Tag: Microsoft

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A Cautionary Tale from TechCommGeekMom

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

This has been a horribly rough week for me, but I’m hoping that I can help someone else avoid the nightmare from hell that I went through this week in telling my cautionary tale. It has to do with internet security.

I have to admit that I’m embarassed by the whole situation, because you would think that someone like me who has at least some sense of computer/internet savvy would not fall victim to this, but I did. It could’ve been worse in some ways, but I still fell for it, so I share my tale.

It started a few days ago, as you may have read from my last post. My laptop, which I cherish almost as much as if it were my child, had gone down for the count. It wasn’t a mere system crash, like a corrupted hard disk drive or something like that. That would have been devastating as well, but I know these things happen. Instead, it was that I was scammed.

First, I have to set the scenario for you. I’ve been experiencing some slow down on my computer recently. I understand that happens now and then because of various programs and files we add. The more we add to our hard drives, the more time it takes for the system to find and execute the files–I understand that. But there would be some sort of strange hesitation as I would try to get things done. I saw that I had some viruses that my anti-virus software was catching, and I know even my husband has said that our internet connectivity from our provider has been spotty now and then, so I didn’t think much of it. Additionally, I have started working for a training consulting company part-time at night, and I had to install their client’s conferencing software on my system. Now, just to clarify– I know the culprit wasn’t the client software, because it comes from one of the biggest OS providers in the world, so I know that it would not be infected. (I’m not allowed to disclose the client, but let’s just say that EVERYONE has heard of them–and it’s not Adobe or Apple.) Some other instructors seem to be having issues using the product, even though I didn’t seem to have problems, but I know connectivity was an issue.

So, one day when I was trying to figure out what could be causing that slowdown, I got a phone call on my home phone (I am not working full-time in the daytime again, so I was home.) The guy on the other side had a strong foreign accent and claimed to be calling from Microsoft. He claimed that my system had sent a message to Microsoft that there was a truly evasive virus that was striking my computer and not allowing updates to happen, or something to that effect. I questioned how they got my number, and he claimed that it was included when I registered my OS with them. In retrospect, I should’ve remembered that I didn’t do that, as my OS came with my machine. I questioned him again, because I didn’t contact them first…that should have been my tip-off right there. He stressed again that when I share information on the system about Microsoft, that’s how they know. Since I actually was having some minor issues with my machine and the teaching consultancy knew about it, I didn’t know if perhaps they had called Microsoft, and asked them to contact me, and this chap was just following through. This is where the caller got lucky.

He proceeded to have me go to my laptop, and have me type a few things there, and open up some files to “prove” his point. Like most who aren’t tech support people, what he showed seemed legit, and then he asked me to download some software from a website. I looked at the website before downloading, and just at a quick glance, it was shareware that allowed a remote person to share the computer. I’ve talked with tech support people in the past, and that’s not an uncommon thing to do, and stupidly I downloaded it, and shared my computer. This was the second stupid mistake I made.

As I was distracted by the fellow opening up Notepad and telling me about what they could do, in the background, unbeknownst to me, he was removing files and planting a vicious malware virus. As he got to the point in the conversation that he said, “And this can all be fixed for a fee of US $177.50…” I stopped him right there. I said if Microsoft is truly trying to provide me with excellent customer service and calling ME, then THEY should be doing it for free, not charging me an arm and a leg for it. I started to argue with the guy that I was not going to pay this fee, and hung up. By then, the damage was done. I noticed that the number of shortcuts on my desktop seems smaller, and the wallpaper in the background was gone. “DAMN,” I thought (although I think I used a different word of profanity, for sure), “He’s still in there!”

