Listeners & Guests on the show this week:

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HOUR 1:

Tech News & Commentary

 

John in Anderson, Indiana listening to the Podcast and calling via the App asked us: "I'd like some clarity on Net Neutrality. People in the president's party praise it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. People in the other party, condemn it as a shameful power grab; a government takeover of the Internet. As usual, I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, so I'd like to hear you talk about it and shed some light in net neutrality."

 

From the consumer’s point of view, most agree that Net Neutrality is great. It means that ISPs - Internet Service Providers -- can’t slow you down when you try to access certain sites and charge you or them an extra fee to give you access to the full speed you’re already paying for.

As an example of that, here's a video from before Net Neutrality, in the video a user on FIOS tries to access a Netflix test video. After minutes of buffering he reaches speeds of 0.3mbps, when he turns on a VPN service that hides where his traffic is going to (his ISP doesn’t know he’s accessing Netflix), the video loads instantly and his speeds are 10 times faster at 3 mbps.

In that Netflix was being artificially slowed down to try to extort extra fees from the company to "ensure a fast connection," but many people worried that the same problem would trickle down to consumers, and that they’d eventually have to buy a "streaming package" from the ISP that would allow full speed on sites like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix and many other sites. Net Neutrality takes care of that, the internet is not allowed to have artificial slow lanes to specific sites now.

The primary criticism is that the FCC’s action of reclassifying Internet Service Providers (or ISPs for short) as Title II common carriers under the Communications Act of 1934 gives the government the right to "tax the Internet." This claim comes from something called the Universal Service Fund. USF is a fee you pay on your telephone bill, assuming you have a landline telephone, that is used to provide subsidized telephone service for those who cannot afford it.

In other words, the government decided that having a telephone was necessary and because it was necessary, people should have assistance in getting one if they couldn’t afford it. As you can imagine, almost 100 years ago, telephone service was expensive and not everyone could afford it. Today, it’s becoming common to find people don’t even have a traditional phone line at all, using a VoIP provider like Vonage or just using their cell phone as their only phone. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 modified the goal of universal service to include providing Internet access for low income users, as well as schools, libraries, remote communities, and more. That’s all being paid for by fees from standard telephone service.

The FCC has said they have no plans to implement the Universal Service Fee for Internet service, but at the same time it’s not really in their hands. The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, created in 1996 to administer the USF, has the ultimate decision on this. So it is certainly possible that a Universal Service Fee could make its way on to your broadband bill. And thus we have the claim that an Internet tax is coming.

Only we don’t know that it is coming. And the USF amount is tiny, extremely tiny in comparison to the taxes and fees you already pay. So if the USF is added to broadband, you’ll barely notice it. So why are these claims of an Internet tax being made? Politics, mostly. No one bothers to actually think any more, or examine issues on an individual basis. We just react in a knee jerk manner according to which side of the aisle we sit on. The word tax whips conservatives into a frenzy, but it’s not always warranted.

We think the benefits of Title II regulation of Internet Service Providers FAR outweighs the risk that a very small fee might be added to our broadband bill at some point. Title II will prevent the cable and telco companies from using their status as utility providers to run networks but then blocking any competition over those networks. It will increase competition, not lessen it.

It will also prevent arbitrary throttling of your high speed Internet connection and prevent your Internet Service Provider from punishing people who are heavier users of the service.

Net neutrality is a concept, not a law. We support it without reservations. This recent FCC Title II action isn’t net neutrality itself, but rather it’s a government action to ensure net neutrality. We might have reservations about the government stepping in to help, but the plain fact is, Internet Service Providers have been gouging and abusing customers, running an absolute monopoly in their service areas, so if this regulation is a bitter pill for them to swallow, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Now, aren’t you glad you asked, John? We are! Thanks for calling.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

John in Bossier City, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL asked us: " I heard something the other day about downloading a radio app to my phone that I could never lose or it would always be there if we lost communication some other way. I was wondering if you were familiar with that because I never heard it again and haven't found it online"

 

Your cellphone has just a few ways of interacting with the world, there’s probably a jack of some kind, that won’t help you very much, a cellular radio and probably a WiFi and bluetooth chip.

Of those, the cellular radio is by far the one that will keep you connected over the longest distances, the theoretical maximum can be as much as 45 miles, so that will easily be the most likely way to keep you connected. If that fails, WiFi has the second best range, so apps that let you make VoIP over WiFi would work if you’re in range of a network.

