From my heart and from my hand, why don't people understand my intention?
Computer running slow?
Avoiding.
Caught a virus?
No!
When?
Does your computer seem to have a life of its own?
Now functioning.
Need input.
The computer guru is here.
Thank God you're here!
Call in now.
Now it's Mike Swanson, your computer guru.
Oh, let's see where...
Look at this.
The levels are all right.
Hello.
Hi.
Hey, how you doing today, Kent?
Every once in a while.
I am pleased with...
I don't know.
I kind of like the over-modulated thing because it's like...
Like I'm yelling at everyone?
It's like an extra kick to the show right at the beginning.
Oh, my goodness.
All right.
Welcome to the Computer Guru Show.
My name is Mike, here to deal with your technology needs and treat you like a person in the process.
7902040 if you'd like to be part of the show.
We would love to have you on and talk about whatever's ailing you technology-wise.
And I was inadvertently...
I was inadvertently rude to Bob.
I didn't mean to be.
Sorry, Bob.
I apologize.
See, when I'm rude, I try to do it on purpose because it's like I might as well get the credit for it.
Oh, yeah.
You know?
That's not my style.
I don't know.
Sometimes a little snark is a good thing.
You know, it's just...
My mind is in other places.
That's all.
Yeah.
There's a lot going on.
So I had an interesting experience last night.
Oh, yeah?
Technology-wise.
Yeah.
Tell me about it.
So I'm at the ATM after work because it's Friday.
Time to go deposit my check.
Right.
And I get my check deposited.
And I went to go withdraw some cash.
And the machine just froze.
Okay?
So I'm like, all right.
It's going to time out eventually.
Right.
And it did after like 10 minutes.
And it rebooted.
And apparently that ATM was running Windows 7, which is an interesting fact.
But the more interesting thing was that when it was all the way back booted, which took...
A process that took 20 minutes, by the way.
Wow.
When it was all the way back, it just decided to keep my card in it.
So I don't have that anymore, I guess.
I don't know.
I use the type of ATMs that don't actually take your card.
Yeah.
Mine takes it into the machine.
Yeah.
Mine doesn't do that.
So I called my bank this morning.
And they informed me that I can just go down there and get it.
So I was like, okay, great.
What time do you close today?
And they said, 1 o'clock, which is coincidentally when the show ends.
So...
Do you need to take off early?
I guess I just won't have my debit card this weekend, which is fine.
All right.
Did you see any available USB ports on it?
You know, I was almost...
I was considering that.
And then I was like, I'm not going to be the guy who gets caught fiddling with the ATM.
I'm just not going to do it.
So I'll just deal with it.
All right.
I didn't get my cash either, though, which kind of sucked because I needed that.
Yeah.
I could see that would be a problem.
Yeah.
And I had to tell, like, I think it was like six people who came up behind me that I was
just going to be here.
And they're just going to have to deal with that.
Right.
You can move me if you like.
I was like, you know, I can move, but it's not going to work anyway.
It's frozen.
So...
All right.
There's no recourse for you.
I'm sorry.
Sorry.
Well, Windows 7, huh?
Yeah.
Which, you know, I was a little bit...
I mean, it's not good, but it's better than if I saw, like, an XP screen.
I am mildly miffed that they're using Windows 7 still.
But we all knew that.
Up until very recently, there were still a bunch of ATMs running Windows XP.
Yeah.
Or 98 even, maybe.
Yeah.
And I know that the...
Because it crashes all the time, the sign computer for the Roadhouse Theater...
Is absolutely Windows XP.
I noticed also when it was going through its boot sequence that this ATM had an American Megatrends board.
I was like, wow.
Yeah.
And they got it running Windows 7.
That's amazing.
I don't know if I feel good about that.
But I know why it's not running Windows 10.
Why?
Because it's an American Megatrends board.
Is it a board or just a BIOS?
I don't know.
It's probably just a BIOS.
I imagine.
It was old.
That's all I know.
Yeah.
I'm guessing it's just a BIOS.
Because the...
And I bet it's an Atom.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
Because, like, the firewall machines that we built.
Oh, yeah.
I could see that, I guess.
They're Atoms with AMI BIOS.
Okay.
That makes more sense.
That makes me feel a little bit better.
Yeah.
Otherwise, you're going to have to go in and, like, you know, ATM shame, operating system shame your bank.
I know.
I have a hard time...
I'm going to have a hard time not mentioning that to them when I go eventually to get my debit card.
Like, by the way, you know, we do IT security and your machine is running Windows 7 out there.
What's with that?
Generally, there's special sort of...
blends of Windows 7 and some other custom kernel that's going on.
I hope so, but at the same time, I just...
I don't have very much faith in any of this anymore.
So...
Yeah.
I don't blame you.
The ATMs are interesting animals.
And so are gas pumps these days.
Yeah.
And they're similar in the fact that they're almost computers.
And...
Well, I mean, they are, but...
Yeah, they have to have some computational power to...
scream an advertisement at you.
Are you talking about those little boxes?
Yeah.
Like, they have TVs on them now that are just playing commercials.
Yeah.
At least the one by my house.
It doesn't do commercials.
It does weather.
That's better, at least.
Every time I have a commercial playing while I'm getting gas,
I can't help but feel like I'm in Minority Report.
You know, when they're walking through the mall.
Yeah.
I just...
I don't...
I've never understood that kind of advertising.
Never in my life have I bought...
something as a result of an ad that was that invasive.
In fact, I've said,
now I'm not going to buy that.
Right, because I'm offended by the volume of this particular commercial.
Yeah, but never in my life have I, like,
been about to skip a YouTube ad,
and then I was like, wait, this product is interesting.
I don't think that's ever happened.
I'm trying to think if I've...
Is it a subconscious thing that they're going for?
Like, I'm going to see a Coke commercial,
and I'll be like,
yeah, it's been a while since I had a Coke.
Yeah, I don't know.
In fact, I almost feel like...
I'm offended at the movie theaters.
Yeah.
Where it's just like, okay,
if you can have a...
First of all, I don't understand how
Coke advertising is supposed to work.
Right, because
every Coke commercial
almost, I mean,
if you were to replace the Coke,
would be a hallucinogenic drug.
It's true.
Right, it would just be,
you know, you're imagining suddenly
that there are people dancing in the car wash.
Also, I've never had an event,
and I've never had an event ruined
because I didn't have
a particular brand of soda there.
Like, I've never been, like, at the beach,
and I was like, man,
this would have been way better with a Pepsi.
Also, I can't...
There's no way for me to be any more aware
that Coke exists.
Like, I don't need to see an ad ever again.
Yeah, Coke's one of those things
where it's sort of...
Everyone knows.
I feel like they're just advertising
because that's what they've always done
at this point.
Nobody's going to not know about Coke.
I think it's a tax credit.
It must be something like that.
Yeah, because...
Because they could not advertise
for ten straight years,
and I would buy the same amount of Coke
that I do anyway,
which is every now and then.
On occasion.
If the gas station that I'm at
doesn't have, like, an iced tea.
Which is probably sold and distributed
by Coke anyway.
Almost certainly, yeah.
Yeah, Coke is one of those companies
that, at least in the beverage world,
that is...
They're much like Disney in that regard.
They just own everything?
Yeah, they own all the things.
Yeah.
Anyway, the irritation level
with the way that technology
is being used to advertise
is high.
I mean, it's like an arms race.
There's so much invested in blocking ads
and then blocking ad blockers.
Right, well, it's hard to do at the gas station.
Yeah, I don't know what...
I was thinking about making some, like,
AR glasses that detect ads.
Do you think that maybe they'll move towards,
like, the ATMs before you get your cash out?
You have to watch a commercial.
That would not...
Don't even say that,
because that's...
That's probably going to happen.
Yeah, you can't...
You can't...
It's going to be like,
pay a $1 fee or watch this ad.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
You know what's sad?
I would pay the fee, like, every time.
Right, and it's like a...
It's a two-minute commercial.
Right?
Oh, man, that would be the worst.
And people would do it.
And there's just a line behind you.
Right.
And people are like,
just pay the dollar,
and you're like, I can't.
All right, let's talk to Charles.
Hey, Charles, how are you?
Oh, there we go.
Yeah.
I've got to forcefully disagree with you
about the reality in those Coke commercials.
I'm going to tell you,
when those polar bears are at my house,
they absolutely want a Coke.
You know what?
What's wrong with you?
Maybe I just haven't invited the...
Are you supposed to take the hallucinogenic drugs
before you watch the Coke commercial?
Is that how it works?
No, the commercial is the hallucinogenic drug.
You're right.
My goodness.
Why are you guys watching the commercial anyway?
Most of those...
Or listening to it.
Most of the stuff at the gas pump
and the other places have a mute button.
Do they really?
Yeah, most of them do.
You just got to look at the screen.
And of all people not to realize that, guys,
most of them have a mute button that'll...
Even if you don't...
Even if you can't stop watching the commercial,
you can at least not listen.
I feel like that would be...
I feel like I don't want to do that
because then they're going to know
that I interacted with their advertisement in some way.
