Birds of a Feather

I don’t have a whole lot of exposition for this one. I’m just going to drop a few quick tips so you can have some extra time to mow your lawn/walk your dog/clip your toenails/etc.

• If you’re looking to get some extra mileage out of an old computer or your newer computer doesn’t seem to have as much pep as you think it should, you can go into Task Manager and check the Startup tab to see if any applications are set to start up automatically with your computer. Here are some general rules of thumb for those who aren’t tech-savvy.
  • Video conferencing apps (Webex, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc.) generally don’t need to start up automatically unless your company uses it for phone/internal communication.
  • Storage applications like OneDrive and Dropbox should be set to start up automatically if you actively leverage them. Also, note that Sharepoint is reliant on the OneDrive application, so leave that enabled if you have SharePoint folders synced.
  • If you can’t identify a program in the list based on name, it’s usually best to leave it enabled.
• Uninstall Mcafee and install a different antivirus. It tends to bog down computers more than other antiviruses and comes preinstalled on many computers, especially consumer-level ones. Bitdefender is generally a safe bet as a premium replacement.

Let’s talk about something super important today: cybersecurity. In this digital age, protecting our online selves is a must. But don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Here are a few simple tips to keep your data and privacy safe:

In one of my first blog posts, I wrote about the future of traffic. One day, your vehicle will communicate with the other cars around you and the road surface to accurately move traffic through our streets without/with reduced slowdowns and collisions. We may be closer to that reality than you might think. The biggest problem with totally automated traffic patterns and roadways is connectivity. How can you connect these many devices and keep latency low enough for real-time updates to stop your vehicle? Enter 5G technology. Self-driving car companies have started experimenting with 5G as the connectivity medium for self-driving cars to receive updates. This could help bring about the future of automated roadways!

Birds on a Cable is officially moving to only providing EDR software for our clients, rather than offering traditional antivirus software. What does that mean for you, and what’s the difference?

What is an antivirus?

Traditional antivirus software works by scanning every file on your system and looking for specific fingerprints that it already knows about. These could be things such as a file hash (a unique number generated by doing math on the entire file in such a way any minor change radically changes the number) or looking for specific text in the program code itself. The AV scanner doesn’t know what those things do, only that they match a list it’s been provided of known bad things. If you’ve ever had a false positive, that’s why.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a cool, revolutionary Apple device; it’s an evolutionary sacrifice on people’s necks from being on devices a lot. Long, long ago, I wrote a blog post about this, but I think we need a refresh. Here are a few tricks on how to keep that Quasi Modo hump from forming: