MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. It's the "Computer Guys & Gal." Yes, it's that time again. There's a chill in the air. The kids are back at school, and it's the first Tuesday of the month. So the computer guys and gal are here to kick off September and kick Tech Tuesday into gear. What are they obsessing about this month?

MR. KOJO NNAMDIWell, as we said, it's back to school in the Druin household. And Allison's got any number of tips for keeping your kids and your technology safe. And over at Bill's, they're celebrating all the new options available at the Apple iStore. As for the other guy, the...

MR. JOHN GILROY(sounds like) This old bunch.

NNAMDI...original computer guy. Well, he's annoyed that Hollywood has vampires on its mind, so John Gilroy has decided to focus on zombies.

GILROYZombies.

MS. ALLISON DRUINThat makes sense.

NNAMDIZombie cookies, that is. Well, whatever. Jonathan Gilroy is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. Good to see you again, John.

GILROYI'm waiting for the zombie apocalypse.

NNAMDIAllison Druin is director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. Allison, welcome.

DRUINThank you. Welcome.

NNAMDIAnd Bill Harlow is a former math genius who is now a PC and Mac specialist with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Hi, Bill. How are you?

MR. BILL HARLOWI'm good. Thanks.

NNAMDIBack-to-school time, Allison. It's inevitable. We all lose things, but kids are really good at losing things. It's my understanding that you have some suggestions for keeping track of our technology.

DRUINYes. Well, big people have figured out that they now can make money off of people losing things. Shock, shock, shock. So...

NNAMDIWhy? What took them so long?

DRUINI don't know. I don't know. So, you know, you're falling asleep over your books, and it's, you know, no big deal. Nobody's usually going to run off with your textbook, okay...

NNAMDIYeah.

DRUIN...after you're snoring away. But will they run off with your iPhone? Yeah...

NNAMDIOh, yeah.

DRUIN...probably. So there is Find My iPhone. Yes...

NNAMDIYes.

DRUIN...from Apple, for $99 a year for mobile -- it's a MobileMe service. It's going to be able to help you locate your device when you can't. It's going to give you the ability to send messages and so on, make the thing ring so that maybe you just stuffed it in the couch. For those Android users...

NNAMDIWell, for those whose iPhones have been stolen, let's say...

DRUINYeah...

NNAMDI...have been misappropriated...

DRUINYeah...

NNAMDI...will the misappropriator, the thief, be able to see all of those naughty pictures of you on your stolen iPhone?

HARLOWOf you, Allison?

DRUINThere are no such things as naughty pictures of me. But anyway, that being said -- yeah, I know some of these things can allow you to wipe the stuff clean. So in other words, you can remotely wipe your cell phone. And actually, the one that does it the best, believe it or not, is the Android version. And it -- Android version is for free, not $99 a year. And that's Mobile Defense.

NNAMDIYeah.

DRUINAnd all of these things seem to use Google Maps to essentially -- as long as you, you know, you got the GPS in there, it can figure out where your cell phone is. But, like, for instance, with Mobile Defense, it actually, it could tell you if there's a SIM card that's been swapped out. It can lock the device remotely. It's really, really cool. Says something about going after or getting that next Android phone. There is something -- if you don't have either an Android or an Apple phone, but you have a phone that has an integrated GPS and that can run Java, there's something called InstaMapper. And that's for free, works on any phone. It's agnostic and basically does one thing. It's going to tell you where your phone is. So, essentially, hopefully you're not going to lose your phone. But if you do, there are options for you to try and get (word?) .

HARLOWI want that option like the old TV show where the phone would blow up in Kojo's back pocket while he's walking down the street and...

GILROYFlaming pants, that's the theme.

HARLOWWouldn't it be a good thing?

NNAMDIOr tiny bullet would come out from where you put your earphones...

HARLOWYeah, right in the ear. Yeah...

NNAMDI...and shoot the person that stole it.

DRUINOh, I want ink dripping from them.

NNAMDILast year, we didn't have a device last year that if a picture -- that would take a picture of the person who was illegally using your laptop?

GILROYThere is -- yeah, there was software called Undercover from Mac. Yeah...

DRUINOh, yeah, that's so cool.

GILROYAnd some of the success stories are sort of pretty cool 'cause, literally, they would photograph the person, you know, sitting in front of the MacBook...

HARLOWOh, good one.

GILROY...using it. It would, you know, update, you know, and automatically e-mail information about who's using it where, what their IP is, so...

NNAMDIThat's how John Gilroy's picture became universal.

GILROY(sounds like) imugshot.com. You'll find it there.

HARLOWThat's it. I'm the cover boy.

NNAMDI800-433-8850 is the number to call. You can go to our website to join the conversation with the Computer Guys & Gal. That's at kojoshow.org. Send us a tweet @kojoshow or e-mail to kojo@wamu.org. John Gilroy, Facebook is in the news. It's rolled out a location service that, well, not everyone is comfortable with. Tell us about that.

GILROYWell, you know, I -- a friend of the show by the way, Rob Figueroa, wrote a little thing on this. You go to WashingtonPost.com and find out how to control the options. Here, this is neither the time nor the place to go into that. But if you look at it, you see a service like Facebook trying to move into that area, which makes perfect sense. And then the other company -- I forgot. What's the name of the other company? Is that...

HARLOWFoursquare?

GILROYFoursquare, yeah...

DRUINFoursquare, yeah...

GILROYThis is a teeny, tiny company that is -- you know, I think Foursquare is maybe a company that is -- once it gets you involved in games -- and I think Facebook is more of the social networking sites. I kind of divide them up that way. And I'm not going to be involved in either one, but...

DRUIN'Cause you're so anti-social, John.

GILROYI'm anti-social. But -- no, that's why I look at it.

NNAMDI'Cause nobody wants to talk to you.

GILROYAnd then in most -- I can't blame them. Most pundits are going to say that Facebook is going to crush the little guy here. I don't know. I think there's a niche market in here. There's several different locator services if you use your (word?) or something like that. Is that one of them?