And the mute buttons on the ones at...
Oh, what's the name?
I don't even know what's the word.
But they get the little box that says,
hey, points member,
and then it starts screen matching.
It's a little round control panel
and they've got a mute button on it.
Yeah, I just like...
Most of the mute buttons are broken
from people just jamming in.
Some of them are,
but I noticed most of the mute buttons,
most of the buttons,
they're not touched except the mute button.
It's got the writing on it.
It's kind of worn down from people pushing it.
Right.
There's been a few that have been out
where the mute button is broken
because somebody apparently...
Was unhappy with it.
They were just forcibly muting the ad.
They're muting harder.
Well, I carry certain things like that stick
and I find that on the ones that are broken,
if I jam the stick on it pretty hard,
it'll still mute.
Okay.
I was getting gas at QT recently
and apparently somebody pulled up
to one of the gas pumps
and then called the QT
and asked them to come out
and pump their gas for them
and they did it.
Wow.
They have to.
That's part of handicap legislation.
Oh, do you have to be...
Do you have to have, like,
a handicap sticker for that?
Yeah, you have to offer that service
because if you don't,
it's supposed to be intimidating
against some people.
So the moral of the story is
if you hit the little round squawk box
with a baseball bat,
it mutes it.
So...
If you just hit the gas pump with your car,
it'll probably mute it too.
Yeah, especially if you have some igniting device.
Yeah.
All right.
That's an ultra hot take.
All right.
Thanks for the call, Charles.
Thanks.
So if you have run over
a gas station pump with your car
and you need it repaired,
take it to Perfection Auto Works.
Oh, that was good.
Because I think that they can probably
take care of that for you.
Speaking of...
I am in negotiations with Mike
to actually get my car done.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, because I'm still waiting on my...
Because I told him, I was like,
I can't be without a car.
Yeah.
You know, because you know how much...
You know how unforgiving my schedule is.
It's true.
So...
But...
Hopefully...
We'll finish putting together the Prius.
Oh, that's what I was going to say.
You're talking about the Prius here?
Yeah.
And then...
And then Mike can have the BMW
to make it beautiful.
And you can just be speeding around in the Prius.
That's right.
I'll be a speedy Prius.
Well...
Anyway...
Check out their website,
perfectionautoworks.com.
Yeah, they're good guys.
If anybody can fix that Prius,
it's Perfection Auto Works.
Yeah.
I...
They're good people, though.
And...
And, you know,
they have a...
They have kind of a special thing going on
where if you...
If you tell them,
hey, you know,
Computer Guru sent me,
you don't have to wait
to the end of the line.
You get...
You get bumped up a bit.
Front of the line service, huh?
Yeah.
So, you just...
You just go ahead and tell them
Computer Guru sent you
and they will be very happy with that.
Which will make me happy.
All right?
Because I like happy.
Everybody likes happy.
Anyway,
perfectionautoworks.com.
Check them out.
Listen to their ad coming up next.
And we'll be right back.
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out
Your Computer Guru, Mike Swanson,
is here to help you tame
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This is the Computer Guru Show.
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This is the Computer Guru Show.
So, let's take a moment
to talk about our favorite,
you know, process chip manufacturer.
Those guys over at Intel
are in trouble.
Kind of in a big way, too.
Yeah, and for a couple
of different reasons.
You want to talk about the CEO first
or the security?
I think we should probably explain
what happened
and then talk about the CEO.
Okay.
So, we've been talking about
some AMT flaws,
which is the management service
that's built into a lot of the,
most of the Intel processors these days.
And it allows for,
it's designed for, like,
large corporate IT
to be able to have
a fair amount of money
and be able to do
a lot of things
and be able to do
as though they are sitting at it,
but remotely.
Right.
And just control the computer
completely, right,
from remote.
And it's a super useful feature
if you're managing large networks.
Yeah, because, I mean,
it's nice to have, like,
a remote connection,
but when you need to manage the BIOS.
Yeah.
And it allows you to make, you know,
changes to the system
while it's running,
that type of thing.
But, you know,
we've been saying for years,
you know,
for years,
hey, this is kind of a dangerous thing
to have in here
because it's effectively
a separate computer
that's running with,
you know,
a separate running processor
that's running within the machine.
And even when the machine is
quote-unquote powered off,
right,
that other processor is running
and the network card is running,
so you can manage that machine
and even if you wanted to,
turn the machine on from remote.
And we started talking about this
security flaws in this
a couple of years ago.
And it turns out
that it's gotten everybody else's attention
right now
because some serious flaws
have been found,
especially with the way
that operating systems interact
with these particular
management processes.
And it's not limited
just to Windows.
Mac machines are also affected
because most of them
are running Intel chips.
At least for now,
I imagine we're going to see
a change in that
pretty quickly.
Which would be kind of crazy
because historically
they've been running Intel chips
and one of the biggest purchasers
of Intel processors.
Yeah, and of course,
you know,
this type of news to say,
hey, there's these gigantic flaws.
We should probably tell you
that this isn't one of the flaws
where it's just like,
hey, somebody could turn
your computer on.
It's that with this particular exploit
that even things like
full disk encryption
would mean nothing, right?
The remote attacker
could read your information,
would be able to take information,
from you.
They would be able to see passwords
as they're typed in real time
and no antivirus would be able
to detect it
because it's not running
in the same sphere.
It's not running within
that operating system context.
It's running at the hardware level
where it can read everything.
And this really puts a lot of places
in pretty significant risk.
The interesting thing here to me
is that while there's already
a fix for this,
that patch essentially,
the way that it handles this,
slows the processor down a lot.
It slows down by as much as 30%.
Right.
Now, they're saying that you're probably
not going to see that much on average.
Yeah.
Right.
But there's the potential
for 30% slowing.
And I mean,
when we're in a competition sphere
right now between AMD and Intel
where, I mean,
speed advantage is measured
in single digit percentages,
that's a big drop.
Yeah.
Yeah, it certainly is.
To me, you know,
the performance impact
isn't nearly as important
as the security impact.
Right.
Of course.
You know, because most of the time,
in most cases,
generally,
people are sort of overpowered
on the CPU anyway.
They're not hitting that CPU
all that hard.
Yeah.
Even with the highest end gaming rig,
you really don't need a 12 core i7.
Right.
And so there's a lot of people
that are running,
as an example,
like i7 processors.
And they're going to be using,
I bet if you were to look at
an overall process usage
for a machine,
you're probably saying
20% usage,
30% for like a 20%
or 24 hour period.
Even on my machine,
right,
where,
you know,
I experiment a lot
with things that are
even high CPU usage.
I'm probably only averaging
40% usage.
I wonder how this will affect
the animation and movie production industries
because any type of film production
is very processor intensive.
And unless they've got it running on like
a separate GPU farm,
which the really big companies will do.
Yeah, Pixar's got their own phone.
But like YouTube developer,
or YouTube show runners,
for instance,
most of the time they're using Macs as well.
And yeah, I mean,
a 20 to 30% drop in your ability
to render your video
is kind of a big deal.
Right.
Yeah, it's going to be interesting.
And so anyway,
there's just no way to stop this,
right,
other than getting the software patches.
And from what I understand,
there's going to be some basic firmware updates,
firmware updates for the processors.
It's also worth noting that this is,
this is legacy Intel processor stuff.
Like,
this stuff is going to be, like,
this stuff that's coming out brand new
is not going to be affected by this.
Actually, since last year.
Yeah.
And the,
there is an option to turn off AMT in most processors, right?
And turning that off actually does a great deal
towards protecting yourself from this particular thing.
But most people don't go into the BIOS.
And that's not going to be an option anyway
for the really big businesses that need those AMT features.
Right.
So I'm curious what's going to happen there.
As you would imagine,
the Intel stock didn't, you know,
didn't fare all that well because of it.
Yeah, it dropped by 3% pretty much instantly,
which is a huge number for them.
Yeah.
But you know what the interesting thing is,
is how the CEO reacted before the release of this announcement
or the announcement of this particular flaw,
which was, I mean,
he normally sells about, you know,
$2 million a year worth of Intel stock.
But it was $40 million this year,
right before this was announced.
And so. What a coincidence.
You know, I'm sure that there's no sort of like,
you know, he knew or anything.
No, that was just luck.
It was already scheduled.
Just happened to need 20 times as normal amount,
you know, this year.
Maybe he was buying a house or a yacht.
Just in case.
Right. Or it was a really rough Christmas.
That's what it was.
So once again, we've got some type of a,
you know, a CEO type person that is in the tech industry.
Now, this is a really tough time. Right.
OK.
Cryptocoin, where they were selling Cryptocoin off before.
Right.
Which one was that?
I can't remember which coin that was.
It's one of the ones that you have.
Oh, it was Bitcoin Cash.
Yeah.
So, yeah, Bitcoin Cash, the developer of that basically saying,
hey, you know, I just need some extra money right now.
And taking a bunch out.
But anyway, so there's an investigation happening to find out, you know,
what he knew and when he knew it, that type of thing.
