Now defragging is a relatively simple task. There are software tools built into Windows & Mac OS X, however there are also lots of freeware and paid alternatives. Dennis O’Reilly of CNET posted an article describing the virtues of defragmentation as well as providing detailed information about the process. He recommends a free tool called Auslogics Disk Defrag which is especially beneficial for Windows Vista/7 users but works on other versions of Windows as well.

Windows XP built-in defragmentation utility

Whenever I work on a computer, especially after I’ve installed software or downloaded updates, I defrag. Doing this regularly (which means at least once a week on an often-used computer) will almost certainly contribute positively to long-term performance and reliability of your computer. No one is ever warned to defrag their computer as they are to change the oil in their car. Nonetheless, it is becoming more widely accepted and is evangelized as a great way to help maintain your computer.

Share on Facebook

More than a decade has gone by since the Web/Internet has become a household word in America.  In some ways very little has changed in that most of us access the Web the same way we did in the beginning, with our computer and a browser (though all this is changing with smartphones).  Nevertheless, the Web is becoming more ubiquitous yearly and the paradigm of what it means to be “plugged in” is changing.

I’ll spare you a long and in depth editorial about how this technology has changed our lives.  No doubt you’ve probably already pondered this societal transformation at some point.  Instead, today I would simply like to make a few suggestions for safer downloads.  Specifically, I’m talking about the software you download and install on your computer.  There has been a wealth of games and utilities available for PCs long before the Internet became widely popular.  Even then there was the possibility that an application could contain a virus.  Today the threat is enormous and the cost to the computer owners (and the general public) is much greater. Instead of a virus displaying an annoying message or deleting files, the newest strains are created to take control of your computer and to steal your assets, like your identity.

The only foolproof way to eliminate your exposure to threats on the Web is to avoid going online completely.  However this is hardly an option for most of us.  The next best way is to follow some simple guidelines.  Leo Laporte, the well-known talk show host and tech enthusiast, offers several tips to listeners of his syndicated program.

“…3. Don’t download files from places you aren’t absolutely sure are safe. Stick with the well known sites. Teenagers who use file sharing software like Bit Torrent, Azureus, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and Limewire, often unwittingly download spyware and trojans. If you must, quarantine all downloads then scan them a few days later with an updated anti-virus…”

Source: The Tech Guy Labs

If you have the time, it can’t hurt to read all of Leo’s recommendations.  All the same, I want to emphasize downloads because this is how most viruses/spyware/trojans/etc. are able to infect a system.  It is directly through our own actions that our vulnerabilities are exposed.  Which brings me to the point of this post: ONLY DOWNLOAD FILES AND APPLICATIONS FROM TRUSTED SOURCES!  What are some examples of trusted sources?

• Download.com – (site owned and operated by CNET, a CBS subsidiary)
• ZDNet Downloads (site owned and operated by ZDNet, also a CBS subsidiary)
• PC World Downloads (site owned and operated by PC World Communications)
• Tucows (one of the oldest software sites on the Internet, owned by Tucows Inc. a web services company)

These are very large repositories which probably satisfy 90% of any computer user’s software needs.  If you’re curious about an application or just eager to try some new software, use these sites as your first supplier.  They vet the software publishers and their downloads to make sure they are safe and free from viruses/spyware/trojans.

Share on Facebook

Do you remember when email was fun?

Email is a tool that predates the Web (not the Internet), but it wasn’t until the 1990s that it made its way into the mainstream. Individuals quickly gravitated towards the novel medium as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family over long distances. Businesses too were impressed with the technology as a way of managing work flow and avoiding superfluous phone calls.

Over time businesses, especially marketing firms, have usurped the utility of email. These days we are all very accustomed to email as a tool for work, yet it seems that the amount of personal messages sent has diminished. Perhaps I am wrong but certainly personal email has given way to ever shorter communiqués through instant messaging, texting, and of course social media.  Where email was once thought of as a replacement for the personal letter, it has become a device mainly for sales purposes.

So why this (d)evolution? Well, I think the reasons are fairly clear. In the beginning email was novel and exciting. We didn’t have nearly the same volume of email flooding our inboxes so it was more pleasurable for us to exchange messages with friends and family. As businesses began to comprehend the utility of email and computers grew as part of everyone’s daily life, it became more associated with work. And along with the work email came a flood of SPAM.  It is hard to over emphasize the negative impact this has had on email.

