Attention Students! Microsoft is offering Windows 7 Professional edition for $64! No joke!  Here is the link! Show your appreciation for Nerds Limited by sharing a link to this page and sending a retweet @nerdslimited

Microsoft announced a few days ago that ANYONE can download a free 30 day trial of windows 7 which will work for 90 days.  This version is the FULL version!  Call Nerds Limited @ 505-750-8885 to discuss upgrading today!

We have decided that the single best morsel of British Slang is the term ‘tosser’: so useful, so delicious?  What does tossing have to do with podcasts?  Well, most of us subscribe or at least dabble in Internet media (live, or podcasted) and most of that content is not consumed, or consumed inefficiently.  When it spoils, we either toss it, or let it clutter our drives.  Sound familiar?  Read on!

Keeping podcasts current on any device is a pain!Nobody syncs their phone any more.

• iThis (your Apple Device) hates gThat (your Android Phone) & won’t talk to your MacBook or PC Desktop.
• If I pause playback on my iPad and try to resume on my google phone, I’m out of luck.
• iTunes(PC or Mac) is not as simple as it looks.
  • Even the fastest windows computer, iTunes is intolerably slow & still is as inflexible as on any Mac.
  • Possibly the worst part:
    • Podcasts take up space on our disks when I really only want them on my mobile devices.

After such a horrific summary, what can possibly be done to save this exclusively first-world problem?

Stitcher!  We had given up on the entire class of ‘Sync-MEdia’  (our own term. Probably highly incorrect in programmer-speak) apps because they either crashed, didn’t function at all, or NEVER stopped downloading stuff, getting in the way of my usual Android phone tasks.

For those with smart phones (iPhones, Android, BlackBerry, Palm), Android Tablets, or iPads, take a look at stitcher on iOS and Android.
Think of Stitcher as Steve Jobs’ Baby delivered via Pandora‘s box.  That analogy is as bizarre as it is accurate.  Stitcher takes the RSS feeds from podcasts, LIVE feeds from Internet radio & TV, and mixes them according to your expressed preference (how much or often you consume what you say you like).  It stores A/V data intelligently according to your bandwidth constraints which can be overridden manually.  In our tests, it does an excellent job of never skipping while also not storing too much junk on your device.

How fast is fast enough when syncing media? Enter the Nerds Limited bathroom test.

The sync works between all devices so quickly that you can pause your iPad (WiFi) and resume on your google Android or iPhone (3G) for the amount of time required to go to the bathroom without spending an inefficient amount of time messing with the interface.  Once you’re logged in with a free Stitcher account, it also works via their Web site with all of the above functionality.

NetFlix comes close to passing our bathroom test, but doesn’t quite cut it.  Stitcher passes with flying colors!

A quick look at the press Stitcher has received from around the web tells us that we aren’t the only ones who really like it.

@NerdsLimited we are very impressed by Stitcher.  Much of our daily research involves simplifying our client’s daily tasks.  Do you live in the greater Albuquerque / Santa Fe area? Call or email Nerds Limited today and see just how well we can painlessly integrate your devices in to your daily life!

Summary: As a general rule, safe means backed up in more than one place and readily available for restoration if needed. Secure means encrypted.

Let’s face it, techs have their own colloquialisms which sound like gibberish to even a well educated person.  This phenomenon is the result of one of the oldest maxims of language: he who discovers or invents it gets to name it. Since any programmer can write a program, and, by extension, name it [and its features], talking tech has become its own mix of everyday objects, invented terms, and strange hybrids therein.  Many tech terms follow inferred rules found elsewhere in English while others do nothing of the sort.  For example a desktop computer sits on the top of a desk while a laptop computer sits on your lap.  There are, however, many tech terms which are homonyms in English but differ greatly when brought into the context of a tech discussion.

Safe Vs. Secure

One of the most important practices in information technology is the regular backup of the data we entrust to our computers.  Although there are many approaches to data backup, they all share a common goal: keep your data both safe and secure.  Since safe and secure sound appealing to the marketers of the world, the terms are used largely in tandem but occasionally are used interchangeably.  That’s a major mistake!  Not all secure data is safely stored and very few consumer grade backup solutions are secure.  Let me elaborate.

Safe data, by definition is data which has been stored in a way which ensures that it is both readily available for restoration and stored redundantly such that a single backup’s failure does not result in data loss.

Secure data, by definition refers to a specific method by which any data (either primary or backup) is stored such that it is not accessible by anyone other than its creator and intended recipients.   Encrypted files cannot be accessed by those without the password to unlock those files.  Yet, encryption of data does not ensure the safety of said data.  Here’s a real-world scenario.

You have data on a desktop at work and a laptop at home.  To transfer files between home and work, you use an encrypted jump drive which requires a password to access its contents.  The jump-drive and its data are secure but not safe because it is entirely possible to lose the jump drive during your commute.  If you lose the drive, it may not be accessible to the person who finds it, but if the only copy of that data is on the drive, your lost drive is just as useless to you as it would be to its new owner!

Here’s another example.

