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, first for 2012.

MR. JOHN GILROYThat's not bad enough for us.

NNAMDIThat upbeat, optimistic jingle can only mean one thing. They're back, The Computer Guys & Gal. We ask our resident tech experts for their thoughts about the New Year. One came back with resolutions for herself, backing up her files and cleaning up the apps on her mobile devices. Another came back with personal resolutions for other people.

GILROYI wish I would have thought of that.

NNAMDIAnd one came back with no resolutions whatsoever, which can only mean two things.

NNAMDIEither John Gilroy has reached a higher plane of...

GILROYThank you.

NNAMDI...technological enlightenment, or he doesn't see the need for high-tech personal improvement.

GILROYIf you're at the top of the mountain, you know?

NNAMDIEither way...

NNAMDI...it's not important. All the computer guys are here to discuss the year ahead in tech, whether 2012 will be the year of consumer backlash against companies behaving badly, why some smartphone users are going to be stuck in the slow lane with old outdated operating systems and how the next frontier for high-tech gadgetry and security threats may be your automobile. Joining us in studio is Allison Druin.

NNAMDIShe's associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's iSchool and co-director of the Future of Information Alliance, her first two titles for 2012 Before...

NNAMDI...the year is over.

GILROYLater on the show, (unintelligible).

NNAMDI...there are likely to be several more. Happy New Year, Allison.

MS. ALLISON DRUINHappy New Year, Kojo.

NNAMDIBill Harlow is a hardware and software technician for Macs and PCs at Mid-Atlantic Consulting, Inc. He's the one who has resolutions for other people.

GILROYThat's very considerate of you.

MR. BILL HARLOWI do what I can.

DRUINVery smart, very smart.

NNAMDIHappy New Year to you, Bill.

HARLOWHappy New Year. They all just run together, don't they, Kojo?

NNAMDI(unintelligible). And John Gilroy is director of business development at Armature Corporation. He chose not to make any New Year's resolutions this year because...

GILROYI made predictions. I made predictions.

NNAMDI...well, he didn't realize that we were in a new year.

DRUINThat makes sense.

NNAMDIThe fog of 2011 still hangs over...

GILROYThere's a fog from New Year's Eve till today (unintelligible).

NNAMDIStill hangs over him. You, of course, can join the conversation by calling us at 800-433-8850, sending email to kojo@wamu.org. You can send a tweet to #TechTuesday, or simply go to our website, kojoshow.org. Join the conversation there. Allison, I'll start with you. Today's world of technology is filled with pleasant distractions and powerful tools for communicating, but all those tools also often lead to a lot of clutter.

NNAMDIMany of your high-tech New Year's resolutions involve cutting through the clutter, keeping better track of all the apps and other random downloads that are gunking up your devices.

DRUINOh, yeah. You know, normally, you say, I've got to clean out my closets. Oh, I've got to, you know -- I make a resolution to make sure I make the bed, you know. Well, I got to do the same thing with my technology. So, first of all, I made a resolution. My number one is to notice if my time machine isn't working. My backup, it's so seamless -- OK, my backup disc -- that I forget to even notice that the thing isn't working. So I promise myself once a month -- I have it on a little, you know, dinger to, like, just notice. Is the thing working? And the other...

NNAMDIIs it backing up?

DRUINBacking up. And then the other thing is I've got to clean up my apps, OK? I've got to tell you I had 17 updates I hadn't done on my apps on my iPhone. How wrong is this? And you know what? I realized it was because I -- I kept forgetting my Apple ID password. So, now, I have this notion of, OK, learn the password and then update the apps. But then I also realized, you know what, I may be using five apps. I'm not using all my apps, so I'm trying to get down to the simplicity thing, so trying to look for the right ones.

NNAMDICouple of suggestions for that...

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDI...get the same password for your Apple that you use for your bank account and tell a good friend.

GILROYWow.

DRUINAnd is his name Kojo?

GILROYTell the audience, and they'll help you remember, actually.

NNAMDIThe other that I never think of myself is how many apps there are that I look at every day and never absolutely use. So you're actually going to go back and try to figure out which ones you use on a regular basis?

DRUINYeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I've now thrown...

NNAMDIYeah.

DRUIN...away three. I'm very excited. Now, I've got to look through the next 25.

NNAMDIYeah, which is exactly what I have to do, too. Bill, your New Year's resolution that we actually passed on is sharing advice for our listeners. If we're in the market for a new laptop, you say we should think about paying a premium and getting a solid-state drive, SSD. You liken this to getting an E-ZPass for your computer.

HARLOWYeah. The way I look at it -- and I thought about the E-ZPass thing because I didn't get one yet, and I...

DRUINWrong, wrong.

HARLOWSo that's my resolution. So I was traveling up the East Coast to visit family. And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, you know what, a solid-state drive is like an E-ZPass for your car 'cause you're not queuing. You're not waiting. You're just -- you look over and, like, wow, that lane never slows down. I'm going there. So get one of those.

NNAMDIWhat is an SSD?

HARLOWA solid-state drive is a -- it's basically a chunk of memory that you use for storage in your computer, whereas, conventionally, you've got a spinning hard drive. It's almost like, you know, having, like, an LP playing, trying to retrieve data. It's not very efficient. And they're expensive, which is why a lot of people don't have them yet. But I'll tell you what. Most people are not held back by the computational power of their computers. They're held back by...

GILROYYeah. Years ago, the (word?) always was the CPU.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYAnd for gamers, it was always was the video to video.

HARLOWAnd that's still the case to some degree.

GILROYNow, the CPU really isn't big headline news anymore, but SSD...

HARLOWYeah. For mainstream users, the solid-state drive would be the biggest thing you could do to speed up your computer, I think.

DRUINYeah. It's true. Yep.

