Computer Forensics w/ the FBI

So I had a neat experience the other day, being a member of HTCIA (A law enforcement, computer forensics group) we had our monthly meeting at the FBI office in Santa Maria. It pretty cool when you have to go through three different security gates/doors all with buzzers and cameras.

I have been a member with HTCIA for three years now and have learned so much. When it comes to crime and obtaining evidence it is amazing how much stuff you can find on someone's computer, cell phone, and GPS unit.

Google Maps.. Gone Wrong

Hilarious - a modern day Internet Horror short film!
read more digg story

Bill Gates' Last Day

I was browsing around Digg.com - they now have a section for Videos and pics and came across a Microsoft video of Bill Gates' Last day in the office. Quite funny, I am sure M$ paid a pretty penny to make this. I think they are finally realizing the importance of being personal - and humor is a key way to starting a personal feeling. Bill Gates' Last Day

Vista Battery Saver

So I am running Vista on my laptop, and it has a bunch of little gadgets and graphical candy built in. Let's face it, Vista is pretty. With all this, when you are using a laptop on battery, it really eats the juice.

I was doing a little search for more advanced power management, such as turning off Aero when on battery - and it is not built in. But I stumbled across an open source website sponsored by Microsoft that has all kinds of user enhacements and plug-ins: http://www.codeplex.com/

Vista Improved

Woo hoo! Microsoft has released a VERY effective update that significantly improves performance for Windows Vista. This update is not automatically available via Widows update so if you are interested, you must go here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=941649eI am so much happier now with this performance update installed. From what I hear, this will be available in SP1, but why wait and torture yourself?!?

LinkedIn

Within about three days of eachother I had two or three invitations to get LinkedIn - added as a member of someone's profile. So I finally decided to take a look. LinkedIn is an online networking tool - it's power is in how easy it is to find a close friend that knows someone you have been trying to meet, such as an owner of a lucrative lcoal business. Great for networking.

I have attended a networking group for about two and a half years, and got to know the members well, but never good enough to know who they rubbed shoulders with. Within 30 minutes using this tool, I was able to find which of my close friend's knew the business owners that I have wanted to reach.

In a way, this site is a business owner's version of MySpace - more business networking instead of social networking.

Technical Support for Macs

If you do not know by now, our computer company is the "IT Department" for hire - local businesses outsource their computer department needs to us, so we deal with everything technical and that of course include Mac computers. The easy thing about technical support for Mac computers is a Mac user has so much pride in using a Mac. Macs are flawless, never crash, have a superior design, and a superior user interface. That is a rough version of the Mantra I hear when a Mac user sees me using a PC. That is what makes supporting Macs so easy - they do tend to be more stable and with this great interface the end users need less help. It also explains my surprise form this support phone call I had the other day:
End User: "I am having an email problem with my Mac."
Me: "OK, what happens?"
End User: "My Mac crashes whenever I open this specific attachment."
Me (Surprised): "Your Mac Crashes?.... Do you mean your email program freezes or the the computer itself is completely frozen... locked up?"
End User: "No not just the email program. the whole thing crashes."
Me (Surprised still): "Your Mac Crashes, and you are admitting it?!?"
OK, maybe I embellished the conversation a little but I had yet to meet a Mac user that would admit to any instability on their computer. Of course now, I am struggling to fix the problem. How do I get advice on a problem that no one believes? Not even myself.