April 2013
1 post
Destroying Old Hard Drives
If you’re anything like most people we know, you probably have been holding on to some old hard drives or computers not sure what to do with them before you get rid of them. Here’s what we recommend:
First, erase the drive. You can do this on any 10.7 or 10.8 Mac easily by booting into Recovery Mode (Hold Command-R at boot) and then use Disk Utility.
If you’re really...
February 2013
1 post
Twitter's Mass Email
This afternoon I, and many others, received an alarming email from Twitter.
It said, in short, we’ve been compromised at least in part, and we’ve reset your password as a security measure.
The details of the hack are on Twitter’s blog and basically seem to say that Twitter lost a bunch of credentialing information.
What’s that mean?
Twitter may have given up a bunch...
January 2013
1 post
The Java Problem, and what you should do
Hello everyone,
This is a security update concerning your Macs and PCs, and you should stop and read the following and take action if necessary.
This week, security researchers have identified a Zero Day Exploit (meaning, a security flaw that was released into the wild without notification) that affects Java. This security problem is severe and should be treated with the utmost caution. ...
October 2012
1 post
Storm's comin'.
Dear Clients & Friends,
If you haven’t heard, a confluence of 2 major storms (A Nor’easter and Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy) is expected to hit our area possibly as early as Sunday. They’ve even given it a catchy name, Frankenstorm. Washington Post coverage is here http://tinyurl.com/8n7y99s
We hope it fizzles out and we just get a little wind and rain. However, now is...
September 2012
1 post
iOS 6 is here!
Today, Apple released iOS 6 for the public. Generally speaking, while we think it works pretty well, we recommend that you hold off on updating for a few days to let the crush subside, and any showstopper bugs that made it through extensive testing in Cupertino get squashed. Apple has a good “What’s New?” page, but don’t take their word for it, here’s a few of the...
March 2012
1 post
“Uniting under a single privacy policy is more convenient for the consumer, but...”
– Google privacy policy changes: How the new policy will affect your surfing | WJLA.com
February 2012
1 post
Google Accounts, Privacy, and Our Clients
If you maintain any Google accounts (Google Apps, Gmail, YouTube, Google+, etc). Google will be changing their privacy policy to allow them to consolidate or share your web search history among their products.
We thought our clients and friends should be made aware of the possible impacts of this change.
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
On March 1st, Google will implement its new,...
October 2011
1 post
iCloud, iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7.2
By now you’ve likely heard, Apple has released iOS 5 for mobile devices, OS X 10.7.2 for Macs, and iCloud. With the release of OS X 10.7.2, Lion appears to be ready for prime time. We have been testing iOS 5 and OS X 10.7.2 since its early beta release and we’re ready to pronounce them both “ready for primetime,” with some notable exceptions*. While download and activation...
August 2011
3 posts
tj asked: Preserving battery life: you can turn off cellular data entirely. Also, IIIRC turning off Wi-Fi's "Ask to Join Networks" will help preserve battery life. Same with Settings » Sounds » Vibrate [turn off]. (Also note: Turning off location services will help, but it will also mean that you can't use Google Maps to find your location or use "Find My iPhone".)
iPhone Battery Preservation Tips for the Hurricane
Hurricane Irene is set to arrive in the DC area tomorrow afternoon, and with it possible power outages throughout the Metro DC region. Here are a few tips to keep your iPhone lasting as long as possible:
Turn off Push Notifications. You really don’t need a message from Facebook that Janie’s dog did the cutest thing. Settings > Notifications > Off
Turn off Bluetooth....
Hurricane Irene
We’re currently monitoring the storm track for Hurricane Irene, which is currently down near Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The storm looks to be fairly serious, and as of this morning’s forecasts, the track would affect the greater DC Area:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/145015.shtml?5-daynl?large#contents
The storm is currently slated to make landfall in...
July 2011
2 posts
Watch our Tom Bridge this Sunday!
Our own Tom Bridge will be on the ABC 7 Washington Business Report this Sunday morning at 9:30am on WJLA in the Washington DC area. We’ll post the video when it gets put online. He’ll be talking about Cloud Computing and how it affects big and small businesses.
On the release of 10.7 Lion
Late on Tuesday, as part of their earnings call, Apple announced that its new operating system, OS X 10.7 Lion, would be released on Wednesday during the day. You may have many questions concerning the release of Lion, upgrade paths, upgrade features, group licensing, and compatibility. We’ll be working to answer those questions on a case-by-case basis as we go forward during the next few...
June 2011
1 post
“Tech expert Tom Bridge from Technolutionary LLC believes the privacy risk is...”
– Facebook facial recognition features roll out world wide | TBD.com
May 2011
2 posts
“There is no consistent library for implementing SSL in the browser,” said...”
– A Step Towards a Secure Internet: Google Developers Make Progress with SSL False Start
SSL False Start, if approved, could drastically improve the performance of SSL-secured sites.
“Tom Bridge, a partner at a firm called Technolutionary, seemed to think that Mac...”
– Malware on the Mac: is there cause for concern? Ars investigates
Ars Technica spoke with Technolutionary partner Tom Bridge about the latest malware exploits on the Mac. While malware is certainly a growing concern, it has not yet reached epidemic proportion.
Some good guidelines about installing... 