Sure, we all search the internet, but are you more a Shaggy and Scoopy searcher? Or are you a Sherlock Holmes? Up your search game! Internet Search 20 Google Search Tips – https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/20-tips-use-google-search-efficiently.html Advanced searching with Bing – https://www.lifewire.com/bing-advanced-search-3482817 Advanced tricks with DuckDuckGo – https://www.pcsteps.com/12534-advanced-tricks-duckduckgo-search-engine/ And for our caller who called about VPNs? https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ Plus a bonus: our favorite video about Filter Bubbles!

Don’t call it a comeback! Emotet has been going to the gym and on a diet. What is Emotet? And what is a botnet? Bad Botnet! Bad! No Biscuit! How to recognize Emotet – https://blog.malwarebytes.com/botnets/2019/09/emotet-is-back-botnet-springs-back-to-life-with-new-spam-campaign/ Deeper reading – https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/worlds-most-destructive-botnet-returns-with-stolen-passwords-and-email-in-tow/ What is a botnet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet

Our friends at OfficeMax/Office Depot in Kahului have given us a family sized prize for our next drawing! Protecting your PC! Why is this relevant? Why, we’re talking about backups and protecting your computing devices!

Today we talked about Chromebooks! They’ve come a long way over the past few years. Tune in as we  talk about: Is the ChromeBook for me? Chromebooks pros: Websurfing and webapps! Android apps! Chromebooks can run Android apps now! Relatively inexpensive for modest machines, although better machines in terms of build quality and specs are available (even up to $999!) for serious/professional users. Chromebook cons: You can’t buy and download big, full-professional programs like Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut Pro, FULL Microsoft Office, etc. You’re stuck with web apps or Android apps. You can’t buy and download Windows or Mac games. You’re stuck with web games and Android games. Chromebooks generally do best with wifi or an internet connection. Without internet access you lose access to a lot of functionality. Things to consider Design. Is it a laptop or a convertable/2-in-1? Touchscreen? How well is it made? Stylus support? What sort of ports? USB? HDMI? How much RAM? 4g is minimum recommended for light use. 8g or more for heavier use, demanding Android apps/games, etc. 16g is going to be overkill for most users. CPU. Many will have Celerons or similar low-end CPUs which is okay for casual browsing and light use (Celerons, ARM, m3’s), but the nicer ones can have i3, i5, and i7 CPUs. Storage! 32g is probably a safe starting point, but if you want to keep files locally, download Android apps, etc., consider 64gb to 128g. If you plan to do photo editing or video editing then look for more. Budget. Be ... Read More

Windows 7 is expiring in January 2020. Are you ready to move on? Should you move on? How do you move on? Movin’ on up! Well, thanks to a listener’s suggestion, that’s what we’re talking about today!

Liquid nitrogen ice cream! Tons of telescopes! Science experiments! Talks and lectures! The Institute for Astronomy Maui is having an open house on Friday, September 20th! IfA Open House! – Part 1 Are you a fan? Want to know more? Well, listen in! Dr. Armstrong (our fearless astronomer) chimes in and more!

We’re continuing on with the IFA’s open house, plus very cool stuff besides! IfA Open House! – Part 2 E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation – https://amzn.to/2PPusQr Einstein for Beginners – https://amzn.to/2PTRVAg And a cool video about black holes! https://youtu.be/zUyH3XhpLTo

Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Hey Google are all great voice assistants. This is a good thing, and a very useful feature of modern computers, smartphone, and more! However, your voice doesn’t stop with you. It goes from your device to the internet and onto a cloud server somewhere “out there,” only to return back with instructions the device understands and executes. Listening Up! Oh, and sometimes people listen. Computers can’t figure us humans out entirely. How to stop Alexa, Siri, and Google: https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/how-to-stop-alexa-google-siri-recording-human-review.html (thanks Alert Internet Surfer Perry!) How to stop Cortana: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-configure-windows-10-to-protect-your-privacy-1716204024

Its a news show! What’s News? There’s been a lot going around, and we don’t want things to fall through the cracks. So, its time for our patent pending news show! https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/08/wind-power-prices-now-lower-than-the-cost-of-natural-gas/ https://www.neowin.net/news/google-runs-with-microsoft-made-fix-for-chromes-battery-drain https://www.space.com/nasa-artemis-lunar-lander-update-august-2019.html https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08/huawei-announces-its-first-operating-system-harmonyos/ https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-administration-reportedly-wants-to-extend-nsa-phone-surveillance-program/ https://www.pcmag.com/news/370202/which-countries-are-best-prepared-for-cybercrime-response https://www.anandtech.com/show/14694/amd-rome-epyc-2nd-gen https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/facebook-transcribing-users-conversations-reason-204037706.html

USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, came about in 1996 because computers used to have WAY too many different plugs/connections. From USB 1 to 2 to 3 to… C! Wait, what? USBisms USB-C is the newest member of the USB family, but its a different looking plug! In exchange for this small headache, do you get anything in return? You bet! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C https://www.howtogeek.com/211843/usb-type-c-explained-what-it-is-and-why-youll-want-it/ https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-c-hubs-and-docks/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/understanding-usb-cable-types-one-use/