HARLOWYeah...

DRUINYeah, but I don't like them 'cause I don't want anyone knowing exactly where I am.

HARLOWYeah...

NNAMDI(unintelligible)

GILROYBut you're not 18 years old and at a bar with Bill somewhere and want to let you know your friends you're with Kojo. No, you're down the street.

DRUINOh, yeah, yeah...

HARLOWI mean, that's fine too. But what bugs me on Facebook is they have the option where other people could check you in. And, you know, you could have some fun with that too, of course, but...

GILROYOh, yeah...

DRUINYeah, that's a little much.

GILROYI sent an update to Kojo's wife that he's down the street -- oh, really, you know?

HARLOWWell, I think not too long ago, we're talking about how some insurance companies would not reimburse you for theft if you publicly displayed information on social networks. So...

DRUINThat's right.

HARLOW...there's that too.

HARLOWSo I go to Rob's article and read exactly how to control that exposure.

GILROYYeah, it's complicated, too, so it definitely requires a little tutorial.

HARLOWYeah...

NNAMDIHow -- Bill, how can someone opt out of Facebook's new places feature?

HARLOWWell, I could tell you that, but that would take the rest of the show.

GILROYThere's a video you can get.

HARLOWExactly.

NNAMDIMaybe you got a link to that.

GILROYI've got a link to the video.

HARLOWYeah...

GILROYA link to the video where you connect -- which you need because...

GILROY...there are several places you want to go in. The privacy settings actually make these changes. So definitely check out the link.

HARLOWIt's like adding the registry in Windows manually.

GILROYExactly.

HARLOWIt's like, oh, it's a deep dive.

NNAMDIAllison, it seems to be certainly time for parents to lay down new rules about -- for social networking for the kids at this point, isn't it?

DRUINOh, yes. And now over the summer, everyone's gotten used to -- I'm just going to be texting at 3:00 in the morning. I'm just going to be playing on my Xbox. I'm going to go wonder around Facebook and so on -- Well, parents are now saying, okay, time to check your cell phones, your Xboxes, your this, that and the other thing at the door.

NNAMDIThat's much worse than grounding, isn't it?

DRUINIt's really hard. There's actually -- there's been a study of what parents are doing in this day and age with grounding kids. And basically, the most important thing people have to remember is you've got to make the punishment fit. So if somebody is, you know, out late, and they walk in, you know, and the kid walks in really late. I don't know, taking away the PlayStation may not be the right thing, but maybe taking away the texting and the phone, like, 'cause you don't know how to use it. I think I'll use it for a while. So there's a lot of different ways to think about how to do it, but you got to think about screen time. You got to think about kids need sleep, and they can sneak it really easy. And you can go to bed, and they're still on their phones.

NNAMDIIf you would like to share with us your information for exactly how you're going to put in place rules for your kids about social networking, call us. 800-433-8850. Here's Bill Harlow.

HARLOWI've got a great idea.

DRUINOh, good.

HARLOWJust...

NNAMDII don't like this.

GILROYOh, you with no kids.

HARLOWYes. So...

DRUINNow, I'm thinking that, too.

HARLOWThis is so brilliant. So if someone is abusing their Internet and social network privileges, take their password, log in. You get to be them for a week and mess with them.

GILROYOh, boy, that would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?

HARLOWYeah...

GILROYWow.

DRUINMean, mean, mean. Ooh, yes.

NNAMDIYes, indeed.

NNAMDIBy the way, you with no children, Bill...

GILROYI can't imagine why.

HARLOW(unintelligible).

NNAMDIApple has added a new social networking tool to iTunes. Tell us. What's Ping?

HARLOWYeah, Ping or (word?) as I call it, yet another social network.

HARLOWBasically, with iTunes 10 and with the new software coming out for iPod Touch, iPhone, et cetera, you'll be able to use -- opt into a social network using your iTunes account. So if you like certain music, your friends like certain music, you want to recommend things to each other, share your likes and dislikes, this is a way to do that. The nice thing about it is most people already have an iTunes account, so it's not like it's a big deal to sign up for another one. But like any other social network, it's something else to possibly keep up with and another thing to bug you. But we'll see. Apple has had in, like, two days, they already had a million Ping users signed up so...

DRUINYeah...

HARLOW...that's pretty incredible.

DRUINYep.

NNAMDIDoes this mean that John Gilroy can share his macabre taste in music?

HARLOWOh, I hope not.

DRUINOh, yeah, and you can follow every bit of it, but...

HARLOWOh, Jesus.

DRUIN...the problem is though, folks, if you're going to try and use Facebook to follow people with this, Facebook and Apple are having yet one more argument about -- I mean, Apple has problems with almost anyone they're negotiating with. But anyway -- Steve Jobs referred to onerous terms -- so they're still working on trying to get that connection to Facebook working for Ping.

NNAMDIIf you have questions or comments for our computer guys and gal, need advice on anything, call us at 800-433-8850 or go to our website, kojoshow.org. Ask a question. Make a comment there. Bill, are you still trying to convince your parents that gaming is a legitimate use of a computer science degree?

HARLOWOh, I don't know about that, but...

HARLOW...I mean...

NNAMDIIn other words, yes.

HARLOWI think it's generational. I think, you know, for a lot of people -- for a lot of students these days -- you know, game programming, game design, you know, designing the, you know, artistic assets in the game, it's just another profession. It's another form of media. It's another way to express yourself. So, you know, for the people getting into that, it's a lucrative industry. And it is kind of -- I look at it as something as kind of exciting because even though a lot of younger people just accept gaming as something that's part your life, it's still pretty new. And it's something that's evolving, and that's what exciting to me.

NNAMDIBut as John Gilroy will tell you, it is getting some respect.

GILROYWell, 300 universities are offering courses in how to write games. If you look at statistics -- and I love my statistics -- just toss them out there nilly willy. Sixty-seven percent of American homes are doing some type of computer games, whether it's that silly Farmville, you know, whatever it is. It's a $50 billion industry here in about four years.

