By Robert McMillen- Koin’s Tech Guru

Well, I went and did it. I said I wouldn’t do it, but I was talked into it. I joined Twitter. I finally made the decision after one of my sisters pointed out all the cool things you could do with Twitter.  I decided to join so I could tell all of you whether or not it was a good idea.

Twitter is the fastest growing website on the internet, according to several news sources like the New York Times. It allows you to send up to 140 characters in a message to multiple people at once. Before there was Twitter, you had to send individual text messages to many cell phones or emails from your phone. Now with Twitter, you can send to a gaggle of Twits with a few pushes of your cell phone or computer.

It has created a whole new group of co-dependent people who seem to know what everyone in their group is doing at all times during the day or night.  Well, there I go again making fun of the Twits when I just signed up to be one. It actually does have a lot of useful features. It even helped rescue a man from an Egyptian prison sentence when he Tweeted his group during his arrest. His Twitter friends put pressure on the Egyptian government to release him. You can read all about it here: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/22071/?a=f

So let’s walk through the sign up procedure and tell you what happened:

The first thing I did was go to twitter.com and sign up for a free account. I went through the usual user name and password falderal and signed in. Then a strange thing happened. It asked me for my login to a Hotmail, Gmail, AOL or other account so it could check to see if anyone in my address book was also a Twit. I tried to just skip past it but it wouldn’t let me. Fortunately I did have an old AOL account so I inputted the username and password. It found all the people I ever emailed from AOL and said that I was the only Twit among them.  Why force me to enter an email account from some other company? “Vewy stwange” I thought.

 So I logged in and it let me upload a picture of myself, which I did.  Then I had to type in a one line description of myself, which I did. Then it asked me for my cell phone number. What? Whoa… Slow down… I don’t have a cell phone text plan, so if I give that to Twitter I would be paying a fee to my cell provider for every Twit that wants to text me. Fortunately it allowed me to leave this blank. My fellow Twits will just have to email me, which for now is still free.

But I don’t have any fellow Twits to email or text me yet. So what do I do? Well there’s a search function. I can type in any subject and it searches for the names of other Twits that have the word I’m searching for. I thought it would also search their profile, but it only goes by name. So be descriptive in your username if you want to be searchable based on your main interest in life. At first I tried to put in “greasy pizza and chocolate” but that name was either too long or taken. I’m not sure which. So then I decided to put in All Tech Radio as my username so people could find me by the word Tech or Radio. Hmm. Maybe I should remove the word “All”. That may cause some additional email I hadn’t considered.

I decided to follow a guy named ComputerFreezes. After checking out his profile, he apparently uses Twitter to sell his software and help people fix their computers. So it’s possible to run a business using Twitter. That’s interesting.

Next I typed in “news”, and every major news organization popped up because it turns out they’re all Twits! I always suspected that, but there it is in black and white. So you can use Twitter to keep up on the news with tiny Tweets. No, I didn’t make that up. That’s what they call them. So I added myself to the Koin Local 6 Tweet.

When I scrolled down to the bottom of the page I noticed there was an Apps tab. I clicked on that and found a bunch of Twitter applications for PCs, Mac’s, iPhones and more. Some apps are free while others cost around $15. That seems like a lot compared to the cost of applications on iPhones and Android, but the Twitter community seems to have no problem  paying to make co-dependency as easy as possible. Most of the apps were designed to allow you to use your computer to see the 140 character ramblings of people who are following you, or who you are following.

I saw some users who had tens of thousands of people they were following. That means they’re getting messages from so many people in a day there’s no way they could read all the Tweets unless they had absolutely no life. I wonder if they’re convicts. That would explain a lot.

If you choose to follow a person, it just means that everything they post will show up in your cell phone and/or email account. If someone follows you, the same thing happens in reverse. Unlike an instant messaging program like AIM or Yahoo Instant Messenger, you don’t need anyone’s permission to follow them, or you they. You can also post private Tweets, but what fun is there in that?

Here’s a brief list of other things I read you can do on Twitter: Write a Collaborative Book, Live Webinars/Tutorials, Free Market Research, Online Reputation Management, Laugh a Day Therapy and lots more.

