Computer Support Blog

One of the chief concerns of environmentalists is with the carbon footprint left by individuals and industry.  Because carbon dioxide contributes to global warming, the development of industries that reduce the expulsion of carbon into the atmosphere have been growing.  Most businesses that are serious about reducing their carbon footprint must use elaborate computer models to factor in all of the variables pertaining to their carbon emissions.  In the effort to reduce one’s carbon footprint, the chief goal is to create a carbon-neutral system.  In a carbon-neutral system, there is no net output of carbon dioxide in any of the elements pertaining to the system.  The United Arab Emirates has plans to create a new suburb of its capital, Abu Dhabi, one that is carbon neutral and the developers are using the most sophisticated computer modeling yet to design that city.

Masdar City is the planned new city proximate to Abu Dhabi and computer models of the city project it to be carbon-neutral.  The idea behind the entire project is to create a city that in no way contributes to the generation of greenhouse gasses in both its operation and construction.

To achieve this goal, the city planners designed the entire city around the carbon-neutral goal.  Masdar City will not have any cars within its borders.  By removing such a random and carbon-intensive element from the environment, the models the developers are using are much more accurate.  The solution to moving residents and visitors around Masdar City is an elegant one.  The city will run an elaborate subterranean vehicle network.  The vehicles called Personal Rapid Transit are essentially six-person pods that combine the efficiency of a subway with the independence of a taxi.  When users get inside a PRT, they will be able to designate where they want to go within the grid and the PRT takes them there.  Because batteries that harness solar energy power the Personal Rapid Transit system, they leave no carbon footprint!

Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of the Masdar City design is how the layout of the buildings, their orientation in relation to one another, is designed to cool the desert city!  The city’s designers intend for Masdar City to lower carbon emissions by reducing the need to use air conditioners.  The layout of the city was one of the key elements that computer design models helped to create.

To make Masdar City a success, the designers had to factor in an exceptional number of variables.  In addition to having years’ worth of temperature records and weather patterns programmed into the computer models, the designers had to record light patterns in the area Masdar City will occupy.  Factoring in the carbon footprint of the construction of Masdar City led the developers to strategically place trees within their model to offset those emissions.

Right now, Masdar City is little more than a sophisticated computer model.  That computer program is a blueprint for a healthier world.

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

As the United States comes into another election year, political activism is once more on the rise.  But for those for whom politics is more than just an every-four-year event, new technologies are making their political activism more effective.  One of the relatively new technologies used by activists is the Short Message Service.  Among the various Short Message Services, Mobile Commons stands out for its effectiveness.

Mobile Commons is a marketing platform designed for smartphone users.  The Internet-based application acts as a social network that allows you to connect your smartphone to the smartphones of all of your friends.  Then, when you have an important issue that you need transmitted through your networks, the Mobile Commons application acts as a Short Message Service.  As an SMS, Mobile Commons helps transmit both messages – via the phone portion of your smartphone – and text documents to everyone with whom you have a relationship.

The benefit of the Mobile Commons application to political activists is almost self-evident.  As soon as you learn of an issue that affects the people in your network, you may inform them all simultaneously using Mobile Commons.  But as important, as a leader of a group, you may help guide the group to a specific course of action using Mobile Commons.  Using Mobile Commons, you may draft a form letter to your Representative or Senator (or any person you need to get a message to) and send it with your voice message.  As a result, within minutes of learning of a bill, news event or other political controversy, you and your entire network can spread the word and tell those people in power exactly what you want them to do!

Mobile Commons is not limited to just political activism in its usefulness as an application.  Large families may benefit from using Mobile Commons.  For example, if your large family is in the process of becoming even larger, Mobile Commons can be an invaluable tool.  You may use Mobile Commons to send everyone in your family network announcements about new births or other vital family events and attach photos of the new baby.  Using Mobile Commons, members of your family network may then spread the good news and pictures with people in their lives.

There are many applications that allow networking and sharing, but Mobile Commons puts it together in a very effective, easy-to-use platform that has a proven record of success.  That makes Mobile Connect very cool for activists and genuinely social people.

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

The Internet may well be the last frontier in the United States, if not the world.  After all, the Internet has almost singlehandedly made the word “pioneer” relevant again.  Much of the pioneering spirit embodied by the Internet comes in the form of trailblazers who simply took something tedious in the real world and made it simple, cool, or relevant, in the digital universe of the Internet.  Sheila Krumholz is one such Internet pioneer.

