Just about everyone has a DVD player.  And chances are, you’ve invested a significant amount of money in DVDs.  But if you’re like me, you have kids that don’t always put them back in the cases.  And one little scratch can ruin any DVD.
Wouldn’t it be neat if you could back them up in case the original was damaged?  Well, my friends, that is illegal.  Or at least legally gray.  However, the Library of Congress recently relaxed the rules on DVD duplication.  While they don’t specifically say you may back up your DVDs by making a copy, they do say that students, teachers, and documentarians may circumvent DVD copy protections in order to rip content covered under fair use.
What this means is that now companies may legally sell software meant to copy DVDs as long as they put on the box the “appropriate uses” of the software.  Do you see where I’m going with this?  Watch your store shelves.  Get ready for a bunch of new DVD copying software.

Have you ever heard the term, Jail-breaking, as it relates to your cell phone?  No, your cell phone is not a convict.  It has to do with what your phone maker wants you to do and not do.
As an example, let’s take the iPhone. When you purchase an iPhone, there are two rules that must be followed:
First, the only apps you can load are those that have been approved and put in the iTunes store.  Second, you must only use AT&T as your cell service provider.
If you jailbreak your phone, those two rules no longer apply.  Legally, you may now use another provider or upload non-approved apps.
As of today, more than a million iPhone users have jail-broken their phones.  Keep in mind, while jail-breaking your phone is legal, doing so will void your warranty.
I’m not going to jailbreak my phone yet, though. I want to see how this will play out first.

I just love old James Bond movies.  He had all the gadgets.  How many times did he find some document and then photograph it with his watch or pen so he could look at it later?
Well, now you can do the same thing.  Using your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Nokia phone, and a little app from scanr.com, you can photograph a document and have it turned into a high quality PDF on your desktop.

You can even have it faxed to any number in the U.S.  But the best part is the OCR capabilities.  OCR stands for optical character recognition.

Basically, that means the computer can “understand” the text it is seeing and provide it to you in a way that makes it easy to edit.  No more retyping!

I’ve used this service for a while and am quite pleased with the results, even with my 2nd generation iPhone.

It’s happened to everyone.  You lost your cell phone.  Where is it?  Well, what most people do is borrow someone else’s phone and start calling it, listening for the ringing.

But what if you set it to silent? This happened to me recently.  I could not find that thing anywhere and I couldn’t hear it quietly vibrating. So, I came up with an idea:

I wore my wireless Bluetooth headset.  I would go into each room of my house and press the headset button.  When I finally heard the little “connection” beep, I knew the phone had to be within about 30 feet of where I was standing.

Then, I turned out all the lights, and called the phone. When it lit up with the call, I found it!  But it sure would have been easier if the phone had some sort of “vibrate but ring really loud if I am lost” setting.

Maybe I’ll email Steve Jobs about that.  Some websites, like Where’s My Cell Phone and Blue Retriever might also be able to help if you lose it frequently.

Everyone knows they need an Antivirus program. But which one is best? And are any of them free? Let’s break this down. First, you MUST have an antivirus program on your system, free or not. Some of the best for-pay products are Symantec, Trend Micro, and McAfee, and AVG. But what if you don’t have a lot of money to burn. My favorite free antivirus program is, believe it or not, made by Microsoft. Security Essentials does one of the best jobs I’ve seen and doesn’t eat up your computer’s processing power. It ranks well in the industry tests which pit antivirus programs against each other. Once you install it, there’s nothing you need to do. It scans all by itself. It updates itself when it needs to. And best of all, it puts a little cute green house in your system tray. What more could you ask for?

What do you think is the number one question I get at parties?  That’s right, “Why is my computer so slow?”  Folks, there can be many reasons, but let’s start with the most obvious: How old is your computer.  Any computer over 4 years old is probably having trouble keeping up with today’s websites, games, and other programs.  Buy a new computer every 4 – 5 years.  These things aren’t freezers.  Another reason for slowness could simply be a lack of memory – in other words, not enough RAM.  Today, you need at least 2 gigabytes of RAM and preferably 4 gigabytes.  You will be surprised how much faster that simple upgrade can make your system. Here’s how you check your RAM. Finally, a very common cause of system slowness is an infection of some sort.  Malware, virus, spyware – any number of vile little programs could be sitting there eating up your PC’s performance.  Make sure your antivirus is up to date. Who knows, with a little cleanup or memory upgrade, you might be able to extend the life your system by a year or two!

Ok, here’s the scenario.  You have your laptop at a coffee shop, someone’s office, or a friend’s house.  You turn it on and it detects a wireless Internet router.  All you have to do is click connect and you get free Internet, right?  Is that legal?
Well, that’s hard to say.  The closest law in the US that might cover it is “unauthorized access” or “trespassing.”  Most officials feel that the responsibility to lock up a wireless access point lies with the owner.  Many people, however, don’t know or don’t know how to turn on their wireless access point’s security, and so any of their neighbors or even people driving by could access their network.
And that’s the rub.  If you connect to someone elses’s wireless Internet, you are, in effect accessing their network.  So, while the law may be vague, the ethics are pretty clear.
Can others access YOUR wireless network?  Is it secure?  Or can any hacker sit outside your house or business with a laptop and access your files? Depending on where you live, one of our friendly techs can come out and verify your wireless network’s security.  Give them a call at 806-353-0004.

Ok, this will date me.  My first Internet browser, you know that thing you use to look at web pages) was a program called NCSA Mosaic, which was eventually renamed to Netscape.  Soon after, Microsoft realized that this Internet thing was probably not a passing fad, and created Internet Explorer and included it on every copy of Windows they sold.
Internet Explorer quickly became the browser that everyone used.  Firefox eventually showed up and started giving IE a run for its money, but it wasn’t until Google released its browser, named “Chrome,” that I was hooked.  It’s a million times faster and a heck of a lot more stable than IE.  And I love how they’ve implemented the tabs.
To get it free, go to google.com/chrome.  Trust me, you’ll love it!  And for those of you wondering why I didn’t mention Apple Safari, well, its ok.  It’s cute and all, but on the speed-o-meter, it probably ranks between Firefox and Chrome.  Chrome rocks.

Ok, show of hands, how many of you like calling one of those 1-800 tech support numbers?  That’s what I thought.  Well, I have some secrets that will get you farther faster with those guys.
First, make sure you are calling the right number.  Sometimes a company will want to force you to use email or some online form to turn in a problem.  Finding numbers can be tough.  Make sure you bookmark the website, GetHuman.com.  It gives you tricks to talking to a person and avoid the automated voice menu systems of large companies, not to mention the actual phone numbers of their support group.
Second, if you start to get frustrated with a tech, ask this one question: “What would you do if you were me?”  You will be amazed how much faster you find a solution.  Trust me.

Most of you have used Google Maps at some point.  You know, that drag-able, zoom-able online atlas.  Finding locations and directions between two places is simple.  But, listen closely.  I have some secret tips used by the pros.  First, have you ever received a call on your cell phone and didn’t recognize the number.  Well, if it was a business, you can type the phone number in Google Maps and it will tell you which company called.  Cool.  Reverse Phone Search.  It doesn’t work for residences, though, for privacy reasons.  Next, ever notice the little green beaker in the top navigation bar?  This is a link to Google Labs.  These are services Google is testing for later release.  Click it.  You’ll find some really cool options, like distance measurement tools, real-time longitude/latitude calculations, and rotatable maps.  You never knew maps could be this fun!