It is now 2010 and email has forever changed. Even though there are tools to help prevent SPAM and ways to make email more secure, these problems persist. For the majority of people email is a means to an end, nothing more. Letters and cards are still exchanged via the postal service, but when something needs to get done quickly we send an email.

Author’s Footnote: It is very difficult to find current free and accurate information about worldwide email usage. I have tried searching via a variety of methods and terms for analysis and forecasts. Using the queries like “worldwide email volume,” “worldwide email statistics,” “worldwide email usage,” and their variants return similar results. It would appear that there is not a lot of funding for public studies in recent years. There are several companies such as IDC that sell reports for upwards of $3000. The best guess I can make from the many websites that I visited is that roughly 60 billion emails are sent every day. And I have heard estimates that up to 80% of email is SPAM. Please feel free to comment or to send me any further information you’ve seen published.

Source for More Information:

• Berkeley Email Study (pre-2000)
• Spam Volume to Exceed Legitimate Emails in 2007
• Email Marketing Reports
• MarketResearch.com (Worldwide Email Usage) – $
• IDC (Worldwide Email Usage) – $

Share on Facebook

That is what it was at its inception and where it is now. The question – and why not much has happened to CinDaily lately – is about how to do that without losing one’s proverbial shirt. Sustainability through profitability (not charity, though that has worked for some) is not a good long-term approach. Or so says me.

Jeff Jarvis, author of the book “What Would Google Do?” and a co-host on “This Week in Google” (a must-listen – or now, must-watch and/or listen- show for anyone interested in cloud computing), has a great post this morning on his blog “Buzz Machine.” Google may save news.

Fallows says that the three pillars of a new online business model for news, in Google’s view, are “distribution, engagement, and monetization.” My equivalents are the conveniently alliterative engagement for the public, effectiveness for advertisers, and efficiency in the operation. That is to say, Google doesn’t touch — nor should it want or need to — the fourth and vital leg to sustainable business models for news: cost. That’s what will make it easier to get Politico’s local product, TBD.com, to profitability more easily than the competitive Washington Post can stay there. That’s why I am looking more at the entrepreneurial than institutional future of news. That’s why I think this quest Google and others are on is about more than saving newspapers and more than saving news; it’s about finding new opportunities. But nevermind that.

via Finally, good news for Google « BuzzMachine.

I have been interested in what Google is doing to help further journalism/save it/make it new for some time. Jarvis and I are cut from the same cloth on this (and, it seems, many issues). Looks like things are starting to get more interesting quickly.

Share on Facebook

The less competition – and there is, my God, less of it – the less news there is out there reported. Not to mention less accountability by not only the the people, businesses and public servants who typically get reported, by also less likely that the two media outlets here would report on each other’s actions. And who loses? The public.

Clear Channel Media Cincinnati, parent of WLW-AM, and WXIX-TV (Fox19) have formed a broadcast and marketing partnership, including a deal to broadcast the Cincinnati Bell/WEBN fireworks show.

via Fox19, WLW form broadcast/marketing partnership – Business Courier of Cincinnati:.

In slipshot fashion, the weakened Business Courier left out a key aspect of this story: What happens to the partnership WLW had with its former sister-station, WLWT-TV? I guess that’s over.

Share on Facebook

A post on the New Media Cincinnati Web site drew a flurry of comments, many criticzing Johnson for not noting where the funds generated by the fee would go.

Johnson

“My only criticism, Dan, is yes you need a blog post explaining the reasoning, and also where the money will go,” said Gerard, known as “HelloGerard” on Twitter. “Even if you say, ‘I’m keeping it for myself, hosers’ then that’s fine with me, cuz as we all know, time is money.”

After a few days of bickering and criticism online – some of it cruel – and a video posted by Johnson that many commenters felt did not answer satisfactorily, Johnson agreed to be interviewed on the CinDaily Podcast to answer questions about the event. He also answered questions and discussed about how and when New Media Cincinnati was founded, how it grew, where it is going today. He also announced he was immediately withdrawing the $5 fee and would refund money to those who had already paid, about 15 people as of the Thursday recording (before the Saturday event).

About 70 people attended the January New Media Cincinnati event and about 40 attended in March after the controversy arose.

Share on Facebook

City of Cincinnati —The Court of Common Please Judge Robert C. Winkler denied the request for an injunction by the City’s Fraternal Order of Police and CODE (Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees) to prevent the layoff of city employees.

