Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Mobile computing devices are letting us access the Web (and take care of business) from just about anywhere. Wireless technology now lets us pay our bills at the coffee shop, check our email while waiting for the kids after soccer practice, or take a conference call while getting our oil changed. Tablets and smartphones make it easy to manage our lives and stay in touch with the office while we are out and about.
All of this mobility comes at a price. Identity theft is becoming a real concern, as mobile devices used on open wireless networks could expose your valuable private data to hackers out trolling for their next victim.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to approach security issues a bit too casually when using our tablets — like leaving it sticking out of our backpack while going to the counter for a refill or on the seat of an unlocked car. The very thing that makes these device so convenient also makes it more vulnerable to theft. If you use it to access your bank account, a resourceful thief could figure out how to follow the path into your account.
Our friends at the Naked Security blog recently posted a very handy article on steps you can take to make your tablet more secure. We think all tablet users would benefit from checking themselves against the advice here:
Securing a Tablet for Web Browsing in Six Easy Steps
If you need help setting up your new tablet or mobile email account, we’re here to help.
Agent Ron G. has been battling the forces of unruly technology run amok since 2001, prior to Geek Squad’s acquisition of Best Buy. When not busy creating video & technical training content for Geek Squad Agents in the field, Agent Ron enjoys home brewing, international travel, sketch writing, and learning how to cook new cuisines.
My father told me to aim for the stars so that you can reach the treetops, and at least you’ll get off the ground.
Shirley Ann Jackson
Everything in the world around us is made of tiny bits of matter. Understanding how those tiny bits of matter interact as they travel through space and time – the study of ‘physics’ – helps us make more sense of the world in which we live. It is because of the research of scientists like Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson that we are able to have computers that fit in our pocket, and phones that fit in our watch.
After graduating as Valedictorian from Washington DC’s Roosevelt High School in 1964, Dr. Jackson attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she first studied theoretical physics, and continued on for her graduate work in elementary particle theory. In 1973, Shirley became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT in nuclear physics, and only the second African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics in the United States. Her doctoral thesis, “The Study of Multiperipheral Model with Continued Cross-Channel Unitarity,” was published in the Annals of Physics in 1975. Dr. Jackson’s research specialty was theoretical condensed matter physics, especially layered systems, and the physics of opto-electronic materials.
Dr. Jackson worked at a number of prestigious physics labs in the United States and Europe after receiving her doctorate. Eventually, she settled in at the Theoretical Physics Research Department at Bell Labs, where she worked for more than 15 years. Moving to academia in 1991, she joined the faculty at Rutgers University to teach and conduct research projects. In 1999, Dr. Jackson became the president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), known as the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world. She is now in her second 10-year contract as president of RPI.
One of the most interesting parts of Dr. Jackson’s job is she gets to study the particles that make up every atom in everything around us. There are several ways to study subatomic particles.using a particle accelerator which speeds up particles to incredibly fast speeds and then smashes them into each other (think NASCAR with incredibly small bits of stuff, circling around magnets to achieve superfast speeds, and then a giant crash at the end).
Dr. Jackson worked for President Clinton as the first woman and the first African American to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She was later appointed by President Obama in to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in April of 2009. Through the years she received many fellowships and awards to recognize her achievements as a scientist and teacher. Because of her “significant contributions as a distinguished scientist for education, science, and public policy, ” Dr. Jackson was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of fame in 1998.
Agent Kate B is a 3-year veteran of Geek Squad, currently on assignment at Geek Squad City. Follow Agent Kate on Twitter @AgentKateB.
For more information about Shirley Ann Jackson:
Shirley Ann Jackson: Wikipedia
Physicists of the African Diaspora
Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., Profile from RPI site
Yesterday and Today: Top Women Scientists
“Cool. I didn’t know it could do that!”