Yeah, because that's the most insider trading thing I've ever heard, I think.
I don't know how you could think you're going to get away with that.
I don't know.
So anyway, your computer may be telling you that, hey, you need some updates, by the way,
even though this has mostly been patched in previous updates.
How is that going to get patched?
Is it going to be a BIOS update?
How does that work?
Right now it's an OS update.
Okay.
But from what I understand, there are going to be firmware updates for your board.
Most people don't go out there and get those.
And it's kind of a scary thing to be, like, flashing your BIOS.
Yeah, because, well, in new machines it's not so much because they generally have dual BIOS.
Right.
But older machines, let's say older than five years ago.
I'll never feel comfortable 100% with that.
There is a remote chance that you will brick your machine.
Do you know how many things I have bricked because I didn't read the revision number?
I don't remember at the end of the model number.
It happens.
It does happen.
So you should be careful if you're going to update the BIOS.
But it's also one of those things that you should probably do.
Yeah.
And if you're running a newer machine, like you said, that has the dual BIOS, then you really aren't at risk.
Yeah.
You just go ahead and do what you do.
Get your update if you have a dual BIOS machine.
And that will help you out quite a lot.
And if you're buying a new machine and you're just a normal person, maybe look at buying a Ryzen processor, a machine with a Ryzen.
Maybe.
I mean, I'm still trying to overcome my extreme prejudice of AMD.
You've got to give them credit, though.
The Ryzen series is almost a different company at this point.
Yeah.
If you think of it as not AMD but as Ryzen instead, you might be okay.
I'll take a look at that.
I mean, well, you know what?
I should probably build one and just try it.
Get a Ryzen 5.
Don't go with the highest end one, not the lowest end one.
Ryzen 5 is where it's at.
So they're using a similar numbering structure to, like, the i5.
The i series?
It seems like it, yeah.
Just trying to jump on that?
I guess so.
It kind of worked, though.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah, I'll build one, and then I will give an honest feedback of it.
I think the best compliment that I could give to the Ryzen processors is that you will not notice a difference.
That would be amazing.
And they're, like, $200 cheaper.
Yeah, because the problem with AMD is that you knew that you were on an AMD machine.
Yeah.
It's loud.
It's hot.
Right.
It is.
Frequently crashes.
Yeah, those types of things.
And it gave very different blue screens as to Intel processors.
Yeah.
If I could build a machine with an AMD processor that I just didn't know it was an AMD, yeah.
That would be a complete success in my opinion.
Yeah, because they're not, like, incredibly faster than Intel processors right now.
It's just that they're night and day better than previous AMD offerings.
Right.
All right, so let's take a break, and then we'll come back and talk more about,
uh, the problems with the technology of this world.
Not to mention, you can give us a call at 790-2040.
We'll be right back.
Whether you're dealing with hardware installation or, heaven forbid, a virus.
No!
Mike Swanson is answering all your questions one by one.
So call in or chat in with yours.
The website?
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Tune in, click in, and kick back.
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If you'd like to be a part of the show, how'd my levels change?
That's what I want to know.
They did.
Didn't they?
Or am I just being louder?
It's me.
I changed them.
Oh, okay.
All right.
So if you'd like to call and ask a question, you can give us a call, 790-2040.
And if you're the type that doesn't want to talk to us on air, you can call 304-8300 and talk to the shop.
They won't put you on the air at all.
Not at all.
I promise.
Although it is Howard, so he may try to mess with you a little bit.
Well, it is, yeah.
that's how Howard gets his kicks
he tries to mess with people a little bit
that's what happens
what's next sir?
how would you feel about purchasing
fried chicken with bitcoin?
you know what
I knew that the fast food companies were going to jump on this
why wouldn't they?
because it's nothing but you make more money than you
inflation on this
I have to say though that I wouldn't want
to do a transaction for fast food
with bitcoin because it would be
incredibly slow if they wanted you to stand there
and verify it
bitcoin transactions are slow
I imagine they're working through some type of
clearing house
for that
an escrow account
if they would take litecoin
or ripple
ripple is crazy fast
so how long does it take on average
for a transaction?
bitcoin transactions can take hours
depending on how many people
are trading things at the moment
litecoin transactions
tend to take like 10 minutes from my experience
and ripple is like instant
hmm
alright then
I've done zero
ripple or litecoin
well bitcoin was
you know it was the
it's the OG
it was the model that everything else is based on
but they've improved on it since then
so you gotta look at some of these smaller
newer coins if you want to
see the upcoming technology
yeah
wow we got popular all of a sudden
yeah I don't know what you did
but
anyway
maybe I actually said the phone number slow enough this time
or I said something that just offended everyone
just now
everyone's mad at you
or something like that
I can't believe you said bitcoin is slow
kfc what?
yeah anyway that was the point of that
was that kfc in Canada is accepting bitcoin now
yeah and we've been working on
ways to potentially do that
but it seems to confuse
anyone who's an accountant altogether
yeah the biggest
hang up with bitcoin right now is that
none of the people who are in a position
to like make this happen
understand it
right
unfortunately
it's not that hard of a concept either
yeah and we have this
this is sort of weird contract going with our
payment provider
and
it's like I can't use another payment provider
in conjunction
would they consider bitcoin to be a payment provider?
yes
that's ridiculous
yeah
and that's one of the things I've been working with
is talking them out of that
do they consider trade a payment provider?
because that's like the same thing
yeah
no they don't
bartering
yeah
I mean yeah we're gonna
we're gonna work on that
because I'd really like to see
a cryptocurrency
ability to pay
at computer guru
yeah
!
me too
and as everyone should
should want
right
because that would be interesting
I don't know
I'm half doing it
just because of curiosity
yeah and I mean with
you know everybody always says
bitcoin's gonna fail
that could be the case
bitcoin might fail
but the underlying technology
of the blockchain
and all these new technologies
that are using it
that's forever
it's gonna be around
right
all right let's take some calls here
who are we gonna start with?
with Les
let's start with
line two
Les
hello Les
how are you?
hi guys
2018
greetings
you as well
and I took your advice
I was probably
last month
about upgrading
taking advantage
of the Windows 10 upgrade
using the
disabled service method
it would have had to have been
last month
yeah
for free
yeah
yeah for free
for free
and I had an old
like a Windows 8.0
that I hadn't used
and I
figured that would be
a good way to get into
the virtual box
to make one with 10
so I
created a virtual box
with 8
and then I
upgraded it
to 10
no problems
other than the video sharing
I was looking at it
and
the most you can get
is like 256
megabytes
for your video memory
and
my intent of the video
or the virtual box
would be to
be able to put your
programs on there
like Photoshop
and all that
I think Mike
you had suggested
then you have like
something you can
use
and not have to worry about
you know
putting in your keys
and all that stuff
right
but
256 megabyte
is really nothing
if you're going to use
Photoshop
so am I missing something
or is that not really
you're using virtual box
right
yeah it's a virtual
limitation of virtual box
so the virtual box
limitation is 256
but I think that's only
on the 32 bit version
or you have the 64 bit
version of virtual box
yeah I'm
pretty sure it's
installed in 64 bit
and the operating system
is 64
yeah
Windows 10
just
making sure
making sure that
your original
like your Windows 8
that you upgraded
was also 64
yeah
everything was
10
in fact I think
it installed it in the
I want to say
I remember
from messing around
with virtual box
that if you want to
access more
you have to set up
a pass through
so that it's actually
utilizing your GPU
right
there's a way to do
and I don't remember
off the top of my head
how to do it
but there's a way
in virtual box
to give direct access
to that operating system
because it's simulating
it's simulating
that GPU
right
yeah
so there is a way
to do a pass through
and I can't remember
how that works
off the top of my head
the other flavors
that cost more
for
yeah
you know
virtualizing machines
tend to have this built in
or they offer you
better virtualization
when it comes to
graphics hardware
but there is a way
to do a pass through
in virtual box
and unfortunately
I don't remember
what it is
I could research
I just researched
how to get to
I think it was
24 megs
and to get it
to 256
you know
there was some
YouTube videos
on that
that was pretty
straightforward
but I do have it
set up for 10
and I'm
playing around with it
but before I start
installing stuff
it's not going to be
overly useful
yeah
I bet if you just
Google virtual box
GPU pass through
you'll find what you need
not to mention that
there's an interesting
thing that happens
with these types of things
even though
your machine
your virtual machine
may only be reporting
that 256 megs of RAM
it's
still passing that
through to the real card
and then getting
a response back
and that happens
really fast
so the
even though it says
that it has less RAM
there
that's initially
utilizable
you know
that you can use
it's still pretty quick
and it may not be
the bottleneck
that you think
it's going to be
I hadn't tried
with any photo
I just
before I said
before I got further
I thought I would ask
and the other
little problem