Do doctors recommend Twitter for Depression or other ailments? I had this thought because I could see how easily addicting it could be for people who are lonely or depressed to get totally wrapped up in this.  So I searched for doctors on Twitter, and guess what? There are a bunch of them. I guess when times are tough economically you’ll see some interesting ways for every industry to try to make a living.  I can’t fault anyone for that.

If you want a good laugh, though, just search Twitter for attorneys. There are dozens of them. I found one guy who is an attorney by day and a doctor by night. I know there’s a joke in there somewhere about chasing his own ambulance and suing himself, but I’ll just let you figure that out.

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

Grandma Got Run Over By Her Laptop

By Robert McMillen, Koin’s Tech Guru

Poor, poor Grandma. She really wanted to be more connected with the kids and grandkids that rarely call or visit. So you, being the perfect child (or grandchild), decide to help grandma out by getting her a laptop. But not just any laptop. This bad boy had 4 gagillion megaparcecks, on board video grandometer with visual floppozoids, and a petaflopameter of storage space. At least that’s what it sounds like to Grandma when you give it to her and explain all of its features.

All she wanted were flowers and a visit. But that’s ok, because you really are helping her out. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Question: “I am buying my grandma a computer for Christmas, but she is not very technical and I really want to make sure she feels ok with using it. How do I keep from scaring her?”

                                                                        Name withheld (to keep the present a secret, of course!)

Answer: Well of course you’re going to scare her. Don’t feel bad about that. It’s a similar experience to the first time she gave you broccoli for your own good. It scared you didn’t it? (I’m still scared).

But here’s what’s good about a computer for Grandma. She can watch you and your family on video. She can exchange emails with you without the messy paper and slow snail mail. She can even get pictures of your family much easier and faster than waiting for old fashioned film to develop.

So let’s concentrate on how to get Grandma what she needs: training, an internet service provider, a web cam, and an email account.

Training: There are several great ways to get Grandma trained on how to use the computer and its parts. You could do the training yourself. But this only works if you are a patient person. Nothing can become a doorstop faster than a computer that has a frustrated owner. If you’re not inclined to do the training, you can hire a professional. It usually costs around $60 per hour and there are lots of people in the yellow pages that do this.

Make sure you check references and you interview the person yourself. The lessons should not be any longer than 90 minutes at a time, and the trainer can come right to Grandma’s home. Grandma should be self sufficient after the third or fourth session. Another option would be the park district or community college, if that isn’t too much for her. The cost is less, but the training isn’t quite as personalized. The good news is that she may like hanging out with other grandmas and grandpas who are in the same boat with that same confused look on their faces. Confusion loves company, or something like that.

Internet Service Provider: There are lots of good choices these days in this area. You can go cheap with a dialup modem. Net Zero will run around $15 per month but the speed could make grandma “tsk tsk” you. DSL is only around $30 per month and is much faster. Faster yet is the provider from your cable company or, if you’re lucky enough to be in Verizon FIOS territory, you can go with that. The cost is $40-45 per month. They all usually come with no setup fee with a one year contract.

Web Cam: This is an easy one. Just go to any department store and get a USB web cam. They run about $30. Make sure it is at least a USB 2.0 because this is a better quality. USB 3.0 will be out soon but you have to make sure your laptop has USB ports that support it. You just put the CD in, and when you’re prompted, go ahead and plug in the camera. If you do this in the opposite order, you may cause a corrupt installation. I don’t know why. I think they just do it backwards to annoy you. You can get full video motion so you can see and hear grandma for free when you sign up with an instant messenger program like AIM, or Yahoo Instant Messenger.

Email: When you sign up for the instant messenger, you also get an email account that is totally free. How do they do this? Well, they inundate you with ads that pay for it. But you can usually minimize these so they aren’t too much of a bother.

Make sure she has antivirus and that you do computer maintenance on her computer once per quarter to keep it from slowing down. (Disk defrag, spyware scan etc.)

Now you can see and hear from Grandma whenever you or she likes. It will be just like she’s living there with you! It will make you and her very happy. Don’t forget to give her instant messenger handle to all your relatives so she can check up on each and every one of you.

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

By Robert McMillen

Every year at this time I get the question of how to shop online without getting ripped off, having your identity stolen, or exposing your credit card to the world.