NNAMDIGood. I have to make a note of that. You actually do have good advice for other people. If you...

HARLOWYeah. And I'm done for the rest of the year.

DRUINAll right. (unintelligible).

HARLOWI can just coast now.

NNAMDIIf you are in need of advice, you can call us at 800-433-8850 or go to #TechTuesday and send us a tweet. John Gilroy, you have predictions. We are living in an era of big data, and you say, well, the data will be getting even bigger.

GILROYWell, it's going to be huge big. I mean, this cloud is upon us, whether we like it or not. People are using their smartphones, and stuff is not sitting in their smartphones anymore in their hard -- they're sitting in the cloud somewhere. And so I can see this as a big train coming down the tracks, and no one is going to stop it. It's just going to -- so what we see is technology is responding with new ways to handle large amounts of data and all -- what they call data silos in big companies.

GILROYAnd there's products out there. One silly product is called Hadoop, and its logo was a big pink elephant or a big elephant.

HARLOW(word?)

GILROYAnd people are changing and modifying the way systems think. I think, you know, in a year or two, people aren't going to even think of not backing up online, which it also does. And you think, of course, everyone backs up online. So why even -- I mean, would even consider it? Now, where years ago, you'd have to think about tape maybe or maybe even external hard drive, so big is going to get bigger and more new technologies.

GILROYSo tech growth is going to be on the technology that can handle these huge amounts of data, I mean, terabytes of data, I mean, incredible amounts of data coming in. So every time you use a smartphone that's generating information, it's going to be stored somewhere -- big data.

NNAMDIWhat do you think the trends for 2012 are likely to be? Call us at 800-433-8850. I'd like you, our Computer Guys & Gal, to tell me, is this a trend user uprising's forcing tech companies to change course? In the last week of 2011, we saw two examples of companies reversing course in the wake of user uprising. Verizon had been planning to charge some customers a $2 convenience fee for some users who wanted to pay online.

NNAMDIBut that idea attracted a firestorm of protests, promptly triggered a change of course. We also saw some high-profile tech companies reverse course on a controversial piece of legislation in Washington that we've been discussing a lot. The domain registrar company GoDaddy was once an enthusiastic supporter of the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as SOPA, but a threatened boycott appears to have prompted the company to withdraw its support. Consumers revolting, is that going to be a trend in 2012?

DRUINYes. Absolutely. And it's because -- yeah -- and it's because of something that John told us a few years ago was a fad, OK?

DRUINTwitter...

NNAMDIHula-hoops?

DRUINTwitter...

GILROY(word?) ?

DRUIN...is an echo chamber. Social media is an echo chamber for the consumer, and it's great. Complain online, let people know how you feel, and, guess what, other people will say, yeah, I feel the same way. And, sure enough -- I mean, how do you reverse a decision on Verizon in one day? That's pretty good.

NNAMDIYeah.

DRUINAnd, actually, if people stop to figure out what it was they were reversing, it wasn't so terrible. Most people weren't going to get this $2 fee to have to be charged because it was really -- it was a one-time -- if you do one-time use of your credit or debit card payment by phone. So you were using a person, not the online. That's when you would have had to pay the $2 fee. So, in fact, most people would never have even seen this $2 fee, but the echo chamber worked...

GILROYYou know what that is? That's...

DRUIN...from social media.

GILROYPeople are just -- you know, there's not much in the way of, you know, unlimited broadband, mobile broadband these days, and, you know, my text plan at AT&T got more expensive. I think people are looking at this, like, you know what, these cell companies are greedy. They just keep jacking things up, nickel and diming us. And that's probably, you know, just one of those things where, like, you know what, enough is enough, even though it was such a dumb thing.

DRUINYeah, yeah, no, totally.

HARLOWIf we switched targets and talk about GoDaddy, which was implied...

NNAMDIYep.

HARLOW...I think the guy Jimmy Wales was the one who got on this soapbox and said, hey, I don't like it. I'm pulling my stuff from there. And he has a lot of force in this community. And I think...

NNAMDIWell, he's the founder of Wikipedia.

HARLOWYeah. I think he's the one that he just had to get up on his soapbox and say, hey, guess what, I don't like this. And all the dominos fell. So he's a force. But that's true. And one of my predictions for 2012 I didn't write down is that smartphones are going to be more and more expensive. They're going to start jamming people with data charges. And people are going to be calling into the show, going, you know, my rates are going up, and there's no Wi-Fi access for my phone.

NNAMDIAnd will they be using social media to protest? Have you done that? Have you started a movement using social media or participated in it that was successful or you expect to do so in 2012? Call us, 800-433-8850. Forecast, consumers will be played by tech companies. Allison Druin, Google has marketed its Android operating system as an open source system, free to be used by anyone. But, from a user perspective, some of those promises ring hollow. Tell us about the Samsung Galaxy S.

DRUINWell, this is a case where, if you don't control the hardware and the software and -- so that whole pipeline, that, actually, for years and years and years, Apple has been saying, we need to control the user experience from the physical to the virtual. And there's a beautiful example of when -- of why they were absolutely right because, with the Galaxy phone, the hardware isn't powerful enough to support the next version up of the software.

DRUINAnd, you know -- and so Google's message is wonderful. You know, we're going to -- Android is going to remain free, and, you know, any of those developers can do anything they want. But only the Nexus device is really the approved device that will always be upgraded. Nothing else is promised because Google doesn't control it.

GILROYWell, you know what's funny, too, is that open -- is, yeah, it came back to haunt them because it's open for Samsung to get in there and just do whatever they want to, you know, mold that software in their image. And I think there was, like, an extra piece they added that was another UIElement, and that's, you know -- that's...

DRUINThat's right.

GILROY...what bogged down enough that, you know, we can't go to Android 4.0 OS on this device because this other...

