The TECHLife Post

20 years of freedom

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:16:05 +0000

(The Berlin Wall, December 1985. Photo by Eric Jacksch) Twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall fell, uniting East and West Germany. Celebrations today include fireworks, concerts, and the toppling of foam dominoes painted by school children. Spiegel Online International has a great collection of historic images and coverage of the 20th anniversary celebration. They [...]

Now Think Now

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

A new student-run program in Indianapolis called Now Think Now encourages teens to think and make better decisions behind the wheel. Their web site explains, Now Think Now is a social site where teens and other community members can gather and share their stories, ideas and opinions. Our ultimate goal is getting teens the information they [...]

Good year for a merger

Andy Marken — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

If being acquired isn’t part of your business plan…prepare your survival strategy. Nothing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map. – Wayne Calloway When Eric Schmidt (Google) said he paid a premium of one billion for YouTube he spelled out part of the strategy companies [...]

H1N1, bad information and scams

Eric Jacksch — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

As H1N1 (swine flu) continues to spread, so does misinformation on the Internet. There are several emails in circulation that are simply wrong, and web sites with false information are popping up all over. And scams are starting to emerge. We share this planet with people who still believe the earth is flat, lunatic conspiracy theorists [...]

The office online

Andy Marken — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Making The Transition to a Social Business “Look, I’m all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most.” – Dwight Schrute – The Office, ABC-TV Seriously… Tim Berners-Lee [...]

Ottawa: It’s all about the lack of competence

Eric Jacksch — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Tens of thousands of pounds of disgusting and dangerous sewage gets pumped into the basements of homeowners in Ottawa, not just once or twice, but three or four times – in what the City claims is a “hundred year occurrence.” The top public servant in Ottawa claims the sewers are working just fine, the way [...]

Canadians screwing Canadians

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I hope that regular readers of my security column will forgive me, but today I’d like to get a few things off my chest. With the holidays approaching, we’ll undoubtedly hear Canadian retailers whinging about how the Internet is costing them revenue and begging us to “shop local.” They’ll tell us how Internet shopping hurts our [...]

Do as we say, not as we do.

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

We often hear banks complaining loudly about the losses they suffer from payment card fraud. Campaigns like “Protect your PIN” and humorous commercials with a miniature armoured truck following a customer down the street must cost tens of millions of dollars. But then consumers still receive calls like I did on Saturday afternoon. The bank – [...]

30 years of failure

Eric Jacksch — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Ars Technica has a great article this morning entitled 30 years of failure: the username/password combination. One of the things that they didn’t discuss is why we continue to use passwords for authentication even though they’re known to be a serious weakness. The first reason is that, as long as we don’t include the cost of [...]

Six steps to profitable marketing

Andy Marken — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

New ideas are almost a dime a dozen. There’s an innovation on almost every street corner. What makes a new idea successful is a well thought out, well developed marketing plan that everyone in the organization can understand, believe in and follow. Without a solid marketing plan it is too easy for an organization to be [...]

Windows 7 BitLocker, a practical solution

Eric Jacksch — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I recently installed Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit) on my brand new HP Mini 110 (it ships with XP). The Windows 7 distribution included all the drivers needed to get the system up and running, including the WiFi drivers, making it a very painless process. Once running, it automatically downloaded the vendor-specific video driver, resulting [...]

Winning ways to make enemies in the press

Andy Marken — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

There’s a world of difference in the way “organizations” handle problems when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar. While usually relatively minor, from a national media standpoint, almost every organization encounters major or minor problems each year as they have “run-ins” with the media. This is especially true today where citizen journalists [...]

Tuning up your PC

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

A common complaint among computer owners is that, over time, their computer starts to run slower. There are a number of causes including hard drive fragmentation, registry fragmentation, registry errors, malware, general clutter and unnecessary start-up programs. Taken individually, most of these problems aren’t that serious. Windows is getting better at avoiding fragmentation, and the majority [...]

Sociable and media

Sarah Stanley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, Twitter was hacked. Facebook also had its woes. Recently Gmail went down. What’s a girl to do? If you were like me, it felt like my blood supply got cut off. It got me thinking. What do we do when technology isn’t available? We are used to having technology relationships. But what [...]

Microvideo: The next big thing?

Eric Jacksch — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:00:48 +0000

Twitter took blogging to microblogging. Now sites like 12seconds.com and robo.to are introducing us to the concept of microvideo. The New York Times ran a great introductory article yesterday. What do you think? Will Microvideo become the new medium of choice, augment Twitter, or just fade away?

LoJack for Laptops revisted

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:00:47 +0000

Last year I wrote about LoJack for Laptops, software that periodically checks in with a central server to help locate your laptop if it is stolen. One of the LoJack features that caught my attention is that, when installed on compatible computers, a bios agent is activated. The bios agent is supposed to reinstall LoJack if the [...]

Ten Commandments for Managing People

Andy Marken — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

The most valuable asset any organization has today is not its facilities. It’s not the inventory in the warehouse or on the production line. It’s not healthy bottom line the company achieved last year (although right now that would be sweet!). It’s people. This is especially true in the PC/CE/Communications marketing arena where quality and quantity [...]

Happy Labour Day!

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

TLP staff have all abandoned their homes and offices in celebration of the last summer long weekend of 2009. Have a good one!

Increasing your street cred

Andy Marken — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Over the past 20 + years in the PC/CE marketplace we’ve learned and relearned our job 40-50 times. Every time the industry changes, every time the communications avenues shift; life/opportunities change. Since the Internet and Web came into their own editorial and promotional outlets/targets have shifted…dramatically. We all read the same studies, the same reports — [...]

What would you do?

Eric Jacksch — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:25:00 +0000

The events Monday night in Toronto have the media and net buzzing. (If you haven’t read about it yet, this Toronto Star article will get you started). While facts, opinions, observations, and premature conclusions dribble out in response to seemingly insatiable public curiosity, there is a question few are asking: What would you do? Incidents like this are complex [...]

Life!

Sarah Stanley — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:00:35 +0000

This week has been interesting, to say the least. Between countless deadlines, traveling, training, projects, some disappointing news, some exciting news and life in general, the last 7 days have given me my money’s worth — if there was such a thing. And a laugh or three. Which brings me to my thought for this week: [...]

Evidence Eliminator is a bad idea

Eric Jacksch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:00:00 +0000

By now most of us know that when we delete a file from our computer it isn’t really gone – the space is merely marked as being available for reuse. Unlike in the physical world, where we can easily shred or burn documents we wish to dispose of (and put the others out in the [...]

On goals

Sarah Stanley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:00:01 +0000

So, for the month of July I had a little personal goal of running and cycling 1000 miles. Yup you read that right, 1k miles. I knew that it would be tough to get in due to my travel schedule. Over the weekend I realized that I would have to get in 350 miles in 6 [...]

Financial Fraud and Internet Banking

Eric Jacksch — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

McAfee recently released a comprehensive report on the array of threats facing banks and their customers. It includes topics such as card skimming, money laundering, the Nigerian 419 fraud, auctions, and online banking. The report also provides a good overview of current countermeasures. Highly recommended reading! The full report is available for download here.

Canadian whine

Carter Drake — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:00:53 +0000

I’ve spent much of the summer on vacation, and overall it’s been quite enjoyable. But to hear some of my fellow Canadians whine, you’d think it was the end of the world. Sure it’s been a bit rainy this summer, and yes it was cooler than usual in June and much of July, but it’s [...]