with that virtual box
is
you know
so I have
let's say I have
a USB printer
and it sees that port
but it doesn't
share between
the host machine
I couldn't really
figure out
how to get any
or the webcam
you know it sees
the port
but it's like
my host computer
has a webcam access
but I wasn't sure
how to
at the top of the screen
there's going to be
like a USB devices
drop down menu
right
and you can go in there
and then assign it
to whatever
virtual machine
you want
but by default
you can get
those are on
the host machine first
and so then you can
when you go and assign
it to a virtual machine
it virtually
unplugs it
from the host machine
and plugs it into
the virtual machine
and you have to do
the same thing
with network connections
right
no network
they're bridged
okay
so
yeah that did it
automatically
the network
I didn't have to do
much with that
it was just the
it could see
there was a webcam
but it couldn't
access it
right
because USB devices
are exclusive
so you can't have
a USB plugged
into a USB device
plugged into more
than one machine
at a time
so you have to
effectively go and
unplug it from the
host machine
and plug it into
the virtual machine
okay
well I will play
around with that
it's um
it was also fun
setting up
the fresh installs
of Windows 7
I don't know why
I see what you guys
were talking about
yeah
it's different
and the nice thing
is that you can now
make backup copies
of that virtual
machine file
or put them on
a different machine
and fire them up
and everything's
exactly the way
it's supposed to be
or you can just
share them on a network
but you'll have
exclusive access
to one of them
so like
speaking of network
did you ever
research that
Zools
no I forgot
file thing
no I forgot
you were correct
it was IOSafe
as far as
the fireproof
waterproof
backup drive
enclosures
right
but the
ones I'm seeing
that I would
consider reasonable
for
um
priced
are all USB 3's
and
I'm pretty sure
you have a
you know
maybe a 6
9 foot limit
on the cable
um
so here's how
you get around
between them
you can get
$30 little boxes
that will take USB
and turn it into
network
oh
so
and you can have
them powered
over the network
so they can live
anywhere
and you can
convert
it's basically
a USB to network
adapter
you can get them
on Amazon
for as little
as like $6
don't get the cheap
ones
don't get the cheap
ones
get the most
expensive one
you can find
actually
on those
so there would
be USB 3 to
network
yes
okay
and
alright
and those
what they'll do
is they
they basically
become
little SMB
servers
so it becomes
like a network
share
on the network
it's pretty cool
check them out
alright
I will research
that because
the USB 3 ones
you could get
a 3
terabyte
IOS safe
for maybe
$350
with no drives
but yes
yes
actually
that did have
a drive
for $350
I feel like
it should come
with a drive
yeah but the
IOS safes
are stupid
expensive
because they're
fireproof
and you know
all of that
yeah but the
ones with the
network
are started
like they were
about $650
without any
drives
that's the ones
I'm thinking about
yeah
well I gotta
move on
thank you for
the call
appreciate it
let's move on
to Bruce
let's talk to Bruce
hello Bruce
how are you
good morning
I'm good
and yourself
not bad
what can I do
for you
can you talk
a little more
about Bitcoin
and then
the Bitcoin
mining
I hear these
people that are
Bitcoin mining
and I don't
really understand
what they're looking
for
I'm going to
turn it over
to Rob
because that's
his area
and then hang on
the other thing
is I see that
Ripple is trading
at almost 7
and it's at
201 as we
speak
yeah
isn't that a
bank based
cryptocurrency
yeah Ripple's
interesting because
it's like a
decentralized
centralized currency
I don't want to
get too much
into that
because it's
pretty technical
and there's a lot
involved
but I would
definitely tell
anybody who's
already knows
something about
crypto
to go look at
Ripple if you
haven't already
but yeah as far
as Bitcoin mining
goes
it's I mean
really all it is
on a fundamental
level is
your computer
being used
to solve
the algorithm
that is
that particular
block of
Bitcoins
so it's
just trying
to decrypt
that block
essentially
and you get
a percentage
of those coins
based on how
much work
your computer
did if you're
using a pool
right so
for the
uninitiated
there is a
set number
of
Bitcoins
that are
available
and how
each one of
those coins
comes into
the world
is that a
number of
machines are
involved in
the process
of creating
that particular
block for
the blockchain
so each one
that gets
completed
is a new
Bitcoin
that exists
in the world
and the
way that the
algorithm works
is that each
coin is more
difficult
exponentially
than the one
before
and so there's
a bunch of
machines that
are all trying
to solve
a particular
yeah because
at this point
it used to be
that you could
mine solo
just by yourself
and you could
get I mean
thousands of
coins a day
at one point
but as it got
more difficult
it's essentially
now impossible
to mine on
your own
with just
your computer
so what the
vast majority
of people do
is they join
what are called
pools which are
just networks
of computers
it's almost
like a botnet
in a way
and it's
tens of
thousands of
machines all
around the
world that
are all
working to
solve that
one block
together
and then you
are awarded
a small
amount based
on what
your machine
did
so yeah
for the most
part Bitcoin
mining is not
profitable these
days you'll
spend more on
the electricity
that it takes
unless you
have like a
crazy warehouse
in the jungle
that has every
GPU manufactured
by AMD last
year inside
of it
and it's
solar powered
yeah
but yeah I
mean these
other cryptocurrencies
you can definitely
still mine them
there's a lot
of research
that's done
on it but
I highly
suggest that
everybody go
and do that
because whether
you like Bitcoin
or not it's
a part of
things right
now and it's
going to be
for the
foreseeable
future
yeah I
believe that
well thank you
so much
no problem
alright bye
yeah it's one of
the questions that
I get quite a
lot is
what
how is this
Bitcoin a thing
what's all
this Bitcoin
yeah I'm
happy to talk
about it though
alright give us
a call
7902040 we'll
be back right
after these
messages
computer troubles
need some
advice call
in now
Mike Swanson
will be back
after these
messages
thank you
the computer
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let's go ahead
and talk to
Sandy
hello Sandy
how are you
well good
morning
I just got
a new computer
and I'm putting
all the new
software and
things on
and my new
machine has
office 365
360 which is
I think cloud
based
and I have
this prejudice
I just
I'm avoiding
the cloud
still
okay
I found out
that there's
a Libra office
or office Libra
which has a suite
of a calculator
and like a word
processor
and PowerPoint
like
yeah it's
it's basically
a clone of office
now would that
would that
if I use that
too long
will my data
eventually not be
compatible
do you think
in the future
to
well
as of right now
Libra office
has the ability
to save in all
of the Microsoft
office formats
and I really
don't see that
changing in the
future because
it's kind of like
their big selling
point is that
it's compatible
with office
so as long as
you're backing it
up properly
it should be
fine
okay
because I
is office
365 cloud
based mean
that in the
future
I would
purchase
the next
version of
office
without a
CD
is that
what that
means
so the way
that 365
works is
this is one
of my complaints
about Microsoft
and I'll do a
short rant
and then we'll
actually answer
your question
is that
Microsoft
needs to
stop naming
products that
are different
with the same
name
yeah
right
so there's
Microsoft
office 365
and within
365
there is the
version that
you can just
purchase
there is the
version that
is the
subscription
model
it's also
what they call
their mail
service
it's just
it's ridiculous
that they name
everything the
same thing
but so
the what is
commonly referred
to is the
cloud version
of office
365 is the
subscription
model
where you give
them a hundred
dollars a year
and they give
you office
on up to
five computers
and effectively
an unlimited
number of
mobile devices
so and
there would
be no
purchasing
new versions
it would just
automatically
become the
new version
when the
new version
is released
so that's
how the
what they call
the cloud
version
really is
has nothing
to do with
my data
being in
the cloud
no they
certainly
encourage you
that they
want you to
save your
data to
one drive
which is
the cloud
version of
storage
for Microsoft
but you
don't have
to it
doesn't
require you
to do so
so
which drive
Microsoft's
version of
own cloud
is called
or of
Dropbox
is called
one drive
which is
oh I've
seen that
yeah
right
which they
have
lovely
as they
you know
as they
are
and thoughtful
as they
are
have forced
one drive
onto every
computer in
the world
yes I see
it all the
time
so
you can
save
to the
cloud
that way
but if
you don't
want to
then just
don't
and
that will
take care
of that
but there's
really no
reason for
me to
avoid
office
365
if I
take the
mail server
version
is that what
you mean
for that
I'm saying
is if you
don't save
to
!
you know
one drive
then
you're not
saving to
the cloud
and that's
fine
okay
alright
may I
sneak in
one more
question
since I
you've got
about 30
seconds
so yes
okay
I love
Opera
I load
the new
Opera
it has
free VPN
but I hear
it's been
bought by
China
and I'm
nervous
I don't
blame you
I mean
I don't
know that
that's
necessarily
a huge
security
flaw
unless
you're
dealing
with
you know
sensitive
information
but
you
but if
you're
you know
if that's
the one
you like
that's
the one
you like
just use
a
which
browser
do you
particularly
like
I use
Chrome
and Rob
uses
Chromium
but
I'm
sorry
I'm
out of
time
Sam
thank you
very much
thank you
for the
call
if you'd
like to
stick around
for the
second hour
we'd
appreciate
it
790
2040
and we'll
be right
back
I say
a warning
live
without
warning
I say
a warning
people
understand
my
intention
computer
running
slow
avoiding
caught
a virus
does
your
computer
seem
to have
a life
of its
own
malfunction
need
input
the
computer
guru
is here
call
in
now
it's
Mike
Swanson
your
computer
guru
hello
and welcome
to the
computer
guru
show
my name
is Mike
here to
deal with
your
technology
needs
and
treat
you
!