I quickly turned off my machine, the fastest way I could think of to disconnect this guy from it. Of course, I started to panic. I just fell for a scammer, and I had the warning signs right in front of me, and didn’t heed my own instincts. How stupid I was! At least I hadn’t let him have my credit card information at payment time, so that was safe. I rebooted my machine, and saw the same problem– my wallpaper was gone, and so were the shortcuts. I proceeded to look at what other damage was going on. In the meantime, my anti-virus programs were going crazy picking up the viruses from before as well as some additional ones. I was able to check my bank accounts, which were still safe, but I quickly changed the passwords as a precaution. I also checked to see if the software that I had used to let this guy in was still present, and it was not. I must have just run it from a temp file, and I could clean those out, so I was good. But as time went on, I could not do much. All the executable files would not work. I tried a system restore from an earlier time of the day before the attack, but that didn’t do much. In addition, this scum took some files that were important to me. Some were expendable, but they included more than a decade’s worth of photos of my son. Since the digital age kicked in, this child hasn’t had a film photo taken of him since he was about a year old, so the record of my son’s whole childhood was lost. I was the most distraught I think I’ve ever been in my life.

I mean, in the end, my logical head knows it’s just a computer, and no lives were hurt, no one died, and all was generally safe, but I had truly felt violated, almost as if I had been raped, but knowing that I had not. I had been emotionally and mentally compromised, and I was upset at myself for falling for it, my husband was upset that I had falled for it, and I felt helpless and stupid. I really should’ve known better. I just never thought it would’ve happened to me.

So, it’s now 5 days later after the attack, and we are still working on recovery. By a miracle, I had done a partial backup of files the day before the attack, so we were able to restore my son’s photos and other files. Sweet relief! The malware the scum released into my system was a particularly nasty one–it took about 2-3 days for my husband to figure it out and finally get it out of the system successfully, as it would attack all the executables so that you couldn’t open anything–not a browser to get the special tool kit needed to eliminate it, not the anti-virus programs to get the rest of the scourge out, or even anything to help one repair the whole system. But LMSGeekDad did it, and he did a great job.

So naturally, my next move, now that my system became operational again, has been to work on getting a better backup system in place. I have an external hard drive, but it was cluttered, and I had to truly go through to free up some space so that my system could do a proper backup. I moved those precious photos to a cloud depository so I knew they’d be safe, and moved several other files to the Cloud as well. While my iPad and iPhone were working during this time, and I could have done some of my work from there, I was too distraught and distracted to really participate in anything online like I usually do. The other issue was that I had to teach my first class online, and I had to make sure, even if my own laptop was still out of commission, that I had a means of teaching the class. So I was installing software on my son’s computer as a “Plan B” if my laptop could not be restored in time. I was on the phone with one of the client offices in Korea at 1:00 AM my time to make sure that the conferencing software worked (it did), so at least I had that in place. Nevermind that I was incredibly nervous and anxious about teaching this class as it was, but the residual emotions of the attack were still fresh, as we were still in the process of restoring my machine, and that didn’t help.

Fortunately, LMSGeekDad had my laptop running again just a couple hours before I had the class, and since I had saved the presentation for the class on the Cloud, I could go back and finish customizing it as planned, and I was able to reinstall the conferencing software and make the connection to Korea successfully again. I was able to complete the course, and start to catch up with things, but still not enough. After the class night, I’ve been working to try to clean out my system some more, and figure out the best way to back up my files. Two days after that, we are still working on getting a good backup of the system onto my external hard drive, as we are running into problems. We’re figuring it out bit by bit, but my machine is functioning enough again that I can try to get back on track. While I am writing this on my iPad (I started it on the laptop) right now, we are trying to figure out backup issues with my machine still. It’ll get done, and then all will be right in the world again, but for now, the worst of the crisis is over.

What is the lesson of this tale? Well, there are several.

First, make sure you do your backups regularly and make sure that you run your anti-virus software regularly as well.

Second, use the cloud whenever possible! There are a lot of great resources. I have iCloud for my iDevices, but there’s also Dropbox, Google Apps and SkyDrive among others.

Third, and most importantly, if someone contacts you and claims that they are calling from Microsoft, Apple, or anyone else, and YOU didn’t contact them first about a problem, HANG UP. It’s a scam.

Please learn from my mistakes!

In keeping up with this theme of using mobile and cloud computing when possible, and understanding personal computer security, I’m actually going to have a guest blogger shortly to provide some great information for my readers. He’s actually the person who encouraged me to write this blog in the first place, and greatly supported me through this crisis with some great advice and guidance. He has some fantastic tips that I’m going to have him share with you, and hopefully you’ll benefit from his experience as well.

Happy and safe computing!

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iPads and Surface and Nexus…oh my!