NNAMDIYep.

GILROY...stuff we've put on there that kind of prevents that.

HARLOWIt sounds like Windows from 10, 12 years ago, doesn't it?

GILROYYeah, it does.

HARLOWIt's like you have to (unintelligible) oh, by the way...

DRUINThat's right.

HARLOW...put the shades of Windows here is exactly what's happening.

DRUINSo you've got 10 million people...

NNAMDIWell, the so-called Android alliance has pledged to keep all devices released within 18 months compatible with the newest operating system. But that's not quite the case here, is it?

DRUINNo, no, because, basically, you know, 10 million people bought a device that they physically can't upgrade. And, you know, oh, well, yes, you can buy a new phone. That's fine, no problem.

GILROYSamsung makes a lot of phones, too. I mean, Apple, you know, it's easy for them. They made -- you know, they sell, what now, the 3GS, the 4 and the 4S, and that's it. That's all you have to worry about.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIWell, John Gilroy, Google says that the future of mobile is Android and points to the sheer numbers of devices using its operating system, but you are not so sure.

GILROYOur local fellow Eric Schmidt, by the way, from Arlington, he's rallying his sword, much like Jimmy Wales is rallying his sword for the good cause. He's rallying his sword saying, you know, we're going to win. We're going to win this fight. I'm not believing in it. I think he's going to walk into an alley. And he's going to wind up the end of year, and he's going to look at -- we don't know the sales from the last quarter from Apple yet. If you can look at Apple sales from last quarter, they're going to go, whoa, how can we even consider matching that?

HARLOWBut also the attitude, like, oh, so if Apple's number one or, you know, and let's say Android is, you know, a close number two, that's losing? I mean, there are a lot of people who still don't have smartphones yet. But both -- you know, both platforms are going to sell like gangbusters for quite a while.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIHere is Richard in Rockville, Md. Richard, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RICHARDThanks for taking my call. I have a comment and then a question. One of your guests enthusiastically recommended or spoke of cloud computing and cloud storage as the wave of the future. And I have a word of caution to offer and I'd like to hear your guests' comments on it. I took advantage of an introductory offer to store some data in a cloud. And you see these all the time. You get five, six, seven gigs of storage, and I did.

RICHARDAnd then, a few weeks later, I got a note from the company which hosted the cloud servers, stating, essentially, they had a business dispute with the vendor of that service. And they are terminating their cloud, and there's no way to get my data back. So I thought I would share that experience with you, and I can't recommend to any of my friends that they use cloud storage for critical data because they may never get it back. So I'm -- what -- aside from the usual hard disc backups at home, do your guests have any comments about this? Have they seen this happen before?

GILROYSure. You know...

NNAMDILawyer, lawyer, lawyer.

GILROYYeah. Rich, when I was a single guy many, many years ago, I bought a Saab, five-speed, and it was a great car. And mechanics would laugh at me. And it blew up, and I couldn't get it fixed. And it blew up. I couldn't -- one day, I put the key in it, and the key snapped off.

GILROYBut it was a great car. Finally, it caught on fire on me. I had to get it towed. And that doesn't mean I don't drive a car now. Now, there are services out there like Dropbox that are getting very, very popular, and I think you just have to be wary. If I go to Kojo's Data Service, a start-up company in the middle of nowhere, I don't know what Kojo's all about. But Dropbox has a reputation.

GILROYAnd I think if you sit and you -- maybe not on the bleeding edge, but maybe a step or two back and watch where Bill puts his stuff or Alison puts her stuff or a company may consider it, and if the very, very large organizations are putting stuff in the cloud -- like, the GSA just moved their email to the cloud -- this is a huge tipping point. And that's the tipping point from last year that I see is something that large is moving to the cloud, it's going to be inexorable.

NNAMDIPlus, I've got Allison's password.

NNAMDIRichard, thank you so much for your call. But thank you for passing that on. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we will continue with The Computer Guys & Gal. Your questions or comments at 800-433-8850. Do you have any high-tech resolutions for the New Year? What tech stories do you think will most impact us in the year 2012? 800-433-8850 or send us a twit -- a tweet at #TechTuesday.

NNAMDII'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIOur Computer Guys & Gal join us for the first time in the year 2012. Allison Druin is a associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's iSchool and co-director of the Future of Information Alliance. John Gilroy is director of business development at Armature Corporation, and Bill Harlow is a hardware and software technician for Macs and PCs at Mid-Atlantic Consulting, Inc. And we got a tweet that was just for you, Bill. "Don't solid state drives die after a certain number of writing operations, making them have short lives, or has that changed?"

HARLOWIt -- I mean, it's true. I mean, the -- there is a finite number of times you can write to it, but it's pretty high. And a lot of drives, they set aside additional space so that they kind of retire certain sections of the memory so that, as it starts to wear out, they can simply move the data to areas where it's still fresh. Keep in mind it's a solid state drive. You know, treat it like a regular hard drive as far reliability goes.

HARLOWIt's not your only storage. Still back up. It's not mechanical, so it may not fail from things like drops and that sort of thing. But I would consider it, until the jury is really out, that it's no more reliable than a conventional hard drive.

NNAMDIAnd for you, Allison Druin, forecast: Forget biometric sensors that scan your eyes or your fingerprints.

NNAMDIJapanese researchers are developing smart car seats that measure the pressure coming from the posterior. Is this the future of verification?

DRUINOh, my goodness. I saw this and thought, wow, this is totally right. Yeah, it's all about sensors. It's all about measuring things, and it's all about -- it's not just about, you know, waving something in front of your nose or your eyes or waiting for those fingerprint, you know, identification things. This thing will actually, you know, look at the pressure of your body. It'll look at how you're sitting. It'll even measure your bottom, you know, that kind of thing. And, actually, they got it 98 percent accurate. And so, essentially, why do they want to know who's sitting in that seat?