a
person
give
us
a
call
if
you'd
like
to
be
part
of
the
show
790
2040
where
we
can
deal
with
whatever
technology
issues
you
are
having
Rob
is
finished
with
this
coughing
fit
I'm
dealing
with
issues
of
my
own
allergies
man
I
have
horrible
allergies
everybody's
got
that
cough
right
now
I
would
just
remove
my
sinuses
if I
could
right
probably
not
actually
but
seems
like
it
would
be
a
good
idea
right
now
you
can
just
ask
the
dude
from
NXS
about
that
alright
let's
go ahead
and
Marv
has
been
very
patient
and
he
held
over
from
the
last
hour
so
let's
go ahead
and talk
to Marv
hello
Marv
how
are
you
oh
I'm
fine
what
can
I
do
for
you
Marv
my
problem
is
my
computer
comes
up
very
slowly
okay
it's
in
HP
and
when I
turn it
on
the
HP
comes
up
on
the
screen
I've
got
two
screens
and
it
comes
up
on
the
left
screen
and
then
it
goes
black
and
it
starts
just
going
back
and
forth
so
how
long
do
think
that
it
takes
for
it
to
be
with
up
!
Marv
it's
two
and a
half
minutes
okay
and
then
it
will
ask
for
my
password
okay
how
old
is
this
computer
oh
five
years
yeah
it's
probably
time
to do
some
upgrades
on that
one
or
replace
it
yeah
because
it's
which
would
you say
is
Windows
7
on
that
no
it's
10
it's
10
you
definitely
need
some
upgrades
in
or
to
replace
it
so
uh
I
mean
if
you
want
to
go
sort
of
the
you
know
relatively
inexpensive
route
you
could
do
a
minor
upgrade
and
a
solid
state
upgrade
on
it
and
that
would
make
it
faster
but
at
five
years
old
it
may
not
be
worth
investing
in
that
machine
you
might
just
be
looking
at
a
new
computer
yeah
so
I'm
not
sure
where
I can
help
you
other
than
to
tell
you
that
it's
a
machine
you
probably
want
to
go
with
a
clone
where
you
could
get
another
machine
and
we
can
just
pick
up
your
current
operating
system
and
put
it
on
your
new
computer
okay
or
do
the
upgrade
it
just
sort
of
depends
on
the
base
machine
you
know
which
processor
is
in
that
no
not
just
off
hand
okay
so
if
you
have
a
nice
older
i7
or
something
you
then
that
machine
may be
worth
just
doing
upgrades
on
it
would
be
cheaper
than
replacing
the
machine
outright
but
what
you
can
do
is
you
can
call
down
to
the
shop
at
304-8300
and
talk
to
them
and
they
can
get
all
the
specs
from
your
computer
especially
if
you
call
on
monday
or
tuesday
whatever
you're
comfortable
with
and
talk
to
winter
she
does
all
the
machine
builds
and
she
can
tell
you
what
it
cost
to
either
upgrade
or
replace
that
machine
okay
well
thank
you
i
appreciate
the
call
marv
sure
you
have
yourself
a
wonderful
day
and
let's
go
ahead
and
talk
to
richard
hello
richard
how are
you
hey
mike
good
morning
i've
got
an
icloud
management
storage
question
following
your
advice
a
ways
back
i
finally
did
go
over
to
icloud
storage
seemed
to
work
pretty
well
but
what
i
found
out
is
that
first
of
all
it
seemed
to
lag
data
transfer
to
the
five
i
devices
i
have
by
a
material
time
lag
i'm
talking
about
months
and
then
was
always
incomplete
i
deleted
it
all
and
restarted
it
that
seemed
to
bring
it
back
to
a
fairly
good
level
but
i
see
it
seems
that
as
files
are
added
they
don't
really
go
to
the
cloud
aligned
source
files
on the
computer
with
those
that are
transferred
over to
the
iCloud
drive
file
and
they
still
don't
seem
to
really
work
efficiently
most
of
my
files
are
data
files
about
50
gigabytes
hundreds
of
thousands
of
files
overall
maybe
about
50
that
call
us
50,000
that
call
us
using
the
Fujitsu
scanners
that
i've
had
for
about
10
years
and
i
!
is
it
necessary
i
guess
the
question
is
it
necessary
to
flush
out
or
delete
that
process
entirely
go
to
zero
on
both
sides
and
then
reload
as
it
can
reload
the
drive
again
through
the
computer
generally
no
normally
that
would
not
be
any
type
of
requirement
there
can
be
instances
where
everything
gets
clogged
up
and
it
doesn't
know
how
to
proceed
and
of
course
because
it's
ample
it
doesn't
do
it
now
the
other
so
are
you
seeing
the
files
that
are
on
your
pc
are
those
showing
up
in
icloud
well
that's
the
question
some
of
them
are
some
of
them
aren't
so
if
i
would
for
example
i
have
a
program
to
take
some
old
legacy
files
created
with
pfs
professional
right
convert
them
to
pdf
and
word
files
so
i've
used
that
as
an
aid
to
try
to
get
everything
into
one
place
so
i
can
see
from
all
the
devices
so
let's
say
i
would
send
over
some
word
files
today
that
are
part
of
a
cluster
of
files
in
a
directory
the
answer
is
no
they
don't
just
go
over
they
may
or
may
not
but
do
they
dependably
go
over
rather
uniformly
given
a
time
interval
no
they
don't
i'll
take
the
laptop
the
source
laptop
strip
it
of
anything
that's
operating
leave
it
on
overnight
with
nothing
else
going
on
but
hopefully
the
iCloud
transfer
and
it
still
doesn't
seem
to
help
interesting
i
would
guess
that
there's
probably
a little
more
going
on
there
but
also
iCloud
isn't
necessarily
the
best
solution
for
that
number
of
files
and
smaller
numbers
that
probably
would
work
pretty
well
not
to
mention
that
iCloud
seems
to
have
an
affinity
for
pictures
and
music
files
not
necessarily
anything
else
so
you may
be
looking
at
possibly
a
different
solution
for
that
if
you
want
to
be
able
to
synchronize
large
amounts
of
data
of
various
data
types
to
multiple
machines
so
let me
see if
i can
understand
how
you're
using
this
you're
using
it
effectively
as a
backup
and
a
way
to
translate
for
data
to
your
mobile
devices
correct
in
other
words
i
have
a
large
number
of
files
various
sources
so
i
don't
mean
unique
data
types
but
various
sources
so
let's
say
you
signed
a
20
page
contract
well
i
would
want
to
slap
that
into
the
scanner
create
a
pdf
version
of
it
and
have
it
on
my
5i
devices
so
that's
an
example
of
the
way
i
would
use
that
if
i
got
a
newsletter
in
from
john
doe
associates
i
would
want
to
slap
that
in
there
same
process
pdf
files
transfer
so
each
file
of
course
with
the
scanner
shows
up
as
a
single
pdf
it
may
have
anywhere
from
one
to
500
pages
maybe
an
annual
report
from
a
company
so
that's
the
range
of
stuff
that
it
takes
okay
so
i
cloud
drive
like
i
said
has
this
affinity
for
pictures
and
music
because
that's
the
general
usage
for
people
who
are
using
mac
computers
and
ios
devices
you
might
be
wanting
to
look
at
something
like
dropbox
or
one
of
the
services
that
we
provide
we
provide
known
cloud
service
for
that
where
you
can
synchronize
huge
amounts
of
data
and
numbers
of
files
with
any
number
of
devices
is
part
the
expression
google
services
are
available
for
it
google
drive
would
work
for
that
but
the
problem
with
the
ios
side
is
that
it
doesn't
play
real
nice
with
the
i
devices
so
you're
going to
look at
something
that's
a little
more
neutral
just
because
google
and
apple
don't
necessarily
get
along
all
the
time
so
i
guess
that's
the
rub
i
do
have
a lot
of
pictures
like
everybody
else
does
but
the
pictures
seems
to be
just
fine
probably
seven or
eight
thousand
pictures
i
guess
not
too
many
these
days
but
they
seem
to
be
fine
right
and i
think
it's
just
because
it
preferences
those
particular
types
of
files
where
something
like
dropbox
or
uncle
like
that
does
not
care
at
all
what
type
of
data
it
is
it
just
knows
that
it
is
data
and
it
moves
it
what
security
concerns
should
someone
have
about
dropbox
other
than
other
types
of
dropbox
itself
virtually
none
but
when it
comes
to
tangential
stuff
like
if you get a certain type of infection
that can damage
the source
data
then that would
carry along
to something
like
either
dropbox
or uncle
or anything
like that
right
ok
i figured
that
but
it's
nothing
internal
to
dropbox
per se
it
wouldn't
work
dropbox
has had
their
problems
but
nothing
so
major
that it's
noteworthy
right
the
biggest
problem
that i've
seen
with
dropbox
lately
is
that
this
is
probably
six
months
ago
where
they
had
some
sort
of
a
glitch
where
everybody's
data
reverted
back
like
a
week
and
then
you
had
to
request
a
special
restore
on
their
part
to
put
your
data
back
to
the
way
it
was
but
it's
pretty
few
and
far
not to mention
that i would always
set up something like
shadow copies to go along
with it locally
yeah because the two way
syncing thing can totally
mess you up
so if you turn on
something like
shadow copies
if something goes
terribly wrong
you can just
revert from
a
vss copy
and everything
would be fine
what is shadow copy
it's a built in
feature within
all windows
since
windows 7
which
allows you to turn
on something where it
takes a snapshot of
all of your files
all at once
and allows you to revert
back to any one of those
snapshots
if there's a problem
so it's like a little micro backup
sort of
providing that the data
you know that the drive
doesn't go bad
it allows you to have snapshots
in time
that you can return to
i do rolling backups on an external drive so
i don't know if that's
yeah well the shadow copies are nice because first of all it's on the local drive and it's instant
that's the
only secure language
secure language
command line and does it come up or how do you evoke it?