That’s a phrase Agents hear every week. Most customers spend a good deal of time preparing for their major tech purchases – comparing features, checking system compatibilities, measuring dimensions and reading product reviews. The strange thing is that many seem to forget how their new gizmos can simplify their lives between the time they say “I’ll take it” and they get it out of the box at home. Yeah, it’s all in the manual, but who has time to read the manual?
We do.
Here are some tips and tricks you may have forgotten since the salesperson mentioned them back at the store. Never hurts to be reminded…
There’s so much more you can do with a smartphone beyond making calls.
So many people said technology would kill reading as a pastime. But e-readers and tablets have only increased our appetite for the printed word. Here are some steps you can take to help your devices help you.
These days televisions are for more than watching shows and movies. High-definition displays and internet connectivity mean getting the most out of your TV is a bit more complicated than making sure all the cables are hooked up correctly. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Web connectivity has made gaming systems more fun than that old Nintendo machine you grew up playing.
If you aren’t sure that you are getting everything out of your new computer, home theater or gaming system, we can help.
Agent Ron G. has been battling the forces of unruly technology run amok since 2001, prior to Geek Squad’s acquisition of Best Buy. When not busy creating video & technical training content for Geek Squad Agents in the field, Agent Ron enjoys home brewing, international travel, and learning how to cook new cuisines.
As most PC users (and readers of this blog) know, Microsoft released an update to their Windows operating system last November. The new version of the market-leading OS marked a significant departure from the old way of doing things, employing a less hierarchical organization and touch-friendly interfaces instead of the mouse-and-keyboard /point-and-click world of the past.
The new Windows looks very different from the last five or six versions of the system — and change is sometimes hard. (At the time of the OS’s release, we published a series of posts here to help users get a sense of how to cope with the changes.)
One of the most significant changes is the way the OS handles applications. They are closer to the apps you buy for your smartphone – less expensive, lighter, and more visually-oriented. Windows 8 apps are available from the App Store that is built in to the system.
Agent Tufts (from our United Kingdom branch) put together a blog post highlighting the most useful Windows 8 apps. We hope you enjoy it:
Top Windows 8 Apps You Didn’t Know Existed
Agent Ron G. has been battling the forces of unruly technology run amok since 2001, prior to Geek Squad’s acquisition of Best Buy. When not busy creating video & technical training content for Geek Squad Agents in the field, Agent Ron enjoys home brewing, international travel, and learning how to cook new cuisines.
According to a recent study, more than 8,000 mobile devices were left behind at just seven of the country’s largest airports in the last year. The most common places mobile devices were left behind? Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints and restrooms.
Losing your mobile device – smartphone, tablet or laptop – can be a traumatic experience. Life in the modern world is so device-driven that suddenly being without the gadget you’ve come to rely on can be amajor inconvenience. Even more of a drag than paying for a new phone is recovering all those saved contacts, emails, documents, photos, music files and passwords c — if you even can, that is.
Don’t panic. We’ve got some helpful tips for you to lock, locate and recover your device, and give you better peace of mind.
Locking your device with a password can help ensure that your data is kept safe in the event of loss or theft.
For laptops, mobile devices and tablets, we recommend using a strong password that is at least 8 characters long. It should contain a combination of numbers, letters and symbols, using a combination of upper and lower case whenever possible. For added protection, laptops should be physically locked when left unattended (even at home). Finally, never write down your password (it makes it easier for someone to find it) or tell anyone what it is.
If you misplace your device before you’ve had a chance to lock it with a password, make sure to change the passwords to all personal accounts your accessed through that device before it disappeared, or else whoever finds the device will have access to all of them. This is especially important for email accounts, online banking login information and social media sites, because they tend to contain the most valuable personal information.
Also, be sure to contact your service provider when you discover your device is missing. Many providers are able to remotely lock your device or account, helping to prevent unwanted phone calls, data usage and costly fees.
While passwords and locks are a good first line of defense, there are several additional ways to protect your device if you set it down somewhere, or it falls out of your pocket.