Question- “I want to shop online this year for my wife’s Christmas present, but I’m afraid of being taken advantage of. How do I do this without getting burned?”               

                                                                                                            Thomas G. Portland, OR.

There are three categories here we should examine: How to determine if a shopping website is safe, how to check ahead of time if an online company is reliable, and how to keep your credit card from being stolen. There’s a fourth category which is “how to shop for your wife online when you’re at work without being embarrassed that you’re looking at women’s shoes or handbags”, but that’s another story (privacy screens help).

 There are some great free tools to find out if a shopping website is safe. Both MacAfee and AVG make free tools you can download. Just go to Macafee.com or Grisoft.com to get them. These tools have gone through millions of websites and confirmed them as safe from viruses, malware, and spyware. When you go to Google for example, and type in a website you want to go to, these toolbars will let you know very clearly if the website is safe before you click on it. This works for all kinds of websites, so you can use them even when looking for other sites as well. It will not tell you if the shoes go with the handbag, however. Sorry Thomas.

So how will Thomas know if the website he’s buying from will actually deliver? There are a few great ways to find out, and I use them all the time. If you’re looking at buying something from a website directly, then search for the product by typing it into your favorite search engine. When you find the product at the best price, go to search.bbb.org.  The Better Business Bureau has a URL option which allows you to put the website’s address into the search bar and find out what grade they get from the BBB. They are graded by how many complaints are filed as well as if they responded to the complaints in a timely manner and satisfied the customer. You may be surprised at how many failing grades there are out there.

If you’re buying from a website like Ebay or Amazon, then you’re not always buying from the website directly. They both have businesses that sell through their site. You can browse through their approval rating to see if they have the type of reputation you feel comfortable with. I have found these to be very helpful, and the few times I have had problems with a product they were taken care of very quickly by the reputable firms. The worst thing that could happen would be for you to say something bad about them in the customer review section, so they try very hard to keep you satisfied.

 So if Thomas bought his wife a new vacuum cleaner for Christmas, and it didn’t suck up the dirt as advertised, they should give him a new vacuum right away. Thomas may need that vacuum to pick up all of his car parts after his wife gets through with it. After all, she did ask for jewelry and if you somehow confuse the two, she would make sure you didn’t get confused again next year.

So now Thomas has made sure the website is safe from viruses, the Better Business Bureau has certified it’s a place that has a good rating, and now we have to think about the credit card purchase.

Just because the first two conditions have been met doesn’t mean Thomas is home free. He now needs to input his credit card information. In years past we strongly suggested that you use Firefox over Internet Explorer for safer online transactions. Microsoft has improved their browser’s safety, and the two are both fairly safe for online transactions provided you have the most up to date patches.

After you click on your shopping cart and you are ready to check out, you need to put in all kinds of personal information in order to get your product shipped. Make sure your check out page has a little lock that shows up at the bottom right side of your screen, and you don’t get any warnings about the certificate from the website being expired or not able to authenticate.  A certificate is needed to encrypt your data. If it is intercepted by a hacker, the data will show up as only unreadable characters because they don’t have the secure transaction certificate to decode it.

As long as those things are in order you can go ahead and put in the information. I strongly suggest you use a credit card instead of a debit card. This way you don’t need to worry about all your money disappearing from your account in the rare case your identity does get stolen. If you don’t have a credit card, then try to open an account with a smaller balance you can afford to lose temporarily in case it does happen.

Banks are pretty good about returning funds after fraud happens, but if you were without your money for even a day or two, you would be miserable. I can hear Thomas’s wife now. “Why didn’t you follow that tech guru’s advice like I told you too? You vacuum cleaner buying, jewelry ignoring…. What do I look like, a maid?”

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

By Robert McMillen

In this corner, weighing in at 4.7 ounces with tilt technology is the Apple of almost everyone’s eye, the iPhone. And in this corner, weighing in at 5.6 ounces with a cool flip screen is Android, don’t call me a mindless robot, G1. And in the final corner, weighing in at a whopping 5.5 ounces with a screen that feels like a keyboard, but isn’t, I give you Blackberry, the “perfect” stormmmmmm (Echo, echo, echo).