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

With the announcement of the new Windows Surface tablet coming out later in 2012, the new Nexus tablet coming out as well, and the rumors of an iPad mini possibly coming out in the fall, it’s made me think about what this all means in terms of “what device would be best?” especially for m-learning and other mobile applications.

First, I need to clarify that when it comes to technological devices, I’m generally torn. I’m all for having variety and such– it’s what makes market competition possible, but at the same time, each thing has its benefits and place, and it’s like comparing apples to broccoli. It’s no secret that I love my iPad. I got it almost a year ago after owning my iPhone for a couple of years. At the time, my husband retorted, “What do you need that for? It’s just a toy, if anything.” Or IS IT?

When I was doing my graduate studies, all I could think about what how I could use it for my own studying purposes, and I did several projects centered around the idea of using iPads for flipped classrooms or even classroom use, and based much of my experiences of what mobile learning is between my iPad and iPhone. I love the flexibility of the devices, and how lean and mean they are in how they operate.  Like many students out there with tablet devices, I read articles and e-books, I wrote up assignments and papers, did my research– did most everything I could with my iPad. The downside? Well, I didn’t have 4G on my iPad, so sometimes having web access was limited, but it wasn’t anything that bad that couldn’t wait until I did have connectivity, or until I got home and could use my laptop or the wi-fi at home. (There are 3G and 4G versions available–I just didn’t want to shell out the extra cash for that ability.) And until I had my wireless keyboard, doing all those papers and assignments could get a little rough.

At the same time, while I have an iPhone and an iPad, I can’t say that I’ve been totally sold on the idea of getting an iMac of some flavor. I love my PC laptops. While the last Apple computer I used was an Apple IIc about a million years ago (be quiet! I was a kid back then–really!), my entire IT existence both professionally and personally has always been on a PC. Yes, I’ve experienced the blue screen of death several times, and had numerous crashes over the years, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed unless the hard drive was dying. Until I got my iPad, my laptop went with me on vacation or whenever I was away from home. Even writing these blog posts is easier on my laptop than using my WordPress app on my iPad. Ninety-eight percent of my online degree was done on my PC laptop– the other 2% was on my iPad. I’ve owned 3 laptops in the last ten years, and had at least two or three PC desktops for years before that. So yes, I’m a devout Microsoft geek as well.

So when I heard that Microsoft had finally come out with a tablet they were going to release, I had to find out more. I thought that it would be helpful to understand what the Microsoft Surface tablet was all about, and was hoping that it would work well in the future for single-sourcing initiatives. I felt like the Microsoft presentation and reviews I was seeing online was just mirrors and smoke, and after three iPads having been in the market now, why a Microsoft tablet now? Was it worth me getting one, as if I were to abandon my iPad for…heaven forbid…something else?

On a recent weekend jaunt to a local mall that had both an Apple store AND a new Microsoft store, I actually asked a Microsoft store employee about the new Microsoft Surface machines, and he said it was rather simple to explain, actually. The new MS Surface tablet was Microsoft’s answer to having their own hardware like a Samsung Galaxy or other PC-type tablet, running on a Windows 8 OS platform similar to the Windows Metro platform used on their phones. The guy had his personal PC tablet loaded up with Windows 8 on it, and proceeded to show me how it worked. In a nutshell, it worked exactly like my laptop, just a few more bells and whistles for the interface. And this, as I was told, would be pretty similar to what my experience would be like with a Surface machine, but with a handy keyboard in the cover. So anything that I was running on my laptop–full versions of Adobe Tech Comm Suite or Creative Cloud, Flare, PC games, Microsoft Office– as long as it all fit on the flash drive inside, or ran off a Flash card or external drive device, you could use it on Surface.

But wait…if Microsoft Surface is essentially just a flatter, touch screen PC version of my laptop, did this make it the iPad killer that everyone (especially Microsoft) has been claiming it to be? At first, I thought it could be. I was thinking that Surface was what I was looking for over a long period of time before my iPad. Sure, there have been other tablet computers out there, but they were always out of my price range and weren’t as powerful as my regular PC laptop. So, a former me that was shopping for a tablet would have loved that. But now, in my mind, I don’t think it’s the “iPad killer”. It just sounded–to me–like it was just a flatter, touch screen version of my laptop, with less storage room and possibly less power. Would it replace a laptop for me? Well, maybe not me, but for the average person who is not a power user, it might be a good alternative for someone else who is less tech savvy. Imagine if all the full features of your laptop were in a convenient package like a tablet, so it’d be easier to bring with you–it would work well.

