The JRG Blog

I don’t know about you, but I have noticed a big difference between the way I was raised, and the way young people today are raised. When I was younger, I played outside most of the time during the summer. During the school year I watched TV and did homework. I didn’t even know what a computer was. I certainly didn’t have a cell phone. Texting? We wrote notes on a piece of paper. And we wrote in plain english. Had an English paper to write? Paper or a typewriter was used, which used paper of course. It wasn’t until High School that we used computers for writing papers. Then again, I went to high school before the days of Windows XP and Windows Vista. I wonder what other people my age, 26, experienced when they were growing up. Read more…

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Sportacular: Gives instant updates of your favorite teams, lets you know when a game is starting, when it ended. One of the few paid apps that I have.

Facebook: What more can I say about this? They just updated it this last week. It is still missing push notifications, but it is a major improvement over the previous app. Which was severely overdue for an update. My favorite part, you can now view your friends’ friends and mutual friends.

The Weather Channel: One of the best weather apps.

Weather Bug: Another good weather app.

USAA: For those of you who bank with USAA, this app is a must have. Easily transfer funds, view account balances, etc.

Radar Scope: For you weather geeks, this is a must have app. View base reflectivity, velocity, etc. And if you want to know where you are in relation so the storm, it is location aware.

Snap Tell: Great if you need to find out what game or book to buy. Gives links to reviews, prices. All around cool app.

Shazam: Don’t know the name of a song or who the artist is? You have got to have this app. Just let it listen for a few seconds, then it returns with the song, artist, and album title.

Repair Pal: Car broken down? Use this app to find a repair shop near you, even quote average prices in the area for various repair jobs.

Road Trip: Input your mileage and your fuel, gives you detailed data on gas mileage and what not.

These are not in any particular order, they are all great.

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Murphy’s Computing Laws

1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

2. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it’s probably obsolete.

3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.

5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

6. To err is human . . . to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human, it’s downright natural.

7. He who laughs last probably made a back-up.

8. If at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.

9. A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

10. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.

11. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want to do.

12. A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.

13. The computer will work perfectly at the repair shop.

14. Never test an error condition you don’t know how to handle.

And Finally:

15. Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

These are our 15 Commandments. Live by them or be prepared to put your head thru a wall in fustration.

Found these here.

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Microsoft, the software giant. They run their little TV ads claiming that Apple is overpriced, but any Mac owner will tell you that Apple products, for the most part, are superior in almost every way. Apple is more refined, crashes less often, if at all. Their operating system, Leopard, only comes in one version, and has enough software packaged with it to satisfy most people. Leopard is also much less expensive than Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Apple designs their computers themselves. They may use 3rd party vendors to supply the hardware, but they test the hardware with the software to make sure it works flawlessly, the first time. Apple software almost completely free from viruses. Something Microsoft will never be able to achieve.

The competition between Apple and Microsoft, at least according to this article on CNET, has helped drive the price of a Mac down slightly. So this war between the two companies is helping consumers. I am an owner of both a Mac and a PC, and although I spend the majority of my time in Windows XP, my opinion will always favor Leopard and Apple. Apple products look better and perform better, at least I think so. But technically speaking, other than the Operating System, there isn’t as much difference now that Apple uses Intel processors. Regardless of that fact, my  heart is with Apple. They are just more cool and not as many people own them.

So finally, I have given my opinion on Apple and my opinion on Microsoft. The truth is that a PC does cost less, but that won’t change my view.

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Fingerprint

Here are some keys to keeping your Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or any other accounts you have from being hacked.

1. Don’t use common words or include any part of your username or email address in your password.
2. Use uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters if possible in your password.
3. Don’t share your login information with anyone or anywebsite unless you know for sure it’s safe.
4. Don’t share any personal information, like birthday, SSN, mother’s maiden name, etc.
5. Don’t write down your password and username. Especially on the same paper. If you have to write it down, keep it somewhere safe, like…a SAFE!!! Pun intended.
6. Finally, keep your email address safe. Don’t post  your email address for people to see.

These are just a few tips that can help you keep your information secure and your accounts from being compromised. Hackers and spammers use every tool imaiginable to get your information. They may send you a link in an email that is malicious, they may just ask you outwright for the information they want, thinking you are gullible enough to provide it.

Be sure to have some anti-virus software installed on your computer. Symantec and McAfee are very good and popular options.

Avoid these common passwords:

password
123456
qwerty
abc123
letmein
monkey
myspace1
password1
link182
(your first name)

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2113976,00.asp

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