NNAMDIAnd it's not just online colleges that are offering this. A lot of major colleges are offering more and more courses in game design, development, programming and art during the course of the coming academic year. Let us go to the telephones. Here is Ron in Ashton, Md. Ron, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RONYou know, this show needs to be on every week, just not once a month.

DRUINOh, you are so nice.

GILROYWe've heard that before.

DRUINThank you.

HARLOWI think we've heard it once before, but I'll take what I can get.

GILROYWe've heard it before. Phrase it that way.

NNAMDIRon Gilroy, you've got to have to stop calling here.

RONA (unintelligible).

GILROYThanks, buddy.

NNAMDIGo ahead, Ron.

RONListen, I have got a question about spam in general and specific. I have a Gmail account -- and a two part question -- one day, I started getting e-mails from myself advertising Windows XP, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And they're coming from myself. That's number one. And the second part is I am now getting the same sort of thing from a few friends whose Gmail name or their handle has been, I guess, co-opted. And I was wondering if you could explain in general how that happens? Is it coming out of my computer and somebody has stolen my address list or (word?) address list.

NNAMDIIt is a very common phenomenon, and here's John Gilroy to tell you a little about it.

GILROYI got a three-word answer. You're going to love this answer. Ready?

NNAMDIYeah...

GILROYPhysician, heal thyself. I think you've got some malicious code on your machine, and it's harvesting information that you send out and come back. And what we're seeing more and more is -- I guess the classic type of malicious code we're seeing just in the last six or eight months is software that looks like it's some kind of antivirus software. That's what we see a lot. But many times that antivirus software, if you get rid of it, stuff will reside in there and will reach out. There will be a zombie to will reach out and bring in information that may harvest all your e-mail addresses. So I think if I were you, I'd find the F8 key on your machine. And, first of all, update your antivirus. Hit that F8, which will boot it into safe mode.

GILROYAnd then run antivirus in safe mode because they're still out there. You would think -- you know what? In my world, in the corporate world, there's not much spam. There's not much antivirus because it's all controlled by the smart guys, and I never see it. But home users, I think, and small companies and small users may run into this. So I would say, you know, from the safe mode run antivirus. Maybe you want to run Malwarebytes. You might want to get HijackThis and run that and send it off to, you know, a website to inscribe it. But I think that's the classic situation is looking at your own machine.

NNAMDIRon, have you been seeing e-mails from yourself early in the morning after a night of heavy drinking?

RONWell, they usually start right after midnight. And then I start drinking more to get rid of it.

RONYou know? And it just gets worse and worse.

DRUINVicious circle.

NNAMDIWell, you follow the...

RONThank you very much.

NNAMDIFollow John Gilroy's advice, and you should be able to handle that problem. If you have already called, stay on the line. We're going to take a short break, but we will get to your calls when we come back. We still have a couple of lines open. 800-433-8850 for the Computer Guys & Gal, or send us a tweet @kojoshow. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWe are conversing with the Computer Guys & Gal. Allison Druin is director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. John Gilroy is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. And Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who is now a PC and Mac specialist with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Rosemary in Washington, D.C. is on the line on cell phones and kids. Rosemary, go ahead, please.

ROSEMARYHi there, Kojo. Thank God for 88.5. That's my slogan for the day.

NNAMDIWhoa.

GILROYWell, let's keep that.

NNAMDIPlease go ahead, Rosemary.

ROSEMARYJust commenting on the issue of parental controls on cell phones for kids. There is software available where parents can tune in on who your provider is. Verizon has it, and Sprint has it as well, where you can control the numbers coming in and going out, the times that the child can use the phone. I don't think you'll ever want to take a cell phone away from a kid because you need it for security purposes and getting in touch purposes these days. But this software is terrific, and it's highly recommended.

NNAMDICare to comment, Allison?

DRUINYeah, actually, it's very interesting. When you go and get a new cell phone and you say it's going to be for your kid, the provider will generally ask you three questions. One of them is should I turn on or off the texting? Should I make it only call certain numbers? And how much time do you want on this thing? So it's a -- they have very sophisticated ways of doing it. I tend to agree with you in terms of taking away the cell phone for communication. But it also depends on the, you know, fitting the crime in terms of the punishment. So I have actually seen parents say, go to the school office and make a phone call on a landline. And it really upsets kids because many of them don't even know their home phone numbers anymore. But it actually can be done. But I completely agree with you. There are certain situations where you just need that phone.

NNAMDIAnd I know kids will say, spank me. Beat me. Just don't take away my cell phone.

NNAMDIBut, Allison, how do you answer when your kids say, but I need an iPod touch for class, really. I swear I need it.

GILROYThat's a tough one. It's a tough sell.

NNAMDIAnd, Rosemary, thank you for your call.

DRUINYes, thank you, Rosemary. Actually, the iPod touch is really growing in popularity in classrooms. It's essentially -- it's a nuked phone. I mean, you know, you don't have a phone there. It's just Wi-Fi, and you've got all these applications. And folks have put together some nice lists of different apps that you can use in your classroom, anything from math to just taking voice memos, to collecting data, telling stories and so on. So it's really -- it's pretty exciting to see what's going on in classrooms. And we've been watching it carefully and doing some app-making ourselves in terms of storytelling. It's very fun.

NNAMDIOkay. We got this e-mail from Matthew in Munich. "I'm an American living in Munich...

GILROYMunchen.

DRUINYou just wanted to say that.

NNAMDI...iTunes D is the only music website I can reach. When I tried to view video on YouTube, I receive an error message saying that the file contains music not available in my current location. When I try to watch clips of the "Saturday Night Live" website, I get a message saying that I can not view the video segments in my current location. When I try to download software online, I'm restricted to only German language versions for example. Adobe will not allow me to download the English language version of Acrobat because I'm in Germany. What gives?"

HARLOWYeah...

NNAMDIIs it a German thing or a technical thing...

HARLOWYeah...

NNAMDI...or a copyright thing? I keep thinking this open Internet is not quite so open.