One of the first things to do is install a mobile security suite on your mobile device. On Android smartphones, free apps like Lookout Mobile Security, Norton Mobile Security Lite, Seekdroid Lite and Webroot Secure Anywhere Mobile let you remotely locate your device, lock it, and/or delete all the data in it.
Users of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch can get similar functionality by, installing the free Find My iPhone app. Users can sign in with their Apple ID, and a map showing the approximate location of their device will be available. The app gives users the option of displaying a message on the lost hardware, locking it down, or remotely wiping it.
For even more security, you might want to check out Geek Squad’s Locked & Found app($2.99/month). It allows users to remotely lock their device and use GPS to locate it. Plus, if someone finds your device, they can report it through the device even if you locked it. If your device is stolen, Locked and Found can take a picture of the person holding the device and turn on a screaming alarm. We also have a 24/7 service available to facilitate getting your Apple, Android or Blackberry device back to you, and is included in Geek Squad Protection plans (or can be purchased purchased as a standalone app).
LoJack for Laptops is another lock, locate and recover service available specifically for laptops. As with the services for smartphones, LoJack allows subscribers to remotely lock and delete files from the laptop if it is ever stolen. The system uses patented technology to track the laptop and assist local law enforcement to recover it. Plans start at $40 per year.
If you haven’t installed a security program on your device, you can always try locating your device by contacting it via phone, text or email. If you’ve installed them, you can use free services, such as Skype or Google Voice. You can also send the device a detailed message with information on how to return your missing device through email or SMS message using Gmail.
Equipment is replaceable. Often times, data is not. Make sure you don’t lose your data by regularly backing up your gadget’s information.
With the proper utilities, you can easily synch your smartphone or tablet to your computer using the USB port to transfer information. You can also use a cloud storage app such as iCloud (free) for Apple and MyBackup Pro ($4.99) for Android, which allow users to back-up and access their mobile device’s data from any location. If you’re a Google+ user, the Instant Upload feature automatically uploads photos and videos from your smartphone to a private album, so you never lose a memory.
With PC laptops, software programs such as Genie Backup Manager ($39.95), Norton Ghost ($69.99) and Second Copy ($29.95) automatically maintain current archives of your personal information (as does Time Machine for Macintosh computers). You can access cloud storage sites such as Evault and IBackup from any Internet connection.
Want to back things up the old-fashioned way? Burn it to CD/DVDs, or manually copy your data to external hard drives or USB devices (just remember to back up your data on a regular basis).
No matter which approach to securing your mobile devices your choose, always remember that in our mobile world, data security comes down to three words – lock, locate and recover.
The digital age has revolutionized everything around us — including cooking dinner. Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or a skilled chef, there are a number of smartphone apps, online resources and gadgets that can make your time in the kitchen much less frantic, and much more productive and fun.
Keeping up on the latest recipes, techniques and events from your favorite cooking sites can mean a lot of clicking and digging through things. This is where RSS (Really Simple Syndication) comes in very handy. RSS lets you create a newsfeed from the sites you are interested in, letting you keep up on new content from those sites without digging through them one-by-one. Most websites and blogs offer RSS feeds and there are a number of free RSS readers available free.
Another option are services like Pocket (http://getpocket.com) — a internet browser add-in that allows you to bookmark a page for reading later. Adding Pocket (Android, iOS: free) on your smartphone, tablet, and computer makes it easy for you to check out your recipes wherever you go.
Cooking shows are popular today. So is internet video. Put them together, and bam — you’ve got a world of culinary options.
The old tried-and-true method for finding videos of your favorite cuisine prep is Youtube — and why not, since it has such a huge base of contributors? But if you are looking for something with a little better quality (no shaky cam, lighting, good sound and smooth cuts), then check out HowCast & VideoJug — two DIY based video sites that both have a wide range of recipes & quick, helpful tips demonstrated by experts. And if you want to take a master class in a subject? Check out Craftsy — where world renowned experts like Peter Reinhart and others hold online seminars on artisan bread baking, cheese making, cake decoration and more – for around the same cost as your average cookbook today.
