The Help Desk Podcast show

The Help Desk Podcast

Summary: Technology podcast aimed at helping those who may be experiencing issues with their technology. You can be an enterprise Field Tech, a member of a school district IT Department, small business person working at home or just a computer user having trouble with your wifi. Gary will answer your questions involving software, servers, networks, backing up and restoring data, online security, network security, laptops, workstations and tablets. This podcast is opened to you the listener and we hope that you will participate. You can leave a voicemail at (313) 444-3154.

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  • Artist: Gary Hunt
  • Copyright: Copyright © 2013-2015 Gary Hunt The Help Desk Podcast

Podcasts:

 THDP43 How to Keep Your Data Secure | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Show Notes for this podcast. In this podcast we are going to talk about how you can keep your data secure in an environment that is very obviously insecure.  You need to be proactive and not wait around for the organizations you do business with to make changes and secure your data.  This is one...

 YCRE4 My Exercise Ball and Gardening | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The start I am recording this on Tuesday July 14th.  It’s sort of a milestone day today because I walked over 5600 steps today and when I went to bed I still had only consumed 1125 calories.  I’m certainly not hungry and as the day goes on I am thinking of work and not a...

 YCRE3 – Health Apps and Restless Leg | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

First of all I am going to bring attention to the pic at the top of this podcast.  It shows me standing next to a real live Minion last Friday when my wife and I played hooky and to in the film.  As you can see I got to meet a real Minion.  The movie...

 THDP42 Protect Your Identity | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Look, I am not trying to sensationalize  or over-hype this episode or the information I am about to share with you but I do think this may be the most important podcast we have done.  Today we are talking about identity theft. I think it seems quite hopeless to many people lately the idea of...

 YCRE2 – Let’s Set Some Ground Rules | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Okay, welcome back to our second episode of You Can’t Replace Everything.  That is the working title.  I am open to suggestions.  I’ve been racking my brain because I think I need to give this podcast a title that tells you immediately what it is about, especially if this is to become an actual podcast. ...

 THDP41 Millennials | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

While talking about Millennials and how they are affecting the economy and the Internet, we are going to use two example of how websites are adjusting to this change in the market:  Wealthfront.com and Care.com. From the Millennials standpoint according to The Pew Study “Millennials in Adulthood” just 19% of Millennials say most people can...

 YCRE1 You Can’t Replace Everything | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on getting The Help Desk Podcast back up and running and also on a little special project I would like to talk about right now.  I have been away for so long and I want it to be a better quality podcast that better engages...

 THDP40 Book Sale Time Again | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Yep, it’s that time of the year again.  I mentioned before how weird (cool) it is when I reach a milestone with this podcast….like the 2nd Annual Laptop Buying Guide.  Well we are reaching another one in the coming weeks.  And that is the Bookstock Book Sale at the Laurel Park Place Mall here in...

 THDP39 Inspiration | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We go about our live coping with the day-to-day (sometimes we just barely cope) with life as it comes at us.  As it hits us in the forehead.  If we are lucky we react correctly and we can go through life with as few issues as possible.  How often do we...