HARLOWYes. So -- it's not because you're German. That's the good news, you know.

HARLOWOr in Germany, excuse me. But, you know, it's by largely a copyright issue. Most of the stuff, you know, especially media, it is, you know -- let's say American media is only available for consumption in America, and a good example of that is DVD. You might not notice this, but the region and code -- that means if I buy...

GILROYCountry, yeah...

HARLOWYeah, if I buy a North American DVD and pop it into a player in Europe, it's not going to play because they're designed to only work in their region. I mean, different copyrights are, you know -- they don't transfer to other countries, so that's why with this open internet, a lot of things just don't show up. And they, you know, it might be by IP address that they track you. Example, I like to use is I couldn't even watch something I was supposed to be able to watch on the internet. It was an exhibition hockey game. And it was at the Capitol, so it was here. I live in Virginia. And because at the time IP address is showing as a generic nationwide one, I couldn't view it. So actually, I had to make phone calls and go through this, you know, huge pain just to be able to watch it. So, yeah, you know, copyright law, you know, I guess trumps the internet.

NNAMDIOn to Vincent in Upper Marlboro, Md. Hi, Vincent.

VINCENTHow are you doing, Kojo? And thanks for taking my call.

NNAMDIYou're welcome.

VINCENTI have a question regarding -- I have a nasty trojan virus. And I have up-to-date antivirus software that I just purchased maybe a month or so ago. And it appears that it is hard to get rid of this trojan virus. I've tried everything, and it appears that it's gone. But I don't think it is because something is still eating up my CPU cycles. And I was wondering if the experts could give me any advice on that.

NNAMDIJohn.

GILROYI'll call an expert.

GILROYWell, you know, I think it's back to the previous caller. What you have to do is you got to -- I don't know if you ever taken paint off a car, but you have to sand it and sand it and sand it. You get one coat and another coat, another coat. Or the chef illustration would be peeling an onion back and back. So what you have to do is you have to make sure that your antivirus is up-to-date, make sure some, like, Malwarebytes I talked earlier, that's up-to-date. And then reboot and F8 into safe mode, and then run those. And Malwarebytes may take an hour and a half to run. I ran it over the weekend, as a matter of fact in the machine.

GILROYAnd an antivirus may take just as long, and that running in safe mode is peeling away the onion getting down to the deeper levels. And then if you still have problems, you may want to do is get a free utility called HijackThis. We've talked about this before. You can download the utility, and it'll take a quick snapshot of a lot of your registry items. And then from there, you can e-mail it to a discussion forum. They love this stuff. There's nerds everywhere that sit, and they just this delight in looking at registry entries. And it's very confusing if you're not comfortable with some of these phrases.

GILROYThere's (word?) there's long alpha numerical strings that nerds out there really are comfortable with and like and know. And so they can tell you what's going on, what's not going on. So safe mode, antivirus, Malwarebytes -- something like that -- and then if it's still bad, then you go HijackThis. And then if you take into a shop, they're going to say, we'll wipe it out. They're not going to even spend hours and hours, so I'd -- the next Redskins game, I would boot into safe mode and then just run Malwarebytes, about half-time check it, then run your AV, and then when the game is over, check it again.

HARLOWProbably more fun than watching the game too.

GILROYNo.

DRUINOoh.

GILROYNo. It wouldn't be more fun than the game as long as they win. But, you know, that's -- it takes that long. So just be patient, and I think you'll kill it.

NNAMDIAnd the next...

VINCENTOne more question.

GILROYYeah...

VINCENTA quick question, it appears that it disabled my auto update.

GILROYMm hmm. That's the first thing it's going to do. Yeah...

VINCENTThe security update.

GILROYWhat you may want to do, and you can Google some of these terms. But sometimes it will set up something called a proxy server. And the proxy server, instead of going to google.com, it will go to their own site and come up with some kind of malicious message. So there are instructions in each browser, Google or IE, where you go back and you return it to the original proxy setting, which is normally automatically find it themselves. And many -- write down very carefully every message that you find because generally nowadays, if you have a computer in the house that works, you can Google a message and find out what's new. But many times, they're playing around proxy servers here and redirecting you to something that may look almost like whatever your default site is. So I would Google the message and make sure you're going to the correct server first and then move from there.

NNAMDIAnd Vincent, that game Sunday is against Dallas, who Redskins fans think of as a trojan virus.

NNAMDISo...

VINCENTAll right.

NNAMDI...be careful. Thank you very much for your call. We move on to Phil in Olney, Md. Phil, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

PHILAll right. I'm the kind of person who -- it would be surprising that it would be listening to this show, because I'm almost completely illiterate at a computer. And the reason for it is I've got reduced vision, and my problem with computers has always been -- for instance, I can't see icons. You can enlarge sectors of the screen, but then you can't -- well, anyway, I thought maybe an iPad looks like -- I'm only going to do probably internet and e-mail. You think I could do any better than an iPad? It seems to be good for me.

NNAMDIAllison Druin is so glad you mentioned that because there are a ton of new tablet computers and other competitors for the iPad coming out. Allison Druin can tell you which ones are worthless, which ones might be useful to you, Phil. Here's Allison.

DRUINWell, Phil, I actually -- I do agree that your probably best bet will be some sort of tablet because you do have the flexibility, and you have the screen to make it as bright as you possibly can. The challenge is certainly that it doesn't have, you know, a regular keyboard, that it does make it easier for touch typist, but you can plug that in. There are Android tablets that are now arriving for back-to-school time. So you have the Apad 7", which is actually -- almost looks like a large iPhone.

DRUINAnd -- but, you know, it's -- it flash sort of works. The video playback is sort of intermittent. There's some bugs with silly things like streaming and PR and things like that. Actually, one gentleman that I know of was trying to get this thing to work, and he says my wrist and forearms ache from an hour of fussing...

GILROYWow.