NNAMDIYes.

DRUINWell, guess what? That can save your car from being driven away by some crook that's not you.

GILROYDoes the system get catty if you're putting on the pounds during the holidays?

GILROYAnd does it have a rating level like hot, real hot, beyond hot?

DRUINYeah, this could be a problem if you gained a little weight. Anyway, but they haven't talked about that. But it is -- it does point to a future where it is all about your whole body in terms of input. It's not just about those finger twitches, OK?

NNAMDIJohn, on a more serious note...

GILROYYes, let's get serious here.

DRUINYeah, right, with John?

NNAMDIIBM recently released these predictions for the next five years of technology, and they actually think that we'll be seeing some major biometric changes.

HARLOWRight. That's a -- all kinds of stories about biometric, and we all saw the movie "Mission Impossible." We know Tom Cruise running next to the train and jumping up in the air for his eyeball recognition, whatever it was. Yeah.

DRUINYeah, yeah.

HARLOWYeah, we don't know where it's going to lead to. Some people say they'll be able to make a lot more predictions about future behavior based on maybe biometric data that you have. And I like talking about what IBM's going to do in the future. They have a lot of think tank people that come up with things, and I think we just have to sit and wait and see what happens. And if they can come up with a sensor for a seat, then they come up with all kinds of things.

GILROYI'm looking forward to the first ThinkPad that allows me to actually, you know, put my bottom on the keyboard and log in that way.

HARLOWSit on computer and sign in.

GILROYExactly.

NNAMDIWe move on to Steve. Steve is with us from Columbia, Md. Steve, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

STEVEHi. Thanks for taking my call.

NNAMDIYou're welcome. Go ahead.

STEVEThis is my -- sure. The reason I'm calling is it seems like you guys have cited exactly the reason why there's a problem with social media, and that is your Verizon example, where Verizon was forced to change their decision process based on faulty information. And I've used another example of that with the -- all the talk of the Christmas tree tax that they had on the Obama administration, where that was actually an industry tax proposed and regulated by the industry to fund the USDA doing ads on behalf of the Christmas tree industry.

STEVESo it's the -- it kind of highlights the problem with social media where people will jump to conclusions and not understand the entire issue but yet are willing to make big waves and try to get corporate changes to really what were reasonable and sensible ideas.

NNAMDII think what is occurring is that people are increasingly suspicious of corporate fees being handed down in which they have no say and can, therefore, be fairly easily motivated into revolting sometimes without having all of the facts at their disposal, Steve.

STEVERight. Well, I think that's still making the case. I guess I'm not saying the $2 fee was good or bad. I'm saying it was turned over without people actually understanding what the fee was about.

HARLOWYeah. It's hard to have a nuanced conversation in 140 characters, isn't it?

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIYeah. It really is.

DRUINBut it does take two to tango. It's the responsibility of the company to be transparent enough so that people understand what it is that they're trying to have happen. And so if the company doesn't communicate well enough, then they get -- then -- or the organization doesn't communicate, then you are going to get this echo chamber of Twitter or social media kinds of things. And so I think that the onus is on all of us to communicate more loudly and more transparently.

NNAMDISteve, thank you very much for your call. Speaking of a new trend, if you will, Bill, a trend you'd like to see more of, the comedian Louis C.K.…

HARLOWYes.

NNAMDI...has independently released a video of his stand-up "Live at the Beacon Center" on the Web for $5. Louis C.K., in his words, "No DRM, no regional restrictions, no -- no, we can't say that on the air.

GILROYWe're on the air. No way.

NNAMDIAnd, apparently, it worked.

HARLOWOh, yeah. I mean, it's great, too, because, as soon as you put something out like that, you're already speaking to me. It's like, OK, here's my $5. I mean, you know, I have to be a fan. But even if I wasn't, it's like, you know what, for five bucks, I'll support you. And it's great because it's just an MP4 file. You download. You pay via PayPal. This MP4 file will play on your iPad. It'll play on your computer. You can send it to your PlayStation 3. He's like, you know what, do whatever.

HARLOWYou could be in, you know, South Korea and download this. I don't care. I don't have any regional, you know, restrictions. I just want you to be able to view it simply. And I love this. You know, I hate the idea of companies charging me to watch my media as many times as possible. And the fact that he went out of his way to do this and got rewarded with $1 million within a relative short amount of time is pretty cool. And he was transparent about the whole process, too, as far as, here's where the money is going.

HARLOWYou know, the first couple hundred thousand paid for the production costs, and the next, you know, quarter million is paying off all my guys. They're getting a healthy bonus. And then another part is going to charity, and the rest, I'm going to keep and do whatever. It's just really, really cool, and I want to see more of that.

NNAMDIYou go, Louis C.K., but you're no longer a part of the 99 percent. Here is...

GILROYThat's the bad news.

NNAMDIHere is Mark in Vienna, Va. Mark you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

MARKGood afternoon.

NNAMDIGood afternoon, Mark.

MARKYeah. I'm interested in IPv6 and how it's going to affect a person that's -- you know, an individual at home as opposed to a company. What I've been seeing -- I've been looking around, and it seems like very few existing routers for the homeowner out there currently support IPv6. And I'm not getting any indication that firmware is going to be upgradable. Are we all going to have to go out and upgrade our operating systems and upgrade our hardware, or what will be the actual upgrade path for the homeowner?

GILROYYou know, most operating systems can handle IPv6. In fact, most of the organizations I know, they...

NNAMDIWhat is IPv6?

GILROYIt's the next naming system for the Internet.

NNAMDIOh, OK.

GILROYThey ran out of addresses on IPv4...

HARLOWThey were out of numbers, basically.