Here is the question of the week. iphone has been out for over a year, Google’s G1 has been released in the past month, and just in time for Christmas we have the Storm from Blackberry. Which is the right “smart phone” for you?

First off, let me define what a smart phone is. Of course it’s a telephone like any other cell phone, but it also has additional features. These features are constantly being re- defined as new technologies become available. But the basics are the ability to surf the web on a tiny browser, check and send email, and sync calendars and contacts.

There are lots of other smart phones out there, but these are the ones to beat. Nokia makes an iPhone killer that doesn’t even maim. Also, Microsoft’s Mobile 7 has lost its luster. That doesn’t mean it, or any other product, couldn’t make a comeback. Apple’s Newton lost out to Palm, and look how the tables have turned since then.

So here are the pros and cons of these three hot! hot! hot! smart phones. I hope this helps you decide which one fits your needs best.

iPhone- This is the best selling smart phone in the world. It has many pleasing features that make it good for consumers and business users. Here is the breakdown:

Screen size- 3.5”

Weight- 4.7 ounces

Phone service provider- AT&T

Pros- Easy to use and learn. Huge application store for games, utilities, and thousands more. Makes great use of tilt technology for switching from vertical to horizontal that also applies to games and other programs. It can use Microsoft Exchange for email and open Word, Excel, and Adobe files. It has lots of flash drive space, and a decent camera. It has a built-in iPod. The internet speed at 3G is great. There is a great GPS that’s free (unlike some regular cell phones which charge a monthly fee).

Cons- Applications are more expensive because they aren’t open source. Dealing with Apple for problems is not a fun experience. The texting application is a little awkward. Typing on the keyboard is close to a nightmare (keep it short and you’ll be fine). There is no video and the camera has no zoom capability. The memory is fixed so there is no memory card expansion. Apple is slow to admit problems and fix them. With the 2.2 update we finally get to turn off the type ahead and spell check feature which drove me nuts. You can’t pull the SIM card out and swap it with another phone. No USB ports.

Android G1- This is Google’s smart phone using the new Android operating system. It’s completely open source, which means any developer can see all the code to make modifications more easily than a closed system. The G1 was born for the sole purpose of killing off the iPhone like the Monkeys were meant to kill off the Beatles in the 1960’s. It will likely have the same results.

Screen size- 3.2”

Weight- 5.6 ounces

Phone service provider- TMobile

Pros- Applications are also open source and will be less expensive than Apple’s. The camera has 3.2 MP compared to the iPhone's 2.0 MP. The slide out keyboard makes it easier to type longer messages with less mistakes. Has an expansion slot for more memory that’s removable. Supposed longer battery life, but this is arguable based on what type of work you do on it. Can be unlocked for $35 to change carriers. GPS Navigation.

Cons- TMobile is the service provider. Not nearly as many (or as cool) applications available at this time as the iPhone, but that gap will shrink over time. It’s heavier. The slide out keyboard makes it bigger and bulkier.

The Blackberry Storm- The Blackberry Storm was designed because, for the first time since Blackberry’s inception, they have started to lose market share to Apple. For years, Blackberry had no real competition and their phones reflected this. They had black and white screens, and had a horrible thumb wheel and keyboard in a pancake style phone. Now all of a sudden they have a decent phone. It reminds me of 100 years of bland non innovative Ma Bell service until the government introduced competition in 1980 by breaking them up.

Screen size- 3.25”

Weight- 5.5 ounces-

Phone service provider- Verizon

Pros- It has a zoom lens on a very good camera. Video capture. Micro USB port. Point to click makes it easier to type messages with its on screen keyboard. GPS navigation.

Cons- Only one GB of on board memory, but can be expanded. Very limited applications and they have to be installed on the small on board RAM. Having to deal with BB service can be a problem when they have one of their frequent outages on a nationwide scale. More expensive monthly service. Heavy phone. More difficult to browse the web than the competition. 

Conclusion- For ease of use and great applications it’s the iPhone. For open source and a great future, its going to be Android. For legacy Blackberry users who like a better camera and video, then it is Blackberry.

What would I do? I would get the iPhone now, the Android in two years after it’s had time to mature, and use the Blackberry to either video my kid’s birthdays or just use as a doorstop. Oh wait, scratch that. I would give the Storm to my brother because I don’t like him. He used to eat all my favorite popsicles.

