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. It's the first Tech Tuesday of April. You know what that means. The Computer Guys & Gal are here. It also means that spring is here, and we're talking about spring showers, spring gardening and, yes, April fool's jokes. And, no, we don't mean our current panelists.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIBut before we get started, I've got to tell you, we're also celebrating a special anniversary today. Believe it or not, 20 years ago this week, WAMU 88.5 made a momentous decision or...

MR. JOHN GILROYA bad decision.

NNAMDI...or a crucial mistake, depending on your point of view. It was April 8th, 1991, and they allowed John Gilroy into the studios. And, frankly, we haven't been able to get him out...

NNAMDI...since then. We'll try again this week, but maybe a good start would be to not introduce him at all.

MS. ALLISON DRUINOh, Kojo.

MR. BILL HARLOW(unintelligible) plan.

DRUINKojo, we have a gift.

NNAMDIWe have to introduce him, okay.

DRUINYeah. You have to introduce him...

GILROY(unintelligible).

DRUIN...because Bill and -- after the introductions, because Bill and I have a gift for him.

NNAMDIIn that case, John Gilroy, director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com, we're celebrating -- your 20th anniversary is today -- in a way that you and only you would love to celebrate it.

GILROYYeah. Saint Patrick's, it was two weeks ago.

HARLOWIt never ended for you, did it?

NNAMDIOkay. Having said that, here is...

HARLOWAfter the regular bad music.

NNAMDI...computer gal Allison Druin, associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, and computer guy Bill Harlow, former Mac genius, who now works on PCs and Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Allison?

DRUINOkay. John, it's only been three years since we've had the privilege of...

NNAMDIYes.

DRUIN...working with you.

GILROYThank you for making it feel like 20.

DRUINExactly. Exactly. And so Bill and I got just a little something for you. So you have to open it up now.

GILROYOh, boy.

NNAMDIThe suspense, the suspense, the crackling of paper, the opening of the 20th...

GILROYIt's a Hexbug micro robotic creature.

DRUINIt's a bug because...

GILROYIt's a bug.

DRUIN...because you bug us.

NNAMDIOh. And I think that's entirely appropriate.

GILROYIt's a computer bug.

DRUINAnd it's a computer bug, and it's a robotic bug.

DRUINIt's appropriate.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDICongratulations, John Gilroy.

GILROY(unintelligible) 20, thank you.

GILROYHe is the original computer guy. This is the Computer Guys & Gal. Inviting your calls at 800-433-8850. Or even a better idea, go to our website, kojoshow.org. Ask a question or make a comment there. We may start off by talking about, yeah, I guess, April fool's day jokes, the high-tech kind. If you have any of your own that you'd like to share with us, go to our website, kojoshow.org. Send us a tweet, @kojoshow, or e-mail to kojo@wamu.org. It is my understanding, Allison Druin, that Google made your day with a recent job posting. For those who missed it, what are the responsibilities of an auto-completer?

DRUINOh, according to this post -- this was great -- every day, people start typing more than a billion searches on Google and expect Google to predict what they're looking for. In order to do this at scale, we need help. So we need you as a Google auto-completer. You'll be expected to successfully guess a user's intention. The crazy thing about this is that a year or so ago, my kid went with me to Google. I was there doing some research, and she walked in. And she kept looking for something, and I said what are you looking for? She says, I'm looking for all the people that work here that answer all the questions.

DRUINAnd I thought, oh, my goodness. They made -- I know this was supposed to be April fool's, but this is how kids perceive what Google does. There's a whole bunch of people that all predict what you need, and it's there.

NNAMDIYou put in John Gilroy, a drink comes up and...

GILROY(unintelligible).

DRUINAnd there it is.

NNAMDIThere it is. Exactly.

GILROYA silly song comes up, you know?

DRUINExactly.

NNAMDI(unintelligible).

DRUINSo I thought that was so cool, anyway.

NNAMDIBut it was an April fool's joke.

DRUINIt was an April fool's joke.

NNAMDIThere's no such thing as an auto-completer. If you saw or participated in any great tech-oriented April fool's jokes, you can call us, 800-433-8850. I don't know if anybody else wants to share any high-tech April fool's jokes. No, good.

NNAMDII wish this was an April fool's day joke, but it isn't. One of the largest marketing firms in the world notified its customers of a data breach. What do we know about what happened at Epsilon, Allison?

DRUINYeah. This was amazing. A -- just very simple. One person, it only takes one person to hack it. They got all of the -- Epsilon is an e-mail marketing firm. They got all the e-mail addresses. And so, you know, at first, they thought, oh, well, it was just for one company. Well, we're talking about -- they got the e-mail addresses of customers for TiVo, Walgreens, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan, Capital One, Citibank, Home Shopping. The list is endless. So, yes, we, in fact, got our e-mail from TiVo, and it's at -- you know, it was directly to my husband and saying, you know, amazing how vulnerable people can be to a phishing scam because they stole all the e-mail addresses. So you've got to be really, really careful, even if it looks like it may be official, don't press on any links, because this is a widespread link -- link, no.

NNAMDIWhat lessons should we draw from this, John Gilroy?

GILROYI think you -- we have to be wary of everything, even if you're on Twitter, for example, Bill tweets for 10, 12 hours a day.

NNAMDIYeah.

GILROYIf he sees something on Twitter that says download this profile, spy and find out who's looking for your tweets, it can be malware. There's malware now even on the Twitterverse. I mean, it's just -- you know, every single opportunity, the bad guys are going to go after you.

HARLOWAnd just one more reminder too, that whatever you do in the Internet, don't expect any bit of it to be private ever. It's just not going to happen.

DRUINNo, no, it's never private.

GILROYIt's always going to be above the fold, and my first page is The Washington Post.

HARLOWThat's what I think.

NNAMDIThat's 20 years of broadcasting tech experience.

GILROYThat’s (unintelligible) right there. You couldn't believe it.

NNAMDIListen to it.

DRUINWatch out.

NNAMDIBill, it's my understanding that NetFlix is not making any friends in Canada. Why did NetFlix lower the quality of its service in our neighbor to the north?

HARLOWWell, it's not exactly NetFlix's fault. I mean, they have a very popular streaming media service, but the problem is a lot of ISPs in Canada have a data cap, so that -- you know, you -- they -- if we left the quality at the standard one we've been using, you'd very quickly run into your cap just, you know, with much less use than normal. So the default is a lot lower, so, you know, you're in Canada. You want to watch a movie, expect it to be a little fuzzier, a little more -- you know, more broken up, maybe lower quality than you expected before, unless you go in there and tweet the settings knowing that if you're on capped plan, you may be hit with speed reductions or bans or additional costs.