Yeah, a good place to start is to go to the disk manager
and you can right click on the disk manager and there is a configure shadow copies
section there. And then you can set the schedule
and how much disk space it's allowed to use and that type of stuff.
Gotcha. Alright, appreciate the input. Thank you.
Appreciate the call. Have a good day, Dick. You bet.
Alright, we're going to take a break. When we come back, more of the Computer Guru show
right here on KVOI at 790-2040.
Your Computer Guru, Mike Swanson, is here to help you
tame that beast of a machine. Join the chat right now at gurushow.com
or call in. This is the Computer Guru show on KVOI
The Voice.
Welcome back to the Computer Guru show.
So this time of year,
is CES. Now, I wanted to go this year, but could not.
We need to go at some point. Yeah, it's been a couple of years.
We're going to have to like plan like almost the whole year to go to that.
Yeah, well, if you want to get a hotel, you definitely have to plan right now.
I just want to go back to E3. Yeah, E3 is fun, but I like CES better.
It's just I've never been to CES, though, so I don't know what I'm missing.
Yeah, yeah, you don't know what you're missing. CES, in my opinion, is better.
If we go to CES, though, you can meet the one that you hate the most.
Which one? We can run into Linus from Linus Tech Tips.
Oh, wow. Because he goes to that.
He doesn't want to mess with me. Is there going to be like the Highlander?
Yeah. You're going to pull out a katana?
There can be only one.
You look like you're going to say something. Are you going to say something, Kent?
No, you're just, you're just... He's always poised just in case you blame him for something.
Right. He's like, what'd you do, Kent? Contemplating.
What'd you do? You look guilty.
All right, so let's talk about CES stuff, and we're going to use the Engadget winners list for this particular...
So this is the Consumer Electronics Show, for those of you who are not familiar with CES.
Yeah, Consumer Electronics Showcase, which is mostly just a technology...
It's an excuse to go to Vegas. And beyond that, it's all the upcoming technology.
All the new toys you're going to see over the next, like, three to four years.
Yeah, and some of them are out now.
Yeah, occasionally there's stuff that's going to be out right now, but a lot of times the big manufacturers will have something there that's just crazy bleeding edge.
Right. Let me just go ahead and just drop a note.
I'm going to go ahead and just drop a note to the CES organizers.
If you could just make it... First of all, CES is monstrous.
Yeah.
Right? It takes up all of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and then some.
It's a gigantic walk.
There's essentially no way to see it all yourself.
It's a four-day event if you want to see it.
And that's if you don't really stop and look at anything.
So, I mean, it's a monstrous event.
Yeah, you're going to be walking, like, 30 miles a day.
And, yeah, you'll get your steps in for sure.
But if they could make, like, if they could cut the cell phone case manufacturers down to, I don't know, maybe a third of the event, that would be lovely.
I want to see how that's an electronic anyway, though.
Yeah, but it's also accessories for your electronics.
Not to mention they have all kinds of stuff there that's not necessarily electronic, but it's involved in the technology somehow.
Right.
And there's a lot to see.
And last year, CES was all VR, right?
It was just huge amounts of virtual reality and televisions.
Yeah.
There's always a lot of televisions at CES.
You know, those two things are directly related, and there's only probably another 10 to 15 years while you still will need to have a TV at all.
We're going to talk about that in a minute.
Let's fit Greg in here just so that we can get that done.
Same subject.
Hello, Greg.
How are you?
Yeah, same subject as you.
I'm doing good.
Thanks, Mike.
On the subject of virtual reality, I'm reading some exciting news about developments other than gaming.
So the woman is having contractions.
She's in the hospital.
She's contemplating getting the epidural, which is fraught with complications.
And the doctor says, well, here, put these on.
Gives her the goggles.
And her attention then is changed from the pain from the contractions.
To the waterfall and the ocean and whatever you see with those goggles.
And hours went by, but it only seemed like minutes.
She gave birth without the use of drugs.
And I'm thinking about when Palmer Luckey, there in Southern California, you know, spending all his time with his computers and games and whatever.
And the neighbor is saying, well, nothing will ever come of that boy.
And, of course, he sold his development in virtual reality to Zuckerberg for $2 billion.
Right.
So, but they're using it to treat, like, people who have fears of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, you know, over a body of water.
Put on those goggles and they can work their way through it.
They're using them for treating alcoholism, depression.
Paralysis as well.
Pardon me?
Paralysis as well.
There's actually been some interesting developments in using VR as well as machines to manually stimulate the limbs.
And then they see their limbs moving in VR.
And they've reconnected neural pathways.
And there's some people who have been able to regain function.
Amazing.
And as you were saying a minute ago, so it was a $14 billion industry the last couple of years.
They're predicting $140 billion.
I think anytime somebody tells you that nothing's ever going to come of that, you should look harder into it because that seems to be the litmus test.
Yeah.
All right, guys.
Take care.
Appreciate the call.
Yeah, and they've been using VR for, like, pain mitigation and stuff like that for a while now.
They've been experimenting with it.
Yeah.
So, I think VR is biggest.
I guess the future is gaming.
It's AR that's going to be everywhere else.
Yeah, and I think that those two things converge at what really is, in my opinion, where this is going, which is the computer brain interface.
Yeah, for sure.
All right.
So, instead of having goggles strapped onto your head or, you know, some type of contact lenses or basically hardware, all right, that you will be looking at some type of, you know, cyborg-like implanted hardware to handle that interface.
And everything is going to be in VR.
OK.
And, you know, my complaint has always been with the VR stuff is that there's a lot of muddying of the waters between the technologies that are coming out.
And just like the caller said, right, to me, VR uses in business, right, are way more important to me than the gaming side of it.
And that's the same as somebody who uses a computer all day as my job.
I cannot wait until I can put on a headset and virtualize 12 monitors so that I don't have to actually have them.
Right, and have enough resolution where you can actually see everything.
Right, and I'm sure as somebody who pays the electricity bill for the work that I do, you are also happy about that.
Yeah, I could be okay with that.
Yeah.
Now, speaking of headsets that have better resolution, so one of the winners of CES this year is the HTC Vive Pro.
And this is like their next-gen headset, I take it.
Yeah, this is the one that they're releasing, it turns out, this year.
And so it adds some things that are nice, like 3D audio.
Which is...
The Rift already had that one covered.
Right, but for the HTC side, that's new.
Yeah.
It's more comfortable to wear, they said.
It has dual front-facing cameras, which will allow you to start doing AR stuff.
Yeah, that, and they're going to do, I almost guarantee they'll be doing inside-out tracking by the end of the year, even if it's just experimental.
So, for people who don't know.
So, HTC uses what are called lighthouses, which are these things that you set up in your room, and they detect your headset, and then they interact with it.
So that it knows where you are in the virtual space.
It's really cumbersome, though.
I mean, all the setup that's involved with VR right now is the cumbersome aspect.
Inside-out tracking is the idea that your headset is the one that's tracking everything in the room.
So that would mean no more lighthouses at all.
So that's much more like how the Microsoft version of that is doing it.
Because it's actually scanning the room that it sees.
And then building a map, as far as...
Yeah, you have to walk around your house, and it scans your entire house.
Yeah.
Every time you use it.
Right.
Okay.
And then it also is offering dual mics and a resolution of 2880x1600.
That's substantially better than what you get out of the box with either of the main headsets right now.
Right.
So you're looking at 615 pixels per inch, which is considerably better, because you're about the 340?
Something like that.
380 for the other headsets.
So you're almost twice the resolution.
So right now, I mean, since most people have not even tried this stuff yet...
There is still what's called a screen door effect, which means that you can see the pixels if you concentrate on it in VR.
And some people are never even able to overcome that, and they just hate it because they see this stuff.
As the resolution increases, that screen door effect is going to drop, and eventually it's going to be gone completely.