 THDP38 Microsoft News | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

I will be straight with you right up front…..this podcast is not about Windows 10.  That is coming soon….probably the first episode we record after my hip replacement surgery.  During the next podcast episode:  THDP39 I will go over our schedule expectations for the next month so stay tuned for that. It has been so long since we have produced podcasts on a regular basis…so we are kind of catching up here I guess and because of that this is a pretty busy show.  So this week once again I am trying to keep this episode at a nice manageable length….oh….somewhere south of 30 minutes for sure……just like the approximate 25 minutes of THDP37 last week. I want to thank everybody who is listening to the last two podcasts right now.  You are our hard core listeners or maybe you have some hardcore boredom issues…..I don’t care.  You still downloaded 36 and 37 at a pretty good clip. Another reason I bring this up is this announcement: [HOSANNA] Yes, this can only mean one thing…..we now have a listener in South Dakota.  I’m thinking the audio equipment has probably warmed up enough to work again and wham! There you have it you chose to listen to the Help Desk Podcast.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. In similar news over the last couple of weeks we have also picked up new listeners in Finland, Taiwan, Kenya, Ghana, Argentina and Estonia.  Yep, that means there are only two states in the USA where we have no listeners:  North Dakota and Montana.  And worldwide we now have listeners in 74 nations.  Let’s hear it folks!! [CHEERING] Don’t forget to mention that you are now using the Surface to podcast with because the Samsung ultrabook didn’t have enough guts to get the job done.. There was unacceptable latency and lag with everything (especially the audio editing with Audacity.  My love/hate relationship with Audacity is at times trying enough…I don’t have to go out and look for trouble by using a laptop that can’t get the job done. Between you and me, I don’t want to give Microsoft any credit with the Surface but since I have had it the thing has done everything I have asked it to do.  From troubleshooting switches to editing podcasts with Audacity. My setup is as it has always been.  A computer and two 21” monitors on a monitor arm.  I have a MediaSonic SmartDock Pro.  It handles the DVI and HDMI monitor cables along with an RJ45 for the network cable and what ….about 3 or 4 USB 3.0 PORTS ALONG WITH A COUPLE MORE 2.0 PORTS and then throw in 3 audio ports to boot.  I have that velcro’d onto the back of one of the monitors.  Easy to get to but out of sight (and off my desk). The other day I was running 3 You Tube videos… one on each screen and there was no latency.  In fact I was also typing out notes for a podcast!!  I have a Surface 2 Pro with the Core i5 and Windows 8.1 Pro on it.  I also got the 128GB storage and I put a 64GB SD card in it.  I am tempted to try to put a 128Gb SD card in but I am not sure it will work.  It may only recognize 64GB.  That and they are pretty pricey too and I don’t really need it anyway. Remember our 2nd annual laptop Buying Guide?  I believe we ranked the Surface as the 2nd best laptop available.  I rated that BEFORE I actually owned one.  Amazon was giving it away when I bought it.  It was refurbished and ran around $445. The Surface2 Pro has a 10” screen.  I don’t think I would like the bigger 12” screen of the Surface3.  It would have to be faster and lighter (and also somehow much, much cheaper) for me to consider one.  I don’t really like the keyboard but I can’t type for poo anyway so there probably isn’t anything they could have done to make me happy with that. I guess this has turned into a sort of review but we are talking about Microsoft anyway.

 THDP35 Edutech and iPhones | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Please bear with us while we get through this period.  As I gain more and more strength we will be returning to a full recording schedule. Yea, yea, yea…Happy New Year!! Oops, do I sound a bit frustrated?  A bit negative?  Maybe.  Bear with me here while I try to work this out.  This just didn’t feel much like Christmas this year. I know why….that’s the easy part.  I had a total hip replacement December 15.  That’ll put a major-league crimp in your Christmas celebration!  No work party/luncheon, no Christmas Eve, no Christmas, no New Year’s Eve or New Years.  Just rest, ice and therapy (three times a week).  You want to feel isolated?  Spend Christmas Day alone with only a babysitter to “assist” when (or if) necessary.  Thank God I had my “new” Microsoft Surface Pro2 but that is another story…. Yes, you can say the holiday season is an exercise in commercialism and greed.  You could say that.  You would be wrong, but you could say that.  You would be wrong in some instances.  My family being one of them.  It isn’t a gift and/or a spending contest but a celebration of the family and recognition of another year gone by (personally successful or not).  Sure, the kids would have their giftfest on Christmas Eve but the rest of the time was time for one on one conversations and listening.  A lot of listening. No big deal you say….I did after all replace my knee last June.  This should have been a breeze.  Old hat.  In fact, they (please input the “ubiquitous they” here) all said this would be much easier.  “The hip is always easier than the knee”, they would say.  Ok, in truth, that was correct.  This time around at two weeks I was off my walker and my wife had taken me out to dinner (to get the stink off reputedly) and I had a nominally good time.  With the knee I was still on the walker at two weeks.  I remember because at two weeks I went to my surgeon’s office to get my stitches removed.  My wife tried to take me out to dinner around 3-3.5 weeks and that outing wasn’t nearly as fun. Ok, for tonight’s show, we are using some previously recorded conversations between Ed and myself.  Some of this material isn’t the best recording.  We did it during the “dark months” when I was having all sorts of problems with the audio.  That was before I bought our Rode Podcaster USB microphone which immediately solved most of our sound issues.  I guess this just illustrates the trials and tribulations of recording a podcast in a non-soundproof studio. Some of the lead-ins and endings of these talks were sort of abrupt but I’ll try to explain before each segment so it won’t be quite so traumatic for you.  Also, we use Skype to record our conversations between just the two of us.  Sometimes, well, Skype – let’s just say it’s got some gremlins.  One of them happen during this episode.  I left it in to --- well, I guess I kept it to illustrate the problems with Skype. We start off talking a little bit about the Federal e-Rate reimbursement system.  The FCC has rewritten the e-Rate system and in a couple of episodes we will dedicate a whole podcast. Online testing The Fujitsu ScanSnap SV-600