HARLOWThere have been talks of caps going to the U.S. ISPs too, and there have been few who have tried it. Right now, Comcast has a 250 gig cap, so I like having unlimited Internet right now, but I really wonder how long that's going to last.

DRUINSee, and I was thinking about caps...

NNAMDIMoving to Toronto.

DRUIN...and thinking it was hockey -- it was hockey.

NNAMDIOh.

DRUINI was thinking -- you know, he's talking hockey. I didn't get it.

GILROYWell, I think we see it with phone service, you know?

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYI mean, it used to be data was cheap, and voice was expensive. And all of a sudden, they reversed that policy, and now, people are looking at metered service. And that's the curse, metered service.

DRUINOh, that would be terrible.

HARLOWWhat's really interesting too, of course, you know, NetFlix is a really popular, you know, way of watching TV and movies, and what a coincidence? So many ISPs are also in the business of, you know, providing us with TV and movies. So it makes you wonder.

NNAMDIIt certainly does. You can wonder at 800-433-8850 or go to our website, kojoshow.org with your questions or comments for the Computer Guys & gallons. Speaking of relocating and of speed, for that matter, Bill Harlow, it's my understanding that you're thinking of relocating to Kansas City.

HARLOWYes. I recommend all Canadians...

HARLOW...move to Kansas City for the great white open Internet there. Well, Google had been thinking about doing one gigabit fiber in various cities, and so many cities had thrown their hats in the ring to be candidates for this, and Kansas City was chosen. So then, it's not going to be Google the ISP exactly, but they're going to lay out the infrastructure, and then, they're going to allow other providers to sell the services. They're claiming it's going to be very competitive, but one gigabit per second to the home.

GILROYWow.

DRUINSo, are they renaming the name of the town, like there was one town...

HARLOWOh, Topeka, yeah.

DRUINYeah.

HARLOWThey did that initially on -- as an April fool's gag, also to gain publicity. I guess, it didn't work.

DRUINNo, it didn't work.

GILROYWorked for the state, though.

HARLOWOh, yeah.

GILROYSo misdirected.

DRUINBut how much faster is that going to be than what we see right now here?

HARLOWWell, I have FIOS and FIOS is considered to be one of the best, I'd say in the U.S.

DRUINRight.

HARLOWAnd I get 35 megabits down, so this is 1,000.

DRUINRight. That's what I thought.

HARLOWYeah.

DRUINOkay.

NNAMDIOnto the telephones. Here is Mona in Washington D.C. Mona, you're on the he air. Go ahead, please.

MONAKojo...

NNAMDIYes, Mona.

MONA...I hope you guys didn’t look this up. But who just sang, the name of that song and you know the name and you know where it's from?

NNAMDISee, Mona, here's the thing.

GILROYI've opened up a can of worms.

NNAMDII listened to that song, Mona, on the same radio station that you listen to that song when we were both living where?

MONAIn Georgetown.

NNAMDIIn Georgetown, Guyana.

MONARadio Demerara.

NNAMDIRadio Demerara was the name of the soul radio station.

MONA(unintelligible) you have all the clues, so.

NNAMDIAnd the song was by, John Gilroy?

GILROYI don't know.

NNAMDIAllison Druin?

GILROYTom (word?) ?

NNAMDIMario Lanza.

DRUINOh, you're so good

NNAMDIAnd it was from the movie "The Student Prince."

MONANo, it wasn't.

GILROYMario Lanza.

MONANo, it wasn't.

NNAMDIOkay. Who was it?

GILROYI don't know.

MONAEdmond Purdom sang it in "The Student Prince."

NNAMDIWell, Edmond Purdom was only lip-synching it.

MONAOh, I know. I know. And it was Mario Lanza's voice, blah-blah-blah.

NNAMDIThink. Thank you.

MONA(unintelligible).

GILROYMinor detail.

DRUINYeah. That's great.

NNAMDIYou're listening to an argument of two people growing up together in the same country and what they happened to remember.

MONAAt the Metropole Cinema.

NNAMDIYes. I remember. That was one block away from where I live, Mona. Thank you so much for your call.

NNAMDIYou too can call us to remind us of what mistakes we're making at 800-433-8850.

GILROYAnd the phone lines are lighting up.

DRUINHere it comes.

NNAMDIJohn Gilroy, last month, we mentioned Thunderbolt, but now, Thunderbolt is hitting big.

GILROYYeah. They're talking about the speed increases, and as I said last week, I think it's going to be a -- the last gasp for wired speed. Because I think everything is going wireless. I just think that's the way it's going to happen. There's no choice anymore. And so we'll have to see -- I'm -- I think it's good to know a little bit about it, but, you know, most people who have backup devices at home, not going to be a big deal. I don't think it's going to be a big deal in the enterprise area either, but it may have some impact in user devices here in the future.

HARLOWI mean having not used a Thunderbolt device personally. I don't know for sure, but the idea of having all these different kinds of devices on one connection could really simplify things. So I mean, with wireless is big, but also with laptops, you know, being -- more and more being people's primary computers, you know, including power users. You know, having serious high-speed devices and high-speed video and display devices all in one connection. You know, you just plug in. You don't have to dock anything, keep it simple. It could be really big for a while.

GILROYYou see the counterargument is this what if everything is in the cloud? So it's the push-pull here, and I think we’re at this little pivotal change here at 20 years, where people are maybe thinking, well, why should I back up to an external drive, I'll put on Carbonite. I'll put it somewhere in the cloud.

NNAMDIWell...

DRUINIt's also about...

NNAMDIGo ahead, please.

DRUINOh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's also about what you mean by everything, because the more content -- I mean, we can have, you know, the equivalent of the Library of Congress, and you can have access to it, you know, in snapping your fingers. So I mean, I think it is going to change what we perceive to be the Web in the future because of speed.

NNAMDIBill Harlow, duets are common in music. And speaking of what's going on in the cloud, my prediction is the next to what to hit the big time will be Amazon and the cloud. Fill us in.

HARLOWYeah. So we'll see here. So they released this thing called Cloud Drive and Cloud Player. The idea is consumers who have bought digital music should have the ability to store that music, their own personal collections, in the cloud -- in this case, Amazon's cloud. And then, they can -- you know, it's -- they're treating it just like storage, but also saying, hey, it's up there. You could log in with your other computer, you know, while you're away from home and stream it. And, you know, not have to pay for additional licenses.