DRUIN...with this resistant touch screen. So you do have to be careful about the touch screen itself. Something that looks actually a little bit better, that's coming out in Europe in a few weeks so -- but I don't know when it's coming in the United States -- is Samsung's Galaxy Tab. And it was just launched in a Berlin show, and it's a bit a lighter. It's got a camera on the front and back. And it's -- again, is like a big iPhone running on the Android 2.2 and so on. And then there's also an option from Toshiba. These are all cheaper options, by the way. We're looking the neighborhood of a couple hundred bucks. But the -- but I have to say that the Toshiba is actually seems like it's almost like a laptop replacement. It's much bigger than the other ones. And it's got some serious onboard storage, but it does have a Toshiba marketplace and special video phoning and so on. So there are different options. If you need something today, you probably -- your best bet is to go take at look it -- an iPad. What do you think, Bill?

HARLOWYeah, I think when he does, you know, talk to the people at the store and have him show off the existed capabilities, too. It cannot...

GILROYThat so...

HARLOW...go to high-contrast mode as your mode.

DRUINYeah, exactly.

HARLOWAnd even some voice-over to help you, you know, to tell you what you're looking at, what you're touching.

DRUINYeah...

NNAMDIAnd, Phil, do not be afraid to admit ignorance because they are there to help you.

PHILYep, yep. Even though -- okay, again, I'm only going to do probably internet and e-mail.

DRUINThat's fine.

GILROYIt's all right.

HARLOWYeah, do it.

DRUINDon't worry about it.

NNAMDIThat's more than fine.

DRUINYeah, exactly. And, you know, honestly, you know, we're all ignorant here in some ways, right, John?

GILROYI take exceptions. Is that you and me?

NNAMDIAll of us except Bill Harlow. By the way, there's big news in the gaming world. Well, where Bill really doesn't have any special expertise but...

GILROYHe's just a gamer. Just a gamer.

DRUINHe has no kids.

NNAMDILots of excitement because Duke Nukem?

HARLOWYes. I don't know if his name means anything with anybody here, but this was...

GILROYYeah, dude. I know all about it.

DRUINYou're such boys.

HARLOWIt was a cheesy game. The character was kind of a larger-than-life '80s action hero.

GILROYI do the cheesy stuff around here, boss.

HARLOWYeah, so does Duke Nukem.

HARLOWSo anyway, it was big game. It was one of the early 3D first person action games, and it caused quite a buzz. They made a lot of money off it -- 3D Realms, the creators. So they got to work on a sequel. This is in '97. This is before Google existed. It's called Duke Nukem Forever, which initials are DNF. Think about it. So it was off-delayed and updated, and the kind of the visionary behind Duke Nukem -- George Bisard -- just kind -- wanted to make it bigger and better and kept adding more stuff, didn't know when to stop, so this became the poster child for feature creep and vaporware. And, you know, it got to the point where 3D Realms was shut down and being sued by their publisher. It looked like it was dead in water. Well, it's coming out next year. Gearbox Software bought the rights to it. So even if you're not a big gamer, it's still a really cool story. I encourage you to read the link because it talks about the big drama behind the creation of this monster of a game.

GILROYI'm sure a lot of 19-year-old boys will be interested in that.

HARLOWWell, anybody who's interested in business, too.

NNAMDIWell, Duke Nukem Forever, John Gilroy and I are coming to get you in 2011. Is that...

GILROYMm hmm. Duke Nukem. We're going to duke it out.

NNAMDIIs that correct, John?

GILROYYes.

NNAMDIWell, John, it seems to me that in a little while, my calls to tech support will no longer be answered in Mumbai.

GILROYWhy this is just, you know, I love this whole theme of "The Tables Turned" -- you know, William Wordsworth's poem from years ago? Turning the tables again so all of sudden we have tech supports in India. And, now, what's coming out of India is the standard of living is going up. People are making money. Now, they're outsourcing stuff to Ireland. And so there's some reports of some, not many, but some organizations are taking phone centers, and they've got all that knowledge of handling phone centers 24/7 using the internet for it and having it outsource to India. And another social networking site in India is actually looking for the cheapest way it can maintain servers, and they're using a company in California. And so their outsourcing maintains -- out to a company. It's called (unintelligible) in California.

NNAMDISo does this mean that...

GILROYThis is a switch-around completely.

NNAMDIDoes this mean that we can now see Indian workers as angry as American workers (unintelligible)

GILROYYeah, hey, all our jobs are going to Ireland. Do you -- that would be a funny...

NNAMDIEventually, you'll have angry tech workers around the world.

HARLOWYeah...

GILROYNo. I think what's forcing the tech workers to do is look at their skill set in an international -- what's the guy in Bethesda say? The world's flat and in an international setting. And how good are my skill sets against someone in Paraguay or someone in Brazil or someone in China or India? And that's a nice (unintelligible) So my son who's in college at Virginia Tech, he's got to be smarter than that engineer in Ireland or the engineer in whatever, you know, South Africa. It's changing around.

NNAMDIVirginia Tech lost to Boise State yesterday, by the way. Here's Aldo (sp?) in Arlington, Va. Aldo, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

ALDOThank you, Kojo. My family is a fan of yours for a long time. And we appreciate you taking my call.

NNAMDIThank you.

ALDOI have a wife that -- she's mentally challenged. She had a brain injury, and so periodically the volunteers and caretakers take her out. My concern is that when -- if she gets lost, there's no way to find her. And I've been looking at different ways to set up a system to be able to locate her. And I know there's a lot of new features out now, and I was wondering if your guest could tell me what would be an ideal setup using cell phones for that.

NNAMDILocator cell phone, Allison?

DRUINWell, actually what I was just talking about at the top of the show might actually work very well for you because if you just keep a cell phone with her, there are three different options I talked about that could actually track via the Google maps. And their applications that -- they're not very technically challenging, and as long as they have the cell phone, you should be able to -- you should be able to find her if she's missing.

ALDOIs there a brand you could recommend?

DRUINI -- to be honest with you, the -- unfortunately, the most expensive one is the Apple option, but that's the easiest one to negotiate.

GILROYYou can go with the older one, too. The iPhone 3GS is 99 bucks. It's not too bad.

