Category: Radio shows

It’s beginning to look like 2011 will be remembered as The Year of the Hacker as we see thousands of people affected by computer security problems at big corporations and government departments.

As we trust more of our data to online services like cloud computing applications and social media platforms should we be expecting these organisations to protect our private and financial information?

Tony Delroy and Paul Wallbank from 10pm on Thursday, June 30 2011 discussed what is happening to our valuable data in the online world.

Aspects included;

• What exactly is hacking?
• Who are these hackers?
• Why are we seeing so many hacks happening?
• How do these data problems happen?
• Big corporations seem to be affected, is this something small business should watch out for?
• What can we do to protect ourselves?
• Should we be careful with social media platforms as well?

Listen now

If you missed the program, it’s available for podcast or download at the Nightlife Website.

Useful resources

If you’re concerned that your personal details have been leaked in the latest round of security, the Should I Change My Password site checks if your email address is on the available list of compromised accounts.

Removing malware

One of our callers, George, asked about a virus that was diverting his son’s computer to an unwanted web site that loads when the system starts.

The computer has been infected with what we call a page hijacker and it can be removed with the free Malware Bytes program.

Sometimes the infection can be a bit more persistent in which case we have instructions on Removing A Trojan at our sister IT Queries website.

Upcoming programs

The date of the next Nightlife tech spot will probably be August 4, but that’s to be confirmed. If you’d like to keep up to date with upcoming appearances, visit our Events page or Subscribe to our newsletter.

Add your views

If you’d like to  join the conversation with your on-air questions or comments are welcome, phone in during the show on 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

The show goes to air across the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Local Radio Network. Tune in on your local ABC radio station or listen online at www.abc.net.au/nightlife.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702, twitter @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag or visit the Nightlife Facebook page.

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Our digital future

In the last week the Federal government announced their National Digital Economy Strategy while at the Sydney Opera House the Digital Sydney project was launched. In New York the city has appointed a digital commissioner and London has launched their Tech City community.

Clearly our governments think the future is digital. But what does that mean and are their plans achievable? Join Paul Wallbank and Tony Delroy to examine how our society, economy and businesses are changing in the digital era.

The program details

The podcast of the program is available for a limited time at the Tony Delroy’s Nightlife homepage.

Aspects we discussed included;

• Why are our governments suddenly talking digital?
• What are the digital industries?
• How are they changing the way we live?
• In what ways are existing industries coping with these changes?
• What are the barriers to setting up new industries?
• How do we create regional business hubs?
• How important is broadband in these developments
• What tools can we use to start new online business?

Listeners’ Questions

YouTube not playing

Rod asked about his computer not playing YouTube clips. This is usually due to problems with the Adobe Flash software on the computer.

To fix it, first uninstall all the versions of Adobe Flash on the computer. Then run a computer cleanup on the system. Finally reboot your computer then reinstall Adobe Flash Player.

Multiple business accounts on one computer

Running a number of businesses from one office can raise some difficulties, Jane called to ask if she can have different email accounts that have each businesses customised address block.

The answer is “yes” if you’re running Microsoft Outlook, you can setup separate accounts that automatically add the correct business information. Microsoft explain how on their web site. This feature has been around for some time although instructions vary between the different software versions.

Choosing the right Internet plans

Two of our callers, Shirley and Margaret, called about the limits and costs of their Internet connections. This is understandable as both prepaid wireless and satellite Internet plans can be very expensive.

Where possible it’s best to go to fixed plan with shaped excess usage, where rather than being charged when you go over the monthly data limit your connection is slowed.

It does take some research to find the right service and we recommend Whirlpool’s Broadband Choice website to find the plan that suits your needs.

Software and websites referred to in the program

Ccleaner: Free computer clean up tool (remember to back up your data first)
Adobe Flash Player
Microsoft Outlook email signature setup
Whirlpool Broadband Choice

Next program

The next Nightlife program should be at 10pm on July 14. The topic we’ll discuss will be posted on the events web page and in our weekly newsletter. Subscribe to get all the details of upcoming radio segments and workshops.

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You don’t have to be an FBI suspect to have your car tracked, recently the GPS manufacturer Tom-Tom admitted it sold users’ traffic data to Dutch police which was used to set speed traps and security researchers discovered Apple’s iPhone is storing location information that is used by Apple for research purposes.