GILROYThey ran out of numbers, ran out of addresses in the street, essentially.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYAnd what I see most companies doing, though, is they're -- that they're using some kind of a bridge or combination to accomplish it, and I haven't heard many complaints about IPv6. Have you, Bill?

HARLOWNot really. I mean, I know for -- as far as Apple AirPort products go, for quite a while, they supported IPv6. I don't think the user in the home is going to really care too much. I think, you know, it's going to trickle down from large organizations. I think that your ISP probably has to work some of that out and maybe the modem or router they supply to you has to support that. It needs to be updated or replaced. But I think it will be quite a while before the end user at home really has to worry about this too much.

GILROYYou know, the last conversation I had with Vint Cerf...

GILROYHe was the guy who came up with the original IPv. And he was -- he's the biggest...

HARLOWNew Year's resolution, drop more names, right, John?

GILROYYeah. And he's the biggest proponent in town for this IPv6. He wants to push it through. And it's going to happen -- it's going to be a corporate transition. I don't think the end user is even going to notice anything at the end, so...

NNAMDIOK. IPv6 is Internet Protocol version 6.

GILROYSix, right.

NNAMDIIPv6 is what it's called. The near future, Allison, your digital ghost will exist even when you're long gone. In a sense, the data trails we leave behind are a sort of fragment of who we are, what we like, who we're friends with. Consider Google. It has a phone platform, Android, a browser, Chrome, a map program, a voicemail program and an online video program, as well as a social network. In a very real sense, it has a pretty comprehensive record of who most of its users are.

NNAMDIAnd some people say it won't take very much to begin to stitch that all together with a little AI, artificial intelligence. Are we on the verge of entering a kind of science fiction world?

DRUINA digital ghost to live for eternity. Yeah, I love that. I loved that quote when I saw it. Here's the thing. You know, when I lost my mom 10 years ago to cancer, I -- strangely enough, I would call the answering machine over and over again for a while because I missed her voice. And I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mother in the last year, talking to her. And I missed so desperately hearing her voice.

DRUINAnd, today, I would have so much more of an opportunity to have so much more left of her had she lived at least 10 more years. And so what we've got now, thanks to our technologies, is a lot more of who we are in so many ways, in terms of writing, in terms of video and music and even our imagery. And so, today, if you actually even go looked on Google Images for what, you know, for just to name of person, and you'll see all these images of people. So, yes, actually, we do have the information today to create digital ghosts.

HARLOWIt's funny you mentioned Google, too, because they actually released a really beautiful advertisement where it shows a proud papa creating a new Google account for his newborn daughter. And he's accumulating stuff, video, you know, all sorts of things and kind of, you know, scrapbooking it and putting it in this account to eventually present to her when she's older, so she can go back and just revisit these memories, which I thought it was just -- you know, that's sort of what's happening now.

DRUINThat's right. That's right.

NNAMDIEvery time I hear the words, stop that, I know my mother is still around.

DRUINThere you go.

NNAMDIHere is Sheryl in Sterling, Va. Sheryl, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

SHERYLHi. I just -- I'm one of these people who's been drug kicking and screaming into progress. I mean, I was the last person to get a microwave oven. But I'm now driving a Prius, and I have an iPhone. And yet, after all these years, my only option -- and, once again, I would be perfectly happy to do this with pencil and paper, but my husband loves electronics -- is Quicken for -- doing books. And lately, the newer versions have gotten so bad that this year, we've had craziness in downloads, accounts going, you know, bizarre.

SHERYLAnd while I thought it was very convenient to be able to balance my checkbook with it, it seems like even that isn't working anymore. And I'm wondering, with these companies getting so big, there doesn't seem to be anybody else out there.

GILROYYou know, from a perspective of a small business, there's not many choices, really not reasonable choices. One is the big Microsoft Solomon, which is this huge as a mountain -- and I see even medium-sized companies switching to Quicken and having some of these (word?). I don't what's going to happen. It's funny. You have all these accountants in town. The American Association of CPAs is in Alexandria, and no one has an answer for the typical human.

HARLOWIt's funny, too, because one thing I might see is, perhaps, you know, with time, more and more Web apps and Web services becoming popular to do this 'cause at least they can kind of keep up in the back end because I experienced the exact same thing just with my, you know, personal finances and, you know, bank mergers and such. And, oh, that suddenly stopped working. Well, thanks a lot.

HARLOWAnd then I have to go and scramble and figure out a way to get this working again. I find I do a lot less within Quicken and a lot more just online directly with my accounts, too.

NNAMDIAnd, Sheryl, thank you very much. Good luck to you. And speaking of new ways in which either to do accounts or to simply just do your work, period, technology has allowed some people to change how and where they do their work. Allison has apparently ditched her desk altogether in favor of a few couches. And now she's resolving to get a little exercise while she works -- forget walking and chewing gum -- with the help of a new treadmill especially designed for computers.

DRUINYeah, OK. So I haven't bought this yet. But I am toying with the idea of trying this out because I'm a little worried that I become so obsessed in looking at my computer, and I'm standing on a treadmill while I'm looking at the computer, will I just fly off the treadmill if I get a bad email?

GILROYYou could YouTube video.

HARLOWIf you get this, I want a webcam in your office when this happens.

GILROYYeah. That's what we want.

DRUINBut, all right, so LifeSpan is selling -- it's called the TR1200-DT Treadmill. Yes, it's $1,300. And, no, I have not even gotten close to saving up for it yet. But, anyway, so basically the idea is that, you know, we're all sitting all the time on our bottoms, and, obviously, our cars are getting to know us, too. But could you imagine if you're walking at a very, very slow pace...

NNAMDIAnd typing?