HARLOWWell, as you can imagine, there are some other people who would like to pay for additional licenses. And Amazon went about this without securing any of those licenses, claiming that it's just another storage option. We don't need a license for this. So it's going to be a very interesting battle because they have definitely ruffled some feathers.

NNAMDIAnd those feathers that they ruffled happen to be in the, well...

HARLOWYou know, the music industry.

NNAMDIAll-powerful music industry.

HARLOWExactly, exactly.

DRUINIt’s a detail.

GILROYI.P., intellectual property, who owns what. And the guys downtown love this fight.

HARLOWI do too. I think it's going to be interesting, and Amazon's got the deep pockets for this. You know, will they fight the good fight? I'll be very curious about that.

DRUINThat's right.

NNAMDIWhich leads me to think, there must be pros and cons to storing things in the cloud, John Gilroy?

GILROYYeah. I think it depends on who you are and what you're doing. I mean, for an individual like me, the cloud -- I don't care if it's in Ireland or West Coast or Mexico, who cares? With federal agencies, they're very sensitive to that.

HARLOWSure.

GILROYAnd other organizations are very sensitive to that too. So if you have information stored in a cloud somewhere and it's -- the sense of nature, you have to really take a look at security and there's all kinds of...

HARLOWYeah.

GILROY...in fact, that's the next big breakthrough about cloud security.

DRUINYeah. Well...

GILROYThere's a recent purchase in town. NetWitness has just bought up EMC, and that one has a very, very strong showing in cloud security. Juniper Networks is moving in the area so it's a -- it's really the key question for next year.

DRUINWell, what's interesting is actually even universities across the country are also trying to decide, are they gonna put their email in the cloud, are they going to move a lot of their services to, you know, the likes of Google, the likes of Microsoft Live and so and so. It's actually something that's affecting all of us in lots of different places.

HARLOWYeah.

NNAMDIIt's the Computer Guys & Gal. Here is Ramin in Takoma Park, Md. Ramin, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RAMINThanks, Kojo, for having me on your show. I'm calling to find out -- I'm trying to buy either a tablet or an iPod Touch or something equivalent. But these days, we all know about the war on flash and Silverlight by Apple. It's really discouraging for me to buy an Apple product. And I just wanted to know what's -- what are my options as far as buying something that's compatible with both flash and Microsoft Silverlight.

HARLOWWell, I guess your options are something, you know, based on Windows, which, you know, in the iPad and Android tablet pricing realm, you're not gonna find anything all that powerful, so I wouldn't really recommend it. I guess you're gonna be looking at some of the higher-end tablets like the Xoom. I don't know if they're flash (unintelligible) is even available yet. It was one of those coming soon features that wasn't there out of the box.

DRUINMm-hmm. Yeah.

HARLOWBut I do think if flash is a big deal to you, you really need to go and get your hands on these devices. I mean, it's not just a war on flash. It's also a war on preserving a good user experience in speed and battery life. And, you know, flash isn't free on the device of the power that you see in these tablets. I mean, some experience is gonna be better than others. So get your hands on one, see if you can get a live demo of how flash runs on these before you plunk down your hard-earned money because it's not all sunshine and roses.

GILROYAnd what's the tradeoff? I mean, security is a tradeoff here for flash.

HARLOWAmong other things, browsers...

GILROYPeople are more and more worried about that.

HARLOWSure. But on top of that, just, you know, is it gonna, you know, run hot? Is it gonna run slow? Is the battery life gonna get cut in half? It all comes into play.

NNAMDIRamine, thank you very much for your call. We're gonna take a short break. When we come back, we'll continue this conversation with the Computer Guys & Gal. Did we mention that John Gilroy has been hanging around here for some 20 years now?

DRUINTwenty years of wrinkles. I don't know.

NNAMDI800-433-8850 if you'd like to call to get rid of John Gilroy.

NNAMDI800-433...

DRUINThe phones are lighting up.

GILROYThey've been calling for years.

NNAMDIOr to tell him how much you love him being here. 800-433-8850. Or you can go to our website, kojoshow.org. Ask a question, make a comment there. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWelcome back to the Computer Guys & Gal. The one you hear talking can do so because he is celebrating his 20th anniversary as a computer guy here at WAMU 88.5. That would be John Gilroy, director of business development at Armature Corporation. He joins us in studio along with computer gal Allison Druin, associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland where she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. And Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who now works on PCs & Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting.

NNAMDIMore and more these days, Bill, a discussion of technology is a discussion of mobile techs, so I've got to talk about what happens if the AT&T purchase of T-Mobile goes through.

HARLOWWell, AT&T will say that they're going to have way more towers available, much better coverage and much more capacity to handle all the users, which I hope is true. On the other hand, it also makes me nervous because T-Mobile is really the only other big GSM cell provider, you know, another technology for wireless data and voice. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA right now. So if there's a GSM phone that comes to the U.S. in the next year or two, the only option is gonna be AT&T, and GSM phones are pretty popular. Those are world phones.

GILROYYou know, Kojo and I have been around long enough to remember ma belle when it got broken up.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYAnd all of a sudden, long distance rates went down. (laugh) And now you see it's reversing. Everything is coming into two or three providers. This is bad news for consumers.

HARLOWYeah. I mean, there's only one...

DRUINYeah.

HARLOWThere's no competition for GSM phones right now. Maybe it'll change when 4G becomes the norm, but that's gonna take a few years still.

DRUINBut did service go down when the telephone company broke up? I mean -- so that's the question. It's a combination of money versus...

GILROYBills went down. (laugh)

DRUINBills -- yeah.

GILROYBills went down.

DRUINYeah. But -- I don't know. Hopefully better service, but yeah, that's a problem, that’s a real problem.

NNAMDIWho is this ma belle of whom you speak of?

GILROYMa belle, yeah. Knowing all the youngsters won't know what I'm talking about.

NNAMDIHere is Earl in Fairfax, Va. Earl, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

EARLHey. I've got some domains and hosting registered at the place with the elephant hunting problem. And I just wondered if it was really safe to transfer my domains to another provider.

NNAMDIWhat are you talking about when you say the place with the elephant hunting problem? Are you talking about the earlier discussion that was on "The Diane Rehm Show?"

EARLWell, it was in the news recently. I figured you all would know about it.

NNAMDIWe know about everything that's in the news.