 THDP34 Merry Christmas, 2014 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This is a "Best of" podcast.  After it was put together I found I really liked it.  I hope you do too. Hi everybody and welcome back.  Here we are, Christmastime, another year-end, another replacement surgery.  Well, 2 out of three ain’t bad is it? ...

 THDP33 I Give Thanks | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Okay, here I am writing the second annual “I am Giving Thanks” podcast.  The first one turned into the “Giving Thanks, Happy New Year”.  It was THDP4.  We released it on December 30, 2013.  I’m pretty sure we wanted to release it over Thanksgiving but if you recall……well how could you recall……..but I had to have emergency hernia surgery on November 11 last year.  Recuperating they wouldn’t let me do squatola.  Yep, you heard me s-q-u-a-t-o-l-a.  They wouldn’t let me walk down my driveway….squatola. I bring all of this up because if you were on the outside looking in you would have to say this has been a really rough year.  A REALLY rough year.  Let’s start with last November and the hernia surgery.  Then in June I had total knee replacement surgery.  As it turned out, I waited so long to get my right knee replaced that I ruined my hips.  Especially my left hip.  I tried to take as much weight off my hurting knee as I could….well, it has to go somewhere …..and that was my left leg.  Thus putting more pressure on my already arthritic left hip.  Well, “they” always say that these things come in threes.  So next month (December) I will be getting my left hip replaced. That’s three major surgeries in 13 months.  Like I said, “a REALLY bad year”. I thank the guy or gal upstairs that has apparently decided I can yet be valuable here on this Earth and has not given me the ultimate recall.  I am thankful that I have been lucky enough to be married to Patty who has done nothing but support me professionally, physically, and mentally.  With everything that has happened this past year, I would not have been able to cope without her. I am thankful she was able to build a protective wall around me that still allows me to be myself and to grow in any way I desire.  I dare say I wouldn’t have been able to turn the bushel of lemons I was handed into sweet lemonade. I am thankful I have two brothers that love me and occasionally put up with my …..well, let’s just call them my eccentricities.  I am thankful for having met Barb who convinced me to get my IT certifications and start on my merry way toward the consultancy that I am currently enjoying.  I am very thankful that I have a contractual relationship with the people I work with.  They put up with my eccentricities, many of them have to put up with my constant hounding to combat my “pet peeves”.  But most of all they have continued to put up with my current physical limitations. I am very thankful that I have you a loyal audience that keeps coming back with every podcast or blog we produce.  You have been very patient with our up and down release schedule but you hung in there and Ed and I thank you for that. Sure, it’s been a tough year but it could have been worse.  I certainly have medical technology to thank.  Without that I would be a crippled mess right now. Thank you.