Want to drink in the latest and greatest of cooking online, before you make the plunge on a recipe? Foodgawker and Tastespotting are here for you, providing colorful rows upon rows of pictures from the latest in food blogging beauty. See something you like? Click through to the food blog, with recipes and ample pictures to guide you through duplicating that recipe in your home.
Video conferencing software is making it easy to visually connect with family and friends in real time. So whether you need tips on doing mom’s turkey gravy or just cannot make it across the country to a reunion dinner with your friends from school, it is easier than ever to be there using Skype, Google+ Hangouts and FaceTime.
Agent Ron G. has been battling the forces of unruly technology run amok since 2001, prior to Geek Squad’s acquisition of Best Buy. When not busy creating video & technical training content for Geek Squad Agents in the field, Agent Ron enjoys home brewing, international travel, and learning how to cook new cuisines.
There have been a number of articles in the tech press lately about vulnerabilities with smartphone passcodes. Phones using both Android and iOS systems have been plagued by hacks that allow unauthorized users to get around the passcode lockscreen. Apple recently released an update to their operating system intended to address this problem. A similar issue was also discovered in Galaxy Note 2 phones.
When things like this hit the press it’s often difficult for most users to understand whether they should be concerned or not. Lifehacker has a good article that discusses what these vulnerabilities allow unauthorized users to do, how passcodes work, and how best to secure your phone. If you’re concerned with the security of your smartphone, it’s definitely worth the read:
How Secure Is the Passcode on My Phone?
If you still need help understanding and using your smartphone, Geek Squad can help.
Saving digital files used to be so easy — just hit “Control-S”, and “Bam!” — your spreadsheet was saved. If you wanted to take the file with you, you just burned it onto a CD, and you were off.
But the modern world of mobile computing has made preserving digital files a bit more complicated. It’s not that the way files are saved to computer memory has changed. (After all, its still just a bunch of 1s and 0s, when you get down to it.) It’s the sheer number and variety of devices that contain your digital content that’s making the keeping of your digital information safe (and retrievable) challenging.
It used to be all those files were saved on the computer you created them on. Now — with digital cameras, tablets, laptops and smartphones — most of us create and store digital content on a number of devices. Most of those gadgets can share files either wirelessly, or via removable storage media, so passing files, photos and music between devices has become incredibly easy. (This makes it even more difficult to figure out if you saved that pic of your mom with cake on her nose… and where you put it.)
As most Geek Squad Agents will tell you, the key to many things in life (including effective digital storage) is to come up with an good procedure and stick to it. Since everyone’s file preservation needs are different, an effective system usually involves a customized combination of standard tools.
While doing some research recently on storage solutions, we came across a wonderful series of articles on CNET explaining the techniques and technology behind digital file preservation called “Digital Storage Basics. It was just the right combination of detail and overview to help just about anyone spec out an effective digital storage system, and is definitely worth the time.
Check the articles out here:
Part 1: Internal Storage v. Memory
I was raised to believe you could do anything you wanted with effort, time and persistence. It didn’t matter if you were a girl. It is the dream of every child to play in the dirt. We geologists get to do it for real. We don’t explore places; we explore time, way back in the past. It’s written in the rocks.
Adriana Ocampo
March is Women’s History Month. March 2 is national Old Stuff Day – and there’s nothing older on Earth than the rocks and minerals that make up our planet. In celebration of both, this month we continue our series on notable women in science and history by highlighting the accomplishments of planetary geologist Adriana Ocampo.
