Benjamin covered some interesting topics, including how you need to watch out for the bad guys.  Calling upon a book called "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll, Benjamin noted that one such area is by putting together the bits and pieces of your information very carefully.  Nobody's going to call you up and ask for your entire credit card number, but they may ask for a few digits here, then a few there, and continually ask you more and more, until they have your life history.  WATCH OUT!

BONUS LINK - Clifford Stoll at TED...

The digital equivalent of dumpster diving, this is social engineering at it's finest.  Use cross-cut shredders on anything you throw out that might indicate your financial situation.  A good shredder might also handle the destruction of floppies, CD's and DVD's.  If you don't know the person you are giving your old computer to, then you might even choose to remove the hard drive and physically destroy it, rather than give a potential hacker a chance at your data. Friends and family may just get a drive that has been properly formatted with a good wipedisk tool.

Take great concern with "lost" electronics, as they may be stolen, not lost.  Take even more concern when you know it's been stolen... a PDA may contain far more information than you really wish to divulge.  Receipts, partial social security numbers, and even something noting the security code on the back of your card are potential holes.  It's all vulnerabilities.  You should even take care in the links in e-mails.  Even an e-mail that looks proper, may have one simple link that is slightly changed, and creates a disaster for you. 

Benjamin also announced an impending doom, in the possible disappearance of "All you can eat Internet".  This is coming at a time when we are being encouraged to download movies by Netflix.com and other companies, as a way to save money and the environment.  Some of the suggested bandwidth limits are beyond horrible.  Even some of the claims that "we're only going to do this to the big offenders" ignore the fact that these monopolies need not divulge to us the statistics that show if we are normal or above normal. 

Also covered were some teens who must post an apology on YouTube for video taping a prank, and posting it on the Internet.  One can hope that they learned their lesson. 

Benjamin also made quick mention of a great tool at TinyURL.com which takes your long drawn out web addresses that you are e-mailing to friends, and makes them into something that can be said over the phone in seconds rather than days!  http://tinyurl.com/ 

Andy, an e-waste specialist friend of the producer called in, and Benjamin and Andy covered some important issues in regards to the environment.  Other calls included David, who was installing software, and Benjamin suggested a backup.  Dean called in and wanted to know about good computer colleges, and as they discussed things, Benjamin noted that different tracks are better for different people.  They discussed more off-air, and Benjamin noted that he'll help out whereever he can.

Ashley asked how to block objectionable websites, and Benjamin referred Ashley to his favorite BSafeOnline.  Aaron asked about places for stats on ball games, and how to track them.  Benjamin noted that the stats are usually kept on-line, and forgot to mention that one could also write a database to track these things as well, although for many, it may be a lot of work with little reward.

E-mails came in from a variety of locations.  Benjamin noted that a friend from church was asking about a particular laptop, and sent him a link.  He quickly reviewed the link and her needs and said "Yes, indeed, this is a good choice for you."  Benjamin noted that this is something that he'll help you with, and you can send him information on this, or anything else right here.

Other e-mails included Mike (who the staff tried to contact back), who was having problems with Skype and a specific camera.  Benjamin detailed out some instructions for uninstalling EVERYTHING, restarting, running a registry cleaner, restarting, and then reinstalling carefully.  Lonzo asked about the process of going from Windows Vista back to XP Home, and Benjamin covered some details on-air.  Marie asked about computer purchasing as well, and had a decent budget, and Benjamin noted he would call her back with specifics to make sure she was well taken care of by the folks at Dell. 

All that in two hours???

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