 THDP32 Veteran’s Day | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

 Kind of a somber time of the year.  Just before the Holidays.  To me autumn is kind of a sad season anyway.  I have always been a child of the summer.  Growing up I am not sure that I ever slowed down….for anything.  We had a lot of work around the house growing up.  The huge yard….our front yard was a 100 yard football field (with a hill in the middle and a brick house on the sideline).  Our back yard there was a baseball diamond.  Then there was the garden.  It was ….well…big. But back to this season.  I find this time of year somewhat somber because I remember back to high school.  For me graduation…..yes, I did graduate…..was the last time I saw many, many friends.  I’m sure it is like that for everyone.  People spread out to the four corners of America and beyond.  For my generation there was the Viet Nam war and the draft.  The draft was basically a lottery.  They would pull out days of the year and if your birthday was that day then that was your position in the draft.  If they pulled April 15th say, then that day was #1 and everybody with that birthday would be called in first among my age group.  I can’t remember what day was #1 but I knew quite a few people whose birthdays were the first 5 or 10 picked.  I believe at that time numbers 1 through 39 would be automatically called in and then everyone else sequentially as needed.  But in 1972 the war was winding down. But those people 1 through 10, I never heard from again.  Gone.  No news, no stories, nothing.  Obviously not all of them were killed but they were gone from my life. You always wonder a little in the back of your mind. So all of this comes around to this Tuesday being Veteran’s Day.  Think about the veterans of your life.  Think of all veterans from all wars.  Think of all veterans of peacetime.  All veterans.  Say a little prayer of thanks for their service.  Donate some money of time to help someone.  Perform an act of kindness for someone in honor of those who went all in for our country. ON today’s episode Ed and I talk about a bunch of things including the current lawsuit between the FCC and AT&T, phone carriers trying to accumulate your data through phone conversations and trying to sell it for profit, and a couple of Pakistanis eating finger food…..and I don’t mean chicken tenders….more like actual finger tenders. Well anyway, you almost have to hear this stuff to believe it so why not listen in…

 THDP19 Net Neutrality | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We took so long to publish THDP18 that this subject has come and gone.  But not so fast.  This subject is not going anywhere.  We are in the talking stage right now.  The FCC is taking comments and are looking for public input. Am I the only one that is confused by this issue??  One second I think I understand what the fuss is all about and the next second I read another article and realize I don't know what the heck is going on.  This is complicated and I am going to say that maybe because it is so complicated, we should never let  Congress have anything to do with it. If we don't understand and we are the industry after all....how can we expect our government to understand. Remember, we are talking about those pipes that Al Gore invented here. So this would be a good time for you to figure out where your Congress person stands on this issue.  Does their position mirror their constituency?  The best way to get hold of them is probably by email. Let your opinion be heard.  Look at it as defending your way of life.  Has the Internet changed your lifestyle?  I'd say that's a definite yes.  Do you watch Hulu??  How about the Amazon Cloud Player.  They now offer through prime Video The Sopranos ya know. Any thought about how school districts will be affected?  Will the Comcasts of the world start charging them for Broadband?  Will they slow their service down to make them pay? My Dad Story Before we go any further I would like to take just a moment to wish all you fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day this Sunday.  I was driving to get my final xray of my knee this morning and on the radio they were asking listeners to call in with their “special dad story”.  It got me thinking…...and it has inspired me to share with you my seminal “Dad moment”. I played football in high school but I didn’t start until the 10th grade.  We didn’t have peewee leagues and I missed the 9th grade season because I had minor surgery on my face………..ok nosy people…..I had a mole removed from near my temple area of my head.  Wow, did that bleed!!!   I had NEVER seen anything like that up to that point.  I got a bunch of stitches and that was that.  The only thing was it happened 1 week before 2 a day practices started in August.  I missed the first month of the season so I decided against football that year. ANYWAY I don’t know, it was probably around the 2nd game of the season and the coach told me I was going to get a chance at major playing time in the upcoming game.  It was an away game.  At Rochester HS.  Not too far (I grew up in Romeo).  I told my Dad the great news at dinner tonight. He congratulated me. I asked if he would be able to make it to the game.  He thought about it and said he didn’t think so because of a previous commitment.  Not a really big deal I thought.  He hadn’t (to my knowledge) made a game yet. During warmups I looked and did not see him. So the game started and I got my chance.  There I was defensive tackle, yeah, I’m in.  The ball was snapped and the QB went back for a pass.  I broke through the line, brought the QB down and made him fumble.  Yeah!!  This was fun!!!  Going back to the huddle I looked up and there was my Dad sitting in his rain coat in the stands.  He made it.  He saw.  I went on to have one of the better games of my HS career. That’s my Dad story.  Now let’s go on to the rest of the show with Ed.

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