GILROY(laugh) Yeah.

NNAMDIWe just need a little refreshing of our minds here.

GILROYI've never heard of anyone with any troubles with changing domains.

HARLOWNo. I haven't either.

EARLOkay. Right. It's an organization that the CEO posted a video of himself hunting elephants, and it created a large outcry. And...

NNAMDIYes. That's -- the CEO of GoDaddy was in Africa hunting elephants.

GILROYThat's the one...

DRUINYes. That's right, that's right. Yeah.

NNAMDIThat's the story. You refreshed our minds about it, Earl.

DRUINWe still had elephants on the brain from last hour, yeah. Sorry. (laugh)

HARLOWBut you can generally transfer...

EARLCan I change my domain and be safe with it?

HARLOWYeah. Absolutely. I mean, you just gonna go to another reputable company.

DRUINYeah.

GILROYThe big dog is Network Solutions right out here in Reston, but you can go wherever you want.

DRUINRight.

EARLOkay.

NNAMDIEarl, thank you very much for your call.

EARLThank you.

NNAMDIAllison Druin, they say April showers may bring May flowers. But on this rainy day, you've got flowers and technology on your mind. What's available for those of us gardeners out there?

DRUINYeah. There's actually iPhone apps and Android apps. So if you wanna be garden snobs, there is an Android -- a free Android app, okay, that actually has information from various magazines, tips and tricks and, you know, or anything from organic produce to planting. There's also iPlant. I know you were expecting that, right?

HARLOWYeah, really.

DRUINAnd that's actually a mobile reference guide. So -- and -- for basic household plants, so what's good for cooking, what's good for -- in terms of medical tips and so on. I'm not sure I'd take the medical tips. Take the cooking tips. And then if you don't like to get your hands dirty, there's Flower Garden. You can grow a virtual flower, okay, pick out your seed and water it and grow it. And then you can send it to John.

GILROYAnother bad idea. This is a terrible idea.

DRUINYou can send it to John for his 20th...

GILROYI would still find a way to kill it, for the record. (laugh)

HARLOWThis is a bad -- by the way, this is a public service announcement. It's recently been shown that 25 percent of all Android apps have malware attached to them, so be careful of any Android apps you download now too, so...

DRUINOh. Well, this one's an iPhone one, the Flower Garden, so I can send you flowers, virtual flowers.

GILROYNo. Just go and get dirty in your backyard and plant some seeds.

NNAMDIThe Android app is the garden snob. How was your whiskey snob app working out? (laugh)

GILROYIt's very, very good.

GILROYIt's a bar detector.

GILROYYou drive down the street...

HARLOWYou know, just for the record, I found that if you actually ignore all the apps on Android from Gilroysoft about...

GILROY(laugh) Gilroysoft (unintelligible)

HARLOW...it goes down to 3 percent of malware.

DRUINOh, that makes sense. Okay. (laugh)

NNAMDIOn to Dean in Baltimore, Md. Dean, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

DEANHi. How is it going?

NNAMDIIt's going well.

DEANI was just calling to find out -- so marketing firms can't keep our email out of other people's hands, so why would we really wanna store anything on the cloud? It just seems like an opportunity -- who knows, you know? Maybe you can get malware on by sending your stuff to the cloud.

GILROYRight, and I think that's gonna be a differentiator.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYThere could be Bill's storage shop, an Allison's storage shop. And Allison can say, hey, we'll make this guarantee and we'll put money behind it. That's -- Amazon, by the way, we talked about (word?). That's where they make the majority of their money is, with hosting right now. And they host the big boys. They host really large organizations' information. So that's gonna be a differentiator. This is really kind of baby steps in the market. People are just, kind of, like, and they'll go little paper signed out, and they'll go, hey, we'll store. And the next guy is...

HARLOWAnd it's not just, you know, things, like, you know, getting in malware or having your email harvests it. That's still, like, are you signing away any rights when you go to the cloud, you know? Do you still own the data? Who's that belong to? And you'll be surprised sometimes if you read some of those license agreements.

NNAMDIOkay. Dean, thank you for your call.

DEANOkay. Thanks.

NNAMDIOn to Joe in Washington, D.C. Joe, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

JOEHello. Thank you for taking my call. I recently learned that Asus is coming out with a new -- a combination, iPad-laptop. It's called EEE Transformer. Does any of your panels have any impression of this? Have you see it, seen what its capability is?

HARLOWI mean, it looks cool. I mean, the EEE line has typically been their cheaper, more interesting ideas. I mean, like anything, I'd have to get my hands on it to really know for sure. They've been a few transforming laptops out there in the past, some bigger and bulkier and more expensive...

DRUINYeah, it's not...

HARLOW...and it kind of makes me nervous.

DRUINIt's not terribly new in the sense that it's been -- there was a Toshiba one. There was a bunch of different ones even just -- even five years ago. In fact, we used them overseas. And they were wonderful. We loved them. Except, you have to be careful about when you turn the screen to put it over the -- this keyboard, that's the soft spot on this things. And with kids, ooh, we were breaking them, right and left...

HARLOWYeah.

DRUIN...so got to be really careful.

HARLOWThat’s the thing too, this is, like, more affordable too. It makes you kind of wonder how robust it's going to be.

DRUINYeah.

GILROYAsus had made a lot of money from motherboards. And they're real strong in that area.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYThey spent a lot of marketing dollars. If you walked into a large box store, Best Buy, I think the sales people will just take -- twist your arm into the Asus. Hey, look at this one. Look at this one.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYThey must be some financial motivation there (unintelligible)

HARLOWWell, they have some good PC products now too. So, you know, they are interesting. I just haven't tried this one out personally.

JOEUh-huh.

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

JOEThank you. Thanks. Bye-bye.

NNAMDIJohn, the iPad just turned one year old, and over 15 million have been sold. Has it been the game changer everyone says that it's been?

GILROYThink about that, 15 million units in one year. That's really the April Fool's story. I mean, April 2, a year ago. And now, they've sold so many them. Now, people are waiting in lines up in New York.

HARLOWYep.

GILROYAnd you read the story about the student that waited in line 41 hours and someone paid her, what, $900 in order to buy the $700 iPad. It's incredible. I don't think it's changed everything. But I think it's forcing the competition...

HARLOWYeah.

GILROY...to, at least, make a concession to ease of use.

HARLOWI think what...

GILROYAnd it's been trying for 20 years to do this and they're finally making the concession.