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

By Robert McMillen

You may be having a hard time deciding what to get your loved ones this Christmas when it pertains to computers, cell phones, MP3 players or Bluetooth technology. Santa understands and is ready to help you out. You don’t want your present to smell up the house like that brick you call a fruit cake, right?

Question- “My kids all want computers and cell phones for Christmas. How do I afford all this stuff on a budget?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Mary A. Beaverton, OR.

Answer- Well Mary, although I would like to do my Jimmy Stewart voice while talking about it being a wonderful life, its hard to convey this in writing. So instead I will try to breakdown your question into smaller categories that even a politician can understand (I can see Beaverton from my house!).

The following is a list of technology items you may consider buying your kids this Christmas, and the pros and cons of each category:

Computers: The really big advancements are coming with the next version of USB and PCI E graphics at the end of next year. If you buy now you will miss out on these, especially if you have hard core gamers in your family. The good news is if you do buy now, the prices will be cheap. Look for the biggest hard drive specs you can afford and two GB of RAM. Kids like to download movies and music. You may also want to survey some of those movies on the sly. Should you go Mac or PC? I suggest PC. There are many more applications, and support is far more diverse. You could run Windows on a Mac but it costs more and you are on a budget so why hurt yourself?

Cell Phone: There is no better phone than the iPhone. It’s only $200 with a two year ATT agreement. That’s the only downside. A good second choice would be the Android phone with T Mobile. This phone can be unlocked to use with any phone carrier. They both have tons of great applications to go with them and lots of them are free.

Bluetooth: Most people think this is just those ridiculous ear pieces. (Even I tried it for a while but my wife kept asking me to beam her up.) Bluetooth is a name for a technology that includes lots of different wireless devices like mice, keyboards, and even wireless hard drives. I am a big fan and the communication between the devices is encrypted and secure if you choose a good long password.

MP3- If you get an iPhone you get an MP3 player, but I also like Rhapsody players because you get all the songs you want for a monthly fee. Just go to Rhapsody.com if you like to rent rather than own your music. You can have an annual subscription be your annual present to your perennial child.

Don’t forget to get the backup and extra storage drive. You can get a whole terabyte (1000 gigabytes) for around $175. You can backup your photos or use it when your on board hard drive fills up. Look for one that does USB, Firewire and Esata. This gives you options as the technology changes over the years. They can also move between Macs and PCs.

So Mary, I hope that Santa Bob has helped you out this Christmas. There will be more holiday shopping tips coming soon so check back often.

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

By Robert McMillen

This week we received a question about DRM free music. Everyone wants it but many people don’t know why. If you were lucky enough to grow up in the 1970’s when you couldn’t understand what anyone was singing on the radio, then you were the product of a decade of poor quality music (and politics).  But it wasn’t all about the mush- mouthed musicians that caused our ears to completely miss what they were singing. It was also because we were playing our music with vinyl scratched by a needle. Now that we are much more enlightened, we can understand just about everything sung, with the exception of any really fast spoken rap music.

Question- “What is DRM music? I know it’s better than without DRM but I don’t know how.”

                                                            Frank P. from Portland

Answer- To be frank, Frank, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Because of recent laws passed by the government after heavy lobbying from the Music and Recording Industry (some call them payoffs and bribes), creators and owners of music can choose to put limits on music you buy.

If you remember the freewheeling Wild West days of Napster, you could legally download music files on the internet for free. You could then burn them to CD, copy and email them, or even alter them any way you wanted. Not so much anymore. The music industry and the music distributors such as iTunes, Rhapsody, and others, choose to sell you the MP3 music files to only be able to use them on the medium for which you purchased it. For example, iTunes songs could only be played on an IPOD and you couldn’t make a copy or send it to anyone except yourself on your own computer.

The public revolted at such limitations and many started to illegally crack the DRM limitations and tell their friends on the internet how to do it. This is America and we want to do what we want to do with what we buy with our hard earned money. One of the first distributors to remove the DRM restrictions was iTunes, and now you can move your music around to CD, other computers, and your IPOD.

You could also copy it, sell it, or give it away, but unlike in the Napster days, that would now be illegal.