At first, that sounds great. Just in mobile learning alone, that could be monumental. And that might work better for many people who want the convenience of a tablet with all the power (but less storage space) as a laptop. For some, it’ll be just what they need. But for me, as I’ve thought about it, and debated whether to get one in the future, I decided it wasn’t worth it. First of all, for the same amount of money that this Surface machine is going to cost (if it’s financially on par with iPads, as Microsoft claims it will be)–what’s the point of getting a tablet with little storage space and not as much power when you can get something more powerful–more storage space and higher processor speed–in laptop form for the same price? There doesn’t seem to be much of an advantage in having one, unless you are a person who wants to make the switch, and you don’t do much on your laptop to begin with. Yes, there are some operational advantages, but they are minor. The convenience of a tablet? Oh yeah, that’s definitely a plus, but it seems so late in the game. And in the end…it’s still a PC. You can get this now on a Samsung Galaxy Tab or other PC-based tablet now, for the most part. Maybe it’ll be a slightly ramped up OS, but then again iOS6 will probably be coming out around the same time (more or less), so it’ll be interesting to see who wins the latest Apple vs. Microsoft battle.

But just as everyone is focusing on the usual heavyweights battling it out, Google has been a contender for a while–much more than Microsoft has been. Google has recently announced that it was releasing its new device, Nexus 7, running on the latest Android OS called “JellyBean.” Reports I’ve read is that since this is a full OS, not an abbreviated version like on a Nook or Kindle Fire, it runs more smoothly and robustly. It allows for more Google features like Google Now and Google Play to be used more fully, for example. This leads me to believe that while this is a smaller tablet in size than an iPad or Surface, due to it’s great affordable price starting at $199 (as compared to a “bottom of the barrel” iPad at $499 for the new iPad, $399 for the same in an iPad), it’s definitely a dark horse contenter to come in and steal some thunder. In the end, though, it’s not really in the same category as an iPad or Surface machine. Let me explain.

The way I see it, there are two categories of tablets. The first category is one in which the tablets are almost PC replacements, but not quite. They have the most flexibility due to their ability to do anything from word processing and reports, graphic and image editing, games, video, email, web browsing, etc.  They are generally a much leaner version of a PC, not only physically in the hardware, but also in its capabilities. iPads have this down to a science now, whereas Surface will be just a slimmed down physical version of what most people have already.

The other category includes the small tablets. These would be your Nook, Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 and if it actually comes out, iPad Mini. While it has great perfunctory use, it’s not meant to be anything but a basic device to provide basic services. I’ve never heard of doing presentations off of a Nook, or a report being written on a Kindle Fire.

Are there uses in education and business for any of these kinds of tablets? Sure there are. Because of their enormous flexibility and functionality, it’s no surprise that iPads have been dominant in both education and business, and will continue to be dominant. Will the Surface upset that dominance? It might, only because so many are used to using a PC that the learning curve (not that there’s a huge one in learning how to use an iPad) would not have to be contended with, and some might like that full PC functionality over a streamlined one like an iPad. I see iPad and Surface being more productive than the smaller tablets.

Does this mean that smaller tablets don’t have a place in education or business? No, not at all. It can still be used for reading, communication, video and basic web searches– that might be all someone needs.

But from my own personal experience as a student as well as a professional, I don’t see how the larger tablets could lose. The question will be whether educators or business people find the streamlined functionality of an iPad more beneficial or the PC-similarity of the Surface to be more productive in the long run. Hmm…I think I found the topic of my PhD thesis (if I ever do it in the near future)!

What do you think? Let me know the comments below.

(PS–Microsoft or Google– if you want me to try these devices out once they are out, I’m glad to give them a go. 😉 )

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Tools? We don’t need tools. (Or do we?)

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

One of the things that is highly debatable in the tech comm world, as well as the e-learning and m-learning world, has to do with software.  It’s always the eternal question.