DRUINRight, right. And...

GILROYIf that's all you need.

DRUINRight, but the problem is that that MobileMe service costs $99 a year.

GILROYThat's true, yes.

DRUINWhereas the other ones are free, but I suspect it takes more tech savviness to set those up. So because of the -- generally, Android things, the user interfaces are not as a simple as all that. But I would definitely go with one of these phones (word?) things.

HARLOWAnd there are a variety of free apps, too. What I like about the MobileMe, even though it is an added cost, is it seems to really be -- as foolproof as they try to make it, the phone, you know, can be silent. The phone can be, you know, running other apps, and you can always ping it as long as you can get a signal.

GILROYWell, this is a good application for folks with Alzheimer's too. I mean, it has a broad application. I think this is a good use of technology to help control serious problems. This is too serious for me to joke about.

HARLOWYeah...

DRUINYeah, and you do want to consider how you may want to connect that phone to her wrist in some way using a wristband of some sort because you may end up having that get lost that way as well.

NNAMDIAldo, good luck to you.

ALDOThank you very much, Kojo.

NNAMDIThank you for your call. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll continue this Computer Guys and Gal September back-to-school conversation that you can join by calling 800-433-8850. If the lines are busy, go to our website, kojoshow.org, or send us a tweet, @kojoshow. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIThe Computer Guys and Gal join us in studio. Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who's now a PC and Mac specialist with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. John Gilroy is director of Business Development at solutionsdevelopers.com. And Allison Druin is director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. Here is Jean in Silver Spring, Md. with what may or may not be a unique problem. Jean, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

JEANWonderful show. And I just needed -- just to hear and talk to you guys. I just purchased a laptop, a brand-new laptop, and it emits a strange odor periodically, not all the time.

GILROYHmm. Was it owned previously by Bill?

HARLOWBrand-new. New.

JEANYes, how did you know precisely?

HARLOWSo it smells like flowers then.

JEANAll right.

NNAMDIWhat's the nature of the smell? Can you describe the scent?

JEANIt smells like -- I'll tell you. It smells a little bit like nail polish remover or some sort of chemical.

DRUINOh.

GILROYIt sure sounds like...

JEANWhat it doesn't -- it's not consistent. Like, sometimes I work with the computer, and it doesn't -- I don't have any -- it doesn't -- I don't smell anything periodically.

HARLOWYeah...

JEANI didn't know if it's something burning, or is it because I overcharged it or what?

HARLOWWell, I mean, it's a laptop so component aside, they're going to run very hot when it's being stressed. And that may be why you're experiencing it sometimes. It runs hotter. The fan kicks in. It exhausts the air from internals out to you, and you're smelling it. I guess the question is whether -- you know, it doesn't sound like it's really a burning smell. So maybe it says, you know, it's a newly manufactured machine. Maybe there are release agents still on the plastic or whatnot that are, you know, off-gassing. And, you know, I guess I would keep a close nose on it and try to see if it goes away with time. If it's still doing that after a couple of weeks, I would, you know, probably take it in and have the retailer make sure it's kosher.

DRUINJean, do...

JEANAll right.

NNAMDIWait, wait. Wait a second.

DRUINWait, wait, wait.

GILROYWe've got good answers, so hang on the phone, babe.

NNAMDIHere's Allison Druin.

DRUINWait. What I would do, Jean, is I would keep a smell diary so...

DRUINThey do this with food.

JEANI love it.

GILROYBunch of guys watching the Redskins should have a smell diary, shouldn't they?

JEANOkay. Record every time I smell. That's very good. I...

DRUINSo...

JEANBecause, actually, I was working on it, and I thought my daughter was using some sort of nail stuff upstairs.

DRUINRight.

JEANAnd then I said, no, it's not coming from upstairs. It's coming from this laptop.

DRUINSo what you want to do is every time you start to smell something, write down what the thing was that you just were doing and then what does it smell like? And if the smell changes and the timing of the smells and that will also help to debug that, okay?

GILROYOkay. The two phrases today...

JEANAll right. Now, have you ever heard of such a thing as this happening?

DRUINYeah, I have actually. And I brought the laptop back. But, you know, but this was a while ago. So I had not heard it about this recently, so I'm a little bit surprised.

NNAMDIHere's John Gilroy.

GILROYYes. I used to buy notebook computers for a living. I've seen this before. But I love the word off-gassing. I'm going to use that in my vocabulary now.

GILROYAnd the smell diary -- these were both great. I mean, these are really going to be popular in my wife's high school where she teaches.

GILROYShe's going to be circling these phrases (word?) the gentlemen there. But what can happen is what you want to do is take it back immediately and have them test the AC adaptor. Make sure it's adapting properly. It could be overcharging the battery. Secondly, batteries aren't perfect. Batteries can be malformed, manufactured improperly. And another thing, too, is just because someone assembles a computer doesn't mean something can't fall in. Maybe a piece of plastic fell in there during the manufacturing process. Many times I've worked on desktop computers and dropped little tiny screws inside the motherboard, and it shorted out. And it would drive me crazy. First mistake I ever made...

JEANOh.

GILROY...when I did that. And so I would take it back, test the AC adapter, and then ask them. Maybe it's a known problem.

JEANOkay. So I should first test -- have them test the AC adapter?

GILROYThat's what they're going to do anyway. And then ask if it's a known problem, and it may just be. It may have a recall out there for it.

JEANOkay.

NNAMDIJean...

JEANI certainly would. And that's interesting that you hit the exact manufacturer on the head.

NNAMDIThank you very much for your call, Jean.

GILROYYou're lucky.

JEANAll right. Thanks.

NNAMDIThat's why he's called the computer guy, John Gilroy. Bill Harlow, are college kids going to love or hate the new Apple TV?

HARLOWI don't know. I guess it depends on how much money they have and how good their internet is.

NNAMDIWhat is the new Apple TV?

