We talked VPN’s this week. There is a ton to talk about on this subject, but we did the best we could in the amount of time that we had. We used a couple of terms that stood out, so I figured I would define them for you and let you guys ask us more in depths questions in the comments or in email.

So what is “Telephony” and how am I supposed to say it. The quick and easy answer for me is from wikipedia.com. The web page is pretty good and I don’t disagree with any of the material as far as “Telephony” is concerned.

However, I would not put total faith(or a bet) on all the information in wikipedia. It’s greatest strength is also it’s weakness. The strength is that the web page is open for anyone to edit and make changes. This allows the internet as a whole to be able to contribute to the content. Hopefully, the experts on the subject will be the ones making the content. If someone disagrees they can challenge the content and get it corrected. The problem with some subjects are that they never get challenged. Someone could put up a bogus page and if no one challenges it, then information will not get changed. Just a bit of advise.

Terry gave us some really good reason why VPN’s are needed. The basics is that VPN is a way to extend the reach of your office. Whether the office is a home office, a small standalone store, or some major corporation with overseas locations. Sometimes the setup can be complicated, but a VPN will allow you to securely access and manage your computers and data.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: June 23rd, 2008 under After Show.
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We started out mentioning one of the greatest nerd news sites around Slashdot. Go check it out. There are a couple of things though. One they have a ton of stuff, and two you may have to wait to get to the info that they are reporting. If something get “Slashdotted”, pretty much the whole world is about to beat up their webserver. More than one site has gone down due to the traffic. Getting “Slashdotted” is both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

I don’t know how we got on the Robot kick, but we did. You may be wondering how this relates to Computers and Computer101 in general. I will agree that it is a stretch, but every robot has at its heart a computer. At some point I imagine we will get around to doing a car episode for that very same reason. Unless you are driving a 1980 MGB(like myself), you are pretty much driving a computer around. Lots of fun stuff todo with that.

We mentioned Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, and his goal of providing people with the ability to live a normal life after a sever accident. The Luke Arm is the latest creation. Youtube has a video showing this new arm. Go watch it I am sure that you will be impressed. They also did a piece on this over at Make Magazine. I love that magazine, and you guys should probably check it out.

Speaking of computers in your car the DARPA Challenge seems to coming to a head. Really neat stuff. You probably haven’t heard of DARPA before. Just so you know there was a DARPA Challenge back in the 70’s. We pretty much got the Internet from those test.

Here a like to the iRobot site that we mentioned on the show. Mike and I both have plans to get us at least one of these.

Now if you would like to try your on hand robotics here are a few links that you are gonna need:

• http://www.parallax.com/
  
• Mindstorms
  
• http://www.robotstore.com/
  

If you need some help in your robotic endeavors there are tons of places to help. Some of them a lot more local than you think. ETRB – East Texas Robot Builders has a site. Been a while since it has been updated, but send them a note. I am pretty sure you will get an answer. If you are in the Dallas area, the Dallas Personal Robotics Group is active and going. I attended with a friend of mine a few months ago. The guys over at Revision3.com have a show called System. They just recently did a show on Building an Android. They didn’t really build an android, but they have a base and really cool little bot that you could build and play with yourself.

On a final note, we talked about scamming scammers. One of the oldest and best scam the scammer sites is 419eater.com. I will tell you know, if you think you want to do this…DON’T. It is dangerous, you could end up dead. The story is funny and a good read, just don’t try it yourself.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: June 17th, 2008 under After Show.
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We have a computer give away coming up. Terry Colvin(yep he is the Colvin in Colvin & Associates) informed Mike and myself that we will be giving away a complete computer system. However, to find out how to sign up you will need to listen to 960 KIMP for details. We will not be giving the sign up details out on the during the show(live or podcast). So listen up and get you some computer goodness.

On the topic of FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions, there are a few that we like and some that we hate. Unfortunately, the ones that we “don’t like as much” are ones we have to use every day. We can’t get away from them, so what are going todo. Grin and bear it I guess.

• On the top of the FAQ’s/Knowledge base that we don’t like: Microsoft
  
• On the top of the ones we like: Dell

Like a ton of folks in mine and Mike’s generation, we both have played a ton of video games. Mike saw the documentary first. I didn’t see it till it was aired on G4tv.com. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a really great documentary. This is a good flick regardless whether or not you have actually ever played the game.On a side note, if you know where there is an active and playable Robotron 2084 game, let me know. I want to go get me some retro gaming.

Our final topic on the show was what should you do with your old computer. There are two big issues with your old computer.

The first and the most important to most of us is your data on your hard drive. Most people have a ton of data that if it were to fall into the wrong hands could be at least embarrassing, and at worst expensive. For instance, MIT conducted a study on Data Recovery. They purchased 158 drives from eBay and attempted to recover the erased data. On one disk they found over 5000 credit card numbers.

So how is one supposed to erase those drives? There are a couple of answers to this.

• On the show we mentioned that you can just keep your drive. Doesn’t hurt, doesn’t take up much room, and no one can get you data.
  
• You could take it apart. If you think the CD Christmas ornaments look cool. Check out what you get out of the inside of your hard drive. Destroying it yourself pretty much guarantees no one will get you data.
  
• Use a program that will security erase your hard drive. Here are a couple: http://www.active-eraser.com/, http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com/, and there are more out there.
  

The second issue is all the nasty things that your computer has inside it. With all the solder, and other stuff that the computer is made of there are a ton of pollutants that will leach into the ground if you just throw it away. So just don’t. Head over to http://www.epa.gov/e-cycling/donate.htm to find out where and how to dispose of your old computer in an earth friendly/helping others way.If you really want to be scared in the Eco-world. Check out treehugger.com(http://treehugger.com/). Blame Mike as he brought it up.

Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

Harold Pulcher

The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: June 9th, 2008 under After Show.
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So this week Mike had the brilliant idea of paying homage to the arguably the greatest radio based sitcom in our history. The episode in question is entitled “Fish”. The episode is so titled due to the main story line where Herb dresses up in a “carp” suit as sort of a play on pronouncing WKRP. The part we are interested in takes place in the studio as a secondary plot line.

• Here is the episode in all its glory: WKRP’s “Fish”
  Since all the rage these days seems to be Hyper-Caffeinated drinks, we decided to give them a go. Mike was drinking full throttle. While I was drinking Monster Khaos. It seems that I was the real guinea pig as I had the stuff that was laced with Taurine. Turns out that is so named because it was first discovered in Ox/Bull urine. This turns out to be how Redbull was named. All I really know is that Mike is not as good a friend as I thought.We talked a bit more about blogs. It seems that we have a couple of tout, so here they are:
• My personal blog: http://pulcher.biz/blog
  
  • A friend that has a clue: http://timrayburn.com
    
  • Another person whose blog I read all the time: http://computerzen.com
    
  • Mike’s favorite blog: Nationalreview.com – the corner – http://corner.nationalreview.com/

  Let us know what you want to know. Email us! Let us know how you think we’re doing and what you’d like to hear about. We want to talk about the computer stuff you’re interested in!Check us out on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast.

  Thanks for listening and don’t forget to write!

  Harold Pulcher

  The other guy on the show – Computer 101 On KLAKE, 97.7

 

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Posted: June 3rd, 2008 under After Show, Interesting Sites.
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