WHAT’S THE BEST SOFTWARE TO USE?

I’m here to tell you….I have no idea.

Really.

I’m not joking.

One of the regrets I have about the Masters program in technical communications I’ve been in is that while we were introduced to several different types of software, most software applications used were either free or low cost, or we’d have to use the free trial version as quickly as possible, but they were not necessarily the industry standards employers use.  If it weren’t for the fact that I would read industry magazines and look at plenty of “help wanted” ads, I wouldn’t have any idea what these software packages werethat many tech comm and e-learning professionals use. The arguments that my school made for not teaching us some of these software packages was a) it was too expensive, and b) upgrades on packages are made so often that they’d never be able to keep up with the constant upgrades.  While I understand both arguments–and they are valid ones–I don’t agree that they are doing us any favors.  I am taking classes through a technical institution, and it seems unfair that many types of similar or more expensive software packages are being purchased and licensed for the engineering students, but not for tech comm students. We can access MS Office products…and that’s about it. No Adobe. No MadCap. Nothing like that. And yet, that’s what prospective employers ask for–not only technical communication know-how, but experience using “X” software or something similar.

I know that it can be expensive, but it’s more expensive long-term not to help us learn the basics of these packages.  I’ll use the example that I’ve mentioned to some most recently. The first version of MS Word that I ever used was the very first one–Word 1.0. Yes, it was a long time ago, and I know I’m old, thanks. But the point is, I haven’t taken a training session or class on how to use Word since learning that first version. I’ve just figured out the upgrades through trial and error, like most people, but I already understood the basic concepts.  If I was taught from an “old” version of Flare, Robohelp, FrameMaker, etc. I’m sure that I would figure out the upgrade pretty quickly, since I already understand how the software program works generally. See my point?  The software packages that I just listed, and more of them, are a technical communicator’s bread and butter.  While exposure to using MS Office in a creative way, and using free products is good to understand concepts, it’s not what will help burgeoning technical communicators like myself find work. I can write storyboards, and I understand the basic principles of instructional design, but if I can’t use Captivate, Lectora or Articulate to expedite those things, then none of that matters unless there is an employer willing to either train me or let me figure out how the software works.

As I just mentioned, this applies to the e-learning and m-learning world too. If you don’t know how to use Captivate, Lectora, Articulate, or one of the other great instructional design software packages, you are up a creek.  Add the mobile factor in it, and considering that not all software packages– for e-learning or tech comm– have kept up with the mobile revolution…it really makes things difficult, to say the least.

My main argument is that if you learn one package, more than likely you can figure out the others–there’s just a slight learning curve.  Bringing back that MS Word example again, up until the time that I started using MS Word, I was a diehard WordPerfect user, and had used that for many, many years. (Okay, you can stop with the old jokes now!) Because I understood how to use WordPerfect, I understood how to do word processing, and it was just a matter of learning which types of buttons or commands were the same, and which ones were different. I haven’t used WordPerfect for many years, but I’d bet you that I could figure out whatever the latest version is, simple because I know how to use a word processor in general.

I’m not promoting any specific product here–I mean, I’m willing to learn any of them! Part of what holds me back is the cost. It’s expensive to try to buy these packages, even with my student discount when applicable. I was looking at one of these software packages just today, and for a single license it was $1000.00! Really? I supposed if I was in business for myself and I already knew the software, I could consider it an investment and make it a business write-off in my taxes the following year. But a thirty-day trial isn’t long enough in most cases, or they are limited as they will only allow you to use the product, but not save your work. Or, let’s say you have one of those thirty-day trials with full access, and you get hooked, but then you can’t afford the software. What good is any of that? You can see why this would be incredibly frustrating to a fledgling technical communicator.

So, if I am to learn any software products, and I can’t spend a fortune to buy all of them, which ones are the best to learn that would allow me to adapt to other software packages easily? Should I learn Flare, or should I learn Framemaker and Robohelp? Should I learn Captivate, Lectora or Articulate? These are all industry leaders. But for all I know, some other product might work better and be the best at teaching me how to be adaptable to all of these.

Any suggestions? Please comment!

This topic totally exhausts me.