HARLOWSo the new Apple TV, it's shrunken down about the size of a squared-off hockey puck. It's a little black device, and it's now streaming-only. So where as before you could -- you take some content, you had an iTunes and have it copied over the network to your Apple TV device -- now, it's all streaming. So if you have a Netflix subscription, you can watch the instant streaming content they have. You can watch YouTube content on it. You'll be able to synch it up and, you know, get photos from Flickr, that sort of thing. It's pretty cool.

HARLOWOh, the other big thing, too. iTunes TV show rental is for 99 cents an episode, which -- you know, we'll see if that catches on. The big thing to me that'll make this a lot more compelling device -- you know, it's only 99 bucks. It's not too expensive -- is later in the year they're releasing a feature called AirPlay. So with the iOS software 4.2 -- which is coming out for all the, you know, iPods, iPhone, iPads, you'll be able to take content you're watching on the device and then stream it to the Apple TV. That to me sounds like, you know, it has the, you know, the coolest potential, I think.

NNAMDINow to Matthew in Anne Arundel, Md. Matthew, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MATTHEWHey, guys. How are you doing?

NNAMDIWe're well.

DRUINOkay.

MATTHEWHey, cool. Yeah, one of the last soldiers still fighting a good fight against internet 2.0 here. (unintelligible) a couple of comments. The first one is the zombie apocalypse is not the problem. It's going to be the robots that get us. And then the second...

GILROYWell, let's debate that next show, buster.

HARLOWI think it's should be robot zombies, actually, but...

GILROYIt could very well be.

MATTHEWOh, God, that would be even worse. And the second thing I wanted to say to people who are generally having trouble with viruses and all that, like, the biggest tip I can give is, like, don't surf the internet on your administrator account in Windows.

GILROYRight. You want to set it up...

MATTHEWYou need to make another account. And, you know, you surf the internet on that. It will be a lot more protecting against viruses and stuff like that.

DRUINGood point.

MATTHEWAnd that was all the comments I had, and that's all I wanted to say. And I'm all out of gump.

GILROYDuke Nukem reference for the other 19-year-olds listening.

NNAMDIWell, I was about to say, Matthew, you should stay on the line and listen to this because...

GILROYHe's out of gump.

NNAMDI...Matthew and Bill, we got this e-mail from Marcy. "Ack! Please don't tell me Duke is -- please tell me Duke isn't coming back...

GILROYAck.

NNAMDI...My husband almost didn't get his PhD for spending time on that game...

HARLOWOh, no.

DRUINOh, no.

NNAMDI...He would be working quietly for hours, and sure enough, when I peeked into his office, there was Duke fighting it out with whoever. He finished his degree and has tenure now. So now there would be nothing to keep him from playing all day...

HARLOWAll day.

NNAMDI...every day."

GILROYThat's what those professors do, Allison, isn't it?

NNAMDIMatthew...

DRUINOh, God, I forgot about that, yeah.

NNAMDI...thank you very much for your call. We got this comment posted by Craig at our website, kojoshow.org. "Regarding the earlier caller who asked why he kept receiving e-mail from his own return address, I had the same issue recently. I examined the headers of the e-mail which are usually hidden by Outlook or Thunderbird. I found that the source IPs of the e-mails were not the same as the service of my provider. This indicated to me that the e-mail addresses were harvested from someone else's machine."

GILROYAnd that's possible, too.

NNAMDI"It could have been anyone who has my e-mail address..."

GILROYYeah...

NNAMDI"...and that spammers elsewhere are just spoofing my e-mail address. Of course that doesn't..."

HARLOWVery easy to do, too.

NNAMDI"...that doesn't solve anything other than giving you a bit of peace of mind that your computer wasn't violated. Truth is, very little can be done about this, but I just wanted to recommend to the caller, he should check the e-mail headers for their source." What do you say?

GILROYBut it's difficult reading those, and those can be spoofed as well. So examine yourself first.

NNAMDIOn to the telephones again. Here now is Liz in Washington, D.C. Liz, your turn.

LIZHi, Kojo. Thanks for taking my call. My question is whether iTunes will ever have -- serve, like -- operate, like -- I think it's called a cloud site, where in the same way that your e-mail is stored online. And you can kind of log in and access your e-mail. You'll be able to log in and access your songs on iTunes instead of having to have your computer and all of your songs downloaded onto your computer.

HARLOWIt's tough to say. I do know that the rumor mill spins that tale often. Something I think a lot of people do want is to have a streaming service. I don't know how it's going to work exactly, if you purchase songs and they make those available to you to stream to your approved devices. So I can't say if they're ever going to do that. More and more content seems to be going that way, so I'd say it's probable but I can't say when.

GILROYWell, Steve thinks he -- it's his cloud. Steve Jobs, though, I mean, that's how he views the cloud.

NNAMDIWell, one thing is for sure. If they do it, (sounds like) Prince isn't going to sign on to it.

GILROYThat's for sure. We liked the last month.

DRUINOh, yeah.

NNAMDILiz, thank you very much for your call.

LIZGreat, thank you.

NNAMDIAllison, before we go, you wanted to speak up on behalf of the Rodney Dangerfields of the computer world.

GILROYSomething serious.

NNAMDIPrinters.

DRUINOh, yeah.

NNAMDIWe all need them, but they...

GILROYDon't get noticed.

NNAMDI...don't seem to get much respect.

DRUINThey really don't. And, you know, every fall I start saying, oh, I guess I really should think about a better printer and so on. But actually -- and gadgets got a great back-to-school guide on everything from printers to laptop bags. And I actually liked their picks for a really low-end printer, mid-range and more high-end. The low-range HP Deskjet all-in-one printer, 59 bucks. Can you believe? It's amazing.

NNAMDIYes.

DRUINIt's amazing. So 600 dpi black-and-white, a little less quality on the color, but $59. Now, it doesn't have wireless, and you have to plug it in and so on.

HARLOWAnd the ink is 100 bucks, but other than that...

GILROYOh, yes.

