Economics is the focus of this week’s super-sized Internet Advisor show. BetterInvesting.org, (a venerable, long-established, Michigan-based non-profit)  is making significant headway in the face of the recent economic “tsunami” by assisting “main street investors” and investment clubs to stabilize and manage/grow their assets, using current technology tools. This Saturday Gary Baker and Ed Rudel interview Suzi Artzberger, Director of Information Technology and Product Development and an old friend, Kathleen Norton-Shock, about the way BetterInvesting.org uses new technology.

Also joining the crew to help answer your computer and Internet questions is Jason Yaeger from Online Technologies and Erik Anderson contributes The Mac Minute to keep us up to date on the latest in Apple news from the Dark Side.  This week, we have a full two hours and plenty of expert help to get your questions answered.

Podcast: March 27, 2010 – Hour 1
Podcast: March 27, 2010 – Hour 2
Podcast: March 27, 2010 – Hour 3

Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder, has a new enterprise  called Jumo, which soft launches today. “Jumo”–a Yoruba (African) word meaning “together in concert”–is a non-profit that aims to help people find ways to help the world. “We’ll be matching people based on their skills and interests with organizations around the world that need their input.  It’s a discovery process that first matches then helps people build relationships then lets people share their resources.”  Full story

To Google or not to Google…a whole city, that is the question.  Google Networks has created a bidding war among cities across the country including, of course, Ann Arbor, Michigan, to be one of the test sites for their super fast network. This week, the crew interviews a number of people who are trying to get Google to place their next generation fiber optic network in the home of University of Michigan and a host of high tech companies.  Among our guests is: Chris Taylor, City Council person for City of Ann Arbor, Laura Patterson, CIO for the University of Michigan and Derek Mehraban, the CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing whose company is sponsoring some of the local A2 Fiber events.

Of course we also have our full panel of experts: Gary Baker, Ed Rudel and Cal Carson to answer your questions along with co-host Foster Braun. Erik Anderson will also bring us his weekly Mac Minute highlight all things Apple in the news.

Links From The Show
Ann Arbor Fiber Project
UStream Video Streaming

Podcast: March 20, 2010 – Hour 1
Podcast: March 20, 2010 – Hour 2
Podcast: March 20, 2010 – Hour 3

On March 17th 2010, McAfee sent out the warning concerning a facebook, password stealing email.  If you receive and email telling you to reset your Facebook password, ignore it.  The bad guys want steal your passwords and empty your bank accounts.  Remember, Facebook will not send you an email forcing you to change your password.  If you click on the fake (spoofed) email link, your PC may/will become infected with a password stealing virus. 
Read more

Google recently put out a request for information to communities all across the country. It plans to use the information it receives to determine where to build its new fiber network.  Ann Arbor city officials are anxious to have its citizens be some of the first in the country to benefit from this super fast network by partnering with University of Michigan.  Attend the City Council Google Fiber for Communities public hearing on Monday, March 15 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

If you are interested in showing your support for Ann Arbor’s efforts, go to

• www.a2fiber.com May

Look out, your next Twitter post could be letting the whole world know exactly where you are.  The good news is that you can opt out of this new feature.  Full Story

Alas our brave Spartans failed at the free throw line and lost in overtime to Minnesota to drop out of the Big Ten Championship series.  But their loss is our gain because we have a full Three Hours of Tech Calls with Foster Braun, Ed Rudel and Cal Carson this week.  Erik Anderson also have has the latest update on Apple computing with The Mac Minute.

In the meantime don’t forget to Spring Forward this Sunday.  Daylight Savings Time officially begins on Sunday morning when you will lose an hour of sleep and set the clocks ahead an hour.

Podcast: March 13, 2010 – Hour 1
Podcast: March 13, 2010 – Hour 2
Podcast: March 13, 2010 – Hour 3

A piece of software designed to run with one of Energizers’s battery-charger products contains a nasty Trojan according to Technewsworld. If you bought Energizer’s Duo USB battery charger and then downloaded the unit’s companion PC software, you should take steps to remove the Trojan immediately.

Ed Rudel

HOW TO – Recover data from your computer when Windows has crashed

Your computer has crashed and all of your data is still on the hard drive – Photos, Documents, music, and even your Taxes and Resume.

If your computer powers up but Windows will not start then a LIVE CD can be used to save your data to a Flash drive or an external disk drive.

