Birds on a Cable | Blog

Welcome to another addition of TTT (Tech Talk Tips)!

VOIP / POTS
These two acronyms refer to things that allow us to talk to each other across vast distances in very different ways. POTS: this stands for Plain Old Telephone Service. There are other names for this, but this is my favorite to say. It refers to any old school copper wire telephone service, pre-internet. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) replaces old RJ11 copper cable with Ethernet, Fiber and other more modern mediums and the internet to connect your tele to your buddy’s.

WAP
Not a slang term. A Wireless Access Point is a transceiver that allows your devices to connect to a Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) network. Sometimes they come built into your router/modem, but generally larger spaces with more users and devices require multiple WAPs to handle the load.

Zero-Day Attack
This refers to a malicious cyber-attack to which there is no ready defense. Think of a disease without a vaccine. I wish one came to mind… Anyway, a zero-day attack occurs when a hacker finds an exploit that was not previously known. Once the exploit is known patches and security updates are released very quickly, usually. If your IT provider warns you of a potential zero-day exploit or vulnerability it is in your best interest to harden security and implement countermeasures as quickly as possible. This recent exploit might have crossed your newsfeed last week.

OST / PST
These terms are relevant to any who uses Outlook as an email client. Depending on what type of email service you are connecting Outlook to, it will generate either a .ost (Offline Storage Table), or .pst (Personal Storage Table) file. These files contain email, calendar, and contact data that is stored locally on your device so that even without internet access you can still open Outlook and see info. Once in a blue moon, Outlook may not act as efficiently as you may be used to. Someone may tell you that your data file is corrupted, and if they do, these files are what they are talking about. As more email piles in, the more likely one of these files become ridden with errors and Outlook will cease to function. Also, if you never delete or archive emails, eventually they will reach a size that even Microsoft can no longer manage.

With the workforce still largely at home, it has been open season for advertisers and marketing agencies to steal obtain your private data. And if you think Google, Apple, and Facebook are the only folks you should be looking out for, think again.

Your very own ISP (Internet Service Provider) plays a vital role in harvesting your data to be bundled up and sold off to these companies. Now that you’ve been working from home for nearly a year, you may have noticed those ads targeting you with a scary level of precision. Why is that? Your internet browsing hasn’t increased that much, has it?

I’ve been practicing the art being more present. Less over-indulgence in everything, especially my devices, as I believe we all do it to disconnect from life. So far it is going… so-so. To be brutally honest, being less indulgent is hard to do in the days of COVID. I’m so bored. I also dread receiving that report every Sunday on how much my phone usage has gone up (or down).

*Will walks out on stage to uproarious applause, gesticulating wildly and blowing kisses to the crowd*

Thank you, thank you, you’re all too kind, but can you keep it down a bit (insert rimshot)? I’m just kidding folks! Hope you’re having a wonderful evening… now, let’s get right into it.

Have you heard of this Treesize Free program? Have you seen this, have you heard about this, why is nobody talking about this? It’s a wonderful little program you can install on your Windows PC that allows you to visualize what’s stored on your hard drive. This can also help to determine what can be cleaned up. Maybe if I had found out about this a little earlier, I could remove the EX- from EX-WIFE (queue applause sign). But seriously folks, if you aren’t using it, you really should be. You just download it from the Jam Software website, pop it on your computer, and off you go! Just make sure you aren’t moving/deleting anything that you don’t recognize unless you’re looking to turn that personal computer into a 10-pound paperweight (queue applause sign, also rimshot).

If you’re more of a Mac type of person (brief pause for knowing look directed at the in-house band), then Daisy Disk is the way to go. It’s less user-friendly and costs a bit of money, but you can use the free trial in a pinch to save some money for the divorce proceedings (instant winner, no applause sign needed). Same rules apply though: don’t delete anything if you don’t know what it is.

And that’s a wrap folks! I know it was a short show tonight, but that just gives you more time to explore these wonderful products (off-color joke removed for PG audience). Have a spectacular evening!

Like many industries, IT has a host of shorthand terms that are thrown around to the point where they are commonplace, at least for the IT professionals using them. For more casual users these terms are gibberish. I have been working with and on computers most of my life, and I’m often having to look up new terms or relearn old ones simply because there are so many. In this blog we are going to talk about some common ones, and some with interesting origins.