Right.
The pixels will be so small you won't be able to...
So when we get to like 8K per eye, which is future for sure.
Right.
8K per eye, it's indistinguishable, I feel like, at that point.
You'd have to have some eagle vision to pick out pixels there.
So, yeah, it's good to see that.
I mean, resolution should be the number one thing that they're trying to improve right now.
Yeah, and overall, the cumbersomeness of it, like the weight and...
Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you that the Oculus is not too bad.
Like, it definitely feels awkward the first time you use it, but eventually you forget it's there.
They also do this really interesting thing that I've noticed with the tracking to where...
I don't know, it's hard to explain, but like, you know how you can close your eyes and reach up and touch your nose and you know exactly where it is?
Right.
It changes your...
It changes your perspective on where your eyes are, and so you don't slam your hand into the headset.
Well, that's interesting.
Yeah, so when you go to pick up your hand and touch your eye, you touch the back, you know, the outside of the case, and you don't just slam your hand into it.
That would just be...
That would be beautiful YouTube, just to watch people slamming their hands into the...
You can definitely watch people punching walls in TVs.
Yeah.
The first night that I had mine, I punched my TV and I almost broke it.
You gotta pay attention to the boundaries.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess you do.
And so we're going to do one more before we go to another break here.
And I'm kind of skipping towards the end here.
They always do something that they call the best of the best.
And often enough, it is not technology as most people would see it.
You know, like they wouldn't think of it this way.
But this year, the winner is Toyota.
And they are developing something called the e-palette.
And it's effectively a van.
An autonomous vehicle that's the shape of a large van.
It's a rectangle on wheels.
And you can do whatever you want with the inside, right?
You want to build a food truck?
You want to build a little RV or a mobile office or just delivery vehicles?
It's one of these things that's such a blank canvas.
So the name kind of speaks to me like they're trying to...
They're really telling you to do whatever you want with it.
So it really is...
Is it modular?
Or like what's...
The inside is just empty?
Yeah, it's totally empty.
You can just...
It's just a cube or a rectangular cube.
That's actually really cool.
On wheels.
That's...
I mean, especially with the autonomous vehicle stuff built in because...
I mean, yeah, a mobile office would be great for us.
Yeah.
Or, you know, if you wanted to...
If you're one of these...
Like, we have food trucks all around town, right?
Yeah, a nice high-tech food truck can go anywhere.
So you can just sit back there and make your food and it drives you to the next location?
Right, just the space savings.
And, you know,
having the flexibility to do whatever you want with both the interior and the exterior is kind of cool.
That is pretty cool.
So we'll have to post a link to the Engadget stuff.
Let's go ahead and take a quick break.
And then we're going to come back and answer some phone calls and do a little bit more CES before the end of the show.
This is the Computer Guru Show on KVOI.
Give us a call, 790-2040.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to the Computer Guru Show.
Give us a call, 790-2040, if you'd like to be a part of the show.
Let's talk to Tom.
Hello, Tom.
How are you?
Good.
Hi.
Thanks for taking my call.
Two quick questions.
One is storage.
I have Windows 10.
Okay.
And running the automatic update, it gave me an error.
It says Windows needs more space.
And it says it needs 1.14 gigabytes more space.
And then I look at my hard drive and it says I have 3.82 gigabytes.
And I'm like, what?
Do you have more than one partition on this?
Just what came with the system.
It's, I think, a D, but it's for HP recovery.
Okay.
So it's telling you you have three gigabytes free and...
On the C drive.
On that partition.
Interesting.
It shouldn't be doing that.
Is there...
I mean, do you have a bunch of stuff in the recycle bin or anything?
No.
It's empty.
Interesting.
Is it just close to the limits where it needs maybe two gigabytes?
Four gigabytes?
No.
I mean, it shouldn't be doing that at all.
I mean...
So how much do you have free, actually?
Well, I'm pulling up the Explorer window.
So on the C drive, that partition, it says 3.82 out of 919 gigabytes.
It's a terabyte drive.
And then on the HP recovery, the D drive that came with the system, it's 1.35 free out of
11.1 gigabytes.
So I think that's for the operating system.
Right.
I think you're probably running up against something where you're going to have to
be more secure.
OK.
The majority of that problem is that you're out of space.
Hard disk space?
Mm-hmm.
On streaming video?
Yeah, it's got to write to the disk before it can show it to you.
Saving the temporary files as you stream it, that's how it works.
Wow.
Because the other ones like Pac-12 Network or Fox Sports, it doesn't do that.
They're probably using a different player.
Or even just smaller size.
Right, and smaller chunks, something along those lines.
You're out of space, man.
You've got to fix that first before you do anything else.
Last point to that is it actually happens on Xbox, which is Windows,
but it doesn't happen on my iPhone.
Interesting.
Well, that part I can't help you with, at least not off the top of my head.
But the computer storage issue, you should resolve that.
Either upgrade to a much larger drive and then clone all your data over,
or add another drive and move stuff to a different drive.
Got it.
Thank you very much.
No problem.
Thanks for the call, Tom.
So back to the video.
Let's get into the CES stuff.
I'm seeing something here that I kind of want to mention because it's super cool.
What's that?
This is out of the reach of almost everybody.
But it's a TV that Samsung calls the wall.
Did you see this?
I did not.
It's a 146-inch super HD display that they're advertising as the first modular TV
in that you can split up the single panel to work as multiple displays.
So, I mean, it doesn't physically break apart, but you can divide the areas of the screen.
And they said in the demo that they saw here,
Samsung had it configured to where there was like a smaller TV in the center,
and the border was set to blend in with the wall behind it.
Huh.
So that's interesting.
But why?
I know.
I don't know why you would do that, but...
It reminds me of the Back to the Future, you know, when Marty has his...
Right.
Divided the thing up, or in Idiocracy.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, you know, as somebody who I have been using multiple displays on my computer for, like,
the whole time now, it's weird to me to just sit on my couch and just watch something.
Right.
Because the majority of the time that I'm watching something, I'm working or playing a video game.
So this whole, like, single-screen concept is weird to me now.
Yeah.
Yeah, and the OLED stuff now with these TVs is amazing.
Yeah, and I mean...
Because they're super thin.
If you have anything over, like, a 70-inch TV,
I would definitely want, like, some picture-in-picture mode to be able to do something else.
Yeah.
Personally, I mean...
I don't really watch TV.
Yeah.
Right.
So, I mean, any of my media viewing is generally happening on my computer at home.
And I have five monitors.
Sorry.
So I can just dedicate...
One of them's actually a TV.
Are you like...
Who was it in Batman where he's watching, like, all the cell phone feeds at once?
But, you know, I try to break things up so that it gives me...
I don't know.
It's sort of like you when you organize your desk.
Yeah.
It's the same thing when I'm organizing what's on what monitor.
Yeah.
I do the same thing.
I mean, like, when I'm working, I'll have...
My monitors are subdivided into the areas that I need.
And even that's...
There's a joke when you use multiple displays that you always need one more.
Yeah.
There's no such thing as having enough monitors.
Well, until you run out of room.
Yeah.
Right.
Now, we've got a client that has 12 monitors on one computer.
And then he has another computer that runs another eight right now.
That's crazy.
Right.
That's a lot of work for me.
And they're right next to each other.
Right.
Both keyboards are on the same desk.
You know, there's this great number of relatively small monitors all over the place.
Now, I understand what he's trying to do.
He's a day trader, whatever.
Yeah.
I was going to say, there's only really two things you can be using that for.
He wants graphs on all the things.
But still, at some point, it's just like, how do you pay attention to all that?
You know, that reminds me.
I just...
Recently, I set up my computer monitors at work to look at all the cryptocurrencies.
And I was like...
The same thing.
And I called Howard, and I was like, I'm basically Gordon Gekko now.
Basically.
Yeah.
We're basically the same person.
Let's go and talk to Robert.
Hello, Robert.
How are you?
Hey, man.
Hey.
On the last call, I'm sure it's probably a storage issue.
But I had a buffering issue.
And I'm a photographer, and I upload to Dropbox.
Right.
And I had buffering issues.
It was taking 25 minutes to upload to Dropbox.
So I checked my speed.
Like one picture?
Or are we talking like, you know, large amounts?
No, we're talking about 40.
What's a...
I checked my speed, and I wasn't getting the speed I was paying for.
I called Cox Cable.
They were very sorry.
That happens on occasion.
I'm surprised you got them to say they were sorry.
They were very sorry.
Yeah?
Did they...
They gave me two months of the difference between...
Would I go from 5 to 15 or from 15 to 50?
What's that?
Oh, you went from 15 to 50?
On the download, did I go from 5 to 15 or 15 to 50?
You didn't go 15 to 50 for uploads.
But for...
No, I'm talking about downloads.
Downloads, you probably went to 50.
Yeah.
So they got me up to 50.
Everything working great.
Well, that's good.
So I would advise...
Well, you know how much I hate Comcast and Cox.
With a passion.
As much as you and Rob.
