (And, unlike these guys, we actually want you to be safe online.) Truth.

You need to know that when these guys call, and they gain access to your computer, they are doing so to INSTALL malware and viruses and to charge you money to remove what they caused. It’s pathetic, really. They should be hung by their toenails. Seriously. *shaking my head*

Computer Doc Changes Business Direction

Danville Kentucky Computer Doc Changes Business DirectionWe love our clients — the business clients, the individuals, the creatives, the entrepreneurs, the nonprofits and the public in general. We have found a wonderful place to do business here and it is gratifying to help people. We love it!

We don’t want to lose that, but we also want to have weekends occasionally and be able to stop working before the wee hours of the morning. After two years, the time has come to find a little work-life balance and to get enough rest to be able to deliver the best possible work to our clients.

We are Only Two

Steve and I recently had to consider how we do business, how many hours we can work per day, how many days we can work per week, and how we could help the most people and make the biggest difference in our community with the 24 hours available in each day.

Our business has grown to the point that we either had to hire more people — one to work in our reception area, another to work in the shop with Steve, and a third to help with graphics and website development — or we had to trim back on our client list — which we didn’t want to do.

The City’s Decision Helped Us Make Our Decision

While we were mulling over if we wanted to grow our payroll to continue to expand our services, the City of Danville decided to raise payroll taxes. Our decision was made. We will not be hiring additional staff. With that new information, we had to make additional difficult decisions on how to trim our workload and still help as many people as possible.

Why We Do What We Do

Steve and I both want to be sure that our work makes a difference. Simply “making a living” is not enough for either of us. We want to be a part of improving the local economy, of supporting small businesses and nonprofits, and helping our neighbors succeed in their businesses and organizations.

  • We believe that positive change starts at home.
  • We believe in grass roots approaches to improving our world.
  • We believe that the only way our country will get stronger is through the power of small business.
  • We believe the work of local non-profits matters and that assistance should come from neighbors not government.

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Radio Show: Ubiquitous Computing

Ubiquitous computing, computing everywhere, and The Internet of Things is the topic for this week’s Radio Show. We talk about:

  • The creepy, eavesdropping “Hello Barbie”
  • Automating and remote controlling your car
  • The dangers of connecting to public WiFi
  • Appliances and gadgets to automate your home
  • and other topics

Listen now:

 

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LiFi the Next Generation of WiFi?

What’s LiFi?

LiFi, which uses light waves rather than the radio-waves utilized by WiFi, may be the biggest advance in data transmission since wireless options appeared on the market. Visible communications is a low-energy, highly secure method to transfer data through the air.

How LiFi Works

LiFi uses an LED light that flickers at a rate too fast to be detected by the human eye (which translates it as a solid “on” light), these flickers are projected and detected to send and receive data packets without wires and with 10,000 times the available bandwidth of traditional WiFi!

Why You Might Want LiFi

Although it doesn’t require line of sight, the LiFi is stopped by solid objects such as walls — so your neighbors can’t try to hack your LiFi from their house! It also offers the following advantages:

  • Lower Cost
  • Requires Fewer Components
  • Extremely Low Energy Use
  • Higher Speeds Than WiFi
  • Safer for Humans and Animals
  • Won’t Conflict or Interfere with Other Electronic Devices (There’s no electromagnetic interference.)

How It Will Be Used

From standard “in house” and “in office” data transfer to specialized applications like:

  • Underwater applications which absorb radio signals too much can benefit from the use of light signals
  • Mines and Petrochemical Plants where Electromagnetic fields might be dangerous
  • Medical Applications where WiFi would or could interfere with essential equipment
  • Toys – safe interactivity between toys with low power requirements for longer battery life
  • Turning signs, streetlights, even vehicle headlights into data hubs
  • Offload excess data requirements of cellular networks to offer relief in bottleneck areas

Although it’s a relatively new technology, you can expect to see it grow in the near future.

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