Adriana Ocampo is a time traveler. Not with flux capacitors or slingshotting a starship around the sun, but as a planetary geologist — a scientist who studies rocks — she examinies the origins of the universe by studying the Earth itself. Through examining the rocks and minerals that make up our planet and satellites (our moon), planetary geologists develop theories that help us understand how and when our planet was formed. Planetary geologists work closely with paleontologists, anthropologists, physicists, astronomers, and other scientists to develop ideas about the creation of our world, and other worlds in our solar system, galaxy, and universe. The study of planetary geology provides us a link to our ancient past.
Adriana knew by the time she was 8 years old she wanted to work in space travel. Born in Columbia and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her family emigrated to Pasadena, California when Adriana was 14. As she went through middle school and high school, she worked hard and always kept her goals in mind. When she was a junior in high school, she got a summer job at the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which only served to feed her ongoing passion for science. After graduating high school, she began working for NASA at the age of 21, becoming a member of the imaging team for the Viking mission to Mars in 1976. Her work at NASA allowed her to be one of the first people to see the surface of Mars, when the Viking lander transmitted the images of the planet back to Earth.
While working full time for NASA, Adriana earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from California State University, Los Angeles, going on to get a Master of Science degree in planetary geology from California State University, Northridge. In 1984 she started working on the Galileo project, a robotic mission to explore Jupiter that was ultimately launched in 1989. Galileo traveled to Jupiter and mapped the planet and its moons until it crashed in 2003. She also worked on the Juno mission to Jupiter, the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and many planet mapping projects. Adriana was part of the group of scientists who explored the Chicxulub Impact Crater in Mexico, believed by many to be a crater created by an asteroid that crashed into Earth. Scientists theorize the asteroid impact created a huge cloud of dust whch altered the global biosphere and may have been a major cause of the extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Ms. Ocampo has been a program director at NASA, a program executive at the European Space Agency and is currently back at NASA as a senior research scientist. For any young person looking for a career in science, she is a shining example of setting goals and achieving success. On her profile on the NASA website, Adriana says that the S.T.A.R.S. hold the secret to her successes.
For more information on Adriana Ocampo, please visit:
Adriana Ocampo profile on NASA webiste
Article about Adriana Ocampo on U.S Department of State’s website.
You’re never too old, and if you want to,
as my mother said, you can do anything you want to,
but you have to work at it.
Annie J Easley
As part of our celebration of African-American History Month, we at Geek Squad would like to recognize the many accomplishments of noted computer scientist, mathematician and rocket scientist, Annie J. Easley.
After graduating from high school, Ms. Annie J. Easley began her career in 1955 as a “human computer” for NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). At a time when machine calculation was limited to key-punched cards manually fed into enormous machines capable only of multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division, Ms. Easley was part of a team responsible for calculating (by hand, mind you) the complex mathematical functions needed by scientists (like logarithms, exponentials, and square roots).
While still employed by the NACA, Ms. Easley earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University in 1977. She also participated in continuing education and specialization programs specifically sponsored by the National Atmospheric and Space Administration (NASA).
During her 34 year career with NACA (and later, NASA), Ms. Easley is credited as being one of the first African American women in the field of rocket science, mathematics, and computer sciences. She helped develop the software for the Centaur Rocket – a high-energy rocket that came to be known as ‘America’s Workhorse in Space”. She developed and implemented computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies for electric vehicles. She also studied technologies for wind and solar energies, as well as solving problems of energy monitoring and conservation. Some of Easley’s work helped lead the way to the development of batteries for modern Hybrid cars.
Easley’s work on the Centaur project helped develop the technological foundations for space shuttle launches, as well as launches of communication, military and weather satellites. Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, which was launched by the Centaur.
Annie’s work helped make modern-day space flight possible — and for this, we salute her.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/NASA_HQ/Herstory/EasleyAJ/EasleyAJ_8-21-01.htm
https://webfiles.uci.edu/mcbrown/display/easley.html
Agent Kate B is a 3 year veteran of Geek Squad, currently on assignment at Geek Squad City. Follow Kate on Twitter @AgentKateB.
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