“Based upon the law of Ohio and the record before it, the Court cannot conclude that the Unions have proven by clear and convincing evidence that there is a substantial likelihood of success of the merits of the case,” he wrote in his opinion.

This decision does not prevent layoffs, currently scheduled to occur Sunday. The merits of the unions’ claims that the city’s projected $28 million deficit is not that large has yet to be proven at trial in the coming weeks at this time.

“No one is celebrating at City Hall,” said City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr.  “Layoffs are still at play, and we are down to the last minute.”

###

Share on Facebook

Tom Brinkman & Joe Wessels host the "Tom & Joe Radio Show - Not on the Radio Yet," a Podcast for now.

Tom & Joe record their second “Tom & Joe Radio Show – Not on the Radio Yet” at the Coffee Emporium in downtown Cincinnati.

This week there were no guests, but Tom & Joe discussed everything from health care to The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County’s budget issues. Plus, the City of Cincinnati’s budget issues.

We added a new feature this week: A live stream. That means that if you were watching at the time you could see and hear Tom & Joe live, chat with other viewers and send a live Tweet via Twitter. It’s not perfect (we are doing these early Podcasts as a test and to work out kinks), so expect more improvements in the future – like the ability to call into the show live and also get the actual audio from the show to go to the live feed.

But for now, check out this live video recording of (most of) the show. Or download us via this Web site, find us on iTunes or go to CityBeat’s Web site –>Media –> Podcast.

Special thanks to the great folks at Coffee Emporium – with locations in Over-the-Rhine (downtown Cincinnati), Hyde Park and on the campus of Xavier University – for allowing us to record in their roasting room. We hope you will join us at a future recording.

Share on Facebook

Tom Brinkman and Joe Wessels host the weekly "Tom & Joe Radio Show - Not on the Radio Yet." It's a Podcast only (hosted by CinDaily and CityBeat newspaper - for now.

Who said conservatives and liberals can’t get along? They can’t – except when it comes to getting together to debate each other.

That’s what former Ohio State Rep. Tom Brinkman, a staunch conservative and founder of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (C.O.A.S.T.), and journalist Joe Wessels, a solid liberal and most recently the communications director for Democratic Congressman Steve Driehaus‘s election campaign and a small business owner, thought when they formed the “Tom & Joe Radio Show – Not on the Radio Yet.”

Each week they will debate the issues important to Cincinnatians, especially local issues – but also national concerns.

Eventually, both Tom & Joe hope the show goes to the radio, but are honing their show on the Internet (and will always release the show and extra content online – even when the show goes to the radio).

Take a listen here. Our guests for our first show are Cincinnati City Councilman Greg Harris and Cheviot City Treasurer Charlie Norman. Be sure to subscribe by searching for “CinDaily” in iTunes, visiting CityBeat’s Web site and clicking on Media–>Podcasts.

Soon, we hope to include live streaming of our shows.

Special thanks to the great folks at Coffee Emporium – with locations in Over-the-Rhine (downtown Cincinnati), Hyde Park and on the campus of Xavier University – for allowing us to record in their roasting room. We hope you will join us at a future recording.

Share on Facebook

My good friend Mike O. is about to arrive in Cincinnati for, what is becoming, his annual trek here for chili, humidity and friendly people.

Having grown up in Orange County, Calif., Mike jokingly said he always looked at the Midwest as someplace “you flew over on your way to New York or London.”  But he got lucky, and found a friend in this gem of a town, came to visit and, voila, with a little hints, found out he actually kinda loves the place.

On our inaugural CinDaily podcast, Mike and I discuss many of the cool things (and a lot of cool places to eat) that he has grown to love over the past six or so years.

In this approximately 31-minute discussion, we touch on the following places and things:

• The YMCA of Greater Cincinnati
• Jungle Jim’s
• Trader’s World
• Creation Museum
• University of Cincinnati
• The Cincinnati Zoo and Botantical Garden
• The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
• The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
• Mercantile Library
• Ross Self Storage
• CinDaily
• Gold Star Chili
• Skyline Chili
• White Castle
• Cincinnati architecture (A Web site created by students at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati)
  
• San Francisco, California

It’s my first Podcast, so please bear with me. It’s not a perfect work of art, but we will get there…

Share on Facebook