You have a network attached storage drive or public folder at work which you regularly access from home which doesn’t have a password protecting it.  The lack of security is to ensure it is easy for you and your co-workers to access their publicly available files from anywhere.  Since the data exists on both your home computer and at work, it can be assumed that the data is safe from common pitfalls such as hard drive failure, fire, electrical surges, etc.  The data is, however, not the least bit secure since anybody, employee or not, can access the publicly available folder.

In a sentence: We back data up to keep it safe and we encrypt it to be sure it is secure from others.

For more information on best practices, data security,and data safety, call Nerds Limited and see just how useful it can be to have your own tech guy!

Lifehacker wrote an excellent article which outlines a few good key points for those who are new to Windows 7.  If you’re looking for a place to begin, begin here.

Upgrading and maintaining a PC from XP to Windows 7 and beyond.

I’d like to think I learned some of the most important lessons from my father.  He is and always will be more fundamentally disciplined than I am.  His clothes were always folded, his shirts were always ironed, and his car was always clean and pristinely maintained.  As a young adult, I’ve found value in my father’s lessons both great and small.  Changing the oil and keeping my car maintained, although not performed with metronomic precision, are, more or less, adhered to; and the performance of my 2001 Honda Civic with every bit of responsiveness and agility it had 140 thousand miles ago is a testament to its regular maintenance.

Similarly, the care and feeding of a PC does not rely on some vernal equinox or astrological trifecta of fate.  Rather, it is a combination of correct daily practice and regular maintenance which, when combined with a hint of good advice, can extend the life of your PC (or Mac) well beyond the life of its peers.

Make no mistake, there is no magic bullet; no perfect recipe for success.  Just as a car accident can happen to even the most seasoned of drivers, the right combination of physical neglect, poor judgment, and impulsively installed applications can end even the most pristine of systems before their time.

That aside, the below advice is the result of years of personal experience, technical research, and, most importantly, countless computers brought to me for service over the years.

XP vs. 7

Many people heard as they bought a new computer in the last 3 years, that Windows Vista was a disaster.  The truth is, for the consumer, it was!

Windows Vista promised too much, delivered too little, and neglected to be refined by the most important component of any Operating System: its users.

As a result, many computers that run windows XP will actually perform better with Windows 7 than it ever did with XP.  Moreover, all computers that run Windows Vista will see a noticeable improvement in speed, agility, and overall predictability with a Windows 7 upgrade.

But I like XP!  Why on Earth would I upgrade?

The answer is if you don’t want to, you don’t need to.  No amount of techno-babble or list of shiny happy features will change your mind.  As an IT consultant, my job is to provide options and let you make the call.

There is a bright side though!  Windows Vista’s failure forced Microsoft to listen to its customers in an unprecedented way.  Windows 7 endured a full year of public trials in which people like me installed it and did our best to tear it to pieces.  Furthermore, every SINGLE aspect of the operating system had a feedback box, which allowed the hive-mind of geeks to sand down its rough edges by suggesting hundreds of precise refinements, which shape the overall look and feel of the operating system.

After the public tests from geeks like me, Microsoft spent an outrageous amount of time and money ensuring that Windows 7 was as easy to use by the XP user as it was for the Vista user.  Incorporating the clean lines of XP with the raw power of modern (and classic) graphical potential, Windows 7 runs as smoothly on a netbook as it does on a desktop!

Windows XP is comfortable!

Yes, it is!  Windows XP was released circa 1999.  Thus making it roughly 11 years old! Most of us don’t drive cars that old and yet, we’re trying to cram the modern Internet, brand new applications, streaming video, multi-channel audio, and 3d accelerated games on a foundation built before any such demand was commonplace on full size computers; let alone possible on today’s mobile phones!

Media is everywhere. Why can’t XP keep up?

Not to stray from the topic at hand, but it occurred to me moments after ordering my first smart phone, just how rapidly streaming media had progressed since the turn of the century.

The Droid 2’s system specs are slightly superior to the laptop I brought to Earlham College in 2001! The sheer number of individual technological discoveries, refinements, and collaborative efforts required to achieve the modern smart phone still amazes me.  Such an impressive string of innovations demonstrate the unbridled demand of an unforgiving consumer who requires a great deal from their mobile device and will happily reward the state-of-the-art while mercilessly starving those who do not measure well against their competitors.  Don’t believe me?  Remember Palm OS?

We want the world in our pocket without an uncomfortable weight, easily breakable parts, or any lapse of coverage.  For such a feat, most of us pay more per month than the cost of a Windows 7 upgrade.  Why be so demanding of our pocket sized devices and shy away from an Operating System whose improvements are just as significant and definitely more potentially useful than most of the ephemeral gimmicks we drool over regularly with every new smart phone?

Expect the same from your OS as you would from your phone.

Very few of us are paid to talk on our mobile phones for 8 hours a day.  Those who do most certainly also use computers to record the facts of their calls in some way.

When we buy a new phone, we find ourselves eager to consume its features, digest its novelty, and be nourished by its standard-setting, ‘groundbreaking’ improvements.  Why then do we cling to the familiar desktop of XP with such gusto?  The moment we hold our desktops to the standards of our phones, we will realize just how limited Windows XP has become.

by Jason Bache

Nerds Limited, LLC