DRUINOh, yeah, but outside of that, it's great. Actually, if you don't want to pay for a lot of ink, there's something from Kodak, the Kodak ESP Office 6150 colored inkjet all-in-one. That's $160 but apparently uses a lot less ink and is pretty good in terms of the color quality. And then for the higher-end kind of thing which is what, you know, printer -- all printers used to cost around $300. The HP Photosmart -- I know, I know. In the business world, it cost a lot more than that. Anyway, but for the average person at home, HP Photosmart Premium Fax all-in-one printer, that's for $300. That's going to give you wireless printing, automatic doc feeder and all the rest.

DRUINActually, I -- we've done the best in our house with the HP printer, so I would go with the low-end and the high-end of what I just suggested. But printers are, unfortunately, necessary evil even in this day and age. So you may want to consider how much are you paying for your ink these days and figure out if you should be replacing that printer.

NNAMDIWe got an e-mail from Brandon who says, "Please give a shout-out to D.C.'s own Howard University and its gaming degrees. Howard's electronic studio major is fast becoming an excellent proposition for those who wanted to become..."

GILROYAll right, yay.

DRUINAll right.

GILROYYay.

NNAMDI"...the excellent 3D game artist. Today, as a junior, I'm taking four out of six classes in 3D modeling..."

GILROYYes.

NNAMDI"...and another class in classical sculpture." How do you give him that Duke Nukem shout-out?

HARLOWThey're all (unintelligible)

GILROYWell, this guy may get a job when he finishes school.

HARLOWThat's what's interesting.

NNAMDIHere is Oswald in Fort Washington. Oswald, you're on the air. You go -- you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

OSWALDThank you very much. I can currently access my office files and software remotely. I -- through -- go to my PC. However, that only works maximally when no one else in the office is using the software or it's after hours. Is there a system that will allow me to access the files and the software while others in the office are doing the same without them being able to see what I'm accessing and seeing my cursor or me getting knocked out?

HARLOWHmm. Well, you have an infrastructure opportunity here. What you want to do is -- I don't know how your office is structured or what kind of budget you have. You probably want to take a look at the pipes -- the speed of the internet coming in and out of your office are going in pipes, size of the pipe coming in and out. And you want to take a look at your server and how much memory, how much speed it has and sit down with a professional and try to figure out the best way to achieve this.

HARLOWI mean, there's no snap answers here. There may be a snap answer. Maybe buy a newer server or set up a virtual server, or you get a bigger pipe. But you may be locked in to a contract that's going to prevent that speed servicing. And when you look at the service, you want to look at, you know, upload and download speed, so this is a thousand-hour answer, and I can give you about two seconds on.

HARLOWI would say, you know, talk to your system administrator at work. Talk to the CTO, whatever level organization you have and just ask the basic questions. What kind of service? Are we locked into one speed for the next year? Our -- is our office going to move? Do we have an opportunity to change or different lines are coming in? And go from there. But there's hundreds and hundreds of companies that are doing this right now. I mean, look at the federal government. They're pushing towards, you know, telework. And you can't telework unless you can have remote access as fast as at your desk. So the whole concept of cloud computing is access in the cloud as quickly as down the hall. So it can be done. I think it's just a tedious checklist for someone who's versed in infrastructure and then setting up secure access. So it's two steps.

NNAMDIOswald, thank you for your call. Here's John in McLean, Va. George, I should say, your turn.

GEORGEYes. George. Yes, thank you. And my question is in regards to using a Kindle or an iPad for reading books. I have a lot of technical manuals I have to read. And for a while, I was thinking of getting the Kindle. And now that the price has come down for perhaps some competition from the iPad, I'm really thinking of getting that. But my wife wants a notepad, and, you know, so maybe I can shoot two birds with one stone by getting the iPad and using that for reading books. Do you have any pluses or minuses, one way or the other, to go on that? I know the price is so fairly different but not dramatically different.

NNAMDIAllison?

DRUINYeah, if you have a lot of documents to read, you're going to have to look at the screen. The screen is a non-glare screen with the Kindle and it's going to make it a lot more comfortable for you to read -- be reading a lot of documents. However, if you have a lot of other things, a lot of other uses for that one thing, then you are going to have to think about an expanded...

HARLOWYeah...

DRUIN..laptop for you.

HARLOWI guess -- what format are these manuals in, George? Are they PDFs or...

GEORGEPDFs, yes.

HARLOWYeah...

GEORGEToo much, you know, Safari books and stuff like that.

HARLOWGot you. I mean, those may, you know, work fine. I guess, Allison, if you could speak more to how well the Kindle handles PDFs. But I guess the other thing, too, would be the level of detail in the books and -- are they color, black-and-white?

DRUINYeah, no...

GEORGEBlack-and-white. These are technical manuals primarily...

HARLOWYeah.

DRUINOh, if it's black-and-white...

GEORGE...so that's pretty much look -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

DRUINOh, if it's black-and-white, then the Kindle's going to do pretty well for you. But on the other hand, your wife's request may be very important, so you may need to talk to her about that.

GILROYOh, ho, ho, ho, ho. The most important factor, absolutely.

GILROYThe most important factor in the world.

NNAMDIGeorge, thank you very much for your call. Good luck to you.

GEORGEAll right. Thank you.

NNAMDIWe're almost out of time, Bill Harlow. But Sept. 21 is Civilization 5 Day in the State of Maryland in honor of Sid Meier.

HARLOWThat is excellent and not quite as well-known to most gamers as Duke Nukem, but probably way more importance.

NNAMDIAnd Sid Meier is considered the grandfather of gaming. We had a Sid -- interview with Sid Meier. You can find it in our archives from Oct. 25, 2005.

HARLOWI will go download that.

NNAMDIThat's all the time we have. Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who's now a PC and Mac specialist with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Always a pleasure, Bill.

HARLOWThank you.

NNAMDIAllison Druin is director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and associate dean for Research at University of Maryland's College of Information Studies. Allison, always a pleasure.

DRUINThank you so much.

NNAMDIAnd John Gilroy is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. John, always a disappointment.

GILROYShout-out to Duke Nukem.

NNAMDIThank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.