HARLOWNot so much ease of use, but it's really changing what we think about what we need out of our portable devices, too, because, obviously, the iPad does not suit everybody. I mean, there's still reasons why we want a full-pledged laptop. But a lot of people are finding that something like that can work really well for them.

GILROYNow, what's happening in people like Kojo, they're -- you have your iPad at home or...

NNAMDIPolished up my game.

GILROYYeah. And they go to the ATM, and they try to move the ATM. (laugh) Oh, this is -- and maybe that is a transition where the mindset in how a computer works is changing slightly, and I see people doing that. The ATM, once, it doesn't work.

HARLOWTouch does a powerful thing.

GILROYYeah.

DRUINBut it's even -- even people's language, the last caller said the iPad. Everyone's referring to the pad, the tablets as iPads or Pad. So it's a very interesting...

NNAMDILike every copy was a Xerox.

GILROYYou're right.

DRUINExactly.

HARLOWExactly.

DRUINEvery copy is a Xerox.

HARLOWWhen the iPod came out too.

DRUINThat's right. That's right.

NNAMDIWell, we got this email from Alexandra who says, "I have a family member who's thinking of buying an iPad 2 from, and should I say, through Verizon. Are the iPad 2's ready for primetime? Is it okay to buy one now or should that family member wait?"

HARLOWBased on what I've heard, it seems like it's a pretty solid product right out of the gate. The only reason you'll pick Verizon is if you're happy with Verizon service. You like their coverage. You like their reliability. You like their speed. I have a friend who actually managed to snag an iPad pretty early. And he loves it. I mean, it's not that different in a lot of ways from the first one. It's more powerful. It's thinner. But, you know, it's pretty mature.

DRUINActually, it's interesting because I asked Ben, my geeky...

NNAMDII take my guidance for Ben Bederson.

DRUINOkay...

HARLOWOh, yeah. Oh, really?

NNAMDIYes.

DRUINMy geeky husband -- okay, who's been a computer guy since he was in diapers. And I said to him, so you're not trying to get the iPad 2? What's going on? He said, you know what, there's not as much a differential as I would have expected. So he says, you know, we don't need the camera. It doesn't matter about the thinness.

HARLOWRight.

DRUINAnd he said, nah, I'll wait for the next one. And I thought, oh, my gosh, he's waiting for the next one. I couldn't believe it.

GILROYDefinitely. (unintelligible)

NNAMDIThanks, Ben. You just saved me some money.

NNAMDIHere is Niccolo in Northwest Washington. Niccolo, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

NICCOLOYes. I like to ask your experts, what do you recommend in terms of trying to recover photographs from an external hard drive, like a two-terabyte hard drive? And there's nothing showing up on the screen.

HARLOWWell, I don't see any experts in here, but I guess I'll start. (laugh) Is this a Windows PC or is this a Macintosh?

NICCOLOIt's from PC.

HARLOWPC. I guess the first thing I would check, too, is something really stupid that run into all the time, which is, with an external hard drive, a lot of times, the power supplies are cheap and go bad.

DRUINThat's right.

HARLOWCheck that first. It's a really cheap fix. And you might be surprised that that's all it needs. If you've done that and you're pretty sure it's not power, you know, try other USB ports, try other computers. And in some case, if you have a friend with a modern Mac with the ability to read this, maybe it has -- you know, it's able to read the file system as well. Other than that, you might be into the, you know, various software tools territory. Maybe, John, if you want to elaborate some of those that are out there.

GILROYYou were correct. The software trouble shooting technique, number one is you go for the power. And if it's not a power problem, then you kind of look at if it was dropped or damaged.

HARLOWRight.

GILROYAnd you could -- if you're not comfortable, just go to a local Mr. Fix It, and just say, what's obvious there that I don't see. Because once you decide that the hard drive itself is actually malfunctioned, then you got to get out your checkbook.

HARLOWYeah. That's...

GILROYYeah.

HARLOW...the only tool is lots of money.

GILROYYeah. So do everything you possibly can. You know, power supply is the first place to look. Maybe it's a board. Maybe, you can take the hard drive out and put it in different machine.

HARLOWMm-hmm.

GILROYBut once you start, you know, you Google in DriveSavers or any of these folks that -- then you got to start off with 600, 700 bucks just for picking up the phone, and then it's gonna be -- how much those pictures worth.

HARLOWAnd the cost scales up. If you have two terabytes worth, that's a lot more money.

GILROYYeah.

DRUINWell, if it matters to you, you really wanna get it back, then you pay.

HARLOWYep.

NICCOLOIt really matters.

DRUINAll right. Then you should pay if you can't do anything else.

GILROYSounds like compromising photos of Kojo Nnamdi. I think it's worth it, too, a little blackmail action.

HARLOWSometimes I've known companies like DriveSavers that save marriages actually when they've recovered that stuff.

NICCOLOWell, I didn't wanna mention that.

GILROYOh. Now, I know the real reason is worth a lot of money.

HARLOWWell, then, go ahead. Get it fixed. It'll pay for itself.

NNAMDINiccolo, I told you never to call in to this show.

GILROYCompromising photos.

NICCOLODo you know experts out there that you would take it, too, I mean, that really does recovery, because with recovery, you have to worry about, well, they have access to all images.

GILROYYeah. Yeah, I trust the company called Ontrack. And they're on Reston.

HARLOWYep.

GILROYAnd I've worked with them for years. They're very strong. DriveSavers is not local...

HARLOWDealt with them too. They're good.

GILROY...but they're good. But the large organizations that I've worked with like Ontrack because they are safe. And they work with a lot of law firms. I think that's...

HARLOWYeah, they do.

GILROYIf you work with law firm, you're gonna have to be trusted. So that's right.

DRUINYeah.

NICCOLOThank you.

NNAMDINiccolo, thank you for your call. We move on to Aldo in Phoenix, Md. Aldo, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

ALDOHi, Kojo. Kojo, my -- I have a question in regards to the service, the Internet service provider, that they are offering a cloud service right now and run in all your applications basically, what they -- what is actually the cost benefit? Because this is like a deja vu from the '80s, decentralized, uncentralized data. And we are living, again, this with the Internet and the services they are providing.

GILROYWell, Aldo, the main benefit is a startup. Suppose I wanted to startup allisonconsulting.com. Rather than buying a server and buying computers and renting a space and paying for air conditioning and paying for this and paying for that, you can start a company up relative inexpensively by renting someone else's hardware. That's the big advantage there. The second advantage is just maintenance. So Allison starts a company. She's got to hire Bill to make sure everything is patched every month, make sure it's backed up...