But I would advise people to test their speed,
because I live in an apartment complex,
and that Cox bucket truck is out there every 10 days.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Now, when it comes to this, though,
when it comes to Cox and Comcast,
I find that most people are not getting the speed that they are paying for.
And then, additionally,
most people are willing to pay,
way too much.
Right?
Like, as an example,
if you have a 50 meg plan for what you're doing,
that's about right.
Right?
That's about what I'd probably tell you to do.
But I see people out there with these 300 meg plans,
and all they have is an iPad on their network,
and the only reason they got that is because,
eh, that website took a little too long to load.
That is a gigantic waste of money.
And beyond that,
or you see people that go,
well, you know,
I went out and got this 500 megabit plan that costs a lot of money per month,
and it turns out the only problem that they really had was they had a nine year old router.
Right?
So there are,
or they have a very slow computer.
Maybe they're out of this space,
right?
And they're blaming the network instead of the computer.
So there's,
there,
it's not as simple as the cable companies would like to have you believe,
which is,
hey,
just pay for more speed.
You get more speed.
Well,
you know,
it's also a vanity thing.
You,
you gotta have the highest possible speed.
You can keep up with the Jones is all you want,
but I'm telling you that it's a waste of money,
but I,
I,
I suppose you could check that without get off your motor and run a cat court and see if there's any difference there.
Right?
So they want to make you do a direct connection test and that's an,
it's a very valid test.
Sure.
Go ahead and do that.
Plug it in.
See if you see if your wifi is just slow.
I've always been on the cat court and my wifi is streaming Netflix,
just,
just fine.
Yeah.
If you're uploading things,
you really shouldn't be doing that over wifi.
Right.
And,
and by the way,
if you're doing large uploads as though you are a photographer,
right?
Cause you say you are,
right.
And,
uh,
yeah.
And 40,
you know,
five megabyte photos at a time.
Right.
So if you're doing that type of thing,
I will tell you right now that it's much better to look at the business accounts for that,
mainly because they have a higher upload throughput.
So if you're going to be doing lots of,
uh,
uploading to Dropbox,
cause most of it's asynchronous.
Think about it this way is,
uh,
you know,
you're getting that 50 meg down,
but you're only getting five.
Yeah.
I've noticed that they're selling plans like that.
Now they're like,
you get a gig a bit down,
but one meg up,
right?
What is this?
And that's how they're,
that's how they're dedicating that bandwidth or,
or splitting it apart enough where they can pull that off on the network.
Otherwise they have to upgrade all their stuff and Lord knows,
you're not going to do that.
So,
um,
the,
the best way to,
to get relatively decent upload speeds,
have a business account and you don't have to,
I don't have any data caps,
but your bill is like way more expensive.
Bill is a little bit more expensive.
Yeah.
But anyway,
thanks for the call.
Robert,
I gotta take a ticket,
take a break here.
So they were cheaters.
People should check.
Yeah,
I agree a lot.
Yeah.
Everyone check your do a speed test.
Cause you're not getting what you pay for.
Yeah,
you're not.
Unless they have one of those ones that do guaranteed speeds.
Well,
sir,
can you do that test at three in the morning?
All right,
we'll be right back after this.
I'll see it.
All good people.
Each day.
So satisfied.
I'm on my way.
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Welcome back to the computer guru show.
We're talking about more of the interesting stuff that is,
uh,
apparently over CES.
Now,
a lot of,
uh,
you know,
cities are trying to go smart.
Cities these days,
they have smart infrastructure and smart city.
It's not usually a phrase you hear.
Yeah,
it's,
it's an oxymoron.
But,
um,
the,
the idea of adding the infrastructure for things like,
you know,
municipal,
municipal wifi or an IOT,
uh,
sort of interaction with your,
as an example,
emergency vehicles now have,
uh,
transponders that pick up on,
on municipal wifi.
Tucson has municipal wifi for its own city services.
Right.
Um,
now,
it doesn't offer the citywide,
uh,
wifi that you would hope for.
For the public.
Yeah.
That would be out there like Colorado does.
But,
um,
there,
a lot of that is because where are you going to put it?
Right.
Are you going to spend a bunch of money to put up new posts and,
you know,
the places to hide all of this,
this,
uh,
technology?
Well,
there is a,
a company called Wifiber that has figured out a,
a very interesting way to do,
sort of a bolt on upgrade.
And what they're suggesting is that you,
there's street lights everywhere,
right?
Well,
upgrade the street lights.
And in these street lights,
inside the,
the body of the street light,
you have LED lights that are,
uh,
you know,
cost efficient and all of that.
But there's also security cameras and,
uh,
wifi hubs and,
So are you talking about replacing the entire pole or just,
Just the head.
So they can just pop the,
the light fixture out of the pole?
Right.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
And,
and,
and it even offers some interesting stuff.
Like if you can get the everything integrated,
um,
you could have,
uh,
light color changes,
uh,
or,
uh,
strobing effects to guide emergency vehicles to wherever the emergency is.
Well,
yeah.
Cause so many street lights are still like incandescent bulbs.
Right.
So they're huge to emit that amount of light.
And they're not efficient.
Right.
By any means.
Whereas the equivalent LED could be like a fifth the size of that or smaller,
giving you,
I guess a bunch of room for other electronics if you want to throw them in there.
Yeah.
So the,
the only part of the larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger
larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger
larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger
larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger
larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger larger
Watch traffic, all right, or anything that's nearby a major thoroughfare.
I mean, it'd be kind of nice if you're like, if you get mugged or something and the city just has video of that.
Yeah, that helps find the dude, right?
That would be nice.
Not being mugged, of course, but being able to figure out who was the perpetrator.
And I imagine that would aid in the, I mean, they could just track people who are running from the police pretty easily.
Yeah.
Now, you see these types of things in Europe all the time, right?
Like, you know, CCTV is a big thing in, like, London.
And people say, well, there's just eyes everywhere.
And that may be true.
There's actually some interesting videos of where you can see the CCTV operators noticing a crime and directing police to go deal with it or something along those lines.
But at the same time, for all of the, you know, omnipotence of this particular technology,
there's certainly a lot of blinders.
There's blind spots.
Yeah.
And people know where to go to not be seen.
You know, the criminals figure that stuff out pretty quickly.
Pretty quickly.
It's like that movie Eagle Eye.
Have you seen that?
Yeah.
And also Minority Report, to a certain extent, minus the psychics.
By the way, that was a terrible movie, Eagle Eye.
But it was entertaining.
Yeah.
I mean, interesting thought concept.
Not a very good movie.
But it's interesting in its own right.
Yeah.
And I mean, these types of upgrades, while this specific one, who knows if they're actually going to use it,
but upgrading infrastructure in a cost-effective way is obviously the name of the game.
And I'm sure we're going to see more stuff like that in the future.
It's cool to see.
Now, apparently Lenovo is cleaning up over at CES.
Oh, they're announcing a lot of new stuff?
Well, they won two categories.
One for best phone or mobile device and best PC or tablet.
That's weird to hear Lenovo making mobile devices.
Yeah.
And it looks a lot like the Microsoft Surface.
Oh, yeah.
I remember hearing about that.
So it looks remarkably similar to the Microsoft Surface with a very similar stand and keyboard setup.
But it's Snapdragon powered.
So it's got the same type of processor that's in your phone.
It allows you to put in the SIM card and have mobile data to it.
And apparently it's fast enough to run Windows 10 on it.
You know, I despise Surface tablets, so I hope that this is better.
Yeah.
I mean, Surface tablets aren't bad.
The new ones anyway.
Yeah.
I haven't used the newest one.
But every time I've used one in the past, I've been like, oh, this is a good one.
I've used it in the past.
I'm just like, this is horrible.
This is a horrible experience.
Think about it this way.
A laptop that can go literally 20 hours per charge.
Yeah.
See, like I had a Chromebook and that was like the main feature.
So, I mean, Lenovo does good work though.
And the secondary Lenovo, just before we run out of time here, the secondary Lenovo product is their Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Now, the X1s have been around for a little while.
They've gone through a couple of revisions because of some pretty significant changes.
They've gone through some significant problems that they had.
Also, the X1s are also known as the Yogas when they were in the transformable version.
But this one is not.
It's just a laptop.
And it is very, very nice.
Yeah.
We made some money on those Yogas when they first came out.
Yeah.
Replacing those hinges on those things.
But it's got, you know, they've upgraded the cameras.
They even added privacy control for the camera as in a shutter that you can close.
Yeah.
You know, you can tell me that the webcam is off all you want, but I want a physical thing that I can cover it with.
Yeah.
And it's got Alexa support built into it with that one.
So, they're teaming up with Amazon if you want that type of thing.
It's got good microphones on it, of course, because of the Alexa integration.
And it's got great battery life, great heat dissipation, and it's what we would consider an ultrabook.
So, we're talking probably like over $1,000 range?
You're looking at just about the $1,000 range.
Right.
So, it's a lot of money for these particular models.
Anyway, thanks for listening to today's episode of the Computer Guru Show.
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