DRUIN…and typing? Can you do it? I don't know. I haven't done it yet. So I'm going to try it out and let you guys know. But, yes, and I'll make sure I have the YouTube video of me falling off the treadmill. But there is a possibility, you know?

NNAMDIThis is Allison. I'm calling from the hospital.

GILROYBut I got the video. I got the video.

GILROY(word?) wamu.org for the video.

NNAMDIHere's Brian in Arlington, Va. Brian, you're on the air. Go ahead, please. Hi, Bryan.

BRIANYes, hello. Can you hear me?

NNAMDIWe can hear you.

BRIANOh, great. I'm running Gingerbread 2.3.3, and I'm concerned. I think I came into the tail end of the conversation that one should be thinking about updating soon or maybe updating their smartphone since Android won't be updating the application.

NNAMDIAllison.

DRUINOK. So it's not quite what you were just explaining. OK. We were talking about that the only for sure phone that will be updated is the Nexus phone, right?

HARLOWYeah, the Galaxy Nexus.

DRUINRight. And so the idea is that, because the operating system, the Android operating system is open to all developers to do with it what they please, some of the phones you may have bought may not be as powerful as you expect to be able to support the next upgrade. So the Galaxy is an example of one of those phones. But you may have a phone that can be upgraded, OK? It's just -- you know, you just have to see if you have a phone that is on the upgrade path or not. What kind of phone do you have?

BRIANA Galaxy Tab.

HARLOWA Galaxy Tab? Oh, yeah, I don't know if they're updating that. I thought that that was kind of...

DRUINI don't know if they are.

HARLOW... (word?) out as well. But if it works fine for you, I wouldn't, you know, rush out and spend more money. But my understanding is that they -- that Android 4.0 won't be coming to that anytime soon, if at all.

DRUINYeah. Sorry about that.

BRIAN(unintelligible)

NNAMDIBrian, thank you very much for your call. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the Computer Guys & Gal, a conversation you can join by sending us a tweet at #TechTuesday, email to kojo@wamu.org or by simply calling 800-433-8850. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWelcome back to the Computer Guys & Gal. In case you're just joining us, shame, shame, the broadcast started a long time ago.

NNAMDIThe first for the new year with the Computer Guys & Gal. John Gilroy is director of business development at Armature Corporation. Allison Druin is associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's iSchool and co-director of the Future of Information Alliance, and Bill Harlow is a hardware and software technician from Macs and PCs at Mid-Atlantic Consulting, Inc. John Gilroy and Allison Druin, one of you is worried about a cyber threat against the power grid.

NNAMDIThe other is more concerned with the scenario that sounds like it comes from a bad action movie, cyber terrorists taking over your car. But, John, I'll start with you on the threat to infrastructure.

GILROYWell, what's interesting is companies like Pepco and large power utilities are putting out statements to their shareholders. And they have to list certain risks that they have. And part of the risk management strategy now is worrying about people attacking them. And I think that it's a fair concern because a lot of the grid -- and my company has worked with some organizations in that general area -- not going to name names.

GILROYTheir design for operation -- never been thought that a machine that would handle, let's say, nuclear rods would be connected to anything else ever -- their wildest dream 20 years ago. And a lot of these plants have been around for a long time, and so I think it's a concern. I think that's something that should be on the checklist for the security folks at large organizations, so I just think it's more probable than your car driving off a cliff. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong.

NNAMDISoftware hacking, Allison, can happen in cars?

DRUINWell, here is the interesting thing.

NNAMDISay it ain't so.

DRUINMore and more of our lives are actually being supported, enhanced -- I don't know how you want to say -- with a compute software, OK? And so we have increasing reliance on these systems. And, sure enough, OK, so, you know, I got to tell you. We bought a new car, all right? You know, last month we bought a new car, and the freaking thing stopped working. And what was it? It was actually because of the software. The touch screen on the thing wouldn't actually let us touch it, and so it stopped completely.

HARLOWSo we're going from your stereo not working to tumbling down into a ravine like a fiery wreck. Is that right?

DRUINYeah, pretty much. So anyway -- so what is to stop organized crime from -- when we get our software updates, OK, 'cause -- because 250 million, you know, owners of this car are going to get our software update through a USB key. And so what happens to that USB key if it's got a virus or...

HARLOWIt's OK. I hear AAA is putting out antivirus software to computers.

GILROYAntivirus software.

DRUINAlready? Already?

HARLOWExactly.

DRUINOh, my gosh.

GILROYState Farm Insurance, your auto insurance and antivirus insurance.

HARLOWSymantec auto insurance, exactly, McAfee auto insurance.

GILROYAnd Progress will complete with them.

DRUINAll right. So I'm obsessed with my car right now because I'm mad at it. But besides that, I mean, it's really -- it's interesting 'cause software is everywhere.

GILROYLow on the probability rate.

DRUINAll right. It's a low low, but, still, it's everywhere.

NNAMDIHey, if we're being scared, John Gilroy...

NNAMDI...let's keep this up. Smartphones aren't too smart if they allow data breaches. A number of studies have found that data breaches are up in medical facilities across the country, and some worry that smartphones might be contributing to that vulnerability.

GILROYWell, if you look at medical facilities, they have electronic health records, which have all kinds of restrictions on them and protections. And you see a busy physician like Dr. Kojo walking down the hall. Now, if Kojo is sitting at his desk or in his couch, as Allison would be...

GILROY...and he got an email, he's now going to go, I'm going to click on this. But you're running down the hallway, people are asking questions, getting yanked back and forth. Your residents are punching you and pushing you, and you get something -- you'd be more tempted to click on something with a handheld device. And that's what we see in a lot of security companies are going.