DRUINHe's so expensive.

HARLOWI really am.

GILROYAnd so she's got that overhead. Then she's got to pay him for vacation and medical and I don't know what else he expects, sick days maybe. And so she have the cost of maintaining it and the cost of starting up. Now, at -- beyond the startup level, after two or three years, then you have to get to pencil and paper in what -- is it worth bringing a server in house and what kind of competency do you have? Is your time better served in meeting people and driving business or be in the server room and sweating and getting, you know, not be able to hear for two hours with all the servers buzzing around you. So all of that, that's the big driver for it. And it's a lot of startups to go up real quickly.

ALDOYou have a point on the startup company. But I mean, on the service company that has a heavy process, customized applications, taking us to a Web page and relying on third-parties to maintain your system and software writing on the same time, (unintelligible) users with, not only dedicated data, but complex application that should have really this off-the-shelf package that somebody else does the maintenance. It's fine, but we are talking not startup. And I'm talking...

NNAMDIAbout an established business?

GILROYWell, yeah. Then you are at the transition phase where you have to sit down and really carefully figure out what's it worth to you. I mean, and the mistake I see most businesses fall into is working on their own car when they should hire someone else to work on the car. They should be out driving the business.

HARLOWI think a lot of times, and I'm not gonna say just how much it cost and how much it takes for things like, you know, high availability and redundancy too. I mean, that escalates really quickly.

DRUINYeah. You could do a hybrid solution as well where you do some on the cloud for backup and for various things and then, you know, if you have capacity in -- an expertise in your company then use what you have best.

GILROYYou have salesforce.com for your CRM and then have a regular customer database in your own site, so it's a couple of ways to (unintelligible)

NNAMDIAldo, thank you very much for your call and good luck to you. We're gonna take a short break. If you have already called, stay on the line. We will get to your call. We still have a few lines open for the computer guys and gal, so call us now with your questions or comments at 800-433-8850 or go to our website, kojoshow.org, ask a question, make a comment there. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWelcome back. It's the Computer Guys and Gal. They are John Gilroy, director of business development at Armature Corporation. Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who now works on PCs and Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. And computer gal Allison Druin is associate dean for research in the college of information studies at the University of Maryland. There, she also directs the human computer interaction lab. We take your calls at 800-433-8850. You can send email to kojo@wamu.org.

NNAMDIWe got this email from Derek in D.C. "I recommend anyone who wants Flash on their iPad. Download the Skyfire app the Apple store for $2.99. It isn't free, but it works well," says Derek. What say you, Bill Harlow?

HARLOWWell, it's interesting. Basically, you're letting another computer run Flash in a browser then send the output to your iPad or iPhone. So it's not perfect. It's a neat little workaround. But you're right. It's not free. I think you get a certain amount of usage and then -- it's more of a subscription. And honestly, I have not found anything with Flash that I absolutely need to have on my iPhone. So don't really care for (unintelligible)

NNAMDIAnd we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of John Gilroy being a computer guy. And, John, you suggested we talk about Sony's breaking news.

GILROYBreaking news. (laugh)

NNAMDIThe floppy disk is dead.

GILROY(sounds like) Jeff, you're breaking my heart.

NNAMDIIs this breaking news for 2011 or 1991? (laugh)

DRUINTwenty years or what?

GILROY1991. I can remember floppy. I can remember eight-inch floppy disks, boys and girls. I sit around the camp fire with those stories. (laugh)

DRUINIt's good that you still have a memory.

GILROYYou still remember that. But it just, you know, for an old geezer like me, I go, geez, the floppy drives are gone. Well, in eastern Japan, at a factory in Japan, Sony stopped making them, which is a harbinger or something. Now '99...

HARLOWHarbinger or what exactly? I'm just kind of curious.

GILROYHarbinger of modernity. Now '99, 2000, is that when Apple introduced the first computer without a floppy (word?)

HARLOWYeah, the iMac was their first one. CD only.

GILROYAnd I was the first one to complain. I'll admit it. It was shocking at that time.

HARLOWYou know, justifiably, everybody I know with an iMac also had an external floppy drive, so, you know.

DRUINYeah, that's true.

NNAMDIWell, these days, Allison, you're lucky if your product gets old before it gets obsolete. But with spring cleaning, it's a good time to toss the things you no longer need.

DRUINYes, yes. It's time to spring clean.

ALDOBye-bye, Ben. (laugh)

DRUINI know. All right, all right. I have to keep my husband.

NNAMDIWe're cleaning house today.

GILROYYou're out of here, Ben.

DRUINI have to keep my husband. No, there are a few things. Now, you say to yourself, what is redundant, what, you know, what don't you need. Well, you know, on my phone, I have a camcorder, a digital music player. I got a GPS. So you know what, those things I've been carrying around my GPS, you know? I love my little TomTom, but you know what, I haven't used it for a while. It's time. It's time. And you know what, I also -- time to recycle those desktops 'cause honestly, most of what you can do, you can do with laptops so...

NNAMDIThank you. Done that.

DRUINMm-hmm. Yup, you got to do it.

NNAMDIHow about you, John? Come on.

GILROYNo, I may look for some more floppys and throw those away, but that's it.

DRUINIt makes sense for you, John. It looks good on you. Yeah.

GILROYI'm on tears. The floppys are gone. I can't take it. (laugh)

NNAMDIYes. Do you have suggestions for spring cleaning our tech devices? The most common things that need updating are virus protection, John?

GILROYYup.

NNAMDICell phone numbers?

GILROYKind of. And I think an attitude to prevent yourself from getting attacked and things stolen. I think that's a spring cleaning is change the way your thinking, especially social engineering and people calling you...

HARLOWYeah. Maybe -- when is the last you refreshed your passwords?

GILROYPasswords. That's a good question. Yeah.

DRUINOr your backups. Or your software updates. You've got to...

HARLOWI've got backups of my backups of my backups, I’m good there.

DRUINBut it's, you know, it's like that little -- the firefighters that always tell you, you know, on January 1st, change your batteries for your smoke detectors. You should say, it's spring. What do I need to refresh my technology world?

NNAMDIA house maintenance schedule.

DRUINThere you go. Yes. Actually, you can get a little Android app, okay, and I don't know how secure it is...

GILROYVery dangerous. Danger. Danger. Danger. (laugh)

DRUINI don't -- but apparently, there is an Android app, okay, that is a house-maintenance scheduler and...

