This week in e-mails Walter asked Benjamin why he lost his audio on his computer after he loaded Windows XP on his computer  and Melissa left a message asking if she needed to check anything after leaving her computer unplugged for a few months. Additionally, Danny asked Benjamin how to get his website higher up in results for search engines.

This week Benjamin talked about another way to protect from viruses, this time in camera cards. Viruses come in all shapes and sizes on computers, and it was only a matter of time until someone moved them onto SD cards. Imagine going onto your computer and discovering a virus which came from your SD card. But your SD card has only been in the camera, the computer, and a photo kiosk. So someone loaded a virus on their card and brought it to the kiosks, where it went onto the kiosk and then onto other SD cards, and then onto computers. To protect yourself from this, use CDs at kiosks and lock your card in dangerous areas. Additionally, turn off auto-run features for CDs in your computer.

Additionally, Benjamin spoke with Dan, an economist, who gave Benjamin some tips on holiday shopping this year. He said that many businesses are having a hard time stocking, but we won’t know how badly each one is hurting until they collapse. Additionally, he said that sales would be about the same online (sometimes better) and you wouldn’t have to spend the money on gas, so that is still a viable option since it also takes less time. He also gave some tips on spending. For instance, be careful on tech products because there will be better sales soon. There aren’t very good deals on popular items like the Wii or the 3Gig iPhone. Black Friday is the best time for no-name TVs, while December. For the rest of the list, listen to the show audio below.

Additionally, Benjamin also shared a great do-it-yourself (DIY) idea. He suggested building your own computer. He used to do this before he became a field tech because he ran out of time and couldn’t support himself on building computers. However, it’s still a great project for people to do when they have time, especially if they want a specialty computer for gaming or CAD or a similar task that requires a lot of computing power. Of course, if you want these specializations without building the computer yourself, many companies, such as Dell, will do multiple customizations for you.

Benjamin spoke with Jeffery Levy this week. He is the Director of Web Communication for the US Environmental Protection Agency. Much of their conversation was about the EPA blog (www.blog.epa.gov), which is done to give the EPA a face as supposed to leaving them as some blank wall issuing edicts. They also use it as a way to get out information in a more accessible and friendly way. They also have about 500 people following them on Twitter. They are also planning YouTube videos and a Podcast.

Benjamin also gave us a glimpse into the future with information on the world of artificial intelligence. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which is a branch of the Department of Defense, has granted a gift of $5.9 Million to IBM and 5 partners to develop a super AI. The good news is that this AI could be used for great things like artificial drivers to make traffic safer and robotic soldiers to protect real people. Unfortunately, movies like War Games, Terminator, and I,Robot have already looked into those possibilities, and they weren’t too bright of futures. This is a great topic for discussion so please contact Benjamin with any input.

Don’t forget to listen to the show audio via the link below!