A Live CD loads an independent operating system directly from the CD/DVD drive, instead of Windows from your hard drive.  This is especially useful when your computer is no longer bootable (Blue Screen of Death, Corrupted Registry, Virus, or even a minor disk error).  Just because your computer can no longer load Windows does not mean that your data is gone.  This just means that a Windows file is damaged, rendering it inoperable, but the location where your data files are located may still be accessible.

One of my favorite Live CD’s is Puppy Linux.  Yes, the name is cute. But the term puppy also implies “Small”.  Puppy Linux is only about 100mb and can be easily downloaded and burned to a CD.  There are many Live CD’s available but you must be careful because some provide an” Install Option” that might overwrite your existing Windows OS!  I recommend making one of these bootable rescue CD’s now, before you have a problem.

You will need 2 items.

1. Puppy Linux Live CD – (instruction below)
2. Something to copy your data to – USB attach disk drive or Flash drive.

This is a link to a Bootable / Live CD known as Puppy-Linux – Save the file to your Desktop.
http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/
-OR-
Use this second link – It points directly to the Puppy Linux ISO  file to download http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/distr/puppylinux/puppy-4.3.1/pup-431.iso

After you download and save this file do not just copy this file to a CD.  It is an ISO file (a CD Image file).

Most CD burning software (Roxio, Sonic, Nero) associate an ISO file type as a CD Image file.  When you double click on the ISO file, the CD-writing software should launch and prompt you to “Burn Disc Image to Disc”.  If you computer does not seem to support ISO files, click here

After the CD image is created, you should be able to place it in the failing computer and attempt to boot from the CD.
1.  Plug in your USB hard drive or Flash drive that you are going to copy your data to before you boot.
2.  Power up the computer and install the CD.
3.  Many computers are preconfigured to try to boot from the CD/DVD drive first, before they attempt to boot from the hard drive (where Windows is installed).  If  your computer does not boot from the CD /DVD then you can usually force a computer to select which drive to boot from by pressing or tapping  a function key after powering up the computer.

Common boot menu keys to tap in order to force your computer to load from the CD/DVD are:

DELL                Tap F12 key
HP                     Tap F9 key
Gateway          Tap ESC key

If you have not already done so, place the Puppy Linux CD into the CD drive.

Just let the CD boot up and start up.  It will ask you for Language settings, Keyboard settings, and Time Zone.

It will next ask you to choose Video Option.  I usually just select Xorg as this video option supports more video cards.

If your computer’s Windows XP hard drive is readable, it should show up immediately above the “Menu” start button (Bottom left).  It will usually be labeled as SDA1.

Note – Single Mouse clink in Linux.  Double mouse clicks opens things twice.

Note – Dragging and dropping files will prompt for Copy or Move

SDA1 would be your Hard Drive.

SR0 is your CD Rom

SDB5 or SDB4 – This is your External USB drive.  (The graphic symbol will look like a USB Flash drive/stick)

You should be able to open up your hard drive and your external USB device.  Size each windows so that both are viewable at the same time.

Drag and drop files from the failing hard drive to the USB backup device.

Your Documents are usually stored in the following location, on the hard drive.

Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME

Vista and Windows 7 -  C:\Users\USERNAME

Folders you will want to copy include:

XP and Vista – My Documents, Favorites, Desktop

Windows 7 – Documents, Favorites, Desktop, Photos, Videos, Music

Below is a screen capture of the Puppy Linux interface.   Download yours today and familiarize yourself with some of the basics – Opening your Windows hard drive and locating your data.  After you make your own Puppy Linux live CD then you can check out many other, specialized,  Live CD’s at LiveCDlist.com.

March certainly has come in like a lamb, at least in terms of the weather, but it has been a busy season for computer techs like Ed Rudel and Cal Carson who have tales to tell of battling viruses that have tried to take over computers.  Join Foster Braun and Gary Baker as we talk about some of the common infections that are paralyzing people’s computers and ways of both fixing the problems and preventing them.

The economic crisis in the State of Michigan is not unlike the challenges facing both business and government today. Reduced budgets. Scarce resources. The need for economic transformation.Michigan State University is addressing this challenge head-on by leveraging a significant, yet largely untapped asset: its people.  Kim Patrick Kobza CEO of INgage Networks’ and Dr. Cliff Lampe of MSU explain how INgage Networks’ enterprise social software will enable MSU to connect the brilliant minds across the state – online – to jointly develop new ideas and solutions.

Big Red, Erik Anderson, has his Mac Minute ready to keep us on the cutting edge of all things Apple.

Podcast: March 6, 2010 – Hour 1
Podcast: March 6, 2010 – Hour 2