GILROYI'm sending it to Ben right now and get him on the stick. Come on.

DRUINBut it's free. And so then you could say, okay, it's time to change my water filters, trying to check my flashlights, you know, all that stuff. So you too...

GILROYBen Bederson is gonna get bombarded by me with all the kinds of spring work around the house.

DRUINOh, it's so good.

NNAMDITime to change your password. Here is Michael in Silver Spring, Md. Michael, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MICHAELHey, Kojo. Hey, tech nerds. I mean that lovingly. (laugh) I'm also one of you. We are going to stand together. I just had a quick question for you regarding cloud computing and ISP bandwidth caps. So the reason I'm terrified of cloud computing is because I'm a streamer. I use a lot of Netflix. I use Hulu. I game online frequently.

HARLOWSure.

MICHAELAnd, I mean, that's a lot of bandwidth to be used. Now cloud computing...

GILROYAnd that's just one person too.

MICHAELYeah. Now cloud computing, because it's all dependent on the data scrimmage you have going back, I mean, it's obviously gonna be dependent on your bandwidth. So doesn't that put us at the mercy of the ISPs, I mean, especially with throttling becoming such a huge issue, Rogers in Canada, Clearwire in the States. I mean, this all personally just, you know, just scares me the hell away. And if -- and god forbid, I tried to do online backups.

MICHAELHow does this, you know, cloud computing, ISP bandwidth caps, how does this gonna play out in the future? I mean, if I go over my cap, does that mean I'm not gonna be able to back stuff up? Does that mean I'm not gonna be able to access all of my data online like this music streaming service that Amazon is coming up with? And so (unintelligible) ...

HARLOWIt's definitely gonna vary depending on the ISP for sure. I mean, Comcast for example, I believe they have a pretty generous cap at 250. Generous by today's standard. Maybe they'll change when, you know, the needs grow. But I believe if you go over the cap too many times, they'll just cut you off outright. If you're in an area where Comcast is your only option, that's kind of terrible. Other companies, you know, I think it's more about money. You know, they'll give you, you know, a soft cap and then if you go beyond that, you know, they reduce your speed.

HARLOWBut then you could, oh, you can gladly pay more and lift that cap or rather than getting a residential service, you pay, you know, double, triple that amount and you get a business broadband account at home, which doesn't have that cap.

GILROYYou know, Michael, I think you're gonna look back at unlimited service the way we're looking back at floppys. It's gonna be, wow, we used to have unlimited service, but what's typically gonna happen is the old classic marketing of market segmentation, product differentiation...

HARLOWRight.

GILROY...is that, okay, so you want this speed. How much are you willing to pay for it? Okay?

HARLOWYeah. It's just a rough now because we're all getting used to the free buffet here. The cheap buffet I should say.

GILROYExchanging. Yeah. And you're gonna be put on diet real quick here.

NNAMDIJohn Gilroy, you say that the great debate going on among nerds -- Michael, I hope you're listening -- is Flash versus HTML 5. And where do you come down on?

GILROYOh, I think HTML 5 is gonna be the answer here for security reasons, more than anything else, especially if you're looking at Cloud. And Adobe is responding to this. So they come up with this little utility called Wallaby, which is another kind of a trick within a trick, and they only show you this trick, a picture of a picture. And it kinda looks like something that's similar to Flash. They're betting on the wrong horse here. You know, I think you're gonna have to make the change to HTML 5...

NNAMDIWhat Flash -- what's Flash compared to HTML 5?

GILROYWhat is it?

NNAMDIYes.

GILROYYeah. Flash is more of a paid-for utility that allows video and audio devices to be played over the Internet. HTML 5 is a way to structure a website and structure code to allow that same type of information to be conveyed over the Internet. So two different ways to skin a cat...

HARLOWYeah.

GILROY...and Flash is just the more risky of the two.

HARLOWAnd Flash seems to be really the only way to get the kind of rich content out there with its animation or, you know, or video or audio. And now -- you know, you can do a lot more in HTML now and embed video and other things, so.

GILROYAnd you hit -- you know, years ago, HTML was -- in the early stages of it, you couldn't do that...

HARLOWRight.

GILROY...so Flash could. People go, wow, a movie. Wow, this is great. All of a sudden -- if you go to the Bing site, by the way, you see some really interesting uses of HTML. I mean, I'm just surprised how well they used it, but they avoid Flash.

NNAMDIWhere do you come down on this as a self-advertised nerd, Michael?

MICHAELPersonally, I'm of the mindset that Flash does have its drawbacks. I mean, it's great. Like iOS systems, where, you know -- it's a little bit difficult, especially mobile iOS to access Flash sites. But, again, somebody mentioned Skyfire. I'm in a -- I was an early adopter of Skyfire. I love it. But then again, I find myself visiting sites that always have options other than Flash. A lot of sites nowadays do provide...

HARLOWYeah.

MICHAEL...an alternative way of viewing it. I mean, I can still go to YouTube if I absolutely must. Vimeo just released a new app, which is a sort of high-end version of YouTube without all the junk, as I like to call it. So, I mean, I don't think...

NNAMDIOkay.

MICHAEL...Flash is that big of a deal anymore. I don't wanna say it's on its way out. But, I mean, it's kind of on its last leg just because processing and computing is moving in such a different direction nowadays. HTML5, in five years, is gonna be gone. It'll probably be HTML27.

NNAMDIMichael, thank you very much for your call. Bill Harlow, should we all be prepared for another round of browser wars, like millions of other people, I'm guessing? I logged on earlier this week and found a new version of Firefox ready for download, Firefox 4. Should I upgrade?

HARLOWSure. Why not? I mean, I've played with Firefox 4. It's great. I've played with IE9. It's great, which excites me that Microsoft can still do that. I think it's gonna be pretty big because, you know, when you talk about cloud computing, a lot of the stuff is more dependent on, you know, better standard support, really, really fast JavaScript execution, which is a lot of the stuff is written. And that JavaScript engine, the performance is so important for that. You know, it's a big talking point when they release like the new iOS upgrade for the faster Safari, a faster Safari in your desktop. Chrome, that's a big deal there. I mean, Web apps are what's driving this, I think. And I think that's why it's great to have this drive -- this browser war because performance matters, and they all have really cool features, and it's great to see them all keep each other honest.

GILROYAnd if you have XP, you gotta be careful about 9.0 because it's not gonna run.

HARLOWYeah. Get a Vista or 7, which means...

DRUINThat's right.

