Category Archives: News

News items

Don’t Click on the Fake Java Updater

Posted on December 17, 2013 by quill

It’s rearing its ugly head again – the fake Java Update sites are salting reputable websites with poisoned banner ads, which take you to a “Update your Java now” message. These pop up even if your Google Chrome settings are … Continue reading →

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Local News – Driving School in Victoria BC – Ingrid Weighton

Posted on January 20, 2013 by quill

From time to time we recommend local Victoria BC people who do an exceptional job for their customers. One of these is Ingrid Weighton, of Ingrid Weighton’s Driver Education Ltd.  www.drivingcoach.ca Ingrid specializes in one on one driver training — … Continue reading →

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Western Digital sees Red, releases new line of NAS storage hard drives

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

Western Digital has made an addition to their drive line up, adding a Red series of 3.5″ SATA hard drives to complement their Blue (standard), Green (low power consumption) and Black (high performance) series. At the same time, they are … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD, News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. What is a Retina Display?

Posted on April 3, 2012 by quill

“Retina” is Apple’s marketing name for a high resolution LCD display for smartphones (iPhone), tablets (iPad), media players (iPod Touch) and future products such as computer monitors and iMacs. What does “Retina” mean? The term Retina refers to the assumption … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac questions, News, Smartphone News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Flashback”, Java trojans, “SabPub”, “LuckyCat” and “Tibet” Microsoft Office trojans target Mac OSX

Posted on March 29, 2012 by quill

Updated Apr 17 2012 April 17: Another Word Trojan Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a aka “LuckyCat” has been described by Kapersky Labs, which is different malware code, assumed to be delivered in a similar way as “Tibet” through Word 2004/2008 documents or by targeted … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, News, Security | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Apple ‘New iPad’ and LTE coverage in Canada

Posted on March 7, 2012 by quill

The new iPad introduced by Apple on March 7 2012 is the first Apple product to support higher speed “4G-LTE” cellular data networks.  Although there has been no formal definition of 4G as a standard, the wireless companies have jumped … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, iPad, iPhone, iPod, News, Smartphone News | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. What is happening with OEM hard drive warranties?

Posted on March 3, 2012 by quill

Hard drive warranty coverage has been reduced by the major manufacturers, and competition in drives is consolidating around just three companies. All Seagate bare (internal) consumer level drives have 1 year warranty in North America (down from three years). Some … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. What is Thunderbolt?

Posted on June 25, 2011 by quill

Thunderbolt is a new computer data interface format that combines high speed data transfer plus digital video into one cable. The release of the Apple Mac Book Pro in February 2011 introduced Thunderbolt to the market, followed by the iMac … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drive News, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

iPad + Wireless + portable storage = Wi-Drive

Posted on June 24, 2011 by quill

One criticism of Apple’s popular iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) is that they don’t have Secure Digital flash memory card slots. This means that to back up the data from an iOS device or to access additional data … Continue reading →

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Favorite Sites: Experimental Musical Instruments

Posted on June 8, 2011 by quill

One of my earliest musical memories is of pulling all of the pots and pans out of the cupboards, arranging them around the kitchen floor and hitting them with wooden spoons.  Later, it was filling bottles and glasses with water … Continue reading →

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Favorite: TrueCrypt open source encryption

Posted on May 13, 2011 by quill

Here’s something that makes me shudder – when I hear someone complain that they lost their USB memory ‘keychain’ drive, and then to hear them say “yeah, now I’m out $30 to buy a new one”.  It’s not the money, … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorites, Free stuff, Hard Drive News, News, Security | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

iMac 2011 models, the end of upgrading?

Posted on May 13, 2011 by quill

Apple has thrown a curve ball at iMac owners with the latest 2011 “Thunderbolt” models.  The 2011 models use pins on the SATA power connector to transmit SMART temperature information from the drive to the iMac motherboard (previously, the temperature … Continue reading →

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Hybrid SSD/hard drive setups

Posted on May 13, 2011 by quill

Lately there has been a choice to make between conventional hard drives and flash based Solid State Drives (SSD).  The decision boiled down to speed vs. cost vs. capacity.  SSDs can be blazingly fast, but they are expensive, and limited … Continue reading →

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Kingston introduces USB 3.0 keychain drives

Posted on May 13, 2011 by quill

Kingston has released new USB 3.0 models of their DataTraveller USB memory drives. The USB 2.0 interface imposes limits on data transfer rates of storage media; USB 3.0 raises the bar on flash drive performance.  The drives are backwards compatible … Continue reading →

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Favorite Sites: ehMac for Canadian Macintosh owners

Posted on May 12, 2011 by quill

If you are a Macintosh owner or fan in Canada, then ehMac http://www.ehmac.ca is a must-bookmark site. The ehMac forum has discussions about Macintoshes, Mac troubleshooting, software, and opinions, plus wide ranging threads about everything Canadian, from the weather to … Continue reading →

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