Is DRM free music any better than non DRM free? Well, it generally costs more but the quality is not determined by the DRM status. It’s determined by the bit rate. Check that out before downloading because anything less than 192 BR is not going to sound that great to music aficionados.

So, Frank, now you can buy your MP3’s with confidence if it has the “DRM free” label. If it has DRM limitations you can buy that also, but just know you can only use it the way the seller has intended. I cannot tell you legally how to crack this in the posting. It would be wrong. But I might tell you if you buy me lunch. I may be wrong, but I’m hungry.

For more great tips, check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here, just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

By Robert McMillen

“Earth Friendly” has been the theme this year for technology. This week we are proud to be hosting a “Go Green” event to show companies how to save money on electricity and be friendly to our favorite planet. One of the more controversial topics that come up is the use of a battery backup device called a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect your computer equipment.

This brings up a very interesting question from one of our readers.

Question- “Should I get a UPS for a laptop computer? Is it true a lightning strike could damage my computer?” Julia F. from Portland, OR.

On the negative side the battery inside the UPS device is fairly toxic. As long as its recycled then there’s no problem, but how many of us actually do this? It’s hard to say.

They are also very heavy, and expensive. The worst thing about them is that as they get older they cause more harm than good. Eventually the batteries begin to fail and shut off for a few seconds and then restart causing your computer to reboot as well. This can cause damage to your computer and other devices plugged into them.

Battery failure is unpredictable but the average in my experience is around two years. This would mean that you should replace the battery in the UPS at around 18 months to avoid this issue.

Another problem is getting them replaced. The shipping is expensive and although they can be small they are very heavy for their size. Maneuvering them into place takes a lot of effort.

On the positive side they definitely protect your equipment, especially if you live in an area of high lightening (not that much of a problem for the Portland area but it does come up).  They are much better at protection than a simple spike protecting power strip, because if your power does go out you can have the UPS tell the computer it’s running on battery power and gracefully bring down your PC.

What do they cost you ask? Well I didn’t get that question in the email but everyone wants to know “How much?”. It’s the only thing on my mind when a salesman comes to my office. All I hear is “blah blah blah” until they tell me the price. The average cost is around $100 or less. Make sure you plug in your computer, and not you’re other peripherals. This will keep your computer up as long as possible.

If you have a laptop you can get the smallest and cheapest one out there, because your laptop battery should keep things running for hours after the power goes off. A UPS is still a good idea even if you do have a laptop because a small UPS is a lot cheaper than a power supply for a laptop computer, and the way the UPS cleans the power (called conditioning) is superior to a power strip).

A typical desktop UPS can run your PC for about 10 minutes before it has to shut down. This could buy you just enough time to save that email or document. Heck, you could even email PGE that your electricity is out before you shut down!

Now if you have a business that includes a server and other equipment there is no question you need a UPS. If your company runs off of that server, like most do nowadays, you don’t want to be worrying about your entire company going down due to a power spike, do you? That’s where the term “bricking” comes in. If you’ve ever seen a piece of technology fried by a power spike then that’s all its good for, a brick. You might as well buy some mortar and make it part of the wall décor.

You may have remembered a drunk driver in Aloha took out a power pole (and a drunk driving sign ironically) a few weeks ago. Well she also caused my whole neighborhood to be without power for about 45 minutes. I was very happy my UPS kept my equipment safe and running until I had a chance to save my work and shut it all down.

So the final word is this. If you have important information on your computer then you should protect your computer with a UPS, but if you are not into the hassle of recycling, or replacing the battery every two years you should just get a good power strip with spike protection from your local computer store. These run between $20-30. The $5 one from the hardware store is not going to cut it. The strips designed for technology equipment are a lot more sensitive.

For more great tips check back here each week and listen to me on the All Tech Radio show at 9:00 Sunday mornings on AM 1360 KUIK, or listen online at http://alltechradio.com.

If you would like your technical question answered here just email rmcmillen@koin.com. Even if it doesn’t get answered in the column I will always answer by email.

