Computer

A new computer system is causing many problems at local tag offices.  People are waiting five hours or more for title work or a new tag.  The state says they are aware of the issue and working on a solution. The tag office stopped handing out numbers by mid-afternoon and said they would remain open until everyone had been helped. The Department of Revenue says they will grant the following grace periods because of the delay at tag offices:         * Vehicle tag which expired April 30 (last names starting with C and D)

A viewer says I have upset his 98 year old mother. No, it wasn't a silly prank. Her complaint is that the contests and other special things we run almost always require use of the internet. He reminds us that many people, especially older folks, don't have computers. He's right of course. But so much is done by computer these days, we all need to get used to it. It's not going to change, and the powers that be here have invested a lot to provide us the most up to date equipment and facilities.

Why am I getting computer calls from KWCH? That question comes from one of our viewers this week. He was upset at what he termed the "telemarketing" call. Actually, we don't do telemerketing...the call in question came from Survey USA, the company that does our scientific surveys. They contact hundreds of people in our viewing area, randomly, by computer to ask questions about current events. We then show results on the air. You're certainly not required to participate if you get called.

When a hacker wants to give you a virus, in the past they'd usually email you a link and hope you click on it. Or they'll embed it in a suspicious looking ad or pop-up. But now that email filters are getting more advanced, fewer infected links are getting through. Now, they're taking a more proactive approach. We've gotten some calls from people who say they're getting calls at home. According to one viewer, the caller claimed to be from Microsoft and said his computer had a virus and they needed to go to a website to clean it up. Thankfully, the viewer hung up on this caller.

Tablets are really hot this holiday season, and plenty of new ones are just out. There are also a bunch of tablets made just for kids. Consumer Reports just sized up ones from Fisher-Price, LeapFrog, VTech  and Vinci. They mimic tablet computers, but they don't have nearly as many features. They also don't have access to the Internet. That's a good thing because they're for such young children. But parents will have to help download content. More than a dozen kids checked out the tablets by using them to read books, take pictures, and play for several days.

We just had to reset our passwords at work, an as always, I struggle to come up with something safe, but something that I can remember. It's something a lot of us complain about, and while I can't tell you which password to choose, I can help you avoid one that might be easily hacked. Here's a list compiled by SplashData of the worst passwords-based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers! Check it out here and make sure your password isn't one of them.

Police are looking for suspects after a smash and grab burglary at a Wichita computer store.  It happened at the Ribbit Computer store in the 400 block of S. Rock Road. Police tell us two men dressed in all black used a tool to smash in the front door window.  They went inside the business and grabbed five laptops.  They were out of the business in less than a minute. The two got away in a silver four-door car. The manager of the store tells us his store has been hit at least two other times in recent months.

Police want more parents to start paying attention to what their children are doing online. In the last month, police searched for two Kansas girls thought to be missing. Both times they found the girls with guys the met on the internet.  It's a growing problem police say parents can help control. "The internet has really changed the way that children interact with the world and not always for good," said Bill Ramsey. He owns The Bill Guy Technology Solutions and is a dad. He says you have to know who your kids are chatting with on places like Facebook.  "There are so many parents that say I don't care that they put that stuff up there and I tell them they should.  You should care," he said.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this story, but I feel like a computer repair person should be like a doctor, with confidentiality and all.  This guy is accused of violating the trust of a lot of women, installing a program that let him spy on people through their computers.  Wait until you read how police say he got pictures of some of them nude. Read the details here from the Los Angeles Times.

Next week, Apple is supposed to announce plans for what it's calling iCloud. Based on everything that I've read, iCloud is going to be a replacement for MobileMe, it's online synch service that allows you to share your email, contacts and calendars online. It's also supposed to be something of an online "locker" for all things related to iTunes. Both Amazon and Google have similar cloud computing options for your digital media, as well as other kinds of cloud computing options.