However, it sounds like what you’re looking for is a backup to those, and for that you’d need access to hardware other than what your phone already provides, so you may have heard about goTenna. It connects via bluetooth to the phone but works as it’s own antenna with a theoretical range of around 50 miles.

You will need another goTenna owner to be able to communicate, though, which may be a problem since they’re only available for pre-order right now…

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

Steve in Green Bay, Wisconsin listens to the Podcasts asked us: "I do a lot of presentations for my job and I need to use a Windows based computer. I'd like to have your expertise on a large-screen tablet that would be best suited for doing PowerPoint presentations."

 

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 may be right up your alley since you have mentioned using a Windows based computer. This is the latest device in the Microsoft lineup and has an available keyboard and a surface pen-- so you can easily write or draw on the screen during your presentations. In terms of a tablet, however, the price is a bit steep. It currently costs $799 on Microsoft’s website.

For those of you using an Android device, there’s one that we would highly recommend. We have been toying around with one of the newest tablets in the game-- and it is well suited for presentations. The Lenovo YOGA Tablet 2 Pro is very impressive and has a ton of useful capabilities.

This device has a built-in projector that completely takes away the ancient concept of plugging it into an external projector. It is an extremely innovative concept and will give your presentations seem a lot sleeker.  This tablet comes in at about $470 on Lenovo’s website.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Dana in Middleton, Delaware listening on WDEL asked us: "My computer has been hacked. They hacked me three years ago. They're still in there. They shut me down. They do the DDOS, they scramble my tweets. They aggravate me and my family. Everyone who comes into this house gets hacked. I'm learning e-hacking so I can make my computer a little more secure and maybe I can locate them. I tried contacting the FBI and I'm not getting any help. Do you have any suggestions? I tried Kaspersky, but because they hacked my computer, they dismantle all my anti-malware and stuff like that. They hacked me through Twitter and got my IP address and they just keep attacking me."

 

There’s only so much that people can do with your computer, no one can scramble your tweets unless they’re Twitter, and Twitter doesn’t make users IP Addresses public, so they can’t be getting you IP from there either.

DDOS stands for Distributed Denial Of Service, and by that very definition it’s a type of attack that requires several people at different locations to attack you at the same time… unless you really, really made someone mad, we don’t think anyone would keep up periodic DDOS attacks on you for years.

How does everyone that goes into your house get hacked? What happens to them? What specifically is happening to you that makes you suspect that people have been attacking you for 3 years?

Also, what do you mean by “dismantling your anti-malware”? Do you just mean uninstall it?

It’s very unlikely that anyone has been willing and able to do all of this to your computer in a sustained fashion over the course of 3 years.

Unless you have a static IP address from your Internet Service Provider, which is very unusual for a residential customer, your IP address will change each time you disconnect and reconnect to their network. Now it will try to give you the same address if you’re only gone for a brief time, so if you want to force a new address, you should probably power down your modem or router, whatever device you use to actually connect to the provider, and leave it off for a while.

What is more likely here is that you have a particularly stubborn computer virus here and it keeps re-infecting your machine. The ultimate solution to that is to reformat the computer’s hard drive, reinstall the operating system from scratch, and reload all your applications. This is a very serious move, however, as it wipes out all the data on your computer, including the virus, so you’ll need to be extremely careful about making sure you have all the backups of your data files before you undertake this.

Wiping the computer of its data and starting over is, however, the only 100% reliable way to remove all computer viruses and malware. There has only been one virus in history that could survive such an action, it actually reprogrammed the computer’s BIOS chips, but all modern computers are immune to that kind of thing now.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Karen in London, Tennessee calling in via the App asked us: "My mom has an iPad Mini that she takes on a lot of trips with her. Is there a way to hook up a USB to the charging port to be able to pull her pictures from for storage?"

 

First of all, if she had one of many Android Tablets, that wouldn’t be a problem!  :-)
What she needs is not a common product you can usually find in stores, but there are plenty of products you can use that can hook up to your charging port in order to use it as a USB drive.

We weren’t able to find any in local electronics stores like Best Buy, but online, Best Buy offers the lightning connector for about $20. Online, you’ll find similar products on different websites for as low as $3-- so you definitely want to look around, although Best Buy’s product I just mentioned is actually manufactured by Apple, so you can’t go wrong with that! Also make sure you get the right connector, one that will fit both your charging port and the USB data cable you wish to use.