On the 15 May 2011 702 Sydney program, Philip Clarke and Paul Wallbank discussed are our phones, GPS and other electronic devices tracking us and some of the things we should be aware of when using mobile phone and other GPS enabled technology.

We had a full board of callers and promised we’d get back to some of the following;

Images not showing in Internet Explorer

Kim called about her computer not showing images in Internet Explorer running on Windows Vista. This could be simply a matter of ticking the Show Pictures check box in the Advanced tab of the Internet Explorer Options settings. We explain how to do this, and how to handle further similar problems, on our IT Queries website.

Free Backup options

One of the most irritating things to lose when a computer crashes or you replace it are your email and contacts. Arthur asked about backing up this important data in Windows Hotmail Live on his Windows 7 computer.

Unlike some of the earlier versions, Windows 7 comes with its own backup program which Microsoft shows you how to use it on their website. Make sure you choose to backup your profile as this will save all your email, contacts and favorites along with your computer settings.

Once you’ve created the backup, we’d suggest using an online service like Dropbox or Box.net to keep a secure copy of these files.

Fixing a slow computer

Kristina asked about speeding up her computer that’s running slowly, particularly when Outlook 2003 is open. The first step is to backup your Outlook data which is saved in a PST file, just in case something goes wrong.

Next you should uninstall any programs and add ins that might be interfering with Outlook then run the Mailbox Clean Up Tool to get rid of anything you don’t need.

Having cleaned up Outlook, it’s time to run the Outlook Inbox repair tool which will fix any inconsistencies in the PST data store.

Once you’ve cleaned up Outlook, it’s time to do a general clean up of the computer that will flush out anything unnecessary on your system. Follow this with a drive check by running chkdsk which will clean up minor problems with the way your computer has saved data.

With all of these clean ups done you should have a much fast computer, if you don’t it may be time to call a computer technician.

Next 702 Sydney Weekend segment

We’ll have the date of the next 702 Weekends up on our events page in the next few days. The next Nighlife spot will be on June 16 where we’ll be discussing how to secure your data against incompetent organisations.

If you’d like to get advanced notice of radio programs and other events, subscribe to our newsletter at the right of this screen.

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Our regular ABC Nightlife radio spot explained cloud computing and had a look at the Sony PlayStation Network security problems.

The tech industry loves nothing more that to baffle us with new terms and one of the biggest terms we’re hearing is cloud computing. Paul and Tony discussed what cloud computing is and what people are using it for.

Aspects covered included;

• What exactly is cloud computing?
• Isn’t this just another name for the old mainframe computing systems?
• What are the benefits of cloud computing?
• Can you really save huge amounts of money?
• What are the applications you can use?

A lot of what we discussed is covered in The Connected Business post and we’ve listed some useful cloud computing tools which can be used in the home or office at Ten Business Uses for Cloud Computing.

You can listen to the program’s podcast via the Nightlife website. We promised some of the listeners that we’d get back to them on the following topics;

What is my computer downloading?

Margaret called about her prepaid broadband usage being inconsistent, some days her system downloads more than on other days.

This is probably caused by email downloads and security updates. You shouldn’t avoid the program patches, but you can overcome the email downloading problem by using a webmail service like Hotmail or Gmail.

How do I check my computer is secure?

Two callers, Peter and Katherine, were unsure about how secure their computers are and asked how can they can be sure their systems are safe to use. We’d suggest downloading MalwareBytes and follow our Removing A Trojan instructions however if that’s too complex, it might be worthwhile calling a computer technician.

Viewing new PDF files on an old system

One of the problems with having an older computer is that newer files sometimes can’t be read by them. Rob called in to ask how he can read Adobe PDF files on his older Power PC Apple Mac.

The answer is to use Google Docs and upload the PDF into it as the service can read newer documents. If you’re using Gmail as we discuss above, then files sent with newer attachments will automatically open in the Google reader service.

The next Nightlife program will be on June 16. If you’d like to suggest topics contact us or join the conversation on the night with your on-air questions or comments by phoning 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

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Tony Delroy and Paul Wallbank on the February 3  ABC Nightlife across Australia technology segment looked at how Facebook is taking over the world.

A recording of the program is available from the ABC Nightlife website until February 10.

Aspects we discussed included;

• Is Facebook really worth 50 billion dollars
• Where are they making money?
• Can we trust them with our data?
• How do we protect ourselves when using Facebook?

Your views are welcome and if you’d like to join the conversation with your questions or comments phone 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702 or twitter @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag

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