GILROYWell, just the fact it's a handheld device, it puts people in distracted mode, and they're more vulnerable to hitting things that they normally wouldn't hit -- hit something, drive-by download -- and you are pawned, as the old term was from a couple years ago. But it happens, and it's interesting in facilities where physicians have to go from room to room to room. They don't work on couches. They go from room to room to room.

GILROYAnd it makes them more vulnerable. So, just statistically, if you look at some of the -- maybe I'm obsessed with security here in 2012, but I think it's a fair target. And I think people have to worry about it.

NNAMDIContinuing on vein of happy talk, Bill Harlow...

NNAMDI...BlackBerry seems to be cursed. Research In Motion's newest line of BlackBerries has been delayed until the latter part of 2012. That's the latest in a variety of bad news stories for this Canadian company.

HARLOWYeah, I mean, you know, the big thing was the PlayBook, you know, that -- we know that was a huge hit, right, you know, their ante to the iPad. It was something. So yeah, the other big thing is their BlackBerry 10 products, which are going to be like their next gen. They're going to be, you know, much more advanced web browsing, you know, more powerful apps. All sorts of things are going to make them compete with modern Android and iOS devices. We're supposed to see them relatively soon, now, not till the end of this year.

GILROYAnd they were the big dog in Capitol Hill. (unintelligible)

HARLOWYeah. That's why I don't have a death watch out for them. I want to see them come back. You know, it's sad to see this happen to a company like that. They were the juggernaut. They defined email on your phone.

DRUINOh, absolutely.

NNAMDIAnd (word?), Allison, may have started another kind of theme here. We'll start with Jeff in Frederick, Md., and then we'll go to Kelly in Chantilly, Va. But first, Jeff in Frederick, Md. Jeff, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

JEFFYes, hi. Can you hear me?

NNAMDIYes, we can.

JEFFOK. Great. Yeah, so, you know, you were talking about sitting on one bottom for...

GILROYAs a sign in, of course.

JEFF...and that's very near and dear to my heart working on computers, you know, of course. And I'm wondering if you guys, besides this technological marvel of a contraption that she hasn't bought yet or is just thinking about, if you guys have had any other kinds of suggestions for watching one's weight while working mindlessly away on their behind (unintelligible)...

NNAMDIHold on a second, Jeff. Hold on. I'll put you on hold, and we'll talk with Kelly in Chantilly, Va. Kelly, you're...

HARLOWWe might as well leave.

GILROYI'll be outside if you need me.

NNAMDIKelly, you're on the air. Please share.

KELLYHello. This is Kelly. OK. So we won't talk about my bottom size, but I have...

GILROYWe're going to have -- FCC is going to be all over us today.

NNAMDINo, let's.

HARLOWThis is science, John, science.

GILROYThis is science. What's your grade?

NNAMDIGo ahead, please, Kelly.

KELLY(unintelligible) officewalkers.com. I actually listened to a program a couple of years ago by Diane Rehm about this idea of working while slowly walking at computer, bumped around the Internet -- got to love Google -- officewalkers.com, something like that. And so I have a treadmill at home. And within 40 minutes, with a piece of wood, some foam and some duct tape, I kind of fashioned up this desk that would sit on top of the bar to my treadmill.

KELLYNow, I work remotely. And so you can type fairly well. There are certain times where, you know, I remove myself from the treadmill to actually work. But I'm also in a Ph.D. program, so lots of documents and reading. It is brilliant because it keeps your mind from wandering. And I've never gone throwing off the back of it or...

DRUINOh, that's so good. Yeah, oh, I'm so excited.

KELLYI know, but it's really easy to -- I really like it. And it's got my husband to -- you know, if he doesn't want to work out but he wants to watch his movie or something, he'll pull his computer up on the shelf, and he'll walk for a while while he's, you know, watching or reading the paper or something like that.

DRUINCool.

NNAMDIAnd you never bump into the desk at all?

KELLYThere's a couple of things you actually do have to -- you know, it's just a personality thing. You just kind of -- how fast you're walking. But, no, I've never bumped into the desk. I've never gone off the back. The worst thing is if I'm reading something, I can walk at about three miles an hour which is, you know, not a healthy clip, but it's something other than a granny stroll.

KELLYAnd if your boss calls you, you know, there's a little noise in the background, so you have to, you know, either quickly hit mute or, you know, go off the treadmill, hit stop and get off the treadmill to take the call or something like that. But we have marathon teleconference meetings.

NNAMDIHey.

GILROYYou know, I keep thinking...

HARLOWThat will keep me awake, though, for a conference.

NNAMDIAllison likes -- would like to know if you can attach a stationary bike to it. She's rather sit while working.

DRUINThat's awesome.

NNAMDIIt really is, Kelly.

DRUINI love it. Thank you.

GILROYThis does sound like George Jetson walking his dog or something. It just seems ridiculous.

DRUINI'm totally into it. Oh, my goodness.

HARLOWSo I need a stationary bike with a generator on it, so I actually have to power my laptop. If I stop pedaling...

DRUINOh. That would be good, too.

HARLOWI just deleted my email because I'm tired, great.

NNAMDIKelly, thank you so much for your call and for sharing that with us. Now, let's see if that'll work for you, Jeff. Jeff, did you hear what Kelly had to say?

JEFFI did, I did. It sounds...

NNAMDIWill it work for you?

JEFFWell, no. I'm in a -- in the office where, you know, it's high visibility, so I'm kind of...

DRUINOh, yeah. So maybe...

GILROYWhoa. Who's the weirdo down the hall?

HARLOWExactly.

DRUINOh, yeah. That -- yeah, the cubicle might not be the thing to do this in, yeah.

HARLOWYeah. I mean, and here's the thing, that is old school tips. You know, get up and walk around occasionally. Take frequent breaks. Change your position often, that sort of thing.