If you are running iOS 7 or 8, however, you’re out of luck. Apple has locked down the USB port capability of their devices. There are no flash drives that will work with it. The Kingston Wi-Drive, a wireless USB drive, can be used with iOS 7 but not iOS 8.

Frankly, the right way to do this is with a cloud service such as iCloud Drive or Dropbox. You can easily upload all the pictures from the iPad Mini to the cloud, then delete them from the camera roll on the iPad. If you’re using Dropbox for this, you can then view the pictures using the Dropbox app without having to download them back to the iPad, assuming that you’re connected to the Internet of course.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Jon in Rocklin, California listens to the Podcast and calling via the App asked us: "My eldest son is a major fan of Minecraft. He wants me to build him a system so he can play Minecraft better, faster, stronger. Wondering if anyone out there might have a site that might be a cross reference of hardware that wouldn't have any issues. I used to build systems and I know that certain configurations are gonna give you problems. For instance, AMD might be cheaper but you'll have to buy better RAM because cheaper RAM might not work as well with an AMD processor."

 

you may find GooeyPC useful, it basically lets you pick the parts you intend to buy and build a virtual system, and it will alert you of compatibility issues between the parts you’re planning to use to build your system.

PCPartPicker.com works roughly the same way and it will also report any known compatibility issues. PCSpecs.com has a similar system too, with the added advantage that you can compare your homebuilt PC to systems that are out in the market today, and see what kind of performance you can expect from it.

You can also ask experienced system builders, Tom’s Hardware has plenty of posts on it’s forums asking for compatibility checks. You can probably post your own question before actually buying anything and see what the experts have to say about your setup.

Frame rate drops during a Minecraft session are the stuff of myth and legend. Meaning it seems like everybody gets them at some point, but no one can agree on what they come from or what the fix is.

Some people recommend the standard gaming setup: an SSD instead of a traditional hard drive, the latest gaming video card, and plenty of memory. Since Minecraft is a Java program, though, having lots of memory in your computer doesn’t mean that Minecraft will use that memory. There are batch file examples on the official Minecraft forums that show how to launch the game with command line parameters to the Java runtime that allocate more memory to the game.

Some of the hardest of the hardcore Minecraft fans swear by the Linux/Other version, even on a Windows PC. Again, because it runs in Java, getting the Linux version working on a Windows PC is indeed possible, if a bit convoluted.

Because of all the unique real time calculations Minecraft must do just to show you the world, despite its blocky graphics it’s a true stress test of your gaming PC. And, if all else fails, turn down the view distance in your game options. Hope that helps!

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

Steve in Lake Villa, Illinois listens to the Podcast - calling via the App asked us: "What online job site do you recommend? I'm thinking of maybe looking around and seeing what else is out there. I know the big sites but I was wondering if there was anything more precise."

 

When you ask if there’s anything more precise, we assume you’re asking about finding specific jobs in your specific field. If your profession is regulated in any way, you may find some good job leads on whatever website the regulating body operates.

For example, let’s say you were a lawyer in Florida. The Florida Bar has a website, floridabar.org. Under the Member Services menu item, there’s a link for Employment Opportunities. That page has in turn links for Career Opportunities, Employment Classified Ads, Available Judicial Appointments, and even jobs at the Florida Bar itself.

You can also target company websites, if you know who you want to work for in your chosen field. Visit their website directly. The jobs listed there are almost always the most recent offerings, and since you’re coming straight in from their website and not through a referral site where they have to pay for the listing, you’ll often find it an easier road to employment. There will usually be an email address where you can submit a resume, or a link to an online employment application.

So don’t assume that these giant mega-mart job sites are the only place, or even the BEST place to find jobs. Doing some online leg work from your kitchen table might just take you closer to the source and get you hired more quickly. Good luck!

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Sharon in Kansas City, Missouri listens to the podcast asked: "I'm thinking of changing my hard drive to an SSD. A friend of mine told me that you cannot write to an SSD, you can only read and that if you try to write more than three times, it would quit working. I wanted to know if that was true and if it would be a good idea to switch to a solid state drive."

 

Your friend is unbelievably wrong… like “summer is the coldest season” levels of wrong.

SSDs are more taxed by writing than by reading, and they have a finite number of write cycles, which really doesn’t change much, considering that HDD don’t last forever either.

Now, modern drives are rated differently, but think 20TB as a reasonable official limit… TechReport.com tested 5 drives rated at around 20TB of data, they calculated that the average endurance between the drives should make it possible to write 20 to 40 GB of data a day for the entire life of the warranty of each of the drives.