Sheila Krumholz is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan political watchdog organization.  Krumholz is responsible for transforming the tedious Open Secrets book of records to OpenSecrets.org, one of the most flexible, insightful and accurate political websites on the Internet.  OpenSecrets.org is, by and large, an online database of campaign contribution records for every United States Federal election from 1990 until now!

At the University of Minnesota, Krumholz studied international relations and political science.  What seemed to interest her most, however, was the strong relationship between money and politics.  While studying politics, she began researching.  This research took her to Washington, D.C. where she rapidly immersed herself in the filing cabinets of Congress.  Hired by the Center for Responsive Politics, she poured through every campaign finance record she could find to trace exactly what corporations were influencing each politician at the national level.  Krumholz would probably still be digging away in dusty basements had she not developed OpenSecrets.org.

As the scale of presidential and congressional elections in the United States became financially unwieldy, Krumholz saw a potential niche on the Internet that was missing.  She saw that the Internet was giving everyone who had a political opinion a chance to raise their voice, but that there was a severe shortage of facts and archives for retrieving facts on campaign finance.  Krumholz led the team that made the vast database of Federal Election Commission donation records available to anyone who was connected to the Internet.  She conceived of OpenSecrets.org as a resource for all citizens. Krumholz wanted to make the site into more than just a simple page about the Center for Responsive Politics.  With her vision, that is what the site became!

Krumholz is a patriot as much as she is a pioneer.  Serving now as the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, her role is much less technical than it was for the years while she was helping to develop the award-winning website.  While she remains deeply interested in the statistical analysis tools OpenSecrets.org continues to develop, her day to day concerns involve fighting for campaign finance reform.  An expert on the subject, Krumholz and the Center for Responsive Politics are exceptionally careful to not endorse any specific plan for campaign finance reform while continually educating citizens and politicians on the inarguable links between campaign donations and political actions in Washington.

Sheila Krumholz effectively blazed a trail using the freedom the Internet provides to help educate every United States citizen on the inner workings of the federal government!

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

Despite its faults with repeatedly recommending the same hundred people to be your friend, Facebook remains a very cool social network.  Facebook is a social network where you can communicate with friends far and near and even people you just wish were your friends, all at once.  The social network that Mark Zuckerberg founded on the concept of exclusivity is now a universally-recognized facet of United States popular culture.  One of the nice elements of Facebook is that it serves as a platform for applications that do not take Facebook all that seriously.  Two of the coolest such applications are Face-Invaders and the Photo Booth Friends video slot machine.

Face-Invaders is a very simple application for Facebook.  The Face-Invaders game is a recreation of the classic 1980s video game Space Invaders.  The difference, though, is that instead of generic aliens, the creatures descending from the sky are made up of Facebook photos of your Facebook friends!  You use your own Facebook photo in Face-Invaders as the defensive weapon to save the world.

The game is very simple to play, just as Space Invaders was.  As your friends float down from the sky, you shoot them until the rows of friends are all gone.  Moving your avatar is easy, as you simply tilt your tablet computer or smartphone in the direction you want to go. To fire your weapon, you simply tap your portable device’s screen.  Face-Invaders can be a nice cathartic tool when people you are friends with on Facebook have annoyed you in real life!

For a more positive spin on using your Facebook friends’ photos, the DoubleDown Casino application on Facebook has Photo Booth Friends.  Photo Booth Friends is a standard video slot machine on Facebook, except that all of the symbols are profile photos from your Facebook friends.  Photo Booth Friends is a cool application in that you may let the program choose which friends it represents in the game or you may associate specific friends with different winning values.  Suddenly, your loved one may help you win big at the virtual casino!

Photo Booth Friends is otherwise a very typical video slot machine on the DoubleDown Casino platform.  Photo Booth Friends is a twenty-line video slot machine with eleven different symbols, including Bonus Game and Scatter symbols.  The bonus game for Photo Booth Friends is the aptly-named “snapshot bonus” that makes further use out of your friends’ Facebook photos.

Facebook profile photos can be fun or troubling, but with applications like Face-Invaders and Photo Booth Friends, you can see a lot more of your friends while gaming on Facebook!