HARLOW...get 7.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIThank you for that tip. Here is Marty in Washington, D.C. Marty, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MARTYHi. I am wanting to know when do you think some of the manufacturers are going to offer a tablet phone similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab that's offered in Europe and Asia?

NNAMDIAllison, a tablet phone?

DRUINWell, technically...

HARLOWI mean, that's an iPhone, in my opinion...

DRUINThat's -- yeah. (laugh)

HARLOW...unless you want a seven-inch phone.

NNAMDIThat's what I was thinking about. (laugh)

GILROYIt's like the tablet camera. I mean, what an awkward camera that would be.

HARLOWYeah.

DRUINYeah. I mean -- and, actually, you know, the iPad 2 is -- the idea behind the video is that people are gonna be able to Skype between and do video conferencing. So I think it's here.

HARLOWYeah. If you have a connected tablet, you can sort of use it like a phone if you get voice over IP apps...

DRUINYeah.

HARLOW...like Skype, that sort of thing.

DRUINYeah. So you're -- I think will it get easier in terms of the options and so on? Yes. In the next year you'll see a lot more.

NNAMDIWhat is your interest in this, Marty? Are you just looking for a bigger phone?

MARTYI just want -- I want one thing.

HARLOWYeah.

MARTYI wanna grab one thing...

DRUINOh.

MARTYYou know, I have a netbook. I have a notebook. I have a phone.

HARLOWYeah. Well, one thing that's interesting -- but I personally don't really like it, but maybe this concept will continue to grow -- is something like the Atrix -- you know, the Motorola Atrix -- which, you know, you can grab the one device. And then if you want more, you plug it into its little laptop dock, you know. At least then it can convert...

MARTYYeah.

HARLOW...into something that's multipurpose.

DRUINYeah. I don't know if we're there yet, Marty.

HARLOWYeah.

DRUINYeah. I wish we were.

HARLOWThe size is such a big issue.

MARTYOkay. I know I'm ahead of my time.

DRUINWell, I'm just -- you know, I'm schlepping stuff, too. Sorry.

MARTYI know.

DRUINYeah. That's bad. (laugh)

NNAMDIMarty, thank you for your call. We move on...

MARTYI'm a borg at heart. What can I say?

NNAMDIMarty, we move on to Elizabeth in Clifton, Va. Hi, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETHHi. How are you?

NNAMDIWe're well.

ELIZABETHWell, I have a dilemma. I'm now a Mac convert. I'm a photographer, so it's cleared up my life tremendously. But I've got a 13-year-old who has worn out her netbook. And for her birthday, her father and I are going back and forth. Should we spend the money and get her a small Mac laptop, or should we just go cheap and get a PC? Because, you know, they don't last as long. They wear out. And you could buy two for the price of one Mac. And I'm seeking advice.

HARLOWI suppose you could buy two and keep one on backup for one price. But -- I mean, a lot of it is what it's gonna be used on, I think. And, you know, you said netbooks. I think you're -- if that's what you're looking at, I mean, Apple does not offer anything in netbook price unless it's an iPad.

ELIZABETHNo, she wore out the netbook. It just doesn't have enough power. So it's not only she's online with her friends and doing videos and -- I mean, she knows more about my Mac than I do, which is a bit scary.

HARLOWRight, right.

ELIZABETHBut she needs something to do -- off to do homework because, you know, what they're asking -- schools are asking kids to do now online, the netbook just doesn't have the capability.

HARLOWYeah, yeah.

DRUINIt's true. I would suggest, Elizabeth, that you go with a small Mac because...

HARLOWWould you go with the Air or the MacBook?

DRUINOh, MacBook. I wouldn't go with an Air…

HARLOWYeah.

DRUIN...because it's -- first of all, you want something really sturdy. And to be honest with you, that MacBook will stay twice as long, and in which case then it's actually about equivalent in terms of the cost of buying -- should I buy two, or should I buy one?

ELIZABETHRight.

DRUINYou know. And...

ELIZABETHYeah.

HARLOWYeah. The MacBook is pretty well-equipped out of the box. Give it more RAM and you're basically done.

DRUINYeah. And you...

ELIZABETHOkay.

DRUINThat should be good for a couple of years.

NNAMDIAnd, Elizabeth...

ELIZABETHThat's what -- yeah.

NNAMDIGo ahead.

ELIZABETHIsn't that, for a couple of years, it'll be good?

DRUINI know. It's really sad. It's -- you know -- and I say this to my kids. You know, will you stop growing out of your clothes?

HARLOWI use a vintage computer from 2008.

DRUINOoh, ooh.

HARLOWOkay?

DRUINThat pains me.

HARLOWIt's great.

DRUINThat pains me.

NNAMDINeanderthal. And, Elizabeth, because you have a 13-year-old daughter, I'll allow John Gilroy to tell you why women rule the Internet.

GILROYWell, you can have your daughter do a little text search on this. There's been a study done. And there's some people that say that the rulers of the Internet are women 'cause if you look at social networking sites, dominated by women. If you look at Twitter, dominated by women. Groupon, dominated by women. And so you see women who, traditionally, are good at social skills...

HARLOWYup.

GILROY...and men are kind of goofballs...

DRUINYou think?

HARLOWNah.

DRUINNah.

HARLOWNah.

GILROYFifty-five percent of female use mobile social networking tools. It's just -- it's incredible. They also tend to plan ahead, and they have something that marketers like. It's called disposable income. And if women have disposable income, you can see what's gonna happen. So it's interesting that the Internet, who you'd think would be like some nerdy guy in a basement with thick glasses...

HARLOWNo, they're there, but they're making the Internet for women.

GILROYThey make it for women 'cause -- and if you look at the Facebook -- what's it? Farmville?

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYDominated by -- I think a typical Farmville is a 45-year-old woman. So it's just an incredible switch from what you expect the technology would lead to, to social networking.

DRUINAre you sad, John? (laugh)

GILROYI'm jealous, that's for sure.

NNAMDIElizabeth, thank you for the call and for having John Gilroy give you that, I guess, contemporary history lesson.

GILROYYes. It's amazing.

NNAMDIAnd I'm afraid that's all the time we have. Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who now works on PCs and MACs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Good to see you, Bill.

HARLOWGood seeing you, too.

NNAMDIAllison Druin is associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. And John Gilroy is director of business development at Armature Corporation. We asked him how he would be spending the afternoon of his 20th anniversary here. This was his response.

NNAMDIAnd thank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.