After that they ran an endurance test, none of the drives failed until they were between 600 TB and 1Petabyte of data written, and the sturdiest only died after going over 2PB of data written.

2PB is roughly the equivalent of downloading all of Wikipedia 9,524 times… that’s a little more than 3 writes.

3 writes would mean that you can’t even install the operating system. Even overwriting the whole drive 3 times wouldn’t make much sense, it’s not a lot of data. SSD drives are in a lot of consumer electronics devices and pretty much every consumer electronic device this day either stores data periodically or gets updated sometimes… writing is a must.

Now that we’ve corrected your friend, yes, switching to an SSD is probably a very good idea, an older computer with a new SSD feels like a new computer, you will absolutely notice the difference, it will be something like having replaced the hard drive and having gotten new RAM at once.

For what it’s worth, traditional rotating magnetic hard drives also have limits to how much they can be used. While the number of read/write cycles on a hard drive does exceed an SSD, even though an SSD is plenty long as we just explained, hard drives will eventually wear out also. Everything made by man eventually wears out and fails.

But it takes long enough to wear out an SSD that we don’t even think twice about recommending them. Many of us here have computers using SSDs now, and we endorse them heartily. You will love yours!

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

Victor in Smyrna, Tennessee listening on SuperTalk WTN 99.7 FM asked: "What kind of product would you recommend for home surround sound systems in the $300-500 price range? I am looking to upgrade mine and just wanted to know what you would recommend."

 

Prices for home surround sound systems will vary depending on where you choose to purchase them; but there are plenty of options within your price range that you may want to look into.

Samsung offers several that are both high-quality and quite affordable for people who are not looking to break the bank in order to enhance sound. For example, at Best Buy you can purchase the Samsung 6 Series 1000W Smart Blu-Ray Home Theater System for $450. This system is probably one of the best within your price range and supports plenty of playback formats in addition to Blu-ray.

However, in case you’re looking for something that requires a bit less installation, you may want to look into the Bose Solo 15 TV Sound System which is also sold at Best Buy for $450. In terms of sound quality, it just seems you can never go wrong with Bose as they are pretty cutting-edge. This system works with one single speaker but is said to resonate unbelievably lucid sound-quality.

If you are looking to spend a little less, still get the same bang for your buck, and impress friends and family-- there is a more affordable option with the Panasonic 1000W 5.1 Home Theater System which comes in at a cool $350, also at Best Buy (though we’re not trying to make this a Best Buy commercial!). This one is comparable to the Samsung we previously mentioned and comes with two LARGE, very impressive-looking speakers that could make your home theater look quite spiffy.

When searching for your surround sound system, you may want to stick with an electronics store so you can actually hear the differences and a store that offers a price guarantee as well as warranty on their products, so you can rest assured in the event anything goes wrong.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

Cliff in Chattanooga, Tennessee listens via the App asked: "What contacts program/app do you recommend that works with most emails, outlook and social media. Thanks for the advice. Right now I'm using "contacts+" it seems to work well except I don't see how to get it on my laptop as well."

 

This is actually a pretty tough question, there aren’t many products that meet your requirements.
The best mix we have been able to find would be to continue using Contacts+ on your phone, and to use Apowersoft’s Android Manager on your computer.

Android Manager, allows you to sync contacts with Outlook and manage your phone’s contacts from your computer.

Between both of those, you should be able to get what you want, but unfortunately, unless you can do it through an email provider (and all of the major free ones will let you sync contacts), you won’t find a much easier way to keep everything synced.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

Leonard in Raleigh, North Carolina listening on WPTF 680 AM asked: "I have a Sprint HTC phone, an older model. I also have an iPhone. I want to transfer my apps from the HTC phone over to the iPhone. Is that possible?"

 

Unfortunately you won’t be able to transfer your old apps.

Android and iPhone run on different systems and don’t understand each other’s apps, and even when an app is on both systems, they’re on different stores and neither one is going to give an app away for free to someone who paid a competitor’s app store.

On the plus side, most apps are free and paid apps are cheap, so if you already know there’s an app you use regularly, paying a dollar or two may be acceptable, at least by now you know which ones you used to use and not use on your old phone.

The good news is that many apps can share information between iPhone and Android, so if you’re using the correct version of the app for each phone, you could still share data. But you will have to have separate Android and iOS versions of each app.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

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