In October of 2001 I was hired for a big email restoration job that was so top secret I couldn’t even talk to my wife about it. Now, if I was a spy for the NSA or even a police officer, this wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary, but as a computer network engineer it did seem pretty odd. I realize my job does sound a little cryptic, but most of what I do is make computers and servers talk to each other, as well as make them run like they are designed. Backup and restoration are just some of the many tasks that are included in my line of work.

But before I get ahead of myself, I should back up to January of 2001. After spending many years as an IT administrator for a large company, I decided I wanted to try something different by working for a startup. Venture capital money was being thrown around like water in a pool and I wanted to create something special  instead of just fixing what someone else had poorly designed. I landed a job at the now defunct Pacific Information Systems in Portland. It was one of the larger NW companies that serviced mid-market corporation’s IT projects.  I was to be part of a team that would design a NOC (Network Operating Center) which would monitor our customer’s servers for any abnormalities and notify them of a problem before it caused an outage. It was a multimillion dollar project and I was excited to be on the team.

At one point I had to fly to San Francisco to get some training at the IBM office in the Transamerica building. It was the middle of the summer and the rolling blackouts were all over the news. To be honest, I was very concerned. No one wants to be in a high-rise and have the power go out, especially in the elevator. I was lucky they didn’t pick our section of the city while I was there, and I had no idea that Enron was in the shadows manipulating the electricity market. They created a false energy shortage to drive up prices. Rumors were bouncing around that someone was paying off the small electricity providers to say their equipment was broken and that it would take weeks to get parts. This made prices go up even higher. Deregulation had recently occurred  that year and it allowed crooks like those at Enron to masterfully create a false shortage. The bigger price was paid by those who had their electricity cut in the rolling blackouts and depended on it to power medical devices. I have yet to hear the count of the victims that perished from those crimes. I am also waiting for someone besides myself to call the crooks more than white collar criminals. They were murderers. (For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal. )

I was glad to make it back to Portland where such nightmares were now behind me.

As the year 2001 progressed, that pool of VC money started to dry up and the fish were flopping wildly trying to breathe. After losing a third of the company's staff, our department was looking like it would be next as new customers were slow to adopt the technology. Then 9/11 hit and that was the final nail in the coffin for us. Although the company ran for a few months longer, our department was eliminated. After collecting my severance I decided that it was time to start my own company. I didn’t have to wait long for my first customer. Pacific Information Systems called me a few days later and said they had a one week contract for me but that I had to meet with the customer for an interview first.

The customer turned out to be Enron. I was to meet the IT boss in the downtown Portland office at the World Trade Center building.  After shaking hands, I noticed he seemed quite distracted and very concerned that this job went well. I was showed a multi-page document I needed to read and sign. It was a non disclosure agreement. I have seen many of these over the years, but at the time I didn’t realize how different it was. I was warned repeatedly that no one could know what I was about to do, which until that time even I didn’t exactly know. I did know it was to be a restoration job, but that was about it. Enron’s stock had started to falter because of rumors they were misstating their profits, but no one knew the extent of what was happening. The IT boss at Enron wasn’t too sure either, but when the government tells you to restore all your executive’s email, it doesn't take a Bill Gates to figure out something big is up.

I signed the document and showed up the next day at Enron.  I was given a clean server on which I installed the operating system (Windows 2000), the software to restore the emails (Arcserve), and a robotic tape library. It was made by AB *** and it had a cool robotic arm that would take the tape that was inserted and place it into a slot next to many other tapes. The tape waited its turn in line to be inserted into the drive mechanism and read the data.

I found out later that the job was called for by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) originally and then turned over to the DOJ (Department of Justice). Arthur Anderson was the former accounting firm that represented the earnings statements that Enron was falsely stating. They had deleted their email and shredded their documents when the DOJ asked to see what was going on at Enron. The DOJ then wisely told Enron they had to restore their email before the backup tapes were “erased”. They must have put the fear of God into Enron because they did comply.

After building the server, the backup tapes started arriving. The ten boxes were 2’x2’x2’ and filled with DLT 3 tapes, which was a popular backup tape at the time. (You are probably wondering why I am describing the event in so much detail. This is to affirm to everyone who knew about the project that I was the one who worked the job.) Each box held around 100 tapes and all the tapes represented two years worth of email for the entire company using a program called Lotus Notes made by IBM.