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

The Internet has many redeeming qualities when it comes to the spread of information, news and cultural phenomenon.  It also is the repository of so much data, videos and music that it has a way of bringing out the dark side of human nature.  Joseph Conrad called that instinct the “fascination with the abomination” and that phenomenon is alive and well on the Internet.  In fact, with the way music spreads virally over the Internet, music fads represent some of the greatest modern examples of “fascination with the abomination.”

The Internet is an important tool for the music industry.  But while the music industry works hard to promote talent, underground communities with an affinity for music and the esoteric have made the Internet a place where some of the strangest music ever can become a phenomenon.  Just as William Hung managed to score a recording contract by getting a cult following after a terrible American Idol audition, so too do others find a strange success in being terrible when their music is presented online.  Here are some of the most notable:

One of the earliest weird musical Internet breakouts was the Buckwheat Boyz.  Long after the band itself disbanded, the Buckwheat Boyz became an Internet phenomenon when their song “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” (which mostly consists of those four words repeated over and over again to music) appeared as accompaniment in a Flash video with a dancing banana.  The phenomenon became an allusion on Family Guy!  There have been two toys based upon Brian in his banana costume, one of which is one of the most sought-after Family Guy action figures!

Sometimes, the weird phenomenons propagate themselves, like the Hampster Dance.  The Hampster Dance started as a single website page that featured animated hamsters and other rodents dancing to music.  It became so popular that the phenomenon generated not one, but six album releases!

Arguably the most significant Internet phenomenon related to music is still developing.  Rebecca Black, a thirteen year old girl, recorded the song “Friday” which certainly garnered most of its attention by those who are fascinated with the exceptions to the rule.  Critically regarded as one of the worst-written songs of all time and performed using so much post-production equipment as to almost completely obscure Black’s actual voice, “Friday” is a musical travesty.  And yet, when Black uploaded the song and video to the Internet, it garnered a huge amount of buzz.  The video for “Friday” had over thirty million hits on YouTube and the digital download of the song has sold over one hundred thousand downloads.  Black’s music career may have started as the object of Internet mockery, but between her sales numbers for the single and a Glee-cover version of the song, Rebecca Black has good reason to be happy.

Quality does not guarantee success, but the Internet has sprouted a whole subculture that makes successful music of poor quality.

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

The odds are good that if you have done any sort of financial transaction on the Internet, you have a PayPal account.  The spin-off of eBay has helped make eBay even more money than the auction site was making on its own.  By charging anyone who received money through PayPal, the financial company has generated enough revenue for itself to make PayPal a multi-billion dollar company.  PayPal has become the online financial powerhouse it has by taking money out of small businesses – like independent vendors who sell on eBay – and from the multi-billion dollar banking and credit card industries.  Now, Dwolla is entering the market to take a bite out of the credit card companies and PayPal.

It is about time.

Dwolla is using new technologies to provide its users with direct access to their bank accounts while protecting their private information.  The stated goal of Dwolla is to provide the flexibility of cash for the virtual world of the Internet.  Your Dwolla account is intended to give you a common source of payment online and in the real world without ever having to touch cash again.

What makes Dwolla different is its security and transparency.  Dwolla has unprecedented security controls that prevent identity theft by keeping your account numbers from ever getting to identity thieves.  In this way, Dwolla is very much like PayPal.  Unlike PayPal, Dwolla’s privacy controls allow users to restrict how much information is available to those they pay through the service.  With PayPal, you have access to quite a bit of information – at the very least e-mail address, name and address – of the person with whom you are doing business.  While that makes sense for virtual transactions that involve physical items shipped between two people, it makes less sense for charity donations and person-to-person transactions.

The real difference with Dwolla is in its fee structure.  Users pay $3.00 a month for their Dwolla account, which gives them access to a $500 line of credit and instant access to their own bank account.  If you use credit money and you do not pay it off by the end of the month, there are fees.  However, Dwolla encourages the small sales.  By eliminating transaction fees on all purchases less than $10, Dwolla fosters support for the small transactions that have been becoming more costly with each passing year.  The CEO of Dwolla argues that transactions like paying for a cup of coffee with your credit card are forcing vendors to charge more for their products and services.

Dwolla wants to turn that tide and help users get the most out of the money that should, by rights, be theirs.  The $.25 transaction fee on all charges above $10 is minimal when compared to PayPal’s oppressive fee scheme.  That is probably why eBay will resist incorporating Dwolla for as long as it legally can.