JEFFWell, I think -- I read a New York Times -- an article in the New York Times magazine less than a year ago about how it -- you burn more calories throughout the day just standing other than sitting. So a standing desk is what I'm looking at right now as part of the solution.

DRUINOh, good idea.

NNAMDII was about to say, Jeff -- hold on a second, Jeff, because here is Jane in Northwest Washington with that precise solution. Jane, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

GILROYI'm going home.

DRUINOK.

JANEThank you very much. I just wanted to sort of jump on the bandwagon here with Kelly and Jeff. I'm at the School of Public Health at George Washington University, and we're trying to pick up on a similar but less expensive way to do what these two individuals are interested in doing with a walking desk. And all it involves, really, is standing up at your desk, which is what Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, MacArthur did.

JANEAll you need is to either bring your laptop to your kitchen counter, which is what I do most of the time, or buy a little stand that you might find at The Container Store and just raise your laptop up six or eight inches so you can stand at your computer desk. And it's actually been found that by standing up you're more alert. You burn about 15 to 20 percent more calories than you do while you're sitting. You can focus more on your work.

JANEAnd we have a new faculty member here at George Washington, Dr. Dan Cooland, (sp?) who just left the Air Force Surgeon General's office where he ended up talking to -- talking about 60 staff members into trying various versions of a stand-up desk. A couple people had a treadmill. Some people had bicycle pedals under the desk. Some people just adjusted their work station, so they raised the whole level of their desk so they could be standing while working.

JANEAnd that doesn't cost $1,300. It may cost $10 or $15 or, you know, up to $100 if you get one of the little bicycling things, so just wanted to chip in to the conversation.

NNAMDIOK, Jane. The advance in -- to the Thomas Jefferson solution.

DRUINI love it. This is wonderful.

HARLOW(unintelligible) really are the best.

NNAMDIThank you very much for your call. Jeff, thank you very much for your call. John Gilroy, please wake up.

NNAMDIBill, 50 years from now, what technology and technological documents will we consider historically noteworthy? Stanford University has recently received a trove of documents from Apple, including a video called "Blues Busters" that features Steve Jobs posing as an IBM-fighting ghostbuster.

HARLOWOh, I would pay big money to see this. I would go and stand in line in theaters to see this. Apparently, at one point, this is pre-Jobs' return. Apple wanted to have a museum. And when Steve came back and started trimming the fat, that's one of the things that kind of, you know, fell off. So they donated all this stuff they had amassed to Stanford, and it's been sitting and kind of archived. Well, I guess, AP got a chance to see some of this, and, yeah, they saw that staff video that was parodying Ghostbusters.

HARLOWThey've got, you know, all those other stuff in there that I hope one day Stanford something with it and opens it out to the public 'cause right now it is a private collection.

NNAMDIAnd it seems like a strange collection for an academic institution, Allison. You work in academia. It does seem like an unusual collection.

DRUINWell, actually, unusual collections are all the rage these days. In fact, in digital...

NNAMDIYeah, that's right. I had to ask an unusual person this question.

DRUINYeah.

HARLOWExactly.

DRUINThere you go. Especially -- the whole question of what is the future of archives and of digital libraries and such, and that's a whole area that is just blossoming. And, in fact, it wouldn't surprise me because of the Associated Press' interest in it and, you know, and actually talking about it in the press, it wouldn't surprise me if Stanford realizes, hmm, we've got a boondoggle here. Let's face it. You know, the Steve Jobs book sold millions, and -- actually, I'm halfway through it. I'm really enjoying it.

DRUINBut I would be fascinated to see some of these, you know, these articles and -- but they could do a lot with digitizing these kinds of things, and it would be amazing.

GILROYIt's interesting. It was only after a certain person passed away that they accidentally found this information. I mean, I think (unintelligible) scared to death that Steven Jobs is stomping them.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIWell, finally, we got this posting on our website from NMBashour: (sp?) "My tech resolution is actually a low tech one. It's to spend one week this year without Internet, TV or electronics." A few years ago, that seemed to be fairly easy to do.

HARLOWHeresy.

NNAMDINow, you can't go to a vacation spot that doesn't at least offer one of those things. So what's he going to do, John Gilroy?

GILROYGo to the mountains. Go to West Virginia.

GILROYNo. I'm sure he can find it. It's not that hard to do. Come on.

DRUINWell...

GILROYI can do it in Fairfax County.

DRUINNo. You know what the problem is with me, is that going off the grid is easy enough. But then what happens is I see somebody else that's on, you know, online, and I go, maybe I just need to check my email one more time.

HARLOWWell, I'm fine with that. Going off the grid is easy. It's when you get back on that things kind of, you know, fall apart. It's like, oh, that's a lot of email. Yeah.

NNAMDIYeah. That tends to be the biggest problem of all. So good luck with your 2012 resolution. John Gilroy made none. He is...

NNAMDIHe is...

GILROYI'm on top of the mountain.

HARLOWYou're perfect the way you are.

GILROYRight. I'm perfect in every way.

DRUINI won't go there.

NNAMDIHe is director of business development at Armature Corp. John Gilroy, Happy New Year, always a pleasure.

GILROYThank you.

NNAMDIAllison Druin is associate dean for research at the University of Maryland's iSchool and co-director of the Future of Information Alliance. She has to stay plugged in because she always want to know what her kids are doing.

DRUINAbsolutely.

NNAMDIHappy New Year...

DRUINHappy New Year.

NNAMDI...to you and Ben and the children.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIBill Harlow is a hardware and software technician for Macs and PCs at Mid-Atlantic Consulting, Inc. Any other New Year's resolutions you have to offer to other people?

HARLOWJust the one. I think we're good. Baby steps.

NNAMDIHappy New Year, Bill Harlow.

HARLOWThank you.

NNAMDIThank you all for listening. Happy New Year. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.