All of the IT staff at Enron was strangely crammed into one office that they shared with the boss. My guess was that since they were a cost center and not a money making one they didn’t give the IT department the space they could have used to be more comfortable. I was also aware of lots of other contractors moving in and out of the area, so that’s probably why they didn’t give much thought to what I was doing, or to the stacks of backup tapes. They had so many boxes of equipment going in and out of there that it was no big deal to see someone new every day working on a project. Behind me there was another person who was replacing their Checkpoint firewalls with Cisco Pix firewalls, and no one gave him much thought either.

The restoration task did seem daunting but the tape library did a good job of cataloging the email. Once it was all cataloged in a database, I restored it to the hard drives on the server. They sent a Canadian Enron employee to assist who was a big help. I assume they had to send someone from outside the US to avoid any appearance of tampering. We underestimated how much email there was and we ran out of our 200 GBs of drive space before the end of the week. We exported the data to another drive and cleared out some space to continue.

As I was starting the project they handed me a list of the Enron staff that was to have their email restored. The list included Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fastow, and the entire list of now infamous characters. I had to pull the email for just those dozen executives and leave the rest untouched.  (For more on who’s who in the scandal see http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,193520,00.html)

I noticed several things about Enron as I looked around during my breaks. The office was a high tech dream. The employees all had flat screens, which at the time were very expensive. The higher up the staff was in the food chain, the more monitors they had. I even saw one guy who had six flat screen monitors that had to be mounted on a custom made cage so he could see all the energy trades he was making at once. They also had huge plasma TVs positioned so everyone could see them showing various news organizations. This was something that was unheard of because of the cost, which at that time was about $20,000 per unit. It ironically looked a lot like an off-track betting parlor.

An employee who left the building was someone who could not be making money for the company. To discourage such things, Enron had a beautifully catered breakfast and lunch brought in along with snacks for the late afternoon. They were positioned on a huge buffet table that was easily 40 feet long. What about those private moments when it was time to use the restroom? Well let’s not take that sitting down! Trade magazines were in each stall so staff could read up on how to make more money selling energy.

The server rooms were so massive, they looked like libraries for computers. There were rows and rows of them, and all were state of the art. I couldn’t tell how they could keep track of them. What I thought was most amazing was that no one but the IT boss could tell that anything was about to hit the fan. They just went about their business as though the gravy train would never end.

There I was with the biggest secret in corporate history, and I had to keep my mouth shut. By the end of the week I knew what was about to happen. Two weeks later the emails hit the news like lightening. I had no idea the ripple effect that Enron would have, or the high costs of their crimes. Pensions were lost, people were dead, and energy prices have not come down since.

There is one really big thing that not many people have considered. In 2000, high speed internet and internet commerce was not something a lot of people were into. Enron had started a broadband company similar to Verizon or Comcast, but at a business level rather than a consumer one.  Fortunately for all of us it went out of business even before the electricity and earnings scandal hit the news. Imagine paying for your high speed internet service to Enron!

If Enron had kept that going a little longer, we could have had the same rolling blackouts and price gouging that hit the electricity market also hit the internet in its fledgling state. The internet may not have ever gotten to the place in our lives it is today. High prices and frequent outages could have kept it from being popularly adopted. Think about how your life would be different if you didn’t have high speed internet or any internet at all? That’s the bullet we did dodge. If you doubt that statement, then look at what they did to Blockbuster. Enron and Blockbuster had an exclusive 20 year partnership they announced at the end of the year 2000. Much of the money was raised fraudulently with promises they never intended to keep, and investors were out 155 million dollars in that deal alone (http://www.coolware.com/EnronBroadband.htm for more details).

Seven years later I have prospered in my computer consulting business. My business partners and I have built a good sized company doing what we do best. I have a syndicated weekly radio show and a presence on Koin TV. Getting laid off after 9/11 turned out to be the event that got me going in a new direction. Strangely enough, that seems to be the pattern that shaped my life. I was born nine months after the Kennedy assassination and I have a son born nine months after 9/11. Horrible tragedies can sometimes move us to new beginnings.

I look back at that time with a lot of disdain for what Enron did, but also a lot of pride for playing my part in helping to bring Enron down in the largest corporate scandal in history.