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

The process of driving has become more difficult with the proliferation of new technologies and the distractions those technologies represent.  With the rise of the cell phone, drivers suddenly had phone calls to distract them from driving safely.  While the utterly ineffectual laws requiring hands free devices sought to curb that problem, legislators had no idea how fast the smartphone would take over.  With the smartphone beginning to dominate the mobile phone market, drivers have even more to be distracted by.  Ford Motors, however, has come up with a solution, through their SYNC system!

The Synch AppLink is a new function of the Microsoft-powered Synch platform.  Synch is essentially the operating system for the computers aboard cars from Ford Motors.  Just as Windows may run your PC, Synch runs the onboard computer on Ford vehicles.  Synch monitors your Ford’s status and provides you – and your mechanic – with clear alerts when there is a malfunction within the car.  Synch also assists you in adjusting the frills in your car, like adjusting the radio station or volume.

Now, Microsoft has enhanced the Synch system with Synch AppLink.  Synch AppLink acts as a bridge between the Synch system and your smartphone.  Because Windows occupies such a small market share of the smartphone OS market, it was impractical to create a system for Ford that exclusively interfaced with only Windows-driven smartphones.  So, Microsoft created the Synch AppLink.

The Synch AppLink allows you to access compatible applications on your smartphone through the Synch system.  After docking your smartphone with your Ford, you may give Synch voice commands.  By activating the Synch AppLink, you will be able to give voice commands to activate compatible applications on your smartphone.  If, for example, you subscribe to the Internet radio station Pandora through your smartphone, you would be able to command the Synch AppLink to open the Pandora app.  Within seconds, you would be listening to Internet-based radio streaming from your smartphone to your Ford’s speakers all using the Synch AppLink!

The Synch AppLink is adding compatibility to new programs daily.  In addition to music apps like Pandora and Stitcher, the Synch AppLink has some compatibility with Twitter.  While hands free typing may not yet be available through Synch AppLink, you may now check your Twitterfeed through the Synch AppLink!  Even as you drive away from home, you may remain connected to your friends!

With the Synch AppLink, hands free usage of smartphones is becoming easier and that should make everyone on the road happier!

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

Have you ever tried to connect to a website and wondered if your computer is to blame or if the site you are trying to reach is down?  You might spend several minutes and switch between web browsers in the attempt to find out if the site you want to go to is actually where it is supposed to be on the World Wide Web.  As with virtually everything else, there is a solution to your problem found easily on the Internet.

There are a number of Internet sites that now offer the free service of checking to see if a website you are interested in is actually active.  That is a very cool service and arguably the best of the market are:

Down For Everyone Or Just Me.  Despite the cumbersome name, Down For Everyone Or Just Me remains one of the most simple to use websites on the entire Internet.  Arriving at the main page, users are prompted to enter the website URL they want to access.  They are then directed to an answer page with a very simple answer of “It’s just you” (when the website you are looking for is actually running fine) or “It’s not just you” if the website you are looking for is not operating.  There is space for advertisements at the bottom of each results page, but no one ever seems to buy space there.  From the results page, you may enter another URL or leave the site.  This website is a very simple, very cool tool with no frills and a distinctly helpful and uncluttered format that is refreshing to find on the Internet.

Downrightnow.  With its very easy to remember name, Downrightnow is a simple and direct resource for the major social networks.  With a very clear graphic interface, Downrightnow informs you instantly of any service disruptions to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, YouTube and other popular websites.  The only disadvantage to Downrightnow is that it only lists the major sites, but it is an invaluable tool for checking those sites and learning about service disruptions to the major Internet players.

IsUp.  IsUp.me is an exceptionally easy name to remember when you are frustrated about Internet problems.  IsUp has as simple an interface as Down For Everybody Or Just Me and is as reliable.  The no-frills approach serves IsUp very well; many of the flashier websites that check the Internet for you came up with false positives or false negatives.  IsUp might have a simple interface, but it has great accuracy!

The above sites provide a valuable, free service of checking the Internet for the websites you want to find.  Using them can help you determine if there is a glitch somewhere out on the World Wide Web or if you actually need computer repairs for your computer.  Of course, if you cannot even connect to these sites, you probably need technical support!

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

The popularity of Apple products has been skyrocketing in the past few years. New and returning Apple users stand in line for long hours, even days, in anticipation of the debut of the latest product. In fact, the Apple obsession has arguably developed into a new form. Recently, for example, over two-thousand-five-hundred fans waited in line for the opening of Apple’s latest retail outlet in Grand Central.

Though the last two blogs in this series discussed the social—perhaps even psychological—components of loyalty to the Apple brand, to claim that Apple users are attracted to the brand merely in order to form unique social identities or to gain membership into Apple’s welcoming technological family is an unfair statement that ignores the fact that Apple products are powerful, sturdy, innovative, and simply put, very cool. Even people who don’t like to admit it know that Apple products have a much stronger security infrastructure, making using them for web related activities much less threatening. People who use Apple iPhones, iPads, or MacBooks face far fewer Internet security problems. Apple technology also comes with slight but significant technical advantages like longer battery lives and rarer needs for virus removal efforts.

Still, beyond all this, the biggest advantage that Apple has over its competition is the fact that it has so few products. Yes, at first, it seems counterintuitive to attribute success to limitation in choice. In this age of intense materialism and capitalism, we have all come believe that variety means freedom, that multiplicity in smartphone models, for example, ensures something for everyone; and, most of all, that competition is good for the market. But when examined in depth, this too is a counterintuitive approach—why should we want a million different models and brands with scattered features? How is it a good thing to have one smartphone offer half of the features we want and need, but not the rest? Ideally, what we need is a smartphone (or tablet or computer, etc) that combines all our technological wants and desires. Oh wait…

Therefore, culture and identity aside, we’ve arrived at the other major component of Apple’s success—its ability to offer immensely sophisticated technology in such a simple consumer-ready package. The moment a user decides to buy Apple, he or she is practically done—there’s no need to spend endless hours researching choices. If you’ve been in a mobile phone story recently, you have probably seen the confusing and bombarding choice of smartphones! When it comes to iPhones, on the other hand, there are very few choices that you need to make—storage capacity and model generation. Occasionally you might have to choose between black and white, but that’s about it.

What makes falling in love with Apple products so easy is their simplicity. In a perfect example of “less is more,” Apple gives users everything they need in one product and takes the difficulty of deciding out of the equation.

As we approach the end of the series, we will shift back to discussing the non-technological component of Apple’s success: brand marketing. So read the entry on the 10th for the next blog in the series.

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

Have you ever had an argument with someone you do not trust?  You know the kind, the person with whom you want to settle an issue through the flip of a coin, but you know they’ll find a way to cheat.  Just as the Internet provided us with increased data storage options, Cloud-based entertainment and more sophisticated mapping services, now it provides unbiased coin flips through Random.org’s True Random Number Service.  Settle bets, stymie psychics, or simply confound your friends by showing interest in a random number generator with Random.org’s True Random Number Service!

Random.org is a cool, entertaining, website and the coin flipper is only one interface that the site offers.  Random.org’s True Random Number Service is an esoteric bit of random number generators that may be used for fun or science.  Distinguished from other random number generation sites, the True Random Number Service from Random.org does not come from a complex equation that may be predicted with enough sampling (and a mathematical mindset).

Instead, creator Mads Haahr generates the random numbers through a complex radio receptor array that uses atmospheric noise.  In fact, the software for the True Random Number Service is not available because it requires the non-computer input it receives from the radio wave observations!  This is true randomness and Random.org makes it very cool.

The True Random Number Service has a variety of interfaces, the best of which are entirely free.  The coin flipper presents simple “heads” or “tails” for one to sixteen coins at a time from an inventory of eighty-eight different coins.  Virtually every country connected to the Internet has a representation of its coins.  There are also a few ancient civilizations and novelty coins available.  There is a playing card shuffler which allows those who need to settle an issue through a game of high card (or anything else for which you would select a single card from a 52 or 54 card deck) to randomly pick a card.  There are also random dice rolls, which could make your games of RISK or Yahtzee go much more unpredictably than playing with actual dice.

There is also a very simple, very direct true random number generator at Random.org that may generate columns of random numbers from -1,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000!  It does not take much playing around with the system to discover just how well it works!

Random.org is an easy site to use and it does not require any additional computer support to operate any of the gadgets and widgets it provides.  With over a billion random